traceyinflorida

Ryan, that's awesome! I've seen a lot of posts on the forum that people do not want to tell anyone they have had the surgery. Perhaps that changes once they reach goal or come close and no longer worry about anyone's judgement. Personally, I am pretty much an open book about it if someone asks. One of my friends was an inspiration to me and I hope someday to be an inspiration to someone else. I think it is just wonderful that you were able to help change three people's lives for the better! That's a GREAT NSV!

Last night I had a meeting for my son's high school football team. I had not seen many of my friends from football since before the summer. It's only been 10 weeks since my surgery, but I got so many compliments on how great I looked. I have not felt pretty in YEARS! Last night I felt like Miss America! I also felt confident and happy. I am amazed at the psychological change losing weight brings on. For those of you experiencing stalls early out and stressing over them.... I have had two so far (am currently in one now) that have lasted a few weeks. Trust me when I tell you, your body is still changing for the good!

I don't think it's so much a huge issue and focus as it is just a major change that takes some getting used to. Sometimes I think my biggest problem is just remembering to eat. At this stage, as I learn to eat healthier and make sure I am nourishing my body, I need to do more thinking and planning. I think as time goes on, it will become second nature. Also, I am still pretty new at this, so my stomach is still healing and I am still trying to develop new habbits like eating slowly and taking small bites and chewing well. Some habits die hard, and I still tend to gobble my food which contributes to not being able to eat as much as I should be able to at this stage, which is part of the reason eating it is a bit of a chore. I am thrilled to be able to eat a grilled chicken on salad and find that filling, where it never was before. I am just dissapointed that after eating a couple ounces of chicken, I usually can not eat more than a bite or two of the lettuce before I just cannot eat any more. I know that will get better with time. However, despite all that, I feel a new found freedom from food that is a total gift. The benefits FAR outweigh the inconveniences overall!!

Yay! Good for you! While frustrating, It definitely pays to stick it out with the insurance companies. I am convinced that they deny as many of the big things as they can in hopes you will give up and they will not have to pay.

Favorite thing about WLS: Going from "ugggghh, what am I going to wear today..." to "Oh boy, what am I going to WEAR today??!!" I hope that feeling never gets old.... Also, the little discoveries along the way like suddenly realizing that it is no longer uncomfortable (or impossible) to cross your legs! Wrapping a regular size towel around you after the shower, and it is closer and closer to actually closing each week! My least favorite thing: food is still a bit of a chore. I am struggling to find variety and things I actually want to eat. I was never a huge fan of Protein, but really favored carbs. (I know, strange huh? Why did I ever get fat with that outlook on food?) It is getting better though. The good news is that I no longer view food the same way. When we go out to eat or a party, my focus is no longer on food, but rather on the pleasure of socializing with my family and friends. I love that!

Good luck! It'll be a few weeks filled with excitement and nervousness at the same time. Just keep reminding yourself it is a FINITE period of time and you can do it! I found having a list of WHYs written down helped me get through the rougher patches and stay on track. Just think, in less than a month we will be welcoming you to the LOSER'S Bench!! I guess this is one of the few places where being called a Loser is a compliment!! YOU GOT THIS GIRL!!

My tastes were way off for a couple weeks. I was so excited to get to the pureed stage to have more flavor and texture only to be dissapointed and discouraged that nothing was good to me! I made homemade applesauce with Splenda to sweeten and enjoyed that. Part of me thinks just the fact that the food has been pureed takes something away mentally because I tried having fish with a little sauce that I mushed with my fork and chewed well and I really enjoyed it. Once I got to soft foods, it was better. In the meantime, I got my protein from shakes (another thing that I liked pre-op, but was suddenly awful for a couple weeks, but I now like again) and just kept trying to eat a little every day. Hang in there, it gets better!

Has anyone found a protein powder that does not become thick and bulky when mixed with liquid? I use Nitro-Peak which we order from Vitamin World. It tastes good, but when I mix it with 8 oz of skim milk, but it's consistency is very thick. Ideally, I would love to find something that mixes more like the consistency of chocolate milk. Is that just a crazy dream?

You look awesome!! So inspiring!

