Pennie

Your age might help. Whether or not you are left with a lot of skin will depend on more than your age, though. Genetics and how long you were obese, for example, will play into it too. It isn't always possible to predict how much hanging skin you will have. Since you were starting with just a 40 BMI, that will also improve your odds (versus if you started with a 50 BMI). I have some batwings that I want to take care of someday. But, personally, I'd rather have the extra skin than the extra fat! There are plastic surgery options that can get really great results if you do find yourself with extra skin at the end of this!

You're going to do great! I had the same fears. It's complicated because you are doing this to be a healthy and active mother, but you are also taking a risk with the surgery. I won't say that being sleeved has made me a "better" mother, but it has made a MASSIVE difference in my life as a mother. I can really keep up with my kids now. I don't have to worry about embrassing them because I'm so overweight (there will be other reasons that I embarass them once the teen years hit!). I'm healthier and happier, and my kids can sense that too. It is really the best thing I ever did for myself, AND for them. Good luck! They'll have a healthier and slimmer mommy to wraps their arms around very soon!

Enjoy your day! Family was a big motivator for me to get healthy. The golden corral (and other such places) will quickly lose their appeal once your are sleeved, believe me! Let go of the guilt, but try to make a few healthy selections when you belly up to the buffet! Mostly, though, just enough your time with your family! Happy mother's day!!

I bet the hunger is tied to your acid. If you can get that acid under control, I'd be willing to bet that you'll feel less hunger. Does the doc have your on a PPI? That's what I take and it works really well for me. I hope you can find the right medication, because it can be like a night-and-day difference. I don't think your food intake looks super excessive. Typical for someone on full regular foods - maybe at the high end of things for 4 weeks out, but still within the range of normal consumption I think. Since you are only 4 weeks out, it is possible (but not super likely) that you can still have some numbness from the surgery and not really be able to feel how full you are. Good luck! I hope you find a good solution to your acid!

That's amazing! You are doing so great! I really had a hard time with the pre-op diet, especially the first several days. But it got easier. Still, I think it was the hardest part of this entire process for me. Your day will be here before you know it! Hang in there. Celebrate those 10+ pounds lost!! (with something non-caloric, of course!)

Be strict - be as strict as humanly possible. I never cheated, but my surgeon had a plan that was a bit more liberal so that helped. He allowed liquids plus a few veggies off a selected list. So being able to eat a little "real food" helped. It can be frustrating to know that different surgeons have different protocol for the pre-op diet. Some don't even require one! But you choose your surgeon because you trust him/her, so its important to follow his/her protocol. I've heard horror stories of patients cheating on their pre-op diet, the surgeon gets in there and can see from their liver that they cheated, and sews them back up without doing the surgery. Now this could be a scare tactic, and not a real story... but the pre-op diet is to make your surgery as safe as possible and also to insure that you can follow instructions and make major life changes. Don't beat yourself up over a little slip-up... but if you have a major slip-up, it is probably safest to tell your surgeon's team and let them decide if they want to proceed or re-schedule your surgery. I know this is tough! I honestly thought the pre-op diet was the hardest part of my journey - thank goodness it only lasted 2 weeks! I will tell you, though, that if you can power through the first three days it gets MUCH easier after that. YOU CAN DO IT!!! Hang in there, and keep your goal in mind. Once you are sleeved, you don't have to suffer through crazy diets like this (without a powerful tool) ever again!

My hormones were SO out of whack following surgery. It wasn't until I was until about 6 or 7 months out that things normalized. I had spotting, something I never ever had before surgery. Late periods, early periods, extra heavy periods, light periods... it was kinda crazy. I even bought a bulk supply of cheap-o pregnancy tests, just because I would worry almost every month that I was pregnant! LOL! When you lose weight, it does indeed mess with your hormones a bit. I've heard there is estrogen stored in fat, so when you lose fat it releases a lot of estrogen (sorry I don't have any good sources on that, just something I've heard a few times). Period issues are totally normal at this point. Frustrating, but normal. If you are paranoid like me, you can get cheap pregancy tests online (like at amazon or babyhopes) and have them on hand just to give yourself piece of mind. And don't travel anywhere without some extra pads/tampons in your purse! It gets better, don't worry! Your cycle will sort itself out again! Congrats on your weight loss - your are doing fantastic!

