AvaFern

Haha, I went through this stage this summer from about June to August. I could eat junk, not workout, and generally not pay a whole lot of attention to what I was eating and I stayed right between 129-131. That puts me at about 18 months post-op ish. I could also spend days where I ate really well and worked out hard and the scale didn't move and days where I really did not eat very well at all and the scale didn't move. My logic was well hey, I may as well enjoy it, so I generally ate what I wanted to and didn't workout much with minimal consequence. This was fun. Around September I noticed that I could still generally be lax with my calories, but that if I ate Desserts, I would start to gain. I could run everyday, eat perfectly healthily, and stay around 131ish- I could not get back into the 120's. Unlike during the summer though if I started eating sweets and stopped working out, I could see the scale inch up to 134. I went back and forth between 131-134 all through September until Halloween when I ate a bag of caramel popcorn and woke up at 137. I went back to being very careful with my food and running everyday and was back to 132.2 within 2 weeks. Since then, I stay away from desserts, I don't run as much as I should (maybe twice a week if that the last month) and I eat around 1400-1600 calories of mostly healthy food and I am right back to fluctuating between 131-133, with most days being stuck exactly at 132.2. So...I get the idea that the honeymoon where I could eat whatever I wanted and not workout is now over, however I still enjoy the fact that as long as I stay at a reasonable level of calories, I don't have to run everyday to maintain at close-enough to my goal weight. I really hope it stays like that because not feeling like I'm starving and that I have to run everyday is kind of nice, although I am still very cognizant of how much I eat which I think helps me maintain.

I use the Aria scale, because it syncs with MyFitnessPal, the Ironman scale because it includes a bunch of fun measurements (body fit, bone density, etc) and the Balance From (Not form "From") off of Amazon because it has big blue numbers that are easy to take a picture of everyday. I have used the Balance From scale for my entire post-op process and took a picture everyday. I use the Aria because I like that it syncs with MyFitnessPal, and I use the Ironman because I've had it for probably a decade and I like it. So while I use three scales to weigh every morning (keeps me at my maintenance weight), any one of the three would be good to use on its own. The Balance From is the cheapest and amusingly the most accurate and closest to the doctor's scale. Balance From: http://www.amazon.com/BalanceFrom-Accuracy-Bathroom-Backlight-Technology/dp/B00A8SLH8I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1449761464&sr=8-3&keywords=balance+from Aria: http://www.amazon.com/Fitbit-Wi-Fi-Smart-Scale-White/dp/B0077L8YFI/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449761493&sr=1-1&keywords=aria+scale Ironman: http://www.amazon.com/Tanita-BC554-Ironman-InnerScan-Composition/dp/B0007ZH18M/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449761524&sr=1-1&keywords=ironman+scale

@@jane13 I had Craig Morgenthal at Baptist. Complete and total tool. I was so sick the morning of the third day I was in the hospital I could barely stand up and despite the fact that I had paid for the extra insurance, he gave me a HUGE amount of attitude about wanting to stay an extra day. In the end, because I had zero tolerance for his rude crap, I told the nurse that I would be leaving that day as planned and they could check me out or I'd sign out AMA. I was a self-pay patient who used the Blis insurance, which apparently is only provided to surgeons who rarely need them to actually pay out. I would assume the huge snotty attitude I got was because if anyone actually uses the extra insurance that they pay a thousand dollars for it makes him look bad. I also drove myself home, which had been the plan all along, however I had no idea I would be so sick I could barely walk when I was discharged. The first time I was in the office the receptionist was so rude I almost started crying. The doctor made very clear that during my second and third visit (i saw him a total of 3 times the last of which was 2 weeks after surgery) that I was wasting his time, he considered me to be a stupid fat person, and I needed to shut up and stop talking. The billing department and his MA were the only polite people in the entire office, his behavior was of a doctor who sincerely did not remotely care about his patient, and the fact that he treated me like I was stupid, when I actually have a higher educational degree level than he does (although to be fair he never knew that) really discouraged me from ever seeking follow-up care with this surgeon again. I spent the entire second year of surgery puking half of what I ate, which seems to be partly resolved now, and had I had a doctor that didn't treat me like I was an idiot and a waste of his time it would have been really nice to have been able to go in for some follow-up. So...that's my rant about Morgenthal. I'm very unaccostomed to people being total jacka*ses toward me and as a patient who was basically getting her stomach cut out, you're in the vulnerable position where you can't really tell him to go F himself like you would someone else who you didn't have to trust with your life. Past that, I never had any complications outside of my puking, which I tend to think is from a small stricture and not a big deal. My stomach healed well, I never had any issues, and I am now at goal weight and have been for awhile. So while Morgenthal has an elevated opinion of himself and has zero concept of how to treat patients, he is an competent surgeon who did his job without killing me. If anyone is reading this and considering using him as your doctor, if you don't care that he treats you like you're stupid and a waste of space, the chance that he kills you or causes a major complication are slim to none, so you could really find far worse surgeons to use.

