DangerMouse007

I've been on a nearly three week vacation that was rather eventful and eye opening in some respects. As I mentioned before, I'm a Texan that currently lives in upstate NY. I went home to Texas for nearly three weeks to help Celebrate my Goddaughter's 4th birthday and spend some time with family. Of course, going back to Texas means all sorts of fantastic food. I think I probably ate in restaurants or fast food joints about 85% of my meals. I think I tested the limits of my pouch more times than I probably should have. I also happened to come home with lots and lots of leftovers as well. During this vacation, I also visited Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio and Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. It had been 28 years since I'd been to Schiltterbahn and about 15 years for Fiesta Texas. Something that I noticed is that Fiesta Texas has weight limits for some of their Water rides. 300 pounds seemed to be the weight limit that I noticed on most of the rides. Unfortunately Fiesta Texas was also the place where I reinjured my lower back. I was on a water slide that dropped me pretty ferociously into a pool that wasn't all that deep. My lower back hit the bottom of the pool scratching it a bit. It wasn't too much later that I noticed the lower back pain that I was experiencing last Fall. It didn't quite limit my ability to walk like the pain did last year, but it was pretty painful. I was afraid I had undone all the work my chiropractor had done last October-December. I was also sleeping on an air bed for several days after that which didn't help any. When I did finally make it to my family's house, sleeping on a real bed, the pain did seem to subside a little bit. Now I can barely notice it two weeks after it started. I'm hoping for more improvement because I really don't want to do more chiropractor visits again. I didn't weigh myself at all while I was away mainly because I only want to weigh myself on the scale I have in my kitchen. I don't want to fudge my results using a different scale. I somehow still managed to lose 3 pounds despite all the good food I had while away. Makes me wonder if I could have lost more had I not been on vacation. My one year surgiversary is pretty soon, just two weeks away, although my one year follow up visit with my surgeon's office won't be until after Labor Day.

I had fully planned on coming on here this last Wednesday saying that I was apparently in another stall. My weight hadn't budged at all in about 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden I've lost 3 more pounds in the last 2 days. Obviously not a stall. Right now I'm at 255, just 17 pounds away from my lowest recorded weight as an adult (I turn 41 this mo nth). The funny thing was that this last Sunday I was soooo hungry! So hungry! Since I thought I was in another prolonged stall I indulged myself a bit with 5-6 meals (whereas I normally just do 3 meals with one or two Snacks a day). I didn't have any of my normal snacks readily available at home or at work. At home I normally keep a jar of mini dill pickles in my fridge just so I can snack on something with a little crunch. I also usually have 100 calorie packets of peanuts or almonds at home and at work, but I ran out recently and haven't replenished my supplies. Maybe that little jolt of extra calories was what helped? I have no idea. I'm about a week away from heading to South Padre Island in Texas for 5 days for a much needed vacation. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

I'm 10 almost 11 months out. I only drink the caffeinated Crystal Light at work since I work nights, 12 hour shifts. I can't remember any caffeine restrictions from my surgeon though. I think the caffeine in one pack of the Crystal Light was equal to 1/3 of a cup of coffee. Something like that.

Crystal Light is pretty much all I drink to get in my daily liquids. I think the only thing is that some of the flavors taste "sweeter" to me if that makes sense than others. I can't drink the Fruit Punch for that reason. I also have recently found that they offer different flavors with caffeine that I occasionally drink as well since I don't drink coffee or any other caffeinated drink.

@@Kmlynne Thanks for reading. I appreciate it. This last weekend I went back home to Texas and was able to go to Sea World in San Antonio on Sunday. Had a blast there and at the adjoining Water park. When I saw my friend I was visiting she said that I looked "skinny". I didn't mention that I was wearing a compression shirt to help tuck in a few of my looser parts, but I really appreciated the compliment, especially from her. I had a reaction last night to some Chinese food I ordered from Panda Express...beef and broccoli to be more specific. I felt the food get "stuck" in my pouch so I, of course, stopped eating. Two hours later I still had that stuck feeling, and then I had to make a run to the restroom to vomit. Not a whole lot came out, but I was annoyed that it took nearly two hours from the time I felt the food get stuck to when I vomited. It's been a long time since I vomited as well. After that I did feel a little bit better, but I pretty much stayed away from any food or water for several hours after that.

