Orchids&Dragons

Congrats on your surgery and wishing you a smooth recovery!

Oh, man! You look amazing! Congrats!

How big a kick are you looking for? Mule kick (really thick hide) or kitten kick?(tends to be touchy) I'm sure we've got someone with just the right touch!

Blessings for a smooth surgery and a speedy recovery!

Thanks for sharing your inspirational story!

Wow, lookin' good!

But even if (for them) it is the easy way out, what have they gained if they put it all back on because they didn't commit to the permanent change? All or most of us know the humiliation of having lost and then regained + 10.

People can just be jerks, especially if they're proud of their accomplishment (50# is quite good) and they're scared that you'll make their loss seem less significant if you do as much or better. Plus, losing a large amount of weight makes you special, you're in an exclusive club. Some people want to guard the door. You wouldn't believe how many moms in my "Mothers of Twins" club totally dissed women who's children had been conceived by fertility drugs. As if it wasn't just as hard to carry them and then raise them as those that were "naturally" conceived. I don't know if they thought those babies should have a test tube tattooed on their foreheads just to distinguish them from "normal" children, but sheesh! Live and let live.

Thank you for sharing your inspirational story! Best wishes for continued success! p.s. I don't know what several of those issues are, but I'm pretty darn sure that I don't want to know!

The other part of this, that I swear I have never seen mentioned, is that when we take in too many calories, they don't all get converted to fat. Some are just plain pooped out. If your body doesn't want/need them, it just lets them go. And from my personal experience, one of the first things that happens when I restrict calories, is that the bowels slow way down. And the more times you have screwed with your metabolism, the quicker it catches on! Thoughts?

Glad to hear that you're regaining control! Best wishes for success!

Waves of pain is not common

Have you called the surgeon's office? If you can't handle anything but water without pain, you might have a stricture. How big a bite are you referring to? Just a few bits of food on the very end of a fork? Because that's the size of the "bites" you should be having right now. It sure doesn't sound like your stomach is ready for solids yet. If it's not a stricture, you just need to be patient. Some people progress much faster than others through transitions. I'm one of the slow ones. Good luck.

Congrats on the new grandchild. How exciting! You do look great!

It was nice, but a small group - 5 ladies including me, plus the nurse coordinator. She did a presentation on trending foods and whether they are really healthy (i.e. bariatric friendly) and then a general discussion with questions. 3 of us had already had surgery, 2 were preparing for surgery in the coming months. I will go again next month.

Yeah! Look at all that loose fabric! Lookin good!

I was sleeved on 2/26. Hard to believe it's 9 weeks already.

I haven't been to the Mansfield one yet. Tonight is my first. But the Arlington one has very nice people. I'm going to try to go to a couple of meetings a month to keep me on the straight and narrow Last month, the speaker was the therapist that I had met with pre-surgery, discussing support systems and emotional eating. This month I think they're doing sample healthy foods and recipes. It's not separated by the type of surgery. Just any bariatric procedure.

The Arlington meeting is at USMD at I-20 & Matlock. That wouldn't be bad for you at all. (OK relatively speaking - given that it's 5:00 traffic) That's the hospital where I had my surgery.

Texas had the "Don't mess with Texas" slogan waaaaay before Greg Abbott.

Celtic Princess has a nice ring to it although Celtic Peasant would have been much more likely! I sure wish you lived closer. It would be great to hang out together! For my boys, I stuck with apostles: Ian (John), Andrew and Thomas. My daughter is Theresa. So I've got the saints pretty well covered. I stopped having babies when they started coming in litters! Andrew and Thomas are identical twins and that was more than enough to scare me out of the baby-making business. Besides, I had them 2 weeks before I turned 37, so it was time for me to quit anyway. I was one of 5 and have 24 first cousins, so I always wanted a larger family. I didn't get married until I was 30, so I had to make quick work of it!

I got a standing desk about 8-10 months ago and love it. I have major lower back issues and the ability to sit/stand as needed is wonderful. If at all possible, try to check out several before they purchase one for you because they are definitely NOT all the same. Off Topic but interesting - my husband is a Dragon64. He's the largest dragon in my collection

Hmmm, maybe that's why Contrave did absolutely nothing for me.

I love blistered tomatoes! Do you grill them in a basket?

When I first met my surgeon and he asked why I wanted the surgery, I told him that I'm not here to tell you I can't lose weight. I've lost hundreds of pounds. I just keep finding them again. I need help to maintain. After years of failure, I thought this was my best chance.