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To answer the PMS question, for me that's a yes. I'm 2 months out so I don't have a long history to draw on but my sept and oct periods were torture because I craved the things I ate before surgery - baked goods, take-out, salt, sugar. I also felt like a bottomless pit (still have restriction during meals but think about eating all day). I have to be extra careful to measure and track food, watch my carbs, and not graze during my period. I hope it gets easier!! During the rest of the month I don't really crave much, some days I can barely meet my Water and Protein goals and don't feel like eating at all. All bets are off during that time of the month! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm in a Facebook group with about 200 recently sleeved people and a good amount of them were outpatients. I stayed 2 nights but I know a ton of people who had surgery in the morning and were home by late afternoon. Wouldn't have worked for me, I had some bleeding complications (nothing serious, I was fine but needed to be monitored). Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Commenting to follow the thread; my surgery was 8/8 at Winchester Hospital. I live north of the city but work in Boston - I don't know anyone "in real life" who has had weight loss surgery. I have a great FB and instagram support system but really don't like my surgeon's monthly support group so I don't go often. A lot of people who had the surgery years ago and come every month to tell everyone they know better, you know? I'd love to get together with people who are closer to the start of their journey sometime - I think we face different challenges than people who've been maintaining for years.

My doc almost cancelled my surgery because I couldn't drive to the hospital 48 hrs before my surgery to take a pregnancy test. (I don't live near the hospital and had unbreakable plans that day, also he never told me it was a requirement to have a pregnancy test appointment exactly 48 hrs before surgery until the day before!) I was so angry - I'm a married gay woman. I was asking, don't you have a waiver I can sign attesting to the fact that I'm not pregnant? and they had the nerve to say that many women don't know they're pregnant and they have no way of knowing if I'm one of those women. The amount of blank stares I got when I said "I'm GAY. I'm MARRIED to a WOMAN who CANNOT PHYSICALLY GET ME PREGNANT." They ended up making me check into my surgery 6 hours early so i could take a test that morning then sit around all day waiting for the results before they'd operate. It was so insulting. The nurse was so snippy with me that I started getting a little bit punchy back with her. "I had sex with some men in college. But, I graduated in 2002 so... hmm. I could potentially be about 14 and a half years pregnant." They didn't appreciate that.

i'm 3.5 weeks out and still on liquids until next week. (my diet seems longer than most others i read about). i cheated by starting purees about a week early, at the 3 week mark instead of the 4 week mark. i had some mashed sweet potato with greek yogurt one night and then last night i had refried Beans with greek yogurt and a few slices of mashed avocado. i also ate a few bites of a Protein bar instead of a shake one morning this week - i chewed it until it was liquified and swallowed it and it wasn't worth it, i won't do that again. i felt fine but it tasted so gross to me to chew it for that long. i'll just wait until i can have regular food again to eat a protein bar! calorically, i haven't done any 'cheating.' i've just fast-forwarded my plan a little bit due to the sheer insanity that comes with only drinking liquids for 5 straight weeks (i had a 2 week pre-op too!). i feel ok about it. puree stage has a lot of flexibility so i don't plan on cheating for my puree weeks!

I'd like to reiterate that. Reading post-op threads on BP had me second guessing my decision. But my private FB group which is 92 members currently has given me the utmost confidence in my decision. (I'm getting sleeved on Monday, so I don't have a post-op experience to share but I am also a lifelong anxiety sufferer and panicked for weeks that I'd die while I was under anesthesia.) I'm feeling better and better as I watch each and every person in my FB group post "I'm out of surgery and feeling some pain but otherwise doing great!" My fear that I never talk about is that I'll chomp down on the breathing tube and break some of my teeth. I am cursed with naturally fragile teeth and I live in fear of breaking or chipping them. I had my pre-op appointment yesterday and the anesthesiologist was like "ok, so let me tell you that it's a possibility. It's highly unlikely but it could happen. Listen, we care about your teeth too and don't want you to have to go from sleeve surgery straight into dental surgery. So we're very careful and it's really, really unlikely. But worst case scenario, you break a tooth, you get it fixed, life goes on. You can't worry about stuff like that." I'm still worried, but I'm betting it's all going to be fine.