The weight really seemed to melt off this week, now down to 259. I'm not complaining...keep going before the next stall!! My upcoming trip to South Padre Island may end up getting canceled, but in the meantime I realized I needed some better fitting shorts. The 3XL that I've been wearing since I was about 340 pounds definitely do not fit anymore...especially with the elastic waist band! LOL! It seems I did lose at least a couple of inches off of my waist since the first of February. I'm now down to a 46 waist; trying on that size shorts felt oh so very good! I did try a 44, but I'm not quite there. I would've been popping buttons had I tried to keep them. I did have a slight bout of depression recently stemming from something personal that has really curbed my appetite these last 10 days or so (maybe contributing to the weight drop off). Strangely I feel like I'm getting fuller much quicker than I'm used to; food that I was eating okay a month ago seems to fill me up much faster. No idea what that means if anything.

We are in the summer season, and I currently have a planned one week trip to South Padre Island mid-July. That means I've been taking a look at my body and how comfortable I would feel showing skin while on the beach and at the Schlitterbhan Water Park there on the island. Unfortunately, I'm not all that happy. My legs are okay, I think. I do have some loose skin on the backs of my upper legs, but it's not bad. That'll get covered up by swim trunks (no speedo here!!) It's my upper body though that's going to be an issue. I'm at 263 now so I'm by no means "slim" yet. I still have quite a stomach which looks like a deflated balloon right now. I don't see that improving. Then there's my "man boobs" which seem to have gotten much worse than I can ever remember them. I'm going to be horribly conscious of those two things especially on the beach. I did end up buying a sleeveless workout shirt that I will most likely use to cover up while on the beach or at the pool this summer. I was actually surprised that a 1XL shirt fit, at least in that brand. I only have one 2XL t-shirt I bought in Dallas a few weeks ago that is okay when I stand, not so much when I sit. Ha! Otherwise I wear 3XL t-shirts. But with the sleeveless shirt I wanted something where the arm openings weren't so big that you could see some of the extra skin on the sides of my torso if that makes sense. My right shoulder seems to finally be healing a bit. I have a little more range of motion. I guess it was something called "frozen" shoulder? I still can't do heavy lifting though. I've lately just been concentrating on my legs. Most upper body lifting still causes me some pain and weakness in my right arm.

I guess I didn't really pay much attention to measurements, only the weight on the scale. However I went from a size 64 pants 6 month's pre-op to currently a 46 nearly 10 months post-op. My neck has gone from a size 22 to a size 18. My boxers have gone from a size 5XL to 2XL. I'm still hanging on to a bunch of 5XL t-shirts just because I like them and don't want to give them up (these are very baggy!), but I can fit comfortably in a 3XL; 2XL looks okay standing up, but I still have a bit of a stomach at 263 pounds so 2XL is still not very flattering for me sitting down.

@@Wirehog Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.

Milestone #3: 265 pounds - Achieved! I am beyond emotional at the moment. I have hit my third personal milestone tonight! 265 pounds is what I weighed entering my freshman year in college in September of 1993. I went on to lose another 30 pounds or so (my next milestone) using weight lifting as my phys ed requirement and running 3 miles a day twice a week throughout that school year. Looking back, it took me 5 months to lose 35 pounds from my second milestone at 300. And most of that was in February when I lost nearly 20 pounds! Man, I'm so proud right now! Overall I've lost 160 pounds (including my 6 month pre-op diet) and 104 pounds since my surgery. Just simply amazing!

@@sixthgrandking No problem. Thanks for reading and fighting the good fight.

Ugh! I'm one pound away from my 3rd Personal Milestone. One friggin' pound!!! Please don't stall on me now!

