une nouvelle vie

Thank you again to everyone. I went to an information session and my next step will be taking the COMPASS tests to see where I place. Then it'll be on to financial aid and seeing what prerequisites might be in my future before I can start the program. One step at a time, right? I filled out the FAFSA a month or so ago so they'll have that information shortly if not already. After my COMPASS tests I'll be meeting with an adviser to discuss the rest. I'm taking all of your words to heart. I want so much to do well.

@@CanyonBaby, great post! So much truth and I hope people read and absorb it. It can be a real struggle, but I think it's worth it. I want to elaborate a bit on your: "You may gain weight back." a little. I've seen so many people online and off who say thing about weight loss surgery being PERMANENT weight loss. No damned way. SO many people lose considerable amounts of weight and yet gain back every pound and sometimes more because they go right back to eating the foods they did before and sometimes nearly the same amount. I have a friend who had surgery six months before me and she had less to lose than I do. She was 10 pounds from her goal around Christmas. A piece of pizza turned into three. A piece of pie at Thanksgiving had turned into trying a piece of each pie at Christmas along with Cookies and fudge. After the holidays it kept going and it continues to as of this month. This story also touches on your "you may lose friends" point as well, because she blew up at me a week ago because I wouldn't go out for pizza with her. I offered to have her over for something else but she insisted we get a pizza. Pizza is a food I used to love but I haven't had a bite of it since I started preparing for surgery last March because I know me and I need to focus to stay on track. She's gained back 40 pounds since December and shows no signs of stopping. She told me I'm obsessed with my surgery and my weight loss and that it isn't healthy for her to be around me anymore. It made me a little sad, but I can't afford to let anyone or anything knock me off my track. I used to weigh 450 pounds and I never want to be there again. I'm telling this not for pity, but to illustrate how even people who've been on a journey like yours, it isn't exactly like yours. We all arrived at the decision for surgery for myriad reasons and our weight loss paths are going to be different a well. There isn't one way to do it right, you have to do what's right for YOU to keep yourself moving in the losing direction. It's too easy to stumble and go backwards.

Thank you guys so much for your support and suggestions. I'm sincerely touched that you'd take the time to respond. I don't have a lot of offline support and I'm afraid my self esteem isn't the best so every little bit helps. Just knowing other people are out there doing it or have done it gives me hope that this could work out. I'm really going to try. Thank you again, I really mean it. I'm going to bookmark this page and read it again and again.

Let me tell you, prior to deciding to have my surgery my diabetes wasn't well controlled. Why? I ate pretty much whatever I wanted and took my metformin only most of the time. Once I started preparing for the surgery and eating better, I was able to cut back my metformin a lot (I was on the highest dose my doc could give me). I'm ashamed to tell you but before I decided to have surgery, my A1C was up to 10. TEN! It was part of what made me decide to have surgery. My surgeon took me off my diabetic medication the day of surgery. I was nervous but I tested my blood sugar twice a day and it was always good. At about 4 months after surgery I has bloodwork done and my A1C was 4.5 and I haven't taken any meds. I'm sure everyone's results vary, but it resolved my situation for me.

I really feel you. I was terrified of being put under. I know I drove everyone in my life crazy leading up to my surgery because I was 100% convinced I wasn't going to make it. I even didn't renew my AAA membership because I figured I'd die I talked to my surgeon and asked him how many sleeve patients he'd ever lost. None. I talked to the anesthesiologist and asked how many patients he'd lost. None. I saw how this surgery has no more higher rate of mortality than any other and I started feeling better. You're going to be better than okay. You're going to be awesome and on your way to being healthier.

I'm sorry you're going through this, but they're going to fix you up and you're going to continue on your journey. Keep us posted, please!

Congrats to you! How awesome is that? Sometimes it's those little things that can just make your day.

