Tiffykins

I lost 150lbs in 1 year.

tiffykins! girl how the heck are you! How is the baby? bet you've been really busy with her huh? Fill me in on how things are going. . . sorry I didn't PM you, but everytime i click onto that icon it brings me to something else, like a lily slim page with tons of atheletic cartoons. . hahaha. . . hope to hear from you soon!

Hey chickee. . . All is well here with Little Miss Tatum, she's a little over 4 months old and I'm 8 weeks pregnant AGAIN ! ! ! Talk about busy, I'm just too damn tired to do much of anything.

I lost 137+ pounds in 10.5 months. I dropped 115lbs in 6.5 months which got me to goal, the rest came off slowly as I was trying to get into maintenance and get my losing to stop.

_{It does matter to an extent, but the difference between a 36 and a 32 is less than 2mm. Regain stats show for stand alone sleeves, anything over a 40Fr bougies has a higher incidence of regain after the first 3 years. The main part of the equation is choosing a skilled, experienced surgeon who has tons of sleeves under his belt, and has a proven technique. A surgeon can use a 36, but not fully dissect the fundus or cut too far from the pylorus or esophagus and this will determine final sleeve capacity. Of course, we all have unique anatomy so that plays a role as well. Bougie size is just a tiny part of the equation.}

I lost half of my hair by volume. It started around 3.5 months, and lasted 3 solid months. I had new growth coming in before the shedding stopped. By 18 months out, my hair had returned to it's lovely, lusterous pre-surgery volume. The only difference is my hair was super wavy, almost curly pre-op, now it's stick straight.

Nothing will stop it if it happens, no amount of shampoos, pills, supplements, Protein is going to prevent it. I never took Biotin or any other supplement to "help". I did use Folicure extra care Shampoo and all it does is strip your scalp of build up so the new growth can come in.

Here's a few articles that explain it:

http://www.aocd.org/skin/dermatologic_diseases/telogen_effluvium.html

http://www.obesityaction.org/magazine/ywm22/wlsandhairloss.php

(the conclusion from the above article)

Conclusion

Hair loss can be distressing to bariatric surgery patients and many will try nutrition themselves to see if they can prevent it. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that early hair loss is preventable because it is mostly likely caused by surgery and rapid weight-loss.

Later hair loss, however, can be indicative of a nutritional problem, especially Iron deficiency, and may be a clinically useful sign. Educating patients about the potential for hair loss and possible underlying causes can help them to make informed choices and avoid wasting money on gimmicks that may have little real value.

Thanks, I didn't know you could eat as much as 1400 calories after the sleeve, I have talked to people who can only eat one quarter of a sandwich, but perhaps they were trying to control their appetite. When you say your restriction was on, does that mean that you couldn't eat that much anymore, just because your body changed somehow?

I have about 50lbs to loose, so I thought I could do that in six months and they try for the baby...

Thanks,

Sarah

Under no circumstances, could I consume 1400 calories a day at 6 months out. I was barely able to get in 1000-1100 at 8-9 months out, but I could add Snacks with 100 calories to get it up. At a year, the sleeve has typically matured to max capacity, and you can add calories very easily by eating 6-7 times a day, with 150-200 calories per meal. I had to add higher caloric and fat content foods to just get my body to stop losing. My choices were Peanut Butter, avocados, nuts, and cheese. Soft foods that didn't change my portion size, but gave me healthy fats and calories without the carbs. And, I won't lie, my cravings were absurd, and I gave in to every single one of them. I ate hoards of jalapeno cheddar cheetos and Thai food in my pregnancy. Mainly meat and veggies, but I craved candy and stupid red velvet cake. I didn't a lot of junk in the pregnancy, but I ate my fair share. It's a crazy, hormonal, and exhausting ride for sure. I can honestly say that my energy is completely gone with this pregnancy. Make sure you have your labs pulled frequently and that you are supplementing your B12 with a sublingual dosing or injections from your surgeon. B12 and folic acids are essential in pregnancy.

