BigViffer

If this guy eventually becomes "the one", he is going to need to know about your surgery for no other reason that to be safe in a medical emergency. Certain medications & intubations must be handled differently for us. My surgeon gave me a card for the restaurant and for hospitals.

You can't hide your past forever, and honestly why would you want to? You are the sum of all of your experiences. Good or bad. You wouldn't recognize the bad again if it had never happened the first time. And with the bad, you can recognize what is good.

If you truly love him, you can be honest with him. And if he truly loves you, he won't care. As a man, if I found a woman had this big secret about weight loss surgery that she was worried about telling me, I would be, "meh". It's not important to me who a woman was, it's who she is now and who she will be that I am interested.

Now if you were a thieving drug user that did time in the clink sometime in the past, that is something I would be concerned about!

I'm betting that when you were younger you heard the phrase, "As long as you live under my roof, you will treat me with respect!"

I'd let them hear that. Being family does not give one carte blanche to treat another family member any way they want without repercussions. Lowered stress is very important to the healing process, especially if you were a stress eater before.

A few things to remember. Are you having bowel movements? My first stall had me concerned and I asked my doctor about it. He told me you can't lose the weight if you don't "evacuate" waste. That's when I started making apricot, fig, and prune Protein smoothies. Lo and behold a week later I was down another 10 lbs. Also, you absolutely must have as much Fluid as you can get. I think I read somewhere it takes 8 lbs of Water to flush out 1 lbs of fat.

Before I was sleeved, I would take Aleve or some form of Ibuprofen for some relief. Post-op, these are a no-no per my surgeon's orders.

I can't help with advice for menstrual cramps, but as a serious arthritis sufferer I have been on NSAID's (Diclofenac) for years. I literally could not move without it. And when I say literally, I mean literally. Some people say that and mean figuratively, I do not. Since the surgery and losing weight, I have been able to cut my frequency in half. But I am still taking it everyday. I just have to take sucralfate like was mentioned above.

Talk to your doctor about diclofenac. I swear it is the greatest NSAID on the market. Or at least for me. Some people can handle Meloxicam better as far as heartburn, but both work as well for inflammation.

I just had the Hot & Sour Soup broth again the other day. I am about 3.5 months out and I still like them. I did not like the Italian one at all though. The only bad thing about the broths is the sodium content. 800mg for 1 cup!

For the hot & sour, you can crack an egg and drizzle it in so make it a little close to restaurant Soup. You can also add some Protein powder to it to help thicken it instead of cornstarch.

If you don't already have one, get a blood pressure cuff. They are available that run off D batteries and last months no problem. When I feel dizzy, I check my BP and it is always low. 90/50 range. So then I know to up my Fluid intake. It's really strange, I was thirsty all the damn time before surgery, and now I can barely get 50 oz of Water a day.

I had high BP before surgery, so even if I got down to normal BP I felt "off". Low BP makes me nap all the damn time too.

I planned my "last meal" very carefully. It was my favorite Sunday morning meal that my wife would make for me. Fresh baked biscuits topped with a sunny side up egg and covered with hot sausage gravy. Good lord that is a delicious breakfast! I loved this meal so much, my wife would make it for my birthday and put a candle in it, lol.

That being said, I bet I would puke if I had a bite of that today. Just way too much fat and grease. But I have years of memories that I can still savor!

I had a really hard time with pre-made Protein shakes in the beginning. (Muscle milk and etc...) So I thought that unflavored powder would be the way to go. I can't remember the name of the one I got, but it was only usable to me in heavily flavored Soups like curry lentil & tomoato. Anything else I put it in made me want to gag.

I recommend UMP vanilla & JavaPRO Protein powders. They go great with fat free milk, yogurt, almond milk, and even Water. After you acclimate to those you can branch out. I still stick to the vanilla for the most part though.

The only time I spoke I was jumped for making one bad joke about wanting the 85% of my stomach to make Haggis.

lol, that is fricken hilarious! I wish I would have thought of that in the hospital, my wife would have chuckled.

I think that is a good example of the difference between men and women. Self-deprecating humor like that always seems to piss off the sensitive types. Some men are that way, but is it far more prevalent among women. Think about it: you have three guys who are friends in a group. One bald, one fat, and one missing a front tooth. They will call each other awful names like Shiner, Hoss, and Snaggletooth. If they were women, they would wait until one went to the bathroom and call her bitch, skank, or tramp.

My wife can't stand being around too many women for long. I told her I just don't understand it. She told me to stop trying. The only people that can understand women, are women. And they hate each other!

As for the support group thing; I just don't know. I have always been the "loner" type. Never ask for help nor confide my feelings with anyone except for my better half. The idea of sharing how I feel with a bunch of people I don't know just goes against my nature. There are sometime when I would like to ask a question of someone who has gone through the same thing, but then I remember that I don't know the context or the perspective of that person. So it is pretty much pointless.

This reminds me, I should post something in the thread someone started about getting angry easily after the surgery...

Once I finally reach my target weight, I would love to try riding a small bike again. as much as I love my bike, I do miss the ability to toss a 250 around like a bicycle!

Just to chime in, are you on any blood pressure meds? I was on Lisinopril and kept taking it after surgery. Started checking my BP and it was incredibly low. I asked my normal doctor about it and he said just stop taking it. Energy levels came up quickly after that. But you still need to drink lots of Water.< /p>

Not really active on this forum, but I just found this section and I love talking motorcycles! Here is my baby:

2010 Honda VFR1200. It's a 1200cc V4 torque monster that is fun in the curves and smooth on the highway. I've got the hard luggage for touring and I am hoping that my stamina will have improved after being sleeved.