ShoppGirl

Congratulations on your loss. It’s not nothing, every bit you lose makes you that much healthier so try not to think of it as ONLY 70 pounds. Take it from someone who thought like you did and stopped trying. I ended up gaining it all back because I was ashamed and felt like a failure. Obesity is complex. You are not a failure. You just need more help. If you haven’t already, make an appointment with your surgeon. They should have some tools to help get you back on track. If they have a live support group you may find that helpful as well as posting here.

For those of you who have an avatar or an image for your profile picture, where do you go to get that?

I was going to suggest contacting your team as well. Maybe give them a ring Monday to see if they have any sooner openings?

I want to say I was at least 6 months out. I was back to eating totally normal. I had planned to follow the rule but one day I just forgot and nothing happened...so I went back to straws when I was out at first and then eventually I started using them at home too.

I waited a while before I tried it after my sleeve but then started and I drink everything with a straw now without issued. Funny thing is that I am pending revision so I said I need to practice drinking without a straw again and I swear I keep choking myself trying to drink normally. That has to be creating more air than the straw. ??‍♀️

Lol. Sounds like something a son would say to their mom. A friend of mine told me about a product called pou pouri that they use at her work since they only have one small bathroom for everyone. I found it on Walmarts website but they have it elsewhere. A pack of three small ones for ten bucks. They sell bigger ones too but I am most concerned for when I am away from home so the smaller size is good for me. They have a pretty comical animation on the manufacturer website that demonstrates that it puts a barrier on the top of the water that somehow blocks the smell and makes it smell like flowers. Anyways, she hasn’t had any bariatric surgery but claims it helps a pretty good deal for their situation so I’m going to give it a shot.

Oh, maybe. ?

I think you are doing amazing!! You don’t have your weight and surgery stuff filled in on your ticker so I can’t see the pounds or anything but I can see a significant difference In your pic and that’s what really matters anyways. it’s hard to patiently wait for the pounds to creep down but once the year or so is over it will actually feel like it went by pretty fast. Just keep doing what you are doing. You will get there!!

In the pre op section you should see a July surgery buddies thread. They will probably find you here too but if you can’t find it try doing.a search for July surgery

Anniversaries of traumatic events can be really tough. You may want to ask your therapist how to handle this date in the future if it is difficult for you again. I have a couple of dates that are particularly difficult for me and it does get a little easier as time passes but it’’a Even stranger after more time has passed when it seems to come out of absolutely nowhere. It’s like why does a date on the calendar trigger such strong emotion when I’ve been doing so good. Just try to remember that it is just the date that’s getting you and most likely you will wake up the next morning feeling more like yourself. Your therapist know you best so be sure to follow their advice but mine would’ve told me to go ahead and stay in bed all day if that’s what I needed. There are days when I feel like I need to get out and push through or go and pamper myself when I am depressed but there are others when what I need to do is stay in my pajamas and lay around binge watching some stupid show. I allow myself to do just that with zero guilt. You would feel fine doing it if you had a terrible flu so why not take care of your mental health just as well. Oh and if you have to tell a little white lie to certain people that you have a physical illness because they don’t understand mental health, I say so be it. Just take care of you.

I never thought about the patient portal. I have one for the main group of doctors in my area that encompasses most everyone but they are not in that group. I wouldn’t have signed up for it untill/ unless I absolutely needed it because it’s one more password to keep track off. lol. I wonder if they do have one. That would certainly be most helpful here to bypass that front office entirely. Thanks. ?? I know that I gotta stop worrying about what people think. My best friend is polar opposite of me and she is on me all the time for it. I have gotten to be better but I swear to you that stuff gets ingrained DEEP. What’s ironic though is that when a people pleaser meets their threshold they are an absolute force to be reckoned with. I am working on just skipping the bs and getting right to the force that gets things done. ?

