JennyB

I am just under the 6 month mark. Down just under 100lbs from my first weigh in at the doctor in Jan this year. I am a slower loser, but still a loser so I will take it! I have been having issues where I just don't see the weight loss and get overwhelmed with how far I still have to go and so many of my support system are just a few lbs from goal. Until yesterday, I had a light bulb come on for me when I found a full body shot picture from early in 2011 of myself. I could have died, I do not remember me looking like that, I know what I felt like, but I never saw myself like that. I needed the reminder of just how far I have come, but it was also heartbreaking to finally see my old self the way other people saw me, but I am not there anymore so I shed a few tears and I am loving my sleeved life!! (excuse the crazy bed head) I remembered that I had boxed up the same outfit to ship to a friend in NJ so I ran and grabbed it for the pic, I had to hold the pants up with my arms so they wouldn't fall down...lol. I obviously stuffed myself into this shirt before, I do not even know how I managed that, you can't really see how big it is on me in the pic but it's a 30/32 and I am in 22/24 tops right now. I told my husband it was like seeing a before and after of Violet going into the juicer on Willy Wonka..lol HW: 387 SW:349 CW: 291 (Still, I am stuck..lol)

I was sleeved on 5/21, I regretted surgery the morning after, but that was only because of a lack of pain control. I had to take my reflux meds for 2 weeks after surgery and since then I have found that when I have that "hungry" feeling it is actually acid, not hunger. I get it every once in a while after I eat spicy foods now. It gets so much better! Hang in there and drink, drink, drink!

you really don't feel too much restriction until you move to food with more consistency.

I didn't get one, but my surgeon said if I had asked he would have done one for me

I have dropped 3 sizes in three months, lost 37lbs since surgery 76 since last November when I put myself on a 6 month diet. I don't see changes when I look in the mirror, I still tend to grab bigger sizes first because I don't think that the 24s I need will really fit. Eventually my brain and eyes will get with the program.

Was referred to Dr. Brian Mirza by a coworker and I would recommend him to anyone! He is awesome!

A coworker suggested trying panty hose and cutting the tops of the legs off. I mostly wear 3/4 sleeves so I should be able to hide them easily....think I will try it!

This all stinks, I was prepared for a long fight, but it took less than a week for my approval. Sending out some good vibes for you guys!

How old where you when that diagnosis was made? I was told that I was when I was 16, truth of the matter is that I was going through a very traumatic time in my life, I didn't tell anyone what was going on and my family just knew something was wrong with me and so they packed me off to the doctor and they met with me for 20 mins and wrote a RX and put a little label on me that made the next several years of my life a living hell! Just saying if you haven't been to a therapist as an adult, you need to go back....I cannot tell you how much this has helped me!

I think that we all go through a mourning phase, most of us have had very long affairs with food so in the beginning it's scary and pretty dang hard to imagine your life without that part of you. It's like going through a bad break up, it sucks, sucks more, then YOU have to learn to put yourself up and move on. For a little while I was pissed off at food, silly as it sounds, but the one thing that was always there for me was now "gone" and it was because of my relationship with food that I got to where I was pre-op. I am 6 weeks out today and let me tell you all the head games that my food addiction has played on me have been hard and all the times I thought I am never going to eat again, I eat every single day, I do NOT feel deprived. It's a radical change for us and I think the hardest part of this journey is all mental. You can do it, we all can!

I was feeling this way when we went to a BBQ a few weekends ago, the first since surgery. I can be the life of the party if I want to be, but I was meeting a lot of new people so I was definitely wanting to just be invisible. Everyone knew, thanks to my hubby, that I had surgery..the host and his wife asked me questions when we first got there, because we were the first to arrive. After others showed up, it was no longer the topic of discussion and I just felt normal! I will admit I found myself adding food to my plate that I was no way going to eat just because it felt too weird to just get a little chicken and a spoonful of the side I could eat at that point. I just kept moving things around my plate and moving it to my husband's plate. LOL Glad you went back and added the "hidden" food in, just because it wasn't in your program, you still ate it. Hope you get to feeling better and enjoy yourself! Be proud of the journey you started and try to push yourself out of your comfort zone, this is our chance in life to just hit the reset button and truly find ourselves!

I was instructed to start mine the day after I got home from the hospital, check in with your surgeon or Nut

Yeah it takes a good while to get anywhere where we live out in the country, but I wouldn't trade it for city life! I love my little Texas town

I didn't have a number but I tried my best to get it to the top. I can say with 100% certainty that you need to use it and that it works to keep your lungs cleared out and functioning. I kept a pillow on my tummy when I used it because I always coughed with it, but had to to get my lungs cleared out.

Did you make the pudding or was it store bought? Since surgery I cannot eat store bought SF pudding without emergency trips to the bathroom. If I make it myself with my lactaid I am just fine!

Like Lissa stated, you should have been given a spirometer, you should be using it for breathing 10 times an hour or when watching TV 5 times every commercial break. My lungs almost collapsed due to this not being done, the hospital brought it in my room while I was still out of it after surgery and just set it on the side table but never went over using it with me. Even after I came home for 10 days my surgeon had me doing it.

I have never used any type of bc, my husband and I used condoms, then we stopped because we decided we wanted kids, after 3 years with no luck, since surgery we started using condoms again. I just really do not want to use other methods of bc...thoughts?

wow! I really liked the lady that I went to, if she weren't over an hour away I would be going to her regularly. No one on my insurance plan, even the ones that the insurance company directed me to, would take me on knowing that I was seeking the letter of "mental clearance" I spent nearly 3 hours on the phone calling offices and getting rejected. Called my surgeon's office in tears and they referred me to the lady I went to, it was $200 out of pocket and over an hour away from where I live, but I was kind of backed into a corner. I went in expecting her to be just someone they used to get the paperwork filled out, but she didn't come off like that.

I hit my first stall (3 weeks out) I am sad not to see those numbers dropping right now, BUT I am so thankful that my scale doesn't say 387 anymore that I can tough it out! It will move again soon!

FLS, I love it!

I have told friends and family, but I don't want to share with people at work, because most of the people I work with are ugly hearted people and I don't want to share something so personal with them, never mind the fact that I didn't know for sure that the surgery was going to get approved at the beginning.

I am 3 weeks out, lost 21lbs since surgery my waist size in pants is the same (well its a little less, but not enough to drop a pants size yet) but I notice the weight I am losing is in my face, shoulders, and my upper legs for some reason. I had to prove the leg part to myself today by trying on a pair of Curves workout pants that I bought at a garage sale for a dime last year, they are an XL and the day before surgery I could only get them up to mid thigh, today they were all the way up

387 Nov 2011, 367 at beginning of PreOp April 25, 349 morning of surgery May 21, 328 today (3 weeks out). Doc set a goal of reaching 150. I don't really have a number in my head, because I don't know what I would look like at those weights, 150 seems too small, 180 is a more comfortable number in my head..lol. Thinking of the overall goal of losing 200+ is totally too overwhelming. I just focus on 10lbs at a time, its a nice reset for my brain instead of thinking only 178ish lbs to go. Best wishes on a quick approval and future success!!

That is where I am too, hopefully in a year and a half or 2 years I will be getting to announce a little one on the way for my husband and I! Being able to become pregnant was a huge reason I had the surgery, but I know it doesn't mean that I will be able to 100%, everyone in my family seems to struggle to get pregnant, so if it still doesn't happen we will be adopting, only I will be healthy and able to do all the things I want to do with my babies.

40 Mins East of Houston- Sleeved 5-21-12- Dr. Brian Mirza