vanassa11

I recently (8/17/16) had Gastric bypass surgery at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. I had the best nurses and doctors anyone could ask for. My surgeon was Dr.David Chengelis. He was absolutely amazing and made sure I was completely aware of everything before surgery. My anesthesiologist team were fantastic and answered my many questions ( I had not been under before). Overall I would recommend Beaumont if you're looking in Michigan!
❤️8/17/16

@@LapGyrl
I'm 4 years post op. Sleeve
I've never heard of an overstitch. Can you tell me more about it? I'm curious.
I also had some regain issues. In the last two month I buckled down and am only 6lbs away from my lowest weight now.
Once I started making sure to eat Protein dense meals again I found that my restriction is still great, considering I'm four years out. I can still only eat 3-4oz of Protein at a time. I had also got out of the habit of logging my food, weighing it, etc. I'm back to doing all that and the weight is coming off steadily.
Is your restriction not as good anymore? To me, it just seems kind of drastic of have another surgery for a 15-20lb regain (that's just my opinion).
And congratulations on your success! You've done well! My inbox is always open if you want to talk.
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My surgery was 2/22/16. Day of surgery I was 251. Today weighed in at 196! Pretty flipping exciting. I log everything that goes in the pie hole. Helps with accountability. I try to plan everything I will eat the day before. Including Snacks. (Takes away emotional eating) I eat every 4 hours. This is my plan. I'm sticking to it!

What about oatmeal or cream of wheat with added Protein powder? Those are both soft and breakfast food.

Hi my name is Michele Darden, I live in Houston, TX. I was sleeved 08/30 15. I can say that it has changed my life for the better.
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Today was a very emotional day for me. I had my surgery July 16, 2015 at almost 9 months out down a hundred pounds. I'm on cloud nine flying high. This has been the best thing I could've ever done for myself. Only have 32 pounds to go and will hit goal !!!!!!

Still going to keep going strong!!!
Craig Martinez
Austin, Texas

I had my surgery at ucdavis on 1/26/16 by Dr ali..

I got a surgery date of April 19th! I'm ready!

Hi everyone.....I am from the Sacramento area, pre-op with UC Davis and with Dr. Ali.

I'm kind of shaking my head because of the scolding this person got for asking a question. I understand your thinking but this is a forum for support not a browbeating.

before and after current weight is 151.5 weight in the before 242 weight in the after 155.5

Sorry for flooding this thread as of late, but it feels good to look at myself and actually see all the hard ass focused work paying off. I'm in my new birthday sweat suit for the gym. And its fitting very nicely too. Its a 1/2XL. And its loose fitting. A very very long way from the 5/6XL I was wearing 24 months ago.

I was sleeved on 1/26, and have lost 13 pounds so far.

I didn't shave and wasn't shaved either, and I had a catheter.

As of this week I finally hit a normal BMI and i promised myself when that time came I would finally share some pictures. By the way, I still do not like having my picture taken but before I hid behind everyone and because I was tall it was easy to hide the rest of me. Now I definitely am willing to get in the shot and I no longer cringe when I see the pictures.
The only pics I could find before surgery were taken on a cruise with my hubby, Son and Granddaughter. These were taken 1 month before my bypass.


My after was taken earlier today, down 137lbs and finally at a BMI of 24.9

So im at a christmas party , at my best friends home. His wife who has supported me and I are talking about clothes shopping. I like talking about thrift shopping and my latest finds ( got a pair of dress pants, gorgeous ones, from goodwill the other day, 4.99, they were from Barney's of New York and had the tags still on them for 250 bucks retail....( yay me!)
Anyway, she tells me she has a few pairs of american eagle jeans that her son ( then 16) outgrew last year, and would I like them? SO of course i said sure! I never looked at the size i had already mentioned i was wearing 32 waist 30 inseam jeans that day. SO i assumed they were my size. My friend even laughed and said, man can you imagine wearing jeans my 16 year old son wore?
Now i only recently even tried getting into 32/30 jeans. End of november i was wearing 36/30 jeans, then 34/30 jeans a few weeks ago.
So the move to the 32's has been very recent. SO anyway, I get home later that evening and i look at the jeans.
The tag reads 29/30 . Of course i laugh and hold them up, they look like something ELmo would fit into. Straight cut by the way.
As a joke i throw a leg into them, and then the other.....
Yes you guessed it, THEY FIT! No not wonderfully. I wouldn't tuck in a dress shirt in em. But damn! i could wear em. Holy %$#k! Are you shitting me? People, just for reference, it was 1 year ago I was wearing 56's Now 1 year and 1 week later post surgery and Im able to fit into a 29 waist?
Yea i don't think I stopped smiling for several hours.
Heck i'm smiling now just thinking about it.

