NurseGrace

well, its hard to say, if it happened right after you lifted something its probably just a muscle issue. At a month post op my abdominal are not totally 100% yet and I think you had surgery about a week after I did. If you are worried about it or its not going away it wont hurt to give your office a call

Sorry your scared but its completely normal. You will do great.

well, there are a couple of things you can do. You can notify your job that you are going to be having surgery when you get your date and see if they will work with you in maybe pushing back your start date or whatever, sometimes its easier than you would think to do this. There is also another thing though - You COULD start your job as scheduled, DO NOT MENTION THIS TO ANYONE at your job and at the last minute inform someone that you must have surgery (they do not have any right or authority to ask about the nature of the surgery - you can lead them to believe that its something of a more emergent nature like gallbladder or appendix) and there isn't technically a lot they can do about it. It's up to you to decide how to proceed. Obviously one of these is more honest than the other, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do.

Thanks! I don't think I'm going to buy it until I am down another 50 pounds but I have it saved to my amazon wishlist none the less lol

That's a great dress. It's not too long, but not too short. I think it flatters your body. I don't care for cap sleeves for me personally because they cut off my arm at the widest part but I know that its sort of hard to find little black dresses that are not cap sleeves. You're arms are way more attractive than mine though, because I'm about 100 pounds heavier than you. I've got my eye on this dress - http://www.hipsandcurves.com/plus-size-lingerie/p-15149-plus-size-sexy-shaper-dress-shapewear.aspx I know its shapewear but I have read a lot of online reviews that say its great on its own as long as you don't go too tight.

http://expertscolumn.com/content/body-wraps-biggest-internet-scam-yet http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=the_worst_diet_scams_of_2011

only temporarily. They work well to dehydrate the area but there are zero long term benefits. Once you get re-hydrated you will look the same. If stuff like this really worked the way people who are selling them make it sound, they would be vastly more popular. I encourage a skeptical mindset with stuff like this. Don't be a sucker for all this, save your money for skin tightening procedures that will actually work (tucks)

nope, there are no lotions or potions that will magically make extra skin cells disappear. Some things that claim "firming" properties feel like they are doing something because the are leaving behind a slight film that dries and feels tight but as soon as you shower that goes away.

Olathe here

You won't need a ton of things that most people don't already have. before surgery I purchased a mid-grade digital food scale and for me, that was THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. If you buy one non-food item for surgery, it should probably be a scale and you don't even need a fancy one. It should not run you more than 20 or 25 dollars. The more expensive ones usually just have a higher weight capacity and since we are weight loss surgery patients, it makes no difference if the scale goes up to 11 pounds instead of 7, catch my drift? The other two things you should have IF you don't already have them are comfortable pants, I find that mens PJ pants are both comfortable and if you don't get a ridiculous print you can get away with making a run to the pharmacy or Walmart in them if you must. I don't like to be that person running around in PJs but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and surgery is the mother of all excuses to do that. 3-4 ounce bowls and tupperwares are nice to have, but most people already have a lot of that type of thing. I purchased an olive dish set because those hold about 3.5 ounces, which is perfect. I dont bother with baby spoons and all that, because you are not always going to be eating at home, and in my opinion, you should learn to take a proper bite sooner rather than later. I suppose I could say the same for the dishes but I find them to be a huge help because I get frustrated when I have too much food in front of me, maybe its a personal thing.

beautiful, absolutely stunning. I am happy for you and I can't wait. I have an intimate goal of 135 pounds, but when I get to be about a size 14/12 I think I will probably be doing some re-evaluating because right now, I have no idea what I will look like at a normal size, I've never been normal.

Sorry, I think I didn't make my intentions clear. I'm not trying to shame you, but from my observation there is a clear difference between people who have made up their minds to make the change, and people who are dipping their toes into the water. What I mean to say is that if you need to take a week, or a month to wrap your head around all of this you should, because if you are only half doing the diet, its going to prolong the suffering. I understand, I went from an average of 3000ish calories a day too. If you can make up your mind to go balls to the walls with this dieting phase though, it will go SO MUCH FASTER. The work doesn't stop after surgery, but things get a little more... tolerable, and that is what you want, right? We all want that, its why we had surgery Put your whole heart and soul into this when you are ready, you'll be glad you did. And your right, it was a little forward of me to say that you MAY NOT be ready. I don't claim to know that for a fact, but I have been through weight loss surgery twice, once with a band and now with the sleeve, I have a lot of years of experience under my belt and sometimes I call things like I see them. Apologies for that if it doesn't apply to you. I do want to say something about something you said to me though. When someone says "that wasn't what I was looking for" that almost always means they expected cushy support rather than a straightforward analysis of what more experienced people think of the situation. I'm not much of a hand holder and sometimes I don't think thats what people really need. You seem like an intelligent person, you know what you need to do, but for some reason you are not doing it. I am pushing you to consider what you are waiting for. If you are truly ready, you need to adjust your behavior to match your mindset. We're all fat here, we have all done a thousand diets, we all know that protein is better than sugar, we know every dieting trick in the book. Nearly all heavy people don't have a knowledge problem, we have behavior problems.

