PdxMan

Lia at The Portland Clinic in downtown Portland. She is awesome! BTW. I also tried orthotics, custom as well. Couldn't stand them. The above mention therapy and MBTs did the trick for me.

I had severe PF as well. Some mornings, I had to crawl to the bathroom the pain was so bad. I bought 4 pairs of MBT shoes just so I could function. Highly recommend them. After a year of doing PT, I still had the issue, so my Podiatrist suggested a new PT method called ASTYM. Basically, it is the most painful, ticklish thing you have ever experienced. The premise is the tendons have attached themselves to the surrounding tissue which is not as nice and straight as it could be. So, the therapist uses a hard plastic tool to scrape the plantar, the calves and all the surrounding tissues to dislodge the tendons and straighten them out, thereby lengthening them. 8 sessions later I was a different man. Check it out and see if your PT can do it or recommend. It takes special training and whoever *invented* it gets a royalty each time its performed, so it is not a widespread practice. 2 months after the therapy, I got sleeved. I have absolutely no pain in the foot at all. I still do where my MBT shoes, but not when I am running or exercising. They are not meant for that. You really need shoes that support your specific level of pronation for those activities. Again, it is ASTYM. Google it. It works.

Wow, your smile says it all. Nice job!

I think BrokeMyHalo is spot on. I hope I don't come across as a know it all or judgemental ... I'm not trying to be. But we can give you all the recipes and ideas in the world and it is not going to help resolve a poor relationship with food. You know what you need to do. We know the foods we shouldn't be eating, but we did it anyway. We have choices between a carrot stick and a candy bar, but the candy bar makes us *feel* better. Why is that? I think each of us has to answer that in our own way. The sleeve is a tool to help us eat less, not make food choices. Bottom line is, it's up to you to make this work and if you *truly* want it to, you may need to delve deeper into your relationship with food, whether that be professional or self-help. Good luck and keep us updated on your journey.

Nah, don't worry too much about the Protein at this point. You won't end up in the ER with an IV in your arm because of low protein, but you will due to low liquids. Increase your protein as best you can.

Drop by and have the nurse take your blood pressure ... no worries ...

I was laproscopic and was outpatient. Worked for me. There's a bunch of sick people in hospitals ... no thanks!

Do a search on stall. This is very common at where you are at. The initial loss is fluids and now it is time for the fat to start burning. You are right where you are supposed to be at. Just keep doing what you are supposed to be doing.

BTW, I've been poking around over at LapBandTalk lately just to see what the folks over there say about the sleeve. The most negative comments I see are from people in the first month post-op complaining about being hungry and having issues eating/drinking. Have no doubt about it, the first month is difficult as you begin to eat after having 85% of your stomach removed. If you think about it, though, it does make sense that you have to take things easy. From what I read over there, their expectations are higher than the reality. After 6 weeks or so, things smooth out nicely and you begin enjoying "eating like a normal person". That is all I ever really wanted and that is what the sleeve has given me.

Oye! What a question! Yee Haw! Do I have encouraging things to say! First off, have you checked out the Band to Sleeve Revisions forum? Basically, all the folks that had bands with complications and decided to go to sleeve. For me, I needed a fundamental change with my relationship with food that was permanent. I know deep down that my relationship with food was not good and a band, for me, would have been a temporary crutch. I needed something permanent. Sleeve fits the bill. While there are staples in my stomach, there are no other devices or re-routing of my internal organs. This is my same stomach functioning in the exact same way ... just smaller. I had my surgery 14 months ago, have been at goal (lost 100% of my excess weight) for several months now and still have excellent restriction. I can eat any food I want to, just in smaller quantities. It was the tool I needed to get to a healthier me. If you are viewing through a web browser, you can see some of my before and after pictures HERE.

MOM solved my issues. Just keep taking it regularly, even after things start moving.

I bet they are used by sleevers, for sure. I think, for a lot of us, when we make the decision to have this done, we want the weight off yesterday. Patience is a difficult thing, for sure.

