mambomama

Hello Everyone! Nancy here to update on progress thus far. I have my Sleeve done on 3/1/12. Prior to surgery, I had lost 30 pounds (over 2 years of blood, sweat and tears). My highest weight was 282, my surgery weight was 252 and my current weight is 227.4. I am thrilled. Of course it is a slower loss than some, but I have never lost weight quickly and I had braced myself for this possibility given my hypothyroidism, polycycstic ovaries and fat metbolism disorder. My surgeon is very happy as well. In general my head hunger is still more than my stomach capacity, but I am able to leave food on my plate much easier than the past and I feel a lot of freedom from the angst of gaining weight, trying to lose and overeating etc. In most cases now I can eat a meal, just a small meal so it is not as obvious as before when I would fill on 2 tablespoons. now it is more like 6-8 tablespoons! I am starting to believe that I might actually get under 200 pounds and boy will that be amazing! Thanks to you all for your support. You are an amazing group. My friend connie had a sleeve done yesterday and her swallow test came back great. She just drank her first ounce of Water and I can't wait to see her today! Pray for her if she comes to mind that these first 14 days of risk for a leak will pass quickly and safely with NO leak! Sincerely, Nancy

Hello all, I was sleeved on March 1st and so far, these are my stats: Highest weight 282 Weight at Surgery 252 Weight today 233.6 I am thrilled with the sleeve although I am not a fast loser--never have been before the surgery or after! I could be discouraged, but this is 18.4 pounds that I don't have anymore! I am in it for the long haul and I know that I am not getting in very many calories. I have to be very purposeful to get my Protein and Water now that I am eating more regular food. If I eat carbs, I can't find space for protein. Even veggies are hard to fit but I am working on it and trying to SLOW down my eating. This is my biggest challenge. I don't miss eating more food, but I do find that there is less pleasure in the thought of gathering with friends to eat since my eating consists of so little (I am mostly a social eater). By the time I take a few bites, I seem to be done! I go to bed and awaken thanking God for this tool and dreaming of my outfits I will wear when I am at a smaller size! Little by little, day by day I am moving forward! Love you all and love to read your words!

You are right about the wacky trainer--run as fast as you can in the opposite direction! I have been working with a personal trainer now for more than 6 years. Initially I went to a gym and now I have a trainer in my home. Even when I had the trainer 3 hours a week, it never came close to 1000 dollars per month, not even half that! I delayed getting a new car and used the money from a car payment to cover the cost. So I was driving a 15 year old car (LOL) that was in good shape, and just 3 weeks ago got a new one. I never lost weight from the trainers though, although I became a lot more fit! I hope you can find someone you like. My trainer has learned a lot from me and has a different attitude now towards obesity than when she first got me. It has been good for both of us! I wish you the best on your journey!

