PdxMan

I assume you are in the Vegas area ... correct? As my name suggests, I am from Portland, OR, so, no, I have not attended any of his support meetings. I flew in on Thursday and went to the nutrition seminar. Had surgery on Friday morning (probably why office is closed today ... surgery day). Monday morning had a follow up appt where he removed pain pump and flew back to Portland around noon. I believe his cash price for outpatient is still the same, $10,400, which is what I paid. I have full access to the team and did call the NUT a few times post. I also did call Dr Umbach a couple times before I flew down when I had a list of questions. Answered all my questions, no problems. The physical aspects of my recovery were great. He repaired a hiatal hernia I didn't even know I had. I had researched the procedure well and knew the first month was going to be tough ... and it is. You go stir crazy not being able to chew any real food with texture. Not following the guidelines is met with instant regret as progressing too soon can be painful. Psychologically adjusting, for me, was the biggest challenge. I suggest you may want to make some appointments with a therapist post-op, even if you don't think you need it. I was surprised at how I mourned the inability to gorge on food. I knew that pity party would be coming, and it did. Doesn't make it easy, but my expectations were right-sized and I was able to turn that pity party into determination.

Hey, wasn't putting a perverse twist on anything. I was basically re-stating what you said in this post: There is just an awful lot of man bashing that goes on here at VST and it gets really old. The posts that contain this behavior take no time to try to look at the whole picture. As the person making the decision to make a change in our lives, we make this whole process all about us and chastise anyone around us who doesn't jump on our, "Yea for ME!" bandwagon. We have taken far more time to process this whole thing in our heads but the others around us haven't. We don't give them the time or volume of information we have had, yet, we expect them to be caught up with us. Some spouses can do this, but others need more time and information. I know we want to be supportive of our fellow sleevers, but man-bashing is just such a common past-time here whether it is warranted or not.

Ah, great. You found a REAL MAN that you can manipulate and makes a lot of money. Wow. Nice job. Congratulations ... uh ... really. I'm sure you do love him.

Hmmm ... sounds like it is about time for a MEN ARE SUCH ASSES!! thread. I think it has been about 8 hours since the last one was posted. After all, it IS all about US, right? Laura, will you do the honors?

Yes, I would totally recommend Umbach. He is not the warm, fuzzy kind of Dr, though, if that is the type you are needing. He will answer every question you have thoroughly, but is not going to sit you down and go through everything step by step. His NUT is always available and he even gave me his personal cell # to call him at any time with any concern. I liked the option of doing this outpatient because I am not a fan of hospitals. Too many sick people there and I wasn't sick. I stayed at the Golden Nugget and everything went great. I am 21 months post and still have excellent restriction. PM me with any more questions or more detail.

You can't go the low carb route and exercise with any decent level of intensity or duration. I know there is this thought that in order to lose weight, you have to do low carb. That may have been true pre-sleeve, but for me, it never holds water. You need energy to exercise. Carbs provide that. With that energy, you can work out stronger, longer and really burn the fat. It worked for me and many others who have discovered that dieting with a sleeve with exercise just doesn't work.

I guess I haven't seen the posts where people aren't sharing because of shame. Could you point me to some of them? Thanks.

There is a ton of stuff out in the GoogleVerse ... I found THIS from LiveStrong.

Just make sure the quinoa is well cooked. You don't want that expanding in the stomach. While it has protein, dollar for dollar, your real estate is better used elsewhere.

Nice ... I'm still in physical therapy. Cleared for long walks, though, and did do a spinning class during a "trial" membership at 24 hour fitness. They say I may be able to run again by the end of this month. We'll see. Good luck to all who have events coming up.

LOL!

Yes, I posted a link to that thread on one of my recent posts on this thread for her to follow and perhaps contribute there.

There is nothing I cannot eat. I just choose not to eat breads, pastas and rice as they are basically nutritionally irrelevant. I have about 8 oz of space in my stomach now and I want to lease it out to foods with the nutrients my body needs. Now, when I was running competitively a year ago, I would eat pasta the day before a race to carb load, but that would be about it. If I need carbs now, I eat veggies.

Ever see Leaving Las Vegas? Addiction is a cunning, baffling, powerful foe. People caught in its grips would rather die than confront themselves. Being active in a 12 step program, I have seen this in real life more times than I would care to.

