Pam_2-06-2017

It is completely normal to have mood changes during the early stages of recovery. Every body is different and I believe how we handle the changes has to do with our nature as well. Not a bad thing, just reality. After surgery your hormones are sent into a tailspin. Lots of stuff going on inside that causes your exact symptoms. Your doctor should have talked to you about the good and the bad of these hormone changes. The good is that when our bodies are sent into this tailspin it needs time to adjust. During that adjustment period it is important to stay very close to your eating plan and water intake. Your body is creating new set points, new places where it is content. We want that set point to be thinner, healthier and happier. So work hard to lose, relax and just feel good about all these changes. The bad is after surgery we are very good at getting our protein, drinking our water and doing light exercise. All of these things release toxins and stored hormones from our fat, like estrogen. So if you find yourself crying at the drop of a hat, thinking about strangling your significant other, or locking yours or someone elses children in the closet, be happy, your burning fat:-) and all is as it should be. Everyone is a bit scared after surgery of the possibilities for complication. Feel free to call your surgeon's office every time you are unsure and someone there should be able to assure you that all is well or call you in if there are really issues. Don't be shy, that's why they are there. Also, prepare for feelings of regret, remorse, and anger at what you've done to yourself. I have described this phase as a really bad break up with our greatest love...the abuse of food. You will mourn not being able to eat like you did before. Be assured that all those feelings pass and when you are a couple months out and a few pounds down you feel so good and you will be happy that love is over. Life is different and oh, so, much better. Take care

I'd take two pounds and 4 days in Rome anyday!

Excellent testimony! Thank you for sharing.

6/30 - 175.4. Still moving in the right direction. Thanks!!!

Yes...it is normal and weird. I had to sleep propped on pillows for a while after surgery. I did vomit once at about 4 weeks post op because I ate something that didn't agree with me. Now at 5 months post op the foamies are gone. I do get these gurgly, burpie sounds after I eat if I have that one bite too much. Most times I catch it before it gets to that point. It does keep getting better as you heal. Take care

You are pretty amazing! You are a beautiful person inside and outside!!! Congratulations!

I'm 5 months out and have lost 45 pounds. I am a terribly slow loser but it has been steady with a couple of painful stalls. I am content to have the scale moving in the right direction but at first I wanted that instant gratification because I was eating so darn little. I was 220 at the start and am now 175. My low BMI has alot to do with it but also the fact that I was having so much trouble getting in my fluids and protein at first. Now I have no problem and average about 2 lbs a week. This is really good and I am content to stay at that rate. It is hard to see all the big losers here but quite frankly, I'm a pretty big loser now too. Just not as impressive on the graph as others. It won't be long until those results really show and the number becomes less important. Just stick to your plan and try to get in some light exercise. It will come off. Eventually you will feel more normal when your intake is not so restricted. The biggest benefit to slow loss has been that my skin has been able to adjust to my weight loss. At 50 I expected more saggy skin but that has not happened so much. I just keep moisturizing after my shower and my skin is looking pretty darn good. Enjoy the progress you've made.. take care

Your dr putting you in the hospital for losing too fast doesn't even make sense and put unnecessary fear in you. Were you malnourished? Dehydrated? It takes a while to become malnourished. At a minimum log your food intake so you can be honest about what you are eating. Most of it is really simple. 60-100g of protein, keep carbs low, drink lots of water and walk 30 minutes a day. That surgeon gave you the tool you need to succeed. He can't make you follow a good eating plan. And you really can't lose too much too fast. There are guidelines for determining if you are underweight but I get the impression you never made it to goal. I lovingly tell you that you know the plan, you know your body and you know how honest you are being with yourself. Consequently, only you can make the changes needed to get back on track. You can do it! Take care.

Did your dependency begin after surgery? To have established addiction to alcohol and pain killers after surgery is pretty radical. Have you talked to a therapist about your concern? Aside from the affects of these behaviors on your tummy, the repercussions to your quality of life are huge. Sharing on this board will get you opinions but your addiction is way bigger than an online support group. Please work hard to get personal help. My daughter is a meth addict that has been clean for over a year. I could do nothing to help her. She had to do all the work to help herself. Thinking of you. Take care

Yes....it does pass. Congrats on coping. You have the right attitude.

Yep....my dreams have come true:-). Take this opportunity to evaluate your relationship with food and let go. Stick to your post op eating plan. It won't be long before head hunger hits and it sucks when you can't eat whatever you want. Then when you can eat whatever you wNt you will be over it and eating for nutrition becomes normal. Right now eat and drink with intention. I am 5 months out and still feel no hunger. I am thankful for this as i still want to nibble the stuff I like. Not having true hunger helps me to resist. I hope the lack of hunger lasts forever:-)

I had surgery in February and am down almost 44 lbs. Everyone loses at a different rate based on physiology, diet and exercise. Some are way ahead of me but as long as the scale and is moving in the right direction I'm good with it. You're doing great!!

Started at size 20. Nearly 5 months out and I now wear a loose 12.

