CowgirlJane

I hadn't seen most of my extended family in several months - since July. Others I saw 5 weeks ago at my SIL funeral. I have lost 15-20ish pounds since seeing most of them and have changed shape a little even since the early Oct timeframe. We did a big family excursion yesterday and my sibs were all WOWED. To have several of them tell me "you look absolutely beatiful" really warmed my heart because i don't get compliments from my hubby and I often don't feel confident about how i look. One of my sisters said, you look like a size 10! Well, I am in the size 12-14 range so she wasn't quite right, but it was also a great boost to my ego. Part of it is that I am tucking shirts in and doing things to look a little sharper. Just dressing nicer. I have gotten rid of millions of too big clothes but have bought few replacements. I am committed to wearing things that fit, so that means only buy a handful of items at each size.... since they get too big pretty fast! I think that makes you look thinner just because you look tidier in well fitting clothes. anyway, made my day!

My doc didn't set my goal either. Here was my thinking - I have weighed under 145 2X in my adult life, and only stayed there about 2 weeks. I spent a lot of time in the 155-175 range and felt that was more reasonable to maintain. I picked 158 so that my goal loss would be an even 150#. 158 puts me at a 26-27 BMI which is just over normal, but I had read that given my lifetime of obesity is probably a good BMI target too (excess skin, heavier bones due to the heavy weight lifting so many years etc). I am in the 180s now, so I will adjust as it gets closer. My general thoughts about goals is they should be exciting and motivating, but could backfire on you with regain if you try to maintain at a weight loser then is realistic for your body. Well, my experience anyway was I could only stay in the 140s (my idea weight is 142-144) if i was exercising for hours a day and being really paranoid about food - and that was when I was young! I figure my metabolism has not improved over the decades.

As usual "absolute" statements are seldom true. My weight loss has picked back up and I am losing 1-2 pounds a week at nearly 11 months out. I am not dieting, i just did a reset to get back off carbs. There are lots of posters on this forum that can testify that weight loss continues, it does slow down. Because I started with 150# to lose, I asked the NUT about my odds of getting it all off. I am working a plan to have it all off in 18 months. I have lost 80% of it already. If you are high BMI, you likely need that extra time, lower BMI people usually make their goal in 6-12 months. Again, the larger point is right - take advantage of the window of opportunity when the weight loss is quickest (not easy, but quick) but that doesn't mean you are "done" at some magical moment.

I couldn't get it together presleeve either, but the sleeve has worked great!

What is your BMI now? You don't give a lot of details about what you are eating/drinking but going back to your basic sleeve rules will jump start your weight. I can share more specifics, but I have dealt with hunger returning since about month 7. I think I have found a way to minimize it so I am not battling it - and it is all about the foods I chose to eat and basically, following the sleeve rules. I think exercise helps too - boosts your endorphins, makes you feel better, motivates you to stay with your eating plan and burns a few calories too.

