mindylynn

I have officially met my original goal of 142 pounds lost as of today, I started at 352 lbs and now weigh in at 210... Had my surgery last Dec 13 (On a Friday)... I know, Crazy.. But this decision saved my life and career, I am now going back to the hospital to start giving talks at new classes after first of next year. I was needing total knee replacements and have already had a spinal fusion so I was pretty desperate, Not to mention surviving a massive pulmonary embolism after the back surgery.. But I was so successful with the sleeve by following the directions verbatim, No arguing or rationlizing why I had to do what they said to do.. Once I got past the mental hurdle about 6 to 8 weeks out and the weight was falling off I became totally dedicated to success, I think also that I had to pay out of pocket 16,000 bucks helped keep me dedicated (Like an Investment).. I have had several people reach out to me for their decision whether to do this or not and I am careful about telling people yes they HAVE to do this... Everybody has to become MENTALLY PREPARED for this journey and for me it worked out great and continues to work out great. Walking 5 miles a day now and bought a great elliptical machine.. Anybody that has doubts and needs more information message me and I will try to help..
Jerry.

Today is an incredibly important day for me regarding my journey and road to complete health. Body AND mind, and soul. Addiction is a symptom of a deeper rooted problem. We MUST admit we are powerless over them, and that our lives have become unmanageable. Without this admission, true healing can not begin. I am worth it. YOU are worth it.

they all got promotions, so i'm very happy for them, but i am now wearing four hats and i can't keep up! i barely go to the potty. the other day i forgot to have lunch, and i have NEVER in my whole life forgotten to eat.
the good thing is that it's stopping me from obsessing about my upcoming surgery (11/18!!)

First, they won't put raw almonds in our vending machineS...they won't put one little row of raw almonds in there...and there are 3 of us that have had WLS!
Now, today I was drinking over my quota, so I ran out of the water/iced tea I brought in. The Water here is disgusting! So I take my $1.25 to the vending machineS, upset with myself that I have to pay for water...but guess what...no water!!!! Soft drinks and OJ in both machines!
Ridiculous!
When I mentioned it to my manager, she looked at me like I had 3 heads! It's bad enough that they don't have a FREE Water system here, but now they have taken away my only beverage option!!!
I just have to VENT...can you tell I hate my job!

Oh I'm going to buy this on my lunch today! Thank you!

Be careful what you ask for!!! I was previously scheduled for surgery on 12/8 and just got a call that there is a cancellation for 11/10 and did I want to do it then. I'm spinning every which way on the inside right now! Thinking of all that I need to get done appointment wise in the next two weeks and paperwork. Thank you, Lord!!!

@@*Lexie*
That sounds like some awesome investment in patients' success. Never heard of that level of preparation.

Great post! ( Here are my responses. Banded June 2013- 111lbs lost)
What were you told prior to surgery about life after surgery that was not entirely true or was not the entire story? The band does not stop head hunger or make you magically stop craving food. The first 90days are tough in maintaining enough Protein and Fluid. Now it is second nature but those first few months are very challenging. I thought I would be stuffed after eating 2-3 baby bites of everything

What do you wish you had fully understood prior to surgery that you did not and what do you believe would have put you in the best possible position to succeed after surgery?
I wish I knew why I was fat in the first place. Understanding the emotional issues might make it easier for some to remain on the right track. I also had lists of suggested foods but would have liked a maybe some menu examples from my surgical team to make it a little easier at first. Dealing with the social aspect of eating was hard on me
What information, if any, was missing in the lead-up to your surgery that gave you unreasonable expectations or that led to disappointment in the months or years since surgery? I was given detailed medical information but would have loved to hear about others challenges in the event I was at a plateau or feeling down. All the focus is on the procedure and not how you will feel as the lbs come off.
Overall
I wish I was better prepared for all of the nosy people who either told me I was taking the easy way out that I should lose weight the "right ' way OR tell me I am not eating enough and am getting malnourished. When you lose weight you see that all of your friends are not always supportive and in fact they may be jealous. That still hurts

What were you told prior to surgery about life after surgery that was not entirely true or was not the entire story?
Although I feel that my Dr's seminar was very informative as well as this message board, there are many aspects of my new life I was not prepared for. I was not prepared for how easily eating something that doesn't agree with me can take me out with such intense pain for hours. How feeling full is now in my chest not in my belly. How incredibly important it is to stay hydrated.

