Pookeyism

I love my sleeve, but I worry about it also. I am up at 2:30 AM with chest pain that I have been assured is not a leak...

...and I feel very blessed. I want to share with you: James 5:16 New International Version (NIV) 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. I put this in "Your Gastric Sleeve Surgery Story" because it is very relevant to my story. I hope it is something you can be comforted and inspired with.

Good luck and I will save a spot for you on the bench!

So glad to hear of such a positive end to what can be such a long journey! Stick to that pre-op diet! Please keep us up to date on how you progress! Consider adding a ticker so we can follow your weight loss with you! God bless you!

Allformy4 - thank you for responding. I am on week 4 now but unfortunately I am still on liquids for a yet-to-be-determined period of time. I am in Houston, and my Mom passed away a week post-op. I flew in and tried my best to handle everything, and pushed myself too far. I finally unravelled as I returned home. My last flight I became so violently ill they thought I may have created a leak in my sleeve (it was one of the most turbulent flights I have ever been on). I am recovering and return to work tomorrow. Good to see you are taking care of yourself!

I feel like perhaps my instructions for food may be ahead of what I can eat. I was sleeved 2 weeks ago Wed. evening. Individual opinions greatly appreciated - what should I be eating? What shoulod be my calories goal/water and or liquids?

I am only speaking for myself, Hubby has already claimed Saturday

I am down 9 lbs from last week, and that is good. I am eating soft foods and doing ok. The doc removed my drain today. My Mom died yesterday. I have cried so much I feel like I have pulled something loose. My Mom is gone. Not the post I expected to make, but it has opened whole new issues. Keep me in your prayers, please!

I just am so very proud of us all. I want us to do the best we can, all of us. Your results are great and an inspiration! God bless!

I think they are. I can't have real food yet so not sure.

So bowling this weekend...will Friday work?

I am NOT judging, but I do have a very sincere concern. I would like to start with please "No defensive answers". I am not aiming it at anyone in particular, and have had the conversations that I am referencing across this and other forums, in person, etc. With that said: I see blogs, videos, forum posts, etc that people discuss that they can still have sweets, or fast food is tolerated by their sleeve, or they can drink, etc...but why? We know that the VGS is unique among bariatric surgeries used for WLS, and that there is mounting evidence that you can literally change you eating patterns - your prefernces, you head hunger, your mood-association for food, and there is no dispute that (even thought somewhat not totally understood) it alters not just your hunger, but it alters your body's need for calories, how they are used and applied. With all of this, why go back to the foods that were no good for you to begin with, are inargueably full of the bad fats, the hormones and antibiotic and cruel (horribly cruel, in ways that everyone I know once they ((if they)) let me show them do not eat the mass produced meats afterwards), inhumanely processed foods? You need so little food now, healthy choices are abound, and if you shop locally absolutely no more expensive. You do have time, I bet you do. If I told you you needed to find 30 minutes a day to do something in addition to the exercize that would make your weight loss better, your health better, your body less exposed to bad fats, hormones, antibiotics, meat that was raised in poor health and inhumane conditions, would you? Look at your kids, your husband, etc... if you give back into fast foods, what could you be contributing to their habits, their lifestyles later on? Right now? Again I do not mean to judge, I was really big. It took years to totally get off of fast foods, and I still cannot get my Husband off of them - we are actually in the largest ongoing "issue" we have ever had, in 10 years of mairrage and 13 years of relationship - I will not allow him to eat fast food while he is with me, or bring it into the home. Flat -pffft dont argue - It was super hard to do, but as my waist is shrinking his is expanding, but it had been for years - I can't make him do it all the time, but he will not do it around me. In 2003-2005 I was the biggest I ever was. So large that I stopped getting on the scales at 298 lbs, and I know I was heavier for a while after that. I began to make some choices that over the next six years or so would drop my weight to 272 lbs in 2011. Not alot of weight to loose if you break 40lbs into 5-6 years, until you understand this period there was no yo-yo to speak of. These are permanent choices that led to sustained weight loss. No or extremely little fast food, avoidance of fried food, no regular soda. Increased acivity and mucsle building. No mayonaise, etc. That 40 lbs or so, however, can be the difference in goal in many of my fellow sleevers, and maintenance afterwards. I have only been sleeved 2 weeks, so I cannot say how I will progress, but I know where I have been. I think I am reflecting what I want of myself as I progress back into real foods, I am 2 weeks out and thinking a bit about it. I want each and every person I see here that struggled with the insurance companies, that saved and scrunched a budget, that are making payments or gave up a lot of savings - then went throught the emotions and excitement and concern and stalls and successes and absolutely every damn up and down we have - I want us all to have as much success as we can. I want our legacy to not end at our hips. We are entering a phase with the Sleeve as a recognized weight loss tool, to date the best tool, that when they do the research they need to see real changes, sustained weight loss, personal accountability that leans to better food choices, efficacy for true lifelong results and influincing others. This will be so important in helping the health insurance companies decide to cover the surgery, the mainstream in acknowledging that surgery for many is the only resolution, the mental health community in developing new programs and ways of communicationg with us pre and post surgery. We see a trend, still, to regain a portion of the weight, or only loose so much. I have read alot of blogs, and read alot of data, and I think it has alot to do with the post diet choices for foods, and the lack of creating a new routine with a more active lifestyle. Again not preaching, I swear! I am saying the healthier diets and people who literally changed their preferences of foods, etc. do generally see better results. I do suspect there are those of us that the surgery helps, and then also have undetected issues such as food alergies or metabolic conditions that could lose alot more, and aleviate more conditons if they were extremely careful with their food choices, only introduced one new food at a time, over a several day period, and kept a journal with what, when, etc...Since no one knows for sure who that will be or if that will be them, I think it is a good idea for everyone to start that way - no doctor has told me that, my opinion. I don't have a good summation for what I am trying to say, which does bother me. The best that I can come up with that is this is a gift. We are some of the very few in the first time in the history of this epidemic that have had the opportunity to partake in a weight loss solution - a real solution. We are pioneers in a starship that are taking the leap past the Event Horizon, we are literally a new type of person, and how we react to the opportunity given will in part provide the feedback that doctors will use to help figure out why it is so successful for years to come. They will develop better supplements, better control of co-morbid conditions, and so much more based on information they gather about us. There will always be enough people who didnt follow the suggesions, retained poor habits, but what we need is as many of us as possible to look beyond this as a step, this is your journey, yes. But this is not your beginning or end, it is your Book of Days. It is our society's Book of Motion, of change. We can affect the way society sees obesity and WLS based off our actions - not results - post surgery. When we hear of a WLS patient that went back to fast food and such because they can still have it and just not be fat - that reinforces a sterotype of obese people. It shows no lack of control, and it does, really truly does, make the VGS and other surgeries seem like an easy way out. It is easy to do something exremely hard for awhile, as long as you know there is an end, so that as an arguement does not suffice if we give back into bad habits. In a way I think I am talking to myself here - a pep talk for me in the months and years to come. I did want to get it out, and off my chest. I hope somewhere I inspired just one more person, in even just one small way, somehow.

