MisforMimi

Look forward to seeing you there! Yes we are still meeting. The only thing I works say is that parking can be a but tricky but there is a post office across the street that is closed on Sundays.

Great job!

Pretty before. Pretty after. :-)

Girl I'm working my way through some Trader Joe's bon bons. Nothing else too crazy. I do want to eat at a burger spot here in Seattle. They have small grass feed burgers with gourmet toppings. I've always skipped the fries. After that I'm good......My pre-op diet will probably start during Christmas time.

@@*Lexie* That's great. There is the once a month session that is not very well attended. The lady that made the rude comment is the wife of this patient but she has 30 years of nursing experience. She has good information obviously poorly presented and I get the sense that she's part of the reason the meetings are not well attended at least for that location. Anyhow, I'm all for 12 step recovery and I may show up at a real OA meetings in the future.

Can I just say I LOVE BariatricPal??!! I wasn't turned off completely but I think the majority of my support will be from this place, my good friends that have had surgeries and a local support group I'm starting with another BP member. That's just me. Not so great things that happened: -One person (who had not done a great deal of research but had a 12/16 surgery date) dominated the meeting with his wife. I felt like we were being held hostage. -The facilitator was a substitute for the regular person and lacked facilitation skills. -A woman who was there supporting her husband who was a couple years out said something rude to me about after I have surgery I'll be cute, too, like the thinner woman next to me who happened to be post-op. Luckily I was thinking quick on my feet and said "I am cute now but thankfully I'm not here to be cute, just healthy." Shut her up pretty quick!! -I was struck how normal people seemed to act and feel at differing stage and everyone talked about the lethargy, I was expecting boundless energy about week 4 of post-op LOL -People were trying to convince me that I needed to take 6 weeks off work, when I simply asked how much they had taken and if they felt like it was appropriate for the work they did. I really hate unsolicited advice. Great things that happened: -I actually went -I saw/met a guy who was 3 years on maintaining 235 lb weight loss. Whoa! -Learned and confirmed a lot of things I've read here and other places -Only one person there had had a complication with their surgery with my same surgeon and it was an ulcer that was being resolved. -Got great tips for surviving holidays All in all I would say it was well worth the hour and a half of my time. It was another snapshot of the process. Allowed me soak in more of the "it's gonna be ok" vibe even though certain people were annoying to me. If available to you, I would highly recommend attending a post-op support session from a place you're planning to have surgery.

I love this site SO much, too. I will say, sometimes people are haters, dude. I have no idea why that nurse would go there, but in the end that's not the concern. The goal is to have the surgery (and have someone else foot the bill if possible) and if they are going to pay for the mindfulness classes, CBT and whatever that is only going to benefit you because you (we) need it and like it or not you proved it by gaining the weight back over emotions (anger, frustration, sadness, resentment????). This going to be an unlearning process for all of us- unlearning the ways and habits that don't work and serve us that we have heavily relied on for so many of our excess pounds. By staying in this place of resentment (taking rat poison (ie excess food) waiting for your medical team to die) is not going to get you your surgery and this or an incident similar is going to happen again and again to you (us/me) until we get it right. A lot of people look at emotional or compulsive eating like a disease similar to drug addiction but I think its like cancer. Once you have the disease you have to stay on top of it, follow a healthy lifestyle and hope its stays in remission. We always have to mindful of it. We just came to the planet this way. So, here's the rephrase: @@TatorTot, we believe you can be successful at this and we want to give you some additional tools to help you along the way. We want to offer you some cognitive behavioral therapy to help change your way of thinking and some happy, hippy dippy zen mindfulness classes. We think doing this extra bit of Eastern practice will give a balance of tools in your toolbox to keep your cancer in remission. And keep in mind, tatortot this Eastern stuff is really cutting edge for the Veteran's Administration but we believe in expanding our mission and resources to help folks just like you. We also what the highest return on our investment for all parties involved including you. OK: what's your response now???? Mine would be to go get some Protein drinks and start following a pre-op diet to loose the regained weight and get to work on the classes

@ Can you speak to ages, compliance and how many years out the 4 people you are comparing are? I'm curious.

@@HarleyGirl4 Hey, I have a couple of thoughts (note I am pre-surgery) 1) If there is any way to go to a (post-surgery) support meeting at the facility prior to making a decision, it will be truly enlightening. I would also say to take your time with this, its a big decision. You want to feel you are making the best choice - like your choice is coming from deep within and like its the loudest voice in your head. Can you move your date back without too much hassle? 2) Ask the surgeon about his stitching technique. Some do one and some do "double-stitching" 3) Without knowing your age and co-morbidities its hard to know but I went thinking I wanted the sleeve but as I began my research, I knew I need a negative feedback loop to keep me away from certain trigger foods. I needed the surgery that would give me the best chances to be a lower weight. I have lost weight before without surgery and maintained it for a while right at the percentage of the average EWL for sleeve patients at 3 years out in my surgeon's practice. For me, that would put me at about 200 or sdo lbs and frankly I wanted more weight loss because if I'm going to go through surgery for weight loss (and to get healthy, to get off medications) the lower my weight, the better my chances. Also, my chances of resolution of my high blood pressure is better with the bypass. I want off my meds! in general, the lower my weight, the lower my blood pressure.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to me, MsUjima. As of now, I only have hypertension and I know the longer I remain overweight the greater the chance I have of developing diabetes or other comorbities, but I'm really hoping this would resolve the hypertension, but right now that feels like a cramp shoot. Although, when I've lost weight previously my blood pressure did go down considerably. I don't know. I was younger then. Good stuff for me to think about.

