ssflbelle

Thanks for the support. I didn't hear about this woman. Deflating is the problem they are already so deflated they hang down to my knees when I am sitting without a bra on. This blood blister which opened up is bleeding today but the opening is smaller. I took the band aid off in hopes that it will dry up. The cream and antibiotic pills are making me sleepy, I sure hope by Monday morning this is healed.

OMG I can't believe these latest development! Getting pre-op medical testings and clearance is so stressful and frustrating. I supposedly had all my pre-op testing for excess skin removal on June 9th. Today 5 days before surgery is to happen I am told I need to head back to the PCP and have PT (Prothrombin Time), PTT (Partial Thromboplastin Time), and INR (International Normalized Ratio). asap. Why the heck wasn't this done June 9th. So I rush my butt to the PCP get this done just in time to get over to the hospital for the pre-surgery appt only to have to go back to the PCP because the hospital said I have an infection from a blood blister that broke open on my breast. Now I am on a cream and antibiotic 5 days before I am to have surgery. I sure hope this doesn't get canceled for the second time. I just don't understand why I am having so much trouble getting these breast boulders turned into molehills. If this surgery is canceled again for the second time I am going to be so upset I think I will explode and just hack them off myself. Just needed to vent!

Thanks for the smoothing sailing comments. However if these Doctors of mine don't get their pretesting results and medical clearance to the surgeon it may be canceled again. Yesterday I sat in the PCP office for 2 1/2 hours until they finally gave me the tests result for the test that were done on June 9th. They claim they sent the results to the surgeon, but the surgeons says he didn't have them. I was not going to leave the PCP office until I got the medical clearance. The Dr finally came out to the waiting room and promised he would do the medical clearance and send it over to the surgeon yesterday afternoon. Guess what as of 6 pm Tuesday it is still not done. He was contacted again today and stated the Cardiologist from the EKG testing which had been done in March and again June 9th hadn't sent the medical clearance from the March testing. I find that odd as I was suppose to have this surgery March 21 and it was canceled because a biopsy was needed. I was again promised the PCP medical clearance would be sent Wednesday. I am not giving up on this and will hound these Doctors until the clearances are in the doctors hands. I already hand delivered all the testing results to the surgeon yesterday but can't hand deliver the clearances. Tomorrow I go to the hospital for the preop and to pay my copay. I am usually a very patient woman but if there is a problem tomorrow the b***h will be coming out in me.

Where is your Dr from? I also have never heard of any Dr recommending only water. Does he have a Nutritionist on staff? Have you spoken with her? Being in starvation mode is not going to allow you to heal.

