kellsbells0182

I’m excited for you! I’m sure you’ll do great! ❤️

You all inspire me so much! I'm 18 days away from my bariatric sleeve surgery. I've had all sorts of emotions these past 9 months, including worry that getting this surgery would be a huge mistake. Your stories, your struggles, your successes, and your photos empower me and help me see that I am on the right track. I need this surgery, I know, and it's going to be a game-changer for me. Thank you and congratulations, every one of you! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

The first pic with the metallica shirt was taken 9/3/2025 the night before my VSG….the plaid skirt picture was taken 12/16/25 and I have lost roughly 50 pounds between the two!

Me again! I realize that I am the last person to post to this thread but surgery was September 4 and as of Saturday I’m down 72 pounds and in February I went back to my childhood hobby of figure skating. The picture of me not in a metallica shirt is from yesterday before my freestyle session.

Hi there! Just checking in with you….did you jump through all your pre-op hoops? Do you have a surgery date yet?

Welcome!
I’m a mom of three and I chose surgery when my insurance decided that nobody really needs weight loss meds, and at that point I had lost about 35 pounds with the help of GLP-1’s. I’m not a single mom or a ‘heavy hitter’ as you say but my weight had been an ongoing issue in my life, I would lose and then I would gain it (I had lost 50 pounds after having each of my older kids only to get pregnant again) and after my third child, I never saw my pre-pregnancy weight again and she will be 13 this May. Like you, I have a lot coming down the pike with my kids that I need to be in front row for. My mom didn’t make it out of her 40’s (she was diagnosed with cancer when I was a teenager) and all of my adult milestones were celebrated without her and my life has suffered for it. Here I was at 42, bigger than she ever was and I have three kids which means 3 times the graduations, 3 times the weddings (if they want that!), 3 times everything and I need to be there for all of that.
I had VSG on September 4, 2025. The first couple weeks were a little rough but nothing I couldn’t handle. Today, I am down 60 pounds and I recently got back into my childhood hobby of figure skating which I never in my wildest dreams ever thought would be possible. Honestly, given the opportunity to do it again, I would a million times over.

I have been very open about the fact that I have had surgery and I would go back and do it again tomorrow if I had the opportunity, I feel that is a way to normalize it and to beat the stigma. Honestly, I have had a really good experience with that. I had one woman at the gym who I think thought I was trying to discount my own progress by saying that I had surgery and she told me that didn’t matter, I looked great and to keep up the good work. I’m always ready to tell folks that it’s a full-time job being a bariatric patient and that I’m not just sitting around watching my stories and eating chocolates and losing weight. I’m sure to let anyone know that I have to show up every day, be mindful about what I eat, and be extremely deliberate about my activity. I know when I first decided on surgery I believed that I would be eating my dinner out of medicine cups for the rest of life so I can kind of understand where someone who has never struggled with their weight or someone who just has a bad attitude about the whole thing might not understand what it all entails.

Three months post-op is still pretty early, so I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself. From what I’ve seen with my wife, who has gone through major lifestyle changes, the biggest challenge usually isn’t knowing which exercises to do—it’s making movement part of your regular routine.
One piece of advice that really stayed with me came from my friend Noelle McKenzie, who happens to be a personal trainer. She always says it’s better to do 15–20 minutes consistently than to aim for an hour and end up skipping it altogether. That mindset helped me stop thinking of exercise as an all-or-nothing commitment.
If I were starting out, I'd focus on walking every day and adding two or three short strength sessions each week using bodyweight exercises or resistance bands. Once that starts feeling like part of your normal routine, it's much easier to build from there.
You're already making good progress at three months post-op, so I'd focus on consistency rather than intensity. Small habits tend to add up much more than occasional hard workouts.

I have been very open about the fact that I have had surgery and I would go back and do it again tomorrow if I had the opportunity, I feel that is a way to normalize it and to beat the stigma. Honestly, I have had a really good experience with that. I had one woman at the gym who I think thought I was trying to discount my own progress by saying that I had surgery and she told me that didn’t matter, I looked great and to keep up the good work. I’m always ready to tell folks that it’s a full-time job being a bariatric patient and that I’m not just sitting around watching my stories and eating chocolates and losing weight. I’m sure to let anyone know that I have to show up every day, be mindful about what I eat, and be extremely deliberate about my activity. I know when I first decided on surgery I believed that I would be eating my dinner out of medicine cups for the rest of life so I can kind of understand where someone who has never struggled with their weight or someone who just has a bad attitude about the whole thing might not understand what it all entails.

YES! So I’m five and half months Post Op and I went back to figure skating last week after a 27 year hiatus. I fell on my butt and my tailbone has been sore since! I’ve been quoting Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite for the last week ‘Grandma took a little spill at the sand dunes……broke her coccyx’ 😆

YES! So I’m five and half months Post Op and I went back to figure skating last week after a 27 year hiatus. I fell on my butt and my tailbone has been sore since! I’ve been quoting Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite for the last week ‘Grandma took a little spill at the sand dunes……broke her coccyx’ 😆

The first pic with the metallica shirt was taken 9/3/2025 the night before my VSG….the plaid skirt picture was taken 12/16/25 and I have lost roughly 50 pounds between the two!