I was told by a bariatric doctor (not surgeon) who is herself banded to expect the sleeve to be much worse - especially the dehydration. She was right about that, but overall, I am not sure which was harder, they were just so different from each other! Lapband in 2001, German hospital, well known surgeon. My first surgery and I have no idea how I kept the courage to do it, I was so terrified - pretty heavy at 272 but very healthy - no comorbidities at that time. I woke up feeling like I was dying - nasuea. They gave me something and I was fine. They kept me in the hospital for what seemed like forever but hubby says it was 4 days, on an IV so kept hydrated. I think I was pretty heavily drugged at first. I complained to the doctor about headaches and not feeling well in a vague sort of way and that is when he decided I needed to go home! Was sent home with basic instructions and minimal ongoing support - just fills and unfills. Sleeve in 2011, Surgery Center near Seattle. Also terrified, but a much stronger sense of "life or death" due to the extreme obesity (308#, 52 BMI). Anxiety tried to get a grip on me, but I had support from some key people and made it through. I stayed one night in the surgical center. The first few minutes after waking up were awful, but they got the naseua under control and had me walking immediately. 3 of us stayed the night and it was actually pretty social. We chatted, rested, met each others familys, rested, did little walks, treks to the potty, all that stuff. I had little pain pills but no morphine. I was surprised that I felt pretty human, yes I was sore so I needed the pain meds and it was hard to drink but I didn't feel that fear or sadness about having the surgery that I remember with the band. My head was pretty clear and some of the negatives about my German lapband experience was the heavier pain drugs making me feel weird/blue). After the sleeve, was sent home with very detailed instructions (combination of surgeon and NUT) and a clear follow up plan. I think I have made the sleeve sound easier, but it really wasn't after the first few days. I felt ... not myself... for around 6-8 weeks post sleeve. I went back to work after 3 weeks and immediately got sick with a cold or something. I had to take a few more days.... I was exhausted and not good. Band, none of that. I was not depressed and I did not regret it but "run over by a truck" feeling is not overstating the situation. So, I think the big difference is that you just have a hard time staying hydrated with the sleeve. The fact that I only stayed one night with an IV bag post sleeve, plus the swelling so you can only take small drinks. I knew what to expect and was well educated by this forum as well as the surgeon and team. I had a sip sip sip plan and never got really bad or had to go to get help, but those early weeks were hard. I didn't lose nearly as much with the band so some of the emotional aspects of it have been more intense with the sleeve - both the joy/success and the adjustments too. Life with the sleeve is 1000 times better though! I know I answered alot more then you asked!

I agree with your larger point that the honeymoon period is real and that you do yourself a favor by losing as much as you can - preop combined with the honeymoon period. I have lost about 120#. I plan to have a total loss of about 130# by the time I get to my one year anniversary Dec 12th. I lost about 95# of them by my 6 month anniversary. It has taken me nearly 5 months to lose the next 25 as there was a long stall built in there but I have lost a couple of sizes during that last 25 too.. I don't agree with you on your methods though, but to each his own. I am active, I work out, I did stay very low calorie in the beginning but have moved up to the 1000-1200 cal a day range. I do things like reduce carbs or change the workout routine to get things moving and to shake it up. I have already met my first goal, and feel I am on track to lose the last 30# but it will likely take me another 6 months. This process doesn't end for me when I get to goal. I am really trying hard to make this forever... whether I stay at my current weight or get those last 30# off I am still trying to keep with a sustainable lifestyle I can do forever. I can't sustain 500# calories a day (did it for a few months) and working out for hours on end every day. You are entitled to your opinion, but I want to be sure that some of the newbies that this is targeted to see that there are other points of view. Again, i do agree with your main point which is "Take avantage of the honeymoon period - it is real!"

Congrats - it is such a wonderful wonderful feeling! I bought a pretty blue softshell jacket at costco earlier in the summer in womens XL (I always had to buy mens sizes if i bought anything at Costco). I had always wanted a softshell coat and it never seemed available in plus sizes, at least at a price I wanted to pay. I remember that glorious feeling of zipping that coat up and thinking - hey, a women's XL actually fits!!! Since I am still losing, I do discount shopping at Ross Dress for Less and it is an amazing feeling to be solidly into the regular sizes (I am currently in a size 14). I started in the 2x-3X/26W ballpark so it has been an amazing change and I know how happy you must feel. Just to be in the general range of "normal" is so amazing!!!

You look awesome! I can't wait to join you in maintenance! My bones showed up recently and it freaked me out, but in a good way, for a few weeks. I am used to them now and loving it!

Wow, I bet you wake up each day feeling like a million! Great job. And no, I am not jealous that it took me twice as long to lose that much weight.