And, yes, during pregnancy, my restriction was much more relaxed, but within 2 weeks of delivery, I had my old, pre-pregnancy restriction back It's kind of the same thing we see/read about when women start their periods or are having PMS symptoms and they can eat more and want to eat more. Hormones are a really booger. My hungry also returned full-force in the pregnancy, but disappeared again after giving birth. It's the weirdest thing I ever experienced post-VSG. I still max out with 4-6oz of dense Protein, 1 slice of medium thin crust pizza, 1-1.5 soft taco, I can eat an entire sandwich on thin bread with 1 slice of meat, 1 slice of cheese, but that's because bready type foods are sliders for me. The further out we get, the better the stomach returns to normal functioning of mushing, grinding down food, very little absorption of anything occurs in the stomach, it's main purpose is to prepare food for digestion and absorption of macro and micro nutrients in the intestines. Early out, due to the trauma of being stapled off, the stomach needs time to recover. Transit time is simply the time it takes for food to pass from the stomach to the intestines. It's not hard to hit calorie goals especially with slider foods. Also, adding sauces, condiments(ketchup, salad dressings, sauces, other Condiments, steak sauce) ups calories very easily. A few tablespoons of Salad Dressing can give you a good chunk of calories. I never relied on liquid/drinks for calories.

Not to be discouraging, with having just 50lbs to lose, you might lose it slower than someone like me who had 100+ to lose. If you want to hit that goal, I would do everything to really maximize that 6 months, low carbs, muscle building to burn the fat, and really focus on pushing clear fluids.

Just so you know VSG won't complicate the pregnancy. I just delivered a healthy, full term daughter on 30 October. The key to pregnancy post ANY weight loss surgery is the ability to eat enough to support YOUR body and the developing baby. The baby will take from your body what it needs so it's a high priority that you can eat enough nutrients to protect your body, teeth, bones, hair and skin can all be effected by you being under-nourished in a pregnancy.

There are several women on obesityhelp on the pregnancy forum who conceive earlier than recommended. Most have normal, healthy pregnancies and babies.

I don't know how much weight you have to lose, but remember being pregnant while still obese and overweight can complicate your pregnancy further including pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and an entire slew of other complications for you and the baby. Of course, obese and overweight women give birth to healthy, happy babies every day, but if you are having to pay for IVF, or go through that process, I would hope you would be as close to a normal weight as you can possibly get to prevent as many complications as possible.

Depending on your starting weight, goal weight, and 6 month post-op weight, the doctors will guide you with your calorie, Protein, carb intake. You can not under any circumstances remain in ketosis (low carb dieting) while pregnant due to the risk of fetal brain damage. So, one thing to consider is that most of all VSG patients need to eat Protein first and have little room for carbs especially the first 6 months, you will have to eat more often to stay out of ketosis and your weight loss could be effected.

I gained a total of 35lbs in the pregnancy. I was below goal by 20 pounds, and had been in maintenance for nearly a year. Today, Tatum is 16 weeks old, and I am 7 weeks pregnant again(no it wasn't planned, nor were we being irresponsible). I had lost 25lbs of the 35lbs gained, and had just started low carbing it again to lose the last of my weight. It's been proven that low carb dieting increases fertility.

The calorie/carb/protein guideline will be based on your starting weight at the beginning of the pregnancy. You may not gain much at all if you still have weight to lose and your calorie requirements will not as high as say someone like me who was in a normal BMI range and had been in maintenance for a year. My maintenance calorie intake was 1400-1600 calories and for my pregnancy, I was advised to increase it to 1700-1800 calories. I can say without any hesitation that the body is amazing machine. During the last half of the second trimester and the entire 3rd trimester, my restriction went completely lax, I could eat way more food, and then within about 2 weeks of delivery, my restriction was back on full force so hitting those calorie goals were not difficult for me.

Best wishes, and if you have specific questions, please feel free to shoot me a message.

I have several friends with daughters who hit me up to get my GS cookie fix. This year, I wrote a nice little check for several boxes of Cookies and told her to send them to the food pantry or donate them to another family ! ! ! It's a win win for me. I get to support my friend's daughter and don't have to have those sinful goodies in my house! ! !

Awesome ! ! ! Hope everything goes through. . . I knew Dr. Riley was leaving this year sometime as he was my assisting surgeon on my revision and Dr. Michel told me that Dr. R was leaving as well.

It really sucks because I have a friend looking into VSG and she's hitting roadblocks too.