I am down to 219 lbs, but I have to undergo another barium drink tomorrow. They are a bit concerned about my digression to clear liquids. Wish me luck!

Thank you. They messed up my appointment somehow so rather than set in a waiting room for 2 hours or better I opted to go in tomorrow at 7AM.

A used car? It would depend on price range, deposit available and credit, to be honest. Also what kind...research used models just as if they were new. A preowned certified are usually good. BMW, Mercedes, and Toyota, all good. I have guests/business associates in this weekend for the Halloween & Party Expo, and I have to have another barium swallow tomorrow morning. If anyone would be interested in walking around the Halloween Expo, I may have enough tickets to get you in one day. It is a wholesellers event, so it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's a way to get in alot of legwork. http://www.halloweenpartyexpo.com/

The VGS started as a procedure for people with super morbidity, didn't it? A high BMI should see good results, I would think. If you are over 400 lbs or so and you lose half of your excess weight, that would be about 125 lbs... But back on topic! Yay for twonderland! I am 20 lbs away from onderland, and I am DYING! I cannot wait! You must feel like you are on a cloud!

OMG the sky outside is BADDD and I can feel the pressure changes in my stomach...odd but true! I felt like this on the recent flights I have been on too - anyone else?

Just be mindful of the carbs. If you are concerned that you are getting it smooth enough you can always put it through a strainer and mortar or ladel and that will guarantee only the finest particles go through. If I had not had to step back to thinner liquids my hubby was going to try this with turkey chili and a bit of a weak thai spice, and add some unjury protien powder unflavored. I can't say if it tastes ok yet. A friend suggested making a low country boil, and saving the broth, and mix the broth, the meat, peas, scallops and a little potato with a cream and again some unjury...i really want to try that one! Just remember the powdered protien has to be introduced last, and after the mix has cooled past 130 f. It will denature if it is too hot.

I cannot even imagine being able to "see" myself 44 lbs down from my surgery date weigh in...it would be the smallest I have been in over 10, 15 years - maybe my whole adult life...way to go and keep it up!

(((hugs)))...Sorry you are experiencing this, but glad they caught it!

That sums it up...