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Last night was for sure the best night of my life. Last year I went to an event with my husband. I felt beautiful but yet uncomfortable the whole time. I had on a pretty dress, nice make up, a pretty smile, and my handsome husband right next to me. But yet I felt like I didn't quiet blend. This year was a different story. I walked in and own my space !!! I was so happy to be in a room FULL of food but yet my attention was not on that( Nothing taste as good as skinny honey!). We spoke to other people and flirted with each other like little kids :wub: Needless to say I fell in love with the man again! I felt proud of myself. When I asked my husband to take me to the dance floor, his facial expression was priceless!! Before I would have bite his head off for even suggesting it. But last night I ASKED! he loved it! we danced songs, after songs until my toes begged for mercy lol!! I am grateful to God for allowing me to see this day. I went from a size 28 to a 16 and that is the best XMAS present ever... 1st picture: Picture of last year VS this year with my hubby 2nd picture: Me, Last year VS this year

I have a best friend. We met in 5th grade & are now 25. We are a match made in best friend heaven, perfectly weird complimenting personalities. Since High School we have been on the journey (among others) of being fat together. We would eat constantly, joke about how fat we are. It was our thing, eating was our best social time, nothing is better than mindlessly stuffing your face while having great conversation. When we weren't eating we'd joke about how fat we were & that "tomorrow we'll get skinny" as we stuff another cheeseburger in our mouth. Sure we had our brief periods of "getting skinny", they never lasted. We'd get bored, so we'd eat. We'd get sad, so we'd eat. We'd get drunk, so we'd eat. We'd be social, so we'd eat. Everything in our life came back to food. In September of this year I came to her with the idea of WLS & doing it together. We talked about how AMAZING it'd be to be skinny, but how scary it was, & what a huge life change. The subject was dropped. December rolled around & it was brought up again. Maybe we could do it, a mutual friend had VSG 8 months prior & is already down 100 pounds! WE could lose a 100 pounds, if we just make the sacrifice. It was decided, WLS was what we needed, both individually & together. In 2013 I will undergo the biggest change of my entire life & be lucky enough to do it WITH my best friend. I can't wait to actually see us skinny. (If you'd like to look her up it's JPSnAZ, she a hoot)

So my adventure began at the end of July when after researching for several months, I decided it was time. On August 29th I saw the surgeon. The entire process to get insurance approval was pretty easy and I had no problems or setbacks. I was approved on November 5th, and could've had surgery the following Friday, but decided to wait until my work closed for xmas break. I was finally sleeved on 12/19/12 and everything went well. I didn't need any pain meds following surgery and haven't had any trouble with drinking as of yet. The biggest thing I've noticed is that I nap ALOT. I am working on getting my liquids in, so far I am up to 55g. of protein and close to 20 oz. of water, tea, etc. I can tell I'm full when I get a spasm type pain in my sternum or I start to burp...so I stop and wait. I get to start yogurt, eggs, cream of wheat and soups w/o chunks on 12/26, but I will start a day early as my mom-in-law made her famous potato soup just for me for xmas, and I will eat a little of it. I will see how my new tummy handles that....hopefully well. I'd really hate to get sick at her place because I know she'd feel bad. As for exercise, it's been pretty windy and cold here, so I've been doing laps in the house often and am hoping to get outside to walk soon. So far, I feel pretty lucky. Hoping it will stay this smooth during the food transitions.

Tomorrow my grandson will be 5. This morning his other grandmother baby sat. His name is Dylan. Dylan-yesterday at school we had cupcakes for my pretend birthday. Nana-did they sing happy birthday? Dylan-Nooo, cupcakes don't sing. Just had to share this. He is so cute.

