momohime

I've always measured my food and stopped myself since surgery. In my experience, that full feeling means I'm about to have a bad time.

I dunno.. my surgeon's office told me to expect it to take a little while to get approval. It was almost a month before I got the good news. Sucks to wait, but I wouldn't necessarily worry. Insurance companies like to take their sweet time apparently..

Channel all that energy in a different direction. Be proud of the 60 pounds you have lost and continue to move forward! Stressing over what could have been doesn't get you anywhere. Instead of constantly weighing yourself, try to get in the habit of logging your food and exercise. Keep an honest account of what you're doing daily and try to find a way to stay on the downward slope, even if there are a few bumps along the way.

Could be acid.. that's what mine "hunger pang" feeling was early on. I had to stay on my PPI for about 4 months before the feeling finally went away. Now my hunger indicator is completely different.. it's not a pang type of feeling at all. You can ask your surgeon or your PCP about it and they might prescribe one for you to try, or you can try something over the counter if you want. A prescription dose will be about 3x stronger than what is recommended OTC though.

Spanx has a cheaper brand available in Target and other department stores called Assets. I've tried the kind that are just like high waisted panties and the kind that have the legs too. I hate them both. Even with the little grippy plastic strip at the top, they want to roll down at least once. Where mine hit me when it was up was just at the right spot for the band to squeeze across my tummy. I swear that I had more problems with acid whenever I was wearing it because of that. They usually come with a strap that can attach to your bra to prevent rolling, but it's a pain in the butt to use and mostly just pulls your bra down. Also, Lord help you if you really have to pee cause you're going to have an accident. They're hard enough to get up/down on their own, but if the straps are attached too and the mood strikes.. Godspeed. Even with a larger size, I still have to basically do jumping jacks to get them up and down. I don't think the slimming effect is noticeable enough to make the hassle of it worth it. They do help keep things in place when you bend over.. other than that, I couldn't tell much difference though. If I was going to invest in another shaper, I'd try the cami. At least then I could go to the bathroom without the trouble of getting it down and back up.

I'm actually not sure if I had a catheter during surgery.. I didn't wake up with one, but that doesn't necessarily mean I never had one. I did have difficulty emptying my bladder for the first two days or so immediately after my operation. It was just so SLOW, if at all. My surgeon said it was normal following surgery and should go away.. and it did. It was really annoying though. @@jjinWA, As far as catheter use goes.. Most hospitals now have CAUTI prevention plans, to decrease the amount of catheter associated UTIs that occur. Hospitals are not reimbursed for any fees associated with CAUTIs, so catheter use has significantly decreased. A catheter is supposed to be pulled as early as possible because extended use is a huge infection risk. That's why you may never know (unless you ask!) that you had one during surgery. If an MD wants catheter use to be continued, they have to write a specific order for it. Some unit protocols make it necessary for those orders to be written daily. Because it's such a huge issue, a lot of MDs no longer place them if they don't expect a procedure to last very long.

There's pretty much no way that you can NOT lose some muscle mass along the way. It doesn't make it "unwise" because things are redistributed. When I was at my highest weight, 260, about 132 of those pounds were lean body mass and the rest was fat. I needed more muscle then because I was so heavy overall. Now my whole body weighs 132 pounds, ~100 of which is lean body mass and the rest is fat. That puts me around 23% body fat, at a healthy BMI, etc for my height and current weight. I don't need to still be 132 pounds of lean body mass because I have less weight to carry around on my frame. Yes, I lost muscle.. but no, that alone is not bad. It's normal for my current size. (It is very important to get your protein/vitamins in daily because, while you can't completely stop losing lean muscle mass along the way, you do want to minimize it as much as possible so you're not "skinny fat".) Yes, my BMR is lower than what it was when I was heavy. It's not because of all the muscle I lost, it's because I'm generally just smaller. And my numbers at the side are slightly misleading.. I was 260 at my highest pre-op, but I lost 30 pounds by day of. I'm almost to 100 pounds lost post-op after >7 months. Still though, my surgeon (and everyone else for that matter!) is very proud.

Yep, your goal is totally achievable! You can definitely do it.

I didn't have a pre-op diet to follow either really. My surgeon just wanted me to lose at least 10 pounds in my 6 months of medically supervised diet visits that insurance required. Then, just like you, no food after a certain time the night before surgery.

Wherever you have stretch marks, don't be surprised if you have loose skin in those areas too. It may or may not firm up some with time/exercise/moisturizers/etc, but it's probably never going to look like it wasn't stretched at some point. The areas where I didn't have stretch marks bounced back pretty well, but wherever I had them is a hot mess. Basically, my body now looks much like my body before.. only smaller and less full. All the rolls I had prior to surgery are still there, they're just no longer filled with fat like they previously were. It's definitely not perfect, but even still.. it's a vast improvement!

Yeah.. Diet Pepsi was what I missed the most, but I'm kinda over it now. After some of the previous experiences I've had with food, I don't think the carbonation would be pleasant anyway.

Honestly, I still don't feel normal. I feel normal-er.. but, I dunno. I think it's mostly just a head thing. While I'm much happier to be smaller, going out to eat with friends can still be a challenge for me. If I'm not careful, I can make myself sick very easily. It draws attention that I definitely don't like. I've had several friends comment that I don't eat much.. Not that I'm saying any of this to try to discourage you! Like most other people, I would make the same choice over and over.. at least now I go out to eat with friends instead of avoiding them completely like I did before because I was so ashamed of myself. True, it's not all sunshine and roses.. but still, no real regrets. Sometimes I feel like I'll just always need something to complain about.

When you reach whatever your goal weight is, you start working on maintenance. It's part of your MD/NUT's plan too! You just might get to that stage a little earlier (or later -- all depends on you!) than some. I can see where it might be possible to lose a little more weight than you intended if you up your calories slowly when you start maintenance, but.. I don't think you should worry too much about going from a size 12 to a size 4 if that's not what you want.

I think people mean the right thing (that the same weight in muscle is smaller than the same weight in fat), they just don't say it the right way. It's just an idiom that comes out all wrong sometimes. Kinda like how a lot of people say, "I could care less" about things.. You know what general idea they're trying to get across, but they say it backwards from what it really should be.

Don't really have a good answer for you, but I'm in a similar boat.