Lee

VAmom, I'm still pre-op so I don't have any answers for you, but I wanted to come say hello. I think it's so normal to be nervous before surgery. There are a lot of great people and I know that someone will come and answer all of your questions for you. Please stay in touch and let us all know how you're doing.

Katrina, you're getting so close. Maybe you'll get a January date!!

Anna, good luck with your surgery tomorrow!

Good Morning Team! Beatriz, it was great to meet you on Tuesday. I'm the Lee that you met. How cool that you got your fill on Friday. You're looking really gorgeous and vibrant. Monique, I'm so sorry you're in Bandster Hell. I hope you get your fill soon. I weighed in at 232.6 on my home scale this morning. That's always a little lower than Kaiser scale. I have some serious work to do these next two weeks if I want to make 230 on the Kaiser scale at 6pm with my clothes on. These holidays are hard. I'm not eating unusual things, but I find myself wanting to eat just a little more on my plate. I generally gain 5 over the holidays so this year I'm really challenging myself to lose 5 instead. Blah! Regular work week for me until Thursday evening. My son has a flight from Houston to Oakland on Thursday morning. He's out there driving towards Houston this morning. They left NYC at 5 last night after the snow started melting. I just called and they're driving through Tennessee this morning headed towards New Orleans. Time to shower and head into the office. Wishing you all a wonderfully healthy day filled with good choices!

I can sure relate to that scale telling me how wonderful I'm doing. I've been using the scale my entire life to tell me whether to feel good or bad about myself. The times I'm happiest, I've put the scale away. I've had to put it in the trunk of my car to get away from it. I call that desperation! I had my gallbladder removed on 11/2/09. The night after surgery, I was up 10 (TEN) pounds. Since I hadn't eaten anything, I knew it was from the gas blown into me. It took me several days just to get back to what I weighed the morning of surgery. Hang in there. The scale will move and regardless of what it says, you're doing great! Put a new script into your head. Come up with a mantra that makes you feel good and everytime that nasty voice sneaks in, replace it or just tell it to shut up!

Hi Judy, We're all here because we ran into trouble with food in the first place. If we were great at following plans in the long term, we might not be here. I've been a compulsive eater for 50 years. When I walked into my surgeon's appointment the first time, he asked why I wanted the surgery. I told him that 50 years of dieting was enough time and I was done with it. I have a lot of compassion for you right now. I guess I'd just like to ask what we can do to help you get over this rough patch. I think that everyone wants you to be healthy and successful with your Sleeve. How can we help? Can you give us an idea of the plan that your doctor sent you home with? My doctor stresses three meals a day with Water in between, for life. I know every doctor is different. This is all going to work out in the long run!

deedee, You look gorgeous. The gym work that you're doing to help your skin is really paying off for you.

3 years ago, Chinese calendar, year of the cow . . . Mad Cow disease. 2 years ago, Chinese calendar, year of the bird . . . Avian flu. This year, Chinese calendar, year of the pig . . . . . Swine flu. Next year is the year of the cock............... Anybody else worried?

LOL Tamra, my son is gorgeous but not so single. Thanks for the prayers.

Good Morning! Please say a little prayer for my son who's driving from NYC to Houston today. I can't believe the day he's supposed to leave is the worst weekend. Congratulations to everyone doing so well. How cool is this during the holiday season. Whomever said that support doesn't help is nuts. :thumbup: Thank you all for helping me to stay on track. Tamra, congrats on good choices last night! Riley, what fun to watch you dating. I have an ad up on Plentyoffish but haven't really been checking it lately. I feel like I'd rather wait until a couple of months post surgery. My scale is going down by ounces, but it's going down. I really hope my office doesn't get into loading the kitchen with junk this week. Thank goodness I eat lunch with people who aren't into eating sugar and junk, just good healthy meals. Jes, how cool that you and Monique are going to the same party. I know what you mean about shhhhh. We're all so different in when and with whom we talk about WLS. I really don't want to tell anyone in my office and maybe I won't, but I've told my closest girlfriends and my son. I walked with a RNY friend yesterday. She's 6 months out, down 60 pounds, 80 total and couldn't be happier. She went in wanting the band but Dr. Parks convinced her that the RNY would be better for her. She's in a size 8 today and said it was amazing to walk 3.5 miles now as compared to 6 months ago. I can't wait!! A friend is coming over later today for a TV marathon of the last two weeks of So You Think You Can Dance which is my fav tv show. I'm going to spend the rest of the day relaxing and getting a few things done in the house. Probably a walk later this morning as well. Happy Sunday! Let's make this a day of really healthy choices!

Good Morning Everyone! Nicolie, I hope you're feeling better this morning. YAY on the 3 more pounds. Pat, congrats on that wonderful weight loss. I don't think we're going to be in surgery close to one another because Dr. Baggs told me February or March. I'll have to see how it works into my work schedule. I want to take a week off, work from home for a week and he doesn't want me traveling for the first month. Riley, how was your date last night? Tamra, eat more food please. One meal a day is tough to sustain in the long run. If I do the one meal, I end up overeating at some point because it's too hard to keep up. Please don't forget that we're trying to teach ourselves new, better eating habits so that we can be successful after surgery. Candra, I'm confused. At the meeting on Wednesday you said that you don't want to eat and that you have no interest in food. But yesterday you wrote that once you start eating you don't want to stop. Are you fighting the food? I know that I want to keep eating when I have too many carbs, or when I overeat. Both of those just trigger me something fierce. Yup, down to 4.6 until I'm at surgery goal, but the holidays are upon us. I find that if I eat out, even if I chose very wisely, I'm still up a few pounds the next morning. With my son coming home, I know we'll eat out some. I have to plan very carefully to get those pounds off and keep them off before January 5th. My friend Bonnie told me that they will cancel your surgery if you're not still at your pre-surgery goal weight on the morning of your surgery. That's a big motivator!! I have a walk around Lake Merritt (3.5 miles) planned for this morning with my friend Bonnie. Late this afternoon I'm going to see Up In the Air. I think it's going to be a fun day! Wishing you all a fun Saturday!

