carolyn24seven

thanks for that! I am a bit tired of teas. I have every kind of tea made, I think. And broth. I think the creamyness of the coffee will be a good break.

Kai, I am 4 months post. I can remember your stage. I had it too. I was so frustrated that I could only get 3 tablespoons full of soup down before it got cold.I could not eat the tuna that everyone raved about. I just had to go MUCH slower into each transition. I stayed on pureed soups for an extra month I think. I still do not finish a normal bowl of soup. And that is my whole meal. I still drink a lot of protein. My tummy is happy with that. I am very healthy. (dr.s report) I could not eat a whole egg for the longest time. I wondered what was wrong with me. The answer is: nothing. We just are all different. Stay with each phase longer, give yourself more time to adjust. You will love your sleeve soon. I am 57 pounds lighter. These last 4 months have not been without worry and concern, but, they have been a journey into the unknown with wonderful results. You will eat normal foods, not as much, but, it will be regular food like everyone eats. Have patience with your new tummy, she is trying to catch up to your head as best she can. I named mine.(Angelbaby) I talked to her like she was a new friend I was getting to know. (i tried not to do this out loud) I invited her into my life for the best benifit of us both. Giggle back at her when she gurgles at you. She is making a joke, don't forget to laugh. Try acceptance.

Excellent advice you are getting here. I am going to use some of it! I hate the thought of going to a buffett, paying the full price and not even eating a kids portion. Wan ton soup for me! Bossy/Nosey Lady problem: you will ALways have these type of people in your life. Learn NOW how to deal with them. Believe it or not, that person has something to offer. Ask her questions about her dogs/hobbies/schooling/kids/family/claws/horns.(kidding) You have to divert the focus of these people. It can be interesting or tiresome, but a good lesson for you either way, because, it will get the focus off you. I do not mind being the center of the Universe, however, I do not like it when it is focused on my weight! Yikes! So, polish up you people skills, go have some soup, and have a great experience.

Here is a tip you haven't heard. You will be a cheap drunk if you do the surgery first. Seriously. 2 drinks in rapid succession and you are toast. I used to be able to drink ALOT. a whole lot. full bottles of wine, plus cocktails. No wonder I was fat. Hey, I just used past tense for my self. Wow! Back to you, If you follow all the dietary guidelines after surgery, until your "cruiseofalifetime", you will be fine, feeling so darn great, and if you do drink, I guarentee you will not have a big drink bill. A bit more, since you asked for "older" support, Stop putting all these expectations on this birthday. You will dis-appoint your self. When ever you "expect" you are more likely to be dis-appointed. How can you be suprised in life if you expect everything to go a certain way? Just let the suprises happen, and giggle. Alot.

I second Tracy's advise. Here is another tip: buy only 2 or 3 pair if pants at a time. you will go thru (down) sizes rapidly. I was going to try to buy my clothes "used", but, it just does not work for me. So, I went to Sears and Penny's and bought on sale. I was suprised I needed tops. I just thought the tops I had would always be fine, just big. um no. I was a 20 22. am now a 14. Do not buy anything expensive, in 2 or 3 weeks it will be BIG ( sloppy) on you. I am a fan of Target right now. My jeans keep getting baggy in the stomach and legs. Yippee. This will all happen for you, please be patient and do not measure yourself by what others have done. It is not a race. This is the rest of your life. A very wise friend told me, "Start slowly, then taper off". Now, there's a bumper sticker!

Cajun: Has Dr. Aceves had any "intestinal" leaks? Not staple line leaks. A small hole in the upper intestine caused by the co2 gas used to fill stomach during surgery. I have heard of 3 of these by other Dr.s. Have not heard of any from Dr. Aceves. I am just wondering how common an occurance this is? Do all Dr.s have these types of leaks? They result in major hospitalization time to clean out the infections. I would like the info so I can honestly and clearly reccomend this surgery to friends and people who ask me. You seem very "in the know" about the medical side of WLS. I did not know about spinal use for Sleeve surgery, until your post. Thanks for the info.

