Hopeful loser

I'm considering plastics later on this year. Did insurance assist because of the bariatric surgery?

I have weaned myself off the scale as often as I used to, now I hop on maybe twice a week. Today I got on and it's the first time in about 15 years that I'm below 200 lbs! YAAAY! I've found that I can go up and down with Water weight about 3-4 lbs during the week, but once the weight drops to the lowest, it may rise a bit, then drop lower over the course of a few days, so I try to pick 2 days a week and check it. Maybe Thurs. and Sun., and see what I have. And I know if one is low and one is high, within the next 7-8 days I should see another couple of lbs drop off from my lowest point.

Yep, welcome to the club, don't worry about the stall, and don't weigh every day. Your body goes up and down by a couple of pounds every week anyway. I'll get on the scale one day and be 4 lbs. lighter 2 days later. Unreal. Your body has a lot of physical adjustments to go through, as does your digestive system. You will lose weight.

I had a great experience with Aetna. Individual companies can also put their own spin on procedures too, as mine did. I had a 6 month mandatory Dr. supervised diet I had to do, as well as psych, drug testing and a couple of other things. I had also done a medically supervised weight loss program for a couple of months during last year's holiday season, which actually counted in my favor, as it was all in the last 12 months, so I was able to pull all this together, have my Dr. run the tests in her office, write her letter of support, send all that over to Aetna, call my Aetna contact, make sure she got the paperwork and have it approved very quickly once they received everything. They were very helpful. I'm sure it helps to be kind too.

It takes awhile to get your energy back, that's for sure. Your body is running on so much less than it used to. And your hormones have been affected by the surgery. I myself am colder than I once was. I'm not sure how old you are, but I would think it's a function of your body adjusting to the changes it's going through. Every week you'll feel better, some days you'll feel whooped! I'm at 3 months and feeling much more myself than in the first 2, and I didn't have any set backs or problems of any kind.

I was sleeved on Sept. 4th. So far, down 48 lbs, including the 15 I lost before surgery. I've been very fortunate so far, can tolerate most foods now except for milk. I seem to be lactose intolerant now, it upsets my stomach, but I do eat cheese. Can't do ice cream, but some frozen yogurt. I eat a lot of greek yogurt. Haven't really had any problems, just have to be mindful of how much I eat, still trying to figure out that one. About a cup of food total now is about right, sometimes too much depending on what it is. Still have to make myself not to drink for at least 40 minutes after I eat. I am very happy I had this surgery and very thankful I have not had issues with vomiting.

I am 3 months out and haven't lost any hair. Taking Biotin daily, as well as the other Vitamins. Hoping to dodge this bullet!

Probably because you are NOT getting in your liquid is why you aren't seeing any weight loss. That's what my doc pushed as even more important than the Protein for the first month. If you don't get fluids in, your body will try to retain all it can, and hence, you will hold on to weight. Start getting in that liquid, preferrably nice cold Water, and go from there. Also, probably why you are so tired. Get those fluids in. You will feel better. You can do this.

This is a major change and to think that we should be back to some version of "normal" in a couple of weeks or even a month is just not NORMAL. Really. Let's be real. We have altered our digestive tract and our body's ability to take in and process all food. We have to heal. We have to change habits. We have to re-learn how to eat, what to eat, how to deal with what we can't eat, and what constitutes "full" now. I'm 1 month out tomorrow. Every week brings new things. Some are good, some are weird. I've discovered the batteries on my freaking scale are cooked, that's one problem that's been frustrating me that will be resolved tonight. My body evidently doesn't like milk now, but cheese is fine. Go figure. That may change in a week or two.

I now have these odd "spells" for lack of a better term. I'll be fine, then completely lose all energy and lay down and sleep for 3 hours. I've slept more this month and I guess that's good, because my body needs to heal, so I just sleep away. I took 2 three hour naps this weekend. I still can't walk every day because I'm either at work or at home or it's raining, but I'll get there. It's 4 weeks out. 4 weeks. Don't regret what you haven't given yourself time to even heal from yet. If you could stand in the mirror after eating yourself silly with Chinese, or chocolate, or pizza and beer, or whatever you used to stuff your face with, and then hate yourself for, right now, you wouldn't be any happier. Be kind to yourself. Be gentle. Like yourself. You are worth every single minute it takes to rebuild yourself from the inside out. If it takes a month, a year, 5, whatever it takes. No one here made this decision lightly. This is NOT the easy way out.

