catwoman7

Asheville's great! I haven't been there in probably 40 years, but from what I hear, it's gotten even better since then! (it seemed pretty wonderful even back then...). I lived in Watauga and Avery counties - so about 1.5 hours from Asheville. We were about 10 miles from Tennessee and maybe 30 from Virginia - so up in the top corner. P.S. if you're not familiar with that area - it was the Boone/Blowing Rock/Linville/Banner Elk area. Very protty - but I was in my 20s then and there really wasn't much there for young single people unless you were into skiing or hiking. i think I would have been much happier living in Asheville.

I wouldn't start a liquid diet until they tell you to. The thing is a PITA - the worst part of the whole ordeal, I think. And some surgeons don't even require one (some just have you do water only for 24 hours before surgery). So I'd wait and see what they say. Like someone else said, you could work on lowering your carbs and calories and trying to eat more nutritiously - kind of like you'll be eating once you're a couple months out of surgery and all healed up. That's what my dietitian had me doing, so my change to the "new" eating style didn't seem as radical.

if you want to know for sure, I'd call them and ask, but I kind of doubt something like that would delay your surgery

you do have to comply with your clinic's program or you'll eventually regain weight (although a 10-20 lb gain once you hit your lowest weight is very common - and almost expected. I planned for that when I set my goal and went a bit under goal to compensate) that said, I'd never been able to lose weight and keep it off. I was over 200 lbs overweight, and I lost 50 or 60 lbs God knows how many times, only to gain it all back. I got the surgery (in my case, bypass) because if I couldn't even keep off 50 lbs for more than a couple of months, I knew there was no way I could lose and keep off 200 lbs. BUT...this actually worked. I did actually lose all that weight - over 200 lbs. Your stomach will be a lot smaller so you can't take in a ton of food AT ONE SITTING - plus, most people lose their sense of hunger for a few months (up to a year) after the surgery. Having no hunger makes it much easier to lose weight. Once the hunger comes back, though, which is does for most of us, it'll be more of a challenge. You're still not going to be able to eat a ton of food at one sitting, but you might start grazing or eating mindlessly if you're not watching yourself. So that's when you have to really make sure you're continuing to comply with the program. people gain weight back because they stop being compliant and old habits start creeping back in. As before, you still won't be able to eat as much as can now AT ONE SITTING, but if you're snacking all day, yep - you'll be able to take in a lot of calories. The examples I always use is that before I had surgery, I could eat half a large pizza for dinner. No way could I do that now. It would be physically painful. All I can manage is 1-2 pieces. BUT...if I ate 1-2 pieces at 5:00 pm, and another 1-2 pieces at 7:00 pm, and 1-2 pieces 9:00 pm, (which would be easy to do), I'd end up eating half the large pizza. So THAT'S what you need to watch out for. the surgery in and of itself shouldn't exaggerate depression. If you're feeling depressed, though, it'd probably be helpful to work with a therapist. A lot of us do - both for that or to deal with eating issues (unfortunately, as they say, the surgery is on our stomachs, not on our brains). where are you living in NC? I lived there for 10 years. I went to high school in Raleigh and when to college up in the mountains. My brother still lives in NC, so I still get down there occasionally...

here are the 17,501 previous posts on the 'three week stall" (and no, I am NOT kidding). Happens to almost all of us. I wish bariatric clinics would tell their patients about this, because we get at least one post every day from someone worrying because they're only a couple of weeks out, and their weight loss has stalled. It is normal and it happens to the vast majority of us. https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

the infamous three-week stall (doesn't always happen the third week, but sometime during the first month, almost all of us experience our first major stall). Here are past posts on it that I just did a search for: https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall 17,501 posts!

I took three weeks off but could have gone back in two. Other than being tired, I was fine. I have known people who have gone back after a week - although two seems pretty standard. P.S. my surgery was awhile ago - and it was bypass, not sleeve - but I don't know that that makes much difference as far as recovery goes.

yes - ulcers will usually resolve medically. Those sound like the standard meds for it...

you can probably find before/after pictures (with private parts covered) if you look at the Web sites of plastic surgeons

this didn't apply to me since i was post-menopausal when I had my surgery, but I remember them telling us in the classes to use two forms of birth control for the first few months (they didn't mention malabsorption, but this makes sense. Plus people tend to be a lot more fertile after surgery)

I've never shared my photos of what the skin actually looked like, but I can tell you that most of us can easily hide the loose skin in clothes. I've had extensive plastic surgery (three of them, to be exact), but this is what I looked like BEFORE I had plastic surgery. See any loose skin? I promise you that it's there - this was after losing over 200 lbs, so I had a TON of it. But as you can see, it's not noticeable at all in clothes. I just tucked the stomach skin into jeans or "tummy control" leggings and wore slightly oversized, long-ish tops. Plus 3/4 length or longer sleeves to cover my batwing arms. No one could see my excess skin (except for my husband and doctor, of course...)

that's a really great idea - and since I'm retired, very "do-able", too!

