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My surgeon normally keeps patients in hospital for one day but made me stay for two because of my dodgy heart. He also recommends three weeks off work, which I took because I had plenty of sick leave owing and also masses of holiday time. I probably could have gone back to work after two weeks but it was good to have that extra week to get myself into a good routine.

"Bone broth" is just stock in my house ... when I make stock, I cook it for much longer than 3-4 hours: I make it the way my grandmother did, and the way she taught my dad (my mother was a terrible cook). The bones are roasted, then chucked in to brew for at least 24 hours with carrot, onion, maybe some celery, and herbs. My grandmother and father always did theirs on the coal range, so the big old stock pot would just sit at the back of the cook top, simmering away. Sometimes for a couple of days!

Aside from the usual watching television and surfing the web, I knit, paint (not great at it and don't do it often these days but I do find it incredibly relaxing), walking, watching some sport (mainly rugby union and some motorsport), cooking, and reading. I do a LOT of reading! (usually a book a week)

If you don't like it, then don't eat it. You're a grown adult, the nut works for you, and she should help you find other ways to get your Protein in. There are many vegans and lactose intolerant patients that get along just fine without yogurt. I happen to like Greek yogurt, but if someone was telling my I HAD to eat turnips or liver I would tell them to go pound sand.

My old Crockpot slow cooker finally stopped working about two years ago after nearly 28 years of faithful service! It was my first "grown-up" purchase after moving out of my parent's house at the age of 19. I bought a 3-in-1 to replace it, and I love the thing. The slow cooker has always had a lot of use with me: through winter for making Soups, but year-round also for stews, braises, casseroles etc. I tend to just make it up as I go along, so don't really have any recipes...just chuck in whatever is in the fridge and hope for the best!

My old Crockpot slow cooker finally stopped working about two years ago after nearly 28 years of faithful service! It was my first "grown-up" purchase after moving out of my parent's house at the age of 19. I bought a 3-in-1 to replace it, and I love the thing. The slow cooker has always had a lot of use with me: through winter for making Soups, but year-round also for stews, braises, casseroles etc. I tend to just make it up as I go along, so don't really have any recipes...just chuck in whatever is in the fridge and hope for the best!

My old Crockpot slow cooker finally stopped working about two years ago after nearly 28 years of faithful service! It was my first "grown-up" purchase after moving out of my parent's house at the age of 19. I bought a 3-in-1 to replace it, and I love the thing. The slow cooker has always had a lot of use with me: through winter for making Soups, but year-round also for stews, braises, casseroles etc. I tend to just make it up as I go along, so don't really have any recipes...just chuck in whatever is in the fridge and hope for the best!

Aside from the usual watching television and surfing the web, I knit, paint (not great at it and don't do it often these days but I do find it incredibly relaxing), walking, watching some sport (mainly rugby union and some motorsport), cooking, and reading. I do a LOT of reading! (usually a book a week)

My pre-op diet was a couple of weeks of 3 Protein bars or shakes a day, and a cup of fresh or steamed veg, then a week of just the Protein Shakes. The first week was tough ... was so hungry I was about ready to chew off my own arm! I was worried about how hard the final week of just liquids would be but it was actually pretty easy. I think because I knew I was on the home straight, the time flew by!
Good luck with your surgery ... it'll all be worth it once you're on the other side of things.

I had my surgery at the start of May 2013, so heading in to winter here ... and yes, I froze my butt off. Actually, since my rather ample bum pretty much disappeared as soon as the weight started to drop off, I really did freeze my butt off! Anyway, I was glad it was winter because I was able to wear thermals and layers without anyone looking at me like I was some sort of freak! Even that first winter was quite tough ... I still felt the cold, something I'd never had a problem with before. I guess most of us who are fairly, um, well upholstered, generally feel the heat more than the cold.
My internal thermostat seems to have reset itself now, and by the time the second winter after surgery rolled around, I was all good.

Aside from the usual watching television and surfing the web, I knit, paint (not great at it and don't do it often these days but I do find it incredibly relaxing), walking, watching some sport (mainly rugby union and some motorsport), cooking, and reading. I do a LOT of reading! (usually a book a week)

I had my surgery at the start of May 2013, so heading in to winter here ... and yes, I froze my butt off. Actually, since my rather ample bum pretty much disappeared as soon as the weight started to drop off, I really did freeze my butt off! Anyway, I was glad it was winter because I was able to wear thermals and layers without anyone looking at me like I was some sort of freak! Even that first winter was quite tough ... I still felt the cold, something I'd never had a problem with before. I guess most of us who are fairly, um, well upholstered, generally feel the heat more than the cold.
My internal thermostat seems to have reset itself now, and by the time the second winter after surgery rolled around, I was all good.