I had planned on documenting my gastric sleeve surgery experience in the order it occurred, but I forgot about the psych evaluation. Once again luck was on my side as I knew what to expect before arriving. I had a chance to talk with a post-op gastric sleeve patient during my 1st appointment with my doctor. The test itself was about 451 questions. Really though, you could say it was about 150 questions asked 3 different ways. My best guess is it is done in that format to measure how consistent and true you are answering. I guess that they believe that if you are trying to manipulate the test for whatever reason, by asking the same question 3 different ways mixed in with 450 questions, you won't be able to remember how you answered previously and your true feelings will be revealed. I can't remember the exact answer selections, but I think there were 6 choices - ranging from Always True to Never True. So they might ask, "Have you consistently missed work because of drinking?" and you choose among the 6 answers as to how true the question applies to your situation. 50 or so questions later, it is asked again differently, "I never drink so much alcohol that I have called in sick at work." And they mix in questions about how alcohol has played a part in your family and social life. Your feelings about stealing, is it better to be a child or an adult, how you behave in social situations, how you bad/good feel most people behave, which is the better part of life - being a child or being an adult. I think you get the general idea. The psych interview was pretty brief - about 15 minutes. The questions mainly center around my eating habits and what I knew about diet and nutrition. That I realized that surgery was only a tool and not the solution. That I needed to exercise before and after surgery. And what I thought my ideal body weight should be. I told him that I didn't want to fixate on a specific number and just wanted to look "normal", whatever that weight turned out to be. I had been following a guy on youtube who started out at my weight 350 and was down to 235 and I thought I'd be very happy to look like him. I haven't been down below 270 since 1997! My doctor later told me that my ideal weight is 200 and seem to take it in stride that I'd have no problem getting to that weight. So we'll see. My plan is to set small goals and not get too hung up on reaching a specific weight. Expenses so far: My copay for the doctor has been about $2000 so far ($500 office visits, nutritionist counseling / $1500 surgery cost) My hospital costs so far, $3000 ($1000 blood, ultra sound, chest xrays and EDG / $2000 surgery cost) I had a bit of a panic yesterday. The hospital called to confirm my surgery date and collect payment. They told me the surgery cost was $19,000 and in my mind I'm thinking "NINETEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!" I wasn't expecting to have to pay out of pocket that much! And then they said,"Your copay is $2000." Fortunately, I hadn't completely stroked out after hearing the first part and was able to get my heart out of my mouth after I realized I wasn't responsible for the full 19k. :-) I fumbled my Discover card out and gave them the digits. Still to be paid (and as far as I know, the last): Pre-op blood typing/urine testing (must be done within 72 hours of surgery) - I'm scheduled to be tested on 12/26 / surgery 12/27 / expected to return home 12/28.

