Fluffnomore

Pfft woo, takes a lot more than that to offend me. I will try…he went to get his camera and I handed him my phone. Next time I won't stop him. He has a nice camera…but I might have broken it tonight. Ugh.

I never said they were GOOD pictures, woo woo. They aren't meant to pop up to the huge size on here, I guess. LOL RJ. I will get my kids right on it.

(/wailing) I can't SEE a difference. I just had my husband snap an 8 week picture. I compared it to my 1 week picture, and I just don't see it. I've attached them (sorry the lighting is terrible…) Can YOU tell which is which? I've lost 40 pounds. I'm in 1-2 sizes smaller. My clothes are telling the right story, as are my measurements. I *do* see the difference between now and a picture that was taken of me in July. But I purposely did a photo in the same place as the first one. Nothing. I've decided all I can do is file this, and save it, and take the next photo when it's time. Maybe over a long amount of time I will see the difference. Okay, you may now return to your regularly scheduled programming while I return to my regularly scheduled whining.

As I was reading these I was thinking to myself that these are in fact the habits of success in general, too, aren't they? I need to look at this list not only when I am feeling goofy about weight control stuff, but also when I don't want to file that report, or clean my desk... Love the list. Must get the book.

I had one and it was repaired during surgery. I felt it afterwards, but I'm a singer and sang somewhere about 10 days after surgery. Uh, definitely had some tightness and trouble with support at that point... But I'm 8 weeks out and have no problems now.

I also have BCBS IL and have had very few problems with them personally. I just got some paperwork that they're rescinding an approval for part of the procedure but I feel pretty confident I will be able to work with them on that. Usually it's a matter of a code being wrong.

My weight loss line sometimes looks like an EKG.

While we are waiting for my husband's appeal to see if he qualifies, I gently suggested that he try to eat what I'm eating (or at least, to follow the general guidelines.) I got a very strong, "Ha! There's no way I could survive doing that." The truth is, we were both on Optifast a few years back and that diet isn't significantly different from the early days eating plan for gastric sleeve. All liquid, 800 calories a day, big focus on Protein. But it is difficult to sustain and (Optifast anyway was) expensive. I believe that in addition to the physical changes we undergo, best case scenario is that we also get a dose of resolve from having the surgery. As in, "I did this, and I will not screw it up." The unfortunate flip side is that my husband sort of now feels that it is hopeless UNLESS he qualifies. And frankly, he may be sort of right. He has not sustained any great loss long term; most people don't. It can't hurt to try to follow the guidelines and see. But it's a tough proposition.

My husband is on an appeal right now (his first submission was denied.) The appeal has taken basically the last month, and it is super frustrating. We just don't know at all where things stand. Also, because my husband gets 2 weeks off in December, this would have been the ideal time to do it. Now we don't know. Keep the faith...

Silly thing about the psych eval. Lots of people who need this surgery have disordered thinking around food as a matter of course. If you are "wily" about it, you could presumably give them the answers they want to hear. (I have a friend who did this; she is a recovering bulimic who did not mention it in her psych eval.) My husband, who has had some issues, was completely honest with the guy and was not immediately approved and had to go back. He was approved the second time. Why? I still don't know. Take it with a grain of salt.

Totally depends on the style and brand. I buy a lot of Levis and Denizen and even similar styles from year to year have different cuts. Unfortunately it is trial and error. But also don't forget that most jeans have a lot of give. So the ones that I have to suck it in to zip when they are fresh out of the dryer still might fit just fine...

Whoa! Way too early to give up. Almost everyone has a stall right around the time you are talking about. If you google it, there are dozens of references. "Three week stall." Also poster Butterthebean has an article in his signature on this very subject. As far as giving up, have you ever lost 17 pounds in a week or so? Keep doing what you are doing and DON'T GIVE UP.

Coin flipping: excellent scientific and medical researching technique!

Ist month, about 20-24.

OH??? Do tell, CGJ.

I'm still crushing or opening every pill except a D3 gel. I wasn't told otherwise and I figure I can ask in January. I'm at almost 8 weeks.

One other point, which may be beating a dead horse... My pre-op appointment essentially consisted of my sitting with the PA and signing a huge stack of paperwork that said in some way on every page, "I understand that I could die." There were other things that I needed to sign off on: injury, surgical failure, etc…but anyone who leaves that appointment and doesn't know that there is a surgical risk is either not reading and listening, or right in the middle of the river of denial. I had an emergency gallbladder operation 5 years ago. I don't remember signing this kind of paperwork on that, and it was much more likely that I could die from that surgery or complications. Everything is a risk, but remaining obese was the much bigger risk to me.

Like you, Pierced and Gman, I had a doctor in the hospital tell me that I hadn't needed to have the surgery. I reported her back to the surgeon and the hospital, and I told her that I had qualified for it, and insurance had agreed. There is a bias that you need to be wildly out of the norm to benefit from the surgery, but the guidelines are arbitrary at best. If anything, at 234 or 238 or whatever I was a better surgical risk than if I had been 338. But this is off track. I really don't know yet what my final goal weight is. But aside from my ticker, my surgeon, and you fine people, it is none of anyone else's business. I have just now started to hear compliments about the weight loss. Some of these same people who compliment me now, might not like it if I start to "compete" with them, thinness or looks wise. And that will be their problem. I have been the funny, fat girl in my crowd for a long time and I still don't know how this will all pan out.

I love this story, Indigo. It is sweet that you have had a mutual adoration society in place for so long, whether it is a long-lasting relationship now or not.

I'm completely supportive of the people who are doing well with their bands, but what convinced me to go with the sleeve is exactly what I hear against it: its permanence. I didn't see why I would go through major surgery for this problem and leave myself an out, particularly with the high failure rate reported. Like gmanbat said, it is still possible to fail, but you have to be willing to ignore the rules. Even my good friend, who loses extremely slowly, is following the rules and losing. Good luck with everything!

I can just hear the APB: "We have a situation here…a WLS patient who will not keep her clothes on…"

:-) That matters? That's strong. I just mean in terms of what's around. Unless you or a family member went to Illinois, it seems like very few people even know what's going on more than about an hour in any direction of Chicago. But that sounds jerky too, so I'll stop. I don't mean it that way.

Being from the Chicago area, I will say that there's a world of difference between Chicago and downstate Illinois, for example. That said, I haven't logged onto the local forum so I don't know if there's really a difference.

I'm still trying to decide if I do the Christmas baking or not. The thing is, there is not a single person in my household who *should* have it, and I know that unless I'm very careful about hiding it, it will get looted during the night. I may just make my cakes for the families I usually make them for, and call it a day. I am finding it interesting how many of these seemingly innocuous traditions work their ways back into being issues for our weight loss. I'm also very glad that so far the bariatric puddings aren't setting off cravings for more when I have them. It's just enough to help me feel like I get a little something without going overboard. And bonus…my family thinks that they must taste horrible (I have not told them otherwise) so they stay away from them.

I'm a singer. I made the mistake of taking a job about 10 days after surgery. It wasn't my best work but it was fine. I'm almost 8 weeks out and I've been working church jobs with no problems after that slightly rocky start. The worst part was breath support for the first week or so. I also had a hiatal hernia repair and that probably made it worse. At 6 weeks I was cleared to start lifting weights again. I will be honest and say I have started with lower weights, like 35-40 pounds. I could have done more but the point is working up slowly. Good luck!