Frustr8

Nope, I guess end of July, but still Victory Lane for ME!

Yeah me too, dietician Roy, actually my fan favorite of all the ones I met, was giving me a pep talk for Stage 3 diet if everything goes well, asked what i am hungry for? He kind of flinched when I told him teryaki fried tofu, I think he thought he would have to talk me down from a Steak Desire. Closest I would come to that: a 1/8 to 1/4 Wendy patty, and I don't think I'm quite ready, maybe Thanksgiving? He is hopeful I will make it to Stage 4 by my 3 month assessment. To me it looks like an impossibleble dream, but then I never thought my weight would peel off like it has, 55th+ pounds since the end of August, just want to feel good to enjoy. Think I might be ready to decrease one Big Girl Size, takes a lot of loss when you are still in the. 3-how much did you say hundreds, but 290 and never ever going back!????

Well went check at my Wal-Mart yesterday. Good news they have a shipment of Premier Protein in, bad news all they have is chocolate and vanilla, no ?, no ?, no caramel which was what I was hoping for. They had new organic, more vegan, scanty muscle milk and they seem to have deleted the protein water. My last muscle milk strawberry was yucky, tried to use it for my Tuesday breakfast before going for my surgeon office visit, stomach uneasy rest of day until my evening vomit. I am now relegated to the care of Nurse Practioners and Dietitians, got new diet in case my EGJ works Well tomorrow. Need to call them again by next Wednesday, let them know if I am able to progress my food up to Stage 3, I am pretty "snake bit" but I shall try. And if all goes well, I turned over Roy, my favorite dietician card, and there on reverse is my Small diet/ gastric disclaimer card from OSU, so I guess I am now able to progress to resturant food if all goes well. Told Roy what I am hungry for, he flinched, guess he is not a fan. I would like to dry and cut my tofu into itty bitty chunk of goodness, I want teryaki fried tofu! Guess he was expecting me to whine I wanted steak, nope , I couldn't even handle pureed meat the last time I tried, but tofu, dang it, I do want some!???

Well Darlin' you are among friends here and we understand. Of all the places to lose weight, my forearms are, they are starting to look like little old lady arms. Mentioned to my PCP, got no sympathy there, "Wel"l he says "You are this right age group". If he doesn't watch out, he never make it to 50 so he can get his first copy of the AARP magazine. You know they send you a complimentary magazine for THAT birthday. He keeps making wisecracks about my age, I am going cloud up and rain on him yet. Beside I think of me as Late Middle Age, not geriatric, not over the hill, he's getting pudgy and his hair is graying fast. Checked with my hairdresser, still no gray or white hair, not even the roots. So take that Dr Physician!?

My EGJ time changed again, now 11:30AM , they had cancellation so I moved up in the rotation. Got my ride scheduled and comfirmed, God Bless my friend Kay, she has been a an abolute ? peach of a person. Funny, some people When you see them, the years fall away, you remember old jokes and you can just relax with them! ?&?

Might have something to do with the ongoing lawsuit, maybe they are reformulating to up their real? protein count.

Don't be scared, you have me to talk to anytime and I am 72, be 73 the Day after Christmas, had a RNY September 5th, not ever going to regret it, it has started me on a great weight loss, better than any diet, not looking back, only forward from now on.

I am RNY for several reasons, severe reflux, HBP, sleep apnea, severe arthritis since 25, and I wanted the quickest way to lose weight. I decided the RNY would work best for me, did not want to throw away 3/4 of my stomach, so I have a turkey-egg stomach instead of one some have described a banana but my search leads me to believe a garden hose just wouldn't do me. My surgeon didn't even ask or sway my thinking.When I announced I wanted a bypass he said I was making a wise choice. Would he have tried talking me into a sleeve, doubt it, at 72 I didn't feel I had enough Life Time to revise later, so since I wanted the Gold Medal surgery, I chose the best, if they were issued medals he would wear a Big Gold one. Chief of Baraiatric Surgery and Metabolic Weight loss, full professor in College of Medicine, trained many now-successful Bariatric surgeon's in the MidWest and God only knows where else. But he also is a very nice person.My son and I are very close, my middle child, his older brother died at 31 suddenly in 2008, my Husband died 4th of July 6 years ago. So we still live together, I go to his appointments, he comes to mine. We always band together. Well at my presurgery meeting with my Dr Needleman, he did something that impressed me greatly. He came over, shook my son's hand said " I promise to take very good care of your Mother" he was sensitive to enough to reassure my ?. And he has treated me wonderful. If I had become a doctor, which had always been my dream, I would have been happy to be even an 1/8th as good, as he was and is. And the blip in recovery I am experiencing? Couldn't have been,planned for but they know how to repair it. And I believe in them, and. that helps.

