Orchids&Dragons

Thanks! Bought it! It's a halloween belt? Too funny!

Sorry, but I can't resist! No afters!

I'm on a Halloween kick!

Best wishes to for smooth a surgery and a speedy recovery!

Best wishes to both of you for smooth surgeries and speedy recoveries!

Love this coat! The others were dreadful on you! They made you look about 4'6" tall. Those boots are to die for!

I had a revision to RnY from my sleeve after 8 months due to reflux. The reflux is gone. The only downside is I have less restriction now than I had with my sleeve.

Slider foods go down very easy. They basically "slide" through your pouch and don't trigger restriction. This is why we're told to focus first on the dense protein.

So sorry to hear you're struggling. Are you on anything for nausea?

I did not have an endoscopy or a sleep study.

@BetterBelizeIt The feelings that you're experiencing are very normal. The comparison to first-time parents was spot-on. You can prepare as much as you want, but until you have the actual experience, you don't know $#@!. Surgery doesn't turn us away from our long-time coping mechanisms (i.e. food). It makes it more difficult to over-indulge, but certainly doesn't prevent us from doing so, especially once we learn how to eat "around" our restriction. I'm sorry that friends and family have not been there for you. Some react out of jealousy, others mistakenly think that you now look down on them. Avoid them for now, maybe they'll come around in the end. But you need to do what you need to do and surrounding yourself with supportive people is important. This site is absolutely amazing for that kind of support. Seek out and connect with others who are at a similar phase of weight loss to you and support each other. If you have a local support group, go and meet others who've gone through similar challenges. One-on-one connections can't be beat, imho. If you have access to a therapist, by all means take advantage of it. The results may be mixed, though. My experience has been that therapists who don't work with a lot of bariatric patients tend to lump us in with other "eating disorders" and I didn't find that helpful at all. There are also some books that may be of help to you: The Emotional First Aid Kit is the only one I can bring to mind right now, but maybe others will add favorite helpful books that they've read. Please reach out by PM if you'd like to talk more and good luck on your journey. Btw, where are you in Texas?

Awesome! One more milestone ticked off your list!