Miss Mac

Around here we pureed everything but the kitchen sink. If you can handle some mild tomato sauce, you can probably handle cooked eggplant with a little ricotta. I have a Maltese chef in my kitchen, and I had some lovely pureed and soft foods that I would not have had otherwise.

Aw, Babbs, I was gonna say that. I was thinking specifically about the Dolly Parton Cagbbage Soup Diet - same results. P.U.

My insurance accepted my original weight and BMI at consultation.

Well, dear...it's GO time. You have to decide what is more important for your future and the ability to have a healthy pregnancy. Make yourself a pro / con list also called a cost / benefit analysis. One list is: What are the benefits of continuing to eat the way I do? The other list is: What is the cost (financially and physically) of continuing to eat the way I do? Now, do that again with: What are the benefits of having bariatric surgery? vrs. What is the financial and physical cost of having bariatric surgery? Now, one more time. What are the benefits of getting pregnant at my current weight or higher? (and it will get higher eating the you descibe) vrs. What are the benefits of getting pregnant at my goal weight? That little exercise will help you determine how important a healthy pregnancy and long future with your children and main man will be. I, too was one of those who could eat up the whole room and the wallpaper, too. A year and a half post op, I can eat around a cup of food, and that is plenty enough. I found out that the mechanical dynamics of the human body do not require nearly as much food as my taste buds thought it did. In the process of preparing for and sustaining bariatric surgery, you will develope and new understanding of how the body recieves and processes these different types of food. And I use the term "food" loosely. Most processed edibles are not real food. eal food is meat, vegetables, fuit, dairy - foods you can pick, catch, and dig. The best favor you can do for your human container is to quit fueling it with products made in a factory. I had a serious food funeral with my beloved Twinkies. There was no Twinkie tree or a herd of Twinkies out in the pasture. Just for purposes of demonstration, here are the ingredients in a Twinkie, which is basically bleached out flour sprinkled with artificial Vitamins, oils, sugars, salts, artificial food colorings, and chemicals, and I am guessing the egg was a processed powdered egg. Now if I want something sweet, I will eat a piece of fruit. This walk is tough, no doubt about it, but you have many bariatric brothers and sisters for support. I wish you the best, and lots of healthy babies. Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sweet Dairy whey, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour, Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40.

I don't sleep on my belly, but I do get spinal epidurals and must lay on my belly for them. It was three months before I felt comfortable in trying it, but I did fine and was already fifty pounds down.

Time and Wellbutrin. My 1 1/2 year appointment is coming up Thursday, and I am going to ask the doctor if I can drop the Wellbutrin. I think I have made my adjustments and am ready to see how I do without it, but it took this long.

Yes, but.....................I do eat carbs. but they are non-starchy carbs from non-starchy veggies and one serving of non-starchy fruit like berries. One slice of wheat bread is allowed on my plan, but at Breakfast, not dinner. My plan allows for about 150 carbs, but some of that is from two servings of milk or Greek Yogurt. I find that if I go over fifty carbs, I stall. Still, at 50 carbs, I can eat all of the green veggies and tomatoes I can stand. If I get the mindless nibbles, I will open a can of green Beans and pour them into a bowl. They do a lot less damage than chips. i take thick slices of cucumber and use them to hold bites of tuna salad instaed of using crackers. I have made adjustments, but it's not killing me. As a matter of fact, ditching starchy carbs has made me feel a lot better. So, my taste buds don't like it, Miss Tummy is the boss of me, now The hardest thing for me to give up is bananas, so I will cut them in thirds and have that 1/3 with breakfast, but not at bedtime. I don't like to sleep on carbs.