I could just about say "ditto" to everything everyone else has written about their reasons and that would be my story. Here are my details: 40yrs old Registered Nurse in Northern Virginia 266 was highest weight 262 at start of pre surgery diet 250 day of surgery 12/17/12 Surgeon: Dr. Salameh at Virginia Hospital Center Surgeon/Hospital Choice: I changed both about 3 months prior to surgery because I started working at VHC and was very comfortable with their Bariatric Center of Excellence and processes. It was hard to imagine having surgery and being vulnerable to people I work with in that sense but I did a lot of research and talked to almost everyone who would be caring for me and that made all the difference. A surgery nurse told me, "surgical nurses tell no tales." This comment was huge for me - and made me so much more sure I made the right choice. Pre-op Insurance Issues: I changed jobs and insurance during my journey which was a challenge. My insurance initially denied me because although I had over 8 months of a medically supervised diet - they claimed not enough of an exercise component was included. Having been a clinical case manager myself, I know that this is just a ploy and delaying tactic used by insurance companies. So I had my surgeon do a peer-to-peer review with the medical director of my insurance (Care First Blue Cross PPO). They compromised and insurance said they would approve if I did physical therapy (I have multiple sclerosis as well so this was one of my surgeons selling points). The physical therapy (although annoying and another month delay) was the best thing that could have happened to me. I met with the physical therapist who treats bariatric patients and it was amazing. He set me up with an exercise plan - and more importantly, made me feel good about myself and the journey I am taking. He even visited me post-op and gave me another pep talk. Had I known how helpful his was I would have paid out of pocket for it. I cannot wait to follow up with him in the new year (he's also really nice to look at - I'm not gonna lie)! Surgery 12/17/12 - all went well. I had a significant haitial hernia which needed repair. Post op I had a lot of pain - that was a surprise. I thought I would be getting a PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesics) and did mention in my pre-op surgery appt. that I don't do well with morphine. However post op they ordered IV morphine which didn't tough my pain. Ended up getting switched to dilaudid which I got pretty much every 2-3 hours but I would have probably done better if I could have controlled it myself. Discharge was sort of a mess. My nurse was getting an admission so she did my discharge before I was ready to go. We left all of the post op instructions in the room - luckily I am a nurse and knew what to do. I only had a few hours (maybe 2) on clears before I was discharged and only one dose of oral pain meds. Looking back - this clearly was not enough. I also could not take a deep breath - couldn't get the incentive spirometer (IS) to move at all. I probably needed another night in the hospital. First day home - was HORRIBLE! I had a terrible headache, could not get fluids in without severe pain, was taking pain meds more frequently than prescribed just to be able to breathe. Each breath hurt and stomach spasms on liquids really hurt. I was dehydrated and still could not make the IS move at all. Worse was I couldn't get to the phone in time to get the post-op call from the hospital so was unable to get my post-op instructions e-mailed to me (gonna suggest they ask for preferred phone number at discharge). A nurse friend came over and listened to my chest and was concerned that my breath sounds were extremely diminished on my left side as well as in both bases, She suggested the ER if it didn't improve. I also had a low grade fever:100.8. My second day was much better. I went to the mall for 4 hours and walked and also worked hard on the deep breathing. I coughed up a bunch of blackish/brownish crud and that helped as well. Fever down and no ER visit needed. Day 6 - things are going well. I still hurt but am down to just about 2 doses of pain meds a day. Im getting more fluids down and about 1/3 of a protein shake for breakfast and some cream of chicken soup for dinner. I've tried a few bites of pudding but got a little nauseous - so that is going to have to wait. Overall I'm extremely happy. I stopped all of my meds (except my MS disease modifying injections), and that has been pretty good. I'm very optimistic about the process. I forgot to mention the most important thing - I have an incredible boyfriend (of 15 years) who has been amazing through it all. He has cared for me and loved me unconditionally through the years, through MS, and through weightless surgery. Having this kind of support has ben the best and most important medicine. I've lost 20 lbs since my week prior to surgery diet. Im not gonna lie and say the pounds don't count - they do so very very very much - but the way I feel right now cannot be measured in pounds. I'm trying to keep that in mind when I have what I know will be a battle with the scale in the weeks to come. Cheers to you all!