After highschool, I went away to a small private college to study nursing. The school was very conservative and strict (my own standards and faith were much less conservative). For example, you could not date without a chaperone--crazy in today's world, huh? During those years, I studied hard and worked to pay my way through school. Each summer I worked in a Finnish Nursing home in South Florida and spent significant time in Peru as well. One summer I spent 12 weeks on a college mission team where we worked in a camp for disabled children in a jungle town, for example. I had the time of my life. I was at my thinnest (140 pounds) and had a boyfriend with me on the trip with whom I was deeply in-love. I had a chance to visit my childhood home in the deep jungle and travelled by sea plane to get there. I saw the Indian friends I knew from childhood. All was well in the world! It is funny how I still felt so fat and assumed I was the fattest girl on the team. It was when we all had to weigh to get on an airplane that I found that I was the 3rd thinnest in the group of 8 girls!!! What a shock that was. I wish now I embraced that weight better instead of wanting to be 127 pounds instead of 140 or 150. I was athletic and strong and fit and beautiful even though I had big hips! The next 2 summers, I went back on medical teams to the same place, and life ahead was only good. By my junior year, I was secretly engaged (waiting till Christmas to announce and get ring) etc. I then had a snafu with my school registration and ended up staying out of school my junior year. I thought it was the end of the world, but it was a gift. I spent a wonderful year with my mom, breaking up with my boyfriend, taking a road trip to my ancestral home in Wisconsin and Minnesota with my mom, spending Christmas in Europe and working as and LPN and getting valuble RN experience. Hindsight is 20-20. What was the most traumatic event--staying out of school a year, was a blessing. My mom ended up dying the following year and this year at home allowed me to cherish amazing times with her when she still was well. My boyfriend was not the man for me and if I had been at school, I might have missed the signs! After graduating, I worked as an RN. My mom died 3 months after college graduation and I had a brother still in highschool to support and an older brother who still had some growing up. It was the hardest year of my life. My weight was stable for 10 years and ranged from 140 pounds to about 155. I was either on a diet or cheating on a diet during this time. I went to diet doctors and they told me my metabolism was very low. I still never got diagnosed with hashimotos. I exercised 5 days a week. Three years after my mom's death, I was in grad school getting my NP training. My older brother was married and my younger brother in college. For the first year of grad school, I exercised almost daily. It was a move that changed everything. I moved far from the gym and suddenly my exercise plummeted and I slowly started gaining weight. I was folk dancing a lot and in an amateur performing group, but it was not enough exercise for my body. So over the next 10 years, I gained about 10 pounds a year. I was often on a diet and had one weight loss when I was Dr. Atkin's patient in 1996. By then, I met my husband (met tango dancing at the university) and we married in 1992. I had started gaining weight and had stopped weighing myself and was not dieting. I was enjoying life and food and slowly but surely putting on pounds. By my wedding, I had hit 200 pounds. In 1993, we moved to New Jersey, and I was a patient of Dr. Atkins. It took me 6 months, but I lost 20 pounds and got pregnant with my son. The low carb diet probably helped the PCOS and increased my fertility. I actually weighed less the day he was born than the day I got pregnant. My 2 pregnancies were amazing in that I did not gain weight. However, I breast fed over the next 6 years and during that time, I gained 50 pounds. In about 10 percent of women, they gain weight breastfeeding because it increases insulin resistance. I was that 10%. I did not know i had PCOS yet. Right around year 2000, I was diagnosed with hashimoto's and PCOS and was started on medicine that took off about 10 pounds. I was almost in a fog with my weight and I had stopped dieting. All those years of strict dieting really messed up my mind a bit and i just had no ability to stick with a diet. So these years were happy with family, but frustrating with dieting and weight. Being a mom with young kids has a way of putting you in a fog anyway--best times and worst times. I was also in grad school again so there was not a lot of time for me. The me time is coming though!

After my father's death when I was 13, I lived with my mother and two brothers in South Florida. All along, I wanted to go back to Peru, but now my mother was hesitant because we were in a good school in Florida and coming into important years as teenagers. My mom hoped to return after we finished school. I remember distinctly how much I weighed at each age and stage of my teen years. 4th grade 9 years 115 pounds - went on diet 5th grade 10 years 105 pounds - lost weight 6th grade 11 years 133 pounds - gained 30 pounds in three months after moving to USA 7th grade 12 years 140 pounds 8th grade 13 years 144 pounds - dad dies 9th grade 14 years 150 pounds 10th grade 15 years 160 pounds 11th grade 16 years 170 pounds - went to a diet support group for almost 1 year and started aerobics 12 grade 17 years 155 pounds My brothers were very involved in sports and my older brother who eventually became super morbidly obese was then very lean. My younger brother was a bit overweight until about 8th grade when he began playing sports. My younger brother also always struggled with weight as an adult but never became morbidly obese. They both were encouraged to play sports. While I was athletic, I was relegated to taking care of the house and cooking for the family. This may not seem at all fair, but I think I probably preferred this to sports because I was self-conscious of my body and my weight and had no confidence in my athletic ability. It was later that I realized I was a really strong person and really a fast runner with great hand-eye coordination. Back then I had no clue, so I played piano and did family chores from age 11 on. Every day, I thought about my weight. There was one moment I remember when I thought that if I could see in the future and knew I would be an overweight adult, I would rather not live. I was very desperate over it because I stood out like a sore thumb in South Florida where I was very white with large hips. None of my school friends were like me. They all were tan and thin (I went to a private school and one of the "poor" kids). While I had a great time in many ways in those years, I was tormented by my weight issues. My peers never teased me, but my older brother, my uncles, aunts and a male teacher all told me to lose weight. One aunt offered me money for every pound lost. My mom herself was overweight so she struggled as well. She never weighed more that 180, but was also tormented by it. She and I started attending a wonderful weightloss support group and we started taking an aerobics class together. This is when things started clicking. I lost very slowly compared to the others, but over the next year (during my senior year of highschool), I lost about 15 pounds. I became very health conscious and started my habit of exercising regularly which is key to my success even today. Now looking back, I know that I likely had problems with thyroid function (hashimoto's hypothyroidism). I had a time where I was very sleepy, had trouble functioning and I gained weight and my skin was very dry, etc. The physician tested everything but thyroid function. Now looking back I wonder if my weight would have been less with less struggles if I had been properly diagnosed at that time. I also had PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) which was manifesting then too, but no one really understood that disorder and how it was related to insulin resistance and weight gain. As I reflect, I can see how God has helped me through. In my struggle I started praying, meditating, journaling and reading scripture daily. It was a phenomenal time of spiritual growth and has a lot to do with my personal faith and love in action today. Without the weight struggles I may not have reached out to know God. My weight struggles have also humbled me and helped me to look past the surface in other people. It has shaped me in so many ways, so I can't regret, but move forward and embrace the new me and be thankful for what I have learned along the way!

