snowfie9

Yah my surgeon only required an overnight stay. I discovered the key to getting liquids in is to force yourself to burp after every sip. (luckily I have two younger brothers and beating them at belching was a childhood pastime of mine.). They also gave me some kind of steroid before surgery to reduce inflammation and a patch behind my ear to fight nausea (though it gives me a horrible dry mouth which just makes me want to drink more which is good). It was a very impressive outfit and my surgeon ( dr. Frank chae) has these surgeries down pat! No two week liquid pre-op ( he said he used to do them but stopped 10 years ago because it didn't produce a better outcome and just tortured the patient). I didn't even need a barium swallow. Just in and done and done well.

Body image dysmprphia works both ways. I've always been obese, but I never "saw" myself as fat. I'm the heaviest I've ever been and boy do I see it now! But I won't be stopping at 250-230lbs which has been the "norm" through my adult life. I'm taking this train all the way out of obesity and I'm absolutely positive I'll think I'm TOO thin. And the people who've known me my entire life may agree with me. But that's something to struggle with just as a na norexic struggles with thinking they're too fat. I would gladly trade my current problems with that problem.

Thanks for that info. I wondered about skin. I thought it HAD to get better over time but did not know how long. Oh and bless you for the proper use of "ensure". There's this guy at my work that CONSTANTLY uses "insure" and it's driven me quite mad. LOL!

Tomorrow is my day too! I'm encouraged that May 9 seems like such a popular date. Kind of feels like I'm not going alone. Good luck 5/9ers!

One of the ladies I work with was trying to convince me this is the wrong surgery for me (she was for the lapband but nothing else). So she says "Dawn, The stomach is a vital organ!" and I replied "Actually you can live without it entirely". And she replied "But it's important to digestion." and I said "I agree, that's why I"m not getting a bypass". It was funny and she meant well. Several people were uncomfortable with the idea of me having surgery but it all came from concern for my well being. For the most part everyone's been supportive. (less than 48 hours til surgery!)

My surgery on Monday is at 1145am. It's nice because it's an hour drive away and I just can't wake up early anymore (with apnea). Good luck!

I weight every couple weeks right now. But once I have my surgery I'm going to put my scale away for at LEAST 2 weeks. it's hard enough to acclimate to the new situation without worrying about hwo much you're losing.

Oh I hope you're better in time! Go get some mucinex. It really does clear the gunk out of the lungs.

flower/candle centerpeices are nice. That's what I usually bring when I can't bring food.

Wow it seems like a lot of us are May9. 3 or 4 at least! Hope it's a good sign.

LOL! I flat out told my surgeon on my first visit that I have a family history of "mildly unusual anatomy" on my mother's side. The Surgeon who took out my mother's gallbladder was positiviely GOBSMACKED. Her sister's appendix was several inches further up the colon than usual and my aunt's son's appendix was tied in a knot. I dont' know if he believes me or not but I told him if he sees Jesus or Elvis in my spleen, I want a picture. I'm glad you're feeling better and doing well!

I can get a full scoop to dissolve in 8oz. Not right away, mind you. I"ll put 8oz of Water or milk in a shaker bottle, and the powder, shake it and let it sit for about a half hour or more, shake it again and it's all dissolved. probably even faster if you have a blender. But yah, the unflavored isn't flavorless. And it's not the flavor so much as the smell that I have a probelm with. So I don't sip directly from the glass, but instead sip from a straw (to keep my nose from getting too close to it)

I got my first visit from Aunt Flo since January. Better now than a week from now. I'll have time to get through it before surgery on the 9th. But I feel really UGH right now. (UGH)

Congrats! you're doing great. Almost everyone stalls 3-4 weeks out as the Water you lost right after the surgery starts getting replenished (or so I've been told). It doesn't mean you're not losing fat. I am determined not to even touch a scale (except at follow up appts) until at LEAST 2 months after surgery. Maybe even as long as 3 months, we'll see. I'm going to spend that time healing and getting adapted to the new reality of the sleeve. I won't get serious about weight loss or exercise until I'm at least well into solid food. Ignorance really can be bliss.