_{Okay so it has been awhile since I was last on here... I have not given up hope on this!! I do have a concern about how far can a MTF be from your location to get a referral through?? Eglin AFB is the only one performing bariatric surgeries of any kind in Florida... and it is 8 hours away!! What are my odds on getting that through?? Or am I going to have to suck it up and wait for a transfer...}

_{Any help would be good! Thank you all so much for all the input!!!}

You should be able to get the referral. The issue is going to be getting the psych eval, nutritional consult and follow up covered and that Dr. Riley agrees to take on a patient who is not within a couple of hours. Last I heard is that Eglin is super backed up and Dr. Riley is the only VSG surgeon on Eglin at this time. He assisted Dr. Michel with my revision and is AWESOME.

I know of one patient that my surgeon (who is now at MacDill down in Tampa) accepted, but she was only in Panama City which is just 2 hours away from us here at Eglin AFB. She was a revision from band to VSG, and she was able to get the referral through her PCM and Dr. Michel performed her revision.

I must confess that I decided to go off the map from here for a couple of reasons, and didn't give any notice.

Mainly, I was getting burned out. Plus, with Tatum's arrival, life has been hectic, and I haven't been up to my normal self. I definitely didn't feel like giving back much to anyone, and admittedly, I was just tired.

I felt it better for me to leave & take a break than bring negativity to the forum.

All is well, and I promise I will reply to all the messages and comments that have been in my inbox.

Tatum is growing and thriving. She's 7 weeks old, I'm doing great and enjoying her completely. I'll share more on the pregnancy after VSG forum later. We're leaving for Texas in a couple of days, and we're busy packing, organizing and getting everything ready for our trip.

My DOS 12/6/11 - I am getting worried about my probably hair loss. I have extra fine hair and its very short and totally straight, straight, straight.. does the Hair loss come back somewhat quickly or should i look into alternatives so i'm not bald. kathy

I had new growth coming in before the shedding stopped, but the new growth rate is very individualized. Start taking Biotin or other hair/nail/skin supplement. There is nothing you can do to stop the hair loss, but you can help new growth by taking your Multivitamins especially your zinc, vit d, Iron, making sure you stay on top of your Protein.

I have extremely thick, coarse hair so no one really knew that I was losing my hair.

You're probably at that point where your sleeve has matured and you can eat a lot more than you could early out, it happens to all of us. It happened for me around 8-9 months post-VSG, and to this day, I still have the same restriction with dense Proteins and solid, nutrient dense foods. Give me a bag of cheetos and I can eat the entire bag without restriction. The most difficult part of this surgery is making the best decision and changing your food behaviors. It's all about choices, and no matter what your issue is be it emotional eating, stress eating, just eating to eat, or whatever the reason, identifying, and addressing your triggers is going to be the only way you can guarantee success. I have to still make the best choice on what I put in my mouth or I'll gain weight. The sleeve only does so much. I do not know one single, naturally thin woman who is my age that could eat like I did pre-op, or just eat a bunch of craptastic food and NOT gain weight. So, I had to realize that skinny chicks have to watch what and how much they eat as well. They can't just eat crap food all the time and be healthy and skinny. It's just not a reality, and for some reason I think when we have surgery, we expect that the sleeve will keep us on the straight and narrow for life. Sadly, that's just not the case. It's all up to us, our brains and our behaviors/habits to really tackle life post-op, and keep the weight off.

Counseling, and a solid support group might serve you well.

Also, google the 5 day Pouch test. Even though we do not have a pouch, it can get your back on track. I refuse to do the all liquid aspect of it, but I will completely eliminate carbs and eat no more than 30gr of carbs per day to get back to eating Protein first, and no bullsh*tting my way through it.

So, least to say, this week has been eventful, and I want to thank you all for the messages, good thoughts, prayers, and support sent our way this week. I apologize I haven't replied, it's just been hectic.

Sunday, I woke up feeling very exhausted, and feeling lots of pressure in my pelvis and back. I just kept on getting things ready for the week, checking things off the list, and hanging out at the house. I laid down for a nap around 1pm, and woke up at 4pm to lots of pressure, and general cramping, just thinking it was normal Braxton Hicks pains, I didn't reallze I was in full active LABOR.

