AvaFern

Like Jamie said, if you had a leak, unless it is a very minor one, you would likely know relatively quickly and it usually happens shortly after surgery. I was supremely paranoid about a leak and honestly the only thing that made me feel better was the passage of time and the fact that I never died, lol. I also took my temperature regularly because I knew it was the one quantitative thing I could measure to know if I had an issue. In theory once you've developed the fever, you likely have an infection, and that's a later sign, but taking my temperature and consistently seeing that I never developed a fever was what worked to calm my paranoia. I think I stopped thinking about it at around six months, but during that time even though I was worried about a leak, I never had any issues.

I also had once incision that hurt more. It also itched more and annoyed me more for about a month. At the 6-week point you're pretty much entirely healed.

I can appreciate your anger. I've worked in healthcare and whoever sent that fax should have known better than to send something like that to a fax, however some people are dumb. He or she probably saw the fax number and just returned it, never thinking it might be going to your workplace. There is a huge lack of communication in a lot of offices and the person that faxed it likely didn't even talk to the person who you told that you would be picking it up. It's basic stupid MA stuff that happens all the time and which put your personal information at risk. When I left the hospital and went home I went straight to bed and I pretty much did nothing for about 24 hours. I had my phone off so I could sleep and my doctor's office left a message checking on me. I called them back and their phones were down, so since I couldn't get through and couldn't leave a message, I figured I'd call back later. I had made EXPRESSLY clear that no one knew about my surgery and that under no circumstances was there to be anyone called. I intentionally left all contact information off of everything because I did not want to risk someone being called. I forgot that on the very first day of the informational conference I had filled out a form with an emergency contact and they had found that and left a message on my best friend's voicemail. I was SO mad. While I had initially decided that I wouldn't tell anyone, I did end up telling my three best friends after surgery, and the one they ended up calling was the one that did know about it. The thing is when you leave a message with the name of the doctor's office that is exclusively a bariatric office, that in itself is a violation of HIPPA especially when I had made 100% clear that no one was to be contacted. Of course my friend's husband got the message and had he not kept his mouth shut, our 200+ mutual friends would have known about surgery within a week. When I could finally get through on their phones I ripped them about the violation of confidentiality and had my friend not known about surgery and her husband had not for once been discreet, my extremely personal medical information would have been something everyone knew about. Once I got over being furious, I recognized that when I called back and their phones were down, they assumed I had not called back and they justified using the emergency contact form I had filled out when I wasn't even a patient at the time as more important than potentially risking whether I had died. Their phone issue was the problem, however I didn't think a miscommunication and a poor judgement call merited a HIPPA complaint, especially when I am not sure if I would have done something differently in their shoes. So, while I think you are WELL within your rights to file a complaint, wait until you're a little less mad. Also, HIPPA violations are taken seriously- do you like your PCP and want them to help you in the process of getting approved? Nurses are mean and they can very easily screw you in the approval process. Without their help it is far harder to get approved and keep in mind all those times you're sick and need to be squeezed in for an appointment-suddenly they will have no available openings. I can tell you from working in healthcare that when a patient gets you in trouble, you will make their life miserable as often as possible, and if they get someone you liked fired, oh lord help you. I'm not saying you're wrong or that you shouldn't file a complaint, but to wait until you're a little less furious before you make the call. I was insanely mad at my doctor's office but when I thought about the gravity of filing a complaint compared to the total lack of intent in violating my confidentiality, I decided to let it go. My surgeon was a jerk, but I didn't consider him or his office to be unethical jerks. My PCP is brilliant and his nurses are idiots. I routinely want to slap them they are that incredibly stupid, however I recognize that if I like having access to my awesome doctor, being nice to his b*tchy, stupid, nurses and MA's is the gate that keeps that particular road open. Just something to consider.

Hahaha stairs do suck! I lived in a high rise condo when I was losing weight and I would walk up 40 flights of stairs. Emphasis on "walk" lol. The first time I tried to jog up them I about died on the 4th floor. Even when I had reached goal and I was reasonably in shape and I could do the full set in about 2 minutes, I would get to my floor and sit down for about 5 minutes because I felt like my heart might explored. Steps are evil, lol. On a positive note though, when I was moving out and the elevator broke, I wasn't thrilled that I had to go up and down the stairs about 5 times in 2 hours, but it was easy to do. All the misery of going up and down them when I was overweight led to an ability to do them when I needed to without having an issue. I wouldn't have been able to get up them quickly or probably more than twice before I lost weight and as of a few months ago it got my heart pounding nicely, but up and down 40 flights was more annoying than exhausting. In the end the work you put in now will pay off later. Remind yourself of that as your lurching around trying to walk because your quads won't bend right, haha.

