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This is my first blog so I hope I'm doing this right. My name is Sandra and I'm a married mom of two wonderful boys. I was banded on December 23, 2011 and lost 20 ppounds in the first two weeks. In the second two weeks not so much... I gained 1 pound. So, today was my first fill and it was a lot easier than I expected. The Doc asked me to lay on my back. He found my port and numbed me a bit then filled me up. He then had me sit up and sip water until I could feel it in my throat.then he removed some fluid from my band until the water moved down smoothly. I sat in the loby until I could comfortably drink a half bottle of water. Then I left for home. Awesome. I feel great. If this helps anyone else then my time is well worth it. Thanks to my family... Dr Sal... And thanks be to God.

Hi friends! I'm a lil over three weeks post op and I'm still loving it. Hunger is still gone. I would say I'm more thirsty than hungry and I try to drink as much water as possible to keep things moving along and for my skin. I've lost another 8 lbs since my last post op visit. I'm currently 231. Yay! I'm back at the gym, strength training. It felt like I was losing muscle mass. I'm sure part of my weight loss is muscle mass and I still want to maintain some of it, if I can. I'm not hitting upper body as hard core as I was, but my legs have been getting quite the workout. My left knee was bothering me pre-surgery and running was just not possible. Since losing nearly 50 lbs, my knee is back to normal. Thank you, baby Jesus! I'm eating fish and chicken in addition to well cooked soft vegetables like green beans, spinach. Inches are melting away and I almost wish I measured everything before surgery. Clothes are fitting loose and belts should return to my wardrobe to keep my pants up. I'm wearing those skinny jeans I had tucked away in the closet and that alone amazes me. I'm feeling good, taking my vitamins and following up with my doctor. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I am on BC. My doctor recommended it and I'm trying Nuva Ring. So far, so good. I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary and I'm still losing weight. Win! If you're considering a BC option, I'd recommend Nuva Ring. I notice it less than a tampon and it has not fallen out one time. I've also "tested" it and no problems. I hope all is well with you, and for those of you pre-surgery, or thinking of surgery, I hope this calms your worries and that you don't hesitate to do something wonderful for yourself. This has been the best gift I've given myself. My husband has lost over 50lbs and has started exercising. He's been focusing on cardio and I love that he comes to the gym with me now. We haven't worked out together since before we married. Win again! Take care! <3

Hi Everyone, I am so glad the surgery is over. I was home within 24 hours. I am still in pain but trying not to get addicted to the pain meds. Everything i eat is staying down, no gas pains and no trouble with my bowels (TMI)...lol I get up and walk around the house its really cold here. To everyone who sent me a message , I appreciate it alot. Take Care, I know it will get better.

OK I did it. I went to the gym this morning and i did three miles between the Elliptical and Treadmill ... Yay Me! Why can't i like the gym as much as I love food. I suppose if I did I wouldn't be in the shape that i'm in ow. Anywho, I've made a promise to myself and that promise is to go to the gym at least 4 times per week and accept nothing less than 2 miles each visit. Post surgery this is going to be so very important so I need to figure out ways to make going to the gym enjoyable. Seriously, how hard can it be to go to the gym four days a week. I can do this! I can do this1 24 hour fitness is literally around the corner from my house - no frickin excuse.... Next step - add weights for toning.....Gotta love it! :banghead:

I will upload a photo of myself pre-vsg surgery to my profile. :embaressed_smile: I am so looking forward to posting photos along the way of my shrinking self. :smile1: Each day seems to get a bit better than the last, now on my 3rd day home after vsg surgery. My belly is still very sore. Thank goodness for the pain killer (roxicodone! - discovered I'm allergic to hydrocodone, i.e., vicodin, in the hospital, nausea, hallucinations and an itchy mouth is not my cup of tea) or I wouldn't be getting sound sleep. I am not one to take meds, especially a narcotic, but it truly is necessary in this case to keep from getting too exhausted fighting agains the pain. I have a strong pain threshold, but this is some serious surgery and it is required. I plan to discontinue the roxicodone by tomorrow and change to children's liquid Tylenol, if needed. I'm also meditating and doing some conscious deep breathing exercises for relaxation. My first blog entry was super long and wordy, but wanted to admit to some things and put it in writing. Today a trip to Costco is in the plans to buy some protein drinks and a scale with my honey. I'm so looking forward to weighing myself today. (This is a statement I would have never made before.) So far on this 4 weeks liquid diet phase I've had Chiobani Greek yogurts (honey and vanilla) with Beneprotein added and a couple of the sample protein mixes I received from the nutritionist. I've tried the Bariatric Advantage Chocolate and the Unjury Chocolate. The fav out of these is the Unjury Chocolate protein mix shaken up with Plain Soy Milk - just like a chocolate shake, rather tasty. After reading other posts, it seems like the follow-up diet is different in other locations. I'm surprised when I hear people are eating more of a pureed diet 2-3 weeks out from surgery. The instructions from Stanford are a 4 week liquid diet phase, six protein meals a day, post surgery, followed by 2 weeks of a pureed phase diet. The liquid phase includes yogurt, cream of rice/wheat and protein drinks. I've never been a fan at all of artificial sweeteners nor drinking sweet things on the regular. I tried the Gatorade with protein and Crystal Light, but the artificial taste is rather revolting to me. Additionally, I don't think it wise to fuel your body with artificial chemical anything. So, I'm going to stay as natural and organic as possible, well, except for the prepackaged protein drinks and mixes - simply for convenience. I've been getting in the required daily protein amount, thanks to adding beneprotein to most everything. I've really only been drinking water and herbal tea in between and find it much more satisfying than anything with artificial sweetener. I'm also making sure I get all the required protein in 'cause I really don't want hair loss! I'm just not quite ready to lose the dreadlocks yet or have them thin out too much. The healing continues.....

