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I have not been big on taking body measurements during my journey so far. I’ve maybe taken 4 throughout. I’ve also tried to resist frequent weight taking due to the many warnings. I do biweekly (or occasionally weekly 😉) weighing. But!! I have lost 16 inches around my waist which seems like a lot, but I have absolutely no concept and can’t find any thing about expectations for losing inches or what is good for benchmarks. What have been your “YAY!” moments for measurements?

I never had any expectations re: measurements, but I lost A LOT of inches.

Today marks my one year anniversary of my VSG. This was the best gift I could have given myself. As promised, I am back to give my 12 month update. I hope all will follow up with status updates so the results can be tabulated. 1. Basics: GENDER, AGE (at time of surgery) , HEIGHT - F, 62, 5'5" 2. Total Weight lost in the 6 months BEFORE surgery (if any) - 6.5 LBS 3.Weight on DAY OF SURGERY. - 202.5 LBS 4. Weight at 1 MONTH POST surgery - 187.4 LBS 5. Weight at 3 MONTHs POST surgery - 170.8 LBS 6. Weight at 6 MONTHs POST surgery - 149.2 LBS 7. Weight at 12 MONTHs POST surgery - 134.2 LBS

It really is. I am absolutely certain that I would never *ever* have lost the weight I did if I hadn't been here from day 1. 20lbs loss in a month is amazing. Compare that to ANY diet you did in your life before surgery - unbelievable. Yes there will be stalls and regains, but if you stick to your programme then the general trend will be downwards. I hope you will be happy with where you land 🤩

Any recommendations on what to pack for the recovery house? I am about to book!

or maybe something like SIBO? Or IBD or IBS? Or even a redundant colon? (I have the latter - I'd sometimes wake up in a lot of pain because "stuff" would get stuck in one of the curvy parts). A colonoscopy would detect the latter, though (that's how I found out about mine). Not sure about the others.

My hair started thinning around 3 months post surgery. It thinned out until about 9 months out and then slowly stopped. I cut my hair to juuuuuuuust shoulder length and used volumizing and thickening shampoo and conditioner, and it's really helped. The longer your hair, the heavier it is and can make the thinning more noticeable.

I did not have to commit to any amount of time for my Dr but they do recommend 2 weeks because then you can usually get the drains and stitches out. I stayed 6 days at a recovery house and then another week at my moms because she lives just 30 min from the border. That second week I just sent pictures to the dr as needed for updates and then traveled once to go get my stitches and drains out before I flew home. You can travel the day after surgery if you wanted to but I would really not recommend that because I could barely move. I really had no pain and other patients of his seem to have no pain too. I was just on tylenol and nothing else for 5 days. But you are so stiff and numb its like wearing a plastic suit or something and makes doing anything so much harder. I am on several plastic surgery boards and so far basically no one is reporting any hair loss like after bariatric surgery. I have not lost any yet but it also didn't happen until 3 months after my surgery before. So I'm hoping it won't happen but its too early to say for sure.

It is the weirdest thing and amazing!

Congratulations but also gracious what an experience. How fortunate you have such a wonderful & caring surgeon who was on top of your symptoms straight away. Hope the rest of your recovery goes smoothly. PS: Realising you weigh as much as you did as a child is a head trip. I remember when I realised I must weigh what I did when I was 12. Twelve! Back in the seventies! OMG! And I was just a normal sized child then (before puberty hit.) I actually dug out my tutu from then & it fit (actually was a little big). Freaky!