I started Victoza around Thanksgiving 2010. It was a couple of months before I realized that my appetite had completely changed: I was full after eating a much, much smaller portion of food than I had in the past. Between November 2010 and November 2011 I lost about 60 pounds. Unfortunately I gained it all back and then some while still on Victoza in 2012. It was great while it lasted, but at some point it stopped working for me.

I travel quite a bit for pleasure, some driving, some flying. Because of an incident when I was younger (about 22 years ago), I always, always take dramamine when I fly. For short one hour hops, I take the non-drowsy formula, and for anything longer I take the original formula dramamine. A few hours ago, I took my first flight post-op, and it was the first time the dramamine has failed me in over two decades. I didn't get sick, but I was extremely nauseous, and my mouth filled up with saliva like it normally does just before I start to vomit. Before my surgery, I would never feel a thing when flying with Dramamine. When I asked if it was okay to take dramamine at my first post-op doctor's visit, I said I was wondering how it would work with just a pouch, etc. The doctor said it should still work and shouldn't have any problems. So, of course, now I'm all sorts of anxious because I love to fly, but if this motion sickness medication doesn't work as well as it used to, if at all, I might end up quitting flying all together. I definitely don't want that. I go back home Monday night so we'll see how it goes on the return flight. I know I'll be extremely nervous whereas before I was always completely calm. Anybody else have any experience with motion sickness medicine post-op?

What kind of pain? Lower back pain that shoots down your leg when walking? That's the kind I had for several years before I had surgery (even saw a back specialist and did the physical therapy thing, but it didn't really help much). When I lost weight during my 6 month pre-op diet, it went away. However, after my surgery and after having lost a few more pounds, it came back with a vengeance to the point that my right leg was numb and nearly useless sometimes. It was recommended on here that I see a chiropractor. I saw one close to home, and he explained my pain right away. I saw him 3 times a week the first month then just once a week for an additional two months. I've been perfectly fine since then with no back pain.

I was just under 300 pounds when I started. I wanted to start earlier (used to run quite a bit when I was much younger), but I had some lower back issues that kept me from walking for more than a few yards much less trying to run. A few months with a chiropractor fixed that; as soon as I could I was up and, um, running.

Bit of a cheeky comment, but it is something I've long considered but am just a little bit shy about it. My best friend's wife is huge into yoga; does it nearly every day. She's encouraged me to go, and she'd make a good yoga buddy to help me get over my shyness...but she's 2000 miles away. Maybe someday I'll make a go of it.

Old thread, but I thought I would give a quick update. I originally started this thread when I was 2 months post-op. I continued to have success with the chewable dramamine tablets having flown several times since then. Last weekend I flew down to Dallas; I had run out of the chewables and the store I went to only had the original formula dramamine tablets that you swallow. I went with that and had no problems with nausea flying over and back. I'm wondering if there might have been some absorption differences 2 months post-op versus my current 9 month post-op status? I have no idea; I'm just glad the tablets worked just as well as the chewables.

Yikes! It's been well over a month since I updated this, but then I was once again in a prolonged stall. When I last updated on March 23rd, I had gotten down to 275 pounds. This morning I was down to 270, but it was a long time in coming, six weeks in fact. And that's not a pound a week or anything like that. That was me being 275 last Wednesday and being 270 today. So frustrating! Ha ha! I was talking with a friend here at work...same person I've mentioned in the past in this and other threads...who was sleeved in April of 2014. He went from 470 pounds down to 160 pounds since then. I ran into him a couple of weeks ago, and I was telling him that I was in this really long stall. He told me that he refused any stalls he was in; he tried whatever he could if he didn't see the scale move. He suggested doing the "metabolism" kick or whatever you want to call it. That's where you eat the same thing, morning, noon, and night for six days, then just eat whatever you want on the 7th day. Something about giving your metabolism a bit of a shock on that 7th day. One of my employees does that same thing. He didn't have WLS and probably never will, but he eats four eggs for Breakfast, and then chicken and broccoli for lunch and dinner EVERY day Monday through Saturday. Then Sunday his is cheat day: pizza, steaks, fried chicken, donuts, chocolate, cake, muffins, whatever. It's not something I've tried because I hate the idea of eating the same thing like that, but who knows. By the way, something I've noticed in the stalls I've had so far, is that my waist seems to show signs of getting smaller before I see the scale move downward. I didn't have any movement on my waist starting back on February 1st until last week. Granted I only moved one hole on my belt, and my shorts look mighty big on me all of a sudden, but it was something. I would love to lost another 5 pounds to get to my next milestone of 265 by next week when I head home to Texas, but I'm not holding my breath especially how slow things have been going.