I had my surgery on Sept 17. I am praying that this is going to get better. I am usually up and about but I don't even have the strength to clean my own house. Thank God my husband is keeping up with things while i am down (well at least doing the best that he can). It is even a task to help my kids with their homework. I knew that I was not going to be 100% after the surgery but I certainly did not think that i was going to be functioning at 10% either. Maybe it is just a stage that will soon pass. I know that everyone experience is different but i feel like i got the bad end of the stick.

Last night I regretted this sleeve, I mean I hated it. I ate 1/4 cup refried Beans mixed with 3 cheese cubes(melted) and a dollop of sour cream, it went down so good I thought okay I can do this. Well this morning around 2:30am I was awaken by a painful feeling in my chest. "What the hell is wrong with me I thought"? I sat up in bed, grabbed my computer and started researching (through the tears that is) the sleeve symptoms. My husband works 3rd shift so he was not home for me to lean on. Anyway I found out that I was having heartburn. Well wait on damn minute "I have never had heartburn a day in my life". What have I done to myself? Did I change one problem and cause another? I am just so confused and hurt. I don't want to eat anymore food for fear of the heartburn because i can't be up all hours of the night with 3 children. I am just so sad about this I don't want to live with this for the rest of my life(No other choice now). And the way that it felt I think that I would rather be "FAT" for the rest of my life. I hope that things are going to get better and I can look back on this and say "Why were you acting so babyish'? Sigh.....

Just confused and venting............

Don't worry, I don't think it's going to continue like this for you. Today is my 3 week anniversary. They fixed a hernia for me too. Since they fixed it, I haven't taken any heartburn/reflux medicine, and I've been on that stuff for at least 7 years. I think your insides are just re-adjusting. The first food I ate was scrambled eggs and I really didn't like the way I felt after eating them a week and a half ago, but now, I feel much better, food goes down much better. I still have to be careful not to eat too fast and too much. 1 bite is the difference between fine and very uncomfortable and I really need to learn when that is. I think every day will bring us something different to deal with until our stomachs are healed and we are much further out than this. I have more energy this week than last. I actually walked almost a mile last night for the first time, and I have more energy at work. Hang in there with the baby steps and take Mylanta if the heartburn keeps up.

Water goes down so easy, you can drink a lot of that because it pretty much goes right thru, which is why I guess they keep telling me to eat, and then not drink anything for at least 40 minutes or so, so I don't wash the food out of my stomach and overeat. I have felt hungry, but it's different, although once I really think I needed to eat, it seemed like my blood sugar took a dip and I needed some sustenance. I'm trying to put something in my stomach every 3 hours. I don't want my metabolism to stall out completely. At work I go a bit longer than that sometimes, maybe 4 hours. Or I drink a Protein Drink.< /p>

There is a lot of support right here on this forum for you girl! Everyone has a different story to tell. Some of us are blessed with support, some of us have none, some of us are dealing with friends or family who are frankly jealous of the fact that we have decided to take a bold step and move forward with a plan. It's all good. We've all got our journey to take, and you can take it here with us. Look at the forum subjects each day and someone will answer. As always, make sure to check with your Dr, nurse or nutritionist if you have a real problem or are unsure of the safety of a food or medicine. Everyone's body is different and our bodies all have different responses to foods on any given week after surgery. DON'T eat anything dense or hard to digest in the first 8 weeks, that has been stressed to me a LOT. Like chunks of steak, hot dog, anything that can get stuck or lodged in your pouch. And be careful of food that expands when you swallow it, like bread, popcorn, carbonated beverages, rice, Pasta. That'll make you feel really bad. Good luck!

