Hello all. Thought I'd introduce myself. I'm Mary, I live in Wisconsin, run a dairy farm with my hubby and we have two grown children and two grandbabies. I had been a large gal my whole life, no doubt in part due to the fact that beer, brats and cheese are staples in any good Wisconsinite's diet . After climbing to a BMI of 50 and feeling quite useless due to my physical limitations, I finally decided to have WLS in 2010. I ended up going to Mexico since my insurance company would only pay for bypass or Lapband because they considered VSG experimental. Fortunately, my daughter is a gastroenterologist and she used her connections to hand pick me a surgeon who was renown in the international bariatric community.

My recovery and overall weight-loss journey was fairly easy and uneventful. Even though I had surgery in Mexico, I still attended local WLS support groups throughout the entire process. It was nice just to be around people going through the same thing. Over the years I saw dozens (probably hundreds) of patients come and go. Very few veterans stuck around. But for some reason I felt a certain level of responsibility to help those coming behind me. In addition to the group meetings, I saw a therapist on a regular basis for the first couple years. That, by far, has been the secret to my success.

About 6 months ago I quit attending the support group meetings. A new coordinator came on board and we didn't exactly see eye to eye on a number of things. Basically she felt threatened by my vast knowledge and experience and I thought she was a stupid twit (at least that's my take on it ). So I decided to leave "real" people behind and enter the world of cyber support. I've been lurking for quite awhile and finally decided to join up.

From what I've observed so far, the problems and issues I read about online are not dissimilar to what I heard in the support group. The biggest difference is there are a LOT more whiners and non-compliant patients online. Maybe being anonymous just makes folks more comfortable with complaining. Maybe the online patients left their support groups to seek justification for their bad behaviors from strangers (cause we never coddled them in our group sessions!) Or maybe they are trying their best but their programs did not properly prepare them or they don't have local support groups. Unfortunately the naivety of some of the people giving advice on here is a little scary to say the least. And then there are the delusional individuals like that organic milk chic. No one like that would ever pass the psych evaluation in a real bariatric program so I've missed out on that type of sparkling personality in group session. Of course I may have been a little biased by her username.....my husband always jokes, "we prefer our milk with a healthy dose of antibiotics".

Anyways, just tonight I realized my 6 year surgiversary was 2 days ago and I missed it. Oops. I guess that's a good thing, though.....means my new skinny life is so normal I forgot about my surgery! Either that or I'm just old and senile. In either case it's been fun and I hope I can continue to encourage people to take full advantage of their new lease on life after WLS.

Welcome! Most definitely, Welcome.

BP needs all the supportive members we can get. One thing I can guarantee you is a diversity of opinions. We seem to have an over abundance of enthusiastic and hopefully well meaning opinions. Conversation can get quite----"lively" from time to time.

I had my sleeve surgery in 2011 and mine, too was considered "experimental". Now the balance is turned 180 degrees. Most WLS are sleeves where way back when, the bypass was considered, "The Gold Standard of all WLSs." How times have changed.

I was born and raised on a dairy farm. I can still not think of any other or any better place to learn life's lessons. My father caught his arm in the PTO of one of our tractors during corn chopping season and broke his arm 13 places between shoulder and finger tips. Anyway, my entire senior year of high school, I was responsible to milk our 90 head of Holsteins twice a day . (I always made it a point up until then to stay as far away from the barn as possible). I had to and did learn each and every cow. I also learned much respect and responsibility. The general populous needs to acknowledge that without the farmers we would all starve---especially in times of war.

I apologize for my babbling. I just wanted to share that with you. I LOVE Holsteins!---and the farmer whose job is the most dangerous job in the country.

Again, I welcome you and encourage you to "Post in with both feet".

Best wishes.

Welcome Dairymary, looking forward to your sage advice.

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So far, I'm loving this line of post you girls have going.

I am post-op 41/2 months, so very much in my honeymoon stage....I'll need advice from some veterans to keep me on track.

Welcome Dairymary

I was raised on a farm. We raised hogs, farrow-to-finish

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Thanks for the welcome everyone. Glad to meet some other country gals, pup and Valentina. I'm so blessed to have been able to raise my own kids on a farm with good old fashioned work ethics, responsibility, accountability, self confidence and reliability. My dad was actually a potato farmer, but we had a little "hobby farm" with some chickens, pigs and large garden....very self sufficient. I went to college for my nursing degree and worked for several years, thinking I was finally moving up in the world. Then I went and fell in love with and married a dairy farmer....geez! Our daughter followed in my medical footsteps but our son is all farmer, like his dad. Wouldn't change a thing ???? (Except the part about getting so fat)

Welcome from a city girl who doesn't do dirt, or cows. I love cheese, though, and that's dairy. Close enough?

Welcome from a city girl who doesn't do dirt, or cows. I love cheese, though, and that's dairy. Close enough?

Of course! Thanks for the support.

BTW, Lipsticklady, where do you live? My girlfriends and I try and take a theater/museum trip every year. We've been to Minneapolis, St. Louis, Las Vegas, New York, Tampa, Nashville, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Seattle, but we are always looking for new adventures.

Lol no wonder you were always mean. Mean people are fairly usually mean to animals too, like shooting them up with antibiotics haha

BTW, Lipsticklady, where do you live? My girlfriends and I try and take a theater/museum trip every year. We've been to Minneapolis, St. Louis, Las Vegas, New York, Tampa, Nashville, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Seattle, but we are always looking for new adventures.

I live in Virginia. DC is a great area for theatre and museums!

Lol no wonder you were always mean. Mean people are fairly usually mean to animals too, like shooting them up with antibiotics haha

Who in the world are you speaking so rudely to? And in such a nice thread?

@@LipstickLady she mentioned me in her post. if you didn't read it.

@dairymary. If you are gunna write about yourself, write about yourself!! not about other "delusional individuals"

@@LipstickLady she mentioned me in her post. if you didn't read it.

@dairymary. If you are gunna write about yourself, write about yourself!! not about other "delusional individuals"

Ah. I didn't put it together with you. Tells you how much I have you on my mind.

That's great, @@LipstickLady DC is definitely on our list. I've been there a couple times, but with my husband the kids, not with my ladies group... It would be a totally different experience

As for the poor little organic milk girl, I've come to realize just how emotionally and mentally ill she is, so any sort of reaction to her is pointless. Besides, her comments are made out of ignorance and low self esteem, they don't really have anything to do with me.

Edited October 23, 20169 yr by Dairymary

That's great, @@LipstickLady DC is definitely on our list. I've been there a couple times, but with my husband the kids, not with my ladies group... It would be a totally different experience

As for the poor little organic milk girl, I've come to realize just how emotionally and mentally ill she is, so any sort of reaction to her is pointless. Besides, her comments are made out of ignorance and low self esteem, they don't really have anything to do with me.

if i don't have anything to do with you, then don't talk about me on your posts. simple as that.

this is why young ppl usually don't like old people. they are usually bitter, mean, and rude. Just like you @dairymary.

I on the other hand, love senior citizens and have many of them as friends. but you are one of the examples why many young people nowadays don't like them. if you have aged enough to have kids of your own, be nice, and mind your own business.

Why are you always on my tail? even on my other posts you aggressively speak out against me. if you have no info to share, then just move on and get on with your life.

You are one of the meanest users that i've ever met on the internet. theres nothing to be proud about that.

Well then....let's see if all three of her accounts were removed.