Waffleking

My biopsy came back negative for h. pylori. No cooties here, ladies!

I have to lose 10% of my body weight (actually ended up being almost 45 lbs) before my surgery and if I'm even one lb over even on the day of surgery, they'll cancel it! I still have five more lbs to go...I'm doing a low carb/low calorie thing. Using phentermine occasionally to help with the extreme hunger I was experiencing.

Kelly, I did and it helped me a lot. Even after going on an extreme low carb diet, my weight was bouncing up and down and even with less than 10 grams of carbs per day, my hunger was completely out of control. Every weight-in I had with the Association of South Bay Surgeons in Torrance was up and down and they weren't even going to consider scheduling me a date until I could lose 30 more lbs. consistantly. So I gave the nurse practitioner my sob story about my extreme (and I mean extreme) hunger and she perscribed phentermine. Wow, I lost 20 lbs. in 2 and a half weeks! But it made me feel weird and I didn't sleep well at all. I just stopped taking it last weekend because I wanted to get some sleep. I have a bunch left over and I'm going to lose this last 10 on my own. I didn't have any problems with it being "habit forming" or anything like that. I had never taken any pills like that before in my life. I don't think it's a long term solution to anything but it helped me get a jump start for sure.

But I want to be skinny overnight!!!

Yeah, I'm one of those "extroverts" who definitely processes his thoughts as he speaks. Hopefully I'm a little more sensation than your mom though! PS: I didn't mean to hijack the thread. I'm personally erring on the side of telling as little people as possible about my WLS.

Sombody's read Myers-Briggs!

Of course that's what she's going to say. She's making a ton of money getting people to "eat less and exercise". And if the weight comes back, even better! Repeat customers! I think she's scary.

Great question! Mine is on the 14th and I'm wondering too.

You're a tattoo artist? Where are your face stars? Kat Von D has face stars! JUST KIDDING! My brother is a tattoo artist and you are right, it can be very looks oriented. Good luck on your journey!

I've been losing weight as part of my pre-op plan and telling people that "I cut out the carbs" really seems to work well. The response is usually a weird look and something like, "Oh...I can't do that, I have to eat bread!" and they never ask me about it again. When people comment that I look like I lost weight I also say, "Really? I don't think so...I hadn't really noticed.." and that stops the conversation as well. Technically, it's not lying!

This part: really stuck out at me. Oh, the many many times I've "put my mind to it". Unfortunately, I think this is what the majority of American's feel or believe, even the overweight ones. It makes me not want to tell anyone, including close family and friends that I'm having WLS. It's like religion and politics, no amount of facts will change their minds. This lady was just brave/stupid enough to tell everyone how she really feels.

That's actually very interesting. Although, the only body image I have for myself after hitting goal is one with a lot of loose skin hanging off it!

I've told maybe five people that I'm having the surgery and one of them is my boss. Due to all the time off I need (for appointments and then the surgery itself in a few months), I figured I would just be open with her. She turned out to be extremely supportive of my decision and has been very flexible with all of my appointments so far. Maybe I was just lucky in that department. I do not have a history of calling out sick or anything like that so that might have had something to do with it. I am, however, very wary of the stigma and negative people. There is a lot of that out there and I am keeping my decision very private, which is unlike me.