Yeah, mine wasn't all that impressive either. Every month I had a weigh-in and usually met with somebody different to talk about what I was eating, any questions about the surgery, etc. I think I only met with the nutritionist twice during that time. At my initial consult though, my surgeon said to basically eat a small Breakfast (one egg and toast) and then eat Healthy Choice frozen meals for lunch and dinner. So that's pretty much what I did for six months. Just off of that I ended up losing about 40 or so pounds before the all-liquid pre-op diet 3 days before my surgery. So yeah, the 6-month supervised diet was definitely not what I expected it to be. It was pretty much all up to me to do whatever it took to lose weight before the surgery.

I'm in the same boat. The "goal" my surgeon gave me was 220 pounds, but I was 215 pounds when I was 13 years old so that doesn't seem like a very good goal. My "stretch" goal is 180 so will see how it goes.

I bought mine in individual bottles from GNC and The Vitamin Shoppe. It's definitely a better idea to try out the different flavors to find what you would like.

Oh, wow, that was weird...I think I copied and pasted some extra stuff; I could see it, but I guess nobody else could...anyway, trying again: I had the RNY Gastric Bypass in August 2015, but I had been diabetic since at least 2003 or earlier. Unfortunately I never recognized it for what it was at the time (enjoying the weight loss that came with being a hardcore diabetic) so I didn't see a doctor about it until mid-2006 when I finally started taking insulin. Even though my blood sugar was better controlled, I never really got a good handle on it, and my dosage just kept getting bigger and bigger. It's been a while since I thought of it (probably some of my older posts have the exact numbers), but I was taking something like 200 units of Levemir per day and nearly 150-200 units of Novolog per meal. My A1C was still pretty high. As much as I had hoped that the surgery was going to be a cure all, I think the many years of being diabetic (including the time between 2003-2006 when I never knew I was diabetic) and the amounts of insulin I was taken will keep me from being fully "cured". Only time will tell. My next endo appointment is next month so will see what he has to say. When I talked with him last September he had hopes that I might be off the insulin by now, but I can definitely tell that's not going to be the case.

I posted this in another thread about this last night, so I'm just doing a copy and paste here. I'm one that diabetes has not completely been "cured" post-op: I had the RNY Gastric Bypass in August 2015, but I had been diabetic since at least 2003 or earlier. Unfortunately I never recognized it for what it was at the time (enjoying the weight loss that came with being a hardcore diabetic) so I didn't see a doctor about it until mid-2006 when I finally started taking insulin. Even though my blood sugar was better controlled, I never really got a good handle on it, and my dosage just kept getting bigger and bigger. It's been a while since I thought of it (probably some of my older posts have the exact numbers), but I was taking something like 200 units of Levemir per day and nearly 150-200 units of Novolog per meal. My A1C was still pretty high. As much as I had hoped that the surgery was going to be a cure all, I think the many years of being diabetic (including the time between 2003-2006 when I never knew I was diabetic) and the amounts of insulin I was taken will keep me from being fully "cured". Only time will tell. My next endo appointment is next month so will see what he has to say. When I talked with him last September he had hopes that I might be off the insulin by now, but I can definitely tell that's not going to be the case.

They are doing a cycling evaluation as well I think in a couple of weeks. I didn't sign up yet; I haven't ridden a bike in ages, but it is something I do eventually want to get back into doing.