Miss Mac

Boop Boop de OOPS! I meant Marks' Daily Apple www.marksdailyapple.com

Nicolanz, great angle. Clautxs, hmmmmmmm 9-7=2. Mommy can go home now. You are already two days past your doctor's clearance, and doctor trumps mother in this card game. Tell her you love her and appreciate her help and will call her in a couple of days to let her know how you are doing.

You will so enjoy your first closet flush........for me it was a very emotional experience. One thing to keep pushing you forward in your journey is to get rid of the discards immediately so that there is no looking back. If they are too good to throw out, there is always charity, a homeless shelter, or posting on this forum so that someone coming down to that size may be interested.

Don't have a picture, but in my clost is a size 12 pair of white jeans. I think I may be just 10-15 more pounds down, and they will fit like the proverbial glove.

I am so glad to see someone else who has been on a stall of several months. Those little doubt devils have been trying to get in my head. So two days ago, I committed to another intake adjustment and go with 80-100 grams of Protein and 80-100 ounces of Water / fluids. The scale had a 1/2 pound tick downward today, so I will stay with it for a bit and see if the downward turn will keep on going. Queen, I am delighted to see you posting again. I read your year-long travel blog when I first entered the forum in August 2013. You gave me encouragement that it gets better for those who have many months under their belts, too.

I agree that Nom Nom Paleo is an excellent resource. Also, My Daily Apple www.mydailyapple.com is another for recipes that do not come from factory foods. Paleo / Primal foods can meet our requirements. Basically those recipes are from meats and low starch veggies.

I had an anterior cervical dissection and fusion at C3, C4, C5 pre-op (2/14/2012) which give me no problem, but I have issues with my thoraxic spine and need a full lumbar fusion. My neurosurgeon is stalling until I can get my weight down. I have lost 65 pounds so far, and need to lose another 35 before surgery will be considered. He feels that my vertibrae will heal a lot better if they have less weight to support. But what all of that means is that I need some serious pain management for crippling sciatica and femoral nerve pain. I take Lyrica @ 350 mg a day, use lidocain Patches or Voltarin Gel (good stuff) on hot spots, and get spinal epidurals (steroid) every three months. As a matter of fact, I had one as soon as I could lay on my stomach for the procedure. I had my sleeve surgery 12/23/2013 and had epiderals in February, May, August, and recently November. I also had a 3 nerve ablation done a couple of weeks ago. If you have not had an ablation, you might want too Google to see what it is about. The process is similar to the spinal epidural and can be done with local anesthetic. I got immediate relief for the sciatica. The femoral nerve pain is just now coming around, but at least I can sleep at night without Hydrocodone. A couple of sleeping pills do the trick and I can sleep for hours. Doctor said the relief may last 1-2 years. Nerves can regenerate, so it is just a matter of how slowly that happens. Other than that, I take Tylenol as needed for other aches and pains. My arthritis and systemic inflammation have really backed off as the pounds drop. The Voltarin Gel helps for topical relief. D.E.M.A.N.D. outstanding pain management. There are enough processes out there to at least improve your quality of life. I hope you can find relief. I wish you good luck and good health.

My ability to exercise has been all over the place, depending upon which condition is flaring up at the time. What my sleeve has done for me since my surgery (12/23/2014) is get rid of 65 of the hundred pounds I need to lose. I can move with less pain. The inflammation throughout my body is less, allowing me to reduce pain meds so that I am not a zombie 24/7. Pre-op,my arms and legs were very weak, and my spine was collapsing under its heavy load. I have already had one fusion. My spine doctor is waiting on me to drop the last 40 pounds before he operates again so I am getting spinal epidurals to hold off the process. I have slowly worked my way up from no ankle weights and one pound hand weights, to 1 pound ankle weights and 5 pound hand weights. Today, in a fit of boldness, I was able to do my strength training with 3 pounds ankle weights and 10 pounds each hand weights! This is such a gradual process. There are days when I am just too exhausted (post-stroke fatigue) to do much, so I do Sit and Be Fit kind of stuff. I have a DVD that I use a couple of times a week, Leslie Sansone's Walk Your Belly Flat. It has three 1 mile chapters and I can never make it past the first mile in the living room. If I fizzle, then I lean into my walker. If I can't stand any longer, then I sit in a chair and march in place. So, even though I realistically can't keep up with the youngsters on here, I do what I can every day. I suppose that when the inevitable full lumbar fusion has to happen, my exercise will be just to walk to the bathroom.

Yeah, what she said. Stalls are like lovers....your first will probably won't be your last.

Some doctors won't operate unless you do. When I had a spinal fusion last year, the neurosurgeon said that he would not operate unless my boyfriend who is a smoker, promise to not smoke in the house or in my vicinity. The reason is that apparently our bodies heal much better with healthier oxygen to breathe. Can you imagine if you were in a hospital bed and the nurse put that little oxygen device at your nose, and nicotine smoke came out of it for you to inhale?

At 10 1/2 months out, I think I have cleared past the hair loss event without trauma. There were a few strays about the house here and there, but no clumps in the tub or my comb. What did I do differently? I don't have a clue. My Protein has been at 80 grams, and I take 20,000 mg of Biotin every day (that's a truckload), but I can't tell whether or not it was just expensive pee.

With weight loss surgery, there is no immediate difference in one's appearance, but with a breast reduction, everyone is going to know as soon as you walk in the door. Plus, you will no doubt be tender for a while and not want people to touch you, hug you, or shake your hand too heartily. Tell the truth and run!

