Sleevefornellie

Hello everyone I just wanted to share a before and after picture. I had my surgery on January 26 so I am four months out. I still have a long way to go but I'm getting there.
Four months out

I answered you privately but will put it here for anyone else who may want to know:
If I had it to do again, I would pick someone else. The doctor was very nice, if a bit awkward. The office was TERRIBLE. I never got called back, found making appointments VERY difficult and the staff was as uncaring as could be. I needed to be pro-active with all my paperwork because there was no one to advise me what next step to take Yes, at the orientation talk (Dr. Sherwinter does NOT attend) they give you a packet with what you need, But that's it. It's all on you to figure out in what order to do things, where to go based on your insurance and to follow up that Dr. Sherwinter's staff gets the report. Even within the same hospital I had trouble getting my cardiology clearance over to Dr. Sherwinter. And again, no help from the staff. When my insurance declined me they just said, oh well. I was the one that found out why (a poor blood test reading) and I was the one that RAN to repeat the blood work and then it was approved. So you think you are ready for surgery? OH NO then you go on Dr. Sherwinter's waitlist to find a spot on his schedule to actually do the surgery (another 6 weeks for me).

I did try mid process to switch doctors but found converting all the reports to a new doctor was going to take just as long as enduring Dr. Sherwinter's staff so that's why I stuck it out. I kept thinking of the end result, not the process. My surgery was uneventful, thank goodness so for that reason I would say he is a "good" doctor. But at my first post op visit he said, see Ilona or Julie for another appointment in a month. They were both at their desk when I left the examining room and wouldn't make the appointment, They said, "call tomorrow" Typical of the office... why call tomorrow you and I are standing face to face and I even said, why should I call you when you won't return the call and they laughed!

The Hospital staff was fabulous. The nurses, aides and even the guy who took me for the swallow test the 1st day post op were all lovely, caring and compassionate people.

Whatever you decide, I wish you much luck and happiness. Feel free to ask me anything specific you may want to know.

The lower BMI probably won't have too much effect on your recovery, but it reduces your risk of complications.
As for weight loss, you probably won't be losing 20 pounds in a week like some of the higher BMI patients, but you can and will lose a lot of weight still. Probably not as fast as you would LIKE, but you will lose it eventually and that's what really matters. This isn't a race. Your sleeve is forever, so if it takes you 6 months or 16 months to reach your goal, it won't matter 10 years from now when you are maintaining your healthier weight.
Sleeve typically does help with diabetes and weight loss helps with blood pressure. In fact, I'm struggling with LOW blood pressure now!

Hello all!!!
My name is Thomas, or Tom or Tommy! I am 34 year young and currently live in North NJ (Bergen County). I am married for just over 5 years. I have been obese my entire life, and late last year I decided I wanted to take the steps to a better life and a healthier life. I am going to be having the gastric sleeve procedure done, on July 22nd (just found out my date this morning). I am extremely excited!! I have done WW in the past, other diet fads, nothing really worked or stuck. My first time I did WW as an adult was about 8 years ago and the reason I started was prerequisite for gastric bypass surgery (had a date, but did not have the surgery). I never had the surgery because I was doing so well on WW, I lost almost 100lbs in less than a calendar year, and then life happened and food was there and I gained it all back and then some!! SO NO MORE!!!! I know food will always be there, and life will too, but this will help me to deter myself from food!!! Plus, I am hoping it gives me more energy and motivation to get to the gym!!! My goal weight is 200lbs, but as long as I can get to 220, I will be happy!!!
Thank you all for taking the time to read part of my story (have to leave some mystery behind me), and I look forward to connecting with as many people as I can! Cause I have tons of questions!!!
Tom

Except for the gas I'm feeling really good, but taking an hour to consume 4 oz is driving me crazy.

Hello everyone my name is Nellie...I reside in brooklyn New York and I'm scheduled for gastric sleeve on June 22 with Dr. Danny Sherwinter at memonides hospital in brooklyn. Just waiting for insurance approval...Good luck everyone!!!!!

A long time ago I lost a good amount of weight and my so call aka friend was the one telling me to do this and do that eat this and eat that and when I finally followed her advise and started making better choices and lost weight i lost her as friend...all the love and support I thought I had was all gone!!! The jealousy is real!!!!

I can't believe it. I started my liquid diet today. Got a call around lunch time that my surgery was bumped up 2 days to the 17th. Was supposed to be the 19th. Now I'm 2 days more nervous!!