Thanks Tiffy!

Did anyone else order these? I'd love to hear another opinion on them before ordering myself. Thanks!

InternetAngel, I'm so happy to read that you're not in pain anymore. What a wonderful outcome to what started out as such a sad story to read. Enjoy the holidays!

My program is a 1200 calorie (lowered carbs) diet for the months it takes to get from orientation until surgery day. My surgeon saw my liver on a CT scan done last week and told me everything looks great. He wants me to lose 10 pounds and get all of my appointments done. He only has a couple of days of clear liquids after the surgery. Kaiser Richmond uses the same diet for all three surgery types. It seems like every doctor has different requirements.

Dan, I sat down and wrote a list of all the risks of having surgery. Then I wrote a list of my risk in not having surgery. I'm 59 and 100 pounds overweight. My family history is stroke, heart conditions and kidney failure between my two parents. They died at 88 and 91. I still have a lot of years to live, if my body holds up. I decided that I have a better chance at 30 happy years if I have the surgery. Plus, I don't want to be a burden on my son. I'd hate him to have to take care of an obese, sick mother who can't do for herself at 80 (if I made it that long). So, my risk of not having the surgery outweighs (no pun intended) the risk of having it. Only you know what's the right choice for you. I'm looking at February or March for my surgery. Maybe we'll be on this journey together!

Hi Everyone - happy Friday! Riley, good luck tonight. We want details please. :biggrin: I agree, I don't think the gal left because of the comments, she said she was leaving early. It was also my friend Bonnie that talked about having that bit of champagne. Bonnie left early because she had to go to the Pharmacy. I stopped in and had a nice chat with Bev this morning before my 8am psych consult. I want her to know who I am and like me so that I'll want to keep coming to the meetings. I want someone to keep me accountable. I don't want her to tell me it's ok to have a drink, I want her to call me on the carpet. Looking at the long term success people in that room, they seem to do the program by the book. I've done it by my book and it got me to 249. I figure they must know there stuff there at Kaiser Richmond. I hate admiting I don't know everything! :sad: My psych evaluation went great. I also stopped and had blood drawn for the tests Dr. Baggs wanted run. Now it's just up to me to take off the weight. I'd love to be at surgery goal at the first Wednesday support meeting in January. How cool would that be! Hang in there everyone, we can make it through these holidays!

Hi Dan, I met with the Psychologist this morning. I had a very different experience as mine was very supportive of the Sleeve. She encouraged me to read as much about the surgery as possible so that I'd know what to expect. I went into my surgeon appointment last Friday determined to convince him that I should have the sleeve. I had all of my information written up, but in the end, he was the one that told me that I should have the sleeve. I just slipped that little piece of paper back into my pocket. I had a list of questions to ask him about the surgery, recovery etc. He said he was really happy that I was so well prepared and encouraged me to always come prepared with questions for him. I'm going through the Kaiser Richmond program in Northern California. Good luck!!

Tiffy, congratulations on recognizing what a wonderful husband you have. You two look adorable together!

Good Morning! Great to meet some of you at the meeting last night. Now I have faces for Candra, Tamra and Jes. Riley, you sound like you're having the time of your life with all this dating. I can't wait to hop in line and do the same in a few months. Monique, what can we do to help you be accountable and get back on track? You can do this! Ashley, I wrote to you over at verticalsleevetalk in our Kaiser Thread. I rarely go out to dinner, particularly on this 1200 calorie regime because it's too difficult. I went to a birthday dinner for a friend on Tuesday night at BJ's in Concord. They do have the calories on the menu which I love, but it didn't help me much. I watched the table have martini's, beer and wine while I sipped water. My entree was chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli, no desert and even now today I'm still up close to three pounds. I had less than 400 calories before dinner knowing it would be high, so I had one 1800 calorie day in over three weeks of less than 1200 calories. It's so frustrating to eat one meal, gain three pounds and not be able to get it back off. So that's my goal of the next few days, drop those off at the bus stop along with another few pounds! Happy Thursday! Tomorrow I get to meet with the Psych at 8am for me evaluation.

Hey Ash, Now we're gonna be Sleevsters. I'm so happy Dr. Chu thinks you're a good candidate for the Sleeve. Did you like Dr. Chu? You've been losing great. We may be lined up for surgery at around the same time. Oh what fun! :001_tongue:

Good Morning, Just a quick fly-by so that I won't be late for work. I'm going to the Kaiser meeting tonight. I'll be wearing black slacks and a blue and black blouse. I'll wear my turquoise LL Bean type rain parka. I hope to see some of you there!

Rosebud, what a wonderful six months you've had. Congratulations on wearing your success!

Thinoneday, you can do this! The holiday season is going to distract you and it will be over before you know it. You're so close to surgery. Think about how great you're going to look next year for the holidays. You definitely can rock this!

Thank you! I like how that sounds. I've been reading about it on google and it makes me feel reassured about potential leaks to have the reinforcement.