I scoured the threads and forms and all I could was a couple of AA VSGer threads.....So, question: Did the RNY resolve your high blood pressure? Completely? Was it the change in diet, less sodium? I've seen the research on the general population on the resolution of hypertension but never broken down by race. So, I'll take the anecdotal evidence gladly because of its predisposition factor with us.

I need to find out the same thing...I have used a liquid tincture at the natural health section called cramp bark not bad with a heating pad, but you'd need a physician OK. I'm preoperative but lying in bed with a premenstrual back ache and horrible insomnia.....ugh...

Lord, here we go.... I think there is nothing wrong a very occasional use of marijuana. I don't think she was inquiring about daily usage. My answers/responses would be very different if so. Rather than argue about the benefits, I think it's legalization will go along way in balancing the racial injustice in the penal system over time. But we don't need to get deep into politics in this forum. I supported the passage on many levels. It's enactment is not what was hoped for, but this is the case with many laws that go into effect. Everyone in support of the bill are not big stoners ***says a person who has used it ten times in 40 years***...... Another option would be to consult her doctor.

In states where it is legal you have the benefits of consulting with experts and even physicians about the different strains and side effects. There are strains that can be used for different medicinal properties. Some increase appetite ie munchies and some do not. Some strains are used for sleep etc etc etc I would be frank with the person operating the dispensary that you are a bypass patient or whichever I can't tell on my phone and that you absolutely cannot eat after ingesting and they should be able to steer you in the right direction. Take it slow. Avoid getting THC laced foods and you should be fine. You will be absolutely amazed at how different it is and less taboo out is in a legal state versus the rest of the country.

I'd love a where are they now revival off this thread!!! Where are all the ppl who were like hell no earlier? Are they still like that? Have they come around? Made peace? Jumped off a bridge?...Just curious this was over a year and a half ago.

Cutting up the LB credit card! Oh no you didn't just say that! Laughing my butt off literally!!!

Things are progressing well for me! Scheduled for NUT and Psych on next Monday and Tuesday. I'm hoping for first week of January!!!!! Yippee but I'm still scared....

Wow. I am truly sorry to here about what you are going through as well as your family and medical team. And I'm depositing this thought here because I know people who are pre op read about complications to know about possible eventualities. We are all deciding about the gravity of the decisions we are making and I just feel that something my surgeon said to me is relevant here and I've said it before. My surgeon specializes in laparoscopic procedures, works at a Center of Excellence and lots of uncomplicated procedures under her belt. You had mentioned that being short may have contributed to some of the complications but also there is an element of statistics here too. We all know that there is that 1-2% severe complication rate and some of this is drawing the short straw and this does not make it any less horrible. My surgeon said if you lined up a group of bariatric surgeons and asked if they would choose to fix bypass complications and sleeve complications, she said hands down they would choose the bypass because the surgery had been around long enough and most surgeons were more versed at fixing complications associated with the bypass. And sleeve surgeons would have have their hands planted in their palms. She said that most surgeons are not well versed in fixing complications with sleeve simply because they don't have the volume of experience under their belt. We all owe you a huge thank you because maybe in your experience bariatricians will learn something that will save someone from having to go through this down the line. Maybe there is something simple and effective that they will learn or a major contraindication that will eliminate this issue from people ever having this complication again. With the volume of people having procedure, that is becoming a significant number. So, thank you. Hang in there. We are all rooting for you!

One of the things my surgeon wanted me to do was to have a meal with a person that had had the surgeries I was considering. It was my homework assignment. Ironically, I had done that before seeing her. I had dinner with a guy 3 months out from the sleeve and one year out from the bypass. Granted the time they were postop made a huge difference, but it definitely swung me toward the bypass. He could eat a cup of food, was more compliant than the sleeve and seemed happier. I'm also basing this on the knowledge of the individuals too....I don't know but maybe it could be enlightening for you somehow.....

I ordered the Fitbit Aria Scale today....#weightlossgadgetgeek

@@ladypoohbear Thanks for that.

@ I'm sure your journey is well-documented on BP but why did you end up with the revision? For reflux issues or was the VSG proving to be ineffective at weight loss over time??

@@Jonathan Blue This is such good news. I even saw the instructional video from my surgeon last night and it mentioned the ghrelin thing in the VSG portion as a huge selling point but not the bypass portion and I was like I know people with the bypass aren't sitting around hungry with a stomach the size of an egg!!!

OK. I'm about 85% sure I'm choosing the bypass, but I keep hearing that the sleeve removes the part of the stomach that secretes ghrenelin, the hunger hormone, while the bypass leaves the stomach to secrete hormones, enzymes that aid in digestion etc etc..... On this site, sleevers always chime in about the ghrenelin and how they're never hungry. Tell me the bypass decreases hunger too? I know everyone is different and most successful folks can distinguish head hunger from real hunger, but walk me through a typical day of hunger sensations of a bypass patient. Please and thank you.

Birthday was Oct 26th, surgery in December or January!!!! Woooooooooooo!!!!!