summerseeker

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of Snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

Well not to scare you but I felt something in my breast about 2.5 months post op and when I got the call I was 3 months post and it was breast cancer. I think I honestly may not have found it if it hadn’t been for the weight loss though so at least now I have a fighting chance. 🤷‍♀️. I truly do hope yours is absolutely nothing but i just wanted to mention that it’s always best to get anything like that checked (as you are). I had my mammograms annually and even had my breasts checked at my Pap smear only ten days prior to feeling it myself and the Dr had missed it so I really had to go with my gut to get it checked out anyways. It was hard to believe that she wouldn’t have felt it and I figured that they were going to just laugh at me because it was supposed to be there but it wasn’t. I would probably be stage 4 instead of 3 if I had waited until my next mammogram instead of trusting my gut.

Definitely don’t worry about it until you have a real reason to, but also for anyone else reading this don’t ignore it because it does happen. Just get it checked out and enjoy your life. All we can do. Maybe when you go ask the radiologist to do a self exam with you and tell you what things you feel are so you know what’s normal and what’s not. I would only trust the radiologist that has the imaging in front of them though because my gyno when I went to tell her I felt something said that she was 99% certain it was just fibrous tissue but would send me for mammogram anyways. I actually almost cancelled the appointment because she made me feel like it was a waste of time and money. Thankfully I didn’t.

I finally got into the Christmas spirit when we took my five younger cousins out for a night of Christmas Lights and Hot Cocoa. That’s usually the end to our big annual Christmas crafts day with the kids but with chemo I can’t do a whole day and night of five kids right now energy wise so we just did the lights part. I usually don’t get into the spirit until I’m around the kids. My Christmas treat is the Ghirardelli peppermint chocolates. They are individually wrapped so you can easily have just one and they have it in dark chocolate. It’s definitely off plan and a splurge but you can freeze them to make it less tempting to not waste.

Oh wow that is madness!! It is so strange and quite shocking what excess weight can hide that we don't even think of! Really glad that they got it out for you!
I am glad you are feeling it a little bit more with the tree up - something this year does feel a little lackluster doesn't it? I hope your Christmas turns out to be proper bonny though
Oooo they sound lovely! I may need to check them out! I got some sugar free vanilla wafers and some sugar free digestives & oatmeal biscuits from Sainsbury's today!

Good for you for being brave and going to the doctors right away. Fingers and toes crossed for you. I found a cyst in my stomach area whilst feeling the new me. It weighed in at 3lbs. It was attached to a ovary. My fat hid that ! For years I had a dull ache, trouble with my bowels and Water works and never bothered about it. When I did, they fast tracked me and I know how you feel, its a bumpy ride. The surgeon who took it out said it was memorable.
I just can not get into the Christmas spirit either. I have no grandchildren so that doesn't help matters. My husband got the tree and the decorations out yesterday and this kind of forced me into putting them out. I did it in a foul temper but last evening with all of them lit, the house looked 'proper bonny ' as we say in these parts. So I am glad I was pushed.
For my sweet treat I buy the little bars from Aldi that come in a 5 pack or have a Clif Protein Bar, chocolate chip is my fav. Just enough to satisfy the sweet itch and I dont have an already open bar to tempt me.

Hi, everyone. I had my gastric sleeve done four days ago and am amazed at how wonderful I feel. I never needed post-op pain meds, though I adhered to the advice to take it on schedule that first day afterward.
Aside from some low bowel motility issues, I can honestly say I am having no difficulty at all. No nausea, no pain. I'm getting 4 oz per feeding (5/day), and working up to all my needed Snacks in between, as I just have no hunger and have to remind myself. That's putting me up to between 60-65 grams of Protein per day so far. My silly phone goes off constantly reminding me to drink or eat.
At 67, I'm finding myself wishing I'd done it sooner. I started this journey on July 6th at 375 pounds, and this morning clocked in at 316.6. I am so grateful, I cannot tell you.
Wishing everyone a fabulous journey towards health of their own.