While it may never be advisable to chug water, you definitely get to a point where you don't have to carefully sip anymore. I think by about 5 or 6 months out, I was drinking water pretty much like I did before surgery. Not chugging, but drinking pretty big gulps sometimes. As long as I had not eaten recently, I did fine with bigger gulps at that point.

Your doctor was sad about 9 pounds in 10 days?!?!??! WTH??? OK, let me tell you something... a week after surgery, I was still the same weight as the day of surgery. I was so pumped full of fluids in the hospital that I came home weighing more than when I went in! So it wasn't until a week after surgery that I even finally began to lose weight. I definitely hadn't lost 9 lbs in the first 10 days. I think some surgeons try these tactics to "motivate" patients to lose weight and stick with the plan. The reality is that you've lost 15 lbs in 19 days since surgery, and that is REALLY great! Stalls do happen. They suck. I had a three week stall early out from surgery, even though I was following all the rules. You just gotta keep on working through them. You are doing great! Hang in there!

Great post, smontgomery! I didn't throw up post-op. Everyone is different, and you can't predict or control exactly how you are going to feel post-op. You might feel pretty good, you might feel not-so-good. But you'll be in a hospital with staff and great medications that can help you through it. If you think you'll throw-up, alert someone. They don't want you to throw up, so they'll give you some good drugs to try to prevent it. The nervousness and the mind games leading up to surgery can really be exhausting. While it's wise to be prepared for all outcomes, try to focus on the positive and trust all the research and decisions that got you to this place. The early post-op days pass quickly... they really do!! (Meds help. LOL!) A few months from now, you'll be smaller and healthier and so glad that you did this for yourself!

What you are saying totally makes sense. Many of us, by the time we get to the point that we are having weight loss surgery, have tried and failed at just about every diet program under the sun. I remember in my psych eval, I was even telling the psychologist that my biggest fear was tha the sleeve wouldn't work. All other efforts had failed, so I had come to expect failure. Your mixed emotions are understandable. You might even be feeling so many competing emotions that your a bit overwhelmed and it's coming out as being nonchalant. You are going to do great. The sleeve WILL WORK. It isn't at all like any past diet or weight loss attempts you've had. Believe me. It will work! A year from now, you'll look back and be SO GLAD that you did it! (((HUGS))) Your emotions are going to be what they are going to be. You can't force yourself to feel a certain way about the upcoming procedure, so don't worry about it. Pack you bags. Read lots of posts here. Plan for your recovery. I'm sure you've put a lot of thought and research into this decision, so trust your decision. You'll Celebrate later.

Thank you! Assuming you are a mom - happy mother's day to you too!! My family and children are a huge reason why I got the sleeve. I won't say that I'm a "better" mom now, but I am a healthier mom and I'm much better able to keep up with the little ones. Whenever I'm chasing my kids at the park, I have no doubt that I made the right decision - for ALL of us!

Wow! 50 pounds in such a short time! You are doing fantastic !!!

I don't know how far out you are, but it isn't unheard of for tastes to change/lactose intolerance to develop/and for once enjoyed shakes to become horrible. Try something different. I love bariwise hot chocolate. I also did pretty well with the EAS ready to drink shakes. I never could stand the powdered shakes after surgery... they all made me feel ill and I couldn't stand the taste. I hope you feel better soon. I don't know how far out you are, but things get a lot easier once you can focus on "real foods" for your Protein sources!

Like most things with the sleeve, it seems NUTs and surgeons all have different ideas for what is ideal. My NUT said to eat at least 60 gms of Protein a day, but 80 is even better! Early out, it is really hard to get all those in. Just get the most that you can and make sure everything you consume (except for water) is a good protein source once you are on the full liquid stage and beyond. After you are a month out or so, it's much easier to hit those high protein goals.

