LadyIvy

Carol, Actually I spotted your weight loss ticker and just didn't look up. Silly me. Keep up the great work!

Ken. S. I just spotted the reply to this topic. Right now I get the daily digest (which I am okay with one per day) and I also get emails everytime a certain person on my friends list updates her status (sometimes this can be multiples a day.) I went into my account again and disabled everything. If I get anything today I will contact you regarding this. Thank you

I have been following this website for 6 months now and decided that I might get involved in a few support groups. My surgery date is right around the corner and I realized I will be going through my liquid diet and surgery all during the week of passover. This got me to thinking that as Jewish people we may have special considerations following our sleeve surgery. I hope this group is helpful to anyone who would like to join. A little about me: I am a 32 year old mother of one. I have been married for 12 years and am a biologist. I decided that I needed the sleeve not long after I quit smoking. I gained enough weight (on top of my already heavy frame) that I was suddently having blood pressure problems. I had to begin taking medication and found out during this short time that I was having spinal problems as well. This severely limited my activity level and I just kept putting on the lbs. My sleeve is scheduled for the beginning of April and I am excited and horrified all at the same time. I have never been under general anesthesia and it worries me (like I think it does with most). I look forward to getting to know whomever may become interested in joining this group. I live in TX and there is not a lot of faith based support in the area I am in (much less for sleevers). Have a wonderful day! I look forward to meeting our new members

Great article!

Why not? I hate that this is happening, but employers are getting out of control. Just yesterday, I watched something on the news about employers demanding email addresses and passwords for your facebook account so that they can go poking around to make sure you are an "upstanding citizen". Seriously???

I understand that almost everyone experiences hair loss and that it does start growing back between 6-9 months. About a month after surgery, you can start taking something called biotin to help slow down the hair loss. The best thing you can do though is be sure to get all of your protein daily.

My surgery is now moved to April 9th and I have a family camping trip on May 27th. It is a 5 day trip and we have lots of comfy camping gear, but I'm wondering if any of you other sleevers like to camp? If so, I will just be passing the soft foods stage and starting the intro to solids phase just as the trip starts. Any thoughts on how to make it easier on myself and my family? I have no choice but to take this trip, it is not just family bonding time, but time to find an apartment for graduate school. Since Grad school is at the beach, this is the cheapest way to stay in the area.

Longer-life. Unfortunately it is actually 3 weeks difference, but a week behind people who have no right to be in front of me. I'll use the time to get stuff done

Carol, You did get your sleeve right?

Thanks all. I appreciate the kind words. The doc who is doing my surgery has been deployed for a year and in December they got new equipment so now only need to make 3 incisions. I have made this okay with myself because it just gives him about 16 more people in front of me to practice on instead of half of that. I am sure everything happens for a reason, but I agree military status should have nothing to do with medicine. I will be so glad when we are no longer military. My husband suckered me in to begin with and hopefully I will be able to support us so that he can get his education too. I don't want to play these games anymore.

tyvm liberated!

Quite a few months ago, I recall someone starting a list of things to pack for the stay at the hospital. Can anyone tell me where I can find this? Thanks

Its okay about the pizza and coke. I'm glad I had it because my husband managed to ruin any enjoyment I get from either of those things. I'm really pissed, but its good that every time I look at them now I will be disgusted. One less unhealthy thing for me to like.

6 months. I actually believe it is a good idea to be able to sit on it for a while. It allows you to plan and prepare for the big life changes.

I have been lurking around this site since October of last year. I finally got my date! March 19th. I start my liquid diet on Monday and am already anxious. All of a sudden my brain is telling me to eat all kinds of stuff I haven't cared about in months, strange right? I have been waiting so long and didn't think I was going to get it in time. Now I'm a wreck about the bloodwork. I guess I will find something to be stressed about. However, the timing on this couldn't possibly be any better. My husband is recovering from his hip surgery and I actually had already given two weeks to my job. I gave them the final day of the 15th a week ago and got the call yesterday. Thats not why I did it, like I said, timing couldn't be better. I can't bring myself to pray that I get my surgery in time. I really want to, but I don't want to use God for a cosmic slot machine. The most I have managed to pray for is that I have the strength to handle whatever comes my way. I am sure I will be praying for my life pre-op. I already am starting with the strange dreams too. lol. This is the beginning of an hugely changing, interesting year!