So my first VSG blog entry, how exciting! A chronicle of the minutiae of a pre-sleevers journey towards a new life...and oh how I want that new life. To excuse a bad pun, I want it so much that I can practically taste it. I figured even if I'm only talking to myself and sending these blogs out into the ether, then at least I can get how I feel on this journey down on paper. It may be interesting to look at a year from now and actually know what I felt and how I changed without the rose tinted glasses that time often gives our recollections. Or perhaps at the end of this journey, when I've met all my goals I will ceremoniously hit 'Delete'. *grin*. Right now I'm a 29 years old woman, 5'5" ant 270 lbs, no kids, no SO, but with a ton of friends and a close family who are being (for the most part) very supportive. I do have a rather crazy cat, but I personally think she would be horrified at a reduction in cushy lap space. My deepest desires are to run marathons, complete Tough Mudders, join canine Search and Rescue, become a published writer, and to get married and have kids. I don't know about the other ladies out there, but I'm damned sick and tired of being "the girl with the hilarious personality" with the unspoken "too bad she's fat" tacked on the end. There is more to me than my weight and I finally reached the breaking point where I could give up and accept that my dreams would forever only be dreams...or I could take the bull by the horns, pull up my big-girl panties and figure out how to become a woman that can forge her own path. To that end I left a job that made me miserable, moved to a different state and now have a job and friends that make me smile and actually dance at work. As my dad found his courage to go through a surgery he was terrified of, I in turn found mine to take the next step. To that end, my first bariatric doctor's appointment is Tuesday and I can't wait. I've been working hard at proper nutrition, weight lifting, yoga, and running to get my body in the best shape possible to tolerate surgery and to kick tail once I'm through it. I'm reading books to figure out why I eat what I do and how emotions dictate my eating. I'm calling it the three-pronged attack so that I am ready emotionally, mentally, and physically for what is to come. Life is good, and with better health it can only get better! Feeling Five by Five! ~Lyra "Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. " ~Faith Whittlesey

