mona832

5'8 started at 299 now 158 my lowest weight 2yrs out next month

Tijuana DR. JUAN PABLO Cervantes AND DRA. JACKIE ARAGON" />

Tijuana DR. JUAN PABLO CERVANTES AND DRA. JACKIE ARAGON" />








UPDATED PICS FROM PLASTIC SURGERY:) LOVING LIFE!

Amazing! Any more updated pics on your arm lift? I am considering.

Okay. That sucks. Really, don't give up hope yet! Many times the Dr can help during that peer conversation. Make sure to tell the Dr ANY thing that your weight is effecting..knees, hips, breathing. Cholesterol. Fingers crossed for you! If for any reason you still get denied gain a bit of weight and re submit. Keep us posted!

I'm calling GOAL! Was sleeved 8/31/13 with Baja Bariatrics in Tijuana Mexico (Dr. Illan) and went from 326lbs to 155lbs! I originally had said 150lbs would be goal but I truly don't feel like I need to lose anymore weight. Now the fun part of maintaining begins. I still have A LOT of restriction in my eating. I've been very determined to work this tool as best as possible and stayed on my high protein/low carb eating plan to the best of my ability. The support I've received from my sleeve sisters/brothers have been a big key to my success as well. My daughter has lost 115lbs and my hubby has lost 65lbs. This by far was the best decision of my life. I eat to live now instead of live to eat! ((hugs))

Miss you most- Cookies and cream ice cream!
Don't miss you at all- The knee pains from all the extra weight and pretty much everything else...lol

You go girl!!!!

Miss you most- Cookies and cream ice cream!
Don't miss you at all- The knee pains from all the extra weight and pretty much everything else...lol

Miss you most- Cookies and cream ice cream!
Don't miss you at all- The knee pains from all the extra weight and pretty much everything else...lol

Thought it be cool to give people more incentive to go ahead with WLS while still being honest about the things we unfortunately had to leave behind. Do your best... or worst.
Miss you most - Drinking while eating... and bread - pretty much any kind, biscuits, rolls, cornbread, nom nom om... oh my God...
Don't Miss You at All - Hiding my weight, feeling ashamed to walk into a room of strangers or meet new people, and size 26/28 pants... how embarrassing.

@@mona832 thanks so very much!!! I appreciate your support.
My Bariatric Life

Hello boys & girls of BP!
I had to check in today and let you all know that as of this morning, I am in onederland!! It's not a number that means anything to my health really, but it just feels significant. I guess because most women aren't really supposed to weight more than 200 pounds even under the best of circumstances, but especially if you're 5'1/2". It's been at least 9 years...yeah, I was 22 or 23 the last time I was undoh-2-hundo.
In honor of this (personally) momentous occasion, I am posting a couple of pics, which I've never done before. be gentle, be nice, or please don't comment...because my body is a onederland
also i feel kind of dumb because I can not get BP to display pics properly...it keeps rotating them for some reason, grrr. you get the idea.
OH! Also, the order goes : Before, After, B, A, B, A. Hopefully you could tell that!
     

You look awesome! He did a great job! Please keep us posted

the surgery you had is the one surgery I am having for sure. you look amazing.

I did it! had my surgery on 9/1/14 in Mexico with Dr. Juan Pablo Cervantes in Tijuana. So far everything has been amazing. No real pain at all. I had it much worse plated out in my head. I stayed from Sunday (night before) and left Friday morning. Drains were removed Thursday and stitches will dissolve anywhere from 120/150 days. I'm to take weekly pics to send to him to review and he is available to me anytime I have a question or concern. Amazing difference!

@@NewLife'sGr8
I thought DDD would make me look ridiculous, lol, but fortunately they're not as monstrous as I imagined. I actually wanted a C cup and in hindsight I'm glad the surgeon was as knowledeable as he was. If you do decide to go for it, the surgeon will have a good idea of what results you want and how to attain them. I almost asked him to go to a smaller implant the day of surgery and I'm glad I didn't.
On another note, I can appreciate the difficulty of meeting someone, but why not just get the surgery for you? This is going to sound horrible, but I will admit, I totally walk in front of the mirror every morning now, naked, and think, girl you don't look half bad! Get the surgery because it will make you happy, not because of what anyone else might think.