I saw my surgeon once, at a meeting where we discussed the types of surgery and which one he felt was appropriate for my situation. We decided on the sleeve, and I did not see him again for four months, about a week before surgery to make sure I wanted to go through with it. During those four months, I had three visits with the bariatrician, four visits with the nutritionists and two visits with the psychologist, hospital visits for labs, EKG, EDG, and liver ultrasound. They kept me pretty busy. I have seen the surgeon once post-op at around a month out, but I had follow-up visits at one month, three months, six months, one year, a visit coming up next week for a year and a half, and then there will be a two year visit and a five year visit with the bariatrician and nutritionist. I will have one more visit with the psychologist at two years. Yes, I had my doubts, too, and the bariatrician even changed my axiety meds I was already taking post-stroke (my major motivator to get surgery). After a couple of months she doubled that prescription. The right dosage made all the difference. I have had 11 other surgeries. This one concerned me the most because it was so drastic, but it was the easiest recovery of all in spite of liquid diets and that lousy first month adjusting to the new tummy. My reflux has not been worse since surgery. There were moments and weeks of discomfort, but looking back a year and a half later, I am glad I did not deny myself this tool. I was on a fast track to a premature death. The sleeve saved my life and gave me back years with my grandchildren, family , and companion that I would have lost. I do agree that if your needs are not being met, move on. Hospitals and doctors HAVE TO release your medical records to you. It's the law. Don't deny yourself a new lease on life because of one clinical practice. Find someone you are comfortable with, and go for it. I wish you good luck and good health.

I did not use a lot of stuff I took either. I did use my chapstick many times, my slipper, my robe, my comb, and my teddy bear.

My boyfriend, age 65 has that, but because his white blood cells are enlarged. He has been to a hemotologist and been tested every three months. The values have stayed the same for a year, so he was told not to worry about it since nothing else concerning can be found. Oh yeah, I am 63, not 18 like in Hollywood!

Geeze, I should just type that whole thing over, but I would probably have typos on that post, too. I meant: is still measuring I meant: repent Sorry. I can spell, but I cannot type.

You could ask for a "to go" box as soon as your food arrives. I am one of those who is still measure at a year and a half. I had to learn to throw out the last few bites, too. Miss Tummy makes me suffer and reent for at least four hours if I overeat. So, my choices are 1) measure and eat carefully, OR 2) tape it directly to my hips.

Will the real Blondebomb please stand up?

Congratulations with your up-coming sleeve. I asked my surgeon how he handles pain management and that shoulder gas I was hearing about. He said he extracts as much as possible. Apparently a lot of surgeons just close you up and leave all of that C02 in your abdominal cavity. Consequently, I had NO gas pain at all - none. Also I did not have the hair loss others have had, even though I was mentally prepared for it. I wish you a good recovery and the best results.

Congratulations on making such a life-changing decision. A year from now, you will look back with amazement at how much in your life is pleasantly different.

Since the soft food stage I was putting mild salsa on my scrambled eggs. When I was cleared for regular cooked foods, I promptly stopped at Wendy's on the way out the door (well next-door to the clinic) and got a chili. It took me four days to eat it because of the quantity, but the spices gave me no trouble. At that point, I could eat onions in a dish if they were cooked, and extra black pepper to compensate for less salt.

Congratulations! You are just one nice nap away from a new you. And by the way, when I got my pre-op EKG, the tech commented that I did not need the surgery because I was not that big. I was 5'4" and 235 and my spine was collapsing from my weight with 17 herniated discs and needing a full lumbar fusion. Geeze....people just can't see inside our bodies and our minds as to why we do this. I told her that she should call my surgeon and tell him that she disagrees with his diagnosis. That shut her up! And yes, I reported her by name when the Press-Gainey survey arrived at my door. I always commend the good stuff on other visits to the hospital, but she just totally surprised me that felt free to comment on a patient's condition. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and a complication-free recovery. The first few days are tough, but once you get past that first week (ok - the third week stall) you will start feeling much better. Hugs from Miss Mac in Chicago.

When you feel like quitting, think of why you started.