Try to relax a little about all these intense and scary thoughts and feelings you are having. Really, they ARE normal for some people and nothing to feel odd about. But right now, please consider that your thoughts are lying to you. You have several stages of new eating to go through while your stomach heals and your body and brain adjust. Stuff you have never come close to experiencing in your entire life. But does that mean you are doomed for life???? NO!! You must have patience and follow your program. Remember you DID just have MAJOR SURGERY. You can CHOOSE to feel sorry for yourself for awhile. And that is ok if that is what you absolutely need to do. (Ask yourself though--is it REALLY?) But please remember that you have to be good to yourself to be successful long-term with WLS. YOU made the decision for WLS. Wishing you didn't is very unproductive thinking and takes away from your precious energy that you soooo need to build that POSITIVE ENERGY and POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND SELF-TALK to view your decision as a FUN ADVENTURE, full of possibilities instead of a lifetime of regret. You have a lot of work to do down the road in learning your new lifestyle and eating habits. You knew this was going to be HARD WORK before you signed on the dotted line. I respectfully must disagree with you--if you could have done it "on your own" you would have done it a long time ago.
I had my surgery one day earlier than you four years ago on 4/26/11. You are probably not ready to hear, must less believe this right now, but my lifestyle and eating is totally normal. I don't think of myself as a freak compared to other "normal" people who haven't had WLS. I eat 3 meals a day and 2 healthy Snacks. The quantity of my meals is very close to what I ate before surgery. Breakfast is often a 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup fresh fruit, 1/4 cup All-bran, made into a pretty parfait! Most sleevers by one year can eat an average of 1 to 1-1/2 cups of food per meal. For dinner that would equal about 4-6 oz of some kind of meat Protein, and 2 servings of veggies and/or complex carb. I dine out with friends (although I choose to keep restraunt eating to a minimum because I like to eat the most nutritious meals that I can and those are the ones we prepare at home).
You will learn to not "hate what you did to yourself" because who wants to live their life feeling that emotion? We want to LOVE life. You are way too young to regret ANY decisions you make. You honor yourself, trust yourself, and live in the present, not yesterday. We cannot change yesterday no matter how hard we try and cry!!!
I wish you peace...

Yep, you are in full blown denial, sorry but thats one of the first stages, just like the stage of grief your in those grieving over food, and trust me you overate, anyone e who says they didnt overeat they just ate bad things is unable to look at themselves as the cause for their weight problems. You overate, plain and simple accept it, its not some mark against you that people can hold over your head, its just something that you put behind you and learn to be better. If you cant accept yourself as an obese person, and know that only you can make this happen, then you wont get anywhere. Trust me, in week two post surgery i said to my wife that i wish i could undo this. Now id would like t go back and slap myself. Why did i say it? because i wanted to go back to eating my old foods, I wanted to give up. But that is why this works, because you cant give up. You have to see it through. When you get where your going, its a wonderful place to be and im only most of the way there and my life is amazing compared to what it was and I thought it was good before.
Lets see you said "Unfortunately, I now realize that I could have did this on my own. I'm working out everyday, which I wasn't doing before the surgery. Since they recommended I workout daily and eat a high Protein diet, I'm doing it. It's not that I "couldn't" before.
So are you really saying you had no idea that diet and exercise would help you lose weight and only learned that because they told you now? Really?
Here's a hint. diet and exercise help you lose the weight , but keeping it off is up to you! That's how this helps, it forces you to train yourself to eat right.
Remember the start of the journey is always the hardest.

You need some psychological healthcare. Simply sounds to me like you weren't ready for this and jumped into it way too fast. Too many people don't really think about the consequences of what this surgery means. See a counselor or psychiatrist. You have made some HUGE misstatements. You say you can never eat a healthy portion? and you've done so well, knowing what a healthy portion is, in the past? Healthy is a lot smaller than you think it is, otherwise you would not have been obese to begin with. This surgery takes the fun out of food, with good reason.
food is what you live ON , not what you live FOR.
This may sound like I am uncaring but I care a lot more than many might think. This surgery saved my life, no even more than that, it has given me a life to spend with my wife and friends.
A whole new world has opened before me, and it can for you too.
That life does not include being addicted to, and to run my life around, food.
Think about it, and go talk to someone.

I can relate to your feelings. I have not had the surgery yet, but recently approved. I do question myself all of the time if this is the right thing. I know that if I could just eat less on my own and follow the same diet plan as the one post-op I could lose weight. So why am I going to have the surgery. I have beat myself up over it. But I have finally come to the conclusion that if it was that easy to do on my own without the tool of the surgery I would have done it a long time ago. I am fearful of many of your same concerns, but I know that I have to do it. I have tried many times before and been successful for short periods of time, but not sustained any lasting weight loss. My prayer is that the surgery will be a tool to help me get the weight off quicker, but not too quickly and that I will learn some lasting new healthy eating behaviors to keep it off the rest of my life. I have so much I want to do, but my weight holds me back. Just think of all of the things losing weight will allow you to do that you could not do before. Stay positive. I know it will be worth it for you and for me and for all of us who are going down this path.

