IncredibleShrinkingMan

If you are still taking pain meds then those could be the problem. The morphine had me gagging my entire hospital stay. If you don't absolutely need a pain med, don't take one, especially not a narcotic. Is it water-induced or just general nausea? It may help to have some flavor if you are still no clear liquids.

Congratulations...I recently got there too (about two weeks ago I hit the 100 lbs mark off peak weight). Parties are definitely a different animal nowadays...so I guess really high-Protein hors d'oeuvres. Sadly, this is where many people's efforts all come tumbling down...a carb escapade to Celebrate a benchmark. The story of Mike Hebranko is the most harrowing of all...it's amazing the cascade that a single Nathan's hot dog can set off. So let's both be smart...I'm starting to plan my Onederland party as well.

Does anybody know any good tricks for distinguishing remaining fat and loose skin on your body? I am trying to figure out what's going on around my upper arms.

My evaluator said that it was actually very uncommon for a bariatric patient not to be on anything for depression (took a little offense at that and wondered how true it was), so he just glossed over the stuff I listed as actively taking.

I don't think too many other people can answer this question for you. It's a valid consideration, by all means, and that isn't chump change what you are paying for 11/18. That said, you don't want to be miserable over the next six months. I would say that if you had your heart set on it and you will be OK financially under self pay, continue as planned, and you won't have to spend six months thinking about where you could be. Also, if there is any doubt about coverage, that is a whole circus that I hate watching people go through, also consider going this year as planned. However, if that money changes your entire outlook, and you are a patient guy, it might be worth exploring. Best of luck with your decision and your surgery.

Responses, in order of desirability: 1) Cleaned up the diet 2) Training for a marathon 3) Combination of 1 and 2 4) Just tell them the truth 5) MYOB

@@rachelr28, welcome and congrats on your decision. Fellow Garden Stater here. This will be a very different experience in countless ways. Without getting too technical, basically, the idea is that in the past, we have attempted to lose weight by reducing caloric intake which results in two physiological effects: 1) reduction in metabolism by the body in an attempt to prevent weight loss and 2) dramatic increase in hunger caused by the stomach sending a hunger hormone to the brain to demand compensatory eating until the body is back to the weight it was before you started the diet. The sleeve prevents the latter from happening. You will have a stomach that is about 15% of the volume of your current stomach, meaning you will become full much faster, and on far less food. However, your body would need the volume of food you consumed before to maintain weight with all your activities and energy output, so the result will be dramatic weight loss. Your metabolism will slow, but it can't slow enough to keep up with the huge disparity between the calories you need and the calories you can intake. The surgery's most important effect is that the hunger hormone is produced in the part of your stomach that is removed irreversibly during surgery. So you wind up with a double protection against weight gain...you just can't fit very much in, nor do you want to because there's much less signaling going up to you brain telling you that you are hungry (but there's just enough from other places to get you to eat to keep you healthy). There is even some evidence that the sleeve changes the bacteria in your stomach that results by some unknown mechanism to automatically reset your "set point" down to a healthy weight, whereas right now, it is fixed at a high weight, and your body is programmed to defend obesity in any way it can. So the way the previous poster described it, with you instead of against you, is exactly right. Best of luck!

Length of time will vary from surgeon to surgeon, but as a severe coffee addict before surgery, I can happily report that my desire for it has fallen precipitously. I imagine the root cause is not as much food coming in to cause the food comas. About a half a cup a day kills any headaches associated with caffeine withdrawal, and my base heart rate has come down as a result.

I think Onederland is the most psychologically significant milestone most of us can hit (unless we started in the very low 200s). It is special, and provides a renewal of purpose and confidence. It looks like we went on the table at the exact same weight, OP. I am 10 weeks out today (partly due to a one-week postponement for the surgeon's vacay), and I am 12 lbs away. I set myself a goal of 10/22 for Onederland, of which I will obviously fall just short, but I am nonetheless extremely happy. I am down to around 3 lbs/wk max now, which was frustrating when it hit, but probably means the weight loss is real and permanent. Congratulations!

The jubilation of arriving in Onederland obviously varies according to where we start. That said, it's a joyous occasion for everybody, and congratulations. I have 12 lbs to go, and I am already figuring out how not to celebrate excessively. It's amazing how fall (even more so than winter) encourages decadent behavior. Keep it up!

10 weeks out here (8/6 sleeve)...still losing at very satisfying pace and I've stopped keeping track of anything. I just don't eat carbs other than incidental ones in otherwise high quality foods, my body tells me when it's time to put the fork down, and I don't have any real desire to drink Water during meals. Unless your surgeon put you on a very conservative diet progression, this should be more or less your experience. As to exercise, yes, I feel the guilt when I don't get it in...however, the benefits of working out in the way of metabolism and circulation last for days, and as long as you are being pretty diligent, you are getting the intended benefit. There is research that shows that strenuous and excessive exercise confers no benefits over moderate exercise 3-5 times a week. Diet is virtually the entire game, and it sounds like you are doing well, but I think you are at a point where you can let your body do the talking. Best of luck!

BTW, I have not had much success at all with actually coming to dislike any foods. I had a diet disaster long weekend, and I would be absolutely nowhere if I could eat anything close to what I could before. Eventually there will come a point at which I actually have to part with certain things or accept that weight loss has ended. I can tolerate red meat a lot more than I would like to be tolerate it, and on certain days it's my entire diet. So, the takeaway should be that new replacement addictions can also be other foods that you can still tolerate but didn't emphasize before instead of ones that are now virtually impossible to get former quantities of.

