traceyinflorida

You look gorgeous! You were beautiful before but now you look so much younger! Congratulations!

Love this thread! - I want to try kayaking (without feeling like I will sink the boat) - Ride the Incredible Hulk at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure with my kids. (couldn't fit in the modified fat seat before) - Shop at Ann Taylor and Black and White Market (even if I can only afford one thing!) - Go back to Water parks with my kids and never sit on the beach holding towels again! - Stop hiding from cameras. Hey I might even become a camera hog! LOL - Wear my shirts tucked in with a belt!

I think you should show him this forum and have him read the sucess stories in the band to sleeve revision section. There are so many people who shared your struggles with the band who had outstanding success with VSG. I think if he understands the differences, he will be much more on board. You will still have your crazy, stressful schedule and will have to find ways to eat right within that. That will take some additional planning and organization on your part. But, not being hungry will allow you to make better choices because you will not feel the need to just grab something at the fast food drive thru. Good luck!

Awesome victory Lisabelle07! That must have felt sooooo Awesome!! @gustavo52874, You need to wear something that fits you now for that picture! You've lost a lot of weight so far so you have to show it off by wearing something you are not swimming in because it will hide some of your accomplishement. Time to buy a new red shirt! Still waiting to see that new pic with Morgan! Make sure you save your jeans though! When you reach your goal, I love the pics of people standing in their old jeans with room left for an extra person! Mine are the only thing in my closet I haven't given away. That, and a few outfits I held on to from skinnier days that I hope to fit into once again (and then get rid of because they are so out of date!!)

The nurse woke me up when I was in the recovery room. I remember thinking wow that was quick! I don't even remember falling asleep. I was not in pain, just really sleepy. Your bed is propped up, (I was worried about being on my back and not being able to breathe, but it was not a problem) All stuff they may have put in you, other than the catheter and the IV are gone. ( I was worried about that too) I was not in pain, just a little sore. They monitor your oxygen levels with a little finger monitor. I wasn't taking deep enough breaths, so she put the little oxygen thing under my nose and all was fine. Once I got to the room, my mom,dad and husband visited with me for a little bit and put away some of my things. Then they watched me sleep. I finally kicked them out. I got up and walked for a bit later that afternoon. The next day was the mac truck feeling everyone describes. Since that doesn't make sense to you, the best way I can describe it is a little like having the flu. I got tired really easily and I just felt achy and drained. I had some pain, but mostly it was just discomfort, that a pillow pressed to my stomach when moving made better. I was nauseous, but they had good drugs for that. I got up and walked around the hospital a lot. The more you do that, the better you will feel and it worked. By the third day I was a new person. The nausea was mostly gone. I felt like the fog had lifted and my body no longer had that hit by a mac truck feeling. I had a little discomfort at my inscision sites, but no big deal. The first week I got tired easily and struggled with fluids, but never got dehydrated, so I must have gotten enough in. By the time I saw my doctor 10 days post op, I felt great! I hope that helps a little with your questions. I was so worried about all the unknowns myself that I am happy to shed at least a little light to help someone else who is worrying.

I would be happy to talk. I will send you a personal message with my phone number.

Having small children is even greater reason to do this!! The best way to take care of your familly is to take care of yourself! Everyone will survive for a few days while you are in surgery and recovering and then you will be on your way to being the very best mom you can be becasue you will have more energy, you will be healthy and you will be able to teach your kids healthy eating! Shut the comments out. Make the topic off limits with people who can't be positive right now. Sometimes people who care about you do not know how best to support you. You may need to spell it out for them. I need you focus on the positives of my having surgery rigth now. I need you to talk about the good things. If you can't, then please let's just agree not to talk about it. In a year, when you reach goal, you will be the one saying "see I told you so!"

That is AWESOME!! Congratulations!!

My coordinator had a response within two weeks. I think they say up to a month. It got rejected for a missing sentence in my letter of medical necessity. The PCP had not stated that I was clear for surgery....was that not IMPLIED by virtue of her recommending the surgery? Anyway, the coordinator got that cleared up pretty quickly. If you have your date already, the surgeons office will do everything in their power to help you keep that date. Just make sure you stay on top of things. Good luck!