OK Tiffy, so you can not exercize. NBD seriously. Take up scrapbooking, re-organize all your journals. Knit sew, cross stich, work a 10,000 piece puzzle. use your mind. Right now you have been given a gift of time to work your mind. You are such a great gal, you can find lots of important things to do with this time. No more whinning. You will not loose that much in the way of "progress" towards your fitness goals. You were not training for a marathon anyway! AND< even if you were, so? Life happens, make the best of this time. It will make the best of you. This is just one more step in your Journey. March on my little friend!

Coopers and Lan. Great progress for you both. From one who does not understand this at all, I can tell you, I am so hopeful for your futures now. I have followed your struggles, and just kept praying that you would find the strength to keep trying to find a way. God bless you both, and anyone else struggling with these issues. Atta~girls/boys!!!!

I am 195 at the gym today! (194 with my clothes off, but, that is TMI and I don't care to verify it! ha) yea me! Nana509 drink your protein. seriously. double up on it, cut back on the carbs a little. and do 5 min extra exercise a day. all will help you go go go girl!

I am 4 months out and STILL have not told the negative side of my family. Have not been able to tell some of the positive ones, because they talk to the negative ones. I started a pre op diet of the protein and a salad with chicken or fish. Every one knew that. (about the diet, not why) I also, got my knees treated. They all knew that. So, that allowed me to use/join a gym. So, for all the negative ones out there they just think I am doing the protein and exercize to loose weight. Of course they do not know how much I have lost exactly. Just what they "hear" from some who have seen me. I do not see the negative ones much. (TYGod) I highly reccomend not "telling" the negative ones. Wait until you are really strong. I am already getting comments from the negative ones, such as, "don't loose too much weight" and the ever helpful " I hope you can keep the weight off now". Also, comments about my health. For Pete's sake, I am in the best health of the last 10 years or longer! Does not a bit of good to tell them that. Dr.s reports be dammed. Negative is always negative. When they are your family you cannot get away from them. Do not let them drag you down. Keep your chins up and move forward positively. LOL soon to be one chin! Hang in there.

Dee Dee, no you are notr an idiot. I just thought you wanted to post your weight before the big super bowl pig out! LOL You are doing fantastic. I am so happy for you. Glad you went thru some stall and posted about them. When we first start loosing the results ore so dramatic. I mean 10 lbs in a week! Just wow! then it starts to taper off and it becomes a bit more of a challoenge to stay focused and keep the exercize and lo carb program going. Even when you are doing everything right you can either not loose anything in a week or only 1/2 lb. That is a little tought to take after -10 with out trying really hard. Head games, you are an inspiration to defeat them. You looser you. Goal at 6 months. Amazing! I hope you have trouble maintaining. lol. like Tiffy, she keeps loosing, and is having to eat more to stay at goal. God I love these problems, can not wait to have them myself!

Charrity, NO! Do not try that "flush". OMG! Work a deal with the Dr./hospital for some kind of payments. Call your parents. Call your church. I will make a donation! (a small one, ha)Good heavens girl, you deserve full treatment. Just to ease your mind, if you had lost the weight on your own (with out surgery) you would have had the same gall bladder problems. I did. So, it is not "because you had WLS". Please consider this important enough to your overall long term health to take care of it properly. God Bless you and your work.

There are two Baja States. Baja California Norte (north)Capital: Mexicali Baja California SUR (south) Capital: La Paz You will all know Baja Calif Sur better as the Cabo San Lucas area. Wikipedia is not accurate all the time.

Charitymarroquin: GET YOUR GALL BLADDER TAKEN OUT BEFORE IT CAUSES YOU TROUBLE. Seriously, you do NOT want that pain. It is not small. If your Dr. says it is full of stones, that is like a bomb just waiting to go off inside you. I had a stone lodge in the duct and it was very infected ugly mess. Wish my PCP would have detected the stones before all that happened. You have the luxury of schedualing this now, when it acts up, you will not. It will be emergency surgery and a very painful wait before that. Tiffy did just fine. You will do just fine. Get it gone!