I made this two days ago for the first time. I found that the beans have a lot more carbohydrates than I thought they did. It was yummy though. I have to find a recipe with more turkey and less beans.

Oh, this is so frustrating! I have eaten fairly healthy for a long time (except for during finals weeks;P) and a little while ago started changing things to get ready for the VSG. My husband and son eat about 3 times the amount that I do. However, since I have started lowering my sodium and carbohydrate intake I have lost 3 lbs. I am very active and am always on the go. My husband is military, but doesn't have to do PT because he has knee and hip problems. Tell me how that man never works out and eats SO much more food and has lost 14 lbs? He even eats a package of chocolate peanut butter bars nightly! How is this fair? I am happy for him, I want him healthy too, but COME ON! I struggle and fight for every single pound and he gets to add water and subtract a little salt from his diet and now he needs new pants. Sorry, just had to vent the frustration without discouraging him. He bought me a bike for my birthday and now that I am riding, he is starting to ride too. Watch him lose like 40lbs over the next 3 months. (at least he will stop snoring ). Thank you for listening ladies, I know I am not the only one with this problem.

I have a very active job and am expected to wear jeans to work for safety reasons. Since we found that I have a blood pressure problem I have been put on medication. Problem is, the medication makes me sweat like a polar bear in the desert. Doesn't matter what I am doing, I sweat for the first few hours after I take it. I found that this weekend at work I developed horrible chafing between my thighs that made it painful to walk by the end of the day. I get all of my hours in 3 days, so this meant I had 2 more days to go like this! I tried powder, but it didn't seem to help. Today, since I was not working (which believe me is a heck of a workout most days) I decided to ride my bike. It was so painful! I am up to a half mile (which is an achievement from where I was two weeks ago) and I completed my ride. However, I am now in so much pain it is hard to walk much less consider working out tomorrow. At the rate this is going, I can clear up the chafing by Friday which is just in time to do it all over again! I'm trying really hard to get into the proper lifestyle and get my exercise daily. I have done it before, and know that I easily get addicted to the endorphins and quickly miss it if I don't work out for a day or two. This time it is really hard. It is already hard trying to get yourself back into shape carrying more than 100 lbs of extra weight (what is that, like a whole backstreet boy I carry on my shoulders every day?). I just don't know how I am supposed to do this when a work out causes excruciating pain. Seems like reinforcement NOT to work out. I just don't know what to do!!! Any suggestions would be great.

It only takes 3-5 days to get nicotine out of your urine, but it can take up to a month to leave your blood. It depends on amount you smoked, how long you smoked and BMI. Drink lots of water, that will help clear it out faster.

Don't allow yourself surprises. Do more research than you have ever done. Be sure to take a list of questions when you do go to your doctor. This is a permanent change for your body and you need to start developing good habits now. Hair loss is very common but temporary (I understand 6 mos to a year after). Lots of people find that biotin helps minimize the hair loss post op.

Okay, I don't want to sound like an ad for e-cigs here, but they have been amazing. I quit for a month in June, suffered daily and gained a ridiculous amount of weight. I have quit for a few days about 4 times since then and being around smoker friends and stress always got to me. I decided to try the e-cig and just go for the 0 nicotine version. I had terrible withdrawl for the first 3 days, but it was all the physical yuckiness. Since then, I keep my e-cig filled and charged and I haven't really had any craving whatsoever. The guys at the company I buy from say that is what it was designed for, but most people do it backwards and start with the high mg and stairstep down. I felt like that was just prolonging the inevitable suffering so I just did it. I even went out with a friend the other night while she smoked and smoked my e-cig. Not for a second did I want what she had, in fact, the smell was TERRIBLE. I may carry it around for a long while yet, but it is like inhaling a fog machine with a little flavor. My husband and I are doing this together (again) and we didn't try to kill each other this time either. lol. Tonight at midnight will be 8 days and for the first time in my life I don't miss it AT ALL. I am finally a non-smoker. This one stuck. It feels amazing. There is one side effect that hasn't been pleasant. I can smell everything so much better and I am finding a lot of things that smell pretty bad. Whatever your method, when you find it, you will know it. I know you can all do it. You are all worried about your health and attempting to do something about it or you wouldn't be on this forum at all! GL!! If you decide to give it a shot, these are the people I used and they are awesome. http://www.esmokeronline.com/229.html