Congrats on getting the approval! The pain when I initially woke up wasn't bad. But I woke up moaning... I always seem to do this after surgery, it's just how I wake up from anethesia! I had some pain for about 2 weeks after surgery. There was one spot in particular that was very sore and tender. If it weren't for that one spot, I would have said that I had almost no pain. Don't worry, they will hook you up with the approriate pain meds. Just be honest about how you are feeling. The pain shoud be managable. You can't really predict how you will feel when you wake up. Hopefully you'll be groggy but feel just fine - a lot of us do! If not, well... speak up! You'll be in a hospital and they have fantastic pain meds nowadays!

I love the "new birthday" concept! Congratulations!!!

Take it one day at a time. You might be feeling much better tomorrow than you are today (knock on wood!) If you think B-12 would help, you can take it sublingual. My surgeon had us start that pretty much right after surgery. (I later came off of it because my levels were plenty high.) Make sure you are getting enough Water in, and rest up... you can postpone celebrating your birthday if you need to! Right now the most important thing is to take good care and heal! Congrats on your new sleeve!

Congratulations!!! You are doing fantastic! Some people say it takes time to get used to saying or thinking "one hundred" for your weight... but I sure never had trouble with that one! LOL! I was sooooo ready!

I lived in "comfy pants" the first couple of months after my surgery. Elastic waist bands, generously sized clothes, sweatpants... you get the idea. By 2-3 months out or so, wearing tight pants didn't hurt any more than it did pre-op. Everyone is different, though, of course.

I think it's pretty common to feel horrible when you have a major change to your diet, even a change for the better. There can be many culprits, even ones as simple as a relative drop in blood sugar levels can make you feel sick. Hang in there, it should get better. If you are still feeling sick after a couple of weeks, it might be worth speaking to your doctor just to make sure there isn't an underlying issue.

I wouldn't be so quick to go back to old favorite food haunts. This is a time to really change the way that you eat -- not just the quanity of food, but the quality. An occasional "treat" is fine, but fast food and PF Changs shouldn't be part of your regular diet. Not to be finger-waggy... but I know that the first few months post-op for me were critical in totally rethinking and restructuring my relationship with food. But to answer your question, you can probably eat there once you are cleared for regular foods. For now, Soups would probably be OK - just watch out for whole tough veggies that might hurt your sleeve.

Great post, ouroborous! My hair started falling out at 3 months past surgery. I took Biotin, but it really did nothing to change my hair loss. I never had a bald patch or anything, but I was really shocked by the handfulls that would just fall out. My kids were always finding "mommy hairs" all over the house. My surgeon said the reason was due to the drastic dietary changes and the rapid weight loss. People that dont have the surgery but go on very low calorie diets can experience the same thing. Some people do lose hair as a reaction to the anesthesia, but that tends to happen earlier.

600-800 calories is a pretty popular range that NUTs and surgeons recommend during the losing phase. Early out, it is sometimes hard to get all those calories in. It gets easier. It's great to set short term goals, but it is also hard to predict just how much you will lose by memorial day. It's fine to set that as a goal, but remember that your body may have other plans! LOL! Even if you are doing everything right, it is possible to hit a stall. Or, you might continue to drop really fast since you are fairly early out. So I'd say just keep following your diet plan and moving as much as possible. Whatever weight you are at memorial day will be the weight you will be. No matter what, though, you'll know that you are doing everything right! Congrats on your great loss so far! You're doing fantastic!

I agree! Don't worry about skipping your Vitamins for a day (or even couple of days if you need to). Focus on staying hydrated. It's already hard to stay well hydrated since we eat so much less food (and Water in food helps "normies" stay hydrated). But diarrhea can dehydrate you quickly, and when you are dehydrated you'll feel even worse (more nausea and probably a headache too). So focus on liquids and get a lot of rest. Sip sloooowly throughout the day. Don't chug a lot because you'll definitely regret that! I have no idea if this is typical, but I have found that stomach bugs come and go very quickly for me now. Faster than before I was sleeved. (Could be a coincedence, of course.) I hope you feel better soon!