@@jane13 @@KristenVSG2014 Dr. Ankit Desai in Jacksonville, FL is the surgeon I used. Nice guy, and very, very good.

I also did not want to go to Mexico, but I live in FL, so can't really refer you to my surgeon, lol. I used realself.com to review the doctors and to see what other people had posted about them. I went to my doctor originally just for a boob job and I liked him so much we did my stomach, my back/butt, thighs, boobs and arms, haha. Go with someone who makes you feel comfortable, particularly since a big part of the process is getting totally naked and having them draw all over you. Your doctor should be very patient-centered, as in you tell him exactly what you want and he makes it happen, instead of gives you excuses. My doctor put my arm scars in a place he had never done before and they ended up being perfect. They are pale, flat, very narrow, and along the back of my arm where you can only see them from the back when my arms are not by my sides. I drew him sharpie marks on my arm before surgery so he would know where to put the scars. A plastic surgeon is someone you want to pay full price for. If you see discounts, run for the hills, lol. My surgeon was near the top of the market where I live but he was so slammed with patients that he never had to offer incentives to get new customers. Also my doctor gets a lot of his business from breast cancer patients, which means he is not only very compassionate, but he is gifted at taking a body part that has been severely damaged to save someone's life and reconstructing it to the point that they not only feel normal again but that they feel attractive. So...best advice. Don't pick your surgeon based on price or sales, but based on kindness, compassion and talent. If he at any point makes you feel like anything other than a priority, walk away. There are plenty of excellent surgeons and finding someone you really like is worth the effort.

I used to break up with my scale over Christmas to. It removed the accountability factor so I could eat what I wanted to and then not feel bad about it until I had to weigh myself on New Years. Isn't it better to know you're in a stall and be annoyed about it, which keeps you vigilant about what you're eating, than to ignore the scale and find out 3 weeks from now that damn, the stall is gone, and you're up 5-10 pounds? I hit goal back in April but over the summer I was lazy and I gained a few pounds. I would like to be 129 again, but for the last several months I am stuck at 132.2. I go up a pound or two once or twice a week and then right back down to damned 132.2. I weigh myself every morning, I get mad about it every morning, and then I watch what I eat every day because I know I will be accountable to the scalesin the morning. If I wasn't paying attention to my weight everyday, I would be enjoying the foods of the holiday season a whole lot more right now because the immediate result of knowing I gained weight is delayed until January and then I would have so much more work to do than if I just sucked it up and weighed myself everyday during Christmas. Breaking up with your scale during the time of year you are most likely to justify overeating just delays the misery until January.

He's asking for the stress test because if you die in surgery because of a heart issue your family can sue him. If you only had an EKG within the last week or two, then it isn't his fault that you are now unfortunately trying to squeeze in a stress test before surgery. He is covering his a*s, which given the amount of malpractice claims in our country, is not surprising. If the EKG was done several weeks ago and only now this is a problem, then I say raise hell. I am all about telling doctors where they can go. I have zero tolerance for those who are lazy or who think they get to play God when it comes to approving the surgery or for that matter approving anything I want that is medically valid. My own sleeve doctor hated me and I wrote several whoppingly bad reviews about him online, because I refuse to be treated like a fat lazy idiot who knows nothing about medicine and who has no say in my own health. If a doctor is sincerely being a jerk, you tell him where to go and if he doesn't want to be cooperative you tell him you will be happy to have your attorney contact him. If, however, as it sounds in this case, a doctor is being overly cautious because you are a high risk patient and he doesn't want to end up in court because a minor EKG abnormality resulted in a major heart issue during surgery, try to not freak out too much. If you were in his shoes and you could be sued because you didn't investigate a potential heart problem, you probably wouldn't care too much about making the patient mad either. It is very possible the stress test will reveal nothing and you will be good to go for surgery. If, however the stress test comes back with a problem that prevents you from having surgery, your doctor being an overcautious pia could potentially save your life. Either way you end up alive....which is really the best case scenario even if it doesn't feel like it right now.

