WouldYouEva

Hi, I know there's a DC group that maybe I should be in since I live within spitting distance of Piggy County but I lived for 27 years in Carroll County (8 in Melrose--just north of Manchester and 19 years near Uniontown, about 5 miles west of Westminster) and think of myself as a Baltimorean in exile, and hey, I *do* live in Howard County... Only 5 more days until my op. Fortunately, I've been spared the dreaded pre-op diet, but tomorrow I'm going out shopping for Protein Shakes, sugar free pudding, popsicles, and drink powder. As I mentioned earlier, I used to live in Carroll County. I moved from central PA when I fell in love with a Baltimore boy, who I married. We were married for 26.5 years, he died in early 2005. A few years later, I got a job in Silver Spring, and I've been living in the DC area since then. I have two sons, one who is in college and lives with me (who has promised to take care of me, post-op), one who lives near Silver Spring with his girlfriend. I'm looking forward to tossing my HBP meds and lessening the pain I have from osteoarthritis. Anyone one else have experience with St. Agnes Hospital and/or Dr. Averbach.

Hi, I'm Eva. I'm 55, live in Howard County with my college student son and my spoiled kittie, Valentine. I was married for 26.5 years to my best friend and love of my life, not to mention my favorite writer!, but he died on Feb. 11, 2005. My first-born lives nearby with his girlfriend, and I visit them and my "grand kitties" often. I got my sleeve on June 22, 2011. I had been watching various friends having Roux En Y done and knew that was too drastic for me. I had thought about getting a Lap Band but then my osteoarthritis went into overdrive, and I knew slow weight loss was not for me. What finally got me off the fence was a bad breakup with a guy who took me for thousands of dollars and turned out to have been cheating on me the whole time. I never want to be at the mercy of someone like that ever again. So, how am I doing 16 days later? I'm OK. I've lost about 19 lbs. My knees hurt like crazy since I stopped my post surgery meds but I can't take my arthritis pain meds, except for Tylenol and Viocoden, which makes me sleepy. I miss my job--I have my dream job getting paid to edit and webmaster for a division of the National Weather Service. I've lost most of my craving for food but it's been hard getting those 60 grams of Protein per day. I can only drink so many Protein Shakes. As of this week, I'm adding in eggs and cottage cheese, and I seem to be tolerating them well. I was a skinny kid, so skinny my mother dragged me to the doctor to find out what was wrong with me (also, I had a pica--eating dirt--that freaked her out). He assured her it was a phase and I would outgrow it. And sure enough, come puberty, everything I had eaten for the last 13 years popped out. I always subconsciously thought of myself as that skinny kid who could eat anything (well, not dirt!) and it wouldn't affect me. I'd like to go back to being that skinny kid.

I'm trying to remember the last crab I ate that tasted as good as buying new clothes in smaller sizes felt. But, seriously, I had a temp job once in McCormick's Consumer Affairs department and it might be worth asking for samples of other "Old Bay" seasoning mixes and see if they give you the same problem. Maybe something like this? http://www.oldbay.com/Products/Old-Bay-Less-Sodium-Seasoning.aspx My assignment there was supervised by a woman named Patti, who was gung ho into Weight Watchers. Wonder if it worked for her or if she got surgery, finally?