Mrs. Reid

My deductible was $4000. It was normally $2000, but because it was barbaric surgery the deductible was doubled. That sucks but it was still worth every penny!

It's been one year since my surgery and I am so happy I did it. I was frustrated at first because I was a slow loser. Now, I say THANK GOD I am a slow loser! I am one year out and I have lost 80 pounds. In the first 4 months I had lost 20 pounds. I was sad, upset and discouraged. That made me look at how I treat myself. How I put myself down as a failure, how I don't buy nice things for myself etc. Things sped up between 4 months and 8 months because during the first 4 months I had to experiment with what I could eat and had to figure out what worked for me as a unique human being. After month 9 things slowed down again. I now have my eating habits set for life. I learned my new habits slowly and I feel they are solid now. I am losing about a quarter to half a pound a week still and I'm ok with that. I don't focus so much on my weight. I'm taking classes, learning new things and changing my life. I stick up for myself and walk away from negative people and situations. I have a new job, I hardly have any lose skin. I will not need any plastic surgery. My blood pressure is normal for the first time in over a decade. My A1C numbers are below the pre-diabetic level and my bad cholesterol has dropped so low I am no longer in danger of heart disease. I would have been great if I could have done all of this without the surgery, but I am so glad I did it. Looking forward to another great year.

I had heard a lot about Biotin, but I did not take supplements because biotin is in my multi-vite. But last month...desperate and willing to try anything...I started taking 5,000mcg biotin supplement everyday. I'm seeing my hairline filling in....I should have started taking the stuff right from the start....but happy now to see hair growing.

I got sleeved last February and I still have loud rumbling noises coming from my belly. I've just learned to live with it.

I am 9 months post op and it still freaks me out to see how much food people can eat at one time. I think to myself: I once ate even more than that.

I agree that a scale is vital. I find that a lot of calorie information is given in ounces instead of cups. Now that I have my scale I know my calorie count is very accurate and can rest assured that I am within my daily calorie range. Got mine off ebay for 9 bucks.

And I feel better already. I lasted two weeks with a scale in the house. At first it was ok, I weighed myself every day and when I found I gained a pound or two I was ok with it. I would think about how much salt I had...or if I was dehydrated etc. But yesterday morning I got depressed because my weight was not dropping at all. (I am not a person who has the discipline to only weigh myself once a week.) I realized that for the last week I have been thinking about that number on the scale all day. I also noticed that the negative thoughts about my body and my ability to achieve my weight loss goal were coming back. I was stressing out...I was craving food for comfort. Soooo...I picked up my scale, walked outside to the dumpster and tossed it in! I have a follow up visit in the bariatric clinic on September 24th and I will not know how much I weigh until then! I feel so free!

I don't wear an ID bracelet, but I have a medical alert notice on my driver's license. Then behind my driver's license I have a card that lists my allergies and that I had sleeve surgery.

My last stall went on for over a month. I kept eating right and did not panic. This is what happens in my non-surgical attempts to lose weight: I would hit a stall and say "Why am I trying so hard when nothing is happening?" Then, it was back to the old ways. Things are differerent now that I have the sleeve. I know that the plateau will break at some point and I just need to hang on. If I continue to stick with my new way of life, the thing will have no choice but to break. So, after a stall that started in June and lasted most of the month of July I got on the scale today and found I had lost 3 pounds since last Sunday. Hang in there!!!!

I work in a very public place and I knew I would get a lot of questions about my weight loss. I had my answers ready: I'm in a medically supervised weight loss program; I have made permanent changes to the way I eat; I've gone Paleo etc. Now that I'm getting these questions four or five times a day I am amazed at how invasive they feel. This whole journey has been so personal its about getting my life back. It's about reclaiming who I was before all the trauma happened in my life and I turned to food as my only comfort. People who don't know anything about me want to go on and on about my weight. They think they are being nice for noticing and that congratulating me profusely might help me. To me it feels the same as if someone I don't know walks up to me and says "Hey, how was your last pap smear?" in front of a bunch of people. There is that second of shock and then I give a quick answer and try to change the subject but they keep coming back. I find myself shooting irritated looks at people when they won't shut up but that just makes them start talking about how they were just trying to be nice and how they wanted to let me know that I was doing a good job .....and so the conversation continues. Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it except change jobs which I plan to do in a few months. It's just that I want the right to be selfish about something. I have suffered so many invasions in my life from people who thought they had the right to invade. So this thing is really pushing my buttons.

I would like to hear from others who had slow weight loss. My weight loss has been very slow. I'm losing - on average - about 2 pounds a week. I say on average because I have had some killer plateaus that lasted as long as 4 weeks. Then I drop real fast for two or three weeks before my weight crashes into another plateau. My doctor says that is a good thing because I won't have the lose skin and hair loss. He also says I have another year of weight loss to look forward to, and at the rate I have been going I will make it to my ideal weight sometime next spring. I am over 50 so I knew it would be slow, but it's hard to read about how everyone is losing so fast and then see mine inchworm along. I keep a food journal and make sure I'm hitting my target calorie count. I'm trying so hard to be happy about the progress I've made, but somehow I just thought I would be a bit further along than I am. I would like to know if anyone really does keep losing for 18 months after surgery. Has anyone else made their weight loss goal with slow weight loss?

My throat hurt really bad after surgery. Swallowing Water was impossible. I was hooked up to an IV so it didn't matter too much. It got a little better each day. After a week or so I didn't have any pain at all.

Congrats!!!

I am also right at 6 months post op. I noticed a change last month. I don't currently know what I weigh, but my measurements seemed to move at a snails pace. I had expected much more rapid weight loss and I seemed to be able to eat more that expected. Then last month all of a sudden, I could not eat much, I had my Protein and my veggie/fruit and was full and did not even WANT to eat more. I can eat a total of about 3/4 of a cup at one sitting and the thought of more food is such a turn off. I think it has taken 5 months for my mind and body to adjust to the change. I think it took 5 months for it to sink in that this is the new me and this is how I will eat for the rest of my life.

I too am a scale junkie. I am 6 months post op and have no idea what I weigh. My last weight check was at my 6 week post-op checkup. I have been measuring myself and I have gone from size 22 to size 16. I am going to buy a scale next week and see if I can't have a healthier relationship with it than the one I had before. If not, then I am prepared to throw it out again and wait for my next doctors appointment to check my weight. By the way, it is so nice to know that other people have the same scale junkie problem that I have.