wicked

Sorry, just realized I never replied to your question. I do have excess skin. Not as bad as I thought I would have (nothing like the TV show Tight Skin, in other words) but I do want to have plastic surgery to remove excess skin from my arms and legs (my stomach is okay). I also need a breast lift! I'm much happier now, excess skin and all, than I was when I weighted 300 lbs.

I'm almost 1 year out of surgery and I went from a 26 to a small (top) and 8 (pants and dresses). I'm still hoping to lose about 20 lbs and go down to a 4 size for pants and dresses. The picture attached was taken this past February at 173 lbs and 9 months out of surgery. I went back to Texas for a vacation and posed in the exact same spot I posed for a picture at my highest weight (345 lbs) years ago.

Congratulations! You look wonderful... like a new person!

You look amazing!! Congratulations!! I'm always inspired by your posts and it's great to finally put a face (and a knockout body ) to your words.

My doctor and nutritionist told me that the first 6 months are the phase of "rapid weight loss" and that I should try to maximize my efforts to get the best out of this time. They didn't tell me that I would stop losing after 6 months though... that is the voice of my own fear. I'm glad to see so many people here who are still losing after 6 and more months; it gives me the hope and confidence I need to keep going.

Thanks everyone!!

Thank you!

I'm celebrating my 6th month anniversary today! I lost 91 lbs and have had no complications so far (fingers crossing this trend will continue). Prior to surgery, my medical team stressed that most of the weight loss happens in the first 6 months, so part of me now is thinking, "Oh shut, what if I don't lose anymore?" I still have at least 30 lbs to go... so this better not be it. I don't mind losing more slowly as long as I can continue to lose. I have loose skin, of course, and I guess I'll just have to live with it for now. But I'm happy, healthier and this is still the best decision I've ever made. I walk at least 2 miles (and sometimes more) every day and I go to Zumba whenever I can. Sometimes I get sad/angry and wish I had done this 5 years ago, instead of having that stupid lapband placed. But then I remind myself that I did the best I knew back then... and when I knew better, I did better. Here are my celebratory B&A pictures.

I take 2 Ursodiol (to prevent gallstones), 1 Multivitamin, 1 Vitamin D, 2 calcium, and 1 Iron pill per day. I take b12 vitamin every other day because at my last check up I had too much of it in my system so they switched it from every day to every other day. I take my 1st ursodiol and calcium first thing in the morning. I take the multivitamin, vitamin D and b12 together with food (usually lunch time) and than I take my 2nd ursodiol and calcium in the late afternoon and finally the iron before going to sleep (paying attention to have at least a 2 hours gab in between calcium and iron). The calcium is my favorite supplement because it tastes like a miniature chocolate brownie: https://www.celebratevitamins.com/calcet-creamy-bites-chocolate-fudge-90-count.html

Thanks everyone for the kind (and wise) words!

Thank you both for the kind words! I do feel good, but I still can only see the difference if I look at the side-by-side pictures. If I look in the mirror, I see myself just a little bit smaller than before (even though intellectually I know that 65 lbs is not "just a little bit," and plus it's 66 lbs as of this morning ). I don't know why the mirror reflects a different image to me than the pictures do, but I trust the process. I still have many steps to this journey and maybe I need to still give a proper goodbye to the person whom I have seen in the mirror for so many years before I can see what other people see. Thank you for the encouragement! It helps tremendously!!

I'll be 4 months out of surgery tomorrow (well today, since it's 3:00 am) and so far I lost 65 lbs. I'm thrilled about the number, but in all honesty I struggle to see what other people see. I look in the mirror and I see the same huge person. When friends and coworkers approach me and tell me, "You look small!" my first thought is that they are making fun of me. I usually answer, "Thank you, but I think what you meant is that I look smaller, not small." I still have a lot of weight to lose to be at a healthy place so when people use words like "small" I struggle to believe that they are sincere. In an effort to cultivate positive thinking, however, I went shopping today and took pictures of myself for the first time since surgery. I then put old and new pictures side by side to remind me that I am getting smaller and that I'm slowly but surely walking away from the old me (at least on the outside). When did you start to see yourself the way other people did?

Thanks for the latest replies to my thread. Just to update you, I did end up getting gastric bypass and the band was removed at the same time on May 13. I stayed with the same surgeon who originally suggested keeping the band in place. I simply told her I wanted the band out and she agreed to remove it. I'm glad I stayed with her because everything went well, and 3 months out of surgery I'm 60 lbs down. Not an easy journey, but very well worth it. I'm glad the band is gone. Good riddance!

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. My medical team found specimens that they labeled "suspicious for Barrett" in my esophagus. I work in the same hospital where I had my surgery and all pre-op tests so I had access to my files. When I read it, I freaked out. They did a biopsy though and thankfully, I had not developed the disease (but I was very close). I googled Barrett esophagus and lap-band because no one had told me about this potentially serious consequence and I was scared. I remember finding a couple of academic articles, like this one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997783 From what I read, having Barret does not mean that you will develop cancer but it does elevate the risks and therefore requires you to have an upper endoscopy more frequently than people who don't have Barret (every 2 years, I think). I wish you the best of luck with safely taking care of this condition.