I have a gap/old navy Visa where for every dollar I spend (everywhere), I get rewards points for those stores. I had $60 in rewards expiring a few days ago so I went out and bought some XL stuff (I'm XXL/size 22 now). Didn't go crazy but it's fun to have a few new things - that I didn't have to pay for! - that I can size down into soon. (My surgery is in 5 days.)

This is me! I've spent fortunes (plural) over the years with all the times I've had significant weight loss but then the subsequent "gain it all back plus 15 new pounds". I always gave away my fat clothes, until a few years ago when it occurred to me that I always had to buy new clothes every time I failed and it felt like a double fail. I have so many things I can't even stand to look at, things I bought just because nothing else fit and I needed something. I've got about 40 pairs of jeans right now ranging from size 10 to size 24. I got rid of my 4-8 sizes years ago, figured I'd never get there again and if I did, they'd be so out of date I wouldn't wear them anyway. I haven't been smaller than an 18 in 8 years but I've got some timeless expensive pairs of 10-14's that were barely worn or never worn - I'm pumped to try them all on again! I already weeded out all the ones with rips, frayed hems, worn down thighs, super stretched waists, and the ones that were out of style or the ones I never liked anyway, about 15 pairs. It felt really liberating!! I can't wait to get rid of more but don't want to go overboard till after surgery next month. I plan on keeping my largest dress and largest pair of pants just for comparison, and not donating until I'm 2 sizes below just to be safe - like I'll get rid of all my 24's when I'm a 20, all my 22's when I'm an 18, all my 20's when I'm a 16, etc. I'm exactly 1 month out. Getting so excited. Obviously I think about jeans a lot - I'm guessing I'm not alone here. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Reading this makes me regret taking only a week off. My surgeon told me I'd only need a few days to heal, since I have a desk job. It didn't even occur to me to take off more time. I wish I had! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm taking a week of medical leave/PTO, then a week of WFH. I'm planning on only putting in partial days during the work from home week; generally when I WFH I put in a longer day than I do at the office but I want to give myself plenty of time to recover. I'm thinking I'll check emails and complete some light tasks in the morning, attend a few conference calls in the afternoon, and respond to urgencies as necessary, but not plan to sit at my desk from 8-6 like I usually do. As a project manager in a fast paced marketing team with super tight deadlines, I rarely have a minute to breathe. I'm going to take advantage of my healing time because I never get a break!!

Me too I'm 8/8 so I'm not quite at liquid diet stage yet. I made a list of all the things I'd really miss and have been eating them all! I try to balance it out (Greek yogurt, salad, Protein drinks.. then enchiladas and margaritas for dinner...) but I'm SO afraid to see my surgeon next week because as of today I'm 4 lbs above where I was when I saw him the first time a few months ago. I'm ready to take this leap and commit and do it right, but also, I want to say goodbye to ice cream. Ugh. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Glad to find this thread. I'm 36 years old, married, no kids yet, have lived on my own for 18 years and I'm STILL scared to tell my family. We are moderately close, and my parents and brother are actually pretty great people, but when food/weight are concerned, any chance of support goes out the window. My mom is naturally thin and has been a lifelong disordered eater, and although she'd never say it to my face, she looks down on me for my weight - it's clear with every single comment she makes (and always with the "but I just want you to be healthy!" at the end, a little add-on to soften the blow of whatever hurtful thing she's just said). My dad is just a pudgy guy who likes sweets but thinks all it takes to lose weight is put the cookie down, because that's HIS experience, and he thinks being heavy is a choice. I am expecting reactions like, "It's too bad it's come to this, if you'd stuck with Weight Watchers 13 years ago you'd never have gotten yourself into this situation," or "That's really typical of you - dramatic and impulsive. Why don't you try diet and exercise before getting yourself cut open and taking the easy way out?" or "Is that really necessary? You just need to do [x y or z] and I'm sure the weight would come off naturally." No, it wouldn't - I weigh 300 pounds, you think I haven't TRIED AND FAILED over 100 times in the last 15 years? I don't tell you about every pound I lose then gain back. I think they just assume I've been sitting here eating french fries for 20 years and all I need to do to lose the weight is stop. Not even remotely the case. I've been thinking about this surgery for over 2 years now. I decided to have it 10 months ago, and am approved and scheduled for early August. My wife is supportive and ready to take this journey with me. It's a done deal, I'm not changing my mind. I feel like maybe I don't want to tell anyone until afterwards, so I don't have to hear any potentially negative reactions that might stress me out before surgery. I may change my mind in the 6.5 weeks I've got left, but I'm learning towards not telling them until I'm fully recovered.... or ever. Maybe I'll just stick with "I'm on a medically supervised diet." or "I stopped eating Cookies and french fries, weird huh?"

