nikki1980

Hi ladies i am not going to say the sleeve surgery is the answer to eradicate hair as 3 years prior to my surgery i have been having nd yag laser hair removal on my face neck chest and arms. I have it done every 3 months and it was expensive but no more razors my hair is no longer thick and unruly its like baby hair can barely see it. However since the surgery i have noticed the one area which was problematic and i didn't get laser hair removal was my back. The hair is not as thick and that too has slowed down in growth and thickness. I had started shaving at the age of 12 & would steal razor blades from my brother as I couldnt afford to buy them. Then i started wearing make up at the same age just to cover the stubble. I lost friends at school because they saw me as a freak and getting ready to go to school or work over the next 15-20 years would start 3 hours earlier plucking hairs from my chin, shaving and them concealing and then not having any eye contact with anybody in case they looked at mu face too long. Man i dont know how i got through it when i look back now. Pcos is not a disability or a serious illness like cancer but it ruined the first 27 years of my life... I had no help i had to educate myself fix me myself

I have suffered for PCOS for 20 years with absent periods,hair on my face and body. Routinely going to the docter him prescribing me the pill to induce a period, telling me to lose weight and the cycle went on and on. I was 100lbs over weight & he said if i lost just 10% of my weight my periods would begin. Every body had their reasons for the bariatric surgery mine was to have a period... So off i went on my journey on the 26/2/15 and 9 months later i lost 77lbs and then finally after 20 years i had my first period. No pain just very dark urine followed by a period. I was scared to look when I went to the loo was this a fluke and maybe I had imagined it but it was very real. Some women see this every month and I have longed to see this happen to me for over 20 years. At 1 point I thought I had hit early menopause or having children was a pipe dream but now this has given me hope. The sleeve has been a success for me. In the 9 months so many of my goals have been achieved. For anybody overweight suffering from pcos dont give it a second thought - have the surgery it will help you!

I have suffered for PCOS for 20 years with absent periods,hair on my face and body. Routinely going to the docter him prescribing me the pill to induce a period, telling me to lose weight and the cycle went on and on. I was 100lbs over weight & he said if i lost just 10% of my weight my periods would begin. Every body had their reasons for the bariatric surgery mine was to have a period... So off i went on my journey on the 26/2/15 and 9 months later i lost 77lbs and then finally after 20 years i had my first period. No pain just very dark urine followed by a period. I was scared to look when I went to the loo was this a fluke and maybe I had imagined it but it was very real. Some women see this every month and I have longed to see this happen to me for over 20 years. At 1 point I thought I had hit early menopause or having children was a pipe dream but now this has given me hope. The sleeve has been a success for me. In the 9 months so many of my goals have been achieved. For anybody overweight suffering from pcos dont give it a second thought - have the surgery it will help you!

Yay!
PCOS has ruined my quality of life.

Congratulations @@nikki1980! This is just one of the reasons that I am looking to have the WLS. This gives me hope that I too cant beat PCOS and regain some normalcy to my life. I know just how you feel. The same old lose some weight advice and throwing pills at me was the same routine that I have experienced. I am so happy for you because you are free from the grips of it totally ruling over your entire life. @@Pinkgirl1234 keep fighting. You are not alone. You will get past this!

I have suffered for PCOS for 20 years with absent periods,hair on my face and body. Routinely going to the docter him prescribing me the pill to induce a period, telling me to lose weight and the cycle went on and on. I was 100lbs over weight & he said if i lost just 10% of my weight my periods would begin. Every body had their reasons for the bariatric surgery mine was to have a period... So off i went on my journey on the 26/2/15 and 9 months later i lost 77lbs and then finally after 20 years i had my first period. No pain just very dark urine followed by a period. I was scared to look when I went to the loo was this a fluke and maybe I had imagined it but it was very real. Some women see this every month and I have longed to see this happen to me for over 20 years. At 1 point I thought I had hit early menopause or having children was a pipe dream but now this has given me hope. The sleeve has been a success for me. In the 9 months so many of my goals have been achieved. For anybody overweight suffering from pcos dont give it a second thought - have the surgery it will help you!