@@CJ Porter unfortunately being addicted to food still is very much a possibility...you just can't feed the addiction the same way as before. My food addiction has gone NOWHERE with the surgery, but I have lost weight because of the built in limitations on consumption. To answer the OP's concern...yes, people need to find replacement addictions to fulfill the one that won't be completely fulfilled...some people will choose consumption of some sort, I've chosen exercise. It's almost too good to be true, but it does work, and while it is easy to say that it was possible to make this replacement before surgery, the fact is that for the vast majority of us it really wasn't. That is the real gift of the surgery...freedom to rewire.

Started pre-op July 23 at 286 lbs. Surgery August 6 at 266 lbs. Now 212 lbs. Thanks for reminding me to update!

OP, when was your surgery? That would help out quite a bit to know what tools you have available at this point in time. In addition, wherever you are, exercise jumpstarts metabolism and helps suppress hunger as you do it...you will get hungry for recovery later, but the sleeve will help you become satisfied quite rapidly. If you want to up the calories, I think that's fine, but under no circumstances should you drink any calories...you want to earn some satiety for every calorie you let in so that you can stop. You may be struggling to find satisfying foods compatible with your stage of post-op, and I can assure you that this subsides over time. I am assuming you aren't too far out, and that therefore you are in the hardest phase right now.

This is a very important topic, and no doubt some people used their physical shields as psychological ones. The fact that I am not in that group is both lucky and unlucky. My relationship to the outside world never really changed throughout the years of weight gain, and I didn't tend to assume people were viewing me differently. Now that I am losing rapidly, I also tend to think that the world and it's denizens have enough to think about and I am really not high up on the list. That said, there have been comments at work, but none that would cause me to think a channel to the world that was previously closed is gradually opening up.

I had them too and the sleeve has greatly reduced the problems associated with them. But please consult an MD.

Pimento cheese...like a relish made of sharp cheddar and Colby but made into a spread. As for what to dip in, I'd say just stick with a spoon and fork for now (and tiny ones, because you still don't want big bites).

I had the sleeve in August, and I am two months out tomorrow. I started my pre-op at 286 (my highest two years earlier was 314) and I am down to 214 as of this morning. It's a great procedure that doesn't leave me feeling deprived of anything. I can eat basically anything now (though still use shakes for extra protein), just in dramatically smaller portions. Even refined carbs cause me no problems, and after a few bites I am full. I still try to avoid them lest my restriction should atrophy over time. My surgery went off without a hitch and I had no complications or pain. Hunger made its last stand when I was about two weeks out, but hasn't been an issue since then, unless I go a long time without eating anything (12+ hrs), which is not a good idea. Your surgeon may go one of two routes. He may conclude that the RNY is unsafe unless you reach a lower BMI alone, in which case he may offer the lap-band to help you get down to a place where the RNY is possible. Or, if he thinks the RNY is safe, he may recommend that as it does have slightly better weight loss statistics than the sleeve (with more digestive complications). If he thinks it is safe then he will leave the decision almost entirely in your hands. The sleeve has also been used as the first step in a duodenal switch procedure, mainly for people in your BMI range. What you would get is the VSG, and then you would lose substantial weight. Then, it would be up to you whether you wanted to complete the switch portion of the procedure. If you like your weight loss then there would be no reason to continue any further. Best of luck with your decision, and congratulations.

@@Namaste6 I'm looking for more people too, I'll go ahead and invite you.

@@stuart85 Not too many guys posting to this thread, so I may start a male one. I am noticing more patchy areas than usual when brushing my hair in the morning, so it's definitely starting, though I have no idea how long it lasts. I am 31, 8 weeks out, and take all my Vitamins and supplements every morning. I'm not sure it's avoidable, but most people say that it's brief and then starts to grow back and reaches prior rates. I'm probably going to avoid getting a haircut until I am satisfied that it has started to grow normally again.

Awesome news. I only absolutely needed it on certain occasions (freaking Delta and American), but for a period of time at 300+ it would always be offered, and I would proudly reject it even if it meant an arduous struggle to squeeze it until click (sounds like a weight loss tool onto itself). I've been on about five R/T flights since surgery (8 weeks out) and it looks like I have gotten the point where the flight attendant doesn't bother to ask. #NSV

I understand how it can be tough to hold onto those psychologically, but I also feel that it would be a huge jinx to get rid of them completely. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping them away in storage, out of sight, out of mind. There's also nothing wrong with keeping them far, far, away, as long as you still own them and can access them, so that you know the easy option will be to just keep fitting into the smaller clothes. Unfortunately, I have had to retrieve bagged up "never-again" clothes from the attic, but I also didn't lose huge amounts of weight or ever get that far from their size. But that was also way before I ever considered surgery. Luckily, I never got rid of any of my "skinny" clothes from late teen years, and they are all ready to go...I can already wear the old XL's and am looking forward to the L's (no, I have never been what anybody would actually call skinny, but I have been average).

I only take chewable B12 and D3 and they feel fine. My multivitamin leaves me standing over the sink or behind bushes for minutes and minutes on end until the nausea goes away. I take calcium and iron that are non-chewables that do not cause this problem. I am looking for chewable recommendations, by the way, if you have any.

Keep in mind you didn't start terribly heavy...so it would naturally be easier for you to arrive and linger at your first stall. But I think you've fared quite excellently.