My in laws came over today for our christmas, and they gave me a very nice gift card to nordstroms ( which i have never shopped at ) and said to " buy something you wouldn't normally buy for yourself , to celebrate" ( my birthday was 3 days ago.) So im going to do a little shopping! ( with Nordstroms prices, it wont be much, but? it'll be fun!)
If it seems like i'm bragging, I apologize, i'm sure there's a little brag in there, but I wanted to say to those who are fighting the good fight and struggling....You can do this! I anxiously wait for your GOAL post! Keep all those NSV's coming.
They all add up and mean a lot. You can get there. Don't give up!

It is no secret here that bariatric surgery will expose the raw dynamics of your relationships. It is a painful process, but people will expose how they really feel about you, and who is supportive of your efforts and who you should avoid. As I have said recently, people who talk about you that way are not telling you about who you are, they are telling you about who they are.
Your husband is a gift. Too bad he comes with all that drama. So, let the little dogs bark and just go on with your pursuit of health and happiness.

Yes! Cowgirljane, you and other WLS veterans are so relevant on BariatricPal! You are wonderful examples of how to make WLS work not just for a few months, but in the long term! You know how to get to goal weight and stay there. You know how to hang in there when things get long and boring, and you’re not seeing the pounds fly off anymore.
And we need to see that it can be done, and how. And you and veterans like you can show and tell us.
That said…I think there are a few things here that you hit on. One is the unfortunate fact that some veterans have lost their empathy for newbies.
Maybe it’s because they forget exactly how hard the journey is. It’s hard to remember every agonizing minute when choosing a surgeon, recovering from surgery, figuring out what you can and should eat, and which pains are worth panicking over. When you’ve been living the WLS lifestyle for years, it’s normal. When you’re just starting it, you don’t know what to expect.
It can also be an attitude of, “If I did it, you can. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
I think there’s also the problem that veterans can come off as overly harsh, even if they don’t intend to be. It’s easy to think something is obvious when you’ve gone through it, or to just speak quickly when you’re answering something you think is an easy question.
The next problem is that these few (or many) less-than-empathetic veterans can lead to newbies grouping them into a single class: the “mean veterans.” And that’s just sad, because so many veterans, just like you, Cowgirljane, are hanging around in order to pay it forward.
Another problem that I suspect is that some newbies don’t really like the answers they get. For example, “Can I eat pizza post-op?” “No.” “You’re just being mean!” Okay, maybe not quite that obvious, but in some cases, it’s pretty close.
So you and the other veterans who are trying to help are very relevant. I hope you will keep posting your wisdom and keep being supportive to those who need it – there are a lot of members who do, and who appreciate it, too.

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Hi! So I'm a year out now - how did THAT happen? I'm not done yet, but it's been a pretty wild ride so far. I'm down 105 pounds from my starting weight, 101 from the day of surgery (I lost 4 on the pre-op liquid diet over 2 days, lol), and at LEAST 135 from my highest, which was earlier last year (that scale only hit 330 and I maxed it out).

Along the way, I've discovered a few personal realities - they may not be true for everyone else, but for me they are.

- Some days I look at stuff I've worn before and think, "There's not a chance in hell that's going over my head." Every single time, I'm shocked when it does.

- Lots of people treat me better now that I'm more "normal". But every time I start counting on it, along comes some jerk...and that's okay. I think I need the reminder that it wasn't always about me anyway!