No I don't mind, feel free to ask anything you want!
My first surgery was the Tummy Tuck, breast lift and augmentation with 400cc silicone implants, and then Lipo on my hips, thighs, and lower back. The cost for that was almost exactly 20K. If I remember the breakdown correctly it was 11K for the abdominoplasty, 8K for the lift and augment, and then $1500 for each area of lipo. I think I got a multiple procedure discount so the grand total was $19,999.
That procedure is a 6 hour surgery and adding the thigh lift would have put me over the amount of time a plastic surgery patient is allowed to be sedated in my area. They do longer surgeries for reconstruction, but 6 hours for an elective procedure is the cap.
My next procedure is the groin incision thigh lift, which will leave the scars in the groin area, but not running down my legs. My doctor felt my knees were not as fat as I think they are, haha, and that my legs could be fixed without the longer scar. I may have more lipo on my lower back- I haven't quite decided on that yet. My next procedure is 6K for the groin incision thigh lift and $1500 extra if I want to do more lipo on my back.
I chose not to do the full body lift because I didn't want the scar on my back and because I don't really mind my saggy butt that much, lol. I don't love it, but there is nowhere near the amount of extra skin in my back area than there was on my stomach, so I just decided to leave it alone for now. I really dislike the batwings I have on my arms, but the only way to fix that is with the scar to the elbow and I didn't want to do that just yet. I'm holding out hope that I can tone my arms up a bit more and that skin won't bother me as much.

Hello!
I had my mommy makeover at the end of August. I had Tummy Tuck, breast lift, implants, and Lipo on my hips, thighs, and back. So, to answer your questions...
1) Should I rent a recliner? Rather than plop on my couch or bed with lots of pillows?
I wouldn't bother with it. I was sleeping very comfortably on pillows after the first two nights. I had purchased a wedge from Amazon to put under my head, so it simulated a recliner, but it wasn't really needed after the first two days. I used about 4 pillows under my head and two under my knees for the first week, and that was more than comfortable.
2) How much weight did you lose from the procedures?
The day of surgery I was 153, immediately after surgery I was 161 thanks to all the Fluid, I balanced out at around 148 a week after surgery, so I'm guessing I lost maybe 5 pounds from the procedure. Then because I couldn't work out and my compression garment made it hard to eat I dropped down to 137 by last week, which is about 7 weeks post-op.
3) How many days until the pain subsides?
I was lucky in that I really felt very little pain. I took my Percocet prescription every 4-6 hours the first 3 days and I didn't need anything after that point. I felt a little twisting every once in a while if I moved to much, but overall the pain I read about online was not at all what I experienced.
4) Did the procedure help you continue to loss wait (i've read some studies where this continues to aid weight loss)
I'm not sure yet. I've lost weight because I've probably lost some muscle and because I knew I couldn't workout for a few weeks so I was really careful with what I ate.
I've been very happy with the procedure. I ended up developing a seroma that is refusing to go away, but it's really not a huge deal. I have the rest of my procedures (thigh lift and more lipo) in November, so at that point the doctor will just stitch my seroma closed. I was afraid it was going to be the most painful experience ever, and it was not at all. The Percocet those first few days is likely the reason for that, lol, but I was walking a few miles at a time the second week after surgery without any pain, which was nice. Sitting around all day gets boring.
Good luck with your procedure!