Posted January 7, 2012 - 7:39 PM As I am starting this blog, I feel like I am beginning in the middle of a long journey that it took to get here in the first place. Since Childhood, I have struggled with my weight, and rarely has a day gone by where my weight was not at the forefront of my thinking. While some may see bariatric surgery a prison where they can never eat like before, I see it as an opportunity to break free from the burden of my weight issues. I am very "HOPEFULL" as I prepare for surgery. Please excuse my ramblings below as I reflect on the early years of my journey... I was born and reared in a remote rain forest/ jungle of South America and one of my memories is that I was the only overweight child in the jungle. My parents and paternal grandparents were also overweight which was also extremely rare. We had little access to refined sugar, sodas and candy. Moreover, my mother did not allow much junk food anyway. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother counting out her peanuts as she was attempting to lose weight (only 12 peanuts allowed). We lived most of the time beside a large tributary of the Amazon that was accessible by sea plane or a long river trip (sometimes 2 weeks on the windy dangerous river). Now, I realize how amazing it was to have that experience and I treasure the memories. I also remember that my mother put me on my first diet there by age 10. I worked hard and started jogging, and eventually lost a little weight to near normal for my age (now it would not be seen that overweight compared to so many obese children). After almost 11 wonderful years in the jungle, I moved to the United States. For three months we visited friends and relatives in the midwest, south and eastern USA. In those three months, I was offered a lot of goodies which was impossible for me to refuse (feeling obligated, wanting to try new delicious foods, plus having a sweet tooth). By the time we settled in South Florida, I had gained nearly 30 pounds. The timing was bad as I was nearing puberty when the body normally gains 5-7 pounds. I quickly went from slightly overweight to nearly obese by age 11. It was not a happy time for me as I missed my home in the jungle, and I felt very out of place in South Florida where girls my age aspired to be tanned (I have very fair skin) and slim hips (which mine weren't)! In addition, my father was dying. He had brain cancer and needed close medical attention, but after all we did to move to the USA to get medical help, they could do nothing but watch him slowly die. More to come!

Absolutely amazing! What an inspiration!

