AvaFern

I drove myself home and did not need anyone to take care of me. I would advise against driving yourself home though. I stopped all narcotics 24 hours before I left the hospital so I would be safe to drive, but it still wasn't my finest driving skill on the way home. If you don't want to use someone as your taxi, call an Uber or a taxi or set up a call ahead car service. Past that, you're completely fine on your own.

Teeth are not that important. You will be find through the point of the liquids stage, and as long as you are gumming soft food to a point of a mushy consistency, you will be fine until you hit the 6 week mark when your stomach is largely healed. I'm sure as things are now you aren't swallowing sharp chunks of things or huge chunks of things because it would hurt your throat or choke you- that doesn't change just because you have a smaller stomach. As long as you are eating soft-ish foods, which you likely already are doing because without teeth sharp foods probably hurt, then you're going to be ok. Teeth are expensive and with or without them, in this particular instance it won't matter much, although I would of course vote for getting the implants if this is something you can afford because it improves upon your overall quality of life.

I chose to keep my surgery to myself because I knew it would bother me when people said that I took the easy way out. I also know that bariatric surgery has a stigma attached to it and I wasn't willing to deal with that. A lady I worked with had a surgery and everyone knew about it. When she lost weight all anyone said was well, she has lapband so it's not like she's working hard and when she gained it all back, everyone was all smug about how her cheaterhead surgery failed. That irked me and it contributed to my decision to keep it to myself. My three best friends know and no one else does. I am now 2.5 years post-op so my weight loss really isn't a topic of conversation anymore. When people asked what I did I just said I worked out more and ate less, which was entirely true. I like the idea that lies by exclusion are not lies. I don't feel that I have any personal obligation to other large people to tell my story- it's my business, not theirs, and I plan to keep it that way. My boyfriend, now ex-boyfriend, once said something like...it's almost like you had that stomach surgery. I was thin! I also have major plastic surgery scars that someone who sees me naked and isn't stupid can conclude that I had been larger at least at some point. The big contributor is the fact that food makes me puke, so when I'm dating I either can't eat half the places we go or I do eat and then barf. All I said to him was...I thought that surgery wasn't supposed to make you barf? And he was like, ohhh yeah, you're right. End of story. My mom said once..."did you have your stomach cut out?" and my response was, "what?, why would I do that?. Again, end of story. I am fine lying to protect my privacy because in the end it is about number one, and this number one did not want to deal with the bs people like to throw at those who have had this surgery. I am ok with that, and in the event anyone finds out I lied to them, I frankly don't care.

I feel like most people who are using statistics are not totally making them up but read them somewhere. The problem with statistics is that if the study was not randomized, it is very easy to end up with really wrong data. Like Valentina joked when she changed to the last digit...something as simple as rounding up can make us think information is wrong. The other day I read a study that had 97 participants and one of the results noted that 1% of the sample had improved in one variable. I was like, what the heck, there aren't 100 people in the study so how did they get that number? I read later in the methods section that they rounded all of their results up, so 1 person showed an improvement in that factor. Also, a lot of studies use convenience sampling, where they basically collect results from people who happen to be in the same place at the same time or some other method that doesn't require full randomization, which then really limits the validity of the results. So...I don't think most people quoting stats are intentionally being untruthful, but I don't think they evaluate the evidence they are citing for potential reasons why the stats might not be correct. If you pick any major issue and you look at a website of a group that is pro and one that is con, you will find stats that "support" totally different perspectives. Are they lying? No, not really, but they chose to use a sample that was not actually representative of the population so that they could end up with data that favored their position. Since their stats are not scholarly, they are not required to discuss the methods they used to get those numbers and most people don't bother to question it.

I take B12, Iron, and Biotin...when I remember, lol. Multivitamins make me sick. I'm 2.5 years out and I had labs done at 1.5 years and 2.5 years and all of my blood values are fine. Eventually you just learn to take whatever works best for you and sometimes it takes a little trial and error.

I forgot to take B12 for about the first year, then I took it again for about 2 months, then I forgot for a few months, and I've largely repeated that cycle. I use the sublinqual dropper of B12 that you get in the grocery store Vitamin aisle. I am 2.5 years out and all of my labs have been perfect, so given I tend to forget to take it fairly frequently and everything is still good, I think the kind you can buy in the store is more than sufficient.