I have used MyFitnessPal for years and it is only within maybe the last 1-2 years that the under calorie warning was posted when you complete an entry. They used to let you complete your entry with really low calories and give you the "you will weigh this in 5 weeks" based on low calories. I imagine that for liability purposes they stopped doing that because they don't want to appear to advocate starving yourself so you can hit their 5 week weight loss projection. Given the huge volume of people who use MyFitnessPal, the fact that people with bariatric surgery legitimately eat fewer calories is not something that is factored into that warning. I don't care that they don't give me a projected loss, although now for the most part I am within what they deem a health range of 1200-1400 calories a day and I don't get the warning anymore. I also very rarely complete the entry because I don't care if it doesn't appear in the news feed. MyFitnessPal is a great tool to use and the dumb little warning really means nothing in the grand scheme of using the app for what it is designed for- monitoring your food and exercise.

I am over 2 years out from surgery and I have consumed diet soda since about 8 weeks post-op. I have never had an issue that I can attribute to the diet soda. I did notice though that at about a year post-op my stomach became supremely intolerant of certain foods. Any fats, cheeses, oils, sugars, or fried food makes me barf. I had about a year where I puked anywhere from a few times a day to a few times a week and I think I have now largely figured out that if I avoid certain types of foods and make a concentrated effort to eat slowly, I don't get sick. Perhaps your stomach has decided it doesn't like diet soda, or maybe something else is causing the issue.

I am glad you have found someone that you are hopeful about continuing to see in the future! Fingers crossed that things continue to go as wonderfully as they seem to be so far.

I am so sorry about your son. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.

My insurance also refused to cover WLS- I am also self-employed and pay for a private policy. 20K on sleeve surgery and 40k0ish on plastics, and while I could have bought a luxury car or a small house with that, it was more than worth it in the long run. I also used a credit card, then paid it off, so I could accumulate a whole ton of points in the process, haha.

I drink diet soda everyday and I have since about 2 months post-op. When you're newly done with surgery the carbonation isn't great for the wound, but the reason they tell you no soda is because they don't want you drinking your calories in the regular version. Diet soda will kill you for entirely different reasons, but they have nothing to do with your sleeve. If you want something new, try Perrier or another sparkling Water with lemon or a water flavoring squeezed into it. It's almost no calories, the carbonation won't hurt you after you're healed from surgery, and it's healthier for you than diet soda.

Also be careful with the frozen yogurt (the kind by the ice cream, not the kind that you buy as yogurt and freeze at home). My rule during weight loss was to eat nothing out of the frozen dessert section (or any desserts). If something looks like a dessert, it's not something a person who is actively trying to lose weight should be eating. I judge not. I had ice cream at about a year, and again 2-3 times since then over the course of 27 months. There is also a really great frozen Greek yogurt that I convinced myself before surgery was ok to eat. I haven't touched it since. If you want to use yogurt, you can freeze the Greek kind and then toss it into a smoothie. Healthy, lots of Protein, and much more limited in sugar than the frozen Yogurt that you find next to the ice cream.

Wheat thins...preferably Buffalo flavored. I love Wheat Thins. They make me gain weight quickly because I end up eating the whole box in a few hours. The solution is that I get a box on special occasions and the rest of the time I keep them out of my house.