You'll be fine! Just follow the directions and don't cheat. Congratulations on coming through the surgery! Fight off the head hunger, get through this liquid part and in a couple of weeks you can get on the creamy liquids, so you'll be able to have Soups, cottage cheese, really squished egg salad, refried Beans with melted cheese. sugar free popsicles are tolerated really well, just don't eat too fast, take your time. You go girl!

Every time I see pizza on tv I drool. Man, I am dying for a slice of pizza! Haven't tried cereal. The nutritionist told me if I wanted to have oatmeal, that's fine but to remember that's about 25 grams of carbs and she wants me to keep it to 25-50 carbs a day. I can't even think of carbs right now, I'm still trying to get used to eating some kind of food and get the Protein and drink the Water. egg salad works, had that this weekend, ate too much too fast and felt sick. I'm frustrated with this scale too. I seem to go down, and then gain a pound or two. I don't know how that can be since I maybe eat 1 1/2 - 2 cups of food a day between cottage cheese, yogurt and refried Beans, and have a Protein Shake, herbal teal and water. Must be my weird body adjusting to all this but it sure is frustrating. Guess I should stay off the scale for a week, but that's hard. I'm going to try and integrate the walking this week. Other than going to work last week and walking around my house, haven't done that. Just haven't had the energy. Maybe that'll help. Tomorrow is 3 weeks since surgery day.

This is day 18 since surgery, the end of the 2nd full week after the surgery week. I must say this week has been up and down. Every day has been something different. A couple days I felt great, went back to work Monday, then by Thurs. I left work at 3, came home and slept, got up to go to work on Fri and felt tired, sweaty and woozy, decided maybe it was better to take the weekend and rest some more. Have slept a lot. I've been on thick liquids and pureed food since Tuesday night. Be careful with this. As much as you think you're ready for it and sick of liquids, your sleeve may well have another plan. Cottage cheese works the best, at least for me. Refried Beans with melted cheese works pretty well too but beware of eating too fast. I can do maybe 1/3 cup at a time. Same with the yogurt. Sometimes I get that hard stuck feeling just below the breast bone and I feel like it would be great to throw up, but I don't. My mouth just fills up with saliva and all I can do is spit it out and walk around until the feeling passes. Not a good feeling at all. It's a real balance between trying to start with "food" and leaving the Protein Shakes behind. Still supplementing with those, especially when I feel bad from ingesting food too fast. Finding that eating or drinking a thicker Protein smoothie or shake too fast doesn't work at all. Watch that bad habit. Like if you're watching tv or something. Did that last night. Drank a thicker shake walking around Walmart today too fast and felt horrible standing in line waiting for the check-out. Clammy and faint. Have to wait on the chewable vitamins I got from the metabolic clinic. They definitely do not agree with me right now. Upset my digestive tract. Still using the adult gummy vitamins and I think I'll continue to do that for another week until I can introduce "fork soft" food. Quite a process here, just listen to your own particular body and take your time. As I've been reading, everyone has a somewhat different plan from their Dr. it seems. Some of us have the 2 week liquid, 2 week thicker liquid (yogurt, cottage cheese, pureed food) , 4 week "fork soft" food and then on to the regular food plan. Don't rush it. One gal in my Dr's practice blew out her sleeve last week eating a burger way too soon. Certainly not worth that kind of disaster.

For the sleever who's bladder froze for 24 hours, I had that problem too after the catheter was removed. Happens to me every time. It's like bladder paralysis for a few days actually, really takes it a while to get used to working again. I hate that! Hang in there! We can do this! Every day gets better! Take the spasm pills, take the nausea pills, have patience and think how far we've come already!

If you're wishing you lost more weight (in actuality, I've lost about 9 lbs. since my surgery day 14 days ago) my nurse said there is still Water retention, swelling and bloating and not to fear, this weight will be coming off! Happy news! I wanted to see more too!

