Norma

I too have grown tired of the paid posters who come on here to start crap and promote their paycheck with false advertising and misinformation. I have to commend zsflower for at least being honest about who she is. Shirley doesn't do that and hopefully she will be permanently banned for not following this board's protocol. I am not using her screen name but most of you know who she is. I have recently placed three people on my "ignore List" by going under User CP, settings and options. It is funny to look at threads where they have been deleted because only their name appears but not the spiteful things they say. This makes the ability to read threads here on VST so much more pleasant. Others of you might want to block them as well. It does not appear that Alex wants to force employees of doctors to be honest in their postings as that might decrease his personal paycheck. Hopefully, he will change his mind and care more about the safety of the people researching surgery than the kickbacks he receives for allowing paid posters access to us.

Anyone from the Middle of the beltbuckle? I am in Olathe KS now but have lived in Springfield Mo, Hannibal Mo, Dearborn MO, and would love to meet some people locally to chat with.:001_wub:

Being obese in America is hard-even traumatic. We are discriminated against for being "fat, lazy slobs" and expected to be "jolly" all the time. We are treated rudely by store clerks, doctors, flight attendants, etc and considered to have no will power and to eat all the wrong foods and know nothing about nutrition. We learn to have guilt and feel shame about ourselves, our appearance, our eating habits, our sexual needs, etc. We even start discriminating against ourselves with the same mores of our culture. My experience as an obese person for 45 years and a Licensed Professional Counselor for over 20 years has led me to some conclusions about our therapy needs while undergoing a lifestyle change as is possible with the sleeve. I do not think we need the services of a bariactric specialist who specializes in bulumia or anorexia. Most of us have considerable knowledge of nutrition and don't need another diet plan or to be told what foods we should eat. Therapy needs to be centered around the traumas( yes, I mean TRAUMAS) that we have suffered through being discriminated against, ridiculed and ignored and the guilt and shame we feel about our eating, our size, our value to society, the way we have learned to hide what we eat, and the way we connect food with love and nuturance. We need to learn to accept ourselves for who we are and how we got here. Work can be done on reframing the importance that food has on our happiness and in our lives. We need to be able to "eat to live" rather than "live to eat". Food does not need to consume every waking moment in our lives; we should have other interests and activities than always planning our next meal or snack or eating. For these reasons, I suggest that people find a counselor who specializes in DBT or EMDR. We need to reprogram our thinking and emotions as they relate to food and as they relate to shame, guilt, embarrassment, intimacy and love. That therapy will allow us to strive with the tool of the sleeve. Hope these words have helped. Feel free to PM me if you have futher questions that you do not feel comfortable posting here.:thumbup1:

Hi, Tiff! I also don't get on this site much. You are looking fantastic. My left knee is all healed up but the right one is bone on bone --trying to avoid another knee replacement surgery for at least a year. I have lost 106 lbs now. I, too, do not worry in the least about food anymore, can eat what I want although I don't have much appitite for sweets or rice and bread. I did not get to start on the exercise kick until the last couple of months due to the kidney surgery and the knee surgery, but am in the gym about 3x a week for cardio. I am almost at 1 year post-op now, So much more healthier and thus more active, still run into people who don't recognize until they hear my voice which still pleases me to the max. I am hoping to lose about 40-50 more lbs and I do have sagging skin but I am 51 and had been obese for 45 years too. Glad to see you--will have to check out the book.

Hi all, I haven't been on this site forever. Count me in for one very satisfied Aceves patient. I am down 106 lbs and almost off insulin completely. Dr Aceves and Dr Campos are the best doctors I have ever had and the hospital experience was the best as well--which is saying a lot because I have had 17 ear surgeries, colon surgery, 2 knee surgeries, deviated septum repair, 3 hospitalizations for pneumonia and probably some other things that I can't remember now in my 51 years of life.

I have lost the first 100 lbs and now working on another 60 0r 80. I am exercising for at least 1 hour a day on weight lifting and cardio. the loose skin is really sagging and i hope to tone up some, but if not I will have plastic surgery done in about a year or two.

Hi all, I am 7 1/2 months out and have had kidney stones surgery and full right knee replacement surgery since my sleeve surgery, both of which kept me out of the gym for awhile. However, I have lost about 97 lbs and am wearing 18 slacks and xl shirts. My knee is healing and so I have been doing cardio 6 days a week for the last 5 weeks. No issues with food other than rice expands too much in my stomach and bread is too filling. I feel great and my diabetes is much improved.

I had quick response to needing less insulin. I am off Byetta and Lantus since the day after surgery. I still take Novolog but am using less than 10 units a day.

