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Souldancer

Gastric Sleeve Patients
  • Content Count

    26
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Souldancer

  • Rank
    Intermediate Member
  • Birthday 07/28/1973

About Me

  • Biography
    Surgery: 7/13/10 Married to my wifey (yes, wifey), mom to 2 lovely dogs.
  • Interests
    Traveling, reading, singing, camping, photographing out adventures, drives in the Jeep.
  • Occupation
    Program Coordinator, Dept. of Medicine
  • City
    Baltimore
  • State
    MD
  • Zip Code
    21210
  1. 1 years have passed since you registered at VerticalSleeveTalk! Happy 1st Anniversary Souldancer!

  2. I'm so sorry you're feeling this way! I wanted to give one suggestion that might help. I found it hard to drink all the super sweet Protein powders too and then I had some chicken broth with unflavored PP in it and I thought I was in heaven. I even sprinkled in some instant potato flakes to give it a little thicker consistency (more like soup) and it was great. Warm fluids still go down much easier for me than cold ones, I think I made one shake with ice and then said to heck with it. I hope you feel better soon!!
  3. What your scale says and when you notice are two completely different things in my world. I have lost 30 lbs in 6 weeks and while I can see it a bit, it's not as obvious to me as I'd think. I also haven't really had anyone say, wow, you look like you've lost weight, so that is something I'm waiting for! :wave: What I can say though is that my clothes fit differently and I am wearing smaller things that used to be way too tight. I've lost over 15 inches on my body and that is a great thing. Right after surgery your body retains Fluid from the IV's, a lot of bloating from gas and a lot of swelling. I would give yourself a little more time, you'll definitely see the scale change and you'll be able to notice the difference in no time!
  4. Souldancer

    What was your down time?

    Hi there! I had my sleeve on Tuesday July 13th and I returned to work on Wednesday, July 28th. I took 2 weeks off because 2 colleagues who had the surgery went back after a week and ended up in the ER because they got dehydrated. I really wanted to give myself time to heal and time to get into a routine so that coming back to work wasn't such a big transition. I did get a little stir crazy but I was able to do laundry and light housecleaning by the end so that helped. I actually feel like I healed very quickly and with no complications because I followed doctors orders and gave myself some time. Best of luck in your research, I'm 4 weeks out tomorrow and while it's not always easy at the beginning, it's definitely worth it!
  5. Souldancer

    Back to life, back to reality!

    Thank you and congrats on your great success too!! I have a quick question for you... I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get my weight ticker attached... I see there's an HTML button on the page where I write my post but I'm not sure what part of it to put where. Sorry to ask a tech question but I'm stumped and saw that you have one. I do feel really lucky to have the support I have, my partner had a hard time at first, she thought the surgery was extreme and she was very worried but now that I'm post op and doing well she's happy for me. It took some time to get her to come around but it finally happened! Have a great day...
  6. Souldancer

    Hello Lovelies!!

    I was pleased to find this page, I'm glad you're here! I'm reminded just from joining this site what an ongoing process "coming out" can be. Being asked, "Are you married" when chatting on here always results in the inevitable thoughts about whether this is the time/place to add, "to a woman" to the "Yes, I am married" answer. Oh well, so far so good, no one has run screaming from the chat room! I just had surgery about 2 weeks ago and so far so good. The decision put a little stress on my relationship just because it was scary and stressful but thankfully post-op wifey is much more on board. I hope to meet some folks on here, it's always nice to find other GLBT folks out in cyberspace.
  7. Well, almost! After getting the sleeve on the 13th I head back to work on Wednesday, which just happens to be the day I can start on soft foods and it's my birthday!! I have to say that I had what seems to be a really speedy, successful, and thankfully uneventful recovery. My time in the hospital was fine, I happen to work at the hospital where I had surgery so I had some friendly visitors from colleagues and great care (which I know would have happened no matter what) and I was told all along the way how well I was doing. I had my surgery at 9am on Tuesday and was out around 10. My Dr. said that it went great, that there was minimal bleeding and when I woke up I didn't even have drains in. The PCA pump with my pain meds was a blessing but I didn't use it all that often and I was up and walking that afternoon. I got home on Wednesday after urinating on my own and doing the swallow test to check for leaks. All was well and I was home on my own couch by (everyone else's) dinner time. One thing that was really hard was that I got NO liquids or ice chips my entire stay. I was soo thirsty the whole time so when I got home, sipping juice was fantastic. My first 3 days post op was all juice all the time, 100% juice diluted 1/2 & 1/2 with Water. After that I progressed to Protein shakes and I'm on those until Wednesday. I'm so tired of the sweet shakes so I've been enjoying blended Soups with unflavored powder. I weighed myself the morning of surgery and I was 257.5 and I am now 241 so I'm down 16.5 lbs. in less than 2 weeks. I think that's a good start but I really don't have anything to compare it to- I just know that's better than anything else I've ever done! I'm really looking forward to moving onto the soft foods stage although I'm a little nervous about starting that while I'm back at work. Thankfully the admin I work with had this surgery last year and knows everything I'm going through so I have someone to compare notes to. I am feeling good, happy that I'm almost at the point where I can incorporate some soft healthy foods and I'm actually excited to start planning healthy meals for me and my partner. I'm really enjoying reading everyone's posts and hope to be an active part of this site!
  8. Souldancer

    Period during my surgery date, bad?

    Joining this late but hoping someone might have an idea. I got my period 3 days after my surgery which was really early. 13 days later I'm still dealing with "heavy spotting" and I'm not sure if it's because of the blood thinners or some other issue. Normally my period lasts about 4 days. I'm going to call my doc but I thought I'd start here. Thanks!
  9. Souldancer

    2002-2005

    In 2002 I lost 110lbs in a year and a half by doing Weight Watchers and working out A LOT. I was in the gym 5 days a week, 2 hours at a time and 3 of those days I was with a personal trainer for an hour. I ended up small, fit, broke, and without much time to have a life. In 2004 I met someone and chose personal time. Let the gains begin! This is me at my smallest and where I hope to be again.
  10. Souldancer

    Some "before" pics

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