BlackBerryJuice

Thanks, I'll look into that. I suspect the most likely cause is school-related stress, so we'll see if it improves in the summer when I get a few weeks off.

Oh man. I was a hardcore binger pre-surgery - and since then, I've had thoughts of binging maybe 2 or 3 times. I read this book, "Overcoming Binge Eating Disorder" - forgot the author, but look it up on Amazon or at the library. It gives you a pretty good plan to work on your binging before your surgery date, and also provides a lot of information about what triggers binging. The main trigger is actually hunger! With reduced hunger after the sleeve, you'll have way fewer binge urges and will be able to control them better, because you can isolate the mental urge from the physical hunger.

I definitely thought about food quite a lot during the clear liquids stage - it's just so boring! However, it never got as bad as it would've gotten pre-surgery - I stuck to my 10 days of clear liquids and never had anything that wasn't allowed on that stage. I was able to control myself, thankfully, so hopefully, so can you!

Can you ask another parent from the teams to drive your kids to and from practice for a few days? And get them to help you as much as possible - they might not know how to start a washing machine, but if they are strong enough to wear the equipment, they can most definitely lug it to the laundry room and shove it in! Nothing bad will happen if you miss a practice or two. My parents went to exactly ONE recital throughout my childhood/teenage years, and I haven't turned into a rambling drug addict (yet?).

My doc recommends a 3-month check-up post-op, which includes an upper GI (fluoroscopy) to make sure there are no tiny leaks, strictures, or other structural complications, and blood work. The blood work is pretty basic, he said the only ones that are required would be a CBC (complete blood count) and B12 - just to make sure you are not anemic. My primary care doc added liver enzymes, as rapid weightloss can sometimes result in gallstones. They all came back fine! I asked Dr. Aceves for long-term follow-up advice and he suggested bloodwork once every 6 months - no more fluoros as long as you don't have any symptoms. I think I'm just gonna do it once a year as long as I don't notice any anemia symptoms.

Haha! I guess someone was even more desperate! But I wish I had your problem - I've had basically zero sex drive for the last 6 months or so, my boyfriend's annoyed (although understanding). I thought it'd get better when I lost weight (nope), went off the pill (nope), or exercised more (nope). It's kind of frustrating.

Ditto on finding time - or, in my case, also the sewing machine-operating competence! I just gave mine away to this at-risk high school kid who wants to be a designer, because I gave up on ever producing a straight seam with that thing. I leave it to the tailor - thankfully, there's one just a block away from my house. I've kept my pear shape after the weightloss, so I still often have the waist taken in at the back on my pants. Tailoring works miracles - I remember one time I had the waist taken in on my jeans and the next time I wore them, 2 people commented on how I had lost weight - no one noticed it before.

My dance teacher had us do sit-ups on the hardwood floor yesterday and my tailbone hurt so bad, I couldn't get through the exercise! Nothing hurts when I sit, though - but thanks to my genetics, my last bastion of fat is centered right in the butt/upper thigh area, so I think I'd have to get to like 100 lbs before my butt would be skinny enough to hurt when I sit!

Scary! But if you have a slow metabolism, do not exercise, and have like one drink or fancy latte per day, I could totally see regaining some of the weight - although not all!

Interesting, I haven't heard anything like that! I'll ask my dentist if the calcium thing is true next time I'm in for that cleaning that was due in August 2010...har har.

The only risk is going all out and then getting hypoglycemic - 800 calories is not a lot. So I would stick to stuff that's more low-impact like walking or swimming. Intense workouts can make you quite hungry, which may make sticking to the diet more challenging!

It doesn't cause ulcers, but it can worsen GERD (heartburn).