we may start calling you Jello Johnson, if you're that wiggly.?

no longer, that's what it should read.

Hiya Loos N it, never worry that you're the oldest on Bariatric Pal. I am 72 and far from thru! On September 5th I had my RNY bypass, started out healing fine, I st week stellar, 2 week I had a small blood vessel under skin broke and turned my entire stomach wall purple. Now I am 7 weeks out today, and have hit a bump in my road. Not a complete roadblock, I have a stoma stricture, can happen but not that frequently. It means I am still on a liquid diet. Friday I undergo a second EDJ, see we n9 l9bge4 can have a EGD, our duodenum is no longer, so what we really have is a. Esophageal- gastric- Jejunem endoscopy. Dr Noria my surgeon's partner does endoscopy for the practice. In the words of Duck Dynasty, endoscopy is her "bang zone"! While I am sleeping a peaceful medical slumber, she will go down and attempt for the second time to stretch the opening between my small gastric pouch and the second stage of my small intestine, the,Jejunem. Last time she discovered I have 5 new ulcers,2 within the pouch and the other 3 on the intestinal wall. So I have been on Carafate, an ulcer medicine every 6 hours, having been taking it,6am-noon-6pm- Midnight. This is on top of my other medicines. But I am following her orders. Have a feeling I will be doing this every 2 weeks into infinity. Oh but really I do wish not! But I am still glad for the surgery, I have lost a little more than 50 pounds since the end of July. No plain diet ever,did that forme and I have,heard of & done so many. Everybody wants an easy way out, losing weight is not easy. Worth it? Oh yes, I would never turn back to what i was, the future looks so much better.

CindiRI I'm down to 290! Happy happy joy joy#????

Anybody remember me telling this? Goody I can tell it to a fresh audience! Question How do you know it's time to seek out WLS? Answer The male in your house leaves the seat up. You go in to use the facility, sit down and DO NOT fall in. Anytime your rump is wider than the porcelain throne, you do have a PROBLEM!???

I have been worried, so many bari-pals have them from their hospitals and Bariatric centers. I have not been able to believe Ohio State University- Wexner Medical did not have them. They do, it is on the other side of my assigned dieticians card. Says about the same as the others. The carrier of this card has had gastric surgery, and has a reduced intake of food. Please allow her to. order from a children, senior or a reduced portion size menu. Thank You. Ohio State university Bariatric Department. Have not eaten out since surgery; but now I Will Be Ready if the time ever comes!???

Oh my Smurf, you are going to be so happy, you can't swing a lasso without finding someone from the Metroplex, there is a big representation on here!

And my EGJ is in 2 two days, and I feel sick. it's like my body is hungry but I can't hold down food enough in my new stomach, to take the hunger/ulcer pain away. I am begining to think my pouch is only a holding tank, when the liquids sloowly drain out, I put more liquid down. maybe when they stapled off, they killed the muscles that used to move the food along and destroyed the nerves that keep things moving Will the nerves regenerate ever? Will I end up a thinner person with a paralyzed stomach? And Friday May be the last chance I have to see a real surgeon. They told me care will now be all NursePractioners and an occasional dietician, yo yo. folks. over here, I'm still not well!

But I still find them a little grainy, and you have to take 2, my cheap but good-- Wal-Mart prenatal only 1 and it went down easy. Always has.

