livvsmum

It definitely gets more "real" once you get that approval and set a date. Just remind yourself of all the reasons that you thought this was the best move for you in the first place. And then go over and visit the "success stories" forum :-) Good luck to you!! And congrats!

There are some on my blog if you want to look there. I also posted before & after surgery pics. Honestly in clothes you really can't tell a difference between my before TT and after TT pictures. I think the "underwear" picture you can for sure see a difference. Anyway, it's linked in my signature if that helps. :-)

Unfortunately I do think about weight a lot. I struggle with an eating disorder and am in therapy every single week to beat it, so yes, my struggle with food is still a daily battle. I think that was one of the only disappointing things to me about surgery.....to get to goal and realize that you are still the same person with the same struggles as you were on day one. That is frustrating, but I know that it will get better if I keep working on it. As for what life is like, I've been "maintaining" for about 5 1/2 months now. I do fluctuate within a couple pounds, but I think that is normal. As for gaining weight back, my absolute lowest weight was 123 and I'm up about 5 pounds from that right now. But it was after my TT and I wasn't really eating anything, so it wasn't a "true loss" if you know what I mean. Plus I think looking back I looked a bit too thin at 123. I'm more comfortable maintaining for the long run around 129-130. Could I get back down to 123? Absolutely, but it would be through strict calorie/carb/protein counting and that is kind of counter intuitive to trying to beat an eating disorder. Sooooo yeah. I am trying to find balance. :-) Good luck to you. You look amazing!

Starting weight 134.4 Goal weight 125

Thank you :-)

Thanks everyone :-)

The sleeve. I also had a tummy tuck & panni in April of this year

Sorry for the cross-posting. I put this in the general forum then thought, wait a minute! This is a success story...lol. So here I am too. Today marks 2 years since my surgery. I never, ever would have thought I would be in the 120s when I started this journey. It has- and I have- surpassed my wildest expectations. I remember vividly the exact day I decided I had to do whatever it took to lose weight & be healthy. I was at Hershey Park with my then-6th grader daughter on a class field trip. I love parks, and since I didn't have the littles, I was excited to ride the roller coasters with my daughter. So we came to the first one, I squeeeeezed myself into the seat & to get the lap bar down the attendant had to step on it to push it past my huge stomach. I was mortified and my daughter felt terrible for me. I was nearly in tears; in my minds eye, I was no where near that big. I didn't ride another ride the rest of the day & swore at that point I would not let my weight hold me back from experiencing life with my family one more day. It HAD TO change. Don't you worry. Since then I've OWNED that park!! In fact, the next time I went back was not only to ride every freaking roller coaster in that park, but also to run a 1/2 marathon through the park just over a year later. Take THAT!!! Lol. Anyway, these 2 years have been amazing. I've learned that my body is capable of so much more than I gave it credit for. I've learned I absolute can accomplish even the most seemingly unreachable goals. I've learned that I could not achieve long-term success without overcoming my eating disorder. I've learned that I deserve good things. So, it's definitely NOT about the numbers, but I feel like I would be leaving out something someone following this might really want to know if I didn't include them so.... I started my journey at 278.4 pounds & 2 years later I am at 128 pounds. That's a loss of 150 pounds :-). What an amazing journey it's been!!! I even rocked my first bikini ever this year! Ha!

Today marks 2 years since my surgery. I never, ever would have thought I would be in the 120s when I started this journey. It has- and I have- surpassed my wildest expectations. I remember vividly the exact day I decided I had to do whatever it took to lose weight & be healthy. I was at Hershey Park with my then-6th grader daughter on a class field trip. I love parks, and since I didn't have the littles, I was excited to ride the roller coasters with my daughter. So we came to the first one, I squeeeeezed myself into the seat & to get the lap bar down the attendant had to step on it to push it past my huge stomach. I was mortified and my daughter felt terrible for me. I was nearly in tears; in my minds eye, I was no where near that big. I didn't ride another ride the rest of the day & swore at that point I would not let my weight hold me back from experiencing life with my family one more day. It HAD TO change. Don't you worry. Since then I've OWNED that park!! In fact, the next time I went back was not only to ride every freaking roller coaster in that park, but also to run a 1/2 marathon through the park just over a year later. Take THAT!!! Lol. Anyway, these 2 years have been amazing. I've learned that my body is capable of so much more than I gave it credit for. I've learned I absolute can accomplish even the most seemingly unreachable goals. I've learned that I could not achieve long-term success without overcoming my eating disorder. I've learned that I deserve good things. So, it's definitely NOT about the numbers, but I feel like I would be leaving out something someone following this might really want to know if I didn't include them so.... I started my journey at 278.4 pounds & 2 years later I am at 128 pounds. That's a loss of 150 pounds :-). What an amazing journey it's been!!! I even rocked my first bikini ever this year! Ha!

That is awesome! Congrats! That is also the beauty of the sleeve. It's always there, it's just all in how we use it. Good job!

