Caradina

Pookyism - You look great! I would say get to 180 and reassess. You might have heavy bones. I got a bone scan done and found out that my bones weigh more than adverage, so I may need a higher goal weight. You may have that going on too. I'm aiming for 150 at 5'9 and a medium build. That is what the dietician's calculator thingie says. I think I was last at that weight at age 12 or so... Maybe not even then. I have no idea what I would look like at a healthy weight and it is very overwhelming. I'm very naturally curvy and don;t look like I weigh what I do right now. I'm wondering if I'm also going to have to adjust. I got down to 200 once, and I was a size 14 and looked pretty good. I think 180 would have been great. I guess time will tell. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm afraid I'll get too thin... or get to goal, have my skin fixed and end to too thin. Ugh. LOL the problems you never dreamed you'd have eh?

This is awesome!

Wow... I feel like that around half the time after I eat, no matter what I eat. I'm not even sleeved yet! The doctor told me it was all in my head and to diet and exercise.... yeah.

My two best dates ever... I went to a local film festival. It was a buncgh of shorts, and we talked about them alot after so it broke the ice. The other one was a comedy club. It does something to be able to laugh with someone, and it will test his sense of humor. Neother place involves food or drinking. I know though, I've thought about this too. Suggest you go for a walk together after.

I think the smells is a side effect of the anesthesia. I haven't been sleeved yet, but for a couple of months after my hysterectomy I could smell everything and it sucked! It's better now, but it sounds like the smells will be back soon.. LOL Small price to pay I guess.

I'm with Dr. Rodriguez and am financing. My credit is pretty crappy, I had a bankruptcy a few years ago and a high debt to income ratio. I got approved, with $2500 down and will pay for the remaining $6000 monthly for 2.5 years. I figure I'll get it paid off, and then do the same thing for plastics if I need to. I am uninsured, and am working a temp job. I went through beliteweight.com, and they approved me right away. I can't say if they will approve you or not, but it's worth a try, and their paperwork is VERY legit, they don;t charge a huge financing fee, and it's giving me an opportunity to get on with my life that I wouldn't have otherwise. Pair with that the facte that he is an amazing surgeon, working out of a first class hospital, and it's a no brainer! I wish you luck!

It took me 5 years of switching doctors almost constantly before I landed with the PCP I have now. She is awesome, supportive, willing to listen. Best of all, she thinks my weight comes from my hormonal and metabolic issues, NOT from being a fat, lazy, eating machine. Once I found her, I was able to get on the right meds to stop gaining, though losing is still really hard if not impossible. She feels that the sleeve is almost necessary, because I won;t be able to eat little enough for my slow metabolism to allow me to lose without hunger. I think about of people are like me, and doctors just don't want to admit that we can't all fit into the same mold. Some of us are square pegs...

Hmmm.. I have permanant rings in my ears... They are surgical steel though... I wonder...

I'm going on March 22.... I'm sooo impatient! I have to stop myself from talk ing about it constantly to the few people I have told. I started the pre op diet 6 weeks before my date, just to be doing something....

Heh. Yeah.. I recently had a total hysterectomy, at the age of 32... because I was allowed to lay in a hospital for almost a week with a burst dremoid ovarian cyst. The doctors at the hospital insisted that I was constipated due to being "so overweight" and that was causing my pain and fever. They eventually discharged me with a script for some colace. I went straight to another hospital and almost straight into emergency surgery. One would have thought that this was the end of my drama, but no.... When the estrogen they gave me post op wasn;t working for my menopause symptoms, I was told that my issues were not hormonal, that the hot flashes were caused by my weight! I marched to my PCP, who gave me a different hormone med, and miraculously, the issue resolved. I'm SO SICK of this all. In fact, I plan to get to goal, and go to my yearly with the gynecologist who did this to me, just so I can tell her off, and walk out.

OK... I ordered it from Amazon Used, the old school book that you mentioned. Here we goooo!!

Hows your credit? Self pay in Mexico is only around $7000 - $8000. I'm going that route, and I'm getting it financed! Even if you couldn't get financing, it's not that much to save up, especially if you live at home.

I'm self pay, because I'm uninsured.... I have a friend who had the sleeve and her insurance paid for it. She had to appeal twice though and do the 6 month diet. She also was basically told that if she lost ANY weight on the diet, she would then be denied, because the diet worked so "she didn't need surgery". She was on this diet plan that used alot of the HMR products, and so she had to buy the shakes and soups and then not use them, and keep eating normally and lying about exercise for 6 months to avoid weight loss. It's absurd. She had them all saved up for after though so no big loss. I think the insurance companies just really don;t want to pay for this type of care and so they make it really hard. I looked into insurance, but every plan I found had all weight loss processes written out.

Awwww! You guys inspire me! This such a sweet and uplifting post! Congrats!