5 days after my sleeve surgery we had our annual big family christmas party. I went, drains and all. While everyone else was having wine, or coffee or something nice i was drinking Water and really struggling. My brother, the host, is a big tea drinker and connected me with the Safari Spice tea and I loved it. I have never been a tea drinker, but the herbal teas have converted me. I do usually put in a tiny bit of Stevia for sweetness. Herbal teas aren't made from tea leaves so they don't have caffeine! i still drink them and of course we all have our own individual tastes. I am not a big "mint" fan so I tend to go for the ones that have a slightly spicey/cinnamon flavor although I like others too. There are lots of brands/flavors but here are a few I like: -Celestial Seasonings Safari spice rooibos tea -Yogi Egyptian -Yogi bedtime -Sleepytime (celestial seasonings??) Some friends of mine told me to try a couple of others that I haven't yet tried though: -good earth sweet and spicy -Yogis Mayan Cocoa Spice -Celestial Seasoning Bengal spice I think I should like chai but the stuff brewed from the bags never tastes right to me. I have also bought some teas from Trader Joes but they tend to be similiar flavors that I mentioned already. Anyway, buy one or two boxes and just see what appeals to you!

I have been told that the basic Centrum pill basically passes through you mostly undigested. You are young and have a lifetime ahead, would hate to see you become deficient in anything. I think buying Bariatric Advantage is a great place to start - then you can research from there and decide if there is a better option for you. I did realize that my recommendations were geared to a woman and I am not sure you need as much calcium. However, probably better safe then sorry during the time of rapid weight loss (first year post op especially) you just aren't getting enough food to meet nutritional needs. I am really glad you are reaching out for info, my gut feeling is that you don't have a "complication", you just haven't really been taught how to eat and manage your sleeve. I hope I am right and I encourage you to reach out to me any time and I am happy to answer questions or give you any coaching. I know there are lots of others on here too that would happily give you input. Good luck, hang in there and remember... it gets better and a year from now you are gonna be so happy you did this!

For many years I bought into the idea that overeating was primarily an "emotional disorder" Don't get me wrong, i do think that is an element of it, but at least for me it is very much so a physical issue. My stomach was a bottomless pit. I could eat a really big meal and be ready for more in an hour or two. My son is the same way but I did a better job of training him to manage it then I taught myself and he is not obese. The surgeon explained to me that once you get all that fat around your organs (I am the classic apple shape with a lot of belly fat) it essentially pumps out bad information into your system driving you to eat more - essentially the metabolic disorder that is only now beginning to be understood. I had my lapband removed in Sept 2011 - I had all the Fluid removed in 2003-2004 timeframe so it was an "empty" band. About 2-3 days after the surgery I started getting hungry... I mean really hungry. It is hard to describe how strong the drive to eat was and it nearly drove me insane. It was miserable. If overeating were just an "emotional disorder" then why did my hunger go through the roof as soon as that band was gone? I remember someone on these forums when I was researching the sleeve said something like "I had been searching for years to understand why I overate all the time, what unresolved childhood issues make me turn to food for comfort. Turns out I was hungry - who knew?" Anyway, this is also an emotional and mental journey, but the physical component of hunger is very real and in my case a primary issue so I have felt the sleeve has helped me ALOT.

Okay, your response clarifies things for me. Many years ago I was on Prozac for a few weeks but it started making me crazy... it was awful. Glad to hear that part seems to be getting fixed. You will feel better on so many levels if you can stop vomiting. My recommendation is (for now) to weigh/measure everything. I would start with 1/4-1/2 cup and see if you can eat that and still feel okay. Eat slowly, like you might take 15-20 minutes to eat that portion. If it works, stay with it and just don't try eating more at one setting for now. I eat 4 times a day (most days) but some docs recommend 3 mini meals and 2 Snacks. Anyway, eating frequently (but not snacking all day) with small amounts is the way to manage this. You may also be mildly dehydrated. Fixing that will also make you feel about 100 times better. Drink drink drink all day long - except the 30 minutes before and after food. I don't even drink other liquids with a Protein shake, I try to really separate. i could not handle plain Water early on and relied heavily on herbal tea and crystal light etc. If you do find yourself vomiting, back up and go to liquids, or a gentle food that you know you can tolerate (greek yogurt perhaps). The point is don't get in the cycle of irritated tummy, eating a difficult food again and constant vomiting. I checked my blood work. 72 is not too low for blood sugar, my paper says normal is 65-99. Your Iron however does sound low 30-150 is the normal range. You can fix that with Vitamins I think. The bummer part of iron supplements is they can make you constipated and since you can't take with calcium, it is a timing pain. I was glad when I didn't need to take it anymore. So, this is just an outline of what you might do - not set in stone here. To begin with the NUT had me taking double the Multivitamins unless it was taking a bariatric Vitamin. If you have a bariatric vitamin, ignore the second MV dose. Alot of people take gummyvites and live to tell about it, my NUT said they didn't have enough of the various trace minerals etc so I am not sure what to think. If other types make you feel ill, I figure it is better then no vitamins! I settled on a liquid vitamin called Reviva because i just hate big ole pills and I decided life is too short to do something I hated that much every day. AM: -Multivitamin -500-600 mg of calcium citrate w/vit D -sublingual B12 -I also added extra vit D since I was low midday: iron PM: -Multivitamin -500-600 mg of calcium citrate w/vit D -I also added extra vit D since I was low Bedtime: -500-600 mg of calcium citrate w/vit D If your multivitamin has the iron in it you might modify it like so: am: MV w/iron B12 sublingual midday Calcium w/ D PM MV w/ iron bedtime Calcium w/D