I am almost 27 months out and for pretty much my entire second year after surgery I barfed a few times a week. I rarely barfed the first 12 months, puked my way through year two, and now I have pretty much figured out what I can eat and what I can't. My stomach doesn't like anything that has been anywhere near oil, eggs of any variety, fish, the sugar in fruit and sometimes randomly sugar in other things, anything fried, and periodically weird things like milk. Also, I really had to break myself of eating too quickly because that always results in a barf. To solve the problem when I go out to dinner I order something fairly boring, I nibble on it, and I'm usually fine. Otherwise I just mostly cook my own food at home so I can make sure it doesn't have anything my stomach doesn't like in it. The last 2 months or so I'm down to only a few pukes a week which is way better than a few pukes a day. As a note, what made you barf would still make me barf today if I tried to eat it. Scrambled eggs are something my stomach just hates and fried plantains make me gag a little just thinking about how much my stomach would hate that. So..you're not alone, sometimes we just get stomachs that don't like some foods. I am ok with the things my stomach doesn't like because it prevents me from eating almost everything that is bad for me.

I told my three best friends about my surgery and over two years post op, to my knowledge none of them have told a soul. It is 100% unacceptable for your husband to discuss something you made very clear he was to keep to himself. I would explain to him that in the future you will no longer be sharing with him things that you wish for him to keep in his confidence. If he would like to change that, he can certainly begin to earn your trust back and you will reconsider your decision to keep your private concerns to yourself at a future time. While you can't exactly cut off a husband, if any of my three friends had told my secret, I would have never spoken to them again. You either trust someone or you don't, and clearly your husband needs a lesson on what happens when he cannot respect your privacy.

I did not do this, although for some I see the value. I have seen a therapist in the past for other concerns and I have found that talking about things does nothing for fixing them. There is value in therapy, but in the end it still comes down to you. If you stress eat, you need to make a conscious effort not to and you therapist can give you tools to use to make this easier, but in the end it's between you and your fridge/pantry.

I am 26 months out and I average 1200-1500 calories a day. I've been at goal for 8 months. If I go over those calories I gain and if I go under that I slowly lose. Also, in the long run low calorie diets are actually linked with higher longevity. If you look at the Blue Zones of the world, places where people regularly live to be 100, they eat far fewer calories than we do, but usually of higher quality. Also, they don't tend to eat much meat, which isn't overly helpful when we're focusing on Protein. In the long run though, 1000 calories a day is perfectly healthy, you just might be cranky- just because it's healthy doesn't mean it's fun.

Now you get to spend everyday of the rest of your life making sure you stay at goal weight. Sounds exciting right? The incisions fade, but don't totally go away. I had an abdominoplasty so most of my incisions are gone. I have maintained within a few pounds of goal since April and the only way for me to do this has been to wake up, weigh myself every single day, and log my food.

Sadly enough, I don't have your problem, lol. I have been stuck at or around goal since I hit it, which is ok with me, although losing a bit more would be nice. I watched a lot of YouTube videos prior to surgery and one woman noted that the one difference between her losing weight diet and her maintaining diet was a 400 calorie Protein shake that she added after the gym every day. Even though you are already getting all of your protein, this could add the calories you are looking for without a lot of fat, and it sounds like you've been super busy, so it might give you some extra energy as well.

You're probably fine. Your internal sutures may not have fully disolved yet, however the underlying tissue is probably healed to a point that popping a suture isn't a big deal. You're almost at three weeks, so if you think about anytime you've had external sutures, most of the time the injury was closed and well on its way to healing before the sutures dissolved or were removed and usually this was under the 3 week time frame. Of course if you experience pain, a fever, or any flu-like symptoms, your doctor needs to be contacted immediately.

I agree with Cowgirljane. Just say no. I kept my sleeve and my plastics procedures private and I have zero intention of ever having my results published. Social media with pictures is something that will literally last forever. I don't know how old you are, but many of your friends are likely on social media and will see the post. I also say this in kindness, but a lot of people who don't know you had surgery will have all kinds of judgey opinions about your weight loss if they find out like this. I am a big advocate for keeping your personal life off of the internet.

This should be fixed for free...it's a quick fix. They inject the area with Lidocaine, snip it off, suture it up, and you're good to go.

In terms of ab exercises, I am lazy. In another post I commented that I don't notice swelling after excercise, but this did remind me, whenever I do abs, I notice a visible bloat of my stomach for a few days and I am 15 months post-op. Not sure if this is swelling or a product of me being lazy and my abs just naturally responding, but it does happen. Thanks to my TT I have fabulous abs, lol, so while I do about 100 crunches or leg lifts after I run about 5 times a week, that is pretty much the extent of ab work. Bless plastic surgery, haha.