Bariatric surgery helps control diabetes, Cleveland Clinic researchers find Published: Monday, March 26, 2012, 11:32 AM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Clinic researchers have traveled to Chicago to present to a large gathering of cardiologists a ground-breaking study that shows bariatric surgery is more effective in treating people with Type 2 diabetes than medication alone. The study, being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, is one of two studies in the journal documenting the advantage of bariatric surgery to control diabetes. The results of a separate clinical trial that documents similar advantages, but over a two-year period, come from the Universita Cattolic+ de Sacro Cuore in Rome. The Clinic's study shows one-year results from its trial, Surgical Therapy and Medications Potentially Eradicate Diabetes Efficiently (STAMPEDE). "This is a radical concept," said Dr. Philip Schauer, a surgeon and director of the Clinic's Bariatric and Metabolic Institute who is the primary author of the study. "We're taking a medical disease treated by medication and we're saying that surgery in some patients is more effective." A few days before the start of the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, Schauer said, "I expect a very interesting conversation." "Medical therapy is always targeted to slow down advances of the disease," said Dr. Sangeeta Kashyap, an endocrinologist in the Clinic's Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute. "Here's something we found that could potentially reverse the disease and maybe stop it in its tracks. That is going to catch the attention of the medical community." For the past 20 years, physicians have used bariatric surgery as a treatment for morbid obesity. More recently, physicians have turned to the weight-loss surgery to treat diabetes in people who were moderately and severely obese. Not everyone in the medical establishment has embraced surgery as a treatment option. Many have been hesitant to endorse bariatric surgery because it hadn't been compared head-to-head in a randomized trial with some of the newer, more effective drugs used to treat diabetes. "Frankly, there have been endocrinologists who argue that [they] can achieve the same effect with drugs, with much lower risk," Schauer said. In 2007, physicians from the Clinic's departments of endocrinology, bariatric surgery and cardiology -- diabetes increases a person's risk for heart disease -- collaborated on a clinical trial to compare, for the first time, two types of bariatric surgery against intensive medical therapy alone. "We've known [anecdotally] that it seemed like people with diabetes and obesity who got bariatric surgery got significantly better [than with] intense medical therapy," said Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Clinic. But what was lacking was concrete evidence to support those anecdotes, he said. The STAMPEDE study is important because it offers such evidence, says Dr. Paul Zimmet, director of International Research at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, who co-wrote an editorial in NEJM that accompanied the Clinic's study. "Type 2 diabetes is the biggest epidemic in human history," he said. "Bariatric surgery will not be the answer as a public health strategy, but there are groups of patients who have failed the standard medical therapy," Zimmet said. "A change in the paradigm should be that bariatric surgery should be considered earlier, rather than as a last resort." Who took part in the study Between March 2007 and January 2011, the Clinic physicians screened 218 patients from Northeast Ohio for the trial. Apart from advertising the study in The Plain Dealer and other publications within a seven-county area, the researchers asked other physicians for recommendations and identified other potential subjects through electronic medical records, Schauer said. Trial Treatments Here are the three treatment methods studied in the STAMPEDE trial at the Cleveland Clinic: • Gastric bypass. In this type of bariatric surgery, physicians bypass 95 percent of a patient's stomach and duodenum, part of the small intestine connected to the stomach, so that the stomach volume shrinks from the size approximate to an inflated football, to a golf ball. This operation has been common for many years. Four patients in the STAMPEDE trial had to have repeat surgery. • Sleeve gastrectomy. This is the most rapidly-growing procedure throughout the world, says Dr. Philip Schauer, director of the Clinic's Bariatric and Metabolic Institute. The surgery reduces stomach volume by about 80 percent, shrinking the stomach from the approximate size of a fully-inflated football to the size of a banana. A specialized mini-stapler is used vertically along the stomach, removing more than two-thirds of the stomach itself. There is no intestinal bypass. • Intensive medical therapy, which includes a change in diet as well as medications such as insulin. The Cleveland Clinic study focused on patients who, because of their size, otherwise would not be candidates for bariatric surgery. Typically the surgery isn't an option unless someone is more than 100 pounds over their ideal body weight (a body mass index of about 40 or higher) or -- for those with conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes -- a BMI of 35 or more. The target patient was between 20 and 60 years old with a BMI between 27-42, poorly controlled diabetes that had been diagnosed more than nine years earlier and a blood sugar level that when measured with a hemaglobin A1c test over a three-month time was more than 9 percent. The blood sugar level for non-diabetic patients is 6.1 percent or less. "The success rate for each group is not just achieving a good blood sugar, but a normal blood sugar," Schauer said. "We wanted to know what percentage of patients after one year were able to reach that target." The answer: 42 percent of gastric bypass patients were able to reach that non-diabetic level, while 37 percent of patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy were able to do so. Only 12 percent of patients whose treatment was solely intensive medical therapy were able to reach that non-diabetic level. "This is really an extraordinary result. We always thought of diabetes as an inexorable disease," Schauer said. "The very idea that you could take advanced diabetics and return them to normal blood sugar on no medications . . . 