this is not enough information and I have no idea what yo mean by you eat no more than 10 teasoons a day. You are telling me you eat 1.6 ounces a day? I'm sorry, you are going to have to provide more than that if you want anyone to be able to provide you with any meaningful information.

gotta push through it. It's important. best to stay busy

Honestly, it sounds to me like you are only committed in a lose emotional way. You're probably just not ready. When you are ready, you will stop this foolishness. You know as well as everyone else that having that stuff in your home, or eating it when you are out is setting you up to fail, but you are doing it anyway, so you need to get a handle on why. If you have an eating disorder you need to deal with that. If you are just the type of person who doesn't fully commit to anything, weight loss surgery probably isn't for you. It doesn't get any easier after they cut you open, contrary to what you may have in mind. I don't mean to come down on you hard, but I don't want you to make an enormous mistake.

most people take FAR too much. all you really need is your phone, a few changes of clothes, extra underwear, toiletries, an extra pillow and your medication.

I was told to expect a stall with about every 30 pounds I lost. Just trust the process. 800 calories is not enough to maintain your weight. You have to keep reminding yourself of that. So do I. It's like my mantra lately because I had a stall that basically lasted from a week after surgery to the begining of my 4th week post op. 800 calories is not enough to maintain your weight 800 calories is not enough to maintain your weight 800 calories is not enough to maintain your weight 800 calories is not enough to maintain your weight I chant that like a crazy person to myself every time I get all frustrated and worked up.

I cannot feel hunger until it's been so long and then my only sign is feeling weak or faint. The head hunger never left me though, I have the drive to eat, but I am doing everything I can to curb that

I have no idea how you will feel because like someone else said, you seem to be asking two different things. If getting shitfaced is your goal I can't really see that going well for you, but you might tolerate it better than others. A few drinks properly spaced out and uncarbonated is probably OK though. What is your drink of choice? If it were me I would get a cape cod or something like that.

It really just depends from person to person. I will say that I had the dreaded "week three stall" that LASTED 2.5 weeks and I got fed up - for two days I blew my calories and carbs off the charts and it did seem to kick me out of whatever the hell that was and I lost a pound. Could be a coincidence I'm inclined to think it had something to do with hormonal issues based on how I was feeling, but I can't prove that. I also think there is a section of the sleeve population that calls themselves slow losers but really, they underestimate how many calories they are actually eating on a daily basis. You know the type, you look at their diary on MFP and they might list that they had 4oz baked chicken breast but they don't list ANY condiments or anything that they had with it and you just think to yourself "really, you ate that with NOTHING on it or with it?" Not saying that it couldn't happen, and I would never really call someone out on that because I feel like it's unfair because I don't know them or know what they really do or not, but it does make you wonder, ya know what I mean?

I'm not saying that this is "OK" or encouraging you to break doctors orders, but I progressed my diet (with extreme caution) a little sooner than the guidelines say, as it turned out, when I spoke with my surgeon about it, he said that was totally fine as long as I was being careful and not making myself throw up. So, thats my experience. Do the pills make you queezy?

well, its hard to say. What I really wanted to say something about was the going back to the fish. You do not wan't to do that. When you are comfortable and have had enough you should stop and put it away, don't go back to it ten or twenty minutes later to have more - because you could honestly do that all day. It probably doesnt seem like grazing but thats what that is. You should be comfortably unhungry when you stop eating, not full, not stuffed. I would encourage you to examine if what you are feeling is really hunger or if it is thirst, or if you just have a pattern of snacking and psychologically, that 4 ounces of fish just wasn't doing it for you. If you are truly hungry you should probably switch to something more substantial to snack on then pudding, and Jello. a harder cheese, a 2 oz piece of chicken, a small salad even. I try to have at least three premade salads in my fridge at all times. They have 3oz lettuce, 1 oz of tuna and 28 grams of cheese. I usually have half at a time with greek yogurt ranch dressing. One is a meal, half is usually a snack.

You should go get checked out just to be on the safe side.

do not shave unless they ask you to do differently. More than likely they will shave the area a little bit with an electric razor that will not cut the hair right at the skin because that can cause ingrowns around the site and infection.

I was feeling pretty good by day 7, completely normal by day 10