It depends. My surgeon's office said 2-3 weeks is average but my claim was submitted on a Thursday and approved by Monday (which was unusually fast).

you'd be surprised what you can accomplish when you don't realize it's impossible. LOL! succeed or fail, it's a good goal to have.

I haven't gotten quite that bad YET (I have a week to go), but I am starting to get nervous and having bad dreams. It's the finality of the thing that is starting to sink in. There's no turning back. There's no reversal. No one's going to knit you a new stomach if you decide later you don't want the sleeve. Nothing will EVER be the same again. And it'll be for the better, for the most part, but it won't all be sunshine and roses. I will have to adapt. I will have to grow and change and adapt to a body that will increasingly become foreign to me. I'm feeling the weight of the decision. The reasons I need to do this haven't changed, but I am starting to get nervous and anxious about the transition I know I'll need to make.

Tiffykins had a lot of bad complications. She said she was on a resperator at one point. But she's gotten past them and is doing very well 2 years out. My surgeon said that complications with the sleeve (at least in his experience) are extremely rare. Out of the thousdands of surgeries he's done (VSL, lapband, bypass and other bariatric surgeries) only 2 of his patients has died and both were from heart attacks. But I think a lot of the odds of complications has to do with the surgeon and how much experience they've had with this surgery. it's a pretty specialized surgery and one can certainly do with a surgeon that specializes in bariatric.

It's always more comfortable to deal with the devil you know. But while you're worrying about POSSIBLE complications of surgery, you should be more worried about the unavoidable complications of obesity. It's a big change, and there are SOME risks, but the risks of failure are much higher without the surgery and the consequences of failure are far more worthy of your fear than surgery.

So many people have chimed in and I don't have much to add except I never considered bypass surgery. That was way beyond my comfort zone. VSG just seemed like the best available alternative from the get go (I did research lap band for a while but there were too many "band to sleeve" stories for me to think it was a good idea). But I had a funny exchange with a lady from work who's doesn't like my choice in surgery. "But Dawn", she said "the stomach is a vital organ!". And I just laughed and said "Actually you can live without your stomach entirely". She replied "Yes, but it's important to the digestive system" and I said "I agree, that's why I'm not doing a bypass". She was funny. Every point she came up with I was like "yes I know, that's the whole point". She's not unsupportive, she's just concerned. But I actually like having these discussions with people because it reinforces, in my mind, that I've thought of all the possibilites and weighed all the options and considered all the factors. because for a decision this important, you really do need to know what you're talking about.

None of us would be here if we had a healthy relationship with food. Don't beat yourself up over it. It will get better. You will DO better. Until you have that surgery, the beast you're fighting is still as strong as ferocious as it's ever been. Once the surgery is over, that beast will be much smaller and MUCH easier to pin down. Good luck.

I simply want to be done losing weight in 1 year. I have about 120lbs to lose. I want to be firmly where I need to be in 1 year.

I did not want to deal with spoons trying to calculate 1/4 cup. So I found these 2.5 oz stainless steel condiment cups at Walmart. $1 for 4 and they'll be my main "dishes" for a while. I also got a couple nicer looking 3oz clear plastic condiment cups for $.88 each to take to work. Something to amke it look more like an actual bowl (but really really tiny). But it might be easier than the spoons.

I'm already assuming I'll look horrible (at least for a while). I am going to look like a deflated balloon. And you know what? I'm perfectly okay with that. I'm not doing this to LOOK better. I'm doing this to FEEL better and to be able to DO more. and if I do end up looking great, well that's a bonus.

I haven't been sleeved yet but I've chosen and aquired all my Vitamins and one of the things I'm going to take (at least for the first month), is a liquid multi-Vitamin called Reviva. You take 2Tbsp/day and it's a pretty decent multi-vitamin. It doesn't have Iron, but that's okay because you should be taking iron separately (so it doesn't bind with other minerals and prevent absorption). Reviva also makes a liquid calcium citrate. It's the same deal, 2Tbsp/day for 1000MG (I have a calcium chew for the other 500mg you need in a day) but it's delicious! it tastes like blueberry yogurt. I got both from costco for $18 each. 32 doses per bottle. I don't know where else they're available. Can also be found at: http://www.revivanutrition.com/product_more.html