I agree that was very well said, Circa! Billyvmom, you are not the first person to worry about not losing, and you will not be the last! I know I worried about it too. We are all so used to failing diets or worse yet, succeeding at diets only to gain it all back with several extra pounds for good measure. We think, why should this time be any different? If you have this surgery and you follow the guidelines of Protein first, low carb, low sugar, exercise...you will lose the weight!! Right now, you are probably thinking, yes but what if I can't follow the plan...it sounds hard!? Once you are sleeved, you will not be hungry. When you are not hungry, it is MUCH easier to make good food choices and eat delicious and satisfying meals. The restriction of your smaller stomach will not let you stray very far off track either. You can have a treat once in a while, but you cannot jump off the deep end and go on a food bender. Heck, just one bite too much and I am uncomfortable for hours. You will learn very quickly to eat slowly and listen to your body. You will lose weight and be successful. Everyone loses at different rates, but everyone loses and YOU WILL TOO!! No one is going to judge you for not losing fast enough (if they do, they are idiots) but they will very likely marvel at your transformation!!

I can imagine and I am sorry for the pain it must have caused you. It's hard enough to be a teenager, but to have to suffer that discomfort and humiliation all day is unfair. This is a realtively new school. I realize it is probably neater to have a chair attached to the desk, but in a country where childhood obesity is at it's height, schools and society are always preaching political correctness, tolerance and acceptance that someone might have thought of this! It's ridiculous really.

From Before and After by Susan Maria Leach: Shrimp salad; 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, 1 lb med. shrimp, peeled and deveined, 1/4 cup light mayo, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 green onions (scallions) sliced, including green tops, 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning. Heat oil in skillet over med-high heat. Add shrimp and saute for 2-3 minutes until opaque. Transfer to small bowl and set aside. Blend the mayo, lemon juice, green onions and Old Bay Seasoning in food processor until smooth; add the shrimp and pulse until they are very finely chopped and mixture is well blended (or for mushies, puree down to a paste). Chill.

Remember they pumped you with fluids for days in the hospital. Lots of water weight that your body just hasn't released yet. It will come off and then some! You're body will finally give up the battle and realize that it has not choice but to start dropping the pounds. However, I can understand why you'd be frustrated. You put yourself through all that and at least want to wake up and get on the scale and say YES!! THIS IS WHY I DID THIS! It will happen!

Lucky! I thought the pre-op liquid was like a sick joke. You are following the post-op plan, but without the surgery to get you through...so I was Hungry! I followed it religiously though. I did have coffee every morning up until the last morning before surgery. My physician gave it his blessing as long as my last cup was done a full 24 hours before surgery. That was heaven! After surgery I really did not miss coffee at first. I was too busy trying to get liquids down. Good luck to you!

If you are drinking protein shakes, try thickening them up with crushed ice to make them more like a smoothie. Or if you are allowed yogurt, then add it to your shakes. If you make them too runny, they will run right through you and not keep you full for long. Once you get to pureed phase, you will be shocked with how little you can eat before you are full! Hang in there!

I was thinking about you today and wondering what you decided to do. Thanks for the update. You are right, spending time worrying would not be beneficial when you are trying to recover from surgery. Four weeks will fly by and be here before you know it. (hopefully weather event free!)

Congratulations on your weight loss! Thank you for sharing your experience. Not that I am wishing time away, but I am really looking forward to reaching my goal. In the meantime, this is the first weight loss experience where I have actually been enjoying the journey because I do not feel deprived!

Welcome to the losers bench! Glad it went well and you are home and no need for pain meds!

I still have my gallbladder and no problems so far. My surgeon gave me Ursodilol to take for the next six months to protect against potential gallbladder issues that can resullt from rapid weight loss. He said it may not be needed, but it's a precaution. I figure better safe than sorry! I would not have wanted my gallbladder removed during VSG unless there was a problem. I am all for keeping as many body parts as possible.