With less than 24 hours away from the big surgery, I find myself enthralled in all sorts of emotions. One moment I'm excited. The next I'm a little worried. The next I'm axious to get this over with.. And the next I'm flat out afraid. I've been up since 3am this morning. I just can't sleep.My mind is moving just too fast. I've been going back and forth to some major events in my life and trying to figure out what led me here.. Then 2 events pop in mind.. One when I was about 19 and was having an argument with one of my ex boyfriend's friends. He made a pass at me and I told my boyfriend at the time who addressed him about it. He was so upset with me he yelled "that's why your're a cheeseburger away from obese". I was soooo offended, like could he really have said that to me.. But then again, he was right. I had no come back. Then lastly I remember having an argument with an ex friend of mine at about 21 and boy was it a bad one. Not wanting to be defeated like I had in the previous argument, I was guns loaded. In a tit for tat I blurted out "that's why your ugly and you look like a gorilla". Not one of my proudest moments I'll admit. Very childish.. She responds "that's why your fat". Ouch! Another dagger to the heart about my weight. I replied "well I can fix my problem. But you sure can't fix ugly. All the surgery in the world won't help that face!"... Feeling like I had won that argument, my ego said otherwise and I was deeply saddened. What these two events made me realize is that the person I saw, was what the rest of the world was beginning to see. Someone who was moving fast towards a serious weight problem. My grandmother passed away on December 26, 2003 in her sleep for no apparent reason. She cooked Christmas dinner, played games with us all.. then never woke back up. The doctor's ruled it as congestive heart failure because it was the last pre-existing condition she had. But what I failed to mention was that she was just over 500 pounds and battled with sleep apnea. She use to snore really bad. When I would spend the night with her, the only way I knew she was breathing was when I heard that snoring.. But sometimes there would be long pauses in those snores and she'd begin gasping for breath. The morning of her death I arose to greet her good morning and while combing my hair in her vanity right next to her bed... I noticed, she hadn't been snoring. Then I looked at her arm and it was just hanging off the bed. I knew she had stopped breathing. I honestly believe she suffocated in her sleep and had she been 200-300 pounds lighter, I'd still have her to this very day. She died at only 52. Obesity is a genetic disadvantage in my family and I finally have an opportunity to overcome that. To live life the way it's supposed to be lived. This is something I can't pass on doing. I've prayed to God without ceasing about what I can do to get this weight off and in I stumble across a procedure I didn't even know existed. Literally walked in the clinic to inquire about a lap band and will be walking out tomorrow with a sleeve. God carved a perfectly laid path for me tomorrow. I had no hickups along the way, and have paid nothing out of pocket. Because I have really good health insurance, whatever they cover is all my surgeon says he will be receiving. It can't get any better than that. Aside for paying co pay on my perscriptions, I consider this a free procedure to help me get my life back. This is a gift from God! I am a living witness that if you remain in him and his words remain in you, you can ask for whatever you wish and it will be given unto you (John 15:7). I didn't know how he was gonna do it I just had faith and he did it! I cry as I write this moment because I will never see life through the same set of eyes again. My limits to a happy fulfilled life have just become endless. These are my tears... OF JOY!

I had surgery early Monday morning. I stepped on the scale, 5 days later on Friday, also early in the morning. I went from 271 to 255.5 pounds in 5 days. That's almost 16 pounds... in 5 days. Seems like a lot, almost abnormally so. My grandmother seems very excited for me, however, I keep telling her it's probably just my liver shrinking and all the waste leaving my body. Is it bad that I'm being pessimistic? I've had no issues with constipation. Still gassy, but it's making it's way out pretty fast down below and I have no shoulder, side, or chest pains. Walking a few hours after surgery and walking blocks around the surgery ward every 2 hours really did help me, I think. A lot of the nurses were amazed. I didn't see many other bariatric patients walking around until late at night I saw one man walking a little bit from his room until he turned around and went back. I remember the next day after surgery when I did the x-ray test and had to drink that nasty liquid, I ran into a young woman named Monica waiting for it, too. She looked at me and asked "What did you get?" I mentally laughed and then said the vertical sleeve, and she said she had the same. I asked her what he goal weight was and she said 140. I'm going for 150-155. We talked about gas pain, but I told her I was up and walking a few hours after surgery. I know I mentioned the VST forum and asked if she was on it, and she asked me my name, but I thought she meant my username.... obviously the drugs got to me and I gave her my username (Castiel is a name of a character from a TV show) and yeah.... so she didn't know my name until a nurse called it. probably thought I was crazy haha. I didn't see her walking around the floor at all during my stay nor could I find her room til the very very end right before she was leaving :[ I wanted to wish her good luck! Right now, I'm seriously hungry. I'm only on clear liquids, no protein. I can't stand the taste of isopure. It's revolting! I thought it was okay before surgery, but that weird filmy after taste and the smell? no thanks. I know it's bad, but I had a half of a teaspoon of peanut butter over the course of a half hour with water swished in my mouth. I was prepared to get sick, but so far I'm okay. I feel drained of energy, and I just need some good tasting protein shakes (not until monday). These next two weeks of liquids and full liquids can't go fast enough! I'm ready for some mashed potatoes and pureed beans... maybe even with a little sour cream, and a glass of milk! I think the hardest part is getting through this month until I can finally get to soft foods. Head hunger is killing me and I can't wait to have smaller portions of healthy good tasting stuff! I'm also paranoid I have leak already, but I guess I'll find out when I have a fever and more intense pains. I seem to be straining my stitches a lot :[