Hmmm, it's too bad that you have to deal with these comments - I agree, it's pretty annoying. But I feel that one of the reasons that your friends are claiming you have a "bad attitude now" is maybe because your response to them can come off as pretty prickly. As irritating as these comments might be, if you want to keep these friends (which, of course, you may not! and that's totally understandable), you'd have to entertain their stupid questions and be a bit more patient. For example, this is how I'd respond to these annoying statements: Annoying friend: "You've lost your shape!" You: "One of the reasons I had weight loss surgery is because I didn't like my old shape...my new shape fits into an awful lot more cute clothes! Haha! *change of topic*" Annoying friend: "You don't need to get any smaller!" You: "This isn't so much about size for me, but more about health. I love how much lighter and more energetic I feel now that I weigh less, and it's so much easier to walk and run without all that extra weight! Did you wanna join me for a 5-hour hike in the mountains this weekend, by the way? *friend will change topic herself to get out of this offer*" Annoying friend: "You do not need to go to the gym that's why you had surgery!" You: "Exercise is very important for health and well-being. In fact, it has been shown via research that overweight people who are active tend to be healthier than slim people who are sedentary. Not only is it great for your cardiovascular system, but also your mental function and your moods. Would you like to go for an hour-long run with me this evening?" Just some ideas. If you respond in such a manner that doesn't antagonize them further and is entirely logical (why wouldn't you exercise when it's so good for you!?), they'll just stop making those comments. And if they don't, then maybe it's time to find some new friends.

I think it's because it's a diuretic. But once you are a few weeks out, you shouldn't have any problem getting all your fluids in, so it shouldn't make a big difference. I've developed more of a coffee habit recently, I guess it's my substitute for various other types of junk food from back in the day. The tricky part is not to succumb to all these fancy lattes with syrup. I like my coffees flavored and really sweet, so I recently fell prey to this dark chocolate raspberry latte and upon coming home and getting online, found out that it was 300 calories for a SMALL! I'm starting to consider just buying a bottle of sugar free syrup, pouring it into a little container, and carrying that in my purse/backpack for when I feel like a sweet coffee.

I think vitamins after VSG are a very good idea. The benefits of vitamins for regular folk are debatable, but for us, inadequate intake is very much a possibility, especially in the first few months when you barely eat. Get a chewable or a gummy vitamin - but read the labels, gummies often only have a handful of vitamins, so you may need another pill for calcium, for example.

SN................Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.....Lbs to Goal Avilda......................275..........187..............177..............10 BlackBerryJuice.........208..........145..............145................0 Brendasgonnalose...335............224.............225..............-1 bugwitch....................291..............286.4...........283..............3.4 Cherice95405..........248...........177............ 164...............13 Chilo1.....................216...........158.............154................4 Cludgie................235..............210...............209..............1 Coops ...................238...........185...............177..............8 Cwalker.................250...........180...............170...............10 Daisy......................237..........138...............130................8 DJackson..............229.............217..............215................2 HollyW...................259............214..............215..............0 Ibejjo.....................249...........249...............229.............20 Juliarh...................230............213.6..............215............-1.4 Kimmes................239.............197.8.............200..............-2.2 Kgremmy.............225.............210..............199...............11 Laylasmojo...........242............180...............170...............10 LeslieH.................212...........204................199..............4 LilMissDiva...........235............222.8.............220.............2.8 livelovelaugh.. ...236............ ..207........ .....189..............18 Mellifrits...............210............132..............125................07 Meriteri................240............187..............170...............17 MichelleLee..........252...........222................199...............23 MINI-Me...............203.............124.6...........125...............0 & holding! mlr777................200.8...........174.6...........160.............14.6 Mommy2Girls.......275...............240............228..............12 Moniluv.................190.............190...........178...............12 MRSKOUBIK...........317............266.............255..............10 pattimomof3nj......203.4...........160............155................5 PlannerGirl………..…327…..……..275…….........255………….....20 Sailorgirl................240............220.............200..............20 Should've updated this, I've been at 145 for like 10 days now. Weighed in at 144 this morning, but considering today's eating bonanza and my boyfriend talking me out of going for a run, I suspect it'll be back to 145 tomorrow....