78 percent of gastric bypass patients were on no drugs at the end of the study." It is an important outcome, he said, because in many patients, "drugs gradually fail." The only other study to date that conducted a head-to-head comparison of medical therapy to bariatric surgery to treat Type 2 diabetes was conducted by researchers in Australia. The study, involving 60 patients who were followed for two years after receiving either laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery or medical therapy, appeared in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "These new studies are timely," said Zimmet, one of four co-chairs of a consensus meeting convened in 2011 by the International Diabetes Federation Taskforce on Epidemiology and Prevention of Diabetes that looked at the role of bariatric surgery in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. "It seems to me better later than never." Many of the people who agreed to be screened for the trial already had secondary complications such as retinopathy (damage to the retina) and early signs of kidney impairment. Before they could participate in the study, prospective patients had to agree to go through any of the three treatments they were randomly chosen for. The reaction among patients who were contacted? "Mostly hesitation," Schauer said. "This is the reason it's taken 20 years to do this kind of study. Most people, they don't think of surgery to treat diabetes. For 100 years, diabetes has been treated the same way -- with pills and injections. The perception of surgery was that it was very dangerous and had super high risks." Bariatric surgery carries with it the risks of any major surgery, along with more specific risks such as abdominal hernias, bowel obstruction and stomach perforation, according to information from the Clinic's Bariatric and Metabolic Institute. Type 2 diabetes also comes with its own risks, potentially affecting the heart, kidneys, eyes and virtually every major system of the body. The trial components Researchers narrowed the pool down to 150 patients. Thirty-six people were African American, a population disproportionately affected by diabetes. Forty-four percent of patients were on insulin at the time they enrolled. All but 10 of the 150 patients completed their assigned treatment and one-year follow-up. Every patient enrolled saw a nutritionist who crafted a diet that they would follow if they were assigned the surgery. Patients also underwent psychological screening and saw an endocrinologist, a physician who specializes in treating diabetes, every three months. All of the patients received intensive medical therapy above and beyond what is recommended by the American Diabetes Association. HEATHER-BRITTON-BEFORE-SURGERY-DIABETES.JPGView full sizeCourtesy Heather Britton"This is a chance for other people to learn that there is hope for diabetes," says Heather Britton, shown here in 2008 before she had bariatric surgery. Following a couple months of appointments, tests and evaluations, Heather Britton of Bay Village found out in late 2008 that she qualified for the Clinic study and would be getting gastric bypass. "I was in total shock," she said. "I was very nervous, very anxious." Before her January 2009 operation, Britton, 53, had been taking a half dozen medications (but not insulin) to regulate her diabetes as well as her blood pressure, triglyceride and cholesterol levels, and an using an inhaler for her allergies. Following the surgery, Britton lost 80 pounds. She gained some of the weight back when she started reintroducing some foods to her diet, but says that today she is "still in very good shape." By May 2009, Britton was no longer on any medication, but now takes Vitamins and supplements. "Not only did they come off of their diabetes medication, but they came off many other medications [such as those] for cholesterol and hypertension," Nissen said of the surgery patients. "They went from taking a boatload of medications every day to none or few medications." "Truthfully, I never would have done [the surgery]," said Britton, who had known other people who had gastric bypass surgery. She just never made the connection between the surgery and a treatment for diabetes. "The reason I did it, though, was because it was very important to me to help other diabetics and to help my family," said Britton, who has a family history of the disease. When Britton received a letter in the mail in September 2008 inviting her to be part of the study, she thought it was a joke at first. But the letter came with a detailed questionnaire. She had been wanting to do something for a while that would make her healthier, so she filled it out. "That was really important to me," said Britton, who was diagnosed with diabetes in her early 40s and who had a strong family history of the disease. "This is a chance for other people to learn that there is hope for diabetes," said Britton, who, like the other study participants, is being monitored with follow-up visits for five years. "It has changed and redirected the health history for myself and my family." Everyone diagnosed with diabetes should be educated about all treatment options, Kashyap said. "This is not happening around the country," she said. "They're not told anything about lifestyle [changes]. For those who simply aren't responding to medication, then I think it's important to talk about surgery. They will always need medical therapy follow-up. "I tell my diabetic patients, 'You are now diet-controlled,' " she said. "Endocrinologists and surgeons are going to have to work together to identify the best candidates [for surgery]." What is the next step in terms of the research? "We're going to follow folks longer, look at the durability of surgical effect," Schauer said. "Our expectation is that the progress will continue."Already a follow-up study is tracking a subset of the patients who had surgery to see how they're doing, said Schauer, who said he hopes to have some initial data available later this year.

