MissME

Hello BarnGirl, It is not only the reduction in the stomach size but removing a large portion of the stomach that produces the hunger hormone Ghrelin that aids in weight loss. With less Ghrelin being produced you do not feel hunger the same as before surgery. When you eat your small portions you will feel sated. -Maryerin

My company specifically wrote out Bariatric Surgery from my plan. I have worked for the same company for five years and each year I would pray that they would change their minds and allow WLS. Nothing happened. In 2012 my father passed away from a heart attack, he was only 63. At that point my obesity was making me so uncomfortable I thought that I could be the next one to go. If I lay on my back at night to go to sleep I would wake up with panic attacks that I couldn't breathe. I literally had thoughts that I would go to sleep and not wake up. I kept saying to myself, when you get your WLS your life will change but at the same time I kept eating. Finally, on November 30th 2013, I began praying the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. For those who aren't Catholic or religious, a novena is a prayer that you say so many times a day or for a number of consecutive days. I am not in the habit of asking God for things for myself. I usually pray for my friends and my family or in thanksgiving for what I have already been blessed with. This time though, after I prayed the novena prayer I asked God to work a miracle in my life that I would be able to afford WLS. I had no savings to speak of, especially not $13400. I prayed the novena faithfully through advent and up to Christmas Eve, each day asking God for intercession in my life. Some days I felt very guilty because my Aunt was dying of lung cancer and I shouldn't be asking for something for myself but for her. Christmas came and went and my prayer wasn't answered but I was determined that I would get my surgery somehow but I had other things to focus on, like my aunt. My Aunt passed away on January 18th. I delved into the planning of her funeral services which would be held on February 1st. I also decided that I would enter the medically supervised weight loss plan offered by my WLS office. I had my consultation with them, did the H-Pylori testing, and scheduled a time for my first follow up appointment for when I started the diet. I was going to start the diet on 2/3/14. The day of my Aunt's funeral came. The service was very nice, I was able to sing the Psalm without being too overwhelmed and gave her Eulogy since her own children were so devastated by her loss. My Dad's side of the family came to the funeral to pay their respects. Afterward my grandfather asked to speak to me and my brothers. What came next was the shock of my life. My sweet Grandpa who loved us all very much and would send us small tokens of $20 in birthday cards, seemingly out of the blue, gifted my brothers and myself with $14,000 each. There is no question in my mind that this was the answer to my Novena prayer, that Grandpa was inspired by God to gift us a portion of our inheritance so that he could see us enjoy it while he was alive. I cried. It was just enough to have my surgery. It was the most profound feeling, God had heard me, He listened to my prayer, He said yes! I started the iMetabolic Diet as scheduled with a new found vigor as I knew that I would be getting my surgery. I lost 23lbs by my 1st appointment 17 days later. I scheduled my surgery for March 12th, 2014. The day of surgery I had lost 38lbs. Since surgery I am down 60 more. Every day I am driven by thankfulness, to my grandfather for his gift, but even more so to our Heavenly Father for his intervention in my life. I know there are skeptics who would think that this is just coincidental, and I say believe what you will. And I will continue to recognize God's intervention in my life.

If you put the effort into this you can lose 100%. I am 5 months post op and I am already down 60%. Just don't discourage yourself before you even begin. When I heard that I thought that is still an improvement over where I was and that I would never have gotten there on my own.

I am sorry that you were sick after surgery. I didn't have anything like that but I did have a rough first month because the liquid diet and pureed foods were not appetizing and I wasn't getting the Protein that I needed. Eventually things got better. As you heal the fatigue will wane. You will be able to eat more choices which helps to ease anxiety about eating. From your post I see that you feel bad that you won't be able to overeat and drink with your friends. That may be true, so why don't you do something different with them? Go to a concert, dancing, rollerskating, miniature golfing.... You can be social. You don't have to overeat to be social. Also, try not to mourn the things that got you to this point in the first place. At 20 you have some unique opportunities that the rest of us didn't have, the biggest one is to nip your health problems in the bud before they could become unmanageable. My advice to you is have faith in yourself. Your experience is not going to be that same as someone else's experience. You have to make the choice that once you are feeling better you will stick to the diet plan laid out for you in order for you to meet and maintain your goal. Don't worry about gaining weight back. Have confidence in yourself that you can and will keep the weight off. I know you can do it!

