Lissa

No regrets from me. I'm 8 months out, 94 pounds down and getting ready to go to the gym for my first workout of the day. Nah, no regrets!

I should probably add that I like the shakes just fine, but I will add protein powder to my coffee or make a shake in my blender if I'm home rather than do the ready to drink shakes.

Amy, the shakes keep pretty well, so even if your taste buds change early post-op, the shakes will still be good in a few months when you're ready to drink them. I'm on only my second or third case of them, at 8 months out, so you may want to stick with what you currently have.

Awesome! Onederful!! I know you're happy dancing right now!!

PEvette is right! You dont' want to drink too soon after you eat because it will push your food through and you'll lose the feeling of satiation that you get from eating. That will sabotage your weight loss efforts. Good luck!!

DesertRat, My ethnic background is primarily American Indian as well. ALL of my great great grandparents were full blooded Indians (choctaw and cherokee, IIRC). Diabetes runs rampant through my family as well, including my father and my youngest son are both Type 1 diabetics. While I was in the hospital last year, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic as well. My father died at 54 from complications of uncontrolled diabetes. I'd like to NOT follow in his footsteps. I'm glad your PCP steered you toward the sleeve. From my reading, it seems that the sleeve works much better than the lapband, with fewer complications. Maybe my willingness to tell is because I'm "older" and less worried about other people's opinions of me. I don't know, but I'm pretty open about it. If someone wants to ignore my WLS posts on FB, they are welcome to unfriend me!

Good luck! Hopefully the date will be soon!!!

NewMe, That's awesome! Your liver will thank you for following your pre-op diet!

You aren't listing your water in there, but I hope you were drinking water in between your food. Your food doesn't actually look too bad. I have days where I'm "hungry" even now. I just try to make sure that whatever I eat is protein heavy and it looks like you're doing well with that.

I'm off to the gym in a few minutes to do my workout. Yesterday, on my rest day, I walked around two flea markets and wore out the person who was with me. He's 30 and has a manual labor job, so in much better shape than me! LOL I'm looking forward to some elliptical time, then to hitting the weights HARD. This evening, I'll do my second workout, which will be at least 30 minutes of hard-core cardio. I can't wait!!!

What kinds of exercise are you doing? Does it happen while walking or while lifting weights? I'd definitely ask your doctor about this!

I walk stairs for fun now! I've posted before about the "zombie stairs". Our courthouse has a parking garage with 4 flights of stairs that I try to walk daily. I can do 4 or 5 sets up and down of those stairs, although I keep expecting to see zombies outside the door when I get to the top floor! My Fit Bit inspired me to start doing the stairs. I want that darned stair badge every day!

DesertRat, I agree that acting to change something, even if it requires surgery, is very courageous. A friend from HS told me on Facebook yesterday that she'd have never been brave enough to have this "cosmetic" surgery! I immediately corrected her and said that this was NOT cosmetic. For me, being sleeved was a lift-changing and life-saving decision. I had to decide that I was going to do something or I was going to lay down and die. Dying was not the option I wanted to choose, so I climbed on the OR table and took a big gamble...and I'm winning! I am completely open about my surgery, with everyone. I don't care who knows. My theory is that the stigma for WLS patients will not disappear until more of us are willing to be open about our journey. I've had several people contact me and say that I have inspired them to look into WLS for themselves. THAT outweighs every single person who thinks this surgery is "cosmetic".

You need to be strict with your liquid diet. This is a test to see if you can do what you need to do for yourself. Cheating on the liquid diet only cheats yourself. If your liver hasn't shrunk enough, your surgeon could decide to not do the sleeve, and then where will you be? I know there are lots of different diets prescribed by different surgeons, but your doctor has asked you to do 10 days of liquids because your doctor feels that will give you the best outcome with his or her surgical technique. Please follow your doctor's instructions to the letter. It's a gift to yourself!

Obsess away! You're going to love the new you! It will be so great to be able to walk easier, to feel lighter, and to be able to do what you want to do instead of worrying about whether you'll "fit" somewhere.

Nerves are normal, especially this close to surgery! Just keep deep breathing and remind yourself of why you decided on this surgery and this doctor. I can't wait to see all of you on the loser's bench with me! Imagine how much better your life will be in a few months when you've lost a significant amount of weight and you can move and breathe easier!

MamaM, There is a forum here for people who have revised from Band to Sleeve. It seems to be a fairly common revision and some of those folks only had one surgery. I never had a band, but that forum is a great place for answers to your questions...or maybe to tell you what questions you should be asking. Several of our most successful posters are band to sleeve revisions: Lil Miss Diva, Tiffykins. Good luck!! Here's hoping you get some relief very soon!

I take a daily Multivitamin (Centrum, was chewables until about 8 months out), Tums 2x a day for Calcium (Tums because other calcium interferes with an Rx med I take), sublingual B12, and Biotin daily. My surgeon told me I could reduce the B12 to 3x a week, but I can tell the difference in my energy level and mental acuity on the days I don't take the B12, so I'm back to daily. I started the Biotin at 2 months out and, while I see a lot of hair in the shower drain, I don't think the thinning has been that severe. FYI, I also use Neutrogena Body Oil daily on all of my skin except my face because I think my skin is dryer than it was before surgery. I use moisturizer on my face and neck morning and night and I've just added Jergens lotion to the mix at bedtime to help with skin tone. I'm willing to expose more skin than I would have shown 100 pounds ago and the areas that haven't seen sun in years are glaringly white. A little Jergens lotion is helping to even the color out. We're talking upper arms, thighs and slightly lower cut shirts than before, not belly yet.

Are you on an acid reducer? It truly does help with the urge to snack.

Congrats! You're doing great! Please, remove the word "only" in front of the number of pounds you've lost. You've lost an ENTIRE 17 pounds in a month! That's FANTASTICCCCCCC!!! Could you have done that before? NOPE, not without starving yourself to death and white-knuckles the whole time. Enjoy this journey. It may be slower than you expect, but you WILL get there. Good luck!!

Welcome to the loser's bench! Your story sounds amazing!!!

Yippee!!

It sounds like you are really rocking that sleeve! Great job!! :0

I'm losing a pound here and there, but it's frustrating not to lose pounds faster. It's great to know it does happen! I'm still hunting those NSVs and they've been plentiful, thank goodness!

At 8 months out, my answer is yes.