Miss Mac

Wow...that's a stretch. Maybe because of your starting weight your doctor might be trying to give you as much advantage as possible to getting that first noticeable hunk of weight off. Hang in there. Your doctor knows you better than I do. Is the weight coming off??????

Usually we ask our primary to recommend a bariatric surgeon. Why not reverse the process and find a bariatric surgeon who will recommend a primary care physician whose sends patients their way? When your primary no longer meets your needs, it's time to look for a different doctor. I would give the medication a brief time time to show you what it can do, but I would not wait months and months. Either it is going to work or it isn't.

Congratulations! The liquid diet diet and post-op healing are not near as aggravating as the pre-op waiting. What you are getting is a gift that most of us did not get to enjoy. Just think of the surgery as a nice nap, then when you wake up, you will be on your way to your new life in no time. I wish you the best.

My insurance pre-approved five nights, but I only stayed two.

What a Debbie Downer. My Momma told me to only believe half of what I see and none of what I hear.

It's all about planning and position. You need to have the healthy stuff handy (at least things you can tolerate) and the not healthy things not handy. I know with my "knower" that if I kept ice cream in the house, I would eat nothing else until the ice cream was gone. You have to set yourself up for success because no one else is going to do it for you. Another thing that helps me is to consider the kitchen to be closed after dinner. When the dishes are done, I'm done. Another thing that helps me is the rusty old bellyache. I had bananas in the house and made banana brad today, which I have not done since before my surgery in December of 2013. What I did though was enjoy a piece, sliced u the rest and put it in the freezer. Now that it is positioned in the freezer instead of positioned on the counter, it will take a lot more trouble to get to it. I like chicken ok, but if that chicken is cut up and positioned in a casserole, I am less likely to eat it than if it is positioned in a roasting pan, rubbed with spices. It is the closest I will get to my old favorite of KFC. My boyfriend left for a business trip today and will be back Friday night. To resist temptation, I pitched his leftover mashed potatoes and chicken / rice casserole, and put his fresh sourdough bread in the freezer. I just cannot have potatoes around either. They are disasterville for me. This is a hard road to stay on. I wish you the best. Protein is still you new best friend. Yeah, I miss Twinkies and Dr. Pepper, but I have mentally placed them in the "poison" department, just like the drive-throughs; McPoisons, Poison King, and Poison Bell.

I will be at two years in December. If you did not know I had surgery, you could not tell by any scars. The biggest one is a little pink, but I have to search to find the other three myself.

I tried baby oil, almond oil, alcohol, even Peanut Butter (I used that to get gum out of my kids hair when they were little). Out of desperation at week three, I got some Goo Gone from my boyfriend's workshop and used that.....perfect.

I can easily gain 5 pounds in a week if I don't weigh every day. For example, I gained 1 1/2 pounds overnight last night and now it will probably take me a week to lose it, even if it is just Water. It's not fair, but a while back I actually stayed off the scale for a month and gained ten pounds. Unfortunately, I need my scale to keep me in line. It is easier to compensate daily than to have to undo a month's worth of backsliding.

I had one knee replaced at the age of 54 and the other at the age of 57. My sister had both of her hips replaced at the same time and had a much easier time of it than I did. With joint replacements they get you moving asap to prevent adhesions. I would venture to guess that you are getting far less exercise now than if you just went ahead and got the surgery. You will be limited to a low level of activity for a few weeks, but the improvement in your quality of life will be well worth it. I wish you the and your hubby the best. Hugs from Chicago.

80%

Wear the loosest clothes you have so that nothing touches your belly that doesn't have to.