I was pretty familiar with interval training from decades ago, but HIIT is an intense form of interval training. I read up on a few different websites and decided to just give it a try. My main take away was don't overdo it as you can hurt yourself. I thought I was starting out easy, but I am actually pretty tired this morning. So I was on the elliptical and did a 5 minute warmup followed by 5 repeats of 15 seconds full out exertion with 45 seconds of recovery. I then did about 5 minutes of steady state cardio because I was feeling surprisingly sweaty and "exerted" by those 5 repetitions (I really went as hard as I could so pushed myself very hard). I followed that by 2 reps of 30 seconds high exertion (I won't say full exertion probably 80-90% because I couldn't do 100% for 30 seconds) with 1 minute of recovery. I finished with 5 minute cooldown. I felt like I had done a pretty intense workout even though it was short - 20 minutes including warm up and recovery. I was sweating alot. Because time at the gym is a premium, I followed with a 30 minute strength training workout as I often do. I had a fairly high intensity strength training session too because the gym was empty on halloween night and I basically had one of the weight rooms to myself. My knees are too shot to do sprint type stuff (running/jogging) so I felt the eliptical was a good place to start as I am used to doing cardio on it. One of my knees feels a little tired this morning so hopefully I didn't over do it - seems like it shouldn't have been! Anyway, I have been exercising regularly since February and am looking for ways to amp up the intensity without spending lots more time so this seems a good direction. For those of you familiar with HITT, am I on the right track? I read also to only do this maybe 1-2 times a week and do steady cardio the other days. Is that what you all do? Any suggestions how to get the intensity bursts while protecting bad knees? Thanks!

Oh, and as to your actual question regarding Vitamins, here is the regimen I was given: -Iron, taken separately from Calcium, which I was able to stop when bloodwork showed I had plenty of Iron -High quality multi Vitamin - not the big cheap horse pills as your body doesn't break them down wll -Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D (cheap calcium is not well absorbed if you are taking a PPI) -extra Vitamin D -B12 sublingual (under the tongue) I was also taking a PPI in the early months as my tummy was very aggravated without it. You are on other meds so i am not sure what needs to happen there, but I am just saying that is very normal the first several months post op to need a PPI. Vitamin defiency might make you tired, but I don't see how it can cause the other symptoms. I might be suspicious of the other meds you are on or meds you discontinued, but I don't know.

