Foxbins

You are probably still swollen. It takes a while to go down, but in another couple of weeks things should be better. If you have no appetite, you must force yourself to eat by the clock--every three hours. Protein first, as much as you can, (took me about 2 months to get in 60 gms) and remember that shakes count as liquids. You can do this!

I don't think it's disheartening--I think it's an NSV! I must have looked like a whale! I love it now when people do double-takes and ask my name with that upturn-question-sound on the end, like they're not sure it's me. I've lost two double chins and a second-grader so no wonder I look different. I stand differently, I wear clothes that fit, and I have more confidence. I don't think your feelings should be hurt, you should be happy that you have lost so much weight.

Get some 10 lb barbells. Kettlebells you need room to swing and if you spare room is small, there goes the lamp! Also, a yoga mat. Unless you have been training all along, I recommend walking for cardio and using your own weight initially for strength work. Do modified pushups (knees and feet on the floor) and stomach curls on your yoga mat. Lift the barbells above your head and behind you. Above all, keep moving!

I know little about labs so if somebody does, please chime in. My two-month labs were great. Now at six months, my ferritin is 7 (should be above 30) my serum Iron is 42, down from 84 in February, my parathyroid has decreased to 14 from 36, and my prealbumin is 17.2, normal is 18-41. My hematocrit, hemoglobin, and other indicators for anemia are low normal. From my interpretation, it looks like I am drawing on my iron stores and soon will exhaust them and become anemic. I think the prealbumin level means I need more Protein ( I eat 60-70 gms a day). I don't know what the parathyroid drop means--something related to Calcium, I think. All Vitamin levels were fine or above normal and other blood chemistries were normal. I take a Centrum multi with 18 mg of iron daily, 1200 mg of calcium citrate, 1000 mg of D3, and B-12. I have Kaiser and wonder if they will address this or if I should start taking more iron. Have a call into the doc but this is worrying me.

I was watching reruns of Project Runway this morning when an ad for this product came on. Apparently, it is a little hand-held laser that zaps your body hair. It's quite expensive if it doesn't work but a good deal compared to spa or medical laser treatment if it does. Anyone have any knowlege about if it and if it's worth the $450 price tag?

Yes, it's sublingual. My values are above 1000 pg/ml. I take 2500 mcg on M, W, & F. Might drop down to 2x/wk. The multi with iron I am taking has 18 mg of iron, that's supposed to be 100% of the RDA for me as a post-menopausal woman.

Thanks, all, for your replies. My nutritionist is the one who told me to take Centrum. I take liquid calcium citrate in two 500 mg doses and one 200 mg dose spaced two hours apart. I don't take the calcium until after lunch and I take the multi-vit with Iron in the morning; since we don't absorb calcium carbonate well, I assumed that it would not impede the iron absorption in the multi-vit. I'll give some additional Vitamin C a try even though the multi has C in it. @Kellyw74: Are you having any stomach issues or constipation with the ferrous gluconate? I heard it was hard on the tummy.

I thought I would post my BodPod results too--they were bad but not as bad as I expected. I am 42% fat--2% over the "Risky to health" threshold. Weight training was encouraged to increase lean body mass and resting metabolic rate, so I think I'll be scheduling a session with a personal trainer to start a lifting regimen. It was good to go with FeedYourEye and exchange information--my resting metabolic rate is less than 2000 calories at present and I really need to jack that up. Looking forward to re-test in six months. when I hope there will be improvement.

Sweetie, unless you are 10 feet tall, 415 is morbidly obese. This is not a cosmetic procedure for you.

Your ticker says you weigh 431. I doubt that Aetna will deny you at that weight, especially with a documented failure of weight loss attempts. I'd rest easy if I were you.

Bad breath is probably due to a lot of things. The body gets rid of a fair number of waste products through the lungs. As for liquids, they just trickle on through your stomach because your sotmach isn't a reservoir for liquids anymore. You probably won't feel restriction until you are on mushies or solids.

You're the incredible shrinking woman! You look great!

Then it's the same diet, just the quantity is greater. Meat, seafood, fish, and protein shakes-oh, and lettuce, cucumbers, all those mostly-water vegetables. Try sparkpeople.com to track, they have a huge database of foods and will tell you the nutrition info. It's free, too.

