Forsythia

Smokers had to quit smoking permanently before they would even let you have a sleeve//bypass with my hospital. Obviously they can't control you once you are released out into the wild, as it were..

At five weeks I was going to the gym four days a week and lifting light weights. I had been back at work for four weeks. Yes, you should be able to go to a wedding and dance the evening away. Depending on your surgeon's post op plan, you may be able to eat the food. I was on soft foods at 5 weeks, so chicken, ham, turkey, fish, those would have been fine. If there is a Soup course you will probably be able to eat that. Check in with your nutritionist to see what you can and cat eat just to be sure.

I am not partaking in the challenge. I just like to POP in to report progress and whatnot. Answer any questions if anyone posts one. So if you have questions, please ask! From protein to exercise to post-op recovery someone here knows the answer!

What you get charged depends on where you are and what hospital you go to. So a hospital in a rural area might not be as expensive as one in a metro area. A more affluent suburb might charge more than one that is more middle class. You need to contact the billing department for your surgeon's hospital. Ask them what they charge for a typical sleeve gastrectomy out of pocket before any discounts. If you have more than one competent surgeon in your area, you might be able to shop around for the best price/one to hit your wallet the least post insurance. I live in Chicago and have BCBS IL. I do all of my medical stuff at Northwestern Memorial. The hospital fees were $47,000, plus another $7,000 for the actual sleeve procedure. My total out of pocket costs ended up being around $1800. I had met my deductible and part of my out of pocket max ($3500). The resulting $1800 is what was left of my out of pocket calendar year maximum.

Because Northwestern Memorial is a teaching hospital, there was a student observer in my psych eval (with my permission of course). At times it kind of felt like a job interview with all the questions. And I was nervous and when I get nervous I get sweaty. But in the end the doc said I was well adjusted and didn't have any diagnosable issues. LOL. Got through on the first go round. Some people do need to go back for subsequent sessions before they are approved.

This gave me a good giggle. And honestly if you can't laugh at things such as this, that's doesn't bode well for your day!!

Ha hahahahaha I said popped, not POOPED. LMAO For the record, i poop every day!!

The first time I used them it was glorious. Perfect clarity. Since then, fog city. They fit great - they are sealed to my face and no Water or anything gets in.

Also, read some of my older blog entries. You aren't alone in your feelings. You just need to get over them.

You will not be the fattest fat person at the gym. You just won't be. I was well over 300 lbs and I still was not the biggest person there. And my gym is totally THAT gym with the fancy equipment, classes and pool. Trust me when I saw everyone is in their own little workout bubble listening to their music or watching reruns of keeping up with the Kardashians.

I haven't popped in in awhile. I got these swim paddles you wear on your hands, and now because of them I can swim the entire length of the pool without wanting to die (and stop half way down). It's the little things. I feel like my strength and endurance are really improving. Also, my shoulders look pretty good. I also had to suck it up and buy new jeans. No one likes jeans with a baggy ass, and mine were to the point where no disguising and artful draping was going to make them look good anymore. So off to Ross I went for some cheap smaller jeans. And I also found a bottle of sugar free vanilla syrup for $2. Hope everyone had a fab weekend!

I had the most uneventful recovery ever. I didn't really need the pain meds in the hospital. I came home and didn't have any nausea or issues with drinking anything or eating most anything Everything healed up as it should have. And knock on wood my hair has not fallen out.

Nope. No drain.

There is no way in the shining depths of hell that I am going to wake up in the morning before 5 am to get to the gym before work. I'm just crabby.. no, I'm angry. I'd probably cut my own mother. I just can't. So I go after work. And on at least two days a week I do 45 to 60 or so minutes of cardio followed by about 30 to 45 minutes of weight training. Typically of the slow/heavy variety. I don't feel that working on the treadmill impinges upon my ability to lift or squat.

No, I can't even with actual spit! The idea of it near my eyes.... Nope! I did find a product online called spit. But I wonder if I can find it in a sporting goods store.

This joke is wrong on so many levels.

I too am just now at the 3 month mark. I haven't noticed any unusual loss. I'm paranoid as crap about it though! The thing is that my hair is curly (though in most pictures of me you will see that have flat ironed it into submission since I no longer relax it), so when I wash it, all my gnarly curls are all clumped together and I see a lot of hair in the drain. But I always see a crap ton of hair in my drain. So I don't know if this is starting or just me being paranoid. Oh well, I can always go to the wig store and get myself a fancy wig with blue highlights or something if it is falling out. I also had exploratory surgery when I was six, but I do not recall losing hair then (I would have been devastated because hair is everything to a six year old girl, so I know I didn't lose any then). But that was 31 years ago! aging changes our bodies reactions to things.

Does anyone have a recommendation on goggles that don't fog up? Or an anti fog coating? Is this like the holy grail of swimming products? I have a set of speedo vanquisher 2.0 goggles and they are all cute and purple but the only time they did not fog up was the first time I used them.

I have ordered from eShakti several times when I was a size 26W. Their sizes were pretty consistent.

Why not time it so you take a walk around the time your husband is cooking for the kids? Get out of the house. You gotta do what you gotta do for you. No use sitting around having the sads. So if you know he is cooking at 6pm, fill a bottle of Water or G2 or something and walk to the park. People watch in the town square. Window shop, whatever it is that removes you from the situation for a bit until you can control your urges.

Girl there is no time like the present. Do that now!! LOL!

If you don't have a food scale, invest in one. They are like, $20 on amazon.com. At home I weigh and measure my foods. At work I eat a lean cuisine or other frozen meal just for convenience. I use myfitnesspal.com (or the app on my phone) to log every scrap I put in my mouth - good bad or ugly. You might want to try to go back to basics. Eating your food with a baby fork off of a wee tiny plate. But for me, weighing and measuring really helps me not overeat. Lord knows my head still wants to eat all of the food. Edited for punctuation issues.

I take a pre-natal. But my nutritionist recommended either two regular multi-vitamins or one pre-natal, so I swallow down that giant red horse pill and call it a day. It's called Your Life, and I got it at the grocery store. For my Vitamin B and D, I take Sundown naturals, which I also got from the grocery store. My nutritionist and surgeon did not have any specific brands they endorse or prefer. I was on Centrum chewables, but they tasted awful, I think because of the Iron in them. Anyhow, I have no restrictions on pills so switched over to them as soon as I was cleared for a general diet.

Swimming is a great skill to have. If ever you do find yourself in a Water situation it is a good skill to have. Yes noodles/floatie things will keep you afloat. I've gotten these paddle things to help with my stroke. I swim terribly slowly. But I'm a big girl. That's to be expected. If you have an LA Fitness by you, they offer Aqua Fit classes. The pool at my LA Fitness is no deeper than 4 feet in the middle. So maybe look at a gym with a lap pool.

You must be in the Midwest. Meijer is only in the Midwest. Premier shakes are actually tricky to find in Chicago. Mariano's carries them, but they were on sale for two weeks and ran out. But yeah, most Wal-Marts have them. They may not be in stock, but they should have them in theory!