thanks everyone. its crazy...its ok to be friend just as long as i dont lose too much or look too good huh.ig not a,friend to begin with

I got on the scale this morning and was so happy!! I am down 100lbs!! I had hoped to hit 100lbs lost by my 6 month check up which was April 27th, but even though I didn't meet the goal I set for myself I am still very happy with how far I have come!!
I have 39lbs to go to get to my first goal of 175lbs. I am hoping to do this by my 1 year surgiversary!!
Tomorrow I am having surgery to remove my ventral hernia, this is one of the reasons I had the sleeve surgery to begin with. I am excited and nervous. I'm hoping my recovery from this goes as well as my recovery from my sleeve surgery. My bariatric surgeon is doing the surgery for me.
Thanks to everyone on this site, your posts and words of encouragement has really helped me stay motivated and know I can succeed.
I am finally able to wear my 100lb lost shoes I bought to reward myself. They are a really cute pair of wedges from Clarks, they were $107, but they are so cute and comfy. I normally wouldn't spend that much on shoes but for this I thought it was okay. I actually bought them a few months ago and my husband and daughter have been holding them hostage will I hit 100lbs. So today we are heading out to lunch/dinner and I am wearing them!!

do you guys think some people want you to stay fat? i mean some people are treating me as if i am not supposed to be happy. i say nothing now about certain victories. .i cheer to myself.

After waiting patiently and nervously for 3 1/2 long weeks, I received a call today from my surgeon's secretary telling me that I've been approved for the Gastric Sleeve surgery yaaaaay!!!!! I'm so excited and nervous at the same!!!! My surgery is scheduled for June 24th!!! Please save a seat for me on the loser's bench!!!!!

It worked for me because it drastically limits the amount of food I can eat. Because I eat so little, it needs to be of highest quality nutrition. Eating Protein first fills up your sleeve "real estate' to where there is very little room for veggies, so your best option are the non-starchy ones because they are lower in calories and carbs.
While you are waiting to decide, here are the basics of many of our plans that you can get familiar with:
1. Eat mostly Protein, and plenty of it. (gravy does not count as protein)
2. Eat more non-starchy veggies than you used to - the greener, the better.
3. Eat less fruit than you are used to. (apples, not apple pie)
4. Try not to eat starchy and sugary foods. They make you hungry for more starchy & sugary foods. (bread, Pasta, rice, pastries, (usually white in color)
5. As much as possible, avoid foods made in a factory.
6. Drink Water until your eyeballs float.
7. Don't become part of the sofa. (You have no doubt heard of he saying "Dance like nobody's watching".......so at least do that. I crank up the music while I am doing housework - it helps)
One thing I noticed on the pre-op diet was that the best way to reduce salt intake was to not eat the foods that I had a tendancy to put salt on (partucularly potatoes and noodles)
I wish you the best. Delay is not denial.

Most people take several weeks to recover from major surgery. It's normal to feel tired, even exhausted. To make things worse, you ARE losing weight -- and when your fat cells dump out the fat, they dump out the hormones that are stored in fat cells. All these hormones floating around in your blood can make you moody and sad, too. So give yourself permission to not feel so great. Treat yourself well. Rest, walk when you can, work hard on getting your Protein and fluids in, and gradually you will start feeling better.
As far as losing weight goes, stay off the scale at the outset. Surgery and the restricted diet, even things like Constipation and hormone fluctuation can make your body do wacky things! Trust that underneath it all, you are losing, but it takes most people a long time to be able to see it in ourselves. And you didn't get big overnight, you won't get small overnight either. Hang in there -- it seems slow at first but eventually it will get to a point where it feels like you can't buy smaller clothes fast enough. But that is usually some months out. Trust, follow your program, relax and don't stress -- it will be okay

i had surgery 05/19. i got weighed at doc and my weight was 518 day of surgery....i now weigh 498. i lost 20lbs....do you guys think im doing good. is more lost in 2 weeks normal.idk...im excited but i feel like i lost more....idk...

Funny you asked this. I didn't have my kids come see me because surgery was an hour away. I'm glad I didn't. After getting home last night my daughter was flittering about trying to help. I was so nauseous with any movement around me and felt horrible for asking her to go in the other room. My youngest one is at Grandma's. I was so excited to see her tonight but she wants to stay there another night. Blessed to have help, but miss my pumpkin!

Incredibly super amazing results!!!!!

Praying for a speedy recovery!!!! Good luck!!!!

Yaaaaay I'm super duper excited for you!!!!! Wishing you all the best tomorrow and a safe and speedy recovery!!!!!

Yaaaaay I'm super duper excited for you!!!!! Wishing you all the best tomorrow and a safe and speedy recovery!!!!!