M2G

Wonderful pictures, and yay for no more stress about food! That is a huge goal right there. Cute Christmas socks, BTW.

That is SO SO SO exciting! What a wonderful way to start off 2011!!!! :present:

HOW EXCITING!!!! You have done a fantastic job!!! Give me some time, but make room down there in Onederland, as this year I plan to be joining you all who reside there.

That is so great that you like what you see. It's amazing how much better we feel about ourselves when we feel good about our own image! Definitely a NSV!!!

I have always been a water drinker, I like it, like the taste and had no problems giving up my diet soda. I drink a short decafe coffee every am, and the rest is water throughout the day. I do drink one of my waters with the orange flavored benefiber about once a day to just keep things regular. But other than that, I love water. Interestingly enough, my girls do too. I remember when they were babies I was told, 'oh they don't need water, they are getting enough from the breastmilk, etc'. But I gave them water in baby bottles anyway, starting about 6 months old. I think that is why they still like drinking water to this day. They will order soda when we are at a restaurant or some other type of drink, but also ask for water, and the water is usually what they end up drinking. I would rather eat my calories than drink them any day! It is an interesting and probably certainly up for debate.

DITTO!!! I was headed down the band path and I am EVER so greatful that I did the sleeve!!!

Congrats on your loss, you look fantastic! Being at goal, what a wonderful gift to give yourself. :present:

Just watched your latest Julie! I always enjoy watching your videos! I admit to being a bit dense when it comes to youtube, but I didn't see the makeup link. I'm sure it's there and my brain and eyes are not connecting to see it. I used to never wear makeup, but a few years ago I went back to work part-time and decided it was worth it on work days. Then I decided I'm worth it all the time (there are still days however, when I go au natural.) So I don't consider myself a makeup junkie (my routine is about 5 minutes in front of the mirror) but I'm always interested in new tips and techinques!

Okay, I'm back and I just typed P90 into my google bar...OMG the first thing that came up were GUNS and not the kind you get from working out...really guns to shoot with. lol. Anyway, now I get it, they are a series of workout DVD's. Cool. I hope you enjoy them. I used to do Tony Little (back in the day...remember him? OMG! I think he now hawks his 'goods' on QVC or something similar.) I enjoyed working out to them, but I'm the opposite of you, I find (with the exception of my treadmill) that I tend to do better getting OUT of the house to work out. lol. A few years back I wanted an exercise ball for my birthday...omg you should have seen my girls hoot and holler with laughter of me trying to do the DVD workout. Not that I let them dictate what I choose to do for a workout, but I find it harder to work out at home because there is always something I would rather be doing (even laundry or whatnot). I think it is great that you and hubby are doing this together! Please keep us posted on how you like them and what you think about them. And thanks for the congrats, I am so truly grateful that I found Curves and it has worked for me, plus I met a whole new group of friends too and that has been the best part about Curves is the friendships I have made.

The nurse at my surgeon's practice was well over 300lbs and had the lap band. She did wait until about 4 years post-op to have PS. She doesn't look like a knockout to me, just "normal". Anyway my point is what she said to all of us at pre-op, "you will never WISH for the fat back because of loose skin, TRUST ME" I don't know that I'm planning on plastics at any point, because I'm married, I don't NEED to wear a bikini, or impress people with my naked self. lol. My hubby kept asking about it (I think he was worried about the financial aspect of it) but I kept telling him, "I will cross that bridge when I get there" so I haven't ruled it out but I'm certainly not planning on it either. I once lost 80lbs on Medifast rather quickly (in a years time) but didn't need plastics then. Of course that was a good 14 years ago. Not sure what age plus all the yo-yo dieting I've done over the years will do to my skin.

I have no idea what a P90 is but I exercise 3-6 days a week. I go to Curves 3-4x/week and somedays I just walk on my treadmill. I am so proud of my exercise habits because I started them almost 7 years ago. It truthfully has been the only thing that I've ever been able to STICK TO for so long. I definitely need to incorporate more exercise, and I did join a rec center (that has punch passes that never expire) but anyway, in addition to my Curves and treadmill, I'm planning on taking some more intense fitness classes and swimming laps regularly in 2011. I will have to google what a P90 is since I don't know. I'm headed to Curves now so I will check it out later.

I thought the same thing! I would definitely try a new NUT or ask your surgeon if he knows of any. My surgeon gave me a huge 3 ring binder filled with pages of notes and specific guidelines, etc. He also has 3 in-house NUTs whom I saw for 6 months prior to surgery AND they run his support groups. I think there is some online documentation about someone's guidelines in PDF format, maybe try OH and search for it, or even search here, as it could possibly help just give you some clear direction. I personally have to limit my carbs or I don't lose. I'm carb sensitive, but do okay with small amounts of healthy carbs. The junky white carbs/sugar just make me want more.