As I was reading this, first I was like, well I'm totally #2, but then as I continued reading, nope, I'm #3. I do eat what I want to, except I don't want to eat crap, lol. I used to love sweets and now the sweetest thing I have is a skinny caramel macchiato and maybe some graham cracker goldfish. Part of the reason is that it tends make me queasy when I eat too much sugar, so that helps. I was never really big into Pasta, breads, or fried stuff so that wasn't really hard to stop eating. I don't drink, primarily because I work a lot and people frown on having their work done by a drunk/ hungover person. I don't tend to eat a lot of things that have been prepared elsewhere because it seems like everywhere has to put butter on or in stuff and if they don't use butter it's oil. Butter, oil, regular milk, eggs, and sometimes sugar are pretty much an instant puke, so while it took awhile to learn what I can and cannot eat, now I'm just not interested in the foods that make me sick. It was like being conditioned- like Pavlov's dogs- I see butter and my cheeks get that twingey-going-to-barf feeling. So, while to be fair there isn't anything that I say I can't eat, I choose not to eat a lot of stuff because it either makes me sick or I don't want to gain weight and it isn't worth the gain. I think not having anything being off limits is what helps me. In the past I was always dieting with all or nothing, so when I slipped up and ate something bad, then it was like, well I messed up once, the streak is broken, chocolate cake for every meal! Now, if I want something that isn't healthy, I have it, and since there was no real denial or build-up, I'm fine not having it again for awhile. My mom sent me this awesome Easter basket full of candy I normally love and some Cookies. I poured it all into a gallon plastic bag and stuck it in my pantry for when I needed a sweets fix. It's been two weeks and I haven't had a single piece, whereas in the past it would have been forbidden so I would have had to eat it all and then go back to dieting afterward. Funny how our brains work when it comes to food...

@@Elode You will love your new look! I was also not excited before plastics, lol. People kept saying "omg aren't you so excited" and I was like, "um no I'm terrified, but thanks". I had not really thought much about the belly button but the one I ended up with looks just like the original one, so I guess my surgeon was awesome at that part too. You really won't be able to see the final result for months. While I liked my original result, I looked like a big, swollen, sausage for two weeks or so and then the full swelling, especially around my hip area wasn't gone for 2-3 months. You're already thin, so with the skin removed, you will be thrilled. Being able to wear tight, sheath dresses and high-waist dresses without every worrying about a gut is awesome. I would say enjoy the process, haha, but the first 2-3 days are crummy. Day one you feel great, day two you feel like you got hit by a truck, day three you consider dying...and then it's all uphill from there. For me there was very little pain, I was just exhausted, which I guess is what happens when your body thinks you were just massively injured and it needs to get in high gear to fix you. Good luck!

@@Babbs Thank-you! I always enjoy reading your posts. You also do a good job of reminding me that there are more important things in life than the scale and our value is in who we are, not what we weigh. I appreciate that.

@@breezy25 I was nervous before surgery too. I was also a hot mess after surgery for about 2 weeks because I was convinced I had ruined my life. Holy crap I had someone cut out my stomach, what in the world was I thinking?! Lol, obviously it all worked out ok in the end. Being nervous is normal, being freaked out afterwards is normal too, and eventually you forget all about the bad part and realize how great of a decision you made.

@@Christinamo7 I can appreciate not expecting to end up very low. My original goal was 119 when I was like 20, but at 29 when I had the sleeve I picked 129 because it seemed about as ridiculous as 119. Actually hitting that number was crazy and then staying there for a year is even crazier. When you hit 160, you might be very content there, because that's certainly a healthy weight, however you might lose a bit more and be happy with that too. It's all up to how you feel.

@@BestDayEver Congrats on hitting maintenance! I completely agree about weighing frequently. I have weighed myself, written down the weight and taken a picture of the scale every single morning since surgery. This helps because it keeps me accountable, but I can also go back through my phone when I'm feeling fat and see pictures of myself looking great and that morning I weighed exactly what I weigh now. My little bit of crazy about recording my weight helps keep me saner in the long run.