Are you talking about surgery or the glp- meds or some other meds? For surgery some people choose to go out of pocket and some stay within the states (the dr should have a private pay rate). For GLP-1 meds they do make compounded versions of them that are a little cheaper. Frankly most insirance doesn’t cover them so lots of people are going that route. They offer them here in the store on this site but I can’t vouch for them. I’ve never tried any of them. The other diet drugs that are less expensive you could probably go to like good rx and get a coupon code for a pharmacy near you and get a better price than retail. Phentermine is one that I have heard some people have success with. You will need to see a dr for the script and they most likely will do an ekg before they give them to you since it is a stimulant. There are a few others but that’s the only name that is coming to mind right now. I will tell you ahead of time though if you are a night eater. Like you eat all through the night the phentermine won’t do much for you because you can’t take it at night or you can’t sleep and once it wears off it doesn’t do anything of course. It did curb my cravings so I could make healthy choices through the normal day though.

So don’t know what BF is but I am hoping that combo is working now.

Not sure what happened to the picture but those look delicious. I’m so excited to know I can freeze something like that. My hubby wouldn’t like them so to make them for just me would be such a waste otherwise. I hate bavimg ti make breakfast when I wake up so that would be perfect. I can just put one in fridge the night before and it should be good to go.

Does anyone ever use an instapot. I have had the mini one for a couple of years now and to be honest I’m a little scared I of it. Not being able to look at it and check to see if it’s done is just weird. Everyone says it makes the most tender meats and stuff through and you don’t need any oils or anything. I was thinking that with my upcoming surgery that I should try to make some soups in it. I know I have to strain the chunks for a while but I’m sure that will be way more flavorful than plain old broth or cream of soups. I did them last time and I dreaded eating after just a few days. Went to panara today with a group of ladies and they alll told me I have to try their tomato soup. I decided to hold off and let that be something to look forward to during purées. I really think the instapot, or anything hiomemade, would be good though because I can add twice the veggies to make the broth extra flavorful once I strain out the chunks.

I love salad. My husband usually barbecues a few times a week and I just ask him to make a couple chicken breasts and I can add whatever to make it a meal. Fruit and Chicken salad or “Market Salad” and low carb ceaser salad wraps are both in the rotation. I haven’t tried fish on salad. I don’t like salmon that much sadly. I know it’s so good for me but I think I will try it with mahii. I really hope that I can tolorate salads post SADI. Someone told me that they cannot post DS. That and the ones that say they can’t do a lot of fruit scare me a little. In terms of healthier food, they are my faves. With the sleeve I didn’t have any foods that gave me issies though and the sleeve part is already done so fingers crossed I will be okay with them. I never thought of looking for keto homey. I eat it so rarely. Thanks for the idea.

Thats my thing exactly. Like IF they have had to ask the dr this same thing 100 times and they know what the answer will be for absolute certain then sure tell me. But if they have not heard it from the doctors or their assistants mouth directly, or they don’t remember100% just don’t advise me. Ask someone!! I am not paying for their medical expertise. I just wish more people would realize that the first sign of intelligence is being able to admit what you don’t know. These parents and schools should be teaching these kids that it’s okay not to know something. Instead It seems like the generation coming up is being taught that they are for some reason expected to know everything about everything so if they don’t know something they are just guessing or trying to fake their way through it. It’s frustrating and wastes a ton of time in so many cases but it’s down right reckless in the medical field. To avoid issue with this office I think from now on I will not even tell them what my concern is. I will just ask for someone to call me or to get me In to be seen. My problem is that I was raised to be a people pleaser and I don’t want to be annoying. I am starting to get over that more and more every day though. ?

I have only been constioated a couple of times in my life and both times I had sharp pains in my stomach and I could almost feel that I was full in there and needed to go but of course I couldn’t. The best thing to do is to try to prevent this from happening though so If you are not going everyday you are wise to do something. My team had me take benefiber everyday and if I went two days without a bowl movement I was to take milk of magnesia. That worked both times by the next day.

Be careful with chips as when you can eat a little more they are a slider food that can get you in trouble. Quest makes some protein chips that are pretty good. I like the ranch ones and my husband loves the loaded taco. They have them at Walmart or target and Amazon.not that I am recommending them this early out but everyone’s plan is different.