I am a writer and obesity health activist known as My Bariatric Life and I am one-year out from my body contouring plastic surgery with Dr. Joseph F. Capella (Capella Plastic Surgery) and approaching one-year out from my facial plastic surgery with Dr. Catherine Winslow (Winslow Facial Plastic Surgery). I am 11-yrs out from my RNY gastric bypass with Dr. Vishal Mehta (Mehta Obesity Center).
My words cannot do justice to the life changing transformation plastic surgery has been for me this past year. The physical changes were outstanding. From the plastic surgery I lost 50 inches and 50 pounds and 6 jeans sizes. I look about 15-years younger. Dr. Winslow gave me back a matured version of the pretty face I had in high school – yes, believe it or not, I was thin and pretty before I became morbidly obese in my adulthood. And Dr. Capella gave me a body better than what I had in high school. Someone told me that they took me from a 1.5 to an 8.5. It is true. Weight loss surgery may have saved my life but it left me with a distorted face and ugly body. You can see the change for yourself in a video montage I put together https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rtWmhfv8plU&list=PLwh-Yteu2O1vFUSpIoVEU6ulkJpyMdVm2 All in all, I lost 11 pants sizes and 135 pounds from the night before my gastric bypass to today. The side by side photos do not even look like the same person.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rtWmhfv8plU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The emotional changes have been magical. It is an amazing thing to experience your body changing so dramatically so quickly. To understand just what that feels like must be experienced for yourself; those whom have gone through it know exactly what I mean. One patient told me that "plastic surgery is so much more about finding the person you were meant to be." Another person told me that weight loss surgery saved her life and plastic surgery saved her soul. At one-year post plastics, I am now focused on finding myself and living life fully. I was never a wall flower but there were things that I let hold me back from doing exactly what it is I want to do. Well, no more. I am breaking through all my barriers and grabbing life with both hands. I’ve got a lot of life to live and I intend to live a life I love.
I am very blessed to have been able to afford plastic surgery. I envy the patients whom get insurance coverage. I sacrificed $40,000 to transform myself from my eye lids to my knees, and that was a big investment in myself, but worth every penny. I am equally blessed to have found TWO plastic surgeons who are at the top of their categories in reconstructing massive weight loss bodies. It is CRITICAL that your plastic surgeon be an expert in post massive weight loss plastic surgery. Even though we post massive weight loss patients are normal weight now, our bodies metabolically are still morbidly obese. We are not getting simple Mommy Makeovers to tighten up a little flab and loose muscle. Our bodies and faces are literally being reconstructed. So be sure to choose your surgeon(s) very very carefully. The most important questions you can ask your doctor for each procedure that you are considering is, “How many of these have you done and how often are you doing them?”
Today I am a size 2 and living larger than ever!
My Bariatric Life

@@*Lexie* thank you, first of all, for the nice comment. YouTube is a bit of a pain in my neck. I am using royalty-free music in the video but some countries won't allow it to be viewed because I do not own the copyright. What country are you viewing from?
Please try viewing it on Vimeo:
Thanks again!
My Bariatric Life

What a great story! I get an error when trying to view the video, it says it's not viewable in my country.

I'm doing two amazing things at the same time, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine: I am losing weight (thanks to the band) and I am on day 5 without a cigarette (thanks to Chantix). Smokers fear gaining tons of weight when they quit...not enough of a reason to keep smoking, but I am so happy to say that thanks to my band my weight is easier to control and thanks to chantix I'm not going ape shyt crazy or eating everything in sight.
I'm a loser and a quitter and I've never felt so proud of myself.

I totally had the same problem. That feeling goes away. I will say though, that I really never burp at all anymore. Sometimes little ones when I'm eating. I think the band doesn't allow the air to come back up. So it can only go down. You know what that means....toots! And lots of them! Lol.

Dilute apple juice with Water and warm it up. It helped me with gas relief and a bowel movement.

I was banded 4 days ago and ever since then I have been feeling like I want to burp, but the belch wont come up. I can feel it go back down and then burn in my chest. This happens SEVERAL times a day. When I go walking I get this huge relief like I am about to bur, then it just goes right back down. I feels as though there is a clog in my throat and it will not allow the burp up. I have passes gas a few times, but no relief has come of this. I am still in a LOT of pain. Has anybody else experienced this?
Any suggestions????