Why is it that mom's feel guilty if we're even thinking about doing something for ourselves? I have officially gotten over that:-). I am the shopper in my home so what comes in is all up to me. If junk gets through my door it better be eaten quick or it will disappear. Honestly! I am nearly 5 months post op so I'm still pretty honeymoon about it. But at this point my family likes the person I've become so appealing to them for understanding is pretty easy. I guess they are also in the honeymoon stage:-/ i still allow some things as my teen-aged son and husband with ravenous appetites and no weight problems need calories. So I practice resisting. I have introduced a few things back into my home and intentionally resisted. I don't beat myself up about it. Things I'm proud to resist are ice cream, crackers, tortilla chips... that doesn't mean I don't eat it. I resist it. Example: if I think about the ice cream in the fridge I resist. But when my son has a bowl I ask him to serve me a bowl with three tablespoons and savor every spoonful and log it in my journal. I want to build a healthy relationship with food. At two years out nobody has to tell you how to eat or how to get over your addiction. You know the plan. You have to find that mojo within yourself that moved you in the direction of WLS. Food addiction sucks but you have a great tool to help you get it under control. Take care

6/23 - 176.3 over 2 lbs this week!! Woooohooooo!

It was a hard concept for me to get until I was post op a couple of months. WLS does not keep you from eating anything. After you heal you will, for the most part, be able to eat anything you want but in smaller quantities. I have absolutely no problem eating anything at all. With the exception of fried potatoes, which is ok with me. You've probably heard it before but this surgery is a tool to help you learn the self control needed to maintain a healthy weight. Consequently, you will not succeed if you do not change your relationship with food. I still enjoy a good meal but it is a rare treat to indulge myself. I stick with my plan of 60-100g of protein and less than 25g of carbs and ensuring I drink 64 oz water a day. Staying within that guideline has worked for me. Occasionally I slip when I'm with family or friends but my new tool helps me to get back at it the next day. I encourage you to use pre op and post op restrictions to evaluate your relationship with food. You will mourn the loss, regret your decision, and get angry because you did this to yourself. You experience the toughest breakup you have ever known. Your very emotional relationship with food must come to an end and it hurts like hell. But!!!! There is so much joy on the other side of that. I drive through town and never think of running through a drive thru. I can prepare a meal for my family without "tasting" a full meals worth of calories. I can go to a movie and skip the buttered popcorn. These are concepts that I did not know existed. You will get it. You will know exactly what I mean and it will be so freeing. I am amazed what I missed because eating was so important to me. Good luck! And take care.

My stall came to an end finally. I was down 40 pounds since surgery in February. Dropped two pounds this week after starting the C25k running trainer. Went from a 14 to a 12 with no weight lost. I can live with that:-). Photo before was taken in December 2016. 6 weeks before surgery.

I love the program. It sure eases you into running. Walk 1 1/2 minutes, run 1 minute. That has been week one. Week two adds a minute to the workout and increases the run time 30 seconds. It prepares your joints for running. I have done it before when I was over 200 lbs and was still able to run a 5k pretty easily. I can't wait to see if I get a better time now!

I use a Fitbit scale. When I weigh it uploads my weight into my profile. I don't always look down when I weigh. I just figure I'm capturing data that I can look at on the graph in my app. I hadn't looked at my graph in a while and it gives me warm fuzzies to see the downward graph line. To my surprise my graph line was jagged. Up one pound, down one pound. Up two pounds down 3 pounds, etc. So I log in to check the data. To my surprise it was logging in two weigh ins a couple times a week. So I ask if anyone else is using my scale. My husband pipes up that he has been using it for a long time. Apparently it can differentiate between two people unless they are within 5 pounds of each other. Lol...he was literally stepping all over my data collection. So maybe a dorky, funny story but a super cool NSV since I now weigh more than 5 pounds less than my husband for the first time in our 20 year marriage!!!

Yay!!!! Congratulations! Just around the corner!

I had a few unexpected symptoms. You should be comfortable calling your surgeons office and asking about any symptom you are not sure about. Most of them resolve themselves like mine did. But it's scary anyway. You're doing great!

I had crazy stomach spasms for nearly two weeks. I'd just breath through them. Cold things were the worst. Everything I drank had to be room temp minimum. In desperation I even tried warming or cooling things to 98 degrees so it was the same temp as my body. It didn't work. They were bad the first week and occasional the second week. I slept in a recline position as it seemed to happen spontaneously if I laid flat on my back.

It may make a difference. I actually went on liquids two days before surgery even though the Dr told me one. I was a bit paranoid. Stick to liquids from now til surgery and you'll probably be ok but be sure to let your surgeon know. It would be horrible if he got in there and couldn't do the surgery.

I had my gall bladder removed in 2009 after losing lots of weight very quickly on HCG. I gained weight back but it was because I stopped doing HCG and went back to my old, nasty way of eating. I had vsg on 2/6/2017 and am eating healthy and happily and steadily losing weight. The gall bladder is simply a storage unit for bile to be released into the stomach when bile is needed. If you eat high fat foods more bile is needed to break down the food so the gall bladder goes to town. The reason we don't necessarily need a gall bladder is because the pancreas can do the same thing. As a matter of fact the pancreas is what fills the gall bladder in the event that bile is needed. When we crash diet or go on a very low calorie diet the gall bladder just sits there with all this bile just waiting for you to pound down a couple Big Macs again. When you don't, it just sits in there and crystallizes into stones. The stones move into the opening where it hurts like hell. Then into surgery for gall bladder removal. As you can see, this has nothing to do with weight loss or gain. You will not gain weight because you do not have a gall bladder. Take care

19.5% lost at 4 1/2 months out.