Tiffy, G R E A T N E W S ! And, as a side bonus, you get to sit and watch the super bowl, not have anything thing to do with the work involved. HA Good for you, I am so happy for you. Now, we just need to get Charritymaroquin to belly up to the bar and get hers out.

I agree with all of the above. I could have used my Ins deductable of 7,500 here (in SoCal) but the plus 20% put it out of range. I opted for mexico and the cheepest at that. From all that I have read on here I would suggest for you to go to Dr. Aceves. His is a more complete sounding program. I tell anyone who asks me that. Because, even though I had a very successful non-eventful surgery with Dr. Alvarez at the "emmanual" clinic, there is no guarentee that will happen for you. The person in the bed next to me did not have a good outcome. I have not seen any adverse reports out of Dr. Aceves group of patients. I am a very happy sleever. I also think I got lucky with my choice. Good luck to you.

God speed Lan, I am pulling for you. stay strong.

Try the prilosec for heavens sake. Your Doctor should not be letting you suffer like this. Try a peptobismal type product for a few days. You poor girl, you are not supposed to suffer thru stuff like this. Eat a really bland diet for a few days. It sounds like your tummy has not healed and needs help to do so. I hope you get help form others who have gone thru this. God speed.

go to the other trhead about head hunger. Great posts there. Drink some protein to cure hunger instantly.

Let me chime in here. I have the real hunger also. Here is a trick I am using to combat it. I have 3 to 4 oz protein drink when ever it hits. I have found that 4 oz Protein before bed is soooo helpful. I go to sleep feeling full. After the holidays I was having a cookie crisis. (stupid I know) I got to barganing with myself. I could have a cookie if I drank 4 oz of protein FIRST. Well, you cannot eat much after 4 oz of protein. So, the cookie craving is all but gone now. I alsotried broth. That worked some when it was cold. I live in sunny SoCal so don't want hot stuff much. Anyway thoes are my tricks. Anyone have anything else to try?

yeahhhhh Nikki !!!!! Oh that is just soooo great! You will be at goal in no time, keep up the good attitude. (((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))

Tiffy: ditto all of the above. God speed your recovery sweetheart.

Yeaaaah Linda! Congrats on hanging in there. I could join you on hammering the scale. Mine is down right evil. I have to weigh at least 3 times to get a weight. It has registered 197 two times got me all excited about doing the happy dance and then I got on again to "make sure" it was not kidding me and sure enough it was. I have gone to using the scale at the gym for my "official" weight loss. Sheeze what a pain these scales are. I am in One~derland according to the gym and I am staying there. Never gonna have to put it on the 200 marker again. So, let me know if you want to have a home scale mega bash. I will join you. hahahaha I am not scale obsessed, umm no. well ok yah a bit.

Janagirl: you have been drinking the koolaid. The 10 sec sound bites you quote are a lot of hooey. I have my own business. I have in the past employed "illegals". I did not know they were illegal. They had SS cards and drivers lisc. I paid their taxes just like any other legal employee. I barely escaped having to pay a huge fine for having illegal employees. I am a small business owner. (22 employees) I do not have a HR dept. I am the HR dept. I cannot pay for health care for my employees now. (since 2003 actually) I give them a Bonus check to cover self insurance. IF I CAN. I am in CA. Economy sucks. If the govt. Mandates I pay for health ins. I am done. I am barely makeing it now. That will be 22 more people with out jobs. Think that is un-important? Ask them. Honestly, I wish people who think business owners are all Fat Cats that take advantage of the poor, could spend a few days in my shoes. Loopholes? Maybe for the big banks, auto makers, etc but not for me. Thanks for listening.

I wonder why they require you to loose weight before surgery? Anyone know? Is there a medical reason? I know it takes a year of dieting to "shrink your liver" so that is not it. If we could loose weight on our own we would not need surgery! Patience, NOPatience. yuck yuck. Sorry could not resist. Hang in there, your time is coming!