I would agree that women want to feel safe, however for me it is as much about emotional safety as physical safety. I did MMA for almost a decade, which involved hours of boxing, kickboxing and jiu jitsu training every week with guys who were pro fighters. I had black eyes, busted lips, and a few concussions, but I learned how to defend myself if it ever became the case. I had no interest in fighting, but I also had no interest in feeling afraid. The fear doesn't go away, but you learn how to work through it. There were some nights that things were extra rough because someone was training for a fight. It was scary, and that stomach clenching, heart pounding adrenaline, not only makes you tired faster, but if you aren't used to it, it can cause you to freeze. At 130 pound and 5'2 I would be no match for a man with training, or a really big guy, but I also have a concealed carry permit and I will shoot someone who threatens me far faster that I am going to throw down with them. I don't run at night alone in bad neighborhoods and I don't go asking for trouble, but in the event it finds me, being physically able to defend myself has been invaluable. It gives me not just the power to feel confident in my own protection, but not to run away from a situation where someone else needs help. As such, while a man should make me physically feel safe, I don't need him on my arm every second...I do however need to know that he isn't cheating on me, blowing my money, or doing anything else shady, which is where emotional safety comes in handy. On another note, maybe because of this, I do need manly men. If I can beat a guy up or I am willing to get into a confrontation that he is not...he needs to go home and bake some muffins or something because there is not even the slightest bit of attraction from me if a man cannot or will not defend himself. I am a girl..I don't need to date one.

Maybe them ignoring you or giving you mean looks has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. Apparently I have a resting b*tch face that makes approaching me scary. I am fine with this. I've been thin and I've been fat and I have never been friendly. I don't make eye contact, I don't talk to people, and it annoys the cr*p out of me when people have to initiate conversation when none is needed. Apparently the first time I met the girl who is one of my best friends I totally blew her off. I don't even remember having met her at that point. I don't like people who try to be my friend and I tend to sit in the back of the room and stay quiet. If I don't talk to you or make friendly faces it has 100% nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fact that I don't like people. Many overweight people developed this distancing method because if we reject others, then no one gets to reject us first. I think I've always been like this, but I can certainly see that the times that I was fat this was a huge insulating mechanism for me because if I wasn't trying to be friendly to anyone, no one was going to be mean to me. On another note, why do you care? Who gives a crap if no one likes you? The more often you enter a room not caring if people like you and not trying to make friends, the more likely you are too find genuine friendships. Everyone is superficially friendly, but if you can get the aloof person to sincerely like you, because you left them alone and didn't try to be their bestie, you know that it is because they want to be talking to you, not because they feel forced to by polite convention.

@@My Bariatric Life I got the ordination so I could charge more for notarizing wedding documents, haha. There is a cap on fees that a notary can charge, but there is no cap on a fee that a minister can charge. I also thought it was a little amusing. The test took about 20 minutes and I had all of my official paperwork in two weeks.

I like mustard. I've never been big on mayo.

I had massive nausea after sleeve surgery although I'm not sure if it was the anesthesia or the narcotics. You will be knocked out via your IV...the mask you might see is oxygen. When they knock you out the use that mask with a bag and jack up your O2 saturation level. You should be at 99 already, but with pure 02, you get there quickly. When they intubate you, you are paralyzed during the time they are doing the intubation, so you aren't breathing. This is all a very quick process and your 02 sat very rarely drops much unless you are an overly difficult tube, in which case they just use the mask again and the bag and get your saturation back up. The process of being knocked out works different depending upon whether they sedate you beforehand. They may give you a little versed in your IV, or have you take a valium. If that happens you're not going to remember much about the OR. If not, then all you do is slide over onto the OR table, and first they push the drug that knocks out, and then they push the paralytic. Both of them are awesome, but the second one is best, lol. You will literally remember about 3 seconds of it and then wake up feeling like crap. In my plastics procedures I had a valium for the first one so that my pectoral muscles would relax and I had memory loss for days. The next two I waited until I was in the OR, which is when I distinctly remember the process more so than the other times. The idea of being knocked out is scary, however all of your vitals are managed by the anesthesiologist. She or he writes everything down every 5 minutes and everyone is very aware of how you are doing. You will wake up and feel like it's been five minutes.

I don't see your picture, but congrats on the loss!

Enjoy it! Everything will taste normal again soon enough and then you might want to eat it. I am 2.5 years out from surgery and the stuff I eat tastes good but I no longer have any real craving or enjoyment of sugars and fats. I got "lucky" in that my sleeve hates junk food, lol, but it took awhile to realize that no, I really don't like cake that much anymore. Most people have their full taste sensations back within a few weeks. Enjoy the time you have now when you don't want to eat anything.