Paleo is not so bad. As a matter of fact, paleo / primal eating is very similar to what we bariatric patients are doing now. The primary emphasis is Protein and plenty of it....eat your green veggies....fruit once in a while, but not so much as before.......avoid breads, crackers, noodles, pastry, rice, etc and starchy foods......get off the couch and move your body every day......drink Water until your eyeballs float. We aleady eat as natural as possible and have nearly eliminated any foods made in a factory. So, guess what? You are eating paleo. If you want to learn more about the paleo / primal concept go to Mark's Daily Apple www.marksdailyapple.com. If we were to go back and ask out nutritionists to remind us of the basics, they would tell us to eat more protein, some green veggies, as few starches as possible, fruit not so much, and drink water until our eyeballs float. You and your daughter have so much in common with your new dietary lifestyles, that you could have some really supportive conversations with each other. She may not be ready for discussions about surgery just yet, but good for her that she is trying a process that will help until she is ready to talk about surgery.

I did not lose hair, but my surgical stress came out as dry skin and brittle fingernails. This lasted from months 2-5. I took extra Biotin and Gelatin, plus exfloliated with each shower, then used moisturizing lotion all over.

Your story hits close to home. My one year is coming up on December 23. I lost 65 pounds and came to a screeching halt at 172 -174; I just keep bouncing back and forth, losing and regaining the same two pounds every couple of weeks for over three months. So, I have a few questions for you. Did anyone on your bariatrc team give you any grief for not reaching goal? Is my goal of 135 rediculous? Are you comfortable at 174 if you never lost another pound? What was your longest stall? What is the most you are eating in one sitting? How many calories a day are you at now? I can use any encouragement you can spare. Thank you so much for posting. So many people drop off the forum after a few months, and there are not that many of us further out who check in on a regular basis. I can think of maybe a dozen of us who post on a regular basis.

I guess he had better open up a soup kitchen in the front yard for a couple of days or go buy a small deep freezer.

4 Biggest just below the navel. Two small ones on the left. One small one on the right.

172 no change

Since you like hummus, you could try to drain and pat dry a can of garbanzo Beans. Toss theses in olive oil, lay them on aluminum foil sprayed with olive oil spray. Sprinkle with garlic powder and sea salt, or cayenne, or cinnamon and sweetener, whatever flavor you like. Bake at 450. degrees for 40 minutes. Let cool, and you will have a nice crunchy snack. Here is the breakdown for 1/4 cup: Calories - 65 Fiber - 3g Protein - 4 g Carbs - 11

I kept a bag of cotton balls around, and would use one of those to gently tickle the itch.

My biggest obstacle was timing. I am retired and home all day, so my routine is pretty much the same every day. So, at 10:00 am, I was ready for somthing to eat, but had a shake insted. At 1:00 pm, I was ready for a light lunch - had a shake instead. At 3:00 I was eady for my afternoon snack. had a shake instead. At 5:30 I was ready for dinner. Had a shake instead. At 9:00pm, I was ready for a bedtime snack. Had my last shake instead. It was hard, no lie......because I was so used to eating at certain times, and without the food to see, smell,and chew I just about lost my mind. But I wanted the surgery so badly that I toughed through the liquid diet. Consider it a right of passage into better health.

At 10 1/2 months out, I have noticed that my posture is way better. My 51" belly was pulling me forward and affected by balance, too. There was no trainer involved - just gradual improvement. And I don't walk so heavy now, like a dinosaur stomping into the room.

Welcome to the forum........always glad to see new faces. You can ask us anything.

I am 62 and had my surgery on December 23, 2013. I came home on Christmas Day. What happened was......my daughters had Christmas with others in their homes. They took care of their own cooking and cleanup. My girls and grandkids came over here on New Years Day, just long enough for the gift exchange. That was fine with me, and we will be back to normal this Christmas. Just let someone take care of the Christmas details, and you get some rest.

I am sorry to hear that you do not have support from the people who should be supporting you the most. The one good thing that I do pick up from your post is that you have control over how the food is prepared. For example, if hubby wants scrambled eggs and toast for Breakfast, you can have scrambled eggs with a little bit of cheese. If he wants pot roast for dinner, you can have the meat and tomatoes, and just fix enough potato in it for his serving. If he wants a tuna salad sandwich and chips for lunch, you can have a tomato stuffed with tuna salad. I have even used thick cucumber slices to substitute for chips or crackers. If the family wants hamburgers on the grill, then just skip the bun for yourself. You could still have the beef patty with melted cheese. I have canned green Beans on hand for when I don't want something else (like mac and cheese) that comes to the table. At our house, we had Thanksgiving early because of my boyfriend's work schedule. He made a roast turkey, which I can eat and stuffing, which I did not eat and fesh green beans (not the kind with mushroom Soup and onion rings) which I did eat and mashed potatoes which I did not eat, and home-made cranberry relish (made with sweetener) which I did eat. neither one of us went hungry. You can't expect everyone else to embrace your new diet because they did not sign up for it. If you provide enough fresh meat and veggies without adding a lot of extra ingedients you will be just fine. So if the family wants spaghetti and meat balls, let them have the spaghetti, and you have some meatballs and a geen veggie. If they want homemade apple pie, then save you back an apple and eat the slices with Peanut Butter. So, use your imagination. There is a bariatric - friendly website called The World According to Eggface. It is good reading with many practical recipes and suggestions. I wish you good luck and good health.