STLoser

The hospital will supply your food/liquids. The only thing I really needed was my own pillow and Aquaphor for my lips. I can't live without it! I stayed 4 nights and slept most of the time except when I got up to walk the halls. Do bring your asthma meds.. I brought mine. They will supply any other meds you need. Good luck!

That is amazing and so inspiring.. You should be so proud of yourself!!!

My dog had surgery a couple weeks ago for a torn ccl, which is like the acl in humans. We're supposed to be walking her to help rehab her leg. Normally she just runs in our yard, which is very big, but she has to be on a leash at all times. Anyway, we live at the bottom of a very long and steep half mile hill. I used to try to walk up that hill and had to stop every couple feet and would end up having and asthma attack. I've just been walking our dog around the culdesac we live on and in our yard because I've been afraid of that hill. Well, last night, she wanted to go that way so we walked up to the top. I didn't get short of breath at all, just the normal heavy breathing with exercise, but I wasn't winded at all. And coming back down the hill has always been harder for me because I felt off balance, but last night I had no problem, even with my 114 pound dog pulling me! I am SO happy. Now I can walk in our subdivision!!

I have wide feet, unfortunately no matter what I weigh, and I had a pair of Danskos I loved before I had my son. Unfortunately, my feet gained so much weight I couldn't wear them and have them to my bff. Now I wonder if they would fit again! That's interesting that yours don't feel as good now. I wonder if you needed more support before your weight loss and maybe that's why. [emoji848] Maybe it's too much now and you need more cushion. Interesting!

Mine are way better too. And they never were bad until I got really overweight, in my late 20s. Then I got big cracks in them. I was also a new nurse at the time, standing on my feet for 12 hour shifts. I'm pretty sure I read a long time ago that it has something to do with the fat cushion in your heels wearing down from carrying too much weight.

My thighs don't rub together when I walk anymore and this has never happened to me, even when I weighed my lowest adult weight of 150. I'm 225 right now. I don't understand why they're not rubbing together. Maybe because of the loose skin they have kind of fallen down? Lol. I don't know, but I'm not complaining!

Hm. I know this is from a while back but I wonder what will happen to me. I had a breast reduction in 2003. I was a 40 band size then and the cup size was a K.. I got down to a DD after the reduction, which was great. I had my son in 2010 and they grew back to a K. Now, they did a lift with the reduction so even though they grew back they don't look really saggy. Now that I have lost all this weight, the cup size has remained the same. I was a 48K (U.S, 48H U.K.) and now I'm a 38K (or 38H in U.K. Sizing). I still want to lose at least 35 pounds, and hopefully more. I wouldn't mind if the cup size went down. I am sick of having to pay so much for bras.

I've experienced almost the exact same thing. I sleep through the night now and I can actually pee before we leave the house and not have to go again when we arrive at our destination. I was not diabetic, but I was right at the beginning of being borderline, and your husband could be right in his theory!

This has been one of my greatest NSV's so far. I have never told the truth on my license, and it says 350. Last time I had it renewed I weighed 393. Now I'm 126 pounds less than what driver's license says! I'm gonna tell the truth next time ha ha.

Thank you! It sure does feel great!

Congratulations! You are such an inspiration!

Congratulations on your amazing success! You look beautiful, and have gorgeous blue eyes!

All not a. I may have lost weight but I still have fat fingers and can't type. Lol

Thank you so much, Arabesque. I feel so much better!! And thank you to a of you for your nice comments.

Fat doesn't bother me, obese doesn't bother me, but I never could stand when someone says "heavy set." wtf does that even mean!? I also hate the word panties!

I meant I can't prove that being poor led to me overeating. I just reread that and realized it didn't make sense. Ha ha

I've always loved all kinds of food, and strived to eat healthy. But healthy eating doesn't matter if you're still eating too much. I was very similar to Catwoman in the way I ate, and even though much of the food was healthy, my portions were huge. My "why" was always that I ate such huge portions and I never seemed to feel full. I can't prove it, but I was poor growing up, and although we got enough to eat, there wasn't abundance. It's almost like when I got older and had plenty of food available I wanted to make sure I ate as much as I could in case the time came when there wasn't enough. I never felt satisfied no matter how much I ate, and I always ended up stuffed. This surgery is like a miracle to me. I get full, and I can stop eating now before I am studded and I am SATISFIED. It is such an amazing feeling!