Hello PixieJoy7979, Glad to hear you are feeling well. And others in this group too! I was just going to mention that I turned a lot of food into full liquid, like stews. I put a little in a blender and then added water and protein powder. I made cauliflower and potato soup and pureed it and I did the same with Indian lentils (add water and protein). Initially I added beneprotein or other protein supplements to everything, including water! Now I am enjoying soft food and felt physically "hungry" today which was a good feeling. Have a great week!

Hello everyone, Just checking in for an update. I was sleeved by Murayama in Philly on March 1. I have been doing well with one minor complication of a hematoma under my largest incision that caused a scare 10 days after the surgery. All is well now. Now that three weeks have past, I have lost 13 pounds, which could be discouraging if I look at everyone else's numbers. I have always been a very slow loser and the reason I had surgery in the first place was because I hit a plateau after losing 50 pounds (it took me 18 months to lose it from 282). I then gained 20 pounds back over the next year and was so desparate and stressed over it. So, I am thrilled to be down even 13 and while I am impatient, I am trying to look at the big picture and follow the plan. I am on puree and will advance to soft on Sunday. Yesterday I had my first vomiting after drinking a Protein Shake (go figure). I am not a fan of the shakes, but still include them so I can get in my Protein. I have a hard time getting in over 700 calories in a day--are there any others with this same experience. I only recently started calculating calories on the program I use to enter my food intake. I honestly don't know how I can get in more food in a day between drinking Water, taking Vitamins, getting protein and waiting the 30 minutes between drinking and eating! So excited though!!! I wish you all the best and am so thankful to have you all here. I was afraid that after having surgery, I would be useless in helping others on their journey since I "cheated" and had surgery, but I am finding this the opposite. My honesty in telling others that I had surgery, helps me and is having a positive impact on others who are suffering with obesity. So far 2 of my friends are heading towards surgery because of my story. I am glad I decided to tell people and not be afraid of the naysayers (all except my inlaws!--LOL)

Hello, I just wanted to send you some encouragement. For one thing, the goal of the preop diet is to get your liver as small as possible. There is a huge range of pre-op diets, including no diet at all. In my case, my surgeon does not recommend a Full-liquid diet, but a 1000 calorie diet for two weeks. I too found it challenging at times to stay on the diet (I gave an oscar party in my home during those 2 weeks and I cooked and offered lots of higher calorie foods). I did the best I could do and was thankful I could eat solids! In addition, I struggled with the medically-supervised 3 months before the diet because I had just come off of losing 50 pounds the previous year and it took me over a year to lose the 50 pounds on a medically-supervised diet--i am a very slow loser thanks to Hypothyroidism, PCOS, diabetes and Lipomatosis. I was at a plateau for almost a year and really struggling when I went to the surgeon for the surgery. That pre-op period was one of the most unhappy times in my life! I gained over the holidays (preop November, December and January) and really in the end maintained instead of lost. I think my previous success is what helped get me approved--after all I was going to the surgeon because I had hit the plateau and could not lose anymore. I even went to a weight loss spa last summer and did not lose! So, just take heart and do your best. You have lost weight which is the goal of the diet! I am now 2 and 1/2 week post op and I have lost 11 pounds. I am thrilled! While I won't win any weight loss races, I am going the slow and steady route. The surgery is a tool that forces you to learn to eat slower, eat less and be more mindful in your eating. I am thrilled with this tool I really need! I wish you the best!

You look wonderful! Congratulations and thanks for sharing! It is an inspiration to all of us!

Hello and thanks for the note! I hope you are well. I have done well post-op. Today is 2 weeks and although I have only lost 10 pounds (which is little compared to the average I am told), I am happy. I feel great, with little pain. I have one complication with a hematoma (old blood pooling) under my incision. I go to the surgeon tomorrow to hopefully get it fixed. It has been draining since Sunday which means antibiotics and dressings etc. I am on a pureed diet and tolerating it well but find it a challenge to get all my protein. So far I have managed the 60 grams just barely almost every day. The fluid for me is easier because I sip all day. Let me know how you are doing! I will be praying for a great experience and quick recovery! Sincerely, Nancy (mambomama)

My surgery was March 1st in Philadelphia and I am now home recovering well. I have been able to take walks outside and manage without much pain medication. It takes most of my time trying to manage my fluid and protein intake, but the food is staying down without nausea or too much discomfort. I am very thankful and when I woke up I had the most glorious feeling of being alive and having survived! Soon I will get my before pics and start working on the after pics. Can't wait!