I am about to have my band removed and I am petrified my old way of feeling and thinking about food. Before my band I was preoccupied with food thoughts. I wanted to eat all the time. I was constantly planning what to eat next even when I was eating. I was beating myself up for eating too much. I was sneaking food. I hated myself for lack of will power. With the band I stuck to my eating plan with no problem. Sometimes I would even forget to eat. How has band removal effected other people emotionally and psychologically?

How is everyone doing?!
Almost at Christmas now! This is my first Christmas post-surgery, and I am actually feeling alright about it!
I know that I won't eat anything at all like I did last year, and I will feel a little strange when everyone else around me is eating normally 😂 But other than this I am feeling kinda prepared!
I am going to buy some Lindt 90% dark chocolate so I can have a little "sweet" treat if I feel like it and bring that with me to my parents!
I am also so happy that I am close-ish to my 1st goal of 12 stone - even if it does feel like miles off still - but I am celebrating the fact I got into a new stone bracket this morning ❤️
On a more serious note, I do have a check-up in the new year for suspected breast cancer as I have found a little lump - but I am not sure if it is just because I have lost so much weight that my breasts feel different, or if there is actually something there - either way! Best to get it checked, especially as I have a strong family history of breast cancer. Kind of just putting it out of my mind until I need to worry about it!
Hope everyone is feeling good, and looking forward to the holidays ❤️

Been eating a lot of salads lately. Also didn’t end up eating the biscuit.

5’ 3” too! But I think my line would say perfectly practical 🤣

Our cuisine depends on lots of carbs like bread, so i started changing that for me and my family as well. I am now more open to different recipes and making tweaks to our regular recipes. I am hoping to help my family get an early start on healthy diet.
Bad diet+ stress eating+ no activity equal a disaster waiting to happen 😔. I learned that the hard way. I am just hoping i will have a strong well to adhere to better way of life from now on especially with my physical disability that prevents me from regular exercise like walking

Yes thats extra tough if you are cooking for the family. Thats going the extra mile for them. Cooking smell made me barf early on. My husband cooked in a closed kitchen with the windows open for me. Lots of us had weird taste buds and finding something palatable was expensive as I would reject foods after a taste. I still can't bide my once fav food, salmon. Its the keytones. I had the most disgusting taste in my mouth for a few months.
Keep posting on here, We know you are suffering and we will be with you.

Yes this part is tough, try your best to stick with it, you have done so well. People who havent had this surgery think we have taken the easy option !
Are you allowed to try strained Soups. I could have strained chicken noodle Soup, consomme, beef tea, milk and pho which was like a taste explosion after all that Water. Good luck

OMG yes this!!!! Honestly, 3 years out I still have to have a big think, several times a day, about whether I need to eat or just want to eat. I think this is how it will be forever. Seems a small price to pay for being half my previous size but it is a thing.

I've kind of had a breakthrough this morning. I took the meds on an empty stomach because I'm supposed to take them at least a half hour before food. About 10 minutes later, I felt like I was starving, but because I was on my bike and cycling to work, I knew I would have to wait to until I got to work in 20 minutes to eat anything. But the "starving feeling" just stopped after about 5 minutes. I think I've spent so much of life thinking "any sensation in my stomach means I need to eat". And then I had a yogurt about half an hour later and I feel completely full. So I think if I get any sensations in my stomach, I need to wait and actually see what it means and wait about 20 minutes.

Omg. I have a short little clawfoot tub in my bathroom. It’s a tiny bathroom and was just a builder grade tub/shower and I wanted to update it and it was cute at the time. Well I am tall so I already am too tall for it really, but I could use it whenever we put it in. At my high weight I couldn’t even get the Water all around my body, though. There were parts of my body that never even got wet if I got in and then ran the water after. Now I can fit again. I still forget I have that option most times but it is nice to have a choice.

I think someone might have said this before, but I was taking a bath the other day and it was crazy that I had (what felt like) so much extra room and needed more Water in the tub than before surgery! I still early-ish in my journey and have lost 45 lbs, but I see/feel it in my body and the tub just confirmed it!

