FatJuicyMouse

I felt like I was being blown up like a bullfrog by my machine after surgery. It was set to 14.5 and I knew that was too high. Since I have central sleep apnea as well as obstructive, I can't ever say goodbye to my machine. My prescription was still good so I self paid for an APAP machine. I have no idea what the pressures are going to at night but I breathe so much better. Can't say I sleep better, since my insomnia has gotten worse after surgery, but I don't have to belch like a sailor once I sit up in bed. It was cheaper than another sleep study since I haven't had insurance for five years. (It cost me over $1,000 WITH insurance to have one done!) My new machine was about $700 but I got a bunch of bells and whistles with it since I knew I would be keeping it long term. Linda

Hot mama! I would kill to look that good!

Same thing happened to me and I didn't even have a catheter to cause a problem. For the first few months after surgery, I would wake up in the middle of the night and have no idea why. Eventually it dawned on me that I had usually gotten up to potty at that time of night but I felt not the slightest urge to go. I am almost a year out and it has gotten a bit better. I do feel the need slightly during the night to go but if I ignore it, I can go back to sleep and just get up in the morning. Now, no matter how much I drink or how long I wait, I never get that "gotta go right now, get out of my way!" feeling. I treat my bladder like a little kid and say let's just go see if we need to use the pot just in case, k? I live in fear of a bladder infection, so I do force myself to go unless I am all snuggly in the bed. Then it is way to hard to convince myself to get up!

I could tell my pressure needs had changed a month after surgery. I belched like an old drunk every time I sat upright and that had not happened before! I called my PCP who had set me up with the sleep study (I have no idea which doctor read the results - never met the man or even know where his office is) and got a copy of my prescription. I then ordered an APAP online and have slept like a baby and found a few of the more than 17 masks I have tried over the years actually worked without leaking now. I don't have insurance and could barely pay for the sleep study, machine and masks when I DID have insurance. There was no way I was going to have a sleep study when I wasn't anywhere near my weight loss goal! My old machine was set at 14 and the new one never seems to go up that high now. I made the investment because I not only have obstructive apnea but central apnea and I was never going to be able to do without a machine. Linda

Mine came out the other end, with shakes, sweating, weakness and nausea. This has happened to me many times before surgery and has even happened to my husband and son! Just didn't know what caused it then...

Early out, sugar really did me dirty. I had eaten a protein bar that had too much in it (and I had gotten this one at my surgeon's office!) and my belly said no way, girlie. I tried again at about 3 months out and I could handle sugar but it makes me feel weird. Hard to describe the feeling but it is almost enough to make me completely avoid it. Almost. I used to have a piece of dark chocolate every day to satisfy the head hunger (50 calories) but in the last week, I feel like I have eaten a pound of it after the first bite. Good timing, too, with all these easter baskets around!

Back in the bad old days (last August) when I walked in a joint and grabbed a size 24 or 26 off the rack I knew how it was gonna fit. Now that I have lost a few pounds, I can't find diddly that fits! I do have the problem that if it fits in the belly, my butt and thighs make me look like I am wearing 30 day shitters. I've kinda gotten used to that. What I can't understand is why I have to put labels on my pants so I remember which 14's are the ones that run big and which 18's I shouldn't get rid of yet. I have some of my clothes from the 70's and I know it will be a long while before they fit since they didn't so vanity sizing then and nobody had heard of size ZERO! I got a pair of pants at Sams Club that fit good for a while and then they were too big. So I got the same pants a size smaller. I wore them two days and now I can pull them up and down without unbuttoning them. Now I need the next size down? In less than two weeks? And my measurements are pretty much the same, as is my weight for the last month. My shirt fit now depends on whether the buttons close over the roll and not the girlies. I shore ain't used to that!!! But that is a subject for another day...

I got that from my daddy after he had been overseas for a few tours. Picture MC Hammer pants from a decade or two back. They look like you could pass by the outhouse for about 30 days before you are "full!"

He did my sleeve last September and, if I am reading the surgical report correctly, he fixed a hiatal hernia at the same time. I have MUCH less reflux symptoms than before. I still get symptoms but very rarely and it is from either eating too much or having a highly acidic meal. Before surgery, I was taking a Pepcid AC in the morning and at night and eating tums and rolaids all day long! I have also read about other folks suddenly having reflux problems after surgery, so all I can say, is that this is MY experience...