Hi to everyone who is reading my blog. I see it was viewed over 1,000 times and I thought it was time for an update. I am writing this posting 23 days after my surgery. I have posted on many threads during these past 23 days about my surgery and recovery but some how neglected writing in my blog. So today I am taking the time to post about my surgery experience. Sorry this is rather lengthy, but should offer you all in the pre-surgery stage another glimpse into what happened at least to me during my surgery. Each person's surgery is different, so yours may not be anything like mine. If in some small way it helps just one person to understand how to prepare for their Weight Loss Surgery it will be worth it to write this. Plus next year when I am at goal I would like to have the posting to read back on. I was called on Monday Jan 25th 2016 and told to report to the hospital at 11:30 am Tuesday Jan 26th. My surgery took place 2 days after my Birthday. Sunday, my Birthday I started my clear liquid diet even though I didn't need to start it until Monday. However the night before my 60th Birthday we had a Wine, Fondue and Cupcake party so I wanted to be sure all that junk was out of my system for surgery day. After midnight on Monday I was not allowed to eat or drink anything. On Monday I had photos taken, took my measurements and packed my bags. This is my first surgery and I was a bit nervous of the unknown, whether or not I would wake up from the surgery. How bad would the pain be and how long would I be in the hospital. However everything I have read on line for the past 8 years has shown me that this is the right thing for me to do. Over many many years I have lost 180 pounds on my own and the last 160 do not want to leave my body. After Jan 26th I knew that the numbers would go down a lot faster than the first 180 did. I was thrilled to finally be able to have this much needed surgery that was denied me in 2008 when I first joined the site. Come Tuesday my roommate drove me to the hospital. I remember on the 30 minute drive how thirsty I was and how much my throat hurt from not being allowed to drink even water. They took me in to the preop area within 10 minutes of my arriving at the hospital. I changed into the gown and they put on the nonskid booties as I couldn't do it. Then they put on those white support stockings and the velcro leg compressions. I have a history of lymphedema and neither one of us wanted to deal with that on top of surgeries. They tried to get an IV line started on my left hand but as soon as they put the tourniquet on me the vein they had found disappeared. So the nurse located and got one on the right hand. After that I complained I was cold on my shoulders so they put on a few blankets and even had a heater hose under the blanket at my legs. Next they hooked me up to the EKG but they were having problems getting it to register. They asked me all kinds of questions about the meds I had taken and when I last ate or drank anything. They moved the EKG pads, replaced them twice and finally replaced the lines. After about 20 minutes they had a good reading. It was about 1 o'clock when I was wheeled into the operating room. I remember thinking wow there are at least 6 to 8 people in here who were going to be there for me. Within another minute I was asleep. I don't even recall a mask being put over my face. I was the first one for the day as Dr Vaughan starts in the afternoon on Tuesday. Dr. Vaughan started the bariatric surgery program at Jupiter Medical Center in 2000. He is highly regarded among his peers for his technical skills, excellent outcomes and low complications rates. In addition to bariatric surgery, he performs an entire range of general surgery, including gallbladder removal, hernia repairs, heartburn surgery, colon and intestinal, stomach and skin cancer surgery. Since the surgery I have gotten reports as to what Dr Vaughan did in the 2 hour surgery time. First he repaired a hernia that we both knew about. I had 6 visits with dr Vaughan before he did the surgeries. During that time he thought I might have an umbilical hernia and if I did he was going to leave it in. He said during weight loss they grow back so better to leave it in and get it taken out when I have skin removal surgery. However it turns out the hernia was not an umbilical and he had to repair it After that he moved on to do my sleeve and the last thing he did was removed my very badly diseased gallbladder. I never had an problems with the gallbladder. However he told me it was a porcelain gallbladder and had to come out. According to my room mate the hospital provided a computerized following of me that day. He told me I was in the operating for 2 hours and in recovery for 3 hours. In recovery they had a very hard time getting my pain under control. I have read that people woke up with tubes in their throats and remember everything they said. I have no memory of the 3 hours in recovery. The first memory I have is being wheeled through the doors of my private room. I remember asking for ice chips as my throat was as dry as a bone. Those first ice chips in over 18 hours felt so good as they melted down my throat. I slept off and on the rest of that night. The only pain I had was right under my breast on the left side. I remember holding onto that area for most of the night and being cold. I also remember not liking that my feet were still restricted and asked of all that stuff could come off and they said no. I asked if they could at least expose my toes so they did take off the nonskid slippers and pushed the open toe support stocking up just above my toes. Oh what a relief that was as I never wear socks. So once I felt more comfortable I drifted off to sleep again until they came to take my vitals. I don't remember when but at one time in the night I saw my blood pressure bottom number had dropped down to 38. I have no idea if that wa good or bad as I drifted back off to sleep. However all the hospital staff was wonderful so I am sure they took care of the situation as they needed to. Since this turned out to be so long, I will end it here and start another posting about the Day after surgery. Feel free to ask any questions, leave a command or two or become friends with me.