It’s a huge win in my book. A total shame that they treated you differently (and ignored you before). People suck sometimes. Although I still wonder if it is really them or if we are just more approachable because of a new found confidence that comes with losing weight. Then again it seems like they would have approached you before BECAUSE you looked uncomfortable if that was the case. I always try to strike up some sort of conversation with the person who looks awkward in the corner at a party in hopes to make them relax so they can have a good time too. Maybe that’s because I know how it feels to be that person 🤷‍♀️ Regardless, it’s awesome that you’ve lost so much they wondered who you are. I bet my neighbors think something similar about me. Maybe not because I drive the same car but I had my sleeve in 2021 and lost a significant amount then gained it all back and now I’ve lost 75 pounds again. I’m sure they have some theories. 🤣

I am not sure if this a win or not, but went to hubbys Christmas party and no one recognized me, his coworkers asked who I was and what happened between us. He had to tell all of them that I was the same person but a little smaller LOL When I walked in I was overwhelmed with how everyone was staring/googling at me when I walked in on my hubs arm, so I ended up having to go up to the bathroom and shake it off. Definitely a different experience as well, having all of them coming up and talking to me about random stuff, when previous times no one would approach me unless I was with my hubby.

I finally broke the 2 month plateau a few days ago and the weight had been dropping tremendously.

Today my BMI is 29.9 and I am no longer in the obese category!!!!!!!!

Thank you everyone for the kind words .My barium upper gi is in the morning.

I have absolutely no energy.

Down 143lbs since my RnY in Sept '23, all of my fitted baseball hats are too big and I've had to tighten the back straps on all of the others. That's not something I ever expected.

Had mine at 55 doing well down about 140lbs

I totally understand what you're feeling. It’s strange when everything in life seems to be going well, but you still feel a little off. I’ve been in a similar spot lately, and I think part of it for me is my car—it’s not in great shape, and every time I drive it, I feel a little frustrated. It’s one of those things that’s always in the back of my mind, even though it’s not a huge deal. On top of that, I’ve been having some health issues with my legs, which has made getting around harder than usual. It’s nothing major, but it’s enough to make me feel a bit down.
I wonder if it’s something like that for you too—small things you might not even be fully aware of building up and weighing on you. Or maybe it’s just your body and mind processing everything you’ve been through. Even though you’re healing and moving forward, surgeries and stress can take a toll emotionally, even after the hardest part is behind you

I didn’t have a belt lipectomy, but I did have an extended Tummy Tuck. I didn’t buy a recliner, but did buy a set of wedge pillows off Amazon for about $50. They were worth it and made sleeping much more comfortable. One big wedge under my head/shoulders and a smaller one under my knees.

In my view for what its worth, Your arms are brilliant. The surgeons have given you good advice and saved you some money. Your torso is not bad. Do you really need a 360 ? There are smaller surgeries these days. If you put your surgery into the search engine you will get pictures of the scarring. Everyone heals differently so scarring is never the same on two people. There is also a small risk of infections and abcesses that will make a mess of any surgeons handy work.
Any work on your stomach area would hurt for at least the first 5 days. Three months ago, I was opened from my pubic bone up to my navel for unrelated surgery and I was walking around like a woman broken in half. Just sitting up from lying in bed is a feat that will leave you sweating. Which is why people advocate recliners, because they stand you up with out using your sore midsection. With a 360, you will struggle to find a comfy spot to lay on. BUT all this passes, good meds help, having someone with you helps.
In the end its a very personal thing. If I were younger and unmarried I may think differently but I am old, I have a mass of extra skin but I live in a fairly cold country. I am only ever showing my arms and legs when I go abroad on holiday. I don't give much thought to what people say as long as I don't hear it. I park myself on the beach, doff off and enjoy the sun on all my saggy baggy bits. Then I come home and hey presto, I back in leggings and long sleeves that hide everything.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Be happy in what ever amount of skin you can live with.