What do you wish you had fully understood prior to surgery that you did not and what do you believe would have put you in the best possible position to succeed after surgery?
As I stated before, the Doctor was very informative and I am extremely happy that I choose to have the surgery. And it has been stated here many times but I still to this day have a hard time wrapping my head round it. NEITHER THIS SURGERY NOR THE WEIGHT LOSS WILL MAKE YOU LIFE BETTER!!!!! OMG I cannot stress it enough and am still struggling with it. Now I am just a much thinner me but struggling with poor eating habits and all my other vices that I have had for decades. It didn't improve my marriage, my parenting skills or my relationship with others. It is a weight loss tool and that is all it is. You still have to do the hard work.

What information, if any, was missing in the lead-up to your surgery that gave you unreasonable expectations or that led to disappointment in the months or years since surgery?
None that I can think of.

I'll be subscribing to this thread. Thank you for bringing this up. I am pre surgery but I have an interesting prospective. I have been feeling a bit like an imposter my entire process for getting qualified for surgery. This, WLS, is supposed to be the like the last house on the block. We were supposed to have tried and failed miserably at the weight loss thing and never had any long term success at losing weight, but this has not been my exact story.
In 2005, I lost 140# without surgery. I discovered that I have a sensitivity to gluten and sugar and I stopped eating junk food. I didn't exercise but the weight literally fell off my body. I was lighter than I had been my entire adult life. I went from 320# to180# in about 8 months probably averaging about the same clip as a bypass patient I'm imagining. I had some feelings of euphoria, but mostly I felt like a live electrical wire. My comfy fat, my safe place to hide from the world was suddenly gone and I felt as if I was practically electrocuted if I would even brush by furniture too hard. I had trouble sleeping with the new sensations of my knees, ankles and toes rubbing together aching for their familiar cushion and I felt horribly uncomfortable if anything including clothes touched my newly discovered clavicles. I cried at random and inconvenient intervals. I stayed at this low weight for a VERY short time and hovered comfortably at 200 for many many years.
I was never prepared for and have never heard ppl taking about how to just be and reside in a body, newly formed and considerably smaller. How do we really listen and hear and feel in a body with new sensations and dimensions? How do we become like the normies I call them, those people who never ever gain weight while we constantly were ballooning up and dieting down the scale?
What were/are we to do with our one life outside of food? I know I have the tendency to want the newer, sexier, more interesting route to any destination, like success with even WLS can't just be about plain old (following the prescribed) diet and exercise, can it? I'm still wondering if the surgery is just the newest thing for me. I switched my surgical consideration from sleeve to bypass for this very reason. Because if I'm going to do it, I need to go old school. With me it had to be vegan, raw, paleo and Crossfit. Zero to sixty. Never just walking, always training for the half.
What happens when the proverbial dust settles and it's not about the food anymore and the weight is lost? When the life I thought weight loss or this surgery would fix is still going forward unchanged? Sitting in this empty space with myself without support and resources or a clue is what made maintenance so elusive and probably so for most people who've lost massive amounts of weight with or without surgery and gained it back. Will having had a glimpse of being thin for a while make me a better bariatric patient, more compliant? Perhaps, or maybe not but at this stage in the game I can't take anything for granted but these are the questions that are clearer in hindsight and that I need to formulate a plan for now on this side of surgery.