@@VSGAnn2014 Isn't it weird to have maintained for a year? I have never maintained for a full year, let alone at this weight. Most days I don't think about it much, but other times I think, holy cow, I've been normal, without having to kill myself starving and exercising, for a year! Happy early-maintenance anniversary!

@@KindaFamiliar I read all of these posts with envy too when I was still losing- the trick is to just keep on keepin' on. Time passes no matter what you do and one day you'll wake up and step on the scale and you'll have hit goal. It just takes consistency and time!

Today is my one-year anniversary of being at my goal weight. To be fair, this morning I was three pounds over goal because I was kind of a pig yesterday, but most days I fluctuate anywhere from 1-4 pounds on either side of my goal weight. I am happy with this range. I weigh myself every morning and on days when I wake up near the heavier end, I pay extra attention to how I eat and usually the next day I am right back within the 1-2 pound range. Sometimes I drop a little lower, but for the most part I’m right around goal. The most I fluctuated upward was to 137 for one day back in October, and I was back to 131 by December. While I have lost weight before, the lowest I had ever been was 137, where I stayed for about a week. I have never maintained around the 129 range as an adult, let alone for an entire year. I had surgery in September 2013, I had plastics in August & November of 2014 and March of 2015, hit goal on April 1 (the last 4 pounds took almost 4 months to lose), and have since lived a fairly normal life. All of my fat clothes are either gone or in storage, my closet is filled with clothes in sizes 0-6, and xs and small, and while I am cognizant of my food choices and the scale everyday, I am normal and I am happy. My hair that fell out substantially during the first year after surgery and again about six months ago has grown back to the point I am almost at the level of thickness I was before surgery. All of my blood values are within the normal ranges, my blood pressure is fine (although I still take a small dose of a hypertension drug), and outside of a sleeve that doesn't tolerate certain kinds of food, I am fully recovered from that surgery and all of my plastics procedures. There is a daily fear that I will gain weight, but it's something I deal with everyday. I think this fear is what keeps me in maintenance because every morning I wake up and I owe that scale my weight. As long as I hold myself accountable everyday, it is not difficult to stay the weight I am. Most days I eat between 1200-1800 calories, although some days I will snack more and hit 2200, or just not feel like eating and be around 800. I don't pay attention to Protein, but according to MyFitnessPal, I get about 45-50g a day. I record my food fairly regularly most days, although sometimes I forget to add things. Overall, the last year has been a good one, and unlike prior to the sleeve when I felt like I was starving half the time, I'm rarely hungry now and when I eat too much it's usually because I'm bored and grazing. I used to say that I just wanted to be normal...a normal sized girl. Now I am, and it was worth every second of the road that got me here. I wish I could go back and tell the version of me that rolled into surgery 2.5 years ago that it would all work out in the end…I certainly could have saved myself a lot of stress if I could have seen today, in September 2013.

From 237 to about 190 I wore mostly the same clothes. From 190-160, I fit in most of the same clothes. From 160-145 I was in the same sizes. It was only from 145-129 and with plastics that I really dropped significantly in sizes. I started as an 18, I was in 12's at 180, and then I was in 8's, at 145. At 129, I now where mostly 2's and 4's. Also, a pair of jeggings that fit me when I was 170, still sort of fits me now, although now they are baggy and back then they looked like they had been painted on. Clothing sizes don't tend to move as fast as we'd like them, but the closer you get to goal, it seems the smaller the difference there is between sizes.

Hahaha! I was like...maybe they ate a whole jar of Peanut Butter over a few weeks? Happy April Fools!

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't really have any big craving for meat on a regular basis. I like turkey burgers and chicken sandwiches, but past that it's just not something I really think about eating. Although it isn't high Protein, you can replace Pasta with zucchini noodles if you use the Vegetti (it's like $10 on Amazon). I like that swap. You can also add tofu into tomato sauce and that adds protein on top of the veggie noodles. I like cauliflower pizza too, where you can get a reasonable amount of protein from the cheese and egg that are included in the crust recipe and you can always use a non-meat protein as a topping. I've recently started drinking a lot of milk (which is mostly because I make skinny macchiatos at home) and the Fair Life milk has a ton of protein, no fat in the skim version, and also a lot of Calcium. There are ways to be a vegetarian and still get enough protein, you just have to be creative.