Congrats on your successful journey! I will be 2 years post op with the sleeve on Friday of this week. It's been an amazing journey as well for me. I've lost and maintained a 150 pound weight loss. I will add for me that the second year was more about doing work on myself emotionally and working on the underlying emotional-eating issues that got me to a place where surgery was my only remaining option. Without doing that hard work, I don't know what my long term success would look like. Good luck to you on your continued successful journey!

It's a good reminder that the surgery is only what we make it. If I didn't deal with the emotional eating issues (totally not directly related to the sleeve) I can specifically look at a point around 7 or 8 months post op where I know I would have started regaining. But you have to deal with the underlying issues.

I take this mainly because I need the Wellbutrin part of it, but am terrified of taking a depression/anxiety medication on its own because of potential weigh gain side effects. My doctor thought this would be a good fit because I would still get the wellbutrin benefit without having to worry about weight gain. So far so good and I was able to lose the last 10 pounds I wanted to get off.

I am SO in on this one. I've kind of let some bad habits slip back in and I'm ready to get rid of them again. I stocked up on Protein shakes, pudding, hot chocolate, and oatmeal, so I'm ready to do this! :-) Goal: 125

I did not have drains for my sleeve surgery, but I had 2 drains for my tummy tuck/panni. It was the absolute worst part (having the drains). Ugh I hated them. They hurt so badly when they were in. I could not get comfortable at all. So yes, I know what you mean about looking forward to getting them out, but dreading it at the same time. The first drain they pulled out wasn't terrible. But then the second one stayed in longer, got irritated and I swear it felt like they ripped a huge chunk of skin out when they pulled it out. I was SOOOOO glad to have it out though. I guess I was just surprised with how much tube was actually in there. Yuk! Good luck!

I can find something pretty much everywhere. A chicken salad eating mainly the grilled chicken, a sandwich eating only the meat part of it (hold the bread), a bowl of soup, etc. A lot of places will let you order 1/2 portions as well if you ask and they typically have special pricing for that. You can also sometimes order off of the kids' menu, but sadly most of the time the kids menu is more unhealthy than the regular menu.

How long after surgery did you hit your goal weight? Did you work out lot? I hit my first goal around 10 months post op and then felt like I could keep going pretty easily, so I lost another 15 or so pounds after that. I started running around 4 months post op (wish I would have started sooner) and I continued to be an avid runner throughout the process.

Your hubby is a hotty! You guys look great together Lol. Thank you :-)

eh....

Wow!! You are truly inspiring! ! Thank you! I appreciate it!

Thanks so much!! I appreciate it!

I agree exercise does help to an extent; if anything other than surgery will help, it is exercise. With that being said, as others have said, excess skin is a price we pay for allowing our bodies to carry so much excess weight for so long. I did have a tummy tuck/ panni to remove the excess skin from my stomach and that was covered by insurance, but they denied my arm lift. So I am left exercising, saving up to self-pay, and learning to accept my arms and inner thighs for what they are. :-)

Here are a couple of mine as I'm coming up on my 2 year surgiversary this week. My highest weight in these pictures was 278.4 and my "after picture" weight here is 128. It's been an amazing 2 years and I'm happy to say that I have reached maintenance now. :-) I have lots more pictures and info on my journey in my blog (linked in my signature) if you are interested.

Probably you don't see a lot of veterans on this forum because as you get further and further post op, you don't come to the boards quite as much. I am 2 years post op and probably should check in more often. It just kind of becomes a more normal way of life and I don't really think about it or struggle with things the way I used to. Also, they are probably posting more in the veterans forum, and I believe you have to be a certain time post-op to post there (1 year I think). So you are probably not going to find them here. As far as possibility of success though, it's really what you make of it. It is just a tool like everything else. You will see people wildly successful, or you will see people say their sleeve is "broken". Here is a post that I wrote about that and what I've learned about "success rates" in my time post op. "Why Are Some People Successful and Others Fail?". Hope that helps! I know it's not quite what you were looking for, but just my thoughts on it anyway. :-) Good luck on your journey.

I think it's definitely normal to have these "what if" thoughts before surgery, especially as the date nears and it becomes more "real". Early on in the pre-op process I wrote a "surgery bucket list" on my blog. It was basically a list of things I wanted to do (most of them with and for my kids) after surgery and basically reasons I wanted to have it. Whenever I had these "what if" feelings pop up, I would go back to that blog post/list and remind myself of why I wanted to do it. For me, it was ultimately about increasing the possibility of living a long, long life with my husband and kids. So about 2 weeks out from surgery when I had a total freak out and meltdown about the surgery, losing my emotional-eating coping mechanism, etc I went back to the list one last time and reminded myself of all the reasons why I made the decision to have surgery. Since the first couple weeks post op I have never once regretted it. Not one time. The first couple weeks were hard....I"m not gonna lie....but it was more emotional than anything for me. Since I got through that, there have been no regrets. Good luck to you on your journey!