That really sucks (and I can think of some other worse words to use too!) I'm sorry you are having this battle. I hope there is some relief for you in there when you are done battling. Like Rob said, I hope you can find out if you have an out-of-pocket maximum, because that would certainly help if it is a reasonable amount. Is there a medical insurance board for TX? Keep fighting and I hope you get somewhere with this. We have a high-deductible (HSA) and knew once we hit the $5K out of pocket for 2010 then everything would be billed at 90% (insurance portion) and 10% (our portion) but what was impossible to tell was what the final bill would eventually be. I was shocked when I logged onto my HSA account a few weeks post-surgery to find out that the bill was over $33,000 for my sleeve (that was just the hospital bill) and I knew that my drs. self-pay price was $20,000. I cannot for the life of me figure out how anyone can get away with that. However, NO ONE will be paying that large of a bill. The discounts were huge, it really is all rather silly to put that on paper knowing full well that NO ONE is paying $33,000. I'm still not sure I understand how it all works, but thankfully we didn't even have to pay 10% of that price. We only paid 10% of the "discounted" price...phew!

You are definitely shrinking! Congrats on your loss!

That is crazy. I had never heard of the sleeve until I called UHC and they said for our particular policy the sleeve, the band and the RNY was covered. We were told that it just started being covered this year by UHC. I would keep trying and ask for written documentation!

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you and I'm sure the pain will lessen with each passing day. I bet you will feel SO good not having that band inside you!

I got my period about 10 days early and about a day after getting out of the hospital. It ticked me off too, because I had intentionally planned my surgery date at the middle of my cycle so I would not have to "deal" with recovery and that time. Ugh. But I must say I am not on any type of hormone, pill, patch, etc. and my periods are completely 100% normal since being sleeved. Except for getting cheated on that extra week back in Oct. I think it is more common for them to be out of whack, so I don't know exactly what I'm doing but they were normal before and after the sleeve, so maybe I'm just lucky?

Congrats on your new sleeve. Sorry you were so sick, I was worried about that too since I had my gallbladder out 12 years ago and the anethesia made me horribly ill. For my sleeve I think they used some pretty strong anti-nausea meds and sent me home with a patch behind my ear. Whatever they did worked, and I was so grateful. Don't worry about the water/swelling weight, definitely from the IV fluids. Hey I just looked at your ticker and saw you live in Denver. Me too!!

:roll: I am married so I don't date, but I have been to group dinners where no one noticed what I ate. You can always say something like "oh I wasn't thinking much and ate _____________ (fill in the blank with your favorite snack) just before leaving the house, and now I'm pretty full. Soup is great or ordering off the appetizer menu sometimes is ok too. The other thing you can say is that you are watching your carbs and order a chicken sandwich and leave the bread off (you won't be able to eat the whole chicken breast, but you might be able to hide some of it under the bread .) :wink1:

Ditto!

SN..............Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.......Lbs to Goal LilMissDiva.......235..................235.............220..............15 MRSKOUBIK.....317..................283.............267..............16 Sleeve 4 me.....166..................166.............154..............12 Yolanda240....236............203........170..........33 Mommy2Girls...275................240..............228............12

I was told that even though my weight was being monitored, I didn't have to lose weight during the 6 month time period. In order to qualify though, my BMI could not go below 40 (it was 44) and that my last NUT visit would constitute the weight that my approval would be based on. That being said, I sort of used that as an "excuse" not to diet, and looking back I really am okay with it. I didn't gain or lose any in the 6 month time period (well except for 2lbs from a vacation to Hawaii, but I lost that fairly quickly) and my approval went through just fine. But when I see someone's ticker that says they lost 20 or 30 (or more!) weight pre-op, then I sort of feel like I should have been dieting. My advice is to call your case manager (if you have one assigned to you from your insurance) and ask them directly about weight loss/gain, etc. And I totally agree with the frustrating wait-time. In all of my documentation about our health insurance coverage, that isn't mentioned at all. It's like no one wants to talk about it...lol, then they hit you with it and it feels like running into a brick wall. But as frustrating as it was for me, I am eternally grateful because it gave me time to learn about the sleeve and do that vs. the band. Phew. So in the end, for me, it was a positive thing. Good luck with everything!

I had my gall bladder out about 12 years ago, and don't think I gained weight due to having it out. But I had the same concern that you did, talked to my surgeon and he said it makes no difference at all whether you have one or not. Basically just one less thing to worry about down the road (since there is a higher incidence of gall stones post rapid weight-loss). Hope that helps!

WOW!!! What an incredible year! Congratulations on making all those great goals happen, that is very exciting!

Ok, I do not have any "before" pictures to compare this to but if I were to be walking down the street and saw you, I would not think that you look like a man who has to lose weight. And I know this journey is not just about how we look (when do we look "normal" or feel "normal" etc.??), it is more about that healthy BMI or having your own personal goal, etc. so even saying that I know you are not done losing and I don't say that to suggest that you should not lose more. I've always had the comment "but you don't look like you weigh THAT much" which I guess is a compliment, I wear my weight well? lol.:embaressed_smile: Guess I'm trying to say GOOD JOB!!! You look great!:thumbs_up: