Chanti_

Wow, did you ever imagine that you would be in a place where all the clothes on the rack are too big? Sounds like a dream. What a feeling that must be lol.

I have never heard of any provincial health insurance covering a surgery outside of Canada. I know that here in Nova Scotia, if for example your child needed cardiac surgery @ Sick Kids in Toronto that would be covered because the surgical expertise is not available here. But as there is a bariatric surgeon here (1, with a 10 year wait list) there is no coverage to travel for this type of surgery. I had my VSG in Mexico, I was self pay but it was worth every penny.

I love the Diva Cup. I struggled with the placement @ my highest weight of 233, but I'm pretty short too. I ended up going back to tampons. Now that I've lost 40 lbs I'm going to use my cup again yay! It's funny because that was one of the straws that broke the camel's back for me. I was so frustrated with my weight and inability to do simple things (like the cup) it pushed me to get my WLS.

So easy to say what we would do in your situation. 'Kick them to the curb' etc. But we are not in your situation are we? I'm sure that the stress in your life right now must be overwhelming. I can imagine you are worried about your son experiencing a relapse if you put any demands on him. Perhaps you can start small. Say, negotiate with him that his girlfriend is welcome for visits but she can not stay overnight more then once a week. Suggest perhaps that they could spend some overnights at her families' residence instead. He is working, and he does need to be contributing to your household expenses. You have not specified but hopefully he is. If not, you have to try and have a frank discussion with him about contributing what is fair to each of you. Does he need to live with you as part of some court ordered situation? If not then he needs to make a plan to move out. Your small apt cannot hold you, your ex, your son and his gf and her baby. This sounds like it has been a months, not weeks long situation. As for your soon to be ex husband. It sounds like you had a good arrangement prior to all this upheaval. Putting aside the fact that he's driving your car illegally.. he's had a health situation and now he's afraid to live alone, yes? You left him once before as I understand.. so it may be time to lay down the reality again. You are not his caretaker. Again, these suggestions are easy for me to give, entirely different putting them into practice. I wish you the best of luck in this situation. Try not to let it all come to a head. If you can have calm discussions when you are not angry, it will be much better then if you let everything fester then explode. Take care of yourself.

It sounds to me like he's a coward. I think he wants out of your marriage but does not want to be the instigator. So he is trying to alienate you in every way possible. Whether he just want's to be able to come off as the wronged party because you are the one to ask for a divorce or some other obscure reason, only he can say. He's had an affair. He's refused sex with you. He's demonstrated he's not attracted to you. He's unwilling to be affectionate with you even in minor ways. He isn't even being a friend let alone a husband. Start by getting your own bank account. Untie your money from his. No matter what else happens, you need the security of having a nest egg. He has a part time job and his own money, so should you. I'm sure your full time job is your care of your children and your home. If he wants your money tell him you can go splits on childcare and housekeeping expenses when you decide to work full time outside the home and see how he likes that. I'm thinking your husband is a t*w*a*t..

Ha, maybe they just need to 'light up' instead. Be chill people. I think using pot in the early post op period is a bad idea. Bad for the respiratory system mostly. Also, if you can continue to be only an occasional user ie. once a week or less, then I don't see much harm once you are completely recovered. But as others mentioned I would be concerned if you became a more frequent user. I would worry that stressors of WLS and ongoing life changes that occur with same might be a trigger for cross addiction. The comfort of over eating is gone, and it would not be great if pot filled the void.

I switched to the PatchMD multivitamin cause I couldn't tolerate the chewables. Sometimes I fail on Water as well. I am just not thirsty, but I get at least 1 liter in a day, it's that second one that I struggle with. The only problem with food is now that I'm actually cooking things for myself (instead of eating convenience or fast food) I have leftovers for days. I eat the same chicken dish, or ricotta cheese bake until I am sick of having the same entree or the food spoils. I need to downsize the recipes I guess, but buying a whole chicken I cheaper then pieces, and I like to buy in bulk to save money. What I really need to do is start freezing individual servings of meals to make life easier and also to get more variety in my meals.

Isn't that the truth.... All these decisions about, fat, saturated fat, carbs, sodium, sugar and of course protein. I still sometimes just close the fridge stop thinking about what to have and mix up a shake.

Mmmmm.. garlic dills, I started at 5 weeks dicing them up to add to chicken salad, or tuna... Now I just crunch one on it's own as a snack, I also have them in a deli meat roll up with cheese. They taste just as wonderful as before...

Well this is awesome! I have been avoiding gum, not that I was a big chewer before, but I would like to not have the Protein shake aftertaste.

You are very welcome! We're all on this journey together you know. Hope you are recovering well. Rest and fluids were my only priorities in the first week...

Isn't it bad for your reflux? I don't take acid blockers on a regular basis, and I really don't want to have to start. Doesn't all the chewing increase the acid production in your stomach?

You want to work up to 2 litres, or 64oz a day. This I could not accomplish in the first week, but do your best, I never got in less then a litre though. By the 2nd week post op I was rockin the fluids. To get my fluids in that first week I needed to set an alarm on my cell phone to beep every 3 minutes to remind me to take a sip,sip,sip. You should always have a drink in your hand, the last thing you want is a readmit to hospital for dehydration. Good luck, it gets easier, I'm 7 weeks out and I'm loving my sleeve!

I had a very hard time with any of the sweetened Protein drinks. The only one I could really tolerate post-op was unjury chicken Soup flavour. It's savory not sweet and was a lifesaver. You should check out their website, you can order single serving sample packs of all their flavors to try and see if you like them. Although the only one of theirs I liked was the chicken flavour, the rest... way too sweet. Now I can do okay mixing a chocolate powder with my decaf coffee in the AM, the coffee cuts the sweetness a lot. You could also try not mixing them with milk. I found the sugar in milk pushes the sweetness in the shakes that much further. Try Water, or unsweetened almond milk. Remember, if mixing any Protein Powder in a hot beverage, you need to let it cool to 140F or the protein will clump and not mix in... been there.. nasty and undrinkable.

You should contact your surgeon or his coordinator and discuss it with them to see if they can accommodate having your child with you. I've never heard of anyone doing this before. But they allow a friend or family member to stay with you so I can't imagine it would be too much of a problem. The only thing I would worry about is taking your child into a hospital where he could be exposed to sickness. Will you be around other patients who are sick? The last thing you want is your child exposed to RSV or some other virus and ending up sick too. If your Dr A is my Dr A, ie Dr Alvarez, his bariatric patients were not in contact with other patients. All the patient rooms I saw were medium to large sized private rooms and bathrooms, shower stall only though no tub, So no baths for your munchkin for a few days. It seemed we had a whole floor of the hospital for us. Perhaps that's just my perception but I was up walking the halls frequently and I only saw other WLS patients.

You know as a new member of this forum I was surprised at the tone coming through a good many of the posts. I did come here looking for information, support and to hear about others struggling with weight loss and WLS. For me, it makes me feel as if I'm not going through this journey by myself. I really think that there is a negativity here at times. Sometimes I see unwavering support of individuals who are struggling with huge issues. But more often I read sarcasm offered as advice, and people being made to feel stupid for asking a question in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's frustrating, especially for those 'veterans' who have gotten questions that seem ridiculous. But is it necessary to be disparaging if you choose to respond? If you can give good sensible information that is offered kindly, why wouldn't you? I haven't posted much here because I don't want to be attacked for my opinion. Feel free to disagree sure, but keep it cordial. It's in the site rules to be polite and not rude. Being dismissive of others opinions and laughing at them even obliquely is really not in any way polite. So this is not the place for me to ask the majority of my questions. I have found other sites much more welcoming and non judgmental. It's really to bad. I'm sure some of you will comment 'Well just go there then'. Perhaps I will. Maybe it's the nurse in me, but don't like to witness people in pain and listening to people inflict emotional distress on others with their comments turns my stomach. Some say it's just in their nature to be honest and they are 'keeping it real'. I truly feel that honesty is easy, it's compassion that takes effort.