I think night time hunger is really common. My worst time is late afternoon. It's a constant battle. Sometimes I swap around dinner with my afternoon snack (so dinner around 3:00 or 4:00, snack around 6:00 or 7:00), sometimes I'll eat things like baby carrots dipped in hummus or ranch yogurt (ranch dressing mix with plain Greek yogurt) (carrots usually irritate my stomach after awhile, so I rarely eat much of this), other times sugar free Jello or sugar free popsicles. Anything to keep me from blowing it. You'll probably have to do the same - if you can't take your mind off it somehow, figure out how you can swap things around to make it easier - or stock up on "safe" things (some people chew SF gum or drink hot tea...). Or get out of the house (easier said then done at night - easier for me in the afternoon!)

if you mean common as there are sometimes absorption issues with meds and therefore the dosage needs to be adjusted or you'll need to be switched over to another med - then yes, common. If you mean common in that WLS amplifies anxiety issues or causes heart issues, then no.

I'm pretty sure you need to have a passport now to travel to Mexico and back. I can't remember when they passed that law - maybe five or ten years ago? Before that you didn't have to have one.

OK - that makes sense now.

I was honest with other obese people. With non-obese people, unless they were a close friend, I just told them I'd been working with a dietitian and exercising like a fiend (which technically was true - I just omitted the surgery part). Skinny people usually believe that schlock.

if you mean pain as in physical pain, you may or may not have that. I didn't have any - in fact, I wondered if they even did the surgery! Pain is all across the board - some have it, some don't - but most of us seem to have little to no pain with these surgeries. But if you're one who does, they'll send you home with pain meds. Just try to keep ahead of it and you should be fine. It'll last a few days at most.

P.P.S. we were told 60-70 grams of protein. 120 seems high to me - but if that's what your surgeon wants you to get, then fine - make that your goal. We were never told to count calories - and were in fact discouraged from doing so. This early out, you're not eating enough food to be concerned about calories. That'll come later.

it's the infamous three-week stall. It happens to almost all of us (it's not ALWAYS the third week, but that's the most common time. It can happen any time during the first month to six weeks after surgery) I just did a search of this site on it for you - here you go - 17,500 posts! https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall p.s. it typically lasts 1-3 weeks, so you're likely very near the end of it. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. As long as you stick to your program, it WILL break, and you'll be on your way again.

med absorption can definitely be an issue. I would think they could find SOME med that would work for you - you're certainly not the only person with anxiety and depression who's had weight loss surgery. I'm sorry that they don't seem to be willing to work with you on this. I'd be surprised if your heart issues are related to your bypass surgery. Plus you said you had your first heart attack before you even had the surgery. I'm thinking it's unlikely those two things are related. I wonder if the hair loss could be related to your stress. That can definitely cause hair loss for some people.

the pain shouldn't last much longer. I didn't have any, but I think for those who do, it lasts a few days. I'm a side sleeper. It's been a few years, but I think it took about two weeks before I could sleep on my side again.

I had my husband take photos of me (all four sides - front, back, and each side) every month on my surgery date. I didn't wear the same clothes, though (although when I was close to goal, I did put on my "fat" clothes and had him take photos - at that point, I could put both legs in one of the legs of my "fat" jeans). I would recommend doing that (monthly photos). For one thing, once your weight loss slows down after the first couple of months, it's sometimes hard to tell from month to month that you've lost, but if you compare photos from one month to those from three or four months before, yep - big difference! Also, it's great to have photographic "evidence" of your journey! I'm really glad I did this.

I had something similar happen. Some people's tastes dramatically change (as in the don't like things they liked before, or vice versa), but in my case, they didn't change - but they intensified. Sweet things tasted sweeter, spicy things tasted spicier, bitter things tasted more bitter. That might be what's going on with you as well. I think in my case it was temporary because i don't notice it anymore - or maybe I just got used to it...

that's about where I was at that point. there are a lot of factors that influence your rate of weight loss, most of which you have little to no control over (age, gender, metabolic rate, what % of your body weight is muscle, starting BMI, how much you lost prior to surgery, etc). The only two things you DO have a lot of control over is how closely you stick to your program and your activity level. If you do well with those, you're good - and you WILL lose weight, whether fast or slow.