Oh, boy, do I hear ya! My belly is the one thing that makes me think I didn't really lose 50 pounds. It seems to be just as big, just droopier and more pillsbury doughboy than before. My pants get baggier than hell around my butt and legs but my gut says I ain't movin' down a size till I look like I am wearing 30 day shi**ers. When I sit down, it STILL looks like I have another (bigger) set of boobs under my 36 longs. Makes we wish I could get lipo!

I guess I was lucky because I have a young grandson. I tried some of his baby food, The meat isn't bad and you can add spices. They have all kinds of fruits and veg and the consistency was always better than I could achieve trying to blend my own stuff. That got old after a week so I did take a pork chop and use a magic bullet with some chicken stock and blended it, but not so it was actual mush. I then proceeded to chew the hell out of it until it WAS absolute liquid and then swallowed. Mmm, mmm good!

Wow! Scary stuff! I have practically lived on Splenda since I was diagnosed with diabetes. I know there are certain days where I feel hungrier than others and could never figure out why. I am able to get my water in only because I use wally world's version of crystal lite. I am going to ditch that stuff today! I wish I liked stevia. I have several versions of it but it has this slight aftertaste of licorice and I HATE licorice. My favorite meal is greek yogurt with Splenda and vanilla (and sometimes blueberries -mmmm!) <sigh> I am off to clear out the kitchen. Maybe this will even break my stall!

I was laying on my back in bed last night trying to find a pain free position for my elbow with bursitis when I hit something solid on the way up and my arm got caught on it a little bit. It was the bottom of my rib cage. I haven't felt that for decades! When I stand up all I I can see is this floppy fluffy belly that looks like I just gave birth to twins. This is the first time I have noticed a difference in the basketball I call my stomach and I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel! Almost makes this six week stall bearable. (almost, not quite!)

Yeah, now I am anxiously awaiting the appearance of collar bones. Or cheek bones. But I would give all that up for a peek at a waist!

I get hungry at night unless I have a glass of milk or something for my belly to work on before I go to bed. It isn't the "wake me up out of a sound sleep because my stomach thinks my throat has been cut" feeling of the past but I do feel twinges if I happen to get up to potty in the night or something. Good thing is, it is quite easy to ignore and by the time I get up in the morning it has gone away. I don't get hungry until late morning but when I do get hungry I have to eat pretty quick, because if I don't I get super nauseated. (I have tried to have a protein supplement with my early morning coffee but all that does is make me hungry all day long.)

1. I don't think the doctors know as much as they think they do. A few years ago, I lost 72 pounds in six months (and gained all but 3 pounds back but that's a whole 'nother story!). I didn't have hair loss and I didn't suddenly get cold all the time before I had even lost any weight like I do now. This single digit weather is killing me! 2. Cookie cutter dietary recommendations do not work. I can measure my time since surgery in weeks instead of months and have had several stalls and even gained over and over again. I have found that the closer I stay to 1,000 calories, the more and faster I lose. When I try to stick to 600-800, I lose nothing - not weight, not inches. 3. Diabetes doesn't always go away. When I started adding HEALTHY carbs like fruit, dairy and vegetables, my blood sugar went up again. I am back on the oral meds but only one of the insulins once a day. Hopefully this will change when I lose more weight, but I am not holding my breath since my beanpole husband takes a long acting insulin every night and a short acting for every carb he eats (and he eats a LOT of them!). 4. You don't necessarily lose weight from the same places each time you lose weight. My boobs and butt are disappearing this time but my gut stubbornly stays the same size! 5. Weighing every day can be a good thing. If I didn't weigh every day, I would never have known what broke my stalls. 6. If you don't want food servers commenting on how much you eat, take small children with you. Nearly everyone at the table shared my potatoes and I shared my granddaughter's fruit yesterday and no one had any idea how much anyone else had eaten. Yesterday was the first time I have been in a restaurant since surgery and I felt completely comfortable and knew exactly what I was eating since I entered it into my phone app. We had Thanksgiving dinner and I was still 200 calories short of my goal at bedtime. So I had a cup of Silk Nog. (mm mm good!) And, as I said, your mileage may vary, but this has worked for me. I am not exercising a lot yet until my blood sugar is totally in control but I am doing plenty of housework since I don't have tall enough boots to go tromp outside and play!