Ok, so...This site along with the ObesityHelp.com site (where I started this blog today) seem a bit disjointed and I don't really know how to maneuver through it. Doesn't seem intuitively setup (sorry, but true). However, I want to be a member of this community, tell my story, keep an ongoing blog and be able to make wonderful connections with you people! To start, I thought I should just start telling my story by just starting to write. This is my first blog ever. I started writing my blog at the ObesityHelp.com site and copied it here: Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery. Hi. Well I'm starting to tell 'MyJourney' (this is from the ObesityHelp.com site). I've been overweight the majority of my life. There were periods of time when I wasn't overweight, but that was rare and only when I did some wacko diet like Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Medifast, etc. (I've done them all!) The most I ever lost was 45 lbs, but those 45 lbs only stayed off for a couple months and then would creep back on and at a fast creep, in addition to more lbs. I could never maintain any weight loss. I'm 49 and started taking anti-depressant meds two years ago. I've been depressed about my body and my weight for so long I went on anti-depressant meds to help make everything seem ok and to be able to make it day by day. I've always perceived myself, in my own brain, smaller that what I really am. I have always been rather athletic and I actually love to work out. In addition, I love a plant based diet, juicing, vegetarian and vegan cuisine. I was even a raw foodist for a year. I live a fairly healthy, large woman, lifestyle. But...I have always been way too much overweight. I do not want to be overweight and 'morbidly obese.' Morbidly obese is just a horrible term and state of being. I have just not been able to stick with anything to truly change my weight and my body. I started this journey and found out about the vertical sleeve gastrectomy at the age of 49. When I turned 49 I started looking in to what new and different or even going back to the same weight loss program but just didn't want to spend the money and fail again. I just really want to be lean, fit, happy and healthy and I want to achieve this by my 50th birthday. I don't want to enter the next half of my life and continue to be a large, fat, morbidly obese woman. I want to want to see myself in photos. I've always been confident, but hate how I look, which would counter act my confidence. I never liked the large woman in any photo I saw of myself. It's like the photo I was looking at was me, but wasn't really me. I hate being the largest woman in the room, any room. I hate shopping at plus size women's clothing stores. I hate that my feet hurt, because I'm too heavy. Like I said, I've always loved working out - spinning class, yoga, kettle bell, boot camp, walking, hiking, swimming..., love it all. Being fat didn't keep me from working out and I would always tell myself..."I'd really be a cow if I didn't work out." I'd always have to adjust though. In yoga I'd have to move my stomach out of the way to do certain poses and things like that. I was looking in to the lap band procedure but was turned on and informed of the VSG procedure, when I saw a friend and former colleague's incredibly successful life change with her VSG. I asked her what she did and she gave me her story and I knew immediately it was what I needed to change my life. When I reach my goal weight, one day, I am going to so repay her for her guidance and the incredible support she has given me from my first inquiry to now and the future. So, like I said, I turned 49, this was in August of 2011, and this is when I started this incredible journey to salvation. It took seven months of all kinds of tests and poking and proding to my VSG surgery date this past week. I had my surgery on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at Stanford Hopsital in Palo Alto, Ca. What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight? There are sooo many things that are the worst thing about being overweight and I will name some here: 1. I hate that my thighs rub together (they have all my life) and they rub the color off the jeans in that area so my jeans are thinner in the material and lighter in color that the rest of any particular pair of jeans. 2. I don't feel at all sexy being overweight. My sex life with my husband is pretty much nonexistent. And, believe me, I love sex and I find my husband absolutely delicious. Not fair to him or to me. He loves my body, but I don't and I feel way too bodywise ugly. He doesn't understand, but me being overweight is not an issue for him, but it is 100% an issue for me. 3. In my previous job, I traveled about 2-3 weeks out of each month all over the US. It was grueling travel, but I absolutely loved my job - intellectually stimulating, I loved the professional interaction and making friends across the US. I truly got to a point after traveling for 2 years, where I couldn't get on yet another uncomfortable plane. As a large woman, plane travel is freaking uncomfortable. It was embarrassing to spill over into more than one seat, even a bit. I always wished I just didn't take up so much space. I never had to ask for an extender seat belt, but was close. 4. Not being able to wipe my own ass sometimes. Hey, when there is that much body in the way, it makes it challenging to sometimes properly wipe your own ass. 5. Because you have creases, skin overlapping other skin, sometimes you have an odor. It's simple biology. 6. Always thinking about the next thing I'm going to eat and how much of it I might be able to get away with eating that item. Oh, and never really feeling full, even when I was painfully full! Crazy! 7. Not being able to reach around and scratch my own back. 8. Wanting to meet up with friends or colleagues, but being too embarrassed about my weight to do so. I've made/arranged appointments, dates, outings and have cancelled them on many occassions because I was embarrassed about being overweight. With the facebook craze, I've met up, on-line, with old friends, and have arranged to meet in person to only cancel. Crazy! ****** I could and probably will add more to this section. But, I just want to let you know...I feel all these things still. I am just 5 days from my surgery date. I've got a lot of changes ahead of me and I am so freaking excited about the future, it is just hard to explain. At this point, I'm in the healing process from surgery. I'm sore, but so so so hopeful and so looking forward to LIFE! If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before? I will have to revisit this section when it is time. The surgery was super intense. It is not easy and no one should be mislead and think it is easy peasey. It is major surgery. I started at 266 lbs, was at 256 on my day of surgery (I didn't follow a pre-surgery diet as my surgery date came up quickly after my insurance was approved, but I had started watching everything I put in my mouth and did quite a bit of green juicing.) I actually didn't think I was going to get insurance approval and started to loose hope that I would. But once approval came through I had just two weeks until the surgery date. Looking forward to writing a bunch of positive step along my way to a new lean, fit, healthy, normal weight, beautiful woman!!! Check me out soon...Soon come... ************** Again, once I figure how to move around this site, I will post photos and many other blog posts. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! Here are my particulars: Female Age: 49 Starting BMI: 43.5 Starting Weight: 266 Weight on Surgery Date: 256 VSG Surgery Date: January 17, 2012 Duration in hospital: 2 days NOTE: I am, today, on my second full day home from the hospital. The worst part of the surgery was the swallow test the day after surgery. It makes me want to puke just thinking about it. I had to fill my mouth with the most horrible tasting contrast three times an swallow it all. Well, after the second swallow, I know I was in trouble. After the third time, I puked it up. I was totally nauseous the rest of the day and threw up again. I was so afraid of keeping anything down after that. I had quite a bit of nausea in the hospital. Once I got home, I felt so much better. Started the Liquid Diet Phase. Taking meds is not a pleasurable thing for me. I had another incident yesterday when I took the liquid stool softener and threw that up. I will not be taking that ever again. I will do a little dulcolax (sp?) tab should I need it. However, I think my plumbing at this point is working fine. I've got all kinds of grumbling and rumblings going on internally. I've always been a big water drinking person, and have to keep telling myself to slow down with the water...sips and no gulping! Am I hungry? Heck no! This is a total strange thing for me...not to feel hungry! LOVE IT! Feeling very positive, albeit very sore, and just want to get the insides healed up so I can start exercising. Oh, I'm walking yes, but I want to get to some real workouts and start toning and getting strong. The first thing I'm going out and purchasing is a scale. I've never had one before and never wanted one. I do now!!