I’m only two months out, but I did my share of lurking on reddit and in here for 9 months before my surgery and never did I ever read anything about Keto Rash, until I was two weeks post op and ended up with it on my back!
Edited to add….this is a bit of a positive but I’ve only heard of the opposite. Nobody talks about how incredible some things taste after surgery. I’ve only heard about how folks have lost the taste for some things and admittedly, I have had some of that. But last last week I had some cake donut and it was incredible as was the tiny cup of ice cream I ate and some of the white cheddar cheese I bought at Aldi. Maybe this is because some of this was taken for granted?

I’m only two months out, but I did my share of lurking on reddit and in here for 9 months before my surgery and never did I ever read anything about Keto Rash, until I was two weeks post op and ended up with it on my back!
Edited to add….this is a bit of a positive but I’ve only heard of the opposite. Nobody talks about how incredible some things taste after surgery. I’ve only heard about how folks have lost the taste for some things and admittedly, I have had some of that. But last last week I had some cake donut and it was incredible as was the tiny cup of ice cream I ate and some of the white cheddar cheese I bought at Aldi. Maybe this is because some of this was taken for granted?

I’m only two months out, but I did my share of lurking on reddit and in here for 9 months before my surgery and never did I ever read anything about Keto Rash, until I was two weeks post op and ended up with it on my back!
Edited to add….this is a bit of a positive but I’ve only heard of the opposite. Nobody talks about how incredible some things taste after surgery. I’ve only heard about how folks have lost the taste for some things and admittedly, I have had some of that. But last last week I had some cake donut and it was incredible as was the tiny cup of ice cream I ate and some of the white cheddar cheese I bought at Aldi. Maybe this is because some of this was taken for granted?

Just an update here in case anyone happens upon this in the future and has the same questions as me.

I slept in my bed the night I was discharged and then the next three nights. I started sleeping on my couch because it started to hurt getting out of bed from being flat. I plan on sleeping on the couch until whatever bug my husband has clears up because I dont want to be coughing and sneezing at this stage of healing 😬

Just an update here in case anyone happens upon this in the future and has the same questions as me.

I slept in my bed the night I was discharged and then the next three nights. I started sleeping on my couch because it started to hurt getting out of bed from being flat. I plan on sleeping on the couch until whatever bug my husband has clears up because I dont want to be coughing and sneezing at this stage of healing 😬

Did anyone have issues with getting protein shakes in? I swear I can’t get in more than a couple small sips before it foams up in my stomach and causes distress. I can do the clear proteins fine in fact I’m loving my clear protein. I get two tablespoons of a ‘warm up food’ per day and I don’t have issues with it at all. I have many different brands and so far they all been not so great. I’m managing to get one in per day because it takes me so long to drink it.

Did anyone have issues with getting protein shakes in? I swear I can’t get in more than a couple small sips before it foams up in my stomach and causes distress. I can do the clear proteins fine in fact I’m loving my clear protein. I get two tablespoons of a ‘warm up food’ per day and I don’t have issues with it at all. I have many different brands and so far they all been not so great. I’m managing to get one in per day because it takes me so long to drink it.

Did anyone have issues with getting protein shakes in? I swear I can’t get in more than a couple small sips before it foams up in my stomach and causes distress. I can do the clear proteins fine in fact I’m loving my clear protein. I get two tablespoons of a ‘warm up food’ per day and I don’t have issues with it at all. I have many different brands and so far they all been not so great. I’m managing to get one in per day because it takes me so long to drink it.

Did anyone have issues with getting protein shakes in? I swear I can’t get in more than a couple small sips before it foams up in my stomach and causes distress. I can do the clear proteins fine in fact I’m loving my clear protein. I get two tablespoons of a ‘warm up food’ per day and I don’t have issues with it at all. I have many different brands and so far they all been not so great. I’m managing to get one in per day because it takes me so long to drink it.

Just an update here in case anyone happens upon this in the future and has the same questions as me.

I slept in my bed the night I was discharged and then the next three nights. I started sleeping on my couch because it started to hurt getting out of bed from being flat. I plan on sleeping on the couch until whatever bug my husband has clears up because I dont want to be coughing and sneezing at this stage of healing 😬

Despite all my consternation regarding whether it was polite of me to call up and ask when I could get scheduled for my surgery because it had been a week since my approval and I had radio silence, the call came with me having to do anything. I first got a call from the PA who wanted to verify all my information and give me instructions leading up to surgery and she said she was going to send it over to the scheduler and I would hear from her in a day or so. She ended up calling that day and asked me what I was thinking. Originally I was hoping for the week of August 25 because it was the free week between my girls starting school and my son starting school and my husband didn’t have any commitments at work. Unfortunately, my surgeon was unavailable that week, so I opted for the next and I am officially scheduled for September 4th! I go on Wednesday for my pre-op physical with my PCP’s Nurse Practitioner. I can’t believe this is happening!

Anyone else here scheduled for September 4th?

Despite all my consternation regarding whether it was polite of me to call up and ask when I could get scheduled for my surgery because it had been a week since my approval and I had radio silence, the call came with me having to do anything. I first got a call from the PA who wanted to verify all my information and give me instructions leading up to surgery and she said she was going to send it over to the scheduler and I would hear from her in a day or so. She ended up calling that day and asked me what I was thinking. Originally I was hoping for the week of August 25 because it was the free week between my girls starting school and my son starting school and my husband didn’t have any commitments at work. Unfortunately, my surgeon was unavailable that week, so I opted for the next and I am officially scheduled for September 4th! I go on Wednesday for my pre-op physical with my PCP’s Nurse Practitioner. I can’t believe this is happening!

Anyone else here scheduled for September 4th?

Best of luck next week!