Fluffnomore

Now that's one I have to remember!

Tell them "Kiss my ass!" Oh, wait... Of course you can lose it, but this time you are going to keep it off. Don't worry. You have us.

I'm not a vet but I am finding that it is much easier (now) to understand my hunger cues. If I haven't eaten, and I feel some discomfort, I probably need to eat. I am sure this will change as I adjust…but right now it seems like it goes: I eat, I'm full, and around 3 hours later I need to eat again. But it's not eat the balls off a charging rhinoceros hungry.

Maybe, and that would be the best case scenario. But I also think that it is because people have the idea that only if you're at a certain weight (and most people can't define that weight in their heads) should you be thinking about this. My good friend who started about 20 pounds more than me didn't get "Oh, you shouldn't do that" from people, and she had a friend who was maybe 50-100 pounds more than her. Same thing. People congratulated her for taking control. I don't know...

Hey PdX, thanks for the encouragement. When I say we can't right now, I do mean that there are no immediate options. It would be scrimping for months or years to put together self pay. That's not to say we can't do it; it just won't be anytime soon unless something really changes.

UGH. I was really hoping to go through this lovely experience with my husband, even though he was about 6 weeks behind me in the process with the surgeon's office. I thought he was a shoo-in and I was going to be denied, but the opposite has happened. And because his BMI is only around 37, instead of the one co-morbidity he has, they are asking for two. We will appeal it, but apparently the appeal goes to the same person who made the initial call, so it is very hard to fight. Unless he can get a physical from his PCP and have another co-morbidity added, he is out of luck. What a bummer.

She who will not be named?

Yes, I can't deny that I worry about that. He has a tendency to be jealous of weight loss or fitness gains. So that is going to be sticky if we don't get him approved. Then again, I did have the qualifying BMI at least in the visit that they sent in for approval (I was right on the edge most of the time, like 39.6, 39.8 territory) and he has the delightful, uncanny male ability to drop weight if he stops snacking. But like most of us here, he puts it right back on when he's not very careful.

Ugh, 5.0. That makes no sense! I mean, I understand the costs are higher if both spouses do it (I wonder if that's not part of the rejection? Probably not, as he works for a large company.) But to deny someone on that basis? If both gall bladders were exploding, they wouldn't deny surgery to the second. Sigh. Yes, the companionship would have been better, for sure.

Revs, I am on a much stricter post-op plan than I think you are, but here you go. I'm in week 2 of full liquids, then on to purees. I'm allowed in this phase to have cream of wheat and yogurt. I also rely on the bariatric puddings for snacks; there are only so many shakes I can take. Breakfast is: yogurt with extra Protein powder, cream of wheat, or a shake. 4 oz of the first two; about 8-10 if it's a shake. lunch is generally a Soup, extra blended if necessary, with unflavored Protein Powder stirred in. Mmm, clumpy! Snacks: bariatric pudding (you could also do SF pudding with protein stirred in), popsicles, glass of milk. Etc. Dinner: soup or shake, see above. Lots of Water, occasionally G-2, iced tea. One cup of coffee per day. I've ranged from about 600-850 calories. Most of the time it's right around 750. I do sometimes get hungry but I feel like this phase is carb-ier than I want to eventually be. I generally hit between 70 and 85 grams of protein per day. Haven't really figured out grams of the rest yet because there's only so much you can do with soup and yogurt.

Yeah, self-pay is not an option right now. Could be in the future, just not now. And there was something nice about having the same surgeon. I used a center of excellence that one of my good friends used, and just having the familiarity has helped so much. Well, onward and upward.

You weren't interrupting. I was.

When forums are combined:

I meant smelly. So embarrassed that I have apparently lost my ability to quote Anchorman.

Well, there are plenty of hookers hanging around here. Filthy pirate ones.

Yes, I have the proportional thing going for me too. OTOH, I've lost almost 4 inches from my waist and like 1 from everywhere else. I think in 6-8 months it will be obvious that this was necessary. Even to me; I struggle with that question sometimes even though I did it, LOL.

luv2plumb, I do executive work for a couple of nonprofits. I am lucky in that I mostly work from home, but my downtime was negligible. In fact, I was approving copy from my hospital bed the afternoon that I had surgery! In terms of pain, easiest surgery I've had (and I've had 4 or 5.) First day was uncomfortable, off painkillers the second. Now, this completely depends on a lot of things. My good friend had a rough first day because she didn't react well to the painkillers, and her throat was scratched and sore. I was up and walking less than two hours after surgery. I'm 3 weeks out today, back to work full time (actually was more or less the first week, but I took it very easy.) I think you may be pleasantly surprised. I had lined up all sorts of help and didn't need it.