So good to see another person having surgery tomorrow. I too am having surgery and my arrival time at the hospital is 9:30am. I will post more when I return, but I wanted to mention that some of the very same thoughts are going through my head. I will be praying for you too as I head into this new venture with peace, hope, a sense of adventure and yes some fears. Will I survive? Will I have a leak? Will I be able to go back to teach in 2 weeks? Will I fail after all this is done? My friend yesterday said to me that this is like the birth of my first child. One moment I am changed completely and I will need to re-learn a lot of things about life--in this case eating and living. So I will take it one step at a time--baby steps with the hope of a healthier future! I wish the same for you!

Hello all, My surgery date is March 1 and I have so many feelings about this! excitement, fear, sadness I did not do it without surgery and most of all hope! Hope all you Jersey girls and guys are well!

Loved the Psalm 91 quote. It too struggle with the my time with God. I jump out of bed and go, go and go. I struggle with Self-reliance and this is an area where I am completely not able to control myself. So, finally I am surrendering to this surgery. I am calling it His "Severe Mercy" toward me. I lost 50 pounds and am struggling a lot to keep it off. I hit a wall, and now see the pounds creeping back. I had never lost more than 20 pounds prior to this attempt. Unfortunately, my body needs a lot more weight off and I feel at peace with my decision to surrender my own desire to do it on my own (with God's help) and accept this tool to help me become healthier and improve my "temple". Glad you are all there wherever you are.

Hello all you March Sleevers, My surgery date will be March 1st and I am just getting acquainted with this forum. I am excited and nervous and a bit afraid of failure all in one. I have both positive support from friends as well as the naysayers. It seems so many people want to tell me the "Horror" stories of their "friends". Don't they realize what that negativity can do to someone with a date set and their mind made up? It is not like we decided this overnight! I am keeping this s secret from some (family and friends far away) and others on an as needed basis. I would like to keep it a secret to everyone, but that is not fair to those who are struggling with their weight. I can't with integrity look someone in the eye who is struggling and make them think I did this without surgery. So, I must swallow my pride and share my story as needed. Hope you all are well and enjoying the journey. I am busy organizing me house...how silly is that?

I hope you are on the mend soon. I said a prayer for you today...

As I am starting this blog, I feel like I am beginning in the middle of a long journey that it took to get here in the first place. Since Childhood, I have struggled with my weight, and rarely has a day gone by where my weight was not at the forefront of my thinking. While some may see bariatric surgery a prison where they can never eat like before, I see it as an opportunity to break free from the burden of my weight issues. I am very "HOPEFULL" as I prepare for surgery. Please excuse my ramblings below as I reflect on the early years of my journey... I was born and reared in a remote rain forest/ jungle of South America and one of my memories is that I was the only overweight child in the jungle. My parents and paternal grandparents were also overweight which was also extremely rare. We had little access to refined sugar, sodas and candy. Moreover, my mother did not allow much junk food anyway. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother counting out her peanuts as she was attempting to lose weight (only 12 peanuts allowed). We lived most of the time beside a large tributary of the Amazon that was accessible by sea plane or a long river trip (sometimes 2 weeks on the windy dangerous river). Now, I realize how amazing it was to have that experience and I treasure the memories. I also remember that my mother put me on my first diet there by age 10. I worked hard and started jogging, and eventually lost a little weight to near normal for my age (now it would not be seen that overweight compared to so many obese children). After almost 11 wonderful years in the jungle, I moved to the United States. For three months we visited friends and relatives in the midwest, south and eastern USA. In those three months, I was offered a lot of goodies which was impossible for me to refuse (feeling obligated, wanting to try new delicious foods, plus having a sweet tooth). By the time we settled in South Florida, I had gained nearly 30 pounds. The timing was bad as I was nearing puberty when the body normally gains 5-7 pounds. I quickly went from slightly overweight to nearly obese by age 11. It was not a happy time for me as I missed my home in the jungle, and I felt very out of place in South Florida where girls my age aspired to be tanned (I have very fair skin) and slim hips (which mine weren't)! In addition, my father was dying. He had brain cancer and needed close medical attention, but after all we did to move the USA, they could do nothing but watch him slowly die. More to come!