I think our perspective is skewed by TV. As an example, I think Katharine McPhee is beautiful. She is on Scorpion. When I first saw the show I thought that, well she isn't that thin, but she looks like a woman with curves, who is toned and actually eats. I thought she might weigh around what I weigh or maybe 10 pounds more. HA. She is 5'7 and 125 pounds!! She is positively anorexic compared to me at 129 and 5'2 and yet on camera she looks larger. When we look at other women on tv that look "normal" they are actually 100-110, maybe 120 pounds. So, when we see a woman like Amy who is by no means a big girl, we compare her to other women on tv that we see as being normal and consider her a bit chunky. In real life, no one would ever look at Amy and see her as being big, but when the only time we ever see her is in the media next to girls like Anna Kendrick, no wonder she looks large.

That is a wonderful NSV, congrats! I think most of us feel this way. There are still times where I walk into Express or banana Republic and I am surprised when the sales girl hands me a small, or even better an extra small. I literally want to hug her everytime, lol. You will eventually begin to feel less fraud-like and more fabulous!

My Iron lab values have always been fine, however periodically I would forget about Vitamins for awhile and start to feel crummy. Within a week of taking my B12 and iron, I started feeling better and I was always fine within two weeks. I'm not sure if the same will be true for you, but it's been a fairly consistent time span for me. About six weeks ago I started feeling horrible and I went back to taking my iron, which helped, but then I got crazy and added Multivitamins, which made me sick and for some reason ridiculously fatigued. When I went back to just taking my iron and Biotin, I felt better within two weeks, so from rough experience, vitamins have fixed most of my woes in two weeks or so. Also, make sure you're taking your B12...that can contribute to anemia especially in sleeve patients. And in my experience, pay the extra for the stomach friendly vitamins. Multivitamins with iron in them make me super sick and iron supplements that are not specially coated also make me sick. I use the purple Feosol bottle, which is specifically branded as being very stomach friendly and it doesn't bother me at all.

Lol, I was ordained through this service. My real degrees are from real schools, but I think everyone knows that these degrees are not something that can ever be used on a resume.

You don't have to be that careful with the drinking and eating rule. I never followed that rule because I decided I wasn't spending the rest of my life with a dry mouth while I ate and I've been at goal for over a year. It's just designed to prevent you from washing the food through your stomach faster, so you end up eating less. I take my Vitamins at night before I go to bed otherwise they make me feel woozy and nauseous.

1. Do I need to wait until I have reached all of my goals to have brachioplasty? Technically no, but if you aren't within 15% of goal when you have plastics done you're wasting your money. The goal is to be able to cut off all the extra skin and to suck out a little extra fat, but when you're not at goal yet, the fat can't quite get sucked out as much and the skin you're cutting off will ultimately just end up saggy again when you lose weight. I had a brachioplasty and loved the results, but I waited until I was close to goal for all of my procedures because otherwise it's mostly pointless. 2. Since I only plan on doing this procedure, what can I expect to pay for just this surgery? I paid $8K. 3. Do any of you know any surgeons local to San Antonio or Austin that have great feedback on this type of thing. Nope, but shop around. I really liked my plastic surgeon and while initially I only wanted new boobs, I ended up with all kinds of stuff done because he was very good and he was very nice. When you're ready for plastics, it will be a very fun time.

I had the sleeve at 29, and I had a tummy tuck among other procedures when I was 30. I also don't have kids and haven't entirely eliminated the option of wanting them. I LOVE my tummy tuck results and it was a really good decision to have it done. I feel far more confident in clothing and in general without having any extra skin. My scar is visible, but it's so low that no one will ever see it unless I'm naked and then they better be thinking about something other than a scar. It's very thin, very pale, and I can rub my hand over it and I can't even tell it's there. With time it will fade to a point that it is hardly noticeable, but for now the tradeoff on the scar was worth the results. I also had the back half of the 360 lift done and I ended up with an infection that made that particular scar quite ugly. Again though, it's under a bathing suit line and I would rather have the contour results than not have the scar.

I can only fit in normal, knee-high boots when I am under 140. I started at 237 and I had mailman calves- thick, muscled, calves. As I dropped weight, I did a lot of running so I still had big calves, but they were slightly leaner. They still didn't fit into boots. It was only when I dropped beneath 140 that regular boots fit me and I tend to wonder if part of the reason for that is I was doing a lot of walking (recovering from plastics) as opposed to running and the muscle size was reduced. Some of us just have annoyingly thick calves, but at least for me they did eventually drop in size to a point where I can wear boots. As an NSV, this year when Target put all of their boots on clearance, I ended up getting about 8 pair. Part of the reason involved the fact that I was totally stoked that they all fit me, lol.