Back from my two week follow up from the Dr and on to pureed FOOD! Yay! scrambled eggs extra squished with cheese too! I know how much we want to taste something other than Protein Shakes at this point but we had an interesting conversation about food, this gist was this: About 6 months from now, when we're all slimmer and happy with our looks and our success, our sleeves aren't going to keep us as diligent as they are now. It'll be up to us to keep those carbs between 25 and 50 per day, Protein first, all the Vitamins and Water, etc. It'll be easier to wash down the food, eat more, and get more in. The sleeve won't be as sensitive. This next 6 months is to teach us the difference between head hunger and real hunger, and to give us the power over foods that cause addictions in us (like carbs and sugar for me) versus foods that work for us. For example, yeah, you could go for the ice cream, but if you do and it's in the house, you'll eat it till its gone. Could be candy, could be chocolate, chips, whatever your craving is. My mom is a diabetic and I see that working all the time. She lives with us. I am one month on the other side of all my addictive foods. Do I want to keep it that way, or tempt myself again? You open that door, you gotta be strong enough to close it again.

Just wondering how much time people spent in surgery?

I was in surgery 2 1/2 hours and almost 2 in recovery.

Terrific! Can't wait to hear how you're doing!

Congratulations! I had mine two weeks ago today! It was a great decision! Do exactly what you are told and you'll be fine. Do you have a pre-op diet? Follow it. It'll make the post op easier. First couple days are tough, the worst part will be the gas that's in your body, but you'll be amazed how quickly you feel better! I was done with the pain meds pretty quickly. Other than being tired the 2nd week, I feel almost like I didn't have surgery at all! You're going to do great!

I'm 15 days out. Today is the 2nd day back to work and I'll see my Dr. later for the first follow up visit. Hoping I can start on purees tomorrow and thicker stuff like cottage chees and oatmeal. 28 lbs so far. Blessed not to have much nausea unless I swallow too much or eat too fast. Gas pains were the worst. I'm finding the Protein Shakes I make myself are good ( coconut or almond milk, whey Protein, greek yogurt and your fav fruit) , as are Premiere's, nectar fruit protein mixes you mix with Water, and Muscle Milk. My husband bought a Nutri-Bullet (made by Magic Bullet) and that will turn anything to liquid and preserve all the nutrients and Fiber in it - flaxseed, walnuts, spinach, kale, all fruits - this thing is amazing! If you buy it from the website, you can get this great book that gives you all kinds of recipes for the mixes. You get a LOT of nutrition packed into each cup you make. This is going to prove to be a great investment. Just drink the first few at night, at home, as they act as quite a cleanse in the beginning, until your body gets used to drinking pure nutrition.

I was sleeved on 9/4, so tomorrow will be 2 weeks and my first follow up visit. I should've starting puréed foods and thicker stuff-oatmeal, cottage cheese, and I'm going to beg for eggs. I had a really good hospital experience. Pain pump that I could hit every 10 minutes myself. Very attentive nurses,that were intent on pain control. I was walking later that day and discharged the next evening. The worst pain was the gas, which traveled all over my body and lodged mostly in my shoulders and chest for a few days. It took a week for that to completely subside. I've had very little nausea, just a couple times when the frozen yogurt Popsicle I was eating filled me up too fast.

For some variations on Protein Shakes, I've blended blueberries, bananas, strawberries, or a combo of what you like with plain Greek yogurt, coconut or almond milk, and a scoop of vanilla whey Protein and a few ice cubes. Tonite I tried a couple spoonfuls of Peanut Butter in there. That was very filling. I've also added plain Protein Powder to cream Soups like Tomato, sweet potato, and potato leek. Water and sugar free pops have always been easy to get down. So far 28 lbs pre surgery diet to now!

This is a really hard part I know. You're allowed to have 3 Protein Shakes and Jello, broth, Water, chrystal lite, etc. right? I had to do it for 7 days. You can do this! Space out your shakes as far as possible. I tried to do them at 9a, 2p, 7p. And I drank herbal tea, water, broth, chrystal lite, ate sugar free popsicles and jello all the time in between. I also chewed sugar free gum. The first 3 days are the hardest too. Then it'll be over for you! I had my surgery on the 4th. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks. Today is my first day back in the office. I worked from home last week.

that is fabulous 16 days later! there's hardly anything there! skin is just amazing stuff isn't it..

they look really good! not bad at all!