traceyinflorida

Hello and welcome! Congratulations on your upcoming surgery. One thing I discovered on the forum (unfortunately not until after I was sleeved) is that it is totally normal to be nervous. Personally, I was so nervous that I nearly turned around and walked back out of the hospital right before I checked in. Fortunately, I didn't and everything was surprisingly uneventful and I have no regrets. Type in "nervous" in the search line and you will find lots of reassuring threads to fortify you! I found it was best to stay as busy as possible leading up to surgery so I did not give my brain time to think about it too much. I also wrote down a list of things I hated about being overweight, reasons I wanted to lose weight and things I was looking forward to when getting to my healthier goal weight. When I found myself getting nervous, I would look at my list and it would strengthen my resolve. YOU CAN DO THIS!

Thanks for that! Also guilty! I drive myself crazy with my scale and it does not help that my digital scale will give you three different numbers if you get on it three different times in a minute. I just keep getting on until I get a number I like! I will give that app a try since I don't think I am likely to give up my scale addiction that easily....she says sheepishly.

When I was doing my pre-op diet, I wrote something down in my journal that I was keeping on my weight loss journey. It said, "NOTE TO SELF: If you get off track at some point after this surgery, remember how well the pre-op diet worked and DO IT!" The pre-op diet was not a lot of fun, but it did effectively clear my system of sugar and carbs. Once that happened it was much easier to stay on track with the plan. I think now that you are sleeved, it will not be nearly as hard as doing it pre-op but it will help you wash any carbs and sugar from your system that are causing you to crave more and go off track. Then commit yourself to eating good protein, good carbs like veggies and stay away from the bad stuff. Track your eating in a food diary. It will keep you honest! Good luck!

Your mother will be even more hurt if you do not tell her until afterward. The last people I wanted to tell were my parents. I was convinced they would be dead set against it and try to talk me out of it. I could just hear my dad saying, you have to just eat less and exercise more. (like after 20 plus years of battling my weight I did not already know this) I ended up telling my mom when I had a medical crisis. I had my first mammogram at age 44 and it came back with abnormalities. I was freaked out because I have been putting off my own health for so long and now I finally decide to start taking care of things and I get this! While I was crying on the phone with her, I decided I might as well confide it all in her and I told her about the pending surgery. I think she was so worried about consoling me on the other issue that she did not have a chance to over react to this news. In the end, after several nerve racking proceedures, all was fine on the breast end. But more importantly, my parents were surprisingly supportive about the surgery and insisted that I try to hurry up and get it done before they left to go back up north for the summer so they could be around to help. I am not suggesting you have a different medical crisis in order to break the news to your mom (although it was very effective.. ) but I do suggest you find a way to tell her. Have your reasons and your research ready to go and shore up your resolve before going in. She may have objections and she will certainly have questions, so you need to be prepared to address them. Remember, at 39 you are an adult. Our parents have a way of making us forget that sometimes. Is your sister someone you have told and can confide in? If you have her support ahead of time, then you can at least turn to her to talk to if mom decides to pull the guilt trips on you. I hope she surprises you with support the way my parents did.

WHAT??!! You were in the Army? If you went through boot camp, then you know how to face your fears because you have done it! You need to channel that girl! One thing that really helped me to get out of my own way and quiet the voices of self doubt and fear in my head was to write down all my WHYs. Make a list of all the things you hate about being overweight and the things that being overweight is keeping you from. List the reasons you want to lose weight and all the things you look forward to when you reach a healthy goal weight, like getting back to your Army level of fitness. Pull that out and read it whenever you feel yourself starting to get a little freaked out. It will really help to keep you focused on the things that are important and strengthen your resolve. I even brought it to the hospital with me. I don't remember if I ever pulled it out, but I was thinking I might need to remind myself why I was putting myself through this.

In order for the insurance company to count it, your monthly participation and weight has to be documented. Unfortunately, online diets do not count...even weight watchers because you are not having your weight documented. Trust me, I tried! I belonged to and followed the Jillian Michaels diet online. It did not count. Other programs besides Weight Watchers would be Quick Weight Loss Centers or any other weight loss centers or medically supervised diets like Medifast where you were monitored and weighed either weekly or monthly.

Yes!! It is EXTREMELY liberating!

10 weeks

I know how frustrated and dissapointed you must feel right now. Once you make the decision to go ahead, you just want to DO IT! I went through the same thing. I can tell you a few good things about it though. The time flies by. I know six months seems like an eternity but in the grand scheme of things, it is pretty quick. Take the time to really get a handle on your issues with food, like emotional eating etc while you are going through this mandatory period. Also, take the time to start practicing some of the habits you wil need post op, like taking small bites and chewing really slowly. Also, get all your required appointments like the psycholgy visit, the PCP letter of medical necessity etc rolling for the sixth month so that when you have your last nutrition appointment, they can just go ahead and submit your paperwork. Look back on your prior supervised weight loss, because it can count as long as it is consecutive and not too far back. Like Barisaxilady said, Weight Watchers counts if you have documentation. Good luck!