Hi Everyone It has been awhile since I wrote the last posting in my blog. The day after surgery Wednesday was the day I was suppose to go home but it turns out I didn't leave until the following day. I was still way to weak, in the morning to even get myself off the toilet without the PT lift belt and three people pulling me up. By about 1 pm the PT finally got me up on my feet with the walker to do a little bit of walking. That afternoon I was able to eat some of the Jello. Later that night they changed my IV meds to Tylenol. Come Thursday morning I was anxious to get out of the hospital and was home by noontime. The 35 minute ride home was ok only because I had my little bucket with me in case I got sick. Thank goodness it never happened. Once I got home I change into my nice warm Mumu and went to my recliner chair and got on the computer. I hardly had anything that day to eat but I was drinking water and by Friday I was finally able to drink a protein shake. It took me over 4 hours to drink it but once I got that first bit of protein down I really started to feel a lot better. Each day was getting better and better and by my 1 week followup I felt great. Everyone at the surgeon's office said I looked great for just 1 week post op. My surgeon was very happy with the way my incisions were healing so nicely. I had no bruising, redness or itching like I had read a lot of people had. In one week I had lost 13 pounds. I was hoping for 15 so I would have been below 300. However 2 days later I did drop down 6 more pounds and was finally seeing a 2 for the first time in over 35 years. There I sat at 295 for over 17 days not losing another pound. I had come to the dreaded stall and I wasn't even 3 weeks out of surgery. But I stayed positive and kept telling myself I am still healing and my tummy is in shock and trying to adjust. I tried my best to "Embrace the Stall" as I had read that thread over and over again that a follow Bariatric Pal had written. Finally by the first month's post op followup I had lost another 3 more pounds.The surgeon was pleased with my 22 pounds loss since surgery. We discussed how I started riding my trike again and how I did in the one egg a day stage and liquid protein. I told him I had terrible pain under my left breast area when ever I ate the egg. He told me that was my signal that I either ate too fast or I was full. I tried to tell him I ate very small amounts and very slowly, but he didn't seem to think it was a problem. With drinking the protein shakes and soups I was able to get to the 60 grams of protein. So he just told me to slow down my eating even more. He said I could move on to the next stage and introduce a variety of foods. I was so happy to finally be able to eat more than an egg. I asked him how many calories should I be eating now and he said don't count calories just protein. So I asked where should my protein be at now. I was expecting him to say to increase it to 80 grams. I got the shock of my life when he told me 41 grams of protein. I said what? I thought I had heard him incorrectly as everything I had read for the past 8 months said to increase not decrease the protein. He said since I had lost 38 pounds with the 6 months preop and 22 with the surgery that now I should be getting in less protein and to stop drinking the shakes and soup. This surgeon's office has no NUT. He has been doing this WLS for the past 16 years. I don't know if his NUT left the practice or what happened but during the 6 months pre-op diet I saw the Hospital NUT once and that was during the first month. All the nutrition info was coming directly from the surgeon. Since Feb 17th they hired a NUT and they are still working out her schedule and the insurance plans so our insurances will cover her visits. I tried to see her during the one month followup but she was not even there that day. I left the office on Feb 26th weighing 292 pounds. I tried for a week to follow what the surgeon said and I lost another 5 pounds and got down to 287. However I saw a decrease in my energy level and felt so tired that in the past week I went trike riding 1 time compared to 8 times during the egg and 60 gram protein stage. I tried for the second week at that protein level and within 5 days I GAINED back up to 292. I immediately got online to BP and posted what the surgeon had told me to do and what my results were. I also told everyone I still had that terrible left under the breast pain. I got over 20 replies telling me they had never heard of decreasing protein and maybe I was also constipated. They suggested I up my protein and my water. The day I wrote that thread I was so discouraged and wondered What did I do to myself. Up until that time I was very positive and encouraged. However the 2 1/2 to 3 weeks of this pain when eating was really getting to me. After reading all the postings I came to the conclusion that my surgeon is an excellent surgeon but I think he is off his rocker about nutrition. So since this past Sunday I upped my protein back to 60 grams and started to drink more water and took something for the constipation and within 2 days I was back down to 287. I am so grateful to all who replied to my post and helped me through this difficult time. I am going to keep my protein up and even try to get past 60 grams. I am still drinking at least 1 shake a day and have been back on my trike and managed to go 3.81 miles on Monday. Oh the best thing is yesterday when I ate my 3 small meals and a snack I had no under the breast pain. I think I may have finally turned this around and am heading down the right path and am looking forward to what the future will bring. I see the surgeon again on April 20th and we shall see how much more weight I lose my then. I am kind of interested in seeing if he will reduce my protein again. However if he does I think it will be falling on deaf ears as now I know better thanks to all my friends on BP. Hugs Everyone Till I write again stay Healthy and Happy! I know I will thanks to all of you, my friends!

