Miss Mac

OMG! You look so healthy. Congratulations. Can you walk us through your experience with stalls? Inquiring minds want to know.

RJ, I am so glad you are feeling some better. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of good days in a row to keep us moving along. I wish you well for your upcoming repair job.

At almost a year out, I still get the hiccups, a belch, or a tupperware burp. The shoulder pain has more to do with residual CO2 in your abdominal cavity. That will dissipate soon.

I am three weeks away from my one year, and my suggestion would be to eat a couple of boiled eggs before you go or a couple of devilled eggs when you get there. Eat as much turkey as you can hold, and then an itty bit of the dressing and pie - just enough to say you did.

Glad to have you here. Ask anything you want, but be advised that opinions and tact may vary. I am sorry to hear about your folks. I know that there are a number of us on the forum who face that same dilemma about following in their parent's poor health footsteps. I wish you good luck and good health. Please keep hanging out with us and let us know how your journey goes.

Exactly. It was about four months in for me, when someone posted that those of us who are trying so hard to follow our teams' plan are just a bunch of goody two-shoes! The purpose of this forum is to support each other and get an education in the process. We all struggle with this process in some way and absolutely NEED each other to tell the truth. How else are we really going to know what to expect? On other occassions, I have welcomed newbies with the caveat that ask what you want, but be prepared that opinions and tact will vary.

To answer the question in the actual title: My bariatrician counted the figure from my original weigh-in and used that number when submitting my insurance packet four months later.

Congratulations that people are starting to notice. I am one of those who lose from the face down. Now that I am over halfway to goal, my figure is like a pencil stuck through a donut. That is in spite of the fact that my waist went from 53" to 43" real quick. That is when I started feeling like this sleeve is really working.

About 50 pounds. At 30 lbs, my primary noticed that I looked 'healthier'. I had to tell him that I was aleady post-op and was starting to lose. At 50 lbs, my pain specialist, who I see quarterly, did not recognize me. When he and his nurse did the "time out" before my procedure, they had to do a double take. The doctor thought they had the wrong patient on the table and took a couple of minutes to check my record! Hah! Loved it. At a family gathering at 8 months and 65 pounds down, NO ONE even said anything, not even about the itty bit of food on my plate.

I had surgery years ago for plantar fascitis. Get some comfortable shoes that have a slight rise on the heel. This takes the pressure off of your heel and displaces it to the rest of your foot. Good luck with your bariatric surgery.

I meant don't have to worry.

Good for you! Now you can get it over with and start healing. That is over a week less that you have to worry. Don't forget to take some chapstick.

I will be 63 on Dedember first and will be a year with my sleeve on December 23. Like you, I did gangbusters at the start and then the weight loss slowed dow. Eventually I got to 172, but I gone betwee, 172 and 174 for almost five months. I have tried eating less (600) calories and eating more (1000) calories. I have tried intermittant fasting and weight training twice a week. It just seems like my body has developed a new set point and I don't like it. I realize that there are several women on the forum who have set their goal in that range, but I am short and just cannot stop there. So, now I am a 172 pound woman who needs to lose another 40 pounds to be in a healthy weight range for my age. Am I discouraged? Sure. Am I giving up? Hail No! Hang in there with me girlfriend. Just stay determined.

Oh Yeah for the Beans......a little salsa and a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar.....heavenly. By the time I got my go-ahead for real food, I was so ready. We stopped at Wendy's two blocks from the clinic and I got a small chili with onions and cheese and ate about a fourth of it and a couple of Tony's fries. Best meal I had in four weeks.

You are bound to get mixed reviews. Just keep in mind that the nay-sayers probably won't throw away your car keys and block you from going out the door. You go do what you need to do to get healthier. Let us know how it goes.

Your surgery is already a done deal, so just take a deep breath and roll with it. You will be down that first thirty pounds in no time and feel much better. I applaude you for getting the surgery before your life gets out of hand. There are many of us oldsters on here who have tried every diet there is and yo-yo'd many times, only to gain a few more pounds each time. I am so glad that you did not wait until you had knee and hip replacements, or a stroke, or a heart attack. My mother died not much older than I am now, of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. She was 5'2' and weighed over 320 poundss. My oldest brother died of a heart attack at the age of 47. He was 6'2" but weighed over 420 pounds and left behind a widow and a daughter and three adopted children, all under the age of ten. His funeral was delayed a week because there was no casket available that was big enough to hold him. I was rapidly falling into their path. Thank goodness you got your surgery and have a great headstart in not only getting the weight off, but keeping it off. You weren't foolish - you were very brave to take control over your future now. You may not feel very well for the first six weeks or so, but once you get solid food in your system, you will feel much better. At ten months out, I eat what I want. It's just that what I want has changed. My body and internal systems thank me for the Protein and veggies, I am allowed one serving of fruit per day, and my eating plan has one piece of toast a day (I used to eat 6 with butter and jam, with a full breakfast!). A potato shows up once a week. Your life will be not be devoid of carbs. You will learn how to tweak in a few here and there. I wish you good luck and good health.

Former golfer, here. You can't lift anything heavy such as toting your bag around, so just use a cart. Walking is the best exercise you can do. The biggest issue other than lifting heavy things is to make sure you feel well enough to last through the rigors of the weather and / or bright sunshine. (I am guessing that you are not golfing in Chicago or Buffalo. Hopefully you have a close enough golfing budding to get your bag in and out of the car. Stay hydrated and don't overeat at the 19th hole.

I heard this from the pulpit once: You don't have to lie; you just don't have to tell everything you know. Do you think that celebrities are obligated to answer every nosey question asked by the paparazzi? Just think of your Thanksgiving company and nosey acquaintances as paparazzi with a camera in your face, and react in the way you see fit.

I am old farm girl, so I could do better than some folks I know - so long as the disaster didn't kill all of the livestock. If there is a person stronger than me around who do the caveman thing with capturing and dressing the Protein, I could do the processing and campfire cooking. I would be hard put to eat maggots, but I can bait one on a hook and go fish. As for the Medical ID bracelet, I do have one with the cross and cadeuces on it. It is engraved with my first name and Gastric Sleeve Patient - No NG. Inside a flip latch is my other medical info and the hospital that carries my medical records, my doctor's name, my meds, my blood type and emergency contacts. I have aleady had a stroke, so in case I am unable to speak for myself again, I will at least have the ID bracelet. I guess that comes from my years in Girl Scouts and 4H. Always be prepared. It is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

We all go with what we are comfortable with. I chose the sleeve because I did not want my plumbing re-routed or have a port in my abdomen. I also believe that by the time my grandbabies are adults the current treatments and surgeries for obesity will be obsolete. For example, in 1973 (at the age of 21) I had my gallbladder out. Back then, they still cut you half in two, and I was in the hospital eleven days. Now they do it lapascopically, and some places send you home as an outpatient. Medical science never ceases to amaze me.

It's acronym means Music TV..... On August 1. 1981, the first music video played was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. The first one I remember seeing was Paula Abdul's Cold Hearted Snake.

It just means your new tummy doesn't feel ready to tolerate that just yet, and is giving it back for re-consideration.

Geeze, I really can spell - I just can't type. I meant co-ordinator.

Hopefully you will get a quick response. Mine was approved in two days, but I had to call the insurance company to find that out. My surgeon's insurance coordinator went on a two week vacation right at that time, and the doctor's office wouldn't have known for two more weeks. The insurance company sent me a fax approving a five day stay, so I faxed that to my surgeon's nurse cordinator and she set my date right away.

10 days