Check out the bose in-ear head phones then. The sound is great and they were the most comfortable ones I tried. They have a unique system for holding them in your ear and they do not fall out (unless you accidentally get the wire stuck on something and keep going, then all bets are off!) If they have a bluetooth version of them, then all the better, although I am sure more expensive. I got mine because I wanted the feature to talk on my iphone if I got a call while out walking or on the eliptical machine without having to unhook my headphones. The headphones that come with the iphone would pop out of my ears with any movement once I started to sweat. At the time I bought mine, they had great reviews. Let us know what you end up getting and your review.

I was told by bariatric nurse never to use a straw. She is also a bypass patient herself (several years ago). We were out to dinner with our WLS support group. I noticed that everyone who was six months or more post surgery, including her, were using straws! I do not typically use a straw, even in restaurants right now (10 weeks out) but I will use one once in a while, like drinking cup of ice water or unsweet iced tea from the drive through in the car. It's a little too inconvenient and messy to drink without a lid. (ask me how I know) I have not had any problems.

You can ask for anti-nausea medicine. I did, but somehow didn't get it. It turned out after I got home that I wasn't as nauseous as I was in the hospital, so it was not that big of a concern. If it had continued to be an issue, I would have called the Drs office because I know there are pills for that. If your doctor does not prescribe a Prevacid solutab, or other acid reducer, then ask him to. Even though I did not feel nauseous enough for an anti-nausea med, I did get nauseous sometimes (and still do) When I was taking my acid reducer, it seemed to help that a lot. I think most of my nausea now can be traced directly to not drinking enough consistently throughout the day. When I start to get dehydrated, I get nauseous. Honestly, drinking and "eating" full liquids was really difficult for me for the first several days. I found that clear chicken broth went down best. Flavoring my Water with crystal lite (something I normally hate) also helped. Protein shakes were awful the first week, but got progressively better with time. I think I was just trying too hard to get in protein when I should have just tried to focus on fluids. I am going to be completely frank about the pureed stage...I HATED IT! I could not wait to get my hands on tuna salad, egg salad, and anything else I could puree. But when I finally got to that stage, I just found those things to be completely gross once reduced to babyfood consistency. I made some home made apple sauce with splenda granules and loved that. I finally resorted to just drinking Protein Shakes or Soup during the first week of pureed foods and then switching to soft foods half way through the second week, that I would just mash up and chew really well. Fish was my favorite. At restaurants I would order creamy Soups or chili. I just kept reminding myself that the first month was just something I had to get through until real food was allowed. The good news is that everyday got better and better. I also found that keeping busy with other things took the focus off food and since I was never really hungry, it was less of a battle than I thought it would be.

Do you want in ear or over ear? I love my Bose in-ear head phones. I don't know if they make blue tooth ones. They are the only ones I have been able to find that actually stay in my ears when moving and sweating.

Mine was an inspirtation. A friend of mine (and past diet buddy) ran the NY Marathon. She had been around the same weight as I was and had bypass surgery about four years ago. I had always marveled at her weight loss, and even met with her several times to discuss the surgery. I kept thinking I would try to do it on my own, rather than undergo something so drastic. Well now, here I was at my highest weight ever, feeling tired, disgusting and miserable, and there she was running a MARATHON!! That was when I decided I had put my life on hold long enough and immediately started steps to get the surgery. It took me nine months from that decision to the actual proceedure, but now I am finally on my way to being a happy healthy person like she is. I do not really see the NY marathon in my future (I hate to run and always have, even when I was thin) but who knows. Either way, I know now that the future now looks bright for me and I will have my own "marathon" moments as a new, healthier, lighter me!

We went on a college tour with my son when I was three weeks post op. It involved driving every day, packing and unpacking in a new hotel every day, and walking all over campuses and eating out for two weeks. In addition, we spent most of the summer going to baseball tournaments or football camps (he is an athlete who would like to play at the college level) so there were a lot of hotel stays. Was it easy? NO Was it doable? Yes, definitely. I think Christmas and all the food and drink that you are used to enjoying are going to be difficult psychologically no matter where you are. Why not at least enjoy it with family in NYC? Some prior planning will be required. I carried my smoothie maker (which also pureed food) with me as well as my protein powder and made myself a shake every morning. You can keep snacks like string cheese, yogurt etc in your room in a cooler (or see if you can get a fridge in your room). If you eat out, order chili, soup or fish with some type of sauce that you can mash up and eat. They carry a protein shaker at Vitamin World that has a compartment for your protein powder in the bottom. Keep it with you in your purse. You can stop at any vendor or coffee shop and pick up milk or bottled water to make a protein shake on the fly. If you have a supportive family, you can also solicit their help in having a few things on hand that you can eat.