What you are experiencing is totally normal. There have been lots of posts very similar to yours and a long series of responses saying people were really nervous before surgery. I know I was! I would go through moments of calm, moments of excitement and then moments of completely freaking out (mostly the last!) I almost walked out of the hospital while I was waiting in line to check in. Try to stay busy the next few days to keep your mind off of it as much as possible. Remember, the surgeon and his team are all professionals and their entire job is to keep you safe and event free. One minute you are being rolled back to OR, the next second you are being woken up in the recovery room. Piece of cake!!

Let me put one worry to rest...you will not be starving after surgery!! I thought the pre-op diet was like a sick joke because you are basically on the post op plan but without the benefit of the operation. But I stuck with it and really missed food and was hungry quite a bit. I will not lie, the first two weeks of post op for me was not a picnic either. You won't be hungry, but your head might be. Some people breeze through it, others struggle a bit. There is a thread on this site about dreaming of food and how every commercial makes your mouth Water after the first week of post op. However, once you start getting to eat real food (even if it has been pureed down to mushies) that goes away. There is a whole other thread on here about people eating now only because they have to. At ten weeks, I feel like it starting to hit a happy medium. There are some foods that I really enjoy (like the cream of shrimp Soup I made for dinner tonight), but can only have a small quantity. I no longer live to eat, but eat to live and enjoy my healthy choices. You will be there too! Hopefully Isaac will cooperate so that you will be on your journey sooner rather than later. I am praying for you. I don't want to put up my hurricane shutters either!!

How much do you put into your coffee or a serving of SF pudding? Maybe I was putting too much. I would put 1/2 scoop into 4 oz of broth and it would completely change the texture. Maybe that was my problem. Maybe if I added a little to more of the things I eat or drink, I would get the cumulative quantity without ruining my food/drink.

I would bring in my plants, patio stuff etc before you go and get a neighbor or friend (who has not just had surgery) to help you put up your shutters. This will be a category 1 hurricane which all of FT Lauderdale is built to withstand without incident as long as your shutters are up. If it hits on Sunday or Monday, you will definitely be able to return on Tuesday. No electricity would not be fun to return to, but you would be miserable even without having just had surgery. How is your neighborhood for returning to power? We are lucky because the neighborhood we live in is next to a nursing home and a shelter, so we are always first to get power. During Wilma, we did not even lose power for more than a couple hours. It was a cat 1 and the damage just wasn't that bad. I know I would be freaked out too, if I were in this situation. But your choices are to take an educated risk that all will be fine, or close enough to fine or wait another two months. I would wait until the hurricane update tomorrow morning to make a final decision and call by 11 am (maybe you will get lucky and it will veer off to to the south a bit more) In the meantime, do a little planning and favor asking to see if you can get some help getting the house ready later on Thursday should you make the call to go. I will pray for you!!

I guess if I could term it dieting if I really wanted to, but it doesn't feel like dieting. I eat my proteins first, veggies second and try to limit simple carbs, especially sugar. I try to get in 60-80 grams of protein a day. So I am following a guideline. I will have a bite of dessert once in a while if we are out to eat and someone orders something. I have an occassional piece of chocolate (a square, not a whole bar) When I was dieting, I cheated and would fall off the wagon completely if that happened. Now if I have the occassional piece of chocolate, I don't consider it a cheat and I don't have any desire or ability to go on a bender with food afterward. I feel no need to follow a certain menu or diet plan, I just stick to the guidelines and it is working. It is the ONLY time I have made an effort to lose weight where I have actually enjoyed the journey!!

Hi Faith4me, nothing like a little added stress before your surgery! I would go ahead as planned. The worst case scenario is that you may be delayed in Cancun for a short time. If you live in South Florida, then you know that while you have to take hurricanes seriously and plan for them, they are still unpredictable. How many times have you put your shutters up and it turns out to be nothing? Make sure all is prepared for your family and home before you go. If it hits on Sunday or Monday, all should be clear to fly home on Tuesday. At worst, you may have some delays while the airlines catch up on flights that were grounded as the hurricane passed. It is looking, at worst, to be a category one hurricane which Florida and the airports in Florida are well equipt to deal with. Where are you flying out of?