I use Feosol Bifera (the purple box version) and I don't have any problems with constipation. I have a very easily irritated stomach and this is the only brand of Iron that doesn't make me nauseous. It's potentially the most expensive option for iron, but I can take it without feeling any nausea and while I didn't know constipation is an issue, I've never had it with this supplement. Maybe the way that it is coated, which is designed to not upset your stomach, also helps in the lower GI department as well.

Woohoo!! This is a great NSV- congrats!

I also understand how you feel. There were a few times in the months before surgery where I saw myself in a picture and I was appalled. Also, there were a few times after surgery when I had lost 60 pounds or so, still about 40-50 from goal when I thought I was darned cute, and then I happened to see myself in a video and I wanted to cry. All that effort and I was still a heffer. When I was about 20 pounds from goal I happened to catch myself walking naked across my living room (don't laugh, lol) on a security camera and the volume of hanging skin and flab put me in tears. I have since hit goal, had plastics, and there are still times when I see an unflattering picture and I'm dismayed by what I look like. Mostly though, while it takes awhile, in the end the result is worth the process it takes to get there.

You are never going to be able to stretch your stomach back to the size it once was- it might be a little expanded from eating too much, but it's not like an old sock- it stays flexible to an extent. As an example, I am 2.5 years post-op and I notice that when I go a few days or really even a day when I eat less, my restriction is greater than during times where I'm consistently eating more. As an example, this week I just haven't felt much like eating, so I've had roughly 800-1200 calories a day. Today I am not only totally not at all hungry, but when I try to eat I just feel really full, really fast. Comparably, during times where I eat a lot, my stomach is a lot more tolerant of grazing. It seems that in my experience, the level of restriction I feel is entirely dependent upon how much I eat, so in theory if you cut back down to the Protein and serving size you should be eating, it becomes easier because your stomach adapts.

I lost 111 pounds total and fluctuate between that and 106 pounds lost. Because it is such a gradual process you don't really notice it. One day though you notice that your feet aren't swollen anymore, that your legs don't bump into the steering wheel, that you can do things like flip around a playground, jump on a trampoline, and do cartwheels without being winded or landing on your face, and that no you fit into normal sizes in stores where you couldn't even shop before. Although I've been at goal for 1 week less than a year, I still enjoy my 100+ pound loss and while you will be miserable for a few weeks after surgery, in the end it is all worth it.

Good for you for re-starting exercise and taking it slowly. I'm sure after a few weeks of building back up you will begin to feel better physically and emotionally. I also haven't been working out, but mine is purely because I am lazy, I've been working 16 hour days, and I'm exhausted. I am also the same weight I was before and I'm maintaining at goal, however I have barely worked out at all. On one hand, I don't miss it because it seems like as soon as I start working out I gain weight- my body likes muscle, which annoys me because then I don't fit in my clothing. I do feel sometimes though more of the fat girl feelings when I'm not working out, even if logically my scale tells me my weight hasn't changed and all of my clothes fit fine. I suppose the endorphin boost you get from a workout contributes to improving your mood and without it you tend to feel a little blah. Good luck getting back into it!

MyFitnessPal has been working on my phone consistently- I haven't used it on any other platform.

I am 2.5 years out and today I had: 1/3 cup granola- Breakfast 1/2 turkey burger with bun- lunch 3 snack bags of goldfish crackers- Snacks 1/2 turkey burger with bun- dinner Later tonight I will probably have a Fiber One bar and another snack pack of crackers. I also had a skinny macchiato which adds some Protein. Some days I eat more, some days less, but roughly this is along the lines of what I eat most days, subbing out the turkey burger for grilled chicken nuggets some days or a grilled chicken sandwich.

I also have that issue. My face was always one of my best features. During the hospital stay after sleeve surgery one of the orderlies said...oh well you have such a pretty face, when you lose the weight you will be beautiful. While I fluctuated between thin and fat, my face never bothered me. Well now that the rest of me is decent looking I'm a butter face...everything's good but her face. My eyes have wrinkles, my teeth are not white enough, I have a big forehead, and my hair isn't think enough. Things that I never noticed before are what I see now, so while from the neck down I look ok, from the neck up, I look old...and I'm 32, lol, so not actually that old. Most people guess I'm in my 20's, based probably on my size, but I do find that I am far more self-conscious about my face than I was before.