I have always has fine hair, but lots of it...but it was already starting to thin out before surgery from me being in heart failure, the diabetes and the medication I was on. A few months post-op and it went in to overdrive, I was moulting! Went and got it cut really short for the first time in more than 25 years and loved it. Now I'm growing it out again and it's just recently started to come right. It'll never be like it was, but it's much better.

I found it was more discomfort than pain ... I just felt a bit achy and bloated. The pain meds worked pretty well, I guess! I had a pain pump and would hit the button on it before I wanted to get up to walk, go to the loo etc ... it kept things well under control. The most important thing is to keep ahead of the pain, so once you're out of hospital make sure you take your meds regularly for at least the first few days to make sure you stop the pain before it starts: it's easier to get up and move around if you're not in pain, and if you're moving around well, you'll heal faster. It's all connected!
I slept in a recliner chair for a week or two after surgery because my bed is very high and I struggled to climb on to it. Plus I tend to sleep on my side and couldn't do that in bed, so the chair worked better for me. After two or three days, I stopped taking pain meds every four hours, but instead took them before settling down to sleep at night, first thing in the morning about 10 minutes before getting up for my shower and first walk of the day, and about a week into things, I started doing a slow wander up the stairs at home each day and would take a dose of pain medication before that, too.
Everyone responds differently to the med, we all have different pain thresholds and things can vary greatly from one day to the next. The most important thing is to keep ahead of the pain, don't be a martyr, and as you're healing aim for short but frequent walks (keep moving but don't overdo it).

Oh, and for pre-ops worried about how bad the pain might be ... I'm an absolute wimp when it comes to pain but wouldn't hesitate to have this surgery again. It's not major pain, it's a little bit sore and uncomfortable, but not anything major. I had a skin tag frozen off the back of my neck last year and that was worse!

I have always has fine hair, but lots of it...but it was already starting to thin out before surgery from me being in heart failure, the diabetes and the medication I was on. A few months post-op and it went in to overdrive, I was moulting! Went and got it cut really short for the first time in more than 25 years and loved it. Now I'm growing it out again and it's just recently started to come right. It'll never be like it was, but it's much better.

So this morning I was looking in my closet trying to figure out what to wear to work when I saw "the dress." I bought "the dress" back in March for my birthday from Old Navy (I bought it online). When it came in, it didn't fit. Not, just barely didn't fit, but like really didn't fit. I had to un-button all the buttons to get it over my head, the elastic band around the middle was stretched out all the way, and then I could only re-button about 2 of the buttons and they weren't attractively buttoned either; don't even get me started on how the sleeves fit. I never returned it, it just sat in a bag at the back of the closet (eventually I hung it up).
Well, this morning, I saw it hanging there, and there weren't any other clothes that I really wanted to wear this morning, and so I thought I would just see how it's fitting, knowing that I had other dresses I could quickly put on when it didn't fit. I undid all the buttons, stretched out the band as far as it would go, pulled it over my head, and began to button. Then I realized that it fit. The waist was cinched. The buttons buttoned. The sleeves were loose. The chest of the dress was loose. I began to tear up. I ran to the mirror to see what it looked liked and it looked great! I couldn't believe it. I know I had the surgery to better my life, but this part is definitely nice too.

It's awful that the people you should have been able to trust for your healthcare were so dismissive, so your rant is fully understandable. Unfortunate, so often doctors see one problem or illness in a patient and every other issue they have is blamed on that ... my mother was a type 1 diabetic and her main doctor was always quick to blame any and every heath problem she had on that, often things that had nothing to do with the diabetes. I guess they get complacent and see us as an illness a lot of the time, rather than as a person.
And of course the other issue with "fat shaming" is that those who indulge in it (whether it's because they are an a**hole or because they think they are helping open our eyes to our problems) aren't telling us something we don't already know. When you're obese, you know you are obese and you know it's not healthy. Obviously. We might be overweight but our brains still work! We don't need some sanctimonious prat telling us how fat we are. I guess the upside is that we can lose weight through surgery ... but there's not a surgeon out there who can fix the ugly nature of the judgmental idiots out there!