- I need to leave my credit cards at home. Shopping is a lot more fun now.

- It's easy to fall off track with counting Protein, watching calories, and taking Vitamins. It's like I rolled over one day and just felt like a regular person. This is going to actually require diligence and consideration for the rest of my life. I knew that when I signed up for this, and I'm going to do it - I just didn't think when I came out of surgery that there would ever be a moment that it wasn't in the front of my mind.

- I need treats now and then or I won't succeed. The urge to binge and passive-aggressive desire to eat something just because I shouldn't will NEVER, EVER go away - the sleeve keeps the binges from being too bad, and if I build treats into my plan and track them, I'm a lot less likely to go off the rails. (pizza happens, y'all, and for ME that's okay - YMMV. 3/4 of a slice once a month now vs. an entire medium pizza with garlic dipping sauce, ALL the wings, and half a box of cinnamon sticks every Friday before...it's still a win in my book).

- When I'm hungry now, I'm HUNGRY RIGHT NOW! Gotta keep Snacks at hand or I will tank and hit the floor. Either because I've passed out, or because someone is going to check my hanger and KNOCK me out someday, lol. I've been trying to date and think I scared one off when he watched me shovel a salad into my face like a farm animal. He was late, I was hungry.

- Someone can watch you successfully lose weight, and still want to interject their opinion about how you should be doing it. Nod, smile, and go back to what you're doing. My "instructional guru" has gained 30 pounds back in the last couple of months and STILL wants to tell me how to eat. Life is far easier now that I've learned to take that with a sense of humor and not get angry about it.

- If you never liked exercise, you probably still won't. It'll just be easier to do. Then again...you might just find something you like! I'm a total couch potato but always used to fantasize about running for some reason. Finally launched C25K this week, and something tells me I might like it if I can keep my knees from blowing out.

- I need kleenex around ALL. THE. TIME. My nose runs when I'm full, it runs when I'm hungry, it runs when I get hiccups...sometimes I even sneeze when I've taken one bite too many.

- Speaking of sneezes, sometimes when I sneeze I vomit. I don't have to be overly full, I can eat exactly the right portion for my sleeve, but if I sneeze too close to a meal when everything seizes up it just sort of launches everything back out. That was unexpected.

- I've met guys who care that I'm still heavy. Some who think I'm not quite big enough and are afraid I'll lose more weight, some who think I'm too big, some who think I'll get bigger again. The ones who ARE into me the way that I am don't give one iota about my "shrinkles". I haven't met a good mental match, but no one I've had any physical relationship with cares. I was pretty worried about that but it's been a non-issue so far. My need to indulge in the use of "artistic lingerie placement" (ie, I always manage to keep my tummy covered somehow, lol) has never once been challenged.

- I was lucky to have a respectful, attentive PCP, but I've had issues with medical providers before. The smaller I get, the fewer issues I have.

- It should be basic knowledge for doctors, but if you need to go to the ER, watch out. I've been twice since surgery (once for a car accident, and once when my cat scratched my eyeball) and they're quick to dispense the 800mg ibuprofen even with a full medical history and a "no nsaid" note in the chart. With the eye, I took 'em anyway (along with the other, better drugs). I would've let someone hit me in the head with a bat to make that stop hurting! But it does illustrate the need to be aware and always prepared to advocate for yourself.

- It's so nice to have a lap now. I can hold my computer! My critters! My nieces and nephews! It's wonderful.

- How I see myself is not always how others see me. My boss and my friends all look at me and think I should be done now. I look at myself and still see a butterball. The charts say I'm still 55 pounds overweight, but my doctor (who won't give me a goal) says I shouldn't be aiming that low because she's shorter than me and small boned and weighs what the chart says I SHOULD weigh. At first, I wasn't worried about where to try to settle because it seemed so unbelieveable that I would ever get there. Now that I know it's possible, picking an end point is HARD (and harder still when I factor in a bit of dysmorphia, because I'm not sure I'll ever look in the mirror and see someone small enough to go to maintenance).

