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It's Monday, and the good news is that it seems that the sharp, debilitating pain I was having on my left side has dissipated. It is now just a sore area that is tolerable. Prayers work! The bad news, the local surgeon I was going to try to switch over to will not follow up with me. He apparently is not doing sleeves after all. So I am still debating about following up with my original surgeon for the long run. I still think I will try to find another office-I have just really lost all faith in him and his office staff. But I am SO GRATEFUL to my Lord for touching my body and giving me relief! I think this is how I was supposed to feel at 2 weeks out. I really can't pinpoint when the pain stopped, but I realized on Sunday morning that getting out of the chair did not elicit that terrible stabbing pain. I kept expecting it to grab me all day, but nothing I did made it come....I pray it stays that way! Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support, hopefully now I can focus on losing weight and rocking my own lil' sleeve!

Have you ever gone into your closet and said " I have nothing to wear"? If you are a woman I'm sure you have lol. Anyway I had this great idea that I wanted to share with all of you. If you have a phone with a camera on it, take a picture of yourself everyday in a different outfit everyday try to only include your favorite ones. (The ones where you say "hey I really look great in this") before you know it you will have a outfit catalog to go to on the days you just don't know what to wear :-) Amanda Out!!!!

Went to get my blood work my physc evaluation and dietian stuff done everything seemed to have gone well now I just gotta do my heart scan on Nov.20..Ive tried to get all the info I can on here about the sleeve and peoples experiances So right now I feel pretty good about my desicion

Dad's oncologist apt is tomorrow at 10am. I'm a bit nervous because we should find out how much the cancer spread in his lungs. My parents were over my house yesterday, and dad talked to me (on the side) telling me that his lower left side was bothering me. Kidneys maybe? Or, just a strain? No point in guessing as I'll be sure to ask the Dr. For anyone that is reading this, if you read my recent posts, you'll know my 86 yr old awesome dad is in stage 4 of cancer, but has been kicking it's ass for about 20 months now without chemo or pills. I go to all his oncologists apt's because my parents are Castellian (spanish from Spain), and while they have lived in the U.S. over 50 years, they struggle with English sometimes. I'm there to make sure that not a darn thing gets lost in the translation. Oh daddy, if I could just make the pain stay away....

First you have to be willing to jump in anytime Then take the thread completely off topic and talk about pretty nails, dragons & princesses . And finally you have to kiss the pink princess’s butt. Once you have been accepted by the princess you must protect the princess from all evil (especially VD). Are you up for the job?

I read a post today that irked me, no it pissed me off. This Texas gal was ready to put her boots on and find her gun….. Hunt her some grammar and spelling police. A fellow bandster said they read a thread where bandsters were criticizing the grammar and spelling of other bandster’s posts. It hurt this bandster so bad that she had steered away from LBT. REALLY…….why????? Does it matter if we don’t use complete sentences or if we spell words wrong?????? Those of you who have a problem with bad grammar and spelling please comment and tell me why it’s so important to you. Cause (oh wait I should say because) I don’t get it. We are all fighting a terrible disease called obesity and one of the side effects of this disease is low self-esteem. We don’t need our brothers & sisters pointing out more of our faults….. We do just fine doing that ourselves. You are wondering why this bothers me….. So many times I hit that POST button and watch my written words appear on a thread and think SH** I spelt that wrong or that doesn’t make any sense hope they get my point. We are here for support in our weight loss journey. We consist of all different people, different education levels, different languages, different everything and we need support. What we don’t need is the grammar and spelling police after us!

I am 16 days post op today. I have a non-scale victory to report. About eight months ago I took off the diamond ring my husband bought me for anniversary last year because it was cutting off my circulation. Once I took it off I couldn't get it back on. I was able to slip it on last night and there it stays! I have totally embrace this journey from day one of my preop diet and I don't hope that I will be successful I know that I will be successful. I'm down 22.6 pounds.

It's been six months since my doctor removed 85% of my stomach. Since then, I haven't had any regrets...unless you take in consideration the thought that went through my head when I woke up while they were removing my breathing tube. But I don't count that since I was all drugged up and not thinking straight. Also, having Nurse Hatchet didn't help matters. However, with fall here and winter around the corner, I have to admit, there are a times I miss it a little. Not much, only a little bit. Like, I wish I had 25% of my stomach instead of 15%. Now, before you all go jumping on my back allow me to explain. Tonight for dinner I made homemade chicken and dumplings. Now, that's bad enough for a sleever but I had to add more temptation to the mix. I had to make corn bread from scratch as well. I mean come on, you can't have one with out the other. It's just not Southern!!!! No self respecting Southerner would make chicken and dumplings with out making cornbread. And, though I'm not quite Southern...I'm below the Mason-Dixon line, so I'm close enough. LOL Also, I started feeling bad for my husband. Since my surgery, his diet has consisted of PB&Js and chicken. Not at the same time. But considering he's a meat and potato man, it's been a hard six months for him. He considers it a treat if I stop at McDonald's for him. Which is VERY hard for me as the smell has always turned my stomach but after surgery it's even worse. So, I decided that if I were going to make him eat chicken again, I would make something he enjoys. I thought I would be fine with it. I know I can have about 1/4 a cup (a little less) of the chicken and dumplings (mostly chicken...maybe one or two dumplings) and maybe a bite of two of the cornbread. The problem is, I had forgotten how much I love both of these things. This is one thing my tastes buds did not change their opinion of....which isn't a good thing. Why couldn't they find both as disgusting as they find Whey protein? Or better yet, like Whey protein and hate the other? So, after a little nibble of cornbread (a very little nibble), I wanted to eat the whole pan! This is the first time in six months that I've wanted to just gorge myself. Then, top it off with the chicken and dumplings and I actually had the thought of, "Man, I wish I had my stomach right now!" WHAT??? Why am I thinking thoughts like this? I know I won't over eat any of this yummy stuff in my kitchen but the thought of, "I would if I could", crossed my mind more than once. Now, the reason I find this so strange is that I have always been a carb fanatic. I loved bread and pasta. I could eat a whole loaf of fresh baked bread in one sitting with no bad feelings. However, since surgery, I haven't really craved either things. Don't get me wrong, there are times I will have a little less than a 1/2 slice of wheat bread, toasted, with some type of protein but most times, i don't even think about it. That was not the case today. Those simple carbs wanted me and I have to admit, I wanted them. The attraction is still there despite how far we have both moved on with our lives. So, with all this said, it's a good thing I only have 15% of my tummy. Because no matter how good either look, smell or taste....I wouldn't give up my 100+ pound weight loss for either things. That doesn't mean I can't dream about them...and how yummy a big bowl of chicken and dumplings and two or three slices of homemade, buttery cornbread would taste.....yes, I can dream and lose weight or I can eat and slime and possibly stretch my tummy out. I'll take that dream and weight loss any day of the week and twice on Sundays. So readers, have you had anything like this happen to you yet? I think for me it has more to do with fall and winter coming and what I consider "comfort" food. All the warm, cheesy, gooey, stick to your ribs (and add pound after pound to your weight) has always been one if not the only good thing about a cold winter day. Looks like I'm going to have to find something else to take it's place....let's just hope it's not more chicken. I think my husband will finally leave me if I don't come up with something new for us to eat. I swear if he found a woman who cooked like I used to, he'd be a little tempted to cheat on me just for the food. Just kidding....I know he would never do it JUST for the food. LOL

So glad that's over with, the therapist was so nice. He said all is good, no problem areas, so now I'm scheduled for my final surgeon appt on Nov 14th. Not looking forward to getting cut open but ready to get on with it.