ShoppGirl

If you ever want to test this firsthand as a female just walk around a store for a while at your goal weight. Especially one with a majority of male workers like a home improvement store. it’s crazy how much more help you get. Like they go out of their way to offer help. It’s kinda crazy.

I have gone up and down in my weight soooo many times throughout my life and people absolutely treat me differently. I have pointed it out to my husband who didn’t believe me at first but now he notices it too. I notice it from both men and women. People are more helpful and likely to strike up a small talk type conversation when I am closer to a normal BMI. Having said that, I am a little on the shy side and have been told by more than one person they misinterpreted that as my being a b**** in the very beginning. Oddly enough this has only happened when I was at my skinniest. My take is that people tend to think that I am nicer or more approachable as long as I’m not too thin and hot but if i’m a little too heavy I am not even worth their time for some reason. Basically society tends to prefer me barely “normal” to just slightly “overweight” from my experience. What I absolutely hate is when it is someone that I have known for a long time that treats me differently because of my size and this absolutely has happened to me a few times. Thankfully not by any close friends but by people at like bowling league and stuff like that. I have gone from practically invincible for years to someone they all of a sudden want to talk to every week. I just want to scream from the rooftops that I am the same exact person I have always been and sorta want to tell them they are not worth my time because that’s what their actions have been telling me for so long. Of course I don’t say anything. I just hope that by me being nice to them now that they learn not to judge the next person. It can be frustrating and I definitely do vent to my husband about it sometimes but I know people truly don’t do it on purpose so I try to let it go.

I eat fruit pretty often. If I have a sweet craving I always try to satisfy it with fruit first. It usually works.

Do you have a plan in place to get your vitamins checked each year. Your family dr should be able to order the labs but you may want to ask for the order from her and make a copy So you know the family Dr covers everything.

You don’t need a lot at the hospital at all. You will need to take a shower the morning just before you leave and will change as soon as you get there so you can wear the same clothes home you wear there with different underclothes. I brought my normal toiletry kit although I left the next day and couldn’t shower yet anyways (I washed my face and brushed my teeth but that was about it). I bought an extra long phone charging cord on Amazon and was very glad to have that for my phone and iPad because outlets are sparse and not close to the bed. I also brought my earbuds and that was sorta nice to use to block out all the noise when I tried to sleep. Ooh and mens pajama pants (or just big comfy ones) to wear under your hospital down unless you want to change into pajamas. I had a heart monitor in addition to my IV so I didn’t change completely. Just slipped on the bottoms to cover my bottom when I walked the halls.

Hummmm. I gotta do more research. I swear I just read that it causes weight LOSS which didn’t make sense at all since so many people have WLS because of diabetes and he was ordering the test for ME.

Congratulations on your loss so far. Just talk to your team and get to the root of the hungry feelings. Most people really do lose their hunger immediately post surgery so it most likely is something else.

Yea I’m sure they are going to be very proud of you at your clinic. And the weight you have lost will make your surgery that much safer. That’s a huge reward. Happy birthday to your son. Lots to celebrate.

I forgot to ask, did you think of a small reward to do for yourself??

The surgery is a tool, just like using a washing machine or a calculator. It makes it easier, yes but you still have to put in the work. And the tool fades when your hunger comes back so keeping the weight off is just as hard as any maintenance plan I have ever been on with one exception IF you took the time to make real changes to your diet and habits you know what to do to keep it off this time. Having said that, this is a major surgery with real changes to you body. Many of us have chronic constipation to deal with, most of us have to take vitamins forever and I believe all of us are told to avoid NSAIDS forever (which kinda sucks when you get a headache or throw your back out and drs won’t give you pain meds for these things). These are not major things, no but evidence that this does change your body forever. The nutritionist and the bariatric therapists are two huge components to the surgery that make it successful. If you have not tried those two things you may want to consider trying those first before committing to major surgery. I had a low-ish BMI and I had the sleeve (35). I wish I had tried those things first so that I would know I absolutely had to take this extreme option. I may very well be exactly where I am but at least I would know I truly did try everything first. But ask your doctor because you have real medical issues that I did not have and maybe losing it fast is imperative. The surgery will definitely help you to lose it faster that diet alone. Best of luck in whatever you choose. And just keep talking to your wife. My husband is also someone who has always been fit and doesn’t totally get it either. He is at least supportive but he is first to admit he doesn’t understand. I once told him when he was thirsty to try not to drink anything for hours and he will have some clue what it’s like to try to ignore hunger. Not the best analogy I know but it was the best I could think of. I also recommend taking her with you to your doctor visits if/when you do decide to have surgery or while you are trying to decide. They can help explain things to her.