For someone who is known for finding the silver lining in any dark cloud, an eternal ray of optimism for her friends and family...I sure am a Debbie Downer when it comes to matters of self. I have been so negative, so hard on myself about this sleeve since I got it. Its as if i choose not to trust it, and have faith in our success together, in fear of failure. When it comes to weight loss, i think all of us VSGer's have come to know that feeling at some point in time. I've thought that its too good to be true..that im eating too much at one time, that my sleeve is stretching etc, etc. Im four weeks out, and as of monday i am down 18lbs since surgery. 28lbs since the start of the process. i should be celebrating that, instead of scrutinizing it. So tonight, I went into my bedroom, and pulled out the little clothes. Particularly, my work scrubs. I fought myself, thinking, "do you really want to do this to yourself?" "Your not going to fit in those things girl, you couldn't get that one pair of pants over your thighs!" They ALL fit!!! I had two pairs, that i bought small. I wore them things like a second skin. I actually wore spanx with them!! LOL!! I was so mad that i didnt try them on at the uniform store, that i tortured myself, and made myself wear them to work anyways. I wore them twice..Once a pair. My weight was around 236 then..where i always would seem to get stuck. Let me tell you..they fit PERFECT!! Im soo stoked! I had other articles given to me, that never fit, and Im rocking them! Even the size Large Dickies pants that I couldn't get over my thighs..fit perfectly! Im so excited..It was so awesome to actually see, and feel the results! for the first time! Im going to come back to this post, when i start with the doubting..and remember that this is for real. <3ing my sleve!

As I write this, I have so many thoughts going through my head. The one thing I am not, is scared and fearful. This is the first surgery I have ever had and feel like it is one ot the best choices I have ever made for myself. I have the weird thoughts about what if I don't wake up, but my mind tell me this has been done so many times and so many people have had such great success, that GOD will make sure I am in that number to. This forum has been so helpful to me. I have learned alot and know there is plenty more to learn. I read blogs some make me laugh and some have even had me in tears. While on this journey I plan on making it a positive and motivating journey, not just for me but hopefully for some of you as well. I will always remember the "Big Girl", but I am ready to embrace the skinny girl with open arms. Keep me in you prayers and, I can't wait to be on the loser side. Good luck and prayers to all the future sleevers.

Hi gorgeous banders! I have been destressing this weekend and preparing for a crazy week. DH b-day today and he loves his gift - ipad2. It was just released on Friday here in Canada so it won't be delivered until 3-4 wks. DH hubby and I had a big 3 kms walk in the sunshine along the river. Went out to celebrate his b-day last night. The plan was to go dancing. We never go out. Just our luck we went out and the dj was lame and nobody was dancing. Also we were both so tired we wanted to go to bed. Sign of age? lol as we are in our early 40's. We had a really lazy day today. Lunch out on the river and a big nap. Since my fill on wed I am getting use to what works and not with the new plumbing. I have been a stuck a few times. I am eating less and just need to find what works. It is amazing how 2 CC's can change everything. I made a yummy egg, chicken & blue cheese puree. Spring is here so we are going to start on our little yard in our town house. I want to spruce things up so going to do a few repairs and paint. Planning new planters & outside decor. I only lost a pound this week but need to take measurements as I feel good and I am down another size. Another bag of clothing this week gone! I am focused on my trip to Mexico with my BFF. I would like to be down 2 more sizes. One gal at my clients is calling me the blonde skinny bitch - I find it really motivating . I am so excited that I can start back on weights and kick up my workouts a notch or 2. I need to see how things go then I will also start back with pilates 2x/week. My back feels better. The true test will be golf when I start back. Sorry if I missed anyone. Big bugs to you all & have a kick ass great week!