LittleBill

Your father loves you and he is worried for your safety. That is not hard to understand. The hard part is getting past that. I think it is important for him to know that you have listened and considered his concerns. It is equally important that he know that this is your decision, not his. Life is full of what ifs. I had two friends die from this surgery years ago, which was a major factor in my putting it off for so long. But, that was years ago, and both of them were in really bad shape pre-op. When your time is up, it is up. Your chances of dying from this are about the same as dying in a wreck on the highway. As for the other complications, yeah, they are there, but there are risks we incur every day just living our lives. You know all this already. Your father does too at some level, but he has to get past the fact that it is his little girl who is going to be in danger, and there is nothing he can do about it. That is hard on a Dad, and I write that as the father of three little girls. Although they are adults, married and with children of their own, they will always be my little girls. Talk to him and put it to him this way if you haven't already. It might not help right away, but you will have done all you can to let him know you consider his fears for your safety important.

It is. A dog is not just some animal. Dogs are companions who give us unconditional love, and who depend on us for their well being. The relationship between dogs and humans spans thousands of years and hundreds of cultures.

I have cried like a big fat baby every time I have had to put a dog to sleep. Heck, I do that for cats too. I am a big softy. I feel for your loss.

Our middle daughter is the executive director of a non profit medical facility which is Christian based. One day she was having a discussion with one of her board members who was trying to remember if one of the priests on the board was was Roman Catholic or Orthodox. She said it was all she could do to keep from blurting out, "It's tattooed on the back of his neck!" Then she said to me, "Thanks a lot, Daddy."

It's only going to get worse. I'm what one might call a merry wag.

@@AvaFern - Great post! I think the best line of the whole thing though, is this one: "Despite their belief to the contrary, surgeons are not actually God,"

Well I am working real hard at getting my V shape back, only with muscles showing again.

Good, I am relieved. I can create ill will well enough with strong statements without having to do it unintentionally. The whole "above your ribs" thing might be less of an issue for me, but I do feel like everything is going before my middle. That's not 100% rational, but it is my perception nonetheless.

I don't know. That's a pretty "thin" argument there. ;-) I agree completely. But we are in a society now where people just don't WANT to be coddled, they DEMAND it. That's why we have trigger warnings, safe spaces, blah blah blah. We're not allowed to have Moxie anymore. Bubbles are bad for us. But yeah, another post I find refreshingly succinct.

I did not mean to imply you were, so please forgive me if that was the impression I gave. I would have no idea. I was just expressing a concern about how I am losing weight from the top down, although my nether regions seem to have diminished somewhat as well. It looks like my spare tire is going to be the last to go, which is what inspired my pear shaped comment.

I am losing weight sort of like @@OutsideMatchInside - from the top down. I just posted two days ago about my helmet I wear for work fitting looser, especially around my cheeks. I just hope the loss continues, and rapidly. I would hate to end up looking like a pear. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/384197-i-guess-i-really-did-have-a-fat-head-nsv/

Yeah, he'll send him to the dog POUND!

The CRNP was eager to get on it. Either that, or she is a very good actor. But I have gotten to know her well enough that I think she is going to follow up with enthusiasm. I got the impression that the guilty party hasn't been there long enough to have real experience - just enough to think she does. I suspect there will be a follow up conversation at my next appointment.

There is a lot of quoting of Monty Python in this house. Even our daughters have gotten in on it.

I was raised in a "clean your plate" environment. Little children were starving in Biafra and all that. Put this in your mind every time you want to eat every last scrap.

I believe the term you are looking for is "Commando".

The biggest thing to do differently (and maybe the hardest) is to stop worrying about it. Weight loss is not linear, and it is not constant from person to person. Keep doing everything right, and don't sweat it. Some weeks will be great, and some won't. This is long term. Look at my SIG line.

They have conservatives in CO? I know a guy who moved out there from PA so he could be a legal stoner. He was more of a libertarian, tending towards anarchist I think.

There have been several occasions in my life where I have informed the person on the other end that if they can't get things straightened out, I will show up in person. That works for local miscreants, but is not enforceable over longer distances. About 25 years ago at a car dealership, after being jerked around for almost two weeks, I informed the service manager that if my truck was not fixed by the next day, someone was going to the hospital, and I was going to jail. I had my truck the next day. But I was much younger, and somewhat hotheaded in those days.

It'll give you the munchies something fierce, that's for sure.

@@Djmohr, I hit the like button, although there is no way I can like your post. I hit it as a show of solidarity with you. I was reading through, thinking of all the crap I've gone through over the years with idiots on phones, lazy employees etc, and wondering if this poor woman had a migraine all the while this was going on. Then I got to your sentence about having a migraine the whole time. I'm afraid if I had been you, I'd be posting from jail by now. Hopefully someone tears that employee a new rear end over this. The sad thing is, so many people just don't want to work anymore, even when their work isn't all that hard. They're busy with their nose in their phone, thinking about the next Facebook post, or what they'll do when the get off work that day. It's too much work to actually think about what is happening, and then respond to it in an intelligent manner. I hope all this smooths out for you soon. You've got an awful lot going on, and I am sure I don't know the half of it. You don't need migraines to add to it all.

And just as a trivia aside, I know I shouldn't think this way, but every time I see CRNP I think of this. CRNP, RCMP. They are very close, you know.

My Mom earned her RN and a BS in nursing back in the 50s. It was a five year program, and she would become incensed when people would get all jumped up without credentials or experience. She about blew a fuse when I was a teenager helping out at a clinic, and because I was a male, the patients kept referring to me as "The Doctor".

I just got off the phone with the CRNP a few minutes ago. She confirmed that occasional use of ibuprofen is perfectly acceptable at this point, and assured me several times that she will be having a conversation with the person who is in charge of the woman who took my call. Apparently there is some evidence that she is NOT the office coordinator. I predict someone is going to have her rear in a sling by this time tomorrow - maybe even now.

I couldn't find the "Post-op group nutrition meeting for sleevers" sub forum, so I hope this is in the right place. Today I attended my second post-op group nutrition meeting (as you might have guessed by now). There were six women there (counting the nutritionist) and lil ole LittleBill. It went very well. Everyone was friendly. A lot of the information conveyed was similar to what I see here, but with the personal element of face to face interaction. I do have to say this though, ladies, and I mean no offense. Ya'll must have some sort of internal sensor that alerts you to breaks in the flow of words coming three sentences ahead of time. There was absolutely NO dead space or quiet time in the conversation, and the poor male in the room was all adrift trying to get a word in edgewise without talking over anyone else. But everyone else was completely at ease. It was like synchronized talking. I did manage to blunder into a few places and contribute a thing or two. I even told a funny story. But it was tough going to find a space. I'm going back in a month.