Please do! I'm really worried about it, but I just got my passport renewed, and I'd hate to repay it all again. It doesn't look like me now. LOL Baaaad picture...

I live near Detroit. If I go where I'm not supposed to, and I have no business going, yes, it is dangerous. Mexico is the same way. I'm headed to Tijuana in March for surgery with Dr. Rodriguez and I have no qualms. Like anything, just stay in the touristy areas and at the hospital and hotel and you'll be fine. Ive gotten alot of flack about MX myself, but upon researching things, it sounds like I'm likely to recieve better care there, and be safer, than I was at a Detroit hospital not so long ago. Sooo... take it with a grain of salt. How much do these people really know, when they tell you these things? Are they reacting over something they read in sensationalist news coverage?

I don't know the answer but I have the same concern. I have a trip to Cambodia planned for November, and am being sleeved in about a month. If I bust my butt, I'll be at goal by then, and I will look wayyyy different.

I have had PCOS since I was 12.... I've had 5 gyn surgeries related to it, and finally managed to get them to do a total hysterectomy this summer, when a cyst burst and was so large that the resultant internal mess landed me in the hospital for a week. I feel a million times better now that I'm on the proper hormones and they are no longer trying to force my janky body to work properly. No kids for me, but I never really felt well enough to consider them, with the constant pain, fatigue and complications of PCOS... Fast forward to now, I've been unable to lose weight, because PCOS kills your metabolism. Having my ovaries removed won't really reverse that, in spite of the many things it did help. I decided to get sleeved now, and lose the weight I've carried for most of my life. I can't wait to start really living... at 33.

I would do it on EBay in lots. (ie: Pants lot: 12 pair of pants from (list stores) size 14..) Do them in groups based on type and size. It'll still be several auctions, but less than each piece by itself. Then lay the whole lot out on your bed, snap one pic, and start the bidding at like $5, with no buy it now. You'll be amazed.... (I've done this before when I lost alot of weight... I unfortunately gained it all back, so I regret this huge blowout. I plan to do it again though, once I'm sleeved.)

Just say "I need to have surgery". Have your surgeon write your work note on stationary that only has his name on it, not his specialty or the name of his practice. It is not your work's business what you are having done, and you are under no obligation to tell them, unless you want to. If they ask, they are doing so in violation of a couple of employment laws.... I told my work that I needed surgery, and that I would be out about a week, because that is what I know I've needed for laproscopic surgery in the past of this magnitude.

Well, just think of it this way... once you're out of Torrid, there is Hot Topic, Wet Seal, Alloy, H&M, and other places where that style is available.... except it'll look soooo much better! I know I'm excited!

I had a similar issue after getting a laproscopic hysterectomy this last summer. I'm expecting that my recovery from my sleeve will be the same. We were moving at the time, and as my surgery was an emergency, it fell in the middle of the last minute packing and unpacking and cleaning..... He yelled at me for not doing anything until I got so sick of it that I overdid it and ended up bedridden for days. It's NOT worth it. Just put yourself first. If they can't see the need for that, that is their problem, not yours.

I'm a month out too. I started out doing my food duneral after I paid my deposit for the surgery, but now I'm starting to gradually ease into my pre-op diet early. I have to do it for 2 weeks before, and so I figure a gradual reduction of the "bad foods" will make it less jarring. I lost 9 lbs last week. It makes me laugh alittle because people keep asking me why, if i'm losing this quickly on this diet, can't I just keep it up and not have surgery?? I've done it before... and it all came back on, plus more, with lightening speed. I can't wait to start my new life, and this is just the start, for both of us!

I am having the sleeve in Tijuana with Dr. Rodriguez through Beliteweight.com. My research on him and them all comes up very clean, with nothing bad to say! In fact, the only complaint I've found so far was one lady who was more offended by the border crossing than by anthing to do with the actual experience. (I'm world traveled, so not worried about that.) I'm excited, nervous, scared, delighted, and alittle apprehensive. I'm lucky to have a supportive BF, who is "with the program" but unfortunately I'll be traveling alone due to kid sitting issues and airfare costs. I'm hoping all goes well. My best friend just had this done here in the states (she has insurance, I don't...) and she is thrilled and doing very well.

I haven't been sleeved yet, but I stopped buying when I decided to go forward. I had just gone on my Winter buying spree though so I have alot of new things anyways. I'm a bit of a compulsive shopper. I had lost 40 lbs a few years ago and had bought a beautiful wardrobe to fit that new body. I gained it all back plus 20 lbs though, and pretty quickly. I kept it all, in hopes of getting back there. Now they are all waiting for me around my half way point! I plan to do the Goodwill route also, until I hit goal and get plastics and heal if needed. I don;t want to buy a bunch of new things and then need to do it again once my (perspective) skin is removed.