Packing for a trip and not having to use my huge suitcase to fit my clothes! Everyone who sees my suitcase for a business trip is always like, "we're only going for 5 days, why'd you pack for a month?!" Uh, I didn't... my clothes are just much bigger than yours and take up more room. And obviously I need at least 2 extra outfits because when you're fat, sometimes your clothes look ok on you one day and make you look like a big fat monster the next day. I look forward to traveling with all my smaller clothes in a suitcase that can fit in the overhead compartment! While we're on the topic of travel - I can fit in a JetBlue or Virgin seat, though it's not completely comfortable I definitely fit so I plan all my travel around those airlines. I have never gotten an extender because I've always preferred 6 hours of cutting off my circulation over the embarrassment of having to ask for one. I refuse to fly United or the other airlines with the smaller seats and belts. I hate the look you get from everyone when you're getting on the plane, like "please don't sit next to me, oh my god I hope she's not sitting next to me!" I hate the feeling like you can't even rest your arms down because then they take up someone else's space, you have to kind of hold them in this weird position over your stomach so you stay in your own bubble and don't bother the person next to you. I travel for work a decent amount, and once or twice a year for fun, and I really can't wait for the first time I fly after losing weight. I've been fat for so long, I forget what it's like to go on vacation or a business trip without a serious level of anxiety and self-hate hanging over you because of the flight!

8/8 for me too, Dr Darius Ameri in Winchester, MA. I saw him for the first time in October and hoped to have surgery by January, but I went through some really stressful stuff a few months back (chaos surrounding purchasing a fixer upper with a lot of unexpected setbacks, family health issues, unexpected layoff and settling into a new job, etc.) and needed to put the surgery prep on hold to take care of myself. I regret that it took me so long to finish all my pre-op appointments because I was approved less than a week after I completed my paperwork! I could've been 6 months out by now. Oh well - here we go! Onward and upward.

My first post... I decided to have surgery last week and am going through the insurance approval process right now (getting all of my required appointments and paperwork taken care of). I got married 2 months ago in a private ceremony on a beach and it was the best day of my entire life. Then the pictures of myself looking giant in my dress at 300 pounds broke my heart. It breaks more every day when people beg to see the pictures - everyone means well, but I'm asked multiple times per day to produce pictures for friends, people at work, Facebook, family - and I can't show them. It hurts too much to see myself like that, I've hidden them away and they won't come out until I have an "after" picture to put next to them. I don't want to be this way when my wife and I have babies - always dodging the camera, cropping myself out of pictures with the kids, panicking every time I'm at an event and a camera comes out. And that's just the vanity talking. I've got a million reasons for health and lifestyle, like everyone else, but for me, the final straw was my wedding day.