Here are the before pictures.

I considered wls for many, many years, but never seriously. When I was a new RN in 1997, it was fairly new and I saw people die from it, so I was always scared of it. I also never had insurance that concerned it, so I knew I'd have to pay out of pocket, and I was overall healthy, so I figured I could do it on my own. I had my son in 2010, and that's when I really started to gain a lot of weight. I had done WW before I got pregnant and had lost 45. I was down to 263. After he was born, the weight started piling on. I was sick all the time and got diagnosed with asthma. I was in pain all the time. My liver enzymes increased slowly year by year, until 2020 when my doctor decided I needed to see a liver specialist. That same January, I had my gallbladder removed and that surgeon offered to biopsy my liver and it showed Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis, with hepatic fibrosis. As a nurse I had seen people die of liver failure and it is awful. This scared me to death. That surgeon recommended wls, and he was one of the only doctors who had ever acted compassionate and non-judgmental about my weight. He told me I had very little chance of losing it and keeping it off on my own. I took his advice and made an appt. That day with a bariatric surgeon. I saw him in March and he recommend gastric bypass. I started getting the required testing and had just had my EGD when the hospital decided to let a bunch of staff go due to COVID. That surgeon was one of them. I decided to go to a different hospital and surgeon and this one recommended Loop DS. I had not heard of it, but he said I was a perfect candidate with a BMI of 69.9 and since I was paying for it myself, as it was a newer procedure that insurance didn't usually cover. I researched it and decided to go with it. My high weight was 393 pounds. I am 5'3". I was 368.8 on the day of my surgery, July 23, 2020. As of today I am 226.4. I never thought I'd be even close to this weight again. I am hoping to lose at least 200 pounds total. I am getting close. I was close to borderline diabetic, had just been diagnosed with hypertension, and had liver disease. I could barely get around or keep up with my active 10 year old son. My hypertension is gone, my blood glucose is normal, and my liver enzymes are now normal, so I have reversed my fatty liver disease. I turn 50 on August 2nd and this will be the best birthday ever! I am so happy I had this surgery! I can't get my befores to post right now but I'll put them here once I do. Here is me today.

I know for me, I would have taken any surgery insurance would have covered. Unfortunately, our insurance covered none, so I had to pay out of pocket. Because I already paid that money for my wls, it's unlikely I'll be able to get surgery to remove all the loose skin I am left with. If I were in your position, I'd go with what surgery covers. Also, I went into this wanting the sleeve myself, but after meeting with the first surgeon I changed my mind to gastric bypass. After that (it was beginning of covid), he was fired and I saw a different surgeon who recommended the Loop DS for me, which I had not heard of at the time, but after researching that's what I decided on because he said it was the one I would have the best chance of losing the most weight with.

This looks great! My best friend does pickles every year and this year she's gonna show me how. I'm so excited!

I take Procare bariatric multivitamins, because they have the iron in them and it's one capsule. They are great and pretty reasonably priced compared to most I've tried.

I wish I had great ideas, but everyone else gave you great ones. I just wanted to say you sound like an awesome aunt and I love that you do this with your niece!

My biggest fear was dying during surgery, but I'm a worrier and I worry about that every time I have surgery. I was mostly afraid I would do this drastic thing then not lose weight. I'm happy to say I was worried for no reason! I had my surgery last July, and was only allowed one visitor.. I was so nauseated and tired the first few days I barely knew he was there, and made him go home. I stayed 4 nights because of the vomiting. Once I got home, I was fine and didn't really need any help. My husband works from home since COVID started, but he works in our basement and I didn't need him upstairs with me. I never had a lot of pain or difficulty getting around. As long as things go smoothly I think you will be fine without a nurse.

OK, this is not weird, but it's the BEST NSV I could ever have and the BIGGEST reason I did my surgery. I got my labs back today and my liver enzymes are NORMAL. And not just high normal, either, but solidly in the mid-range. They were very high before! I have been in happy tears all day because of it! My liver disease was the thing that finally made me decided I needed surgery and it was SO worth it!