Good ? --your mind is set for success. I can call you GIRL because I am older than dirt, everybody seems to be younger than ME. This group will stay alive as long as people keep posting. My own " September Surgeries and Success" is still going strong. We have swiched from surgeries to success and semi-success as we recover and start our new lives. But there are a lot of us still posting, since I started it, I routinely update my struggles there. We have sleeve, RnY, DS and ESG pisting, some of the things are different but a lot of same struggles. And it is SO NICE to have things to share, you don't feel so alone. I live in a small city of 20,000 and I think there are no other bypassers, 2 sleeve friends and that's it. And if you saw the average person in my county, Knox, you would know a lot of people need bariatric surgery And the obese children and teenagers, I cry inside for them!????

if that is true and no reason to say it isn't Precious Pouch must not think I need any solids or purees. I hope her 7 week reign of terror ends Friday when they stretch my stoma!!!

Both of you please keep us is updated when your surgery is over, we worry until we know you're Okay!

I think of it as sad, rueful, or that's the way it's got to be, just like the one next to it, confusing or I don't understand it, I guess I read odd things into the emoji. I changed it to a straight" like", which could also be simply "I Approve", the trophy "I couldn't have said it better, the perfect answer to this question. I give a fair,amount of the hug one cause everybody in their struggle needs a hug, but I have yet to use that other one, guess I thought it was saved to "I made My Goal, now I can go to maintainace" and most of the posters are just on their way or trying that I know. I have also given a LIKE for" I see nothing to argue with" in the past.

Thank you so much for posting, I am suffering from a minor league version. I have a stoma stricture which lets only liquids through. Have an EGJ scheduled for Friday, basically short stay/ ambulatory surgery. This is the second attempt, 2 weeks ago my surgeon was fearful of causing the ulcers around the opening to bleed. So we try again.

And one I wish James had reminded me of, maybe because he's. not a female and vain, take pictures of yourself on Surgery Day, maybe going in , certainly when you're in your gown, surgery hat, before they take you to the OR. Kind of a "Victory.I made it HERE "shots. Jakesoldlady posted hers here the other day and I started. crying, my son was with me there, wouldn't take any of me, my surgeon, the staff,he brought in to meet me, SON said it wasn't important. I do have a couple back in my post surgery room with my gown pulled up to show my incisions but none of my face. I never will have a picture of how,happy,after 3 years of trying, I was that I finally,was going to have it, that my last try was my best try, that my surgeon Bradley J Needleman MD believed in me & believed I could make it a success. Even my PCP at the last, tried to throw cold water on my plans. "You're old, you won't have much success, maybe you had better call it off, you already have a history of depression". This from someone who started me on the road by telling me I wouldn't live to 75 without it? Out of my way. *Junior* I have come this far & I am not stopping now. So I have pictures from July when I met with my surgeon, A couple from August when I was on my liver shrinking diet, but Nothing from My Day of Days, my REBIRTHDAY when my life so changed. I know my face was fatter, my cheekbones are more prominent now, I have lost my double chin, Oh I wasn't going to post them here, just for me. Like a tattoo, it would have meant something to me and me alone. So you can never go back, you never can recapture, like a brand-new baby, there is only one time things will be like THAT! I have to have a repeat EGJ this Friday, I have a stoma stricture that needs repaired, don't worry , it Does Not happen That Often! but I will have pictures now by all that is Holy! Oh I will survive, I have faced worse, but the Days of Your life, live them while you can , to the best of your ability!!! IT ONLY COMES ONCE????

Hey gals, I am down to 290 at 7 weeks, other problems still there but I will gain "happy" where I can!