Is it the one located on your left side, about 3cm long? Not the furthest left one that is quite small. If so that one for me was the most sore after surgery. It is the one they removed my stomach portion through. Also the abdominal wall muscles in that spot are disrupted during the surgery and need to be sutured, so this will be the most painful spot, and for me was sorest for the longest. That being said it was twingey, I would never describe it as severe pain. Mainly painful if I stretched or moved the wrong way, but by day 5 I could sleep on that side no problem. So 'hot poker' sounds a little alarming. How far out of surgery are you? Are you taking pain meds?

it kinda does matter to me. my taste happens to be the larger ladies and uh it just sucks that I am kinda shunned away. thank you and yes the weight loss is very awesome and I have thinned quite a bit but my mind is still that bigger guy who has just a little bit of trouble with the ladies. shyness is an understatement lol As a big woman, I can tell you that you may be shy but often so are we. I never think of myself as attractive to a man. You feel shunned but I know that for me in the past and even now at times when my self esteem is in the crapper, I am never able to take interest from a man as sincere. I think I shut down a lot of potentials because I didn't believe that they could really be interested in me. A lifetime of being the fat girl and my walls are high and thick. So if you are attracted to large women you gotta know that we often come with enough baggage to fill a semi. I think your best bet is to start out trying to be a friend and don't come on too strong too fast. Have patience, if you want a relationship your gonna need it. As to your original post I think physical attraction to a specific body type like BBW or SBM (skinny bald men in my case) is hard wired. You like what you like.

Toast that tastes bad?? You ladies obviously don't know the pleasures of Vegemite!!! Been there. Maybe it was Marmite, I think you need to be raised on the stuff to enjoy it Yuck! They only way I ever enjoyed Vegemite was in the Men at Work song.

I am so glad you are getting help bellabloom, and I hope that you come out the other side of your treatment with the skills you need to maintain a healthy life. It sounds like you have struggled for a long time. We are here for you if you need to talk.

You're so close to goal! You can do it!

It was because I am a single mother of 4 children and without my families help, I wouldn't have anyone to take care of my kids (the youngest is only 2) for the 3 or 4 days I will be in the hospital. They threw such a stink and basically everyone who would have been able to watch them, refused to help because they were against the surgery. I now have a different plan set in place for the kids instead of relying on family. (First surgery date was much sooner than expected so I didn't have time to make the preparations in advance and needed my family to help), I also work for the family business, so I was getting a hard time about taking the time off because last year I broke my tail bone and was off work for almost 10 weeks, There was a lot to it. While they aren't on board with me still, they at least are keeping their mouths shut (aside from the constant barrage of, "you should try this diet with me!"). Thank you So it's not just that they don't support you and your choices about your health, They are actively sabotaging you. I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I hope you have someone supporting you through this process it's not easy and we all need encouragement from time to time.

When on full liquids, I could do 1/2c of Soup. Now that I'm full diet I find denser things need smaller portions. Yesterday I had 3 oz of chicken and 1/4c of spaghetti squash with sauce and cheese that I had to eat i two sittings. i'm also still working out what my sleeve can tolerate. I use My Fitness Pal to track my calories, protein etc and I weigh or measure every bite

The plain greek really is the best for you as it has the most Protein and no carbs. I don't like it either but I hide it in other foods. I use a 50/50 yougurt/mayo spread for my egg or chicken or tuna salads, I marinaded a piece of salmon in yougurt lemon juice and dill.. it turned out awesome. Sometimes I put a couple of tablespoons in my Protein shake I can't even notice it. I have put splenda and Water packed canned peaches in it but I needed a lot of splenda to make it tolerable. The fruit added and flavored yougurts don't have near the protein, and do have some carbs but if you like them they are an ok alternative, I eat them occasionally. I have yet to try adding Protein powder to the yougurt but it sounds like a good idea, I'm going to try that today I think.

I took 2 weeks, I'm a nurse and my job can be physically demanding @ times. I was ready to go back mentally, and for the most part physically as well. But now at a month out if I have a busy shift I am really fatigued. I don't seem to have the endurance yet that I'm used to.