Under 40 means nearly all meat and very small quantities of carb-containing foods. Here's a typical menu for me at six months: Breakfast: coffee w/half & half 1 gm Protein, 5 gm carb Snack: Slice of honey-roasted turkey breast: 9 gm protein, 3 carbs. Lunch: 3 oz shrimp 17 gm protein, 0 carb Snack: Protein shake 30 gm protein, 5 carb dinner 2 oz beef top loin 20 gm protein, 0 carb. This totals 77 gm protein, 19 gm carbs. My Calcium citrate has 10 gms of carb, so now I'm at 29 gms. It's fresh cherry season and I love them so before bed I'll have 8 cherries=6 carbs, putting me at 35 for the day. Sometimes I sub scallops for the protein shake. Most days I eat between 600-800 calories, never more. If I am too low on calories for the day I might have some dry-roasted almonds--nearly all fat, a little protein and no carbs at all.

My surgeon says 600-800 calories a day during the losing stage. Hair loss isn't from too few calories as we are burning our fat if we need more caloies to fuel our metabolisms. Some common causes of hair loss are anesthesia, major surgery, thyroid problems, and rapid weight loss. Most of us have 3 of the 4, so no wonder we lose hair. Your hair will grow back over time.

I don't know why Dr. Aceves costs more, but I can say that I had no nausea, vomiting, or complications of any kind. It was worth it to me to pay what Dr. Aceves charged. I was the only person having surgery on 1/13 so I didn't feel rushed or part of an assembly line. I don't know anything about Dr. Kelly, but his patients seem to love him as much as Dr. Aceves' patients love Dr. A.

The whole "You are losing 85% of your stomach" part never bothered me. What had my stomach ever done for me except clamor for food, more, more, more, and hold ridiculous amounts of it? I was just afraid that I would still want massive amounts because I would be hungry, but I'm not. What a relief!

Where was your hernia? I would think the mesh was used to reinforce the weakened muscle--probably can't put lap instruments through it, but a few inches either way shouldn't matter. There's a surgical technique that uses one incision through the umbilicus if your hernia wasn't there.

I did not have any post-op nausea or vomiting. Some surgeons wait to see if you will have nausea/vomiting before medicating you but my surgeon gives the anti-nausea meds to everyone. I think initially nausea is from the anasthesia but if you are given opioids for pain relief they can also cause nausea.

That's not true, there are plenty of US surgeons who oversew. BTW, Dr. Aceves did my surgery and I am still here, alive, kicking, and 3/4 of the way to goal! You will have a leak test and an x-ray to check for leaks, as well as a drain, so no fear.

The primary means of closure is with surgical staples, which some surgeons use exclusively. Some oversew the staple line, but those sutures heal and scar over just like any other wound. Surgical adhesive is also used by some surgeons to coat the staple line as a precaution against leaks. It's up to the surgeon whether or not they use any method other than staples. I don't really understand your question, I guess. Do you think stomach contents are going to leak out of the holes the needle went through while oversewing the staple line?

I counted them--a calorie is a calorie. I also switched to a lower-calorie, lower-carb liquid calcium citrate I found at costco. In a few months, I plan on switching again to Citracal petites, with no carbs and no calories.

When I was newer, for my Water I had a 32 oz water bottle measured off on the side in 1 oz increments. I would fill it up and pour some into a cup--drink the cup eventually, pour another---I could always see how much I had drunk by the level in the bottle. I do the same now, but I drink out of a 16 oz glass and just make a tick mark on my food journal when I finish one. At the end of the day there are always 4 or 5 ticks=64 or 80 oz. For food, I measured and counted what I measured because sometimes I'd put the leftover half-tablespoon of cottage cheese back in the refrigerator and eat it later. I had already counted it, so it was kind of "free" food.

I drink them and I like them. They are thicker than chocolate milk so I usually pour them over ice to thin them out. You can bring them back if you don't like them.

This is not normal; it's called, appropriately enough, an hourglass stomach. I cannot say whether or not it is due to surgical error. It does mean that you have lost the restriction you once had. You might want to look into the possibility of being resleeved or another procedure. It's not related to bougie size. For the reflux, try a PPI.