Go ahead and slap me but I had few if any of these problems. Evidently OSU extracts the CO2 gas, I had a bypass instead, and I had few of any incidents where I really had to "splint" my tummy. Let me share what I got instead. I'm old, well older than most, because my age made me more than average a fall risk or for reasons only known to them or God, I was on what I call Room Arrest, I am sure there were other patients, never saw or talked to any, if my son hadn't stayed with me, except for when I rang to go to my bedside commode, I was basically alone. Had O2 and cardiac leads the whole time, so I'm sure they were monitoring my vitals. Stayed an extra day, thought I would be dismissed at 11 Am, arranged my transportation to be there, then at the last minute, before they dicontinued my IV they decided to hang an extra bag of sodium so I didn't leave until 2-3 o'clock. As I am pushed down the hall to elevator I THOUGHT I might have seen another patient, waved in case SHe saw ME. Had taken a notebook to get addresses do I could correspond or text people. Still blank. My first week home, was feeling pretty good, giving myself Lovenox shots 8AM 8 PM. THOUGHT OK pretty peachy Kool. Sunday ( my surgery had been Wednesday) I got up and my left side was purple, now isn't that odd? And I watched it progress across my abdomen. By Monday morning 3/4 to 7/8 of my tummy was purple and swollen. I looked like I had been impregnated by an alien and was carryn,g his child. I had expected a little bruising around my incisions but not THIS. Anyway, saw my surgeon on Tuesday, he took one look, said. jokingly" What have You Done To You?" , looked him in the eye, said No No,Bradley J, it is" What have you done to Me?" And only thing he could come up with was one of the trocars had knicked a little skin blood vessel, when I got enough Lovenox blood thinner in me, it popped open and I had a mini- bleed btween my fat layer and the outside skin. Looked and felt worse than it really was. And I was swollen then as I should have been from the operative gas. Well as a reward? he told me I could advance to the next stage of diet, Level 3 , purees and some very soft, well that only lasted a couple days, and I started vomiting with almost every meal, spent an entire OSU football game, and I am a fan, urping,up. And post-surgery. your vomiting is a different quality, not so much projectile but an uncomfortable proceeding. So called the emergency contact # and was told to regress back to level 2 the one I had been on when rekeased, give it time. Maybe I was swollen inside, give it until October. I could try adding things back in, see how I would do, well I did not do well. Oh the weight was dropping off, I managed to retain my vitamins, minerals, various meds by taking them one or 2. at a time with baby sips of water. Gone were the days when I would take a small mouthful of water, toss them in all at once and swallow. By trial and error I have learned what Precious Pouch will allow, protein shakes , half skim milk, half protein shake, strained cream soups although I had trouble with a new flavor last night,her 2 favorites are cream of mushroom and butternut squash, strained veggie soups, prefers a beef base to chicken/turkey, Flavored waters, likes some herbal/green decaf ones , water as long as it isn't room temp, bone broth and Wal-Mart's organic vegetable broths. What does she not like? Cooked cereal even super -runny, cottage cheese even pureed, Greek yogurt, even plain, softened saltine cracker , peanut butter, and anything I might think sustaining that would keep the thundering hunger monster away especially purees. Oh she is a brat, but I have let her have her way and I have been back to see my Bariatric people every other week. On the 9th they decided maybe I need an EGJ,can't be a EGD because you no longer can visualize a By-passers duodenum unless you would g9 in through a open incision, so you,look at the jejunem instead. I had suspected a stricture, okay I am a medical geek, when Dr Noria went,down on October 12th I was right, one of the times I wished I had been wrong. Now I went into surgery with 1 semi- dormant gastric ulcer named Hectorm He now lives in the disconnected portion of my stomach. But doggone if I did have the stricture I also had 5 evil stepbrothers of Hector, 2 in the pouch, 3 on the back wall of the jejunem. And if Hector was Gizmo from the Gremlins, quiet, causing only minimum trouble, these 5 new ones were like Stripe, not at all nice, thinking about breaking down and bleeding sWell Dr Noria(who really LIKES doing endoscopies) stretched as far as she thought she could without provoking bleeding, but it wasn't enough so she tries again on Friday. And I have been on this boring, largely tasteless diet for weeks, today is my 7 week surgiversity. I lost 15 pounds in my liver shrinking diet, all the month of August , and. over 44 pounds since surgery. Nice loss but not a funny way to do it. I exercise until I get dizzy, because my calorie count is so low, try my best but I yearns to progress toward foods again. Since I am meeting my protein and fluid requirements and takin a LL my meds they think I will end up okay. But you are right, it is a brand new world we now live in.