We had to explain this to someone the other day. We hadn't had a chance to say we were at 0 nicotine before they said you know, that nicotine will still kill you. We explained that it is the additional 3500 chemicals, plus the smoke that is dangerous. Nicotine by itself is no more dangerous than caffeine. It is the delivery method that is dangerous. If we lived in a moist climate we would inhale more vapor then we do from the ecig. Living in the rainforest doesn't seem to shorten life expectancy so a little extra moisture shouldn't hurt anyone. Even if down the road they find out the moisture has negative side effects, it will still NEVER be as bad as smoking. I am now 10 days in and never going back. Spoke with some family the other day and found out that everyone, I mean everyone on one side of my family winds up with some sort of lung cancer. I am genetically predisposed to it already, I'm not playing that game....

I knew I had to quit smoking for surgery and have been trying since June. I gained so much weight that I wound up getting blood pressure problems and am still waiting on my surgery. Each time I tried since June, I slowly started putting on more weight. After more than a month with no cigarettes I still suffered every day. Thanks to some of the posts on this forum, I finally broke and bought an e-cigarette. I bought the 0 nicotine fluid and went through withdrawls the first few days. However, I am now one week down, do not feel deprived or cranky in any way. The best part is that I haven't gained any weight this time! I even stood outside with a smoker friend of mine with my ecig in my hand and didn't once have the thought that I wanted a cigarette. It smelled so bad! Its so nice to not be a slave to those chemicals anymore. This is a wonderful feeling. Thank you to the people who posted on here how much it helped them! I have a feeling this little thing has changed my life! I may carry it around for a long time to come (I smoked for 19 years) but its like inhaling a fog machine and only works to help the psychological need. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wish I had done this years sooner!

Okay, I don't want to sound like an ad for e-cigs here, but they have been amazing. I quit for a month in June, suffered daily and gained a ridiculous amount of weight. I have quit for a few days about 4 times since then and being around smoker friends and stress always got to me. I decided to try the e-cig and just go for the 0 nicotine version. I had terrible withdrawl for the first 3 days, but it was all the physical yuckiness. Since then, I keep my e-cig filled and charged and I haven't really had any craving whatsoever. The guys at the company I buy from say that is what it was designed for, but most people do it backwards and start with the high mg and stairstep down. I felt like that was just prolonging the inevitable suffering so I just did it. I even went out with a friend the other night while she smoked and smoked my e-cig. Not for a second did I want what she had, in fact, the smell was TERRIBLE. I may carry it around for a long while yet, but it is like inhaling a fog machine with a little flavor. My husband and I are doing this together (again) and we didn't try to kill each other this time either. lol. Tonight at midnight will be 8 days and for the first time in my life I don't miss it AT ALL. I am finally a non-smoker. This one stuck. It feels amazing. There is one side effect that hasn't been pleasant. I can smell everything so much better and I am finding a lot of things that smell pretty bad. Whatever your method, when you find it, you will know it. I know you can all do it. You are all worried about your health and attempting to do something about it or you wouldn't be on this forum at all! GL!! If you decide to give it a shot, these are the people I used and they are awesome. http://www.esmokeronline.com/229.html

We also have a WLS group that meets on the 1st floor at Darnell. The next meeting is November 29th at 1045. They have one evening meeting a month too, but I can never make that one so I don't know what time or day it is. The girls are wonderful and it is great having solid support from someone nearby. At first I was looking at the band, but realized I simply couldn't deal with the idea of a foreign body in me for the next 50 years. You are required to come to at least one meeting for approval. You will meet lots of people who have had different types of surgeries that are more than willing to chat with you. Good luck!