This just sounds so unhealthy mentally. You want to commiserate with other folks who are wanting to go back to being in an abusive relationship. Another option might be to seek some counselling as to getting to some root issues with your eating disorder. This may be the scariest, healthiest thing you have ever done, but you may learn to love and embrace your new lifestyle as so many others here have done.

So, you are definitely not the only two here who didn't have complications, yet regret the surgery. I understand that there is going to be that population, for sure. I don't want or mean to discount what you are going through, but I really enjoy working with everyone here on VST through their struggles and triumphs. I feel it is a blessing in my life to be able to try to pay it forward. It is one of the principles of another program I follow. HERE is a post I just made today that holds the same question that I just don't get. You did your research. You knew what to expect. You, like me, had successfully lost weight previously, but regained it back. You, like myself, were tired of this and wanted something that was going to help you to NOT regain that weight back, so you chose the permanent WLS surgery, the sleeve. Not the band, which could be removed ... not RnY, which could be reversed, but the option that forced my hand to be all in. I wanted to stop abusing food and I can only assume you did, too. Do you think you may just be in the mourning phase I spoke of? Do you really want to go back to abusing food? Is it like the wife who wants to go back to the abusive spouse because, "I love him, so!!"

Just remember your capacity is ridiculously small. Your body's nutritional requirements are still quite high, so whatever you eat, make sure you are getting the fats, carbs and minerals your body needs. Mashed potatoes may make you feel sated, but how is their nutrition for the amount of real estate they are going to take up? I was a big fan of Soups. Thick soups, not runny ones. Smoked ham and lentil with onions and carrots. Turkey chili with onions and carrots. chicken veggie, too. As I progressed through the pureed stage, I pureed them less and less. They are well balanced meals and provide everything your body needs. (maybe not what it wants ... know what I mean?)

Laura, are you on a mobile device? You missed her post from page 2. To summarize, she is sad that she cannot abuse food the way she used to. I remember feeling the same way at about the same point. It is difficult to let this relationship go, but it is time.

I'm on a web browser, so no, I read 'em all. Until later tonight when I am on my phone, then ...

Don't you know everything is better if you just keep it in the closet. God forbid if we should ever ACTUALLY have to confront any weakness we have in our lives. Let's bring back Don't Ask Don't Tell. That was a great policy. It doesn't exist if we don't know about it. Right? Ignorance is bliss. Damn, I miss the Easter Bunny.

Also, to piggy back off what I wrote in my earlier post, I think mobile devices are also to blame. HUH?! That's ridiculous!No, really. People are researching using their iPhones. I have one and use it all the time reading here, but I also use a web browser. When I am reading using my iPhone, I don't read all of the posts in a thread. Just the initial post and maybe the first or last response. Do I get all of the thoughts and experience from all the other posts? Nope. It is too much of a pain in the ass to scroll through and turn pages ... Hey ... I'm lazy. I admit it.From a webpage, I read more posts and see all of the information in people's signatures. There are great links people have in their signatures because they are sooo relevant.Sorry, but researching a life changing surgery on a mobile device is just a bad idea, IMO.

21 months on the 8th. If you view this page from a web browser and not a mobile device, you can see all my stats in my signature.

I think you are mis-understanding my post. If there are issues with a relationship, the surgery had nothing to do with it, per Anna's post. As far as your issues, I believe I have spoke directly to them in my posts on this thread. Do you discount everything I have shared with you? Is there nothing in there you can glean? I hope I don't sound belittling, because that is not my intention, but you are really young in the post-sleeve process. It took time for me to realize just how I used and abused food. It was an awakening for me as I was willing to learn a new relationship with food. I hope you, too, will acquire some form of willingness to change.

I assume you wanted to make a change to your eating habits and that is one of the reasons you got this surgery ... right? I had to abandon my old ways of eating completely for a totally new relationship with food. I am no longer a slave to food and it is exactly what I needed. It just takes time. Be patient and listen to what your body needs.

Well ... if you are getting no carbs in, you will have low energy. Your glycogen stores have been depleted. Your body will convert fat and muscle to replenish, but at this stage, it is not able to do this efficiently, yet. I know you are not a big fan of veggie soups, but this is what your body needs at this point. This is part of the difficult first post-op stages. Sometimes we have to respond to what our body needs versus what we want. Take your drained lipton soup, throw a couple carrots in the microwave until they are mushy, mush them real well and add them to your broth.