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.

Welcome to your new life! Personally I have found I can't tolerate milk anymore. I used to love it. I am 4 months and one week out and can eat pretty much anything now. Watching portions is really important, overeating causes serious nausea. I have been fortunate to have never actually thrown up. Not that way for a lot of other folks. I can eat maybe a cup of food total, up from a few ounces at the very beginning. Take things slow, listen to your body, and know that every week there will be improvements and subtle changes. Today is the first day that I am below 200 lbs in over 15 years! Whoo Hoo!

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!

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.

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.

Hope you guys are doing okay today! It only gets better from here! Prayers for you both!

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!