I have had LOTS of surgeries myself. Never lost hair, never got cold in the summer afterward. Not after losing a lot of weight.. And I had a 10 inch incision after gall bladder surgery. I thought I said I don't eat simple carbs. My husband does, I DON'T. Other people have complained that food servers comment on the amount of food they eat. I offered what I thought was a humorous solution. Yes, exercise reduces your blood sugar but not to a predictable degree. You have to know what your sugars are going to do before exercising so you don't have to worry about lows and correcting them. But that is what my doctor says, so maybe you know more. Your kind of response is why I rarely post on this board anymore.

I didn't come up with that warning. I read it on here - a couple days too late for me, unfortunately!

I wouldn't have used the word "uncomfortable" for the first few days. The word was "hurt." Not everybody flies through the recovery or doesn't need the pain meds. I used them solidly for the first 3 days and then every time I got in a car because the bumps HURT! Some sage advice I have often heard here applies for at least the first two weeks: NEVER TRUST A FART!

I don't drop pounds OR inches unless I eat at LEAST 1000 calories a day! I tried to do the 600-800 everyone talks about on here and I had a stall for three and a half weeks. Went to 1000-1200 a day and I have been dropping steadily. I think your T-day meal had a little more sodium than usual and it takes a few days to get rid of water weight. I also have a sneaking suspicion MSG doesn't do us any favors either and a Thanksgiving meal has plenty of that stuff!

That scale and I have words quite often. I am convinced it is a big fat liar. I tried on some non-stretch jeans that wouldn't even go over my leg before this weekend and I was able to button them. Bending and sitting isn't a good deal of fun but at least I don't have a foot of extra material around my hips and thighs! I got up this morning and weighed and the dirty bird said I was up .6 pounds. I was thinking I would have to wash the one pair of jeans I have that are stretch (and that I can bend in) but I was in a hurry so I put on those non-stretch size 20 jeans. They still fit just fine. So there, you stupid machine. Still trying to figure out my meds and insulin so I don't do "exercise" but I do move around the house a lot, cleaning, packing storing, cleaning up dog mess "cause it's too cold to go outside and get wind up my hoo hoo." All that kind of thing. Except for today. I got a flu shot AND a peenewmonia (as my mama said it) shot yesterday because my grandkids keep getting strep and now I can't lift my arms. OW!

I have been overweight all my life too. I remembered seeing a site years ago that would show you what you might look like at a different weight so I did a search. I think this is the same site, but I haven't delved into it much yet. I thought maybe I could get a glimpse foreshadowing that which is to come. (sorry, too many scrooge commercials lately have a bad influence on me). Thought I would try it just so I would know who to look for in the store windows... http://www4.weightmirror.com/weightmirror/index.php?id=

Gee, that sounds like a typical "dinner" my husband would make for himself these days. Oh, he might throw a corn dog in there somewhere. I haven't been tempted by any of his junk for some reason but I sure wanted to share the french toast I made for him last night! Guess I should be glad my husband never thinks of me when he goes to the store

Finally have a net loss of 1.2 pounds and it only took three and a half weeks to get there! NO inches lost yet The only size 20's I can fit into are stretch jeans but at least they aren't ballooning out around my hips and thighs. My bra size is freaking unreal. I was wearing 46DDD and now a band size of 34 is too big because I have to use the innermost hooks and my cup size is still DD, what with all the folding and such. Try finding THAT in a store. Even have trouble on eBay where you can find anything! I really thought I would lose more than 20 pounds after surgery and to achieve a normal BMI, I still have 100 pounds to go! I guess I can live with being a card carrying member of the slow losers club if I was sure it would eventually come off <sigh>

So. The bridge on my right side was hurting and my partial plate on my left side hurt to much to chew with. Went to the dentist today and found the bone around the teeth holding the bridge has deteriorated so much that they need to be pulled. Since the incisor on that side is already missing, that would leave only the front three teeth on the top on that side. I only have one molar on the bottom left and that is where my partial plate attaches. This tooth is too weak to support the denture without putting it at risk. The other side of the partial attaches to the bottom right molars who need crowns and make that partial not fit right - which is why it hurts to wear it. The tooth extractions and root canals start in two weeks. I can't get a implant to hold a partial plate to replace the bridge until the sockets heal. That takes months. So my chewing surface will consist of one set of molars, one of which is under strain as it is. The closest I have come to solid food was a bite of a sausage patty and the hamburger in a Wendy's chili. And here I was thinking this morning I had bought too much protein powder and it would last forever!