Awesome. Keep it up.

Good for you. If you find a resource that helps to find the doctors with relevant experience, please post it. I would love to find a new dr but wasn’t really certain how to go about searching. I went to my primary when I started this journey again (for my revision) to ask her for info and her opinion about the SADI surgery and she had to ask me how to spell SADI to put it in my chart. I thought okay well this is fairly new so I guess I can’t really blame her BUT when I asked her if she felt like the bypass was a good fit she asked me what the specialist said and that she would defer to him. Plus, the first SADI was done in 2007. For us lay folk that is fairly new but for someone in the medical field who is supposed to be doing continuing education we are coming up on 18 years since it’s been around. Anyways, I asked if I need to find someone else to treat me post op and she said well, for a few months if you have any issue at all you just go to their office first and make sure it’s not possibly related to the surgery or If you should come see me. Well, that strategy may have worked with some of the other surgeries but this surgery has more long term complications associated with it. I foresee myself paying for and wasting time and frustration enduring a number of unnecessary tests and appointments all the while getting worse if an issue is related to my altered anatomy If I stick with her. Is it sad that what I was expecting for her to say something along the lines of Well, now that I have a patient that is undergoing that procedure, I will be doing my research on how best to treat you? It’s so sad that is just not how it works anymore. I feel like they need to replace the word “refer” with “defer” in primary care. As in defer the responsibility to someone…anyone else. That’s what it feels like most doctors seem to want nowadays, more and more money and none of the responsibility. Must be friggin nice. Anyhow, Having a good primary that’s has knowledge of these surgeries would be huge asset and i really hope that you do find it. I fear that in my tiny town, especially with my newer surgery I won’t have very good luck with it. I do plan to ask the surgeons office if they know or anyone though. That may be a good resource for you too if you hadn’t thought about that.

Thank you!! I was beginning to think it was just me being overly concerned after talking to my husband and him getting hung up on the money part (typical man I guess) but the bottom line is that if they can’t say something to help me believe they have a plan to get it together then I don’t think I can go through with this. So I have to say something to them which goes against my nature entirely. But It’s not like I’m purchasing a television I can just return if I’m unhappy. This is just too important to worry about being the nice agreeable girl. I mean, I still plan to put it politely as I can but they need to know. And I need some assurances about my aftercare.

I didn’t realize you could freeze anything with eggs . That will make it way easier. I have a recipe somewhere for a single frittata that I had to buy a mini cast iron skillet to make it would love to make several one weekend and freeze them so I can pop them out when im in the mood. Do you just put them in freezer bags? Then when you pull them out is it better to thaW in fridge or heat from frozen?

Your bmi is 30.45. I looked it up. And if you lose just 3 pounds you would be 29.95 (below 30) Do you know the prescribing criteria for that drug.according to several websites your iBMI has to be over 27. From 27-29 you must have a comorbidity. Only at 30 can they prescribe it without a weight related issue. Unless your heart issue is considered one of those comorbid issues that losing weight would help with then you just need to lose three pounds and she will have to leave you alone. lol. I joke but my point is that you are so close that even if BMI was accurate representation for everyone for her to be pushing this is just so absolutely absurd. I mean three pounds could be a bowel movement. It would be one thing if you were driving this but for her to push it under these circumstances doesn’t make any sense to me. This is copied from the package insert posted on drugs.com Phentermine Hydrochloride is a sympathomimetic amine anorectic indicated as a short-term adjunct (a few weeks) in a regimen of weight reduction based on exercise, behavioral modification and caloric restriction in the management of exogenous obesity for patients with an initial body mass index greater than or equal to 30 kg/m 2, or greater than or equal to 27 kg/m 2 in the presence of other risk factors (e.g., controlled hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia). Oh and also, I took that stuff when I was like 19 and I had no history of heart issues in myself or my family and they still made me do an ekg so I hope she at the very least planned to do that?? I totally understand why you are mad I would be too

That looks like it might do the trick. Just in time for my revision. Perfect.