@kmorri 3-for-1 sounds like a good deal to me! Some people have gastric reflux issues and I believe the standard prescription after surgery is for a PPI (like Prilosec, but potentially a prescription version) for a few weeks. I took a PPI a few times right after surgery because when I swallowed Water it felt like I was drinking rocks...I could feel it rip its way all the way down my esophagus. The PPI didn't help, but drinking with a straw solved that problem entirely. After that I haven't had any type of need for a gastric reflux drug- I don't think I even have any in the house.

I am 2.5 years post-op and have been at goal for a year. You know what I'm looking forward to? Law school in August. It was something I had always wanted to do and I spent almost a decade looking forward to nothing because even when I was a "normal" size of 150-ish, I was too fat to be seen in public. My entire life revolved around being thin and not worthless and because of that, it never really occurred to me to look forward to anything. I was wrapped up in the day. I built a successful business, but I spent everyday working, exercising, dieting, and being too ashamed to date or go out and have a good time. Fat people have no business doing anything other than working and exercising (as was my thought process). The sleeve has removed my weight as being the giant barrier that prevented me from ever really going forward in life. It was always...if I was a normal weight, I would go on vacation, if I was thin, I could think about another graduate degree, if I wasn't such a worthless fatty I could go out in public. Since I've hit goal I had my first real relationship in years, I've finished a second undergrad degree (with the hope it might improve my GPA for law school admissions since graduate grades don't count), I nailed the LSAT, and in August I should be starting law school- my lifelong dream. So, when I decided to have surgery I looked forward to cute clothing, feeling attractive, the steering wheel not hitting my thighs, crossing my legs again, no more swollen feet, not being ashamed in public, and a lot of other things. In reality, I could have just said...I look forward to living again...and that would have summed it all up pretty well.

I also had a hiatal hernia I knew nothing about, lol. My surgeon fixed it during sleeve surgery and had he not told me, I'd have never known. To be fair, in hindsight I had started getting heartburn, which holy CRAP, was horrible. I thought I had had gastric reflux before, oh no, that must have just been burping, lol. About a month or two before surgery I had several really nasty heartburn issues, that at the time I just figured, well guess I'm getting old, but in hindsight, was probably caused by the hiatal hernia. I haven't had a single episode since surgery and it's been 2.5 years, so yay for getting that fixed as part of a package deal.

Today is my one-year anniversary of being at my goal weight. To be fair, this morning I was three pounds over goal because I was kind of a pig yesterday, but most days I fluctuate anywhere from 1-4 pounds on either side of my goal weight. I am happy with this range. I weigh myself every morning and on days when I wake up near the heavier end, I pay extra attention to how I eat and usually the next day I am right back within the 1-2 pound range. Sometimes I drop a little lower, but for the most part I’m right around goal. The most I fluctuated upward was to 137 for one day back in October, and I was back to 131 by December. While I have lost weight before, the lowest I had ever been was 137, where I stayed for about a week. I have never maintained around the 129 range as an adult, let alone for an entire year. I had surgery in September 2013, I had plastics in August & November of 2014 and March of 2015, hit goal on April 1 (the last 4 pounds took almost 4 months to lose), and have since lived a fairly normal life. All of my fat clothes are either gone or in storage, my closet is filled with clothes in sizes 0-6, and xs and small, and while I am cognizant of my food choices and the scale everyday, I am normal and I am happy. My hair that fell out substantially during the first year after surgery and again about six months ago has grown back to the point I am almost at the level of thickness I was before surgery. All of my blood values are within the normal ranges, my blood pressure is fine (although I still take a small dose of a hypertension drug), and outside of a sleeve that doesn't tolerate certain kinds of food, I am fully recovered from that surgery and all of my plastics procedures. There is a daily fear that I will gain weight, but it's something I deal with everyday. I think this fear is what keeps me in maintenance because every morning I wake up and I owe that scale my weight. As long as I hold myself accountable everyday, it is not difficult to stay the weight I am. Most days I eat between 1200-1800 calories, although some days I will snack more and hit 2200, or just not feel like eating and be around 800. I don't pay attention to Protein, but according to MyFitnessPal, I get about 45-50g a day. I record my food fairly regularly most days, although sometimes I forget to add things. Overall, the last year has been a good one, and unlike prior to the sleeve when I felt like I was starving half the time, I'm rarely hungry now and when I eat too much it's usually because I'm bored and grazing. I used to say that I just wanted to be normal...a normal sized girl. Now I am, and it was worth every second of the road that got me here. I wish I could go back and tell the version of me that rolled into surgery 2.5 years ago that it would all work out in the end…I certainly could have saved myself a lot of stress if I could have seen today, in September 2013.