Around, 5pm, we headed to Labor and Delivery just because I started feeling pretty weak. We get there, get hooked up, I'm having major contractions, and they checked me, dilated to 3cm, 50% efaced and already at -1 station. WHEW, I do admit I have a huge pain tolerance, and I never labored with my son so I was pretty oblivious to what all labor entailed. The doctors were amazed that I was tolerating everything so well. But, they knew I couldn't deliver vaginally so the pressure was on to get me prepped.

Now, the time crunch begins to get me to the OR. Prepped and ready to go, Csection went off without any issue, my labs looked stellar, and at 9:33pm, Tatum entered this world screaming, kicking, flailing and ready to bring joy into our little world. We just arrived home today, both of us are doing great. I've already lost about 12-13lbs of the weight gained, but I'm retaining fluids, weaning off the prednisone. Breastfeeding has been a great success except my supply is way down, and we're supplementing due to her weight dropping pretty quickly. We're doing 70/30 breast/bottle. It's what is best for both of us. I'm trying ot eat more food since they would like me to hit about 2500-3000 calories a day to support both of us, but as we all know that's pretty touch without eating pure slider foods, and junk. However, I'm doing what is working for both of us, and confident with our choices thus far. She came out rooting around, latched immediately and has made it very easy on me and her. Our nights and days are mixed up, but I've gotten good at napping with her.

30 October 2011, 9:33pm, Weight 7lb 4.9oz 19inch long Perfect in every way. So far, blonde haired, blue -eyed ! ! !

"I'M HERE"

My capacity for dense Proteins have remained the same since about 7-9 months post-op. Now sliders, breads, crackers, pretzels, junk foods, I can eat a lot more of those foods. Liquids go right on through, I can guzzle Water now, if I really gulp down a huge drink, I might burp afterward, or feel a little tightness but for the most part if I swallow liquids, they go in and out.

For reference, I can eat;

1 slice of medium pizza of thin crust pizza

1 small fajita with Beans, a little rice, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and about 4 small strips of chicken or steak

I can eat 3 inches of a meatball sub from Subway minus the top part of the bread, I can only eat the bottom part of their rolls.

Steak 4-5oz depending type of steak and how it is prepared

chicken breast - about 1/2-3/4 depending on what I eat with it

I can eat pretty much any type of chips, Cookies, pretzels, crackers without feeling much restriction at all.

Chili type consistency stuff is about 3/4-1 cup

Yogurt or anything extremely smooth like mashed potatoes give very little restriction as well

If I stretch my meal out more than 35-45 minutes, I can eat more. If I eat Protein mixed with other foods, I can eat more. If I eat salad or starchy stuff with my meal, I can fit more in.

If I follow the rules all the time, I still have phenomenal restriction at 29 months out. For most social settings, I eat just about the same amounts as my other skinny friends. Of course, social lunches and dinners can last 1.5-2 hours so I can eat quite a bit more.

Look at that tiny waist in the making ! ! ! Keep rockin' your sleeve chickee ! ! !

Many congrats on your success thus far ! ! !

That's over 5 times per day of the carbs I consumed during my losing stage. If you're willing to live the DS lifestyle, the 20-30 vitamins/minerals per day with the DS, then you can move forward, but I wouldn't do it without doing low carb, higher Protein and seeing if your co-morbidities resolve.

Also, with the DS being done in the 2nd stage, it's shown to not be as effective with weight loss and co-morbidity resolution.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend strolling over to the DS forum on obesityhelp.com and check out dsfacts.com for more information.

You'll have to cut carbs significantly if you go DS because even the DS doesn't beat carbs, and then there are the unpleasant side effects if you eat carbs with DS.

Oh, and there's plenty of women who still have weight lose who lose weight until the end. It's NOT out of the ordinary to not gain weight in pregnancy especially after weight loss surgery.

I have a very close, personal friend here in real life, she just had a baby, gained a whopping 12 pounds and delivered a healthy, thriving, full term 8lb baby. So, weight gain is NOT inevitable, and you might continue to lose a few pounds here and there. I didn't gain for months into my pregnancy, and here I am 3 days away from delivery with a 35lb gain which is what the doctors predicted and told me to shoot for.