I did on Jan 26, 2016. I have a blog on BP. Here are 2 postings about my 3 procedure surgery and 6 weeks post op. I also included a link to the beginning of the blog I started in 2008 when I first tried to get the lap band procedure. I hope the 2 posting of the 3 procedure will help you. Please keep in mind my age and physical disability. Each person surgeries and recovery plan will be different. I am so glad I finally had the sleeve as now I am down to 215 and have maintained that weight for about 6 months. In 10 days I will be have a medically needed breast reduction and free nipple graft provided they don't cancel that surgery again like they did in March. I suppose while I am recovering from that surgery would be a good time to catch up on this blog as I haven't written anything since Dec 2016.

Dixie I am so glad everything went so well for you. Wow that excess skin sure did weigh a lot. I bet your back is feeling a lot better with it gone. How long do you have to have the drains for? Did the Dr say how long you needed to be off work to recover? Sherri I am so sorry to hear about what happened to you with that Nurse not listening to you. I can't imagine waking up and not being able to move at all. I am 61 and on June 26th I will be having breast reduction and FNG. I am scared of the pain I will have and possible complications. I will have 2 surgeons as my girls hang down 10 inches form where they are suppose to be. The Doctors were only willing to do my breasts at this weight. They want me down to 180 before they will remove the excess skin on my tummy. I am hoping with the breast reduction I will be able to stand better despite the 4 herniated discs I have. I also sent you a private message. I haven't seen anyone else on the site close to my starting weight that had excess skin removal surgeries and I would love to keep in touch with you. Keep us informed as to how you are doing. HUGS

So sorry but I don't care for the flavor of the soups. When I bought the regular jello I always bought Cherry so I am afraid these are probably not flavors I would like. Hope someone else comes along who likes the flavors you have.

I have heard of and ordered several of the protein soups. Never heard of the jello, could you refer me to the page or take a picture of the box so I can see the nutritional info. I will be having some excess skin removal surgery at the end of the month. I was planning on ordering more of the soups. How much are you asking for both items and how many do you have.?

Wow! What a fantastic change. Looking at your before surgery and after, I see that their is hope for my body to maybe turn out half as good as yours did. I am 23 days away from the first surgery- boob lift. However in my case they are hanging down to my knees. If they do manage to get them up where they belong I will be as thrilled as I am sure you are with everything you had done. The recovery is what scares me and to have to do this a total of 4 times. I hope I have the strength to do it. How long were you recovering from all the different surgeries you had? Any suggestions or tips you can give me to get through this first one at the end of the month would be greatly appreciated.

I had the sleeve surgery plus my gallbladder removed and my hernia repaired 2 days after my 60th birthday. I had my surgery on Tuesday and was back home Thursday. I had to take lovenox injections for one month so I didn't get any blood clots. Only problem I had was for the first 2 weeks the gas got stuck in my upper right back shoulder because I couldn't walk. It was very painful but once I started taking X-Gas maximum strips it left. I was off work for 4 weeks but probably could have gone back to work sooner. It wasn't until week 4 that I was allowed to eat food so I was afraid I might be too weak to work sooner. My incisions healed very nicely. This month I am scheduled for a breast lift and FNG. This surgery is very much needed but I am a bit more fearful of the pain I might encounter from this surgery than I was for the ones last year.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and support. I told my boss today of my date. We need to start again to transfer my client caseload to other rehab teachers before my surgery. They were expecting this so it should go as smooth a it did in March before the first schedule surgery date. Thank goodness I have a fantastic boss. She knows how important it is to get these skin removal surgeries so I can eventually get the back surgery so I can walk again.

Sjfink I am 61 and would love to see those before pictures and more of the afters. Being 11 years old I have no idea what to expect. My PS practice specializes in post weight loss body contouring. However for the first surgery my boobs there will be 2 Doctors working together. I had been scheduled for March 21st but had to have a biopsy result were benign. Now I am waiting for a new date. Hope it is real soon.

You look fanatastic. I agree with Kimmy about added more calories if your are really not happy with where you are. I had my surgery Jan 26 2016 and had about another 135 to lose to get to my goal weight of 180 which is what I thought I wanted. Nine months later October of 2016 I really slowed down and have hardly lost any more weight since that time. I am about 37 pounds from my goal and am still trying to get there.