WildIris, How you will respond to weight loss is going to be result of how you have learned to relate to food and what not having that same relationship with food/mealtime/ textures and comfort food available to you for the first 6 months or so like it was. If food and meal planning were very time consuming for you prior to surgery and you are no longer hungry (like my experience) you will have to seek out other ways to occupy your time. My fat friends found my quick weightloss and lack of being able to/interest in food threatening. I had some resistance from them of being supportive or including me in things that was surprising. I had to deal with mealtime not having the same appeal to me and my own judgements that people were eating way too much or all the wrong foods. I had to adjust my thinking regarding going out to eat as I didn't like paying for so much food and don't like leftovers so unless someone was along with whom I could share a serving, I considered eating out too expensive and wasteful. I have lost 92 lbs in 6 months and have never really started regular exercise as I have had knee replacement surgery, a death in the family and kidney stone surgery in that time frame. I have a therapist that I see about every 3 or 4 weeks--we have discussed how people relate to me differently now that I have lost weight, my adjustment to the lessening of importance of food, the overall improvement of my health. The only time that my history of depression returned was right after the knee replacement surgery when I was having trouble with pain management and unable to work for 8 weeks. So, all of this to say that I think it is a good idea for you to contact your therapist prior to surgery to check in and evaluate what might be your trouble spots on the journey and be mindful after surgery that meds might need to be adjusted for your smaller body size. I believe that you will be able to manage your bipolar issues well if you watch for your trigger signs.

We both got the Vertical Sleeve, Mine was Oct 30, 009 and I have lost 80+ pounds since then. I only weigh on the 30th of the month so will weigh again the last day of Feb. I have gone from size 28 and 30 to size 18/20. My diabetes has improved dramatically--only taking 5 units of Novolog 2x a day now. I had unexpected total knee replacement surgery on right knee on Dec 15th as my knee finally blew backwards and had no stability. However, I am thrilled that the weight loss from the sleeve has helped so much with my knee recovery. I am now able to do cardio exercise and hope to be released from physical therapy soon. I bleieve that Dr. Aceves saved my life with his excellent surgery skills by finally allowing me to get a grip on how I use food in my life. I am never hungry and have lost my raging sweet tooth. I was able to fund the $9000 through flex spend and cutting expenses by moving in with friends. Since surgery, I can eat from the appetizer menus when out to eat or will get a side item and share an entree with my friends. I utilized the clothing exchange here on VST so have not had to buy more than underwear, shoes and a new winter coat. My food costs are less than 1/5 of what I used to spend. My pharmacy costs have also been reduced by 70%. Best decision I ever made in my life was going to Mexico and getting the sleeve.

I had surgery 0ct 30 2009. My weight was 312 lbs at 5'3" tall. Took 3 month pictures yesterday and am down from size 28 to size 18/20. Weight is 240lbs. So posted a couple of pictures.

Tiffy, Godspeed for the surgery and will have you in my thoughts all day. I go back to work half days starting Thursday. Hope you are feeling good soon after.

Thanks, everyone. I am really glad to be moving down the scale. I hope to keep it up for another hundred pounds and have actually no idea what I will look like or what size I should be as "normal" weight. I hope that the skin will adapt but am starting a plastics fund in case I have to go that route. I plan to post pictures again in a few months.

Have you asked yourself why your motivation for losinng weight and staying honest with your structure about what foods to eat is waning? What are the challenges and fears of being thinner?

I am almost at 3 months (lack one week) and have lost 67 lbs. I have not done any cardio type exercise as I had total knee replacement surgery 1 1/2 months after the sleeve surgery. I am still off work with the knee surgery.

Hey everyone! I am in St Joeseph hospital in Kansas City for the next 3 days. Surgery was this morning. they did a nerve block and general anesthia through an IV. Surgery went well except that the plastic piece that resembles cartilage did not snap on and so the doctor had to order another knee and wait for 45 min for persom to deliver it. I was in surgery from 10am to 2pm. I am doing well, still have morphine pump tonight. I will have to get up tomorrow and walk on it. I'm in room 548.

Why don't you contact Nina or Renee or one of the coordinators? When you bring a person with you, they can stay in the hospital room with you as there is a leather couch in the room for them to sleep on. I doubt that your 14 year old would have much to do unless she likes to read or Ipod. There is a tv but not many channels. I took a friend with me and she walked around the area but was unable to find a shopping center and she basically read or listened to books on her ipod while I rested or walked around the halls of the hospital. The wing is small and so you will have access to other Aceves patients while there and that might be all the socialization you need while there. If you don't have to deal with connecting flights at an airport to get home, I think doing it alone is quite easy.

I am trying to adjust to the pain level and the need to constantly keep in motion. I am progressing well according to the physical therapist but it is annoying that as I get my quads contracting then my knee gets stiff and then I have to really work to bend it and vice versa. Can't seem to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time as the knee stiffens and start shooting pain. Of course, I can only take the pain meds every four hours. I did see my range of motion improve some-I have 110 degrees of flexion but am still struggling to extend my leg straight -5 degrees. Feels like I am working out all the time but not able to really do any cardio so weight loss is slow. However, I am only needing about 10 units of Novolog daily now and BP is getting better. Wearing smaller sizes too so will have to go through the closet and purge of too big clothes. It will all balance out eventually.