Not a lot will change to be honest. You'll just need a 200-300 more calories, more carbs, if you still have weight to lose you might not gain a lot.

You know all about the baby stuff so just good follow up care.

If you've read any of my pregnancy updates over the last 9 months, you know that VSG has not complicated my pregnancy in the least. There's plenty of WLS patients who conceive before the "recommended" time frame, and even some surgeons are loosening the restriction on band and VSG patients because honestly, there's very little issues with pregnancy with the non-malabsorptive procedures.

You'll be great, the baby will be fab. Just get your calorie/protein/carb goal from your doctor and adjust your intake accordingly. I can't remember, but I don't think you were a super low carber so you might not have to change much. The biggest challenge is the water/clear Fluid intake increase to over 100oz per day.

Fort Hood

MacDill AFB

Eglin AFB

Willford Hall at Lackland AFB

There's one in Washington State (I can't remember the name)

California has several between Army and Naval hospitals

I believe the hospital on Langley AFB is offering VSG as well.

Georgia has a couple

I've been drinking soda almost daily for almost 18 out of my 29 months post-VSG. No change in sleeve capacity, no exploding guts, no ulcers, nothing.

I'm not a beer drinker, but I love my rum/cokes ! ! !

I would wait on the psych eval. One of the main questions/concerns with bariatric surgeries is unrealistic expectations. There's so more than to just getting it done, healing up, and losing weight. The mental aspect of WLS is overwhelming even for the most researched, well-versed patients. The cutting part of the surgery is just a tiny part of the equation. I was a revision patient, I had been to a couple of seminars for my band, been through 3 nut classes, researched more than what most people have in every aspect of surgery, nutrition, found a mentor who was already 2 years out, picked brains, read, read, read, paid for a subscription to medical journal sites so I could get my hands on full research articles and publications, least to say, I still wasn't completely for everything that came with life post-op, and how to navigate through my complications. I was prepared, or so I thought for complications/obstacles, but honestly, I had a lot to deal with post-op. Way more emotionally overwhelming than I was prepared.

My psych eval was a joke to say the least, but one of the main conversations we had was about the expectations of surgery, and life post-op. I knew the questions that would be asked, but when the psych asked "and when you lose weight what do you expect to find out about yourself?" I was stumped completely. I was already confident, didn't have self-esteem issues, nor did I allow people to treat me poorly because I was fat. So, I didn't have any expectations on what I would find out about myself. Least to say, that couldn't be further from the truth.

I was on TPN for over 2 weeks, and was weaned off over a few days.

Clear liquids for 17 days, then I was on full liquids for a week and then progressed through mushies/puree/super soft moist foods for another month or so, and actually stayed on purees/mush food until 3 months when I could really eat a more solid, dense meal more than once per day.

It's just your personality, and it's something that you'll have to work through as you lose weight. I honestly didn't get anymore attention than I did when I was fat because my personality didn't change. I didn't start wearing revealing clothes, I didn't start acting differently. A lot of what we put out there is what we get back, at least that has been my experience.

But, the self-sabotaging behavior you describe might need to be addressed through some counseling to find the core reason why you set yourself up to hide behind being fat. It's pretty common actually, it keeps people at arm's length, it's keeps you from getting hurt so it might be beneficial for you to work with someone on these behaviors so you can work through as you lose weight.

Best wishes ! ! !

What's scarier; surgery, improved health, a little excess skin, OR ending up in a pine box 10 years earlier?

That's all the rationalization I needed to make me get over all the little things that had me "worried".

I'll gladly take my wrinkly, excess, flabbiness over back fat rolls and thighs that rub together all the time.

Every one of your concerns about food intake/water/dehydration are all very temporary in the grand scheme of events. At over 2 years out, I guzzle Water, I eat normal bites, don't chew things to mush, and have had zero issues supporting my body and another developing human in my body through this pregnancy. I have zero issue consuming 1700-1800 calories a day. And, if I really want to do so, I can easily hit 2000 calories by eating more mushy/sliderish foods. Most days, I forget I only have 15% of the normal sized stomach, it's just life now.

Fears are normal, but at the same time, my fear of dying early was far scarier!