It sounds like several of us are all experiencing the same thing with the extra groin flap/(testicles as one of you put it) it looks and feel like it but it isn't. My left side is far worse than my right side. In fact my whole body is horrible looking when there is nothing covering it. I told my PS I really ruined my skin over the last 46 years of dieting that I didn't think it was repairable. He assured me it would be, but I would have to have 4 separate surgeries and we will be leaving the legs for last. I can live with them for now but hope someday hope to be wearing shorts. By the way sjfink your legs look fantastic. Sorry to hear about the opening thought. Hope it heals fast.

Your doing great too, 70 pounds is fantastic. Stick with the plan and before you know it you will have lost 200 also. About 182 pounds of my weight loss was before the surgery. The second 100 pounds was after surgery. I have been maintaining this weight since October. I still have about 40 pounds to get to my goal. However now that the biopsy is back and everything is ok I will hopefully get a new surgery date to get some of this boob skin. I know when they are reduced I will be able to do more exercise after I have recovered and hopefully get to my goal.

You might be interested in these Heat Magic Microwaveable Hot Plate Granite Trivet from ebay. You can put bowls, plates, cups etc on them and they will keep your food or drinks hot for up to 1 hour.

At the 3rd week I was allowed to eat 1 egg a day and all the full liquids I had drunk the 1st 2 weeks. So my first egg was scrambled. I had 1 poached egg or boiled egg or scrambled egg a day for the whole third week. After that week I didn't eat or even want to look at an egg for about a month.

WOW! You must be dating a lot of women who only are looking at the out side of a man and not what he is made of on the inside. You were spared from these shallow women, it is their loss. I dated a man for 6 months who had lost over 200 pounds. I was fine with the excess skin as it was him not his body that I liked. Plus I knew as soon as I had my surgery I would have the excess skin too. He told me he would be at the hospital the day of my surgery when I woke up. You want to know what happened. He never showed up and hasn't spoken or written to me since. I would say he had more of a problem than I did with excess skin. What state are you in and how old are you? As these things may be factors into why you aren't finding the kind of women you deserve. Please don't settle for those shallow woman as they will never make you happy.

I am 15 months post op but had lost a lot of weight before my surgery. Since I am doing mostly mostly online dating I tell them before we meet. I also tell them about my physical limitations because of the 4 bulging discs and that I am 60 years old. If they can't deal with these issues I'd rather know before we meet. I too am interested in knowing what others have to say about this topic.

I had pains in my back but not my tailbone before the weight loss. Four herniated disc, scatia and spinal stenosis. But since losing all the weight I have so far (still have about 38 to lose) the tailbone pain has started to really hurt to the point where I can't sit in my recliner like I use too. I have tramadol for the back pain and use to take 1 or 2 a week, However over the last few weeks the pain has been so bad I find I am taking 2 or 3 a day. I was watching skin tight last month and there was a lady on the show who had lost over 100 pounds and her tailbone started to hurt as well. When she had her skin removal surgery the same Doctor went in and shaved down her tailbone as it was protruding the opposite direction from what it should have been.

Sorry but all of mine are gone. In fact I was looking for some the other day and couldn't find any either. Now I know why. I couldn't walk so I did use the gas-X strips for awhile. In my case I feel they helped cut the pain some what at first, but not enough. When that gas hit my right back shoulder I was in so much pain the Dr thought maybe my ribs were bruised from when they transferred me from the bathroom to my chair. That 2 weeks was more painful than the 3 surgeries I had. I cried out in pain every time I had to move from the recliner or the bed to my wheelchair. Finally about 2 weeks later the pain stopped. At about the three week mark I had enough strength to be able to use the rollator and walk for less than 5 minutes and use my tricycle.

I am sure it is very frustrating to be denied. Did you have a 3 to 6 month supervised diet that brought your BMI too low? If you did the insurance was suppose to use your starting BMI not the one you are at now. I read that you had a letter with co-morbidities listed that you said you didn't have. Did you have him write a different letter? Maybe the Doctor knew your BMI was too low and wrote those co-morbities so you would be approved. How far away from the BMI are you? I am not saying you should gain but, I know some people have eaten to excess to get their BMI's up high enough so that they were accepted. Good luck in what ever direction you go.