I was TERRIFIED! I never had surgery before. I am a bit of a control freak, so even just the idea of submitting myself completely to someone else's care while I am asleep and not able to know what is going on was so scary to me (not that I would actually want to be awake for surgery!!) I just kept reminding myself that my odds of dying or having to be hospitalized were MUCH higher if I continued on the path of obesity that I was on. I was much more likely to have a heart attack by doing nothing than I was to die on the table. Like you, I thought about this surgery for two years (really it was longer than that, but I will just count from the time I went to the first informational meeting on it). I kept thinking I would just try again on my own. I gained another twenty pounds during that time. Once I made up my mind and started down the path I had several moments of almost chickening out, especially as I got closer to the real date. I almost walked right back out of the hospital on surgery day. I cried when I had to go back into the pre-op area alone while my family headed to the waiting area. BUT I went through with it and it was easy and awesome. I knew I had to put my trust in God and his plan for me. I also made up my mind to put my complete faith into my surgeon and the medical team at the hospital. It is their job to keep you safe and alive. It helped that one of my friends is married to a surgeon and had undergone 17 surgeries herself during a medical crisis. She reassured me over and over of the success rates at the hospital. YOU CAN DO THIS!! It helps to educate yourself, to know the risks. But you also need to keep the risks in perspective. Your husband is right. Your risks of dying in a horrific car crash are higher than the risks of this surgery. Yet everyday you willingly get into the car. I hope you can overcome your fear, or at least face it and take it on because the benefits of this surgery are wonderful!

During the first two weeks post op I would have vivid food dreams that I ate a giant meal and then suddenly realized I should not have done that. I would be so relieved to wake up and realize it was only a dream. Once I got to the soft food phase, not only did I never have those dreams again, but I am amazed at how little desire I have for food. I eat because I know I need the nutrition, but I really have zero interest in most foods. I used to marvel at people who viewed food that way and always longed to be that person. I had read so much about head hunger and that you still have to battle your old eating habbits etc, so I was afraid that my emotional eating would follow me for life. NOPE! I hope that doesn't change!

I was always a nigthtime eater. Usuallly it was when I would do the most damage. Most of it was not hunger, but habbit. End of day, sit down at computer or in front of television and eat something. I am never hungry now, but that is a habbit that wants to die hard. I just feel like I need to eat something when doing one of those things at night. So it's time to break the habbit. Here are some things that are working for me. I replace food with a big glass of ice Water. I replace food with something else to do with my hands, like folding laundry, fixing something, brushing the dog, petting the cat, etc. Figure out what your food trigger is at night. You may have a routine that is completely obvious to you, or you may have to log it for a while. You may either have to find replacements for food or change the trigger completely. Try going for a walk, reading a book in bed, going to bed early if you have to. You are experiencing head hunger so you need to find ways to trick your head into breaking that habbit. You can do it!! Also, I am assuming based on your surgery date that you are either still in liquid or pureed phase. Once you are eating dense Protein at dinner, you probably will not be able to eat at all after dinner!

My breath was RANCID for the first week post surgery. I think it was the dry mouth. Who knows what else...but it does go away.

That is by far the BEST NSV I have ever heard!! (and I have read some really good ones!) That is one that will have you feeling good for days to come! Congratulations on running your first 5K! That alone is huge, but having your teenage son say he is proud of you....PRICELESS!!

It does not sound like a fun problem, but remember that the pill crushing etc is for a finite period of time. Probably about a month. When I saw my surgeon for my first post op visit I was cleared to take pills. I was allowed to take my thyroid med as soon as I left the hospital. You won't be able to throw em back and chug anymore, but you will be able to take one at a time with a swallow of water consecutively. Also for the interum period, find out if there are other delivery systems for your meds like liquid, soulutabs, or even shots to get you through until you are clear to take pills. Also VERY IMPORTANT, check with your pharmacist that crushing is OK for each of your meds that you will be crushing. Some delivery systems are extended release. If you crush them, you get full dose at once which would not be good.

My timeline was the same as alliemm. I hope your's is quicker and not too good to be true! I know that once I had finally made up my mind, after two years of deliberating, I was ready to get it done!

You look great! Congratulations!!

By week two, I was so over the liquid phase. I started experimenting with soups beyond the usual chicken broth. I made a yummy bean soup that I put in my food processor so that it came out to a creamy consistency. I also loved cream of tomato soup. Vegatable soup (with the chunks strained out), clam chowder also strained.

What an amazing transformation! Congratulations! I can't wait to see the cruise photo at the one year mark!

Well duh...I see you posted in the forum on this site of which I spoke! I saw your post in recent topics so didn't realize you already knew that. Try doing a search in that forum for success stories. I bet you will find all kinds of information and inspiration!

Huge difference between the sleeve and the band is that they cut out the part of the stomach that generates the homone ghrelin which stimulates hunger. Between the restriction of having only 15% of your stomach and not having that hormone, you will probably not feel much hunger. With the band, you still have your full stomach and full production of ghrelin, so it's no wonder that you were never really satisfied with food. I think it is a lot easier to make good choices for food when you are not hungry. You also will not be able to eat around your sleeve, unless you intentionally are choosing sliders like milkshakes etc. Again, when you are not feeling hungry, it's a lot easier to resist stuff like that. If you look at the success rates and percent of body fat loss between the band and the sleeve, you will see that you are much more likely to reach goal and in a much shorter period of time. My surgeon told me the band is more like hiring a personal trainer and was honest that he has seen a much higher success rate among his sleeve and bypass patients than his lap band patients. In my opinion, you should not judge the potential of your future success with the sleeve based on your past experience with the band since you are comparing apples to oranges with long and short term success rates. Good luck with your decision. I hope you get some answers from people who have been there. I think I saw a thread where someone posted a link of band to sleeve revision stories. I will see if I can find it and post it here.

lower back pain and dizzy are two symptoms. If you are concerned, then start sipping!!

That is wonderful news! Congratulations! I hope it all works out as a one stop shopping deal for you!

Vitamin Shoppe also carries it. I drank it during my clear stage during the 24 hours pre op. It was so bad that after one I decided to just starve that day.

I am not anywhere near goal yet, but the only fluctuations I will worry about when I am there are the ones that keep going up. If I bounce around 3-5 pounds, I can live with that as long as I don't start fooling myself into thinking up three pounds this week, and then another three pounds next week is just fluctuation. That's how I got here in the first place!