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I am almost two months out from my sleeve, and I have to admit that I am both elated and confused. In all of my previous weight loss programs, the scale generally would reflect weight loss. But not this time. For example, right now I'm in an almost one-month stall at around 195 pounds. However, I continue to shrink, and yesterday put on some size 14 pants that fit like a glove. This does not seem physically possible. In the past, I had to get down to around 175 before I was a size 14, but 195?! Weird. I'm not complaining, mind you. The skin on my face, upper arms, and belly is shrinking during this stall, and I even see the rear of my cheekbones near my ears. (Long time no see, old friends!) So, this is not a bad thing. But does anyone know what is going on here? I exercise, eat carefully, drink lots of Water, yadda yadda yadda. Is it water retention? Have I entered a parallel universe? Anybody out there who has experienced the same thing?

Thanks guys. Yeah, I've lost some weight in the past, but nothing like I expect with this surgery, so it's something on my mind. I've been overweight my whole life, so I know and expect some skin to be there after, but I'm hoping with excersize after, it will help. And skin care, of course. My first and most important goal is to better my health by losing the weight, but I can't help but to think of some of these things that will happen because of the fast weight loss. My insurance might cover panus, with skin issues/rashes, I think, but it has to be paired with other problems. Although, I probably will be changing insurance next year, so that might change.

So glad I am not alone on this! I swear, this is the weirdest thing. I'm still more or less on a stall, but I actually can see the bottom of my ribs! My size 14 pants are starting to feel a bit loose, and my gym pants kept sliding down when I worked out the other day. I'm not complaining, though...

Hello! I got banded 7 days ago and I am down from 292 to 272 - 20 pounds in 7 days. I am following a simple food plan right now... typically protien shake blended with Fiber Bran Cereal in the morning, bean Soup for lunch and egg salad with light mayo for dinner...and Water or decaf tea all day. So I am not starving myself, but definitely a drastic reduction from the pre-surgery days. Is a kind of drop (20 lbs in one week after surgery) unheard of?

Can anyone share anything that they feel helped with the excess skin issue? I know hydration and exercise are big things. But has anyone had any luck with products, scrubs, lotion, homeopathic, essential oils, brushing etc ? I'm 10 months out down 95 pounds which is hopefully the end. I'm not sure I want plastics. I am struggling with arm and leg skin.

Ugh, bananas - IMPOSSIBLE for me to eat with any fill. I could eat an apple with the skin more easily than a banana. There is no rhyme nor reason to what our bands will tolerate. I couldnt eat easily bananas, yogurt, ice cream, juice, milk, but I could easily eat bread, steak, raw carrot and salads.

I have felt exactly how you are! When I first had my Lap band surgery i told absolutely no one. My parents and thats literally it. I was not ashamed but I was scared of not succeeding and everyone knowing that I went to such extremes for me to still fail. Well it got to a point where I was vomiting so much from my lapband and loosing weight that I did indeed tell a small group of family members. This time around for this surgery I have only told the same small group of family and friends. They are a bit more understandig when it comes to going to restaurants or going places when they know, because otherwise they just kept asking me over and over again why I wouldnt eat or why this or why that. But they have also been very understanding and supportive. Now the family members who arent as supportive I have decided not to tell, not like to them but just not tell them.

New- not sure what surgery is best for me. I need some advice please. I am 39 5’7” and 263lbs, I have diabetes, high cholesterol, HypoThyroid and kidney stones. My dr specializes is bypass but can also do the sleeve. He suggested the bypass. For the longer weight loss. But I am scared to have bypass cause I am a snacker and I don’t want to loose all my nutrients with bypass. I also have a calcium deficiency and take meds for that. Plus the dumping syndrome is making me worry and think I will be in bathroom a lot with bypass. Also I look good when I was 170 to 180. If I have bypass or sleeve will I go smaller than that? I look sick at 150?

OK i am stuck at 6 lbs, I was loosing daily but last 2 days nada. I tried to excersise a bit and got sort of dizzy, HMM 6 lbs not good enough need 10. I guess by Monday- preop day? How you guys doing?