In the hospital, one of the doctors on call told me the same thing. "You didn't need this surgery." I reported her. We've probably all at least thought this…weight is one of the last bastions of things people can comment on with some kind of impunity. My stats are similar to yours and yes, in some charts I have 100 pounds to lose. I've set my goal more conservative right now but it may change. I see pictures of myself and I can't believe it's me. Even when I think I look cute or have a nice outfit on I can't get away from the fact that I am the largest person in most pictures. I look relatively thin at 150 pounds, or so I recall. But I'm only 5' 5" and could probably get down to 140-145 with the correct motivation. My senior year of college at my most consistently thinnest, I weighed between 128 and 140. So I totally get you. I'm fat, not unattractive.

That's right…there is a Wonderslim protein pudding or shake that my NUT approved for the first few weeks, if made with water. I usually went the pudding option and drank more water. But they do not taste as much like the protein shakes and it's a different texture. Might be worth a try.

This is a great question, and you'll probably have a lot of different answers. I chose the sleeve. There are several reasons for me. I actually came into the surgery process at a high 39 BMI and the surgeon first recommended the lap-band. I didn't like it for several reasons. I didn't want the maintenance of a band, for one. I have been involved in a CrossFit gym, and a lot of the exercises focus around crunches, pull ups, etc…I didn't like the idea that I might feel the port every time I worked out. I know several people who'd had the band and been unsuccessful (although frankly that would be less of a concern to me now), and I did a lot of research about success and failure rates and was worried about the studies that showed a large failure rate, reoperation, etc. for the band. I am also a singer and didn't like the idea of anything in my abdomen while I was singing. That is the silliest of my objections, probably, but it is true. Sometimes I hear banders say that they can't imagine cutting out their stomachs. I guess for me, what it came down to was this. I have been on WW (3 or 4 times), Jenny Craig (twice), Optifast, a doctor-supervised Zone + pills diet (twice) and any number of non-institutionalized weight loss programs. I'm 44 years old. I have a lot of skinny friends and most of them eat very little, and exercise a lot. Instead of being afraid of cutting my stomach capacity permanently I welcomed it. I'm looking for a permanent solution here, and while most of the work will come from inside of me, I think this is one of those tools that can be a game changer. I don't have any interest in eating around my sleeve, or going back to a different option if this doesn't work. I will make this work. Other points: I'm in great health generally, but I was what my doctors and I called a ticking time bomb. I knew that unless I found a permanent solution to my weight problem, I would be diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease sometime in the next 10-15 years. I was starting to have knee and ankle trouble; I had metabolic syndrome; I am hypothyroid. None of these were life-altering, but they did make "regular" weight loss difficult. So here's the thing: I feel like I have a much better chance of living the life I want to by nipping it in the bud now, than waiting until I packed another 30-50 pounds on and seeing what developed health wise. As far as the dangers go, I was really less concerned about that. I didn't enter into the surgery lightly, but I felt based on what I could read beforehand, that this option was the LEAST likely to cause complications in me. Now, you will see stories with all of the WLS options of complications that are horrible and are not the fault of the person who underwent the surgery. And you have to know that it could happen to any of us. I guess I believe it won't happen to the vast majority of us. I'm happy with my decision to do the sleeve; it is working exactly as it should and I am eager to see where I am in another year.

Just wanted to share my experience briefly. For whatever reason, my pattern the last week or so is that the day after I see a significant drop (anywhere from 2-5 pounds) the next day, the scale goes back up to where it was or close before the drop. So instead of stair steps, my plotted "chart" has a bunch of jagged lines. Then it seems to take 2 days or so to stabilize again at the lower weight. The overall trend is down, and that's all that matters. It could be really disconcerting to just take all of those weights individually. I've decided that right now, this is just how my body is adjusting to the big changes.

Oh, boo. Yeah, after I posted I saw that it was old. (Darned new format.) Hope you're getting some relief! :-)

It's completely normal. Lots of people stall at 3 weeks!

And what is it called?

I've got one of those too, but she's been remarkably supportive so far. It's only a matter of time before a snarky comment pops out, LOL.