Hello fellow sleevers
I was sleeved October 1st so today is postop day 6 for me. My surgery went really well and I was not required to have a drain. My biggest issue postop was nausea, that was the worst. I was discharged the next morning in the am. Since then I have been doing fairly good. I have been totally off all pain meds since Saturday. I've been feeling a lil bloated the last few days, which make it a lil more difficult to get my fluids in, but with the help of gasx I'm doing ok. I had my first postop appt. today and my surgeon said I look more like I'm 3weeks postop and he's very happy with my progress. I feel very blessed that thus far I've been managing well and I thank god and my friends and family for all the many prayers and support.
I'm posting my early progress because I found that it was hard to find many people posting early progress reports, and this was an area that I was very interested in.
Please post so pre op sleevers can see what to expect from all stages.
Lateese92

Yay congrats! I know I really felt accomplished when I hit that #!

Wow, that is awesome. Just imagine where you'll be in five more months.

I'm 193 started in May @267yeah!!!!

So I've been creeping on this website since around May, just reading posts and comments. But now, that I've gotten approved, I decided it was time for me to share my journey!
Ok, so I'm only 19, from the New Orleans area, and my surgeon is none other than Dr. Lavin.
I started this journey in June. I have aetna so I had to go through the 3 month supervised visits with the NP & NUT. Let me just say, Dr. Lavin's staff is AMAZING! Makes you feel completely comfortable.
Anyways, I was worried I wasn't going to get approved because in August, I gained 2.4 pounds and aetna usually denies you if you have a gain. But on my last checkup I had lost 6 pounds, so that was good.
I ended up calling aetna about two weeks after all my info was sent in and they told me they had just approved me that morning...yay!
I went back in to have my consultation with Dr. Lavin and got all my paperwork to bring with me to the private hospital where I'm having the surgery done.
My surgery is scheduled for Nov. 14th! So excited! Going renew my gym membership next week also.
I'm so determined and ready for this change!
I currently weight 235 and my goal weight is 130-140, so I can have a healthy BMI.

If I may be so bold....have you pooped lately? Last week, I was up 5lbs, then the next morning after a serious BM, I was down 7. I also have issues with Water retention since I'm not drinking enough (it hurts!) and my ankles are always swollen. Today is my 1 month surgeversary!

I was sleeved on 9/23. It was done at a outpatient surgery center I went in at 7am and was home and in my bed by 4pm same day. The day I went in i was 307 and today i'm weighing in at 275. All my clothes are falling off and everyone is noticing my weight loss and i'm loving it. Day 1 at home post surgery i pretty much ate pain pills and did ice chips and slept. I felt like crap. The next day i felt a little better, was able to sip on fluids but again mostly slept. Every day got a little better for me. I was not coming close at all to my recommended Fluid and Protein. Went to Dr. for week 1 post op and got the go ahead to blend any Soup i wanted. Which was nice from broth and Popsicles. I got a good protein that is easy for me to get down and i was doing much better getting fluid and protein. Friday 10/10 i went to nutritionist that the surgeon works with and got my eating plan. I do breakfast, 1/2 shake snack, lunch, 1/2 shake snack then dinner. My surgeon has a great program with the nutritionist she gives recipes and meal plans shopping lists and lots of great resources. It really helps to have this added support. I am doing really well, I bought a treadmill to use and I am going to try to start doing a little yoga for now. I'm happy with my loss thus far and am VERY happy I did the sleeve. It truly amazes me just how little I eat and it feels like I just had a Thanksgiving day feast!

@Danie1114. You just made my day. Will check in with you as the days go by. We will get through this. Thank God for this blog!!!

We are so close to identical! I was sleeved 9/24. Starting weight was 252.6, got down to 241.8 with pre op diet, and weighed in this morning at 230.4. I had a straight week without losing an ounce! I feel you! But just remember it's a process. We'll get there! It may seem like nothing so far, but just remember...you will NEVER be in the 250's, 240's, or 230's again. That's saying a lot and a huge accomplishment.

Sleeved on 9-23 I have been on soft foods for a week now after my two week post-op appointment. I threw up for the first 3 days after going to soft foods I believe it was because I ate to fast. So far I loss 20lbs. I find myself dreading to eat sometimes due to what may happen. I'm hanging in there and trying to eat slow.