I had open surgery too, also because of prior abdominal surgeries. My surgery was August 31st. The hardest part is ... it's nearly impossible to tell if whatever you're feeling "right now" is from the sleeve surgery itself (removing part of your stomach), or from the fact that they cut your gut wide open. Every little twitch or minor ache, I have to ask myself ... is this on the SURFACE (the skin/muscles around the large incision), or is this on the INSIDE (the stomach alterations)? The nurses in the hospital will (innocently) treat you like a laproscopic patient. You're the exception, not the rule. You'll have to point out to a few of them that you had the open surgery. Just a minor adjustment, nothing serious to overcome. It's more likely you'll have a little more pain than other patients. After all, you had a huge incision, not several tiny ones. You may have more follow-up doctor visits, or more frequently. You may even be set up with a home nursing service, specifically for wound care. I had that. They visited a few times, made sure the wound was healing well, and taught me how to care for it. You will be more likely to wake up from surgery with a JP drain, and you will be more likely to have it remain in place longer than the laproscopic patients. My drains stayed in for six weeks, but my case was extreme, said the doctor. You may get lucky like me ... when they made the large incision, they had to cut through some nerves. Those cut nerves resulted in a good deal of numbness around the incision itself. I still can't feel a touch on the skin, I can only feel it if you apply pressure. I think, for me, this made the recovery process much less painful. You will find yourself reading most of these threads, always thinking "That may not really pertain to me". You will see people talking about healing times (yours will be longer), about lifting restrictions (yours will be larger), about range-of-motion precautions, and you will always be a little "different". You may even have different nutritional requirements, because you have a lot more healing to do. You will see people asking "Can I ride a bike? Take a flight?", basically asking "How soon can I do XYZ after surgery?". Whatever the answer, you will have to apply some mental adjustment because you're different. Just get used to it, whatever the typical "thing" is, you won't always fit into the typical. Please feel free to reply here with questions (or message me directly) if you need a fellow open-surgery patient to bounce some things off of.

No not a flutter more like pounding , u also noticed it after I drank my protein shake tonight ... I feel fine now except I still have loose bowel

The only person who knows I have saggy skin is my hubby! I look pretty awesome in clothes if I do say so myself! LOL!!! When I was morbidly obese, the whole world knew I was fat. I'd rather be secretly saggy than obviously fat! ha ha! Besides, that's what plastic surgery is for, if you so desire (and I desire!!!!)

You can’t predict how much loose skin you’ll end up with but you can guarantee you’ll have some. I feel like I’ve earned my loose skin. And, for good or bad, a part of me thinks I deserve it too - I put on the weight & stretched out my skin. No one else did it to me or made me do it. I don’t have a lot of sagging skin but it’s there. It doesn’t really hinder anything I wear. I never wore a bikini when I was slim & younger so there’s no way I would now so no loss. I also have no desire to wear shorty shorts or mini skirts so no one will see the saggy bits on my inner thighs. And to hide my bat wings, I just don’t wave my arms in the air & don’t wear anything very strappy or strapless. Honestly, I had minimal pain after surgery. By day 4, I didn’t need any pain meds & I didn’t have any gas pain at all. My only problem was my back which went into spasm on day 2 but it really didn’t have anything to do with the surgery as such. I had quite a bit of swelling which caused me difficulty swallowing to begin but it was gone by day 4. I had no trouble sleeping on my side from day 1 & healed very well. But we’re all different. You can’t predict how you’ll respond to the surgery. Just be realistic & be aware of the possible side effects, but don’t let something that may not happen or is easily managed scare you from having the surgery. Stress is never good for healing or recovery. Good luck with your surgery & on your journey.

Correction: I would rather the excess skin vs. the excess body.

Well, I KNOW that I wrote an entry yesterday and hit the button that said to "Publish Now". But it disappeared, and it never showed up on my blog space, so being technologically ignorant, I don't know WHAT happened to it. Oh well, not going to worry over it. It's post op Day 8 for me, and I am loving being able to advance my diet! For those of you who have been reading about my journey (I'm not really sure anyone is reading this but me), I went to the doctor again yesterday for my persistant low grade fever of unknown origin. He decided that I had a mild urinary tract infection, and put me on antibiotics. And guess what? As of this morning, after only TWO antibiotic tablets, I have been fever free for almost 12 hours!!!! I am so happy, I am dancing in the aisles (figuratively anyway). I was beginning to get worried, and I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders! Happy Dance!!! Last night my husband got the idea to take Ella (6 year old grand daughter) to the neighboring town to see the Cars 2 movie. It was fun, she loved it, and in the darkened theater, I sucked on and dissolved three of her chocolate M&Ms until they disappeared! I am bad! But oh were they good! And today I got up, and I lost two pounds! I am down 31 pounds now. When I stumbled into the bathroom, I looked in the mirror and thought "there is that FAT girl in the mirror again!" I didn't look like I had ever lost an ounce. BUT after washing, brushing, flossing, etc, I stepped on the scale, and low and behold, down 31 whole pounds! My first thought was "I gotta adjust my weight loss ticker!" Even if it doesn't show yet, the scale rewards me with positive reinforcement, just by moving down a notch or two. Talk about a RUSH! I will be flying back to California a week from today to return to work. So one of my projects this week is boxing up my "too small clothes" and mailing them to myself in California. I mentioned a couple of days ago, here I have lost 30 pounds, and none of my clothes seem even a little bit loose on me yet. But I am confindent that EVENTUALLY some of my stuff is going to start to look big. Hopefull ALL of my stuff with start to look big on me, and I will NEED to move to my smaller size clothes. Also got to box up my scarpbooking stuff and mail it to myself, so I can work on some of my scrapbook projects on my time off. And today I am going to attack my house and clean. I may not get the whole house done, BUT I AM GOING TO MAKE A DENT IN THE MESS AROUND HERE!!! I am sick and tired of living in a mess, and am going to do something about it today. I did something about the mess my body was in 8 days ago, and today I start doing something about the mess my body is living in. To any and all of you VGSers, Have a Great Sunday! I'm heading down to the treadmill.

