bohdanko

I know when I was looking into having plication done, there weren't too many posts from people after about a month out from surgery, so I thought I would add my story from a 7-months point of view. I started the plication process last fall, had my first appointment in early November. I started my preop diet on December 9, 2011, at 264 pounds. I lost 16 pounds on my 2-week preop diet, I think it was, weighing in at 248 the morning of surgery, which was December 22. Yes, I actually had my plication surgery 3 days before Christmas!! It's been 7 months today since I had my surgery (I didn't realize that when I started writing this!). I weighed in at 198 today, so down 66 pounds from the preop diet, 50 pounds from the morning of surgery. Honestly, did I think I would have lost more than this by now? Absolutely yes! Am I disappointed? Absolutely NOT. I weight 66 pounds less than I did. I can move better. I am starting to be able to shop in the regular sizes and not always plus departments. I went hiking with my husband and didn't die! (I thought I might, though. lol) I'm not sure why the weight loss has been slow. At first I started to blame it on "starvation mode" - maybe I had destroyed my metabolism or something. Over time, however, I have increased my calories to the point where most days I eat between 1200 and 1400 calories, and my weight-loss pattern has pretty much remained the same. I lose a few pounds one week then nothing for 1-3 weeks. This last time it was a whole month with no loss then 6 pounds in the last week. Again, I really have no idea what is going on with that. I am vitamin-D deficient and iron-deficient. I had followup labs drawn Thursday to see if my supplementation has improved those numbers. When I started the process, what finally made me go forward with it was the realization that while I might regret it if I did it, I knew I WOULD regret it if I didn't. So do I regret it? Nope. I can't overeat. I can eat a surprising amount of calories in a day if I'm not careful, which is why we are told this is not a fix unless we put in the work, but only if it's complete junk. I have natural portion control. I still go to Chipotle (my favorite!), but instead of eating my entire bowl, I eat about 1/3 of it, sometimes half if I'm especially hungry. Even now, the misery if I overeat is sufficient to keep me from doing it too often. So even though the weight loss is slow, it's not nearly as challenging as it was before to stay on plan. It's exactly what I was looking for - an external appetite control to help keep me from overeating. I have a blog at wordpress.com (it's called myplication) if anyone is interested in more of the details from along the way, and as so many others who have posted here, I'm happy to answer any questions about specifics. My surgeon was Dr. Trace Curry in Cincinnati.

I had high expectations for a rapid loss. I really had hoped for 50 quick pounds and then 10 pounds a month. Unfortunately, we can't always control how our bodies handle what we do to/with them. I can go 3-4 weeks without losing a pound then lose 5-6 pounds in a matter of days. This last "cycle" was about 2 weeks with no loss then an abrupt 4 pound loss. It can be incredibly frustrating. I've only averaged about 5 pounds a month since about 6 weeks postop. With all of that said, however, I am down nearly 70 pounds since my 2-week preop diet began back in early December. I am VERY happy to have lost that 67-68 pounds even if it did take longer than I'd planned. Bottom line? Patience, grasshopper.

Sorry about not posting the link the first time - I couldn't remember it, and I was on a really, really slow computer and didn't want to wait while I looked it up. The address is: http://myplication.wordpress.com/. HTH Kerrie

I was plicated on December 22 by the "other" Cincinnati area surgical center - Dr. Trace Curry at Journey Lite. I also had a great experience and love his staff. Just wanted to throw that out there!