You are doing absolutely amazing!! Keep it up.

Have you told your doctors that your restriction seems to be more? I don’t think that is typical at all.

chronic irritation of esophagus from heartburn can actually cause cancer. Don’t leave that untreated.

You shouldn’t have to eat “junk food” to add calories. Try adding in things like nut butter, healthy oils, and avocado to increase calories. I’m sure your nutritionist will have a few more ideas. Those are just the few I know of that may get you started.

Well, hopefully you won’t have to do it but if upu do it will just give you a little more time to get your head ready. There is a lot of information to take on about the post op diet and all that and it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to have a little time to mentally prepare.

Some people do experience hunger post op but it’s a very small amount of people. The majority of people later realize it’s head hunger. They say you can tell the difference by what you are hungry for. If you are craving something specific, often something you shouldn’t have it’s head hunger but if you are just hungry and would be satisfied with a healthy option you don’t necessarily enjoy eating then it’s actual hunger. There was one person on here who dealt with this from the beginning and she ended up having to take some weight loss drugs to curb the hunger. I haven’t heard from her in a while now that I think of it, but she did seem to be losing weight in spite of this. Also, I almost forgot, people say that the acid can be misinterpreted as hunger as well. I didn’t experience tbis either but they often prescribe PPI’s for this reason. Ask your team about that.

I don’t think the insurance can deny you for that. The doctor may want you to stay off of it before surgery and retest though if that is something that interferes with recovery??

Congratulations on your surgery date.

I think if you are sticking to the diet you will be fine. Just thinking about cheating is pretty common I believe. Post surgery you will have the tools to help you do this. I didn’t even have a really strict pre op diet but it was still definitely the worst part of the whole process.

I wonder if you could enjoy one serving of it and freeze the rest?? I am not a leftover person so I am not the one to ask if it would freeze well. I always think leftovers taste different the next day in fridge, never mind freezing them but alot of people do it.

I think you will be okay if you have lost weight you are probably shrinking your liver. It just depends on how big it was to begin with I imagine. The smaller it is the safer your surgery will be though so definitely don’t do it again. The more important thing I would be asking myself is if you can do the post op diet without cheating. No judgement here if you can’t but you really need to be certain you are prepared for it because one little cheat post op and you can seriously hurt yourself. If you aren’t ready there is no shame in that. Only you know if you are really ready for the post ip changes. If not, Perhaps a bariatric therapist can help you explore why you are “cheating”.

Yea if you saw your surgeon last week and you are still feeling the same way I would think it’s worth another phone call (maybe even another appointment) If you still aren’t eating literally anything at some point you may need supplemental nutrition. I didn’t experience it personally but have seen people on here who have really struggled in the beginning but they DID get through it and you will too with the help of your team. I would definitely stay in contact with your team and when you do talk to them ask them lots of questions such as what to expect. At what point should you call again if you still aren’t eating. Is there anything else to watch for. Are you getting all your fluids at least? There are a few different nausea meds so maybe they can try another one of those.

I would actually think you would want to take the vitamin with iron to keep your levels up going forward so definitely ask you Dr on this one. Seems to me like if it’s low enough you need infusions that That taking both wouldn’t matter and the idea would be to get them back to baseline and hopefully discontinue infusions but of course I have no medical training so please ask. If you have been taking the vitamin all along and it’s still low it’s possible your body just can’t absorb it that way anyways.

Sounds yummy. If you can make it with spray pam instead of oil or butter it would be even better for you. Maybe a little cinnamon and sweetener. i like to make s’mores in banana boats. I use sugar free choc chips and almonds or pecans instead of graham crackers so the only bad thing really is the marshmallows. It’s still higher calories and not necessarily for weight loss phase but for maintenance for me it’s a healthy-ish alternative to s’mores Have you considered a bariatric therapist to try to get to the root of the head hunger. A lot of people swear that this has helped them tremendously.

Does lidocaine actually help you with acute pain or does it just help heal things faster. I used the icy hot brand lidocaine 4% and it felt like it was helping so when the dr said they had 5% prescription ones I figured the more the better but they don’t feel like they are doing anything really. I wonder if it’s because they don’t have a second ingredient (menthol I think it was). In all fairness I am almost better at this point so maybe it’s just not helping cause the pain is less?? Heat and tens seem to be the trick right now.