- Sometimes I discount the journey I've made, or I want to eat something I know will make me sick and have a momentary pang of regret. I don't feel bad about that anymore, I just try to go do something I couldn't do before to remind myself what a great decision this was. Sitting in a bathtub, going to a store and trying on something in the misses department (that actually FITS), running up the stairs (instead of having to practically crawl up them using my hands for balance), going through my closet and bagging up something that's too big, stuff like that.

- I knew that things wouldn't change in my life by magic, and that not all of the stasis I was in was caused by my weight. It's true that the poor physical condition and lack of confidence both contributed in a very big way, but it wasn't all of it. I understood that, and decided to work REALLY HARD on the areas I wanted to change the most. What I wasn't anticipating was that, in some of those areas (like finding a relationship), the work hasn't seemed to pay off either. I took that pretty hard. Ongoing therapy is an absolute must for me. You may not need it, but if you DO, then GET IT. There's no shame in it.

- Once you've been sleeved, you'll always be sleeved. That built-in off switch is ALWAYS going to be there. I've had some stretches where my eating has gotten a little out of control, but the beautiful part of this is that the sleeve keeps me from going too far. I can recover from those mistakes now, too. More Protein, more liquid, and I'm right back on track. That's why I got this - not because I ever had any delusions that I could or would be "perfect" at it, but because I knew I COULDN'T and I needed help or I was going to die. Suicide by donut - it's a morbid joke my siblings and I use about our parents, but I was on my way there too.

- I have to resist the urge to act like a salesperson and let my results speak for me. My sister and my niece both desperately need to do something and have vacillated on surgery for a while now. I never felt good and healthy as an adult and it's such a huge difference - sometimes I want to shake them and scream, "BUT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH BETTER YOU'RE GOING TO FEEL???!!!???". The reality is, I have to shut up unless I'm asked a question and just live the best life I can as an example, because if someone had harped at me about it a couple of years ago I probably wouldn't be sleeved now. It hurts my heart to see people I love in the state they're in, but everyone has to take their own journey and live their own lives.

- Tiny goals are where it's at for me. I never set a goal more than 9 pounds away - no double digits . I tried to assign meaning to all my goals, too, though ones I had to split up to stay under 10 pounds are just "split goals". But things like "driver's license weight", 20% EWL, 50 from highest ever, graduation weight, etc. I was blowing through them pretty quickly at first, but now that things have slowed down a lot keeping my goals close together is helping me stay motivated.

I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

OK, I finally uploaded a couple pictures at the request of a friend. I still don't think I am to the "After" stage, but I am pretty damn close. Here is a picture from me that has to be at my highest weight. I didn't weigh myself back then so I am guessing that I was over 330 lbs:

It's funny, sometimes when I look in the mirror I don't recognize myself. But when I saw this picture, I literally asked who it was! I guess I am getting used to being this guy:

I took a full six weeks off, not only to heal but to adjust to the new plumbing. ????

Day of surgery 11/11/15
2nd pick, Thanksgiving day

Why am I thankful? Exactly 2 years ago today I suffered a massive stroke which woke me around 7 a.m. I ended up in mayo Hospital for 6 days and then straight to Brooks Rehab for an additional 10 days. At age 52 you just don’t think this will ever happen to you. It’s been an uphill battle but I’ve faced every challenge (left with severe nerve condition on right side of my body) with a positive attitude and spirit. I’m blessed beyond measure with the support of loving family members and friends. Mayo Hospital has saved my life more than once … stroke, pain rehab for my nerve condition and then RNY surgery! Losing this weight is the last piece to my recovery puzzle as I never want to experience another stroke again!!! Hard to believe when I look at these pictures side by side that only 7 months have passed and I’ve already lost 93 lbs. I also love the fact that I was only able to eat half the grilled chicken breast (minus half the cheese as it was overkill) with the delicious grilled zucchini at lunch this past Monday - thank you pouch I'm 5'2" HW 285 SW 257 (pic on left) CW 164 GW 130! I hope everyone has a very blessed and thankful Thanksgiving this year!