Corn is one of the most difficult foods to digest. Ever wonder why you see it in the toilet ... ? I wouldn't do it at 6 months, let alone 6 weeks ...

I would ask him about using stop smoking aids and how they may affect any testing they may do.

I think if you do your research on these, you will find they really will not help you. These are for *normies*. Are you looking to curb your appetite? Shouldn't need to with the sleeve. Looking for malabsorption? Wouldn't recomend it to a sleever. It will happen for those who keep doing the right thing. This is not a race, is it? Do you win anything for getting to goal 2 months sooner? For me, learning better habits and exercising not only accelerated my weight loss, but has made me healthier overall. I don't think taking supplements would do that for me.

You know, it doesn't take much for us to slip back to old habits. Just a couple days ago I was eating pork chops with grilled yellow squash. It was sooooo yummy. Basically, I went back to inhaling. I ate too much, too quickly and, just like you, paid the price. I was on the verge of sliming and was hoping I would throw up I felt so terrible. I just wasn't thinking and let my taste buds take over. I wasn't hungry, but I kept eating. But, I guess that is the joy of the sleeve. It reminds us.

Yes, you are going to lose some hair, but it will grow back. I had about 3 months of loss, then it started coming back. 6 months later you would have never known I had ever lost any hair. Yes, it was thinner, but I styled it a bit differently and put some gel in. Just a small bump in the worthwhile road.

Well ... it could be a good thing. Do you really want to have a surgeon who feels he is performing too many surgeries a day? I know I wouldn't want to have my surgeon not be 100% comfortable with where he is at mentally and physically. Dec 17 ... that will be plenty of time to be back in action for Christmas. I had my surgery on a Friday and was back at work the next Wednesday. Just make sure you have some endurance going into the surgery. Start your exercise regimin now and you will be amazed at how quickly you will rebound from surgery.

I never really did because I know that there is no such thing as getting too much water. I just try to do the best I can each and every day with my liquids. Even at over a year out. Compared to pre-surgery, I still don't come anywhere near what I used drink, liquid wise. Am I really going to stop and assess at 6:00 PM ... "Well, I had a Gatorade (20 oz), 3 glasses of water (30 oz) and a protein shake (10 oz). There's my 60 oz of liquid for the day so, I don't have to drink anymore." No ... I'm going to keep going and pushing myself to drink more liquids. If I am assessing my intake and I discover I am short, do I beat myself up? No ... I am going to keep drinking and try to do better the next day. Come up with some new tricks to get it in. And if I am meeting my goals each day, should I pat myself on the back? Yes ... but you should continue to push yourself as you get more time in because one of the things you should be adding is exercise, and that is going to take some liquids to maintain. Bottom line, never get complacent on your liquid intake.

Here is a good article ButterTheBean has in his signature. Stalls are a normal part of this journey.

Yes, it does heal. The scar tissue will form over the staples and there will be no risk of leakage from the surgery. How long that takes is going to be different for everyone, of course, but don't push yourself and do everything right, you will be out of the woods in a few weeks.

Pretty much the reason I got the surgery. My glucose was 100, BP was 135/85. Cholesteral was OK, but I had sleep apnea, too. I wasn't able to lose weight and keep it off the conventional way, so, the sleeve became an easy choice for me. Since then, my glucose is in the 80s, BP is 110/70 and cholesteral is awesome. I still do use my CPAP machine, though, as I find I do get a better night sleep with it.

Do a search on this site for stalls. Quite normal. Stay off the scale.

I couldn't say it any better myself. I think you are absolutely correct and is why I choose the sleeve.

Just for clarification, you do not *grow*. The fat pad covering the pubic bone reduces *revealing* the you that was already there ... just hiding. And yes, OTR has it correct, it is more like 30-35#s, but there is still a limit on that. You are not going to recover 6" by dropping 200#. Google it for the Dr Oz/Oprah Winfrey episode where he discusses.