The Protein shakes should have an appetite suppressant so a lot of the hunger will be head hunger. The best advice I can give is to just stick to it. You need to shrink your liver for a more successful surgery but you also need to start weaning yourself off foods that you won't be able to eat after surgery anyway. WLS is not an easy journey and it starts with the pre-op diet. However, if you stick to it this will be life changing. Whenever you feel hungry make a conscious decision to remind yourself why you are doing the liquid diet in the first place and that should keep you on track. Best of luck to you! Maryerin

I had the 90 day as well. You would know early on if there were complications so no need to go longer.

Bliss was included in my self pay package price by my surgeon. I would recommend it. There is the possibility for a leak and better to have the coverage if, God forbid, that happens to you.

I was becoming a hermit. Seriously, my weight was a prison in so many ways. I didn't have all the typical co-morbidities just Pre-diabetes but I had zero self confidence. I hated how I looked and how I felt. The only place I would go with my family was out to eat. If my mom took my niece miniature golfing or to the pool I would stay home. I was not really living. I looked at my life as a failure thinking about the things that I would never do, the relationships I would never have. Since I have lost so many people recently, I spent a lot of time worrying that one day I too would die or be left all alone. Since surgery I have been to the pool and miniature golf too many times to count. My self confidence is soaring. I feel so much better physically. I would never have gotten here without WLS. I have been blessed to have no complications as of yet. I still have a long way to go but I when I put on my bathing suit to go swimming I am not self conscious, to hell with what other people may think, I know how far I have come.

I have always considered my obesity to be a self imposed prison... so how can you EVER accept that? I used to hate it when people would talk about 'eating your feelings.' Probably because the truth hurts. I ate my feelings a lot. Having so many people torment me about my weight throughout my life made that even worse. Eating was soothing, people were judgmental, so I will just eat all I want and stay as far away from people as possible. I realized after my father died of a massive heart attack at age 63 that I had to change my life or that would be me, if I even made it that far! Even though I knew I had to change it took almost two years before I took action to change and miraculously I was able to self fund my surgery and begin this incredible journey to reclaim my life. I have no problem with people having confidence at any size, but I personally had no confidence at 378 lbs. I do think that people of all shapes and sizes can be beautiful, but I did not feel beautiful at 378 lbs. I accepted what I needed to do to feel confident, beautiful and healthy. The irony of the Fat Acceptance Movement is that it is not very accepting of obese people who decide to take steps to lose weight. It seems to me that they bully people who chose to lose weight in the same way they have been bullied for being obese. What is the sense in that?

My doctor said that 2-3 lbs a week great progress with the Sleeve. I personally have been losing about 18 lbs a month since surgery 3/12/14 but everyone is different. You could be down another 36lbs by September.

Yikes. Sorry that your family of all people are not being supportive. I got lucky in that category. I have only have one person say to me "Well why did you get surgery?" I told her because I was never going to do it on my own. That is the truth. People may say that is laziness but there is really so much more to it than that. Very few people look at Obesity like they would look at Anorexia, as an eating disorder. Luckily my surgeon and their office do look at it that way. And WLS is a tool to help you to relearn healthy behaviors. Seeing the results that come with it and having the support of your doctor's office, friends, and people who are going through the same things you are like the people here on Bariatric Pal will really help you out along the way. In the end, this is about your life - prolonging it through better health AND improving the quality of life immensely!!

Woohoo! Just sent a lot of friend requests!

I am 6lbs away from my first major goal of 100 lbs... that leaves me 101lbs to go. I still have a long road ahead of me although I have kicked so major butt these last 4 months to get to where I am now. As a reward I am going to Disneyland in August. I am still thinking about what I will do when I hit my goal weight...