I have suffered for PCOS for 20 years with absent periods,hair on my face and body. Routinely going to the docter him prescribing me the pill to induce a period, telling me to lose weight and the cycle went on and on. I was 100lbs over weight & he said if i lost just 10% of my weight my periods would begin. Every body had their reasons for the bariatric surgery mine was to have a period... So off i went on my journey on the 26/2/15 and 9 months later i lost 77lbs and then finally after 20 years i had my first period. No pain just very dark urine followed by a period. I was scared to look when I went to the loo was this a fluke and maybe I had imagined it but it was very real. Some women see this every month and I have longed to see this happen to me for over 20 years. At 1 point I thought I had hit early menopause or having children was a pipe dream but now this has given me hope. The sleeve has been a success for me. In the 9 months so many of my goals have been achieved. For anybody overweight suffering from pcos dont give it a second thought - have the surgery it will help you!

I am a new person! Had surgery 5 months and am down 65lbs and 35lbs away from my goal weight. I am happier, seeing my friends and family more, confidence has increased and i am happy! The best decision i ever made. Every 10lbs i lose i drop down a size. I go to the gym, i have a new relationship with food and i dont want to consume unhealthy food again. Wish i had done this 10 years ago but better late than never!

I am a new person! Had surgery 5 months and am down 65lbs and 35lbs away from my goal weight. I am happier, seeing my friends and family more, confidence has increased and i am happy! The best decision i ever made. Every 10lbs i lose i drop down a size. I go to the gym, i have a new relationship with food and i dont want to consume unhealthy food again. Wish i had done this 10 years ago but better late than never!

I am a new person! Had surgery 5 months and am down 65lbs and 35lbs away from my goal weight. I am happier, seeing my friends and family more, confidence has increased and i am happy! The best decision i ever made. Every 10lbs i lose i drop down a size. I go to the gym, i have a new relationship with food and i dont want to consume unhealthy food again. Wish i had done this 10 years ago but better late than never!

I am a new person! Had surgery 5 months and am down 65lbs and 35lbs away from my goal weight. I am happier, seeing my friends and family more, confidence has increased and i am happy! The best decision i ever made. Every 10lbs i lose i drop down a size. I go to the gym, i have a new relationship with food and i dont want to consume unhealthy food again. Wish i had done this 10 years ago but better late than never!

I donated them to the local charity-based thrift shops. No need for them to end up in a landfill (other than underwear, stuff in really bad condition, etc.). I didn't want them hanging around as an invitation to get that big again. If I re-gain, there is going to be severe financial pain associated with that, and I *want* that as a disincentive.

Gave them away to family members.

I will give them away or take to charity shop. I really can identify with what you are saying, but really when I have the op the only way I want to go is down and stay down! You are doing well and long may it continue for you.

I also donate my too big clothes. It is a very emotional thing to do. I was almost in tears, it stressed me so much. But once I was done, it felt very liberating! I can look into my mostly empty closet and know that the clothes inside all fit me now and someone else is benefiting from my success (or from my loss!)

Totally normal. Your body is healing. It's exhausted physically, and emotionally you are going through a boat load of changes very quickly.
Your hormones are on a roller coaster right now. If what I've read is true, there is a high correlation between fat storage and estrogen. As your body breaks down fat, your hormone levels are all whacked to hell and your reactions to everyday happenings are processed differently.

Apologize to your family. Start remembering to breathe before you react. Think before you answer. Give yourself a break and your family a hug. It will all be OK...

Yes. I was quite angry for a good while post op. It set in at about 2 months out and went on for several months until my kids came in one day and asked me why I was mad all the time. It took me a few days to figure out why I was mad and several more weeks to decide that it had to stop.
It's so hard to adjust after surgery of this kind. But you can do it! After a while I was ok again and living pretty happily. You'll work through it and carry on - I promise. Now that you've recognized the problem you can begin to correct it.
You are doing a great job - smile:)

Pre-op: 347.5 Surgery day: 339.5 Today: 217.8 129.7 lost! Not sure where I want to end up, my RWR is between 150-170. I'm still "obese" according to charts and it pisses me off!

YES!! It happens to me. I have found that I can avoid it if I don't eat anything for about 1-2 hours before I lay down. If I eat then try to sleep, it happens every time. I think it's just reflux. I try to remember to take a Zantac in the evening. That helps too.
It is very annoying sometimes because I work night shift and I sleep better during the day if I go to sleep with something in my stomach. Now I have to have my stomach totally empty so it wont happen. so sometimes during my sleep I will wake up hungry and have to make the choice food or sleep.