My boyfriend of nine years (I call him my "hubby man") has never said "I love you". But he DOES "I love you" every day. He brings me flowers that he planted in his garden just for me. He is a much better cook than I ever hope to be, so he does not leave me to struggle. He does the cooking and picks up anything thing at the store that I want. He cooks according to my dietary needs and has adjusted himself to eat the same foods so as to not trip me up with temptation. He comes directly home from work every day and is glad to provide for me. He has stayed by my side through some serious illnesses and has been completely supportive of my weight loss experience. Yesterday, he left out for errands and asked e for a kiss before he went out the door. That's a new one, because I am always asking HIM for a kiss before he leaves for somewhere. He is always bringing home little "surprises" from menards. When he goes away on business trips, he calls me every evening. He even took me on the last business trip with him (which was a three-day conference held at a lovely wooded resort). There a so many little things that he does that I will accept as support, because he just does not express himself verbally. I love men, but they are sooooooooo hard to train! I hope your man comes around and acknowledges how hard you are working on improving your health and quality of life. In the meantime, keep your antennas out for the non-verbal clues. And, get more playful yourself. Show him that these improvements are giving you some energy and spunk that will be to his advantage in the dark.

Miss Tummy sounded like a dinosaur fight for about six months.

Exactly what Babbs said. I waited five months between first visit, three month diet, and scheduling. I can't believe now that soon I will be two years out. The time passed so quickly once I got over the rough spots. The pre-op waiting was the hardest part.

I'd run it through the blender and maybe a strainer to get the bits out.

Sometimes I would have trouble with the Protein drinks that had a creamy texture or were made with milk or yogurt. What helped me was the Syntax Nectars. They have many many flavors. Oddly, my favorite was the grapefruit, because I fixed it with Crystal Lite Lemonade and it tasted JUST LIKE Fresca soda, which I can't even get anywhere around here, You can get a sample pack from a number of places. I got mine here: http://www.mybariatricpantry.com/SYNTRAX_NECTAR_PROTEIN_POWDER_SAMPLES_p/nectar-sample.htm I usually made it more dilute than what they say.

My surgeon's OR nurse. She is in the office but attends him on surgery days in the OR.

I was more afraid of having another stroke if I did not get the surgery. I had chronic abdominal pain before my sleeve because of diverticulitis that just would not go away. A month before my sleeve, I was in the hospital in critical condition for eight days with ischemic colitis. My doctor said later that he thought he was going to lose me. The doctors fixed me up and let me proceed with the sleeve surgery. I have had NO abdominal problems and zero colitis since enjoying a textbook recovery. I had my gall bladder out in 1973 (back when they still cut you half in two) and don't miss it.

Second opinion. I have been eating steak since week six. The only time I get reflux is if I go too long without eating and the stomach acid has nothing else to do but torment me.

cheese and Peanut Butter tend to be the things that trip me up. A piece of meat or scrambled eggs for Breakfast will get me off to a much better start than my beloved fruit. It seems like if I start the day better, I manage the day better. At 21 months, I STILL log and measure. I can easily gain five pounds in a week if I try to wing it. I need the control, and my dad (who was a scientist) said that you cannot control that which you do not measure.

Yeah, me too. I am amazed sometimes that after re-reading a post several times before hitting the POST button, it comes out looking like a first grader did the typing and spell-check.

I am allowed 50, which includes one piece of whole grain bread.

Your body hates you for trying to lose weight, because it got all comfortable with getting what it wanted - and now, here YOU go trying to get all healthy and stuff. Even though the calories in / calories out theory is supposed to work on a normal healthy mountain-climbing, bike racing twenty year old athlete, it clearly does not work on those o us whose metabolic process is unrecognizable. I am STILL fighting weight regain as my two year mark is approaching. I have gotten close to goal, but am not surprised that I bounce around a ten pound regain, up and back down and back up again every month. It's a crazy-maker, for sure. You would think that at 500-800 calories some of us would have wasted away by now. There are people starving into nothingness all over the world, who eat more than I do. I don't have the answer you need except that whacked out metabolism has to have something to do with it.

This absolutely gets better. By six weeks, I could drink 8 ounces in about 1/2 hour. Now at 21 months, I can drink 8 ounces in about 15 minutes, although I never expect to chug again. In a 24 hour period, I can easily get in 80-100 ounces of water/tea/milk. Popsicles count as Fluid. I keep two bottles of Water at my bedside and sip on one every time I wake up or roll over.