crazygoose

Welp you left us with a big cliff hanger here Fireman and I'm on the edge of my seat in suspense, did you go through with it? If so I hope you pulled through and everything went okay.

Congratulations! Sounds like you are very happy with the results. Enjoy your new life!

Thanks for posting this thread Andi I'm finding the information to be very useful. Yep, going to steal some of the ideas here, like drinking water, try the firming lotions and try to get as much vitamin E as possible oh and pray. If that doesn't work I'm going to have to invest in a lot of shapewear until I can magically afford plastics.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this all to me. I really wish I had joined bariatricpal sooner. I think you are absolutely right and maybe I have been looking at this the wrong way. I will try to work on my relationship with food because I think that's been the real problem. I feel like I'm missing a lot of useful information and will spend the rest of the week trying to learn as much as I can. My surgeon told me that if I drank soda I will explode and die and that really freaked my sister out and some how the whole family is convinced I will mess up and kill myself. I really want this to work and become fully committed to the lifestyle change again thank you so much for explaining this to me.

Maybe you should talk to someone about it if you can like a therapist or counselor or get in tune with yourself or Higher Power if you believe in one and try to work through the situation that way. Maybe just write about it in a journal or a blog and try to get the feelings that keep haunting you out of your head and put them into perspective. I start the liquid diet next week so I don't know what you're going through yet but it sounds like you're going through a test. Just stay strong and don't give in. You can do this!

I am pre-op so I can't even imagine what you're going through and it's probably not in my place to try to give you advice but I will encourage you, I just want to say don't give up on yourself, you still got this you might just have to try a different way of doing things. Maybe you can try putting bottles of water in the freezer until they turn into solid ice and maybe carry around another bottle to pour some of the melted ice into. Anyways I wish you luck and hope you get through this.

On my first visit to my surgeon he said I can never have carbs, bread and soda ever again and that my diet would have to be strict in order to work with the sleeve. Since then I decided to say goodbye to my favorite foods and made a bucket list of things I wanted to eat for the last time because I know I would have to make a big lifestyle change once I go on the two week liquid diet leading up to the surgery. My plan was to enjoy it while I can because I know I can never eat these foods ever again. It's like a bachelor on the night before his wedding day, enjoying his last night of freedom. However as I've stated in another post, my family does not support me having the surgery. For years they have criticized and made fun of my weight and now that I want to do something about it, its just been nothing but discouragement and opposition from them. What they fail to realize is once I have my mind set on something I give 100% and I know I will reach my goal. A long time ago I went on a diet and lost 70lbs. At the time I wasn't nearly as heavy as I am now but the reason why it failed is because once I reached my goal weight I wanted to stop losing but didn't know how to transition into eating normal to maintain a healthy weight plus at the time I was young and not mentally ready and I was terrified of my new body. But now I am ready and mentally prepared, heck I passed my psych evaluation for Christ's sake! So back to the main question of the topic. While I'm having my food funerals, if I have a can of soda my family freaks out and says: "See you shouldn't have the surgery!" A few days ago I quit drinking soda for 5 days just to see if I can do it and I did it easily, but made a conscious decision to start back drinking them because my liquid diet starts next week, 6 days from now and I will never be able to drink soda again so like I said I want to enjoy it while I can. In the mean time I am preparing myself for the life style change in other ways like researching my diet, buying things I need for my diet, looking up gyms and exercise programs I want to get into and getting my ducks in a row, heck everything I watch on tv has been nothing but weight loss shows. So is it okay or normal to have food funerals?

I will pray for you! I hope everything goes smoothly.

Well congratulations! I'm so happy for you. Glad everything worked out.

You look great and much happier. Congrats!

I really must say I am liking this group more each day and amazed by how you've all come together to support Diva and encourage her not to give up on her quest for WLS. As they say anything worth having is worth fighting for and this is one of those things. I pray that everything works out.

I'm glad it went well with you. Sounds like you're off to a good recovery.

I live in San Jose.

Wonderful and congrats! You've given me hope.

I will also be sleeved April 6th. I might just make a facebook for the group.