Prior to this surgery I'd had my gall bladder out (regular surgery, not laproscopic) and this wasn't nearly as painful as that was. I had discomfort when I first woke up but it eased pretty quickly. That night in my sleep I rolled over on my left side for a hot second and ouch that hurt but as soon as I rolled back it was fine. I took a total of 3 pain pills after surgery so my pain was minimal.

Subscribing to follow along as I'm sure I'm going to need this at some point as I carried most of my weight in my stomach. It gives me hope that someone got it approved because I normally have people tell me that insurance won't cover it.

I'm going to second what liannatx is saying. Weight/measure your food and really watch your macro-nutrients. Get your Protein in an keep those carbs low. I'm not sure a sample menu is going to really help because our tastes are all so different. I try to keep it very simple to the point of boring because if I get too fancy, my calories go up. A lot of my meals are just 3oz of boneless, skinless chicken breast, a couple ounces of steamed broccoli and an egg white. Whatever you choose, make sure you're measuring to be sure you're not eating too much and then document it. I was on a LONG stall. For 3 months I was stuck at a weight only losing and then regaining the same 3 pounds. It was CRAZY to me. I realize I wasn't truly gaining weight because I wasn't eating more than 800-1000 calories a day let alone the 3500 it takes to gain a pound. But when we take in calories we store excess either as fat or glycogen. To gain a pound of fat it takes an excess 3500 calories BUT each gram of glycogen is accompanied by 3 grams of Water so that's why we see these spikes when we weigh ourselves frequently especially if we've taken in a lot of sodium. The reason I'd stalled so long was because I thought I didn't NEED to exercise. By a metabolic rate calculator says my BMR should be 2077 calories a day. So if I'm eating 800 calories I should be burning (just sitting around) 1200 calories more than I am taking in. So that should be a pound every 3 days. Guess what? Not happening. No matter what the BMR says, it wasn't happening and my stubborn and foolish self fought it. I INSISTED it SHOULD be that way. Maybe it should, but it wasn't. I started walking on a treadmill just 20 minutes a day at first and in just a couple of weeks I'm down 16 pounds. I'm still eating exactly the same but the small amount of exercise has been making the difference. Are you exercising?

I felt the same way and then when you realize men are looking at you...and attracted to you, you start to think about it and for me, I just decided to jump into the deep end of the pool and see if I could swim so to speak. It's an awfully powerful feeling, to know that you are attractive again. I've gone from the slacks/shirt/flats gal to wearing dresses, heels, makeup, jewelry...all of it. I'm not interested in anyone from my office mind you, but it's a hell of an ego boost to know that you are getting their attention.. Maybe you don't mean this the way it reads to me and I'm sincerely glad that it's something you enjoy and it makes you feel good, but not everyone is waiting for men to notice them for an ego boost. As I mentioned, I'm truly not interested in dating and am happy to be a single person. The only powerful thing I'm interested in is having my body back to good health, not feeling attractive to the opposite sex. Hopefully we both get what we want.

Ouch. Good for you for trying. I've gotta say though, I'm really glad I have zero interest in dating. I'll be the happy old maid until the day I die.

I didn't have a drain. My doc did the leak test in the OR.

My surgery was at 10am and I was out by 3pm. No complications and very little pain.

I was outpatient for my sleeve and had no issues. It completely depends on you, your body, and your surgeon.

Never fear, it happens to everyone. There's a whole part of the site dedicated to it: http://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/1102-dont-sweat-the-stall-stuff-new/

Just keep telling yourself that some of those expenses will drop off. Once I was six months out my doctor said I didn't have to take chewables anymore so I got away from the bariatric specific Vitamins and my costs have decreased dramatically.

Most likely Fluid weight. I'm concerned you may be expecting an awful lot. There will be weeks that you will only lose 1-2 pounds and that's ok. How much were you actually expecting to lose in a week?

