Pookeyism

If you can afford the cost of the health insurance you could save that and do a self pay. You wouldn't have to delay your surgery nearly as long either. Do you have 401 savings? You can often take a medical loan from your savings.

Yes. In my opinion you should seek attention immediately. Do not allow anyone else to attempt anything near a heimlich on you again.

Are you experiencing pain or fever? I am almost 3 weeks out and have had to regress back to much thinner foods too. I did have an episode with a Soup having more sugars than I anticipated, be careful with your sugars (not carbs, sugars).

My offer is sincere. It is open to everyone. Knowing you are doing all you can and it still may not change an outcome is a difficult place to be. Are you local to a support group that meets in person? I am sorry about your therapist. I did not see a therapist until a few years ago. I may be a little different from some in that my weight was also driven my metabolic issues. The same thing that helped me stay large (I had an appetite too!) was a metabolic disorder. My sister had the same thing but instead of a damper on her furnace it burned white-hot to the point of doing damage sometimes. I would be at the gym and taking my martial arts classes and maintaining massive amounts of muscle to just be a size whatever (it varied so much) and my little sister would be on 4800 calories a day to maintain a size 0. It followed on like that till I was about 19, when I had about 6-7 years that I maintained a size 14. I got back up to a 16 when I was about 27, which I would miscarraige that year and then my weight skyrocketed and I began to suffer real health problems for the first time ever - sports injuries aside. By the time I was 30 I was as heavy as I have ever been, and diagnosed with diabetes in 2007. Since I have been on a very slow downward pattern again. I was at 272 when I finally decided one last "go" and shortly thereafter decided I needed to admit I needed help. I was attending therapy at this point but amped it up and changed from a "food" therapist to a therapist that focuses on cognative therapy - helping me think for myself. It has done so much good. There were walls in my journey. I crossed a big personal hurdle when I admitted to myself that no matter how fit I had been when I was younger despite my size, that it had left its mark. The miscairrage and weight gain and diabetes and being so large I could not fit in an airline seat without an extender, that between my Husband and I we couldn't share a hammock with a 550 weight limit - it left issues. Doing what I can to fight the good fight - and again only 2+ weeks post op. I have no guarantee I will succeed, either. Strong energy to all who needs it.

Really liked your post, so much to digest when it comes to this information (no pun intended - well, lol).

The rolls you speak of and the processed cheese spreads that you pour over processed preserved pastas are two really good examples of the foods I am referring to that need to be avoided alltogether. Not just by us, actually, but by everyone. They make you crave more, similar foods. I avoid foods like this in my house at all. The hunger, real or not, is a hard thing to deal with. Stick to your guns. Keep more things to do with your hands than eat, and keep good foods readily available to cook. Work on getting the head hunger under control. Seek counseling from a reputable therapist, understand your cravings, recognize your triggers - stresses, people, places, situations. Write down how you wil handle them - and follow it. Make it your bible. I don't have all the answers and I don't claim to. My post was inspired by my want to just give us all some blunt food for thought, to get my thoughts out on paper, so to speak. Don't think I judge and don't give a damn if I do - this is about us all and about you individually. Shed the caring about what other people may be judging and care about doing all you can to get as much out of this as you can. God bless. Take care.

I would like to address where you discuss each diet, and the diets being a tool, and the tool working for awhile, etc. I am compelled to ask, if this is how you are seeing the surgery, what else have you done to work through your feelings of the other diets failing, and resigning this surgery to "another tool"? This is not just a diet, and that was all those others were - you were taking part in a billion dollar industry that if they worked, you would not have them promoting the diets, you would would have them promotong their "maintenance" programs. This weight loss surgery is not a cure all, it is a step that you take, that you should take only after exhaustive steps to understand your habits, where they come from and how to handle them when you encounter them again after the surgery. Develop strategies, in advance, of how you will handle situations. Write it down, make it your food bible. Keep your "faith". Let me know if I can assist you somehow - I don't know if I can, but I will give it a hella try. I am in no different position than anyone here - but I spent almost 10 years trying to decide if surgery was right, and when I began to near a point about 4 years ago that I realized if I did ever get the surgery I would need to address alot of things, I began to ask myself why wait. It has been beneficial, but I still have so far to go. I think some are taking this topic as judgemental, but it is not. The only judgement passed was on myself, and the acknowledgement that I wanted to get my thoughts out.