It would be helpful to understand your eating patterns (quantity, frequency, types of food). Does everything make you vomit? Can you keep it down if you eat say 1/4 cup of something mild only? Eating small quantities slowly is really the key. Are you able to stay hydrated? A good piece of guidance is when you can't keep food down to back up to either liquids or soft foods or whatever you can tolerate to give the tummy a chance to rest. Try again with the solid food once things have calmed down (perhaps days or even a week later). I learned this from my time with the lapband but I think it can apply to sleevers too. When you say your blood sugar is low on your blood work - can you share the number? Mine was 77 at my 3 month follow up and I felt great with that - it isn't too low. It sounds like you really have been through the ringer and of course we can't tell if maybe you do have something wrong - like some kind of complication. There are other issues besides leaks...and only a surgeon can diagnos that. I was certainly not vomiting at 4 months out, but I did have pretty tight feeling of restriction and could not eat much at once. That was a good thing, but if I did not have good education on what to expect, I could surely see where I might have had problems by eating too much or too fast or with liquids. Sometimes I needed to stop eating after a shockingly small amount of food. I guess what I am saying is it is possible some of your symptoms are caused by not having the right guidance on how to eat but of course it is possible that there is something else going on... Makes sense to try to check on the eating patterns since the tests haven't found anything yet. Welcome and glad you came here for support. I hope you can get some relief from this.

Has your band been emptied/unfilled? If not, I would be wondering because I think it is standard to do that in advance of revision (although maybe I am wrong here). If it is unfilled and you are having these issues, you are describing symtoms of a slip. In some casees, a slip can eventually cut off your ability to even drink Water. If it were me, I would be talking to the surgeon. I am not sure how long you have had the band, but this sounds like a significant change from your "normal" and with the band that pretty much always signals trouble... in my experience.

That is great - congrats! I stayed just one night and was ready to go home too! I however found recovery from this surgery to last longer then the band - the primary reason I think is exhaustion which probably relates to how hard it is to get Water in at first. Keep us posted on your progress

Thanks for sharing Suzanne - it is really great to hear about the long term successes! My goal a year from now is to be at goal and be just working on staying fit!

Thank goodness I didn't have to do a liquid diet preop because as far as I am concerned there is no way to feel satisfied/not hungry on it presleeve. I have done them in the past though and after about 3-4 days of hell I was pretty much numb to it... so I have a grit your teeth and get through it approach. Every surgeon is different, I had a 2 week very low carb liver shrinking diet. Even that was hard and I was eating real food. so, 11 months out I still sometimes have a Protein drink for a meal and continue to be amazed that it actually satisfies/fills me up! It is great to no longer own a bottomless pit for stomach..... Anyway, sorry I am not much help but wishing you the best as you embark on this process!

W_Drake - how did surgery go? Hope all is well and you are recovering comfortably.

After 8pm.... it is when the head hunger shows up even after all this time since surgery...

1. Head hunger (we are used to eating larger quantities and it is hard to for the mind to adjust). Most of us have gone through this. 2. Early on you maybe don't have all the sensations due to nerve damage - this is a good reason to measure your food in the first couple of months - if you can't trust your stomach or your eyes - that was certainly my situation. 3. You are way too early to declare failure... you are in the healing phase. Honestly, it isn't until you are far enough out to be on solids and really settled into that the full benefit of the sleeve is realized. Hang in there - it gets easier!

Well, we are pretty much all big sleeve advocates, but I think you are wise to be thinking all these things. Truth of the matter is that if your head isn't in the game so to speak, you will likely lose but my have problems keeping it off. It is pretty big heartbreak to lose a lot of weight and then regain it. I think you should try what you mention first. This is just my opinion, but I think surgery should be a last ditch effort. It isn't about sticking to a "diet" it is about can you physically combat the hunger and urge to overeat forever without WLS. Even if you only lost 2 pounds in a month doing it on your own - look at where you would be a year from now... 2 years from now. My personal experience is that I tried EVERYTHING including meeting with a nutritionalist, seeing a counselor, various commercial diets, weight watchers, nutrisystems, many crazy fad diets etc etc. What made me realize that I just could not keep going on is that I used to lose weight and regain, but then I got to the point where I wasn't even really losing... just gaining. The sleeve for me was a last resort - I had already "failed" with the lapband so you can be sure I thought long and hard. If you put this off for a period of time and try the other things, you really haven't lost much time and what you have gained is either 1. good weight control or 2. the resolve and committment to make the surgery work since you can't do it without.