I also have bradycardia, I'm generally in the high 40s-50s when at rest, although I've clocked in as low as 38 at the doctor's office. Basically, the only thing that really matters if whether you have any symptoms, like chest pain or dizziness. If you don't, it's probably just physiologic bradycardia - your heart's normal rate.

Well, one way to think about it is that you'll have less tissue where something could go wrong! Kind of like skin cancer being the most common cancer out there - you just have so much damn skin, once you get to a certain age, something is pretty much guaranteed to go wrong in one of those millions of cells. You are also likely going to be hypervigilant about any GI symptoms because you have a sleeve, so if you do develop an ulcer or something like that, you are probably much more likely to get checked for a mild stomachache than a non-sleeved person! And if you are worried about stomach cancer, it's quite rare, and one of the symptoms is early satiety (due to tumor obstruction) - but for a non-sleeved person, this symptom would be a very late one, whereas a sleever would notice it very quickly because are stomachs are so much smaller, so it's easier to notice if you suddenly can't eat as much. The main risk for stomach cancer is long-standing H. pylori infection; when they do pathology on your stomach tissue post-op, they will check for it. And if you ever get stomachaches, they can do an easy breath test for H. pylori. H. pylori is also quite easily treated, with a round of PPI and antibiotics for 3 weeks, I believe.

Psych's interesting, because it's such a "soft" science. I remember going to this talk where a forensic psychiatrist talked about how nebulous it is, and he showed us a case where this guy was basically raging hardcore, threatening to kill his family members, etc. Then they committed him for a few days, and suddenly like 5 days later he does a complete turnaround and becomes an angel on Earth, so they release him a week after. Same night, he hacks 2 of his relatives into pieces. The psychiatrist in that case was sued, but won the case, because he basically said there was no way to predict this could've happened. I have an acquaintance in med school who really shouldn't be there, and he said he wants to be a psychiatrist "because no one can ever prove you made a mistake." Kinda makes you think twice. Bottom line, unless you wander into their office naked rambling about aliens sending you messages, you can argue that you're healthy as a horse and you are guaranteed to find another shrink who'll tell you just that.

3 months as per my doc.

I agree with Globetrotter in that it's best to try to find something close to home. There are quite a few European sleevers on this forum, I know there are people who've gotten sleeves in Spain and Czech republic, and I'm sure there's lots of options in the UK, as they have a major issue with obesity there, as well. I've heard lots about sleeves done in India, as well - not super-close, but still closer to you than Mexico. I mean, you are PROBABLY going to be ok, but it's one thing to have a medical emergency when flying over Europe where a plane can land practically anywhere and you can get medical care within half an hour and another to have a medical emergency over the Atlantic ocean - where it could take 5 hours for you to get help, at which point it may be too late.

Got mine at 25. 3 months later, hit my lowest weight in a decade; now I'm at my lowest weight since I was a tween. Why wait if you've got the financial means or insurance approval now? All you get from being fat for another couple of years is atherosclerosis and degenerative arthritis that much sooner than if you were at a normal weight. And like MRSKoubik said earlier, the psychosocial benefits are amazing! Only downside - everything I try on these days seem to fit, so "browsing" always turns into buying!

Wow, even found some dumb bimbo to wear a white coat and pretend to be a PhD!

Maybe I'll try that, thanks. I don't wanna take a PPI unless I actually have the burning symptoms. I'd rather eat more and maybe risk regaining 2 lbs than break a hip at 40, lol.

I was worried about anemia and my blood count was normal at my 3-month check-up. I probably won't have another one until 1 year out, unless I start feeling funny. I take B12 and Iron maybe 2-3 times a week. Re: saggy skin, yeah, it's not esthetically pleasant, but someone who's slim with sagging skin will still look fine in clothes, whereas someone who's obese won't have that advantage. Plus saggy skin is not a serious medical condition which will shorten your lifespan, whereas obesity is. Last but not least, if you are very big and expect major loose skin problems, there's always surgery for that.