Cervidae

I'm in Rochester NY as well! Are you having surgery out of Highland? I'm 5 months out and would love to be your friend.

the first summer we were dating, I bought my boyfriend and I these gorgeous handmade silver claddagh rings. His was a size smaller than mine, and I always felt a little ashamed of that, but man, did I love those rings. We're going on four years now and not only do neither of the rings fit me (not even close) but his ring doesn't fit him because he's been eating healthier and losing weight along with me. It's a bittersweet nsv, but now we have a reason to get new ones. Thanks for sharing!

I'm 5 months out and supposed to be aiming for 900 calories and I struggle with these same things. I look forward to reading responses!

20 pounds in your first week is incredible. Try to keep remembering that your body is going through ENORMOUS changes right now. Your hormones are going crazy. Everything is completely off balance because of the rapid change you are going through. It can be hard in the beginning but it gets better and better. I'm about 5 months out and the difficulties I had in the beginning are already a distant memory. It WILL get better, just keep doing what you are supposed to do to the best of your ability and hang on for the wild ride.

the fact that you recognize and are committing to a change for the better is a good sign for you. Best of luck!

it's usually advisable to eat 3-5 small meals a day to keep your metabolism up. It's entirely possible you've plateaued because your metabolism is working slower than it could be. How many calories are you getting in a day? Because one shake and one snack is simply not enough food for you. At 6 months, my bariatric center recommends that patients should be between 900-1100 calories.

does your bariatric center have a support group? Do you have a therapist, and one that understands and knows how to help you?

I have the same scale as @@Dub and I love it! Zero complaints, it's very accurate.

Scary! I was lucky enough not to have any of these complications, but this is a good reminder that things certainly can and do happen. I hope you feel better soon, and it's good that you have someone taking good care of you. Take it easy!

I'm not going to tell you what to do but the rules are there for a reason. This isn't like dieting we previously tried, where if we messed up and cheated, we could just say "whoops" and start again. Eating things that your stomach is not healed for can cause HUGE complications, pain, ripping stitches, even death if your stomach leaks and you go into sepsis and can't get treatment in time. My advice is... toughen up, stick to the plan, and soon this frustration with Protein shakes will be over. It's not worth the danger and the pain, and you've come too far to make a rookie mistake now!

@@Miss Mac I had terrible nausea too, even frequent heaving... Which would have been vomiting if I could have kept any food or liquid down. Fortunately my doctor prescribed me a dissolvable anti-nausea med that helped a lot. Still, I almost wish I had just dealt with my wisdom tooth pain than gone through those painful, nauseating weeks of recovery.

I'm 5 months post op and I had my wisdom tooth out last month. I found out a few hours after the extraction that hydrocodone no longer even TOUCHES the pain. That was an excruciating few hours in the ER. I ended up with oxycodone which did the trick, even though they were both the same strength. Sometimes weirdness happens.

You and I have a very similar history, PCOS and all. I got much heavier than you currently are, but I had similar problems. I had to leave a job at 6 weeks because I was in such excruciating pain. I found out later that I screwed up some veins in my leg because I had too much weight on my frame for 8 hours a day. I'm 24. Feel free to friend me/message me sometime. It sucks right now but it will get better, and you have a good attitude about it which is very important. Hang in there, and take care of yourself.

you look AMAZING, congratulations! I was a similar starting weight and shape. I look forward to getting where you are. Keep being awesome!

I'm six months post op, and while I have no pain, I do have a constant tiredness still that will hopefully resolve sometime in the next month. Your body doesn't mind taking it's sweet time. It gets better from here.

sounds like you're doing really well, and that risk you took is paying off! Congrats.

So sorry about your puppy. I wish I could offer more than my condolences.

lean protein like chicken, turkey, tuna. yogurt and cottage cheese, mozzarella and mild cheddar cheeses. bananas and other soft fruit when I could fit it in. Refried beans and eggs were a favorite, with a sprinkle of cheese. A cheese stick rolled up in a slice of lunch meat was great too, but it was a little too much for me to eat in one meal. Chili (I prefer to make my own but in a pinch a small chili from wendy's would sooth my stomach for some reason). I think I had started protein bars by then too, though I could only eat half at a time and it took a long while. Hope this helps.

different people swear by different things but the reality is, you just have to keep up with your program and your body will decide when it's good and ready to start losing again. It will pass!

Oh, also, a suggestion: either buy or make your own sugar scrub. If it's dry skin, which is what it most likely is, a sugar scrub will feel incredible and it will exfoliate your skin so when you put on lotion after your shower, the skin will feel so much better and more moisturized.

it could be a bunch of things. If you're still taking any of the heavy duty pain killers, those make most people pretty itchy, myself included. You could be a little dehydrated, or your skin could be really dry from the weird temps that most of the US is experiencing. Or it could be that your skin is just itchy because it's retracting a little as you rapidly lose weight, like letting some air out of a full balloon (that's the best analogy I can think of. I certainly relate to it!). I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes so itchy that you're damaging your skin from scratching. Hope everything else is going well! Take care.

Speaking as someone who had parents that NEVER would have worked together, kids are pretty perceptive, more than you may think. If they can tell you're unhappy, I bet they would be a lot more understanding and okay with it if you decided to split than you'd think they would be. It's no one's place but your own to know what is the right thing for you, but if most of your worry and hesitation comes from worrying about being alone then you just have to teach yourself that your worth is NOT decided by other people, and it's NOT decided by who is willing to stay with you even when the relationship is unhappy. You are worthy of the kind of relationship that will make you feel happy and loved and supported. Also I can guarantee you that your kids will be a lot happier if they know you are happier. It was the same with my parents. Whatever happens with you, I hope it's for the best and that you find some comfort and the love that you deserve.

I would highly recommend wipies and chap stick. Those two were life savers for me! That, and a toothbrush... your mouth is going to be very dry and taste very odd.

i print out a simple template and measure once a month on the same day as my surgery (the 17th). Then I track it on myfitnesspal, so now I have a graph that shows me how I'm doing. Here's the template I use http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sM8NcfUuc9A/TsFn1qtspVI/AAAAAAAABMk/xBlJwkk7xvw/s1600/Measurements+Sheet.png i know it says before and after but i just use the sheet for two months, cross out the before and after and just write which month it is that I'm recording. I have found it to be pretty comforting to see how things are moving.

I wonder if there's someplace to watch the show online for free. We don't have cable. Or even a TV. But I've always really wanted to watch it.