You are already look amazing after 3 weeks! I can definitely see the difference; keep up the good work and thank you for the inspiration!!

I'm 7 weeks post-surgery. I struggle with meeting my Protein goals, but for the most part I have followed the nutrition's guidelines. I have not touched bread, Pasta, baked goods and I hardly eat any carbs (the few grams I get in daily are part of protein meals). I had a graduation today and someone backed home-made chocolate chip Cookies as a present for everyone; she went around the room and personally gave one to all attendees. I felt so bad refusing that I took one, put it inside a ziplock bag, put it away and forgot about it. Until I returned home and emptied my bag. I ate the cookie and immediately starting feeling guilty and panicking about dumping syndrome. But what happened is that not even 10 minutes after eating the cookie, I could not keep my eyes open and fell asleep (fully dressed) on my bed. It felt like when I had to take the oxycodone and it would knock me off within minutes. I woke up 3 hours later feeling hungover. I don't think that I experienced dumping syndrome... right? Does it mean I don't dump or does it mean that one cookie is not enough to make me sick but enough to knock me down? I had no pain whatsoever, no need to use the bathroom, no sweating, no nothing. I just could not keep my eyes open and crashed. I'm trying not to shame myself for eating the cookie; I'm a therapist and I know that shame never motivated anyone to do any better. Shame is probably what fueled my weight gain to begin with so I know all too well that if I beat myself up what will follow is, "well, I'm a failure, I messed up... I may as well mess up more." Instead, I'm acknowledging that I have allowed old habits to creep in for a moment, that it's okay to make a mistake and I'm committing to promptly return on my road to recovery and weight loss.

No one told me that a percentage of people who has GB will have to have their gallbladder removed. I read somewhere that it is 15% to 25%, which is not exactly small. My surgeon never mentioned it; I found out online. I would have likely still had the surgery, but I wish I had been told.

Although I weighted at 291 the day of my surgery, I came back home 298 (darn fluids!). I'm 10 days post-discharge and weighted in this morning at 288. I'm absolutely aware that half (or more) is Water weight and that the weight loss is inevitably going to slow down and even stall from time to time. But I still can't help having a big fat (pun intended ) smile on my face knowing that I'm down 10 lbs. The pain is almost completely gone and I'm in the pureed food stage (yay!). I still miss food terribly at times (or maybe more the idea and the social aspect of it), but all in all, I'm grateful for this new chance at life.

Nothing to drink 15 minutes before meals and 30 minutes after meals for me.

For a couple of days now, I have experienced a numbing on my right upper thigh, with pins and needles sensation when I sit or lay down. It makes it impossible to fall asleep without pain medications (not because it's painful, at least not for me yet) but because the numbness and tingles are so uncomfortable. I put some ice on my leg yesterday and it barely made a difference I looked up my symptoms and meralgia paresthetica makes the most sense; one of the risks factors is surgery or trauma exactly in the place in which most of the work is done during GB (also the part of my body that hurt the most). I attached a picture for better understanding. I looked into it more and found that there have been studies and peer-reviewed journal articles on meralgia paresthetica and bariatric surgery: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10484294 http://minsurgery.com/?page=article&article_id=5091 Anyone else dealing with this? I hope that it will go away soon.... it is so uncomfortable, I can barely stand it anymore. :(

I was first denied (1199SEIU); my medical team appealed and I was approved in 2 weeks. The appeal process was so quick that I didn't even get notified of the denial before my doctor called me to let me know that they appealed and won. I was clueless anything had even happened. Good luck!!

Please do look into the Affordable Care Plan (Obamacare). If you are not insured and not employed, you should qualify for coverage. I'm so sorry this has happened to you when you were so close to having the surgery.... I can imagine how devastating that must be. But do not give up. You might have to wait a little longer but you can still accomplish your goal! Sending you lots of positive energy!

Thank you so much for the support. Today is a tougher day; I got my period yesterday (I was sort of hoping the surgery will confuse my body enough to skip a month but nope...) and the pain of the surgery coupled with cramps brought me back to the liquid hydrocodone (and constipation). My non-caring attitude towards the scale is beginning to shift. As of today, my weight has not gone down at all and it starting to get to me (I blame the hormones)! But I try to catch myself before I start swimming too long into the negative thoughts. One day at a time. Today is not a good day, but maybe tomorrow.

The booklet I received with post-op instructions say 30 days, that's it. Here it is verbatim: "Do not drink alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and liquor) for one month after surgery." One year seems really extreme. I hardly ever drink so it won't be an issue for me either way.

4 days, and I needed to take Benefiber and Milk of Magnesa.