Congratulations! I was banded December 9. My first follow up visit was a week ago & I am down 25 pounds! My pants are already loose! My first fill will be Jan 16 -- a little scared, but I know that everything will go well. I started soft foods now. Let me tell you that scrambled egg I made (using Egg Beaters) was the best thing in the world! My son & I even took a 30 minute walk today -- which made me tired, but also gave me confidence that I can do it! I have a long way to go, but it truly is "one day at a time". Best of luck on you journey!

Do you mind me asking what are they saying is the medical necessity? I am about ready to also go see the plastic surgeon, but I was informed insurance never covers this type of surgery.....I have heard in the past though of people getting infections under the flap of skin causing bacterial stuff, etc. and that you need to document and take pictures over a period of a year and then they will say it is medically necessary. I have had seveal bouts of the skin under my flap turning red...but then it gets better...red, then it gets better, etc., etc., etc. I am blown away that you have lost 275 lbs.....hell, if anyone can lose that much weight, they should guarantee plastic surgery for you....you are a miracle and such an inspiration. Good luck on your surgery and please keep us informed as I will follow your posts, because soon I need to start the journey and I would love to know what to expect. I have been following both of the Julie's posts and they are also remarkable and both are miracle's.....I dream of plastic surgery one day...I just don't have the money right now.....

When I decided on the sleeve vs rny I think the difference was like 13 lbs I think sleeve people average loose 60% and bypass people usually lose about 70%. Depending how I am feeling in a few months I will probably talk to my doctor about switching to a bypass, but for me its because of reflux. I had pretty severe reflux before, but I let the doctor talk me into a sleeve, and now it is the same or worse than before so I might be one of the revision people too. I'm down almost 40lbs but my weightloss has slowed this week. I think that people who have the bypass lose faster, but from what the doc told me by 2 years everyone is about the same.

My skin is breaking out like I'm 16 again and I'm 40!

Nice NSV and maybe take your daughter to some seminars, she is seeing what you're going through. Ask her if she would be able to deal with it all. And yes if you can help her get to a healthy weight at this young age then it's a great idea. Or maybe ask her to work with you, follow what you are eating and exercise together then if she has really given it her best shot and didn't succeed help her look into banding. My daughter is 15 and my sons 15 and 18 they are all within a healthy weight range. From the day they were born I made it my goal for them to never have weight issues ( highly likely as I did have issues). I kept them active from a really young age and encouraged them to find a sport they loved and would stick too. My daughter choose gymnastics ( been doing it since she was six) she has a beautiful slender strong body, my sons choose rugby and archery ( both fit and muscular), I also cooked every meal, rarely bought them take out and always encouraged them to eat fresh fruit, it's paid off thank god even though I didn't follow my own rules. Lately my daughter has started nagging me about buying her some skinny tea program to loose weight. I keep telling her no and to not start with fad diets ( she doesn't need to loose anything but her friends are all doing it), I keep reinforcing that she needs to eat good Protein, vegetables and hardly any processed foods as she needs good clean foods for the 12 hours of hard training she does every week and if she starts these stupid fad diets her sport will suffer and she can start to mess up her metabolism ( what happened to me over the years). Teach your daughter what she should and shouldn't be eating , I know she is old enough to know but we tend to loose the idea of what's good and what's not, work together as each others support. Best wishes to you both.