There could be any number of reason NOT to have weight-loss surgery ... cost (not everyone has insurance cover), health issues (once I made the decision that I wanted to have the surgery, things were delayed by a year because of another health problem), or even just the fact that they aren't yet ready for the surgery. Personally, I think someone is bettter to wait until they are in the right headspace before going ahead, because it is a big step. Who know why someone hasn't made that step? I waited until I was well into my 40s before I talked to my doctor about it, many people wait longer. It's such an incredibly personal journey (ugh, sorry for using that cliched term "journey"! I hate that phrase but in this case it just seems to fit).

People who smoke know it's bad for them. People who are fat know they are fat. It does NO GOOD to shame, berate, make fun of anyone because nothing will he done about it until THEY are good and ready to do something about it. So people need to keep their damn mouths shut and let people live their already hard enough lives and treat each other with respect and dignity.

There could be any number of reason NOT to have weight-loss surgery ... cost (not everyone has insurance cover), health issues (once I made the decision that I wanted to have the surgery, things were delayed by a year because of another health problem), or even just the fact that they aren't yet ready for the surgery. Personally, I think someone is bettter to wait until they are in the right headspace before going ahead, because it is a big step. Who know why someone hasn't made that step? I waited until I was well into my 40s before I talked to my doctor about it, many people wait longer. It's such an incredibly personal journey (ugh, sorry for using that cliched term "journey"! I hate that phrase but in this case it just seems to fit).

It's awful that the people you should have been able to trust for your healthcare were so dismissive, so your rant is fully understandable. Unfortunate, so often doctors see one problem or illness in a patient and every other issue they have is blamed on that ... my mother was a type 1 diabetic and her main doctor was always quick to blame any and every heath problem she had on that, often things that had nothing to do with the diabetes. I guess they get complacent and see us as an illness a lot of the time, rather than as a person.
And of course the other issue with "fat shaming" is that those who indulge in it (whether it's because they are an a**hole or because they think they are helping open our eyes to our problems) aren't telling us something we don't already know. When you're obese, you know you are obese and you know it's not healthy. Obviously. We might be overweight but our brains still work! We don't need some sanctimonious prat telling us how fat we are. I guess the upside is that we can lose weight through surgery ... but there's not a surgeon out there who can fix the ugly nature of the judgmental idiots out there!

It's awful that the people you should have been able to trust for your healthcare were so dismissive, so your rant is fully understandable. Unfortunate, so often doctors see one problem or illness in a patient and every other issue they have is blamed on that ... my mother was a type 1 diabetic and her main doctor was always quick to blame any and every heath problem she had on that, often things that had nothing to do with the diabetes. I guess they get complacent and see us as an illness a lot of the time, rather than as a person.
And of course the other issue with "fat shaming" is that those who indulge in it (whether it's because they are an a**hole or because they think they are helping open our eyes to our problems) aren't telling us something we don't already know. When you're obese, you know you are obese and you know it's not healthy. Obviously. We might be overweight but our brains still work! We don't need some sanctimonious prat telling us how fat we are. I guess the upside is that we can lose weight through surgery ... but there's not a surgeon out there who can fix the ugly nature of the judgmental idiots out there!

It's awful that the people you should have been able to trust for your healthcare were so dismissive, so your rant is fully understandable. Unfortunate, so often doctors see one problem or illness in a patient and every other issue they have is blamed on that ... my mother was a type 1 diabetic and her main doctor was always quick to blame any and every heath problem she had on that, often things that had nothing to do with the diabetes. I guess they get complacent and see us as an illness a lot of the time, rather than as a person.
And of course the other issue with "fat shaming" is that those who indulge in it (whether it's because they are an a**hole or because they think they are helping open our eyes to our problems) aren't telling us something we don't already know. When you're obese, you know you are obese and you know it's not healthy. Obviously. We might be overweight but our brains still work! We don't need some sanctimonious prat telling us how fat we are. I guess the upside is that we can lose weight through surgery ... but there's not a surgeon out there who can fix the ugly nature of the judgmental idiots out there!

There could be any number of reason NOT to have weight-loss surgery ... cost (not everyone has insurance cover), health issues (once I made the decision that I wanted to have the surgery, things were delayed by a year because of another health problem), or even just the fact that they aren't yet ready for the surgery. Personally, I think someone is bettter to wait until they are in the right headspace before going ahead, because it is a big step. Who know why someone hasn't made that step? I waited until I was well into my 40s before I talked to my doctor about it, many people wait longer. It's such an incredibly personal journey (ugh, sorry for using that cliched term "journey"! I hate that phrase but in this case it just seems to fit).