As usual Bufflehead is a the fantastic voice of reason. @@JeanneKoch, I was terrified too. In fact, I posted here a short time before my surgery with a lot of the same concerns. I was thoroughly convinced I was going to die. I think part of it was that I've been overweight for so long that I couldn't imagine my life as a smaller person. My sleeve couldn't have gone better. I had surgery around 10am and was released to a local hotel nearby (I traveled about 3 hours to have surgery) around 3pm. My doctor gave me 30 pain pills and 30 anti-nausea pills. I used a total of 3 of each because my pain was minimal. It's going to be great. I think the best thing you can do for yourself between now and then is to try to be as active as you can and try to get your weight down pre-surgery. Give yourself the best shot possible! As usual Bufflehead is a the fantastic voice of reason. @@JeanneKoch, I was terrified too. In fact, I posted here a short time before my surgery with a lot of the same concerns. I was thoroughly convinced I was going to die. I think part of it was that I've been overweight for so long that I couldn't imagine my life as a smaller person. My sleeve couldn't have gone better. I had surgery around 10am and was released to a local hotel nearby (I traveled about 3 hours to have surgery) around 3pm. My doctor gave me 30 pain pills and 30 anti-nausea pills. I used a total of 3 of each because my pain was minimal. It's going to be great. I think the best thing you can do for yourself between now and then is to try to be as active as you can and try to get your weight down pre-surgery. Give yourself the best shot possible!

Yes, I believe all of them require payment in full up front. Mine definitely did. In fact I believe it had to be paid in full by 2 weeks before the date of surgery.

I guess just good luck got me through my hospital experience. I was an outpatient for the sleeve. My surgery was at 10am and I was discharged to a nearby hotel at 3pm. It was easy breezy.

I fought it, I did. I had a LOT more weight to lose than many fine folks here as I was in the super obese category. I thought surely I wouldn't need to exercise until I got closer to my goal. Certainly eating less than 800 calories a day would be good enough, right? Wrong. I hit a stall six months after surgery (right around Christmas) and my scale would NOT move except the gaining and losing of the same two pounds. I was so frustrated because I knew I wasn't eating enough to gain weight so why wasn't I losing? I felt my clothes still being looser so maybe my body was just moving things around? Still, like a fool I fought it for almost three months. Finally mid March I broke down and took advantage of Sears' 12 months same as cash offer on my card and bought a treadmill. I'm so woefully out of shape from 20 years of sedentary living and being in that super obese category for so long, but since March 20th when I got the treadmill I've been walking 30 minutes each day. At first I would do three times a day for ten minutes each. For the last week I've been doing two different 15 minute walks. As I build endurance I'll keep changing. Since the 20th of March? I've lost 11 pounds. So exercise, it works!

What an awesome accomplishment! Congrats to you.

Calm down? I assure you I'm not even in the slightest bit upset. It's not worth it to get upset about people I don't have to interact with in real life. Why did I respond? I liked what Emma had to say so I gave her a compliment and used her call for kindness to explain my own view on the site and explained to her my experience it and why I'm here less frequently. Why would I take the time to respond? To have a conversation with Emma and exchange ideas with her. So you think that means I'm doing it for attention as per your rant? I promise you that how it appears to you does not factor into my decisions on what I post and knowing now that you see it that way still doesn't change that for me although I do find it curious that you think the reason people are posting is to seek attention. Not a rhetorical question: is that why you post things, for attention? That is the only reason I can think of that you'd assume that to be anyone else's motivation. I'll take a pass on elaborating on the rest of your post but you have a lovely day.

Oh I read your first response, remember I'm the one who pointed out the structural mistakes you made while bitching about others? Now let me help you with something else since you don't like people being ignorant: I didn't have to come back here and go out of the way of the main topics and seek out rants to pick up your quaint complaining. I came to the site and saw your post under "recent topics" and clicked on it. Now you aren't as ignorant anymore about how people sometimes find posts on this site. I'm sure you're glad I'm helping you and you'll see it as such since your only wish is to help others with their own inadequacies. You're welcome in advance.