Thank you for the good positive story! I love the journey & success you have shared!

Thank you for the good positive story! I love the journey & success you have shared!

Thank you for the good positive story! I love the journey & success you have shared!

It occurred to me that not many people who have no problems really tell their story and that people doing their research may need to hear some success stories. I am a lurker, I read some of the posts on some of the threads some of the time!
In May 2013 I weighed my heaviest ever at 234lbs. I have spent my life and a small fortune going to various diet groups, mainly weight watchers, but also others that provide food etc. I have also done every diet imaginable. I cannot remember ever feeling thin, I remember my first "diet" at about 7 years of age. My parents were fat and are both now dead from Type 2 diabetes related illnesses, I could see the writing on the wall.
In June 2013 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I had terrible pain in my knees from arthritis and decided I had to do something drastic. I had never heard of Grehlin, or leptin or gut biomes. So I started some serious research into weight loss surgery and so did my GP (PCP). He found me a surgeon and on August 7th 2013 I had my Sleeve surgery.
In the first 12 months after surgery I travelled to Houston for 2 weeks, to New Zealand for a week to the UK for Christmas, to Sydney (Australia) for a long weekend, to India, Israel and Jordan, and then back to the UK for 5 weeks to visit my grandchildren. While in India I turned 60 and on that day I weighed 60.6 Kg (133.8lbs) I don't usually travel this much it just happened to be the year.
Despite all of the travelling and having to find the right food to eat I managed to just continually lose the weight, no stalls, no complications just round about a kilogram each week.
Of course I lost some hair, I expected to. However because I had done a lot of research I was not overly concerned and It is all growing back quite well.
Some of the things I did along the way are:- I tracked every meal every day on MFP. I walked every day, not a lot, just enough to make me feel good and exercise my dog. I only weighed myself once each week. I tried my best to get the right amount of Protein and Fluid in but it was really about 9 months before I could actually manage to do this. I was, and still am religious about not eating and drinking at the same time, or drinking my nutrients, the only nutrients I drink is my once a day skinny Cappuccino which is my morning snack and gives me 7gm of Protein. I stopped the Protein shakes at about 6 weeks post op mainly because they are carb loaded and they don't meet my no drinking nutrients guide lines. I took, and still take, Vitamin 'gummies' on most days. My blood levels have been great and I am sure this helps.
Now I am 14months post op I have weighed between 54 and 55kg (120-123lbs) for the last couple of months. I now no longer track on MFP because I pretty much eat the same or similar things each day. I still walk and have even been known to make a mad dash across a park to catch the dog! I have added some low GI things to stop myself from continuing to lose, mainly nuts and also things like 'low fat' instead of 'no fat' yoghurt and the occasional piece of 'fat' cheese, and I mean occasional, not daily or even weekly. I get about 60 - 70gms of protein each day and the rest of my diet is low GI, I eat fruit and small amounts of veggies and some bread and sweet potato, really a normal diet. I don't add or have any sugar apart form those that occur naturally in fruit and veggies. I can eat about 3/4 cup of food in one meal if it has dense protein and about a cup if not.
My butt must have been HUUUUUGE because I now have so much skin that when I sit, I sit on layers and folds of skin and it is very uncomfortable. So on November 17th I am having a butt lift and blephoroplasty (eyelid lift).
This is the best thing I have ever done in my life. I have a wonderful and supportive husband and family. I tell people if they ask sometimes and sometimes I don't. I don't really care what they think, part of the freedom of being 60!
There have been a lot of people on this forum along the way who have come and gone who helped without even knowing and I sincerely thank them. I have never been this skinny in my life and I love it!

On a technical level I wish I had taken my measurements. I took a progress picture every month, which was great, and I have my weight records of course, but my only regret is that I didn't also track my inches lost. That can help when the scale isn't moving!
On an emotional level, I wish I had done some of the hard emotional work ahead of time dealing with emotional eating etc. Or at the very least I wish I would have read "When food is Love" which has been really important for me ....
Good luck!!