The straw that broke the camel's back is that I am just tired of being disrespected and people treating me like crap, that and I recently saw myself on a homemade video and it made me cringe, like my mind had a hard time connecting with that, that person in the video was me, this very large, uncomfortable and depressed looking woman. I'm like damn I'm huuuge! For some weird reason I don't really notice my size much when I look into the mirror, I just see my face and my eyes. I only become aware of it when I try to get into cramped places like my car and fighting with the seat belt, when I go clothes and shoes shopping, when I struggle with walking or breathing and suffer the symptoms from my weight related health issues or when my family or strangers make nasty remarks about it. Now I don't think that if I become skinny people will magically start respecting or liking me, but I think that some of the confidence I will gain in myself from weight loss will help me stick up for myself more and maybe people will take me more seriously. I'm tired of making up excuses for the way people treat me, "Oh well if I weren't fat they wouldn't say or act this way towards me." Or, "Don't worry about it, I'm not alive yet, this isn't the real me they're laughing at, they're just laughing at my body because its morbidly big."

I am so sorry this happened to you but I believe the problem is with him and not with you. He sounds like a jerk and a coward and it really irks me that he commented on your weight while breaking up with you, sounds like he was trying to make you feel insecure and bad about yourself like gowalking says and I don't know you but I have this feeling that the break up wasn't really about your weight. You need to know that you are a beautiful quality person fat or skinny and deserve way better than that. I don't have much dating experience myself but I believe that sometimes people have to kiss a lot of frogs to get to their prince and he was just a frog. Be glad that his true colors showed and he hopped back into the pond, you don't need someone so shallow and obtuse in your life. Don't be afraid to take a chance with someone else, just be careful and a little more guarded and maybe take things slower next time so you can get to know what kind of person they really are before you start investing romantic feelings. In the mean time until you get ready to pucker up to another frog or potential prince take some time to build yourself up, love yourself for the way you are regardless and not just what you could be and don't be afraid to raise the bar a bit when it comes to the type of partner you want.

Thank you all for your kind words and support. It really means a lot to me. I have gotten my spark and full motivation back again and looking forward to tomorrow where I go see the surgeon and get my care package, then all they have to is get approval from the insurance company and then I should have a date for the surgery! I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not going to mention the WLS to my family anymore even after I have it and only mention it when only necessary but as someone said, I look forward to laughing about it a year from now after I'll prove them all wrong. I'm so glad to have found this group and I really look forward to learning from and sharing support with you all.

Hi, I am new to this forum and I'm very glad that I've found it. I am pre-op for the gastric sleeve and next week I have an appointment with the surgeon to get a care package with the liquid diet and such. I do not know the date of my surgery but I know it should be very close, however the anticipation and excitement of this life changing journey has now been replaced with anxiety and aggravation. I don't know anyone who has had the surgery personally, closest I've came was by watching videos of people who had it on youtube (Clusie L makes awesome videos btw). I know one person who knows someone who has had the surgery and she showed me a picture of the woman however, she looked tired, pale and sickly and her hair looked very thin and to be honest that sort of scared me. My family is not happy about me having the gastric sleeve surgery and they are not supportive whatsoever. They always say negative things about it and suggest I lose weight the "right way" which I have tried many times. They keep telling me that I could die if I have it and I am aware of that possibility but I will also die if I don't lose weight. I am 32 years old, 5'3 and been fluctuating between 330-370 pounds since July 2015. (I'm not 370 right now, but I weigh somewhere between 340-350). I have diabetes, severe sleep apnea, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. I also have poly cystic ovarian syndrome. I want the surgery to aid me in getting rid of some of these health problems if not, all of them. It's just hard not having the support of my family. I have no friends either. The reason why is because I was in a very bad situation and there was a period of time where I was so depressed that I spent 4 years isolated in my bedroom and would not leave the house for months at a time. I hated and feared people and felt too fat and hideous to be seen. Since then I went to a crisis rehab and got the help that I needed and I have been fighting to get back on my feet and remain stable ever since. I have overcome a lot in the past year and I am working and fighting hard to change into the person I want to be and while my family has supported my efforts to further my education, my efforts to start working again, and my efforts to live on my own, they will not support me in getting bariatric surgery and whenever the topic is brought up their feedback is instantly negative and I'm being constantly discouraged and told that I can't do it or it won't work for me and that I'll die from it. I don't even know if I will have someone to help me after the surgery. Its frustrating and I feel like it is starting to diminish my faith in myself. I know for a fact that when I am committed to doing something its all or nothing; I give 100% which is why I believe that I will follow the diet closely and do everything that I'm supposed to do because I want this change to happen badly enough and I want to work hard to become a success.