I would just be concerned if you would be able to deal with all of the issues the surgery requires you to work on. You have to have time to eat correctly, you will want to have time to focus on this surgery. If you do or cannot, you aren't within the guidelines of a good candidate anyway. Many of us forget that this isn't CAN you get the surgery, it is SHOULD you get it. The head hunger, the need to fight old patterns and not regress onto poor food choices and "comfort foods" - you need to be able to fight the dopomine responses and work on a long, ongoing fight to change your attitude toward food. This may be too much to do that with. For now. Just my opinion from a point of view that I don't want you to loose some weight - I want to to have complete success for the rest of your new life.

Walking and such is not your only option, and you will find shuffling your routines will keep you more interested - or at least less burned out. I would suggest walking or elliptical as a main exercize about 3x week, and seriously consider core training at least 3x also. Core training is the foundation of your balance, and you literally retrain your body. Your posture will change, your ability to react fast and accurately, to stay balanced, hand to eye coordination - all is important and you see improvement with core exercizes - you don't even need weights in the beginning. Focus on planking, squats, raises, etc. One thing I have always done is keep active. I couldn't always control my weight, so I focused on exercize. Just a little FYI on where my suggestions come from. PS - if you burn out on the gym so be it. Get away from the gym, but just keep active. Get a bicycle or something. I have a friend that found she needed obligation to help her move. She now walks dogs as a part time job, and volunteers her services to an animal shelter to walk dogs and play with cats and rabbtits - she couldn't stand the gym but the other she doesn't even see as exercize. I used to do it at home with volunteering to do wilderness tours. If you love what you are doing, it is 100% better than hating the gym. You may not even mind the gym on occasion after that.

We could also attend a support group together.

Yes! We need suggestions! We can do individual things, as well as recurring events. I have been interested in doing this: http://www.houstonarboretum.org/trailtrekkers.asp When you have walked 50 miles you get a tshirt, lol, wooo! Also, if anyone is interested - what better motivation than getting chased by zombies? http://runforyourlives.com/locations/austin-tx/ It is a 5k race in Austin this December - it could be something we train for and then go together. I already have a couple of people going! We could start meeting up and going to a farmer's market or two, to get produce for the week. We could even have a healthy meal afterwards. Just meeting up for stretching and walking would be good too. I have an awesome book that demonstrated very easy ways to get into yoga - I have been doing yoga for 20 years and would be glad to help. We could ride bicycles - I keep an extra bike We could do dance tapes in my backyard. Also, let's stretch our noggins too - we could go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and do the time warp. We could volunteer somewhere for a day. We could take dance lessons. Hikes, paintball, laser tag. We could go to the beach and have a bonfire and go for a midnight walk.

I believe she is referring to Dr. David Kessler who was Commisioner of the FDA under George H. W, Bush and Clinton, and the author of The End of Overeating, among other things.

That is what I was referring to - hope with this sleeve is not all we have. Your stomach is very similar to your brain in rerouting functions, and how it will react with your brain and other organs. This surgery, like no other, actually removes the stomach. It creates a new stomach. There is overwhelming evidence that we can retrain our taste preferences - our actual desires and preferences for food, but we have to persist past the head hunger, past the phose of wanting for the addictive qualities of the bad fats and hormone laced foods and processed sugars. You have an organ that over the next two years or so will reroute acid production, macro and micro nutrient production, will heal, expand a little, and the neurohormonal qualities will be similar to that of a toddler learning and developing food preferences. Trying the good stuff over and over, leaning towards local veggies and meats. Or your own. I wish us all the absolute best. But when I say it, I mean I hope we all bust our butts to keep this exception rather than the old school rule, and take it for what it is, the very best chance we have.

Thank you. I do not wan to come off like I am preaching, I just felt a need to say it.

I will be running a 5k obstacle course in December. A while off but I already have an issue with my right knee, so I want to get as much weight off before I start the actual running part. It is a ZOMBIE 5k!!! I added the links below, if anyone want to join me that would be awesome, and they are going to be in several areas this year. http://runforyourlives.com/ http://runforyourlives.com/locations/austin-tx/

There is already a houston sleevers group here on VST. It might be a good idea to go ahead and use what is here...the more we create groups the more I fear we lose people do to saturation of resources...just an opinion. I was thinking about going something along the lines of activity days rather than a restaraunt. Like putt-putt or paintball or lasertag, or a guided nature walk or something like that...ghost tours, sandcastle contest in Galveston, anything really. OMG! My sister got me an Xbox with kinect for christmas, and as soon as we get the redecorating done I an going to install it. This is so much fun! It is like Wii but nothing to hold and it is very accurate. I already do yoga and it is very fun with it, did boxing and kick boxing too! Dance off to The Black Eyed peas was great! I almost ripped out my stitches, but it was fun! I could have a kinect party!