Yes. I had a regret-athon, too. I had lost 26 pounds pre-op and gained twelve pounds in the hospital thanks to the IVs. By the time I lost that, I hit the third week stall. I thought I was going to be that one person who could not lose weight after a sleeve. I was so discouraged and so tired. It was not until I started to eat regular cooked foods at 4 1/2 weeks that my energy started to come back. You should notice some good changes shortly.

Oh, yeah. Around here in these parts we call it a "food funeral". A lot of us had one, or two, or three. Bye bye Twinkies. You are not alone.

Back in my previous life, I was on one of my many diets. I put dinner on the table along with some green Beans, and my mean ol' rotten ex husband yelled at me, "You ruin every meal with those damn vegetables!" Geeze, no wonder I left. (Well, that and mistaking me for a punching bag) Hopefully you and your hubbyman can work this out, but you are going to have to be big girl and speak up for what you want. Bariatric surgery exposes the raw dynamics of a relationship. Is controlling, or just concerned about your success and is genuinely trying to help in his own clumsy way?

I spent my whole adult life thinking I could do this on my own. I lost over 50 pounds several times and gained more back with each attempt. i even joined a gym twice and signed up for swimming lessons.I kept trying and trying until I had a stroke. I was becoming my mother who died too young of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. She was 5'2" and weighed over 320 pounds. I wish she could have had a sleeve, but nobody was doing them in 1992. I got one on 12/23/2013, to save my life. I am coming up on 18 months. My sleeve is inconvenient. Not giving in to my taste buds is maddening. My tongue always want more long after Miss Tummy is done. She is the boss of me and wins every arguement one way or the other. My family understands why I did this to myself and are supportive because we have lost too many family members to the ravages of - not cancer - but obesity My grandparents, parents, and most of thirteen sets of aunts and uncles are gone now, taken down in their sixties, when a trim few others lived well into their nineties. Mother died at 67. Her mother and all of her eight brothers and sisters lived to their late 90's in good health. Grandma made it to 98. Now my 60 first cousins are being picked off by obesity one by one in their forties and fifties. My oldest brother died of a heart attack at the age of 47. He weighed 420 pounds and needed a double coffin built and twelve pall bearers. As you progress, this process gets better. I can eat a cup of food at one sitting and that is fine. I did not nearly need all the food I was eating before. My energy level is great, now. The first two months, I thought I was going to drop from exhaustion from getting up and getting dressed. It is a crying shame that we are socialized around eating rather than enjoying each other's company. Why should my family care if I eat an apple instead of a huge piece of Aunt Esther's apple pie with two scoops of ice cream? Do I want to hurt her feelings or just go ahead and tape the pie to my hips? I do hope you can come to terms with your doubts and stay here for support and encouragement. There are indeed people here who struggle with differences between expectations and actual results. What's done is done, so look forward....the best is yet to come. Wondering "if only" is a crazy-maker. I like the idea of focusing on all of the new things you will be able to do as the weight drops off and you begin to recover further out. Eating more nutritiously results in a happier heart, lungs, brain, muscles, nerves, bone, skinn - all of that. And the next thing you know, your pants are falling off and you feel better. Hang out here with us. I wish you good luck and good health and a better day tomorrow.

About older women......When he was a young man, Benjamin Franklin courted much older women past menopause. He said, "In the dark all cats are gray." Franklin also implies that women dry out from the top down, so if she isn't so hot looking, just put a basket over her head! Here it is in context, in a letter he wrote to an unidentified man younger than he was himself. I copied this from Goodreads.com Benjamin Franklin > Quotes > Quotable Quote Benjamin Franklin “In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these: 1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable. 2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman. 3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience. 4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes. 5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement. 6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy. 7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy. 8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!” ― Benjamin Franklin

I got the sleeve because I did not want the port thant comes with a band, and I did not want rearranged. Two of my sisters had a bypass and they are both happy with their decisions.

Congratulations on making this decision that will have such a positive impact on your quality of life. I hope you both have uncomplicated recoveries as well as a safe journey back home.