potatie

Hi, I am having a vertical gastric sleeve. I am in WA state.

Good Luck to everyone having surgery in April!!! My date is 04/05/2022. I am excited to be on this journey with everyone.

Hi, I had full tummy tuck and I did NOT have my band unfilled. They did give an extra anti nausous medicine that I took for a week after surgery. So I did not have any issues. Good Luck!!!

Hi Everyone, Thank you to all of you who have gone before me and shared your expirences. Now I am excited to begin my own journey. I was approved today from my insurance company for a panniculectomy, mons lift. I am going to pay out of pocket for an upper abdominalplasty. I will be staying 1 night in the hospital. I was also lucky enough to be able to schedule my surgery as well. So the count down to Friday November 6, 2009 begins. My pre-op will be on October 20, 2009. So my question to everyone out there is do you think that I will be able to go back to work after 4 weeks? I mainly have a desk job and where can you rent a lift chair?

Hi Diana, you are lucky to be able to eat potatoes. I am unable to tolerate them. So in a way I guess that is a good thing. :thumbup: I noticed that I started to lose more weight when I introduced some weight lifting. Not a lot just a little. At first I would walk with hand weights. That seemed to help, until I started going to the gym. Good luck and you will get to your goal.:cursing: Katie K.

Thank you Mimi, I am trying not to get too nervous. I had a rough night sleeping last night. I think I am getting excited. It is like when you know you are going on a trip and you are too excited to sleep. :thumbup: Katie K.

Hi Allie, I know what you mean about being nervous. My surgery is tomorrow. I have to call at 1:15PM for my check in time. Good luck with your surgery. :thumbup: Katie K.

Hi Diana, Some of my secrets were not really secrets. I pretty much let everyone know what I was doing so I had a lot of support. Also in the beginning I made sure that I followed the nutrician guidelines pretty close. I did not sweets for a long time to break myself of the habit. Otherwise one little bit would have lead to the entire bar or bag of candy. Now I can have 1 bite and feel happy with only 1 bite. What I eat in a day- in the morning I am really restricted so I usually have a double tall non-fat sugar free vanilla latte. Then for lunch I will usually have some lunch meat and a piece of cheese. Then for dinner I will have some Protein either fish or chicken. Then snack at night is usually popcorn or sugar free pudding, or a skinny cow ice cream. I do exercise. I really did not start to exercise hard core until the end of February of this year. Now it is Water aerobics 2x a week for an hour, weights 3x a week, other cardio 4x a week and yoga for an hour 2x week. I will be honest and say that I have been slacking the last couple of weeks. I did not want to be exposed to the germs at the gym because I am having surgery on Friday. :drool: I am glad to hear that you have a goal. I made mini goals for myself because my end goal was so huge in my mind, that I needed to distract myself. The mini-goals were easier to meet for me. Katie K.

Hi Special K- You are right- keep working the program. I feel that I am going to have to work the program, even after I get to goal, because I do not want to go back to where I was. I went into this knowing that this was a lifetime commitment, so I am going to have to keep reminding myself that this is a life time race not just a couple of years. So keep coming back for support. We will be here for you. Katie K.

Hi Janine, I started with a BMI of 54 on my surgery date of 3/27/08. I am now down 170lbs. I am going for my PS surgery on Friday. I was lucky my doctor was not concerned with my high BMI. I had not had children yet, so they told me that Lap band would be a better option for me, because I intended to have children after I lost my weight. I am now concidered one of the super stars of my surgery group. :drool: So I recommend looking into all of the options and deciding for yourself what you would want. I believe that you will have more success if you are personally on board with the decision that is made. Katie K.

Hi Sue, I have already started the panty shopping. I bought some really cute bikini style ones. I have NEVER been able to wear those before because of the rolls. The fit now, so I think I am going to have to go shopping again. Oh darn!!! :drool: I know what you mean about the picture taking. I am not looking forward to being drawn on. My doctor is a guy. So that is even worse, but I figure if he is not embarassed why should I be. I am excited to get to this point. I never dreamed I would get this far. In the beginning I was hoping just to lose a 100lbs, even though I knew I needed to lose more. I am so glad that I can finally say that I was able to meet my own personal goal. :scared2: Katie K.

Hi Everyone, Ok So I decided to be brave and post my pre-op pictures. These are not the ones that the doctor took. Those are too revealing. :drool: Katie K.

Hi Ellen, It is nice to see another person from WA on here. Where are you getting your surgery done at? I am at Virgina Mason Seattle. Hi Tiffany, Thank you for your well wishes. I actually went and got a massage yesterday. That helped a lot with the nerves and tension. Now I am excited. Good luck with your procedures as well. :drool: Hi Special K - Kathy thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it. I do not know what I would have done with out the support of my fellow Shrinking Shamrocks. You guys sure ROCK!!!

So now I am only 3 days away. The nerves are beginning to kick in, but I am also excited. I will all my work wrapped up by the time I leave, so I will not have to worry about that. Thank goodness. I am going to take my pre-op pictures tonight and i will post them tonight. :thumbup: Then I am hoping to take progress pictures along the way. :thumbup: YEAH ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!!!!!!!!!! Katie K.