I forgot to mention! I have been off my diabetes meds since the evening of 1/3. I was sleeved 1/4. The only regret is I can't see the look on my Mom's face when I told her. Then again, I am sure she knows... :')

I agree with Capt Derel, something in your old diet was causing your condition - or a combination. Keep a careful food diary, including copies of labels of foods. introduce foods slowly! Good luck!

lol! You are going to Dallas? Pooo! You should come to Houston!

NW Houston and yes would LOVE to!

If I am posting something someone has already said I apologize but there are three pages of responses, so I will risk it. Dehydration does seem to be a possible culprit but there could be others. I would go get your bloodwork again and see what it looks like - you could also be low on Iron. I really hope you get to feeling better soon. I am in the same boat, sort of. I feel like I could run a marathon, but ten minutes later I fall asleep on the couch. I do not regret my surgery, however. Strong good vibes coming your way!

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/benefits-Protein This link provides a good explination, but is far from all inclusive. Hope it helps.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post yesterday. I am home, and there is still pain. I think it has something to do with one of the laparoscopic holes being stitched too - how would I best describe it? tight? It is drawn up and creates a pucker on the side of my tummy, and I FEEL the stitch pulling against the weight of my stomach. It is a sharp, constant tearing feeling that is very difficult to ignore. It almost prevents me from moving in certain directions. I have pain meds and after some initial reluctance I did began to take them as often as I was told, and in the full dose, so that dulls it, but if I have to move much I still feel it. I have been walking a lot, and I can’t help but pull it then, so walking is much more of a chore than I thought it would be right now. I would have to say I am disappointed that my doctor did not look at my tummy more before he discharged me, I feel like he would have caught that. I plan to bring it up to him on Monday. He is going to have to resolve it somehow, I can’t walk around letting tissue heal in the wrong areas - as is it would be deforming. Beyond that it all feels a bit surreal. I have just been focusing on fluids, and walking. I think I have had some head hunger but not too much. No tummy hunger that I can think of. Sipping fluids as much as possible. Very tired, but I was tired before the surgery too. Not to embarrass the guys, but I started my period the day after my surgery, almost 10 days early. I never vary more than about 24 hours off of my calendar, so I was somewhat surprised. I know it has been a pretty intense period, but the meds have totally taken care of that. My little sister flew in on the 3rd and we went and bought a juicer - and a Wii or Xbox or something that has interactive games - and followed it up with a TV (sneaky - she knows I don't allow game systems or more than one TV, but I have been talked into it). Normally I don't allow the systems or TV in my house but she made a good point - the games that keep you active can be very fun for groups of people, and it will be a way for my friends and I to keep entertained and active and away from the kitchen. My sister has to be my biggest advocate, even if she doesn't quite understand how her sister decided to go through with it. She is me, but with a better metabolism, and bigger appetite. She knows the struggles I have had in my life, and we have talked a lot this weekend. I was surprised in some of the things she said. I will touch on it again later, maybe, but she feels very sure that my parents are largely responsible for much of my weight. I don't know if I agree with that - but I will have to look at it long and hard, because I have to resolve all issues, and all bad habits, and embrace the good, and develop better - so much to do! It feels overwhelming. Friends have been so supportive, and caring, and it has made me so proud and thankful to have the people I have. I am also so happy to have found this forum, and to be able to follow my new found friends and do what I can to be supportive. It feels surreal, in a way I feel like it hasn't kicked in mentally that I have had the surgery. Numb, indifferent, tingling and electric, excited and joyful, scared and uncertain, second guessing and reaffirming - so many emotions. To anyone I have not followed up with that I have been talking to personally - please bear with me. This has been more than I anticipated, and I am having a kind of re-evaluation of who I am. The hard-ass that weathers everything seems to have almost disappeared. I don’t want that anymore. I want to be able to be flexible and "feel" my feelings. I want to listen to people more, and I want to be heard. I don't know - I am changing more than I thought I would. I think I want this so bad, that I am literally making myself remove my mask, to shed the parts of me that hid behind a wall of bulk. I want to be the person I think I can be, and oddly enough, it is more than just a smaller, healthier me. Phew! I can't even put it into words. I guess that is all for now, and it is time to walk again!

I would have to suggest you to put it off for awhile. It is hard advise to give, knowing how close you are, and how I felt when I was where you are. I lost my Mom on my 1 week post-op date, and can attest that you are not going to want to have to deal with anything extra if you do not have to at all! I am so sorry for your situation. My family experienced a fire when I was 10, and I have had many friends experience loss this way. It will take years to feel completely over it. It is a very stressful event. Deal with it for what it is, then get back to your WLS. God bless!