Thought I'd share our progress. My sister, my sister in law and I all had surgery. First pic is day before surgery (May 9) and second pic was taken yesterday. We're extremely happy so far. We all loss between 56-63#.

i think it goes both ways. people treat you differently, but as we lose weight we become more confident and more approchable, outgoing, etc. so i think we invite more attention than just being the wallflower.

I always eat something first and then I take my Multivitamin, Biotin, b-12, super b complex, Iron & folic acid in the morning. I take my Calcium separate later in the day.

Say it with me now, folks: plateaus are a normal part of the process. Getting stuck is a normal part of the process.
I know... we don't want to hear that. I didn't want to hear that. I still hover anxiously near the scale sometimes, worried about every bleep and bloop on the number.
But the fact is that the typical weight loss of a sleever goes something like this:
A HUGE, exhilarating loss at first... it's almost effortless. You fart and the pounds come off. You eat good and the pounds come off. You eat BAD (which, you know, for a sleever in the early days means something like "well, last month I ate a cookie...") and the pounds come off.
The problem with this early phase is that it completely destroys our sense of what a "normal" weight loss and maintenance profile feels like. This early phase where the weight just drops off is not normal. It's great, but it's not normal.
Once you start getting down to what your body thinks its weight "should be" (it's actually a great deal more complicated than this; your body doesn't really have any idea what you "should" weigh, it's just that feedback mechanisms start to come into play and exert more force than the downward push from the sleeve) the loss will become slower and slower. And it isn't just a "steady" slowness; it's not like your body will go from 5 pounds a week to 3 pounds a week to a pound a week in a smooth progression. In fact, at times you'll plateau for days or weeks or even months (near the bottom end of the curve) at a time. At times your weight will even go up slightly (slightly: a prolonged and significant gain is usually a sign that something is wrong, whereas a 5-10 pound gain is typically a Water weight gain or a normal plateau fluctuation).
You can break through the plateau -- assuming that you're not already at the low end of body fat -- but it doesn't always happen when you expect it to happen -- sometimes you get stuck and then you cut your calories and up your exercise and nothing changes (or you even gain a little) for days at a time, and then when you give up, suddenly your body starts shedding weight again.
And finally when you start getting down near or below the low end of normal body fat (for most of us, it seems like this is around 20% body fat; fat location along with factors such as age and genetics seems to determine your "realistic minimum body fat"), shedding every ounce is a lot of frigging hard work, every day, forever. Most of us have a hard time keeping up that level of dedication (else we wouldn't have been obese to begin with), so most people seem to stick around 25%-ish bodyfat, which is still technically overweight (and of course, those of us who are very self-critical will harass ourselves mercilessly over that fact) but is, in fact, much healthier than the 40%, 50%, or even 60% body fat that some of us started with. Indeed, it's healthier, on average, than most modern Americans!
The real problem is that early phase, where weight loss was effortless and we could do no wrong. It's sad to say, but important to remember, that that is not the norm. The sleeve continues to be a tool, and as long as you don't abuse it too bad, you can be pretty confident that you won't spiral back into that morbidly obese category. But it's not zero work, it's not effortless. You have to start really working it after a point, and the lower your body fat gets (remember: measure body fat, NOT weight -- weight can fluctuate by as much as 4 or 5 pounds *in a single day* due to Water weight changes) the more you're going to hit plateaus, of longer and longer duration, and maybe even see some backtracking. The great thing about the sleeve is that even if you gain a few pounds, unlike before you can be pretty confident that you can get rid of them pretty quickly with a little self-discipline.
Sorry for the long post, but it seems like a lot of people have sort of unrealistic expectations about life with the sleeve, and then whenever they see a blip on the scale they freak out and assume all is lost. It's not lost when you plateau or rebound a few pounds. It's completely normal.

It might be Water retention. It is totally normal for weight to fluctuate some, which is why is not always the best idea to weigh daily. I do it myself, but I only record my weight once a week. I would doubt that it is actual fat gain since you are most likely consuming under 800 calories/day at this stage.... don't drive yourself crazy with the scales! You might increase your Water and see if will help flush out any retention.

Not to ask for TMI but you may be experiencing some Constipation. Our bodies can hold like 8 lbs of waste and if you just started eating solid foods, that could be the reason. Keep up your Fluid intake and things will move along including the needle on the scale.

Oh, also search around this site for the "dreaded 3 week stall". That should at least alleviate any fears you have about this because it's perfectly normal and almost everyone goes through it.