Unless you have been on a bender with food this past week, one week of liquid diet should be fine. I know several people who did not get serious about their pre-op diet until the last few days and they did fine. That being said, I am sure a lot depends on your starting weight, etc. I would ask your doctor to be sure. Then, be REALLY diligent on the liquid diet! Good luck!

I doubt you did any damage with two bites of bread. It sounds like you are just really full. Bread does that to me. For same reason you stated about not having enough room for more protein later, I try to avoid it most of the time. I do miss a good sandwich though!

Ditto to KZBEN's suggestion. My coordinator never called me back if I had a question, but she always responded right away to email! If you still get no response, drive her crazy with emails and voice messages. You know what they say about the squeeky wheel!

In my first weeks post sleeve, I felt the constant need to appologize to the waitress that I am not ordering food (becasuse I was sharing off my kids or husband's plate) or if I only ordered the soup. It would drive my kids crazy (they are teenagers, so it does not take much...but I digress) My daughter would say, "Mom, you do not need to appologize or explain why you are not ordering more food!" I think for me it's more of being a people pleaser and the need to be overly considerate. I don't appologize any more, but I do still compensate my tip a bit. So I say, order your double skinny, sugar free latte (or whatever the Starbucks speak is) any way you like it, and ENJOY IT!

Dana, you just MADE MY DAY! Thank you! We are now life long friends. You laughed at my joke and you said I was pretty... I think it is great to be able to laugh at ourselves, even when we have pain in our lives. It is therapeutic. I always say, "well we could either laugh about this or cry". I definitely would rather laugh, it is much more fun than walking around feeling sorry for ourselves. Although, I do like to hold a good pity party for myself every once in a while! Well no worries about your husband having to fit you for a special oversized coffin or have a closed casket. I seriously doubt you will die having this surgery. You are going to ROCK your new sleeve. We will both have to revise our funeral plans for wearing something FABULOUS when the time comes....which I hope will be a really, really, really long time from now!

Dana, that's awesome!! My fear of dying was that my family would not be able to find something nice in my closet that was not too tight for me to wear for the viewing! Now my only fear of death is that someone will have to see my house all disheveled! (but that's a whole other issue I will work on later....) You will do great with this surgery. It is a life changer! I am only two months out and I am floored not only by my weight loss, but by the HUGE psycological change that has come over me. Amazon13, I feared what you did about the food issues. I am not very far into this process, but I can honestly say that FOOD NO LONGER RULES ME! It is not always easy, particularly in the first month, but my brain seems to have undergone an unexpected transformation. It is a lot easier to make good decisions about food when you are not hungry!

Well there's an ENDORSEMENT! LOL!

That is wonderful! It's a shame that our weight ever caused us to hide in a shell since we were still the same beautiful, sunny people before the weight loss. Yet it is common for so many, myself included. Enjoy the new, more social you!!

Oops, Birdy18 and I must have been posting at the same time. I did not mean to be redundant in the link to the good stories. Just goes to show you that it is a good thread though, since we both thought of it!

It is completely normal to be nervous and even to have second thoughts. Personally, I was going to do this two years ago and then changed my mind. I finally had the surgery a little over two months ago. I was so scared. But now my only regret is that I did not do it two years ago. I cannot even begin to describe the wonderful feeling of finally being free of the constant spector of food, how great it feels to be gaining control of my health and getting back into shape. As for the bad stories you read, you need to remember that often times people post because they are looking for help or support for a problem they are having. The ones who breeze through surgery and recovery don't always put that on the message board, unless asked. Here is a link to a recent thread of the all the good recovery stories. I hope it helps to balance things out for you a bit as you weigh your options. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/47767-anyone-have-a-relatively-easy-recovery-story/