Hello! Was just wondering whether there is anyone else out there having their sleeve on the same day as me? I am booked in at Mi Doctor Hospital under Dr Lopez for the 20th March. I know it's going to be difficult for me and I'm a Registered Nurse that works in Endoscopy/theatre, but I am travelling from Western Australia alone. Was hoping I could befriend someone whilst there! Any advice and support would be greatly appreciated. I have been reading many many posts on this and other sites so think I know what to expect and what to pack. Unfortunately I will have to endure a very long flight with 2 plane changes along the way, so just keeping my fingers, toes, legs and anything else I can cross crossed and hope that I am comfortable enough to travel back on the 27th, landing back home 2 days later on the 29th. I then have a week at home to recover. I am thinking I would normally have 2 days to recover from the jet lag alone but I have the option to take more time off if I need it. I have only told my 2 best friends and they think I am mad, but my husband is very supportive but couldn't get the time off from work. Please someone tell me I'm not crazy! I have always been the fat kid and now fat adult, been on and off too many diets to remember loosing some then regaining it all back plus more for over 30 yrs, I now finally say enough's enough. Thanks in advance

I have a 14cc band and I'm currently at 10.25ccs. I had my most recent fill on 6/3, and I was banded in 9/09. I lost 30 pounds in the 30 days after surgery, and another 14 pounds since then. Discouraged is putting it mildly. But during this last fill I asked for a complete empty and measure, and found that one fill was missed. I was only at 9cc's when I shoudl have been at 10. they put the 9 back, added 1.25 on top, and I'm sore sore SORE from it. feels like I was punched in the chest. The soreness seems to be from gas, which is finally subsiding. And i have restriction. BIG time. Either that or i'm just swollen from the unfill/fill. Time will tell. I feel your frustration on this - i don't know what i'm going to do if this most recent fill doesn't do it for me. I was told that as we loose weight, more Fluid has to be added to keep up. How is that going to work when i'm almost at max level now? I'm not very happy with this whole procedure at the moment, but i'm stuck with it. I wish I could give you advice or encouragement, but right now all i can do is sympathize, and hope we both start seeing a positive result soon. Good luck to you!

Weight loss is such a personal journey...a hairball of the bliss of eating favorite foods, complex emotions, compulsions, defeating behaviors, shame, embarrassment, resentment, and the list goes on and on. No one wants to admit that they can't control what goes into their mouth. I'm coming up on my surgery Nov 2nd...and frankly, if I could, I would tell no one at all! Some of it is the former, but also, from having my lapband surgery, it added sooo much pressure, having people watch everything I ate, asking me how much weight I've lost each time I saw them, saying insensitive comments and remarks, etc...and then it was what they did not say, as I put the weight back on slowly but surely...I could almost hear what they were thinking while watching me eat. My mother falls into the category of people I don't want to tell. I love her dearly, but she's a stoic, non understanding person, who, when I had the lapband, called up each and every one of her thousands of friends to "in confidence" express her fears over my decision, and to ask their opinion. I was mortified at how many people knew, way before I was willing to share... When I loose weight, folks will surely ask how, and I'm not sure how to circumvent lying. I don't want to be dishonest, but then again, I don't feel like I need to share my personal and medical choices with certain folks... I will need all my mental energy to focus on learning to use this tool to loose weight, rather than appease peoples curiosity and deal with their remarks and opinions. So in short, just wondering, if you decided to tell or not to tell. And if not, how you coup with the inevitable questions that will come.

Has anyone hit a plateau and not know what to do? I have lost 35 pounds since my banding in April. But now it seems like nothing I do gets the weight moving again. I am filled to 5.9 in a band that will hold 10. I have 65 more pounds to loose!!! Got any suggestions???

Yup, normal thought. I thought that too. But in less than a month you have lost 17lbs!!! THATS AWESOME. Ever done that before?? Probably not. If you follow your plan from your doc, you will not stay fat. Set realistic expectations, 10lbs a month, or 2lbs a week - something like that. Don't be hard on yourself -- that negativity and self defeating attitude and feelings of undeserving unworthiness are what keeps the weight on and if you're like me, caused the weight to pile on!! And, if you are a slow loser, so what, you are still a LOSER! Slow weight loss can help your skin, can keep nosy people from noticing rapid weight loss, help you cement and solidify good habits. There's a slow losers board. Read it, look at the tickers from people posting a year ago -- they all lost BIG amounts of weight. You'll get there too! Have faith in the tool you chose and use it to the best of your ability. That's all you can do!