Hi Everyone, My doctor also told me that women may have more emotions because as you lose weight the hormones are released from the fat that you are losing and they are all of a sudden rushed into your blood stream. As you start to stabilize it will get better. Also they told me that is when I should seek help from a therapist to work through these issues. I did seek help and I am glad that I did. :Yawn: If it keeps happening you may need to let your doctor know to get help. Katie K.

Hi Brandymaddie, I hope all is going well with you. I also was worried for awhile. My PA told me to try not to listen to other expirences unless you are having the same issues. I freaked myself out. It took my PA to set me straight. She also told me to stop looking up issues on the internet. Everyone is different, so you may not have the same issues that someone else has or you may have different issues. My husband is newly banded and he does not have any of the issues that I have and he can tolerate different foods that I am not able to. We had the same surgeon and we have the same person to complete our fills. So try to remember that everyone is different and try to relax. I also found that my weight loss was better when I was not stressing out. So good luck and if you do have issues let your doctors know ASAP and they will help you out. :Yawn: Katie K.

Hi neener, Feel free to bounce off ideas on me. :Yawn: If there is anything I can help with I am glad to. :laugh: Katie K.

Hi Sue, Thank you for letting me know. I will have my mom pick up some from my aunt. She has a bunch. :Yawn: Thanks for letting me know about not being with it. I forgot about that part. I think I am now getting a little nervous, but I am really excited. Only 1 week to go. :laugh: My friend is going to take my pre-op pictures on Tuesday. So I will get those posted then. I am hoping to take progress pictures along the way. Katie K.

Hi Neener, I did have self doubt all the time. I still have a hard time believing that I have been able to lose weight. I have been over weight my ENTIRE life. This is the smallest I have EVER been. So keep trucking along. Day after day. I tend to do better if I only focus on today and not worry about the tomorrow. Then it did not seem to be that big of a goal to get to. I also celebrated mini goals without food. Such as manicures and pedicures with my friends, painting pottery, shopping, etc. That was a lot of fun to look forward to. Now my goal is to get to November 6th, PS day. YEAH!!! Katie K.

Thank you Sue!! I will go out and some before my surgery. Sue, Did you have much drainage after surgery? meaning did you have any incisions that leaked out over your clothes or chair that you were sitting in? Other people have advised getting some pads to sit on so I do not get the recliner all messy. What are your thoughts? Katie K.

Hi Tiffany, I made a list of questions that I asked on my pre-op. I had 2 pages of questions. I was so excited on my consult that I forgot to ask a lot of questions. I thought he was going to be mad but he was more than happy to answer all my questions. My surgeon is giving me a compression garment. He then recommended spanx for the second garment. I found a really soft pants and shirt set from costco. Katie K.

Hi Electrawoman, I have had my band for 19 months. I am now heading into PS. I can that I am amazed that the band worked for me. It is a struggle everyday though, you must pay attention to your food choices. I am finding everyday there are new foods that I can no longer tolerate, but that is just me. I find what works and I keep going with that. I am also amazed that my head hunger disappeared when I have restriction. It is like the switch in my head was turned off. I am thankful for a surgery group that believes in getting a person to sweet spot really soon after surgery. Otherwise I do not think that I would have lost 170lbs in 19 months. Also you will know when you are full. I was also worried about this prior to surgery. Your body lets you know. Once you expirence a PB you NEVER want to repeat the expirence, especially if you happen to be in a public place. I would also recommend having a therapist in place prior to surgery. I found that about 3 to 4 months in I was having issues that were coming up and not in appropriate ways. So I went and sought out help for the head issues. It was very helpful and helped me to move beyond. Right now I am working on being comfortable with the new me. I have NEVER been this thin before. I am smaller than I was in high school. :cursing: Good Luck and do what is BEST FOR YOU!!! Katie K.

Hi Christine, Thank you for the kind thoughts. I am getting excited now. :cursing: Hi Tiffany, I have not had demoral except for a shot of it once in the emergency room. It knocked me out. I am going to have oxycodone. These are the smallest pills I have seen, which people have told me means that they are very strong. They gave me 80 pills. So I am hoping that will be enough. I also asked about the pain. I told the doctor that I had to a left cyst removal and they had to separate the ovary from the bowl. I told him that was painful. He told me that my surgery should not be that bad because they are not scrapping any thing. So I am hoping for the best. I am staying one night in the hospital and I will be hooked up to a pain pump while in the hosptial, but not when I leave. Are you staying overnight in the hosptial? Katie K.

Hi Neener, I am sorry I typed in the wrong date of banding surgery. I was banded 03/27/08. So I am going on my 19th month post band. I did lose 120 in one year and that was a personal goal for myself. I did not think I was going to be able to do that. So I have slowed a bit in the weight loss area, but I am ok with my progress. Katie K.

Hi Everyone, The liquid phase is not that bad as long as you are getting the Protein in to keep full. I was lucky. I only had to be on liquids for 1 week, then mushies for 1 week and then full food. Now I am going for PS on Friday 11/06/09. I was banded on 3/27/09. I am now down 170lbs. I have never ever thought that I was going to be successful, but if I can do this than everyone can. My husband was banded on 6/12/09 and is now down 70lbs. So we keep each other motivated. Good luck to everyone!!! Katie K.