Smanky

It’s a strange one, because I can now fit into some size US8/AU12 clothes which was always my “goal size”, yet I’m still 4kg from my goal weight. I could stop now and do maintenance and be perfectly happy. Weight loss is very slow at this point. But I personally still want to lose this final 4. If I can’t, however, I won’t be disappointed. My results have been better than I could have hoped.

I was a chain smoker for most of my adult life, and only managed to finally quit 3 years ago, so I totally get the addiction. Its hooks run deep. Even 3 years quit, my surgeon was adamant that I not only never touch it again, but also avoid passive smoking because of the risk of ulcers. And I developed one a mere week after I went of Pantoprazole 3 months after surgery, and... yeah, it's a real good idea to avoid getting one! They're not fun. So it's a great extra deterrent. Have a chat to your team, they may recommend something to help you quit. After years using the patches, they stopped being effective so I had my GP put me on Champix, and it worked. Yeah, you get wild dreams and that puts a lot of people off, and the nausea is unpleasant, but both were worth the result for me. Best of luck with whatever you do.

I have weak tooth enamel, lived with acute GERD for decades before WLS, and had lost some molars along the way. I have no GERD post WLS, and despite probably being a great candidate for post-surgery teeth issues, I have had absolutely zero issues. Talk to your surgeon, dietician and dentist to get reassurance that this is a rare side effect. I think there's a lot of scare-mongering going on with WLS online. Much like trying to diagnose yourself via Dr.Google - don't. Talk your team, put your mind at ease.

You simply can't escape at least some scars after getting your body to that stage of excess weight, and having loose skin is one of those scars. Your body had to make that excess skin over years, and it can't just retract like a rubber band, unfortunately. Factors like age and how much weight you've lost will inform how much you have, but the best thing people can do is make peace with it, especially if, like myself, they'll never be able to afford plastic surgery to get rid of it. You can help support your skin with vitamin intake, hydration and creams, but honestly, that won't stop it from happening. I do those things to keep my skin as healthy as possible, but I'm under no illusions that it's ever going to spring back. I did this to myself, so I accept that there's a price. The upside: loose skin is easily hidden with clothes and that's waaaaay easier when you don't feel the heat as badly as you once did!

I know, it's a wild mystery, isn't it? And these are all excellent questions. Leave a bowl of milk outside your bedroom door each night as pixie payment. But beware if you forget! They'll prank you in the night by removing fat but stuffing it back into weird places so you wake up with super-fat ears you cannot hide under any hat. Noooooo! The naysayers were right, I should never have done thiiiiiiiis!

Re: losing teeth and TikTok. It's TikTok. Who's saying this? First hand post WLS patients with first-hand knowledge, or the Body Positivity/Fat Liberation/HAES crowd who have a vested interest in putting others off weightloss? I've never heard of the teeth thing. It sounds very much like scare-mongering BS to me, and that it's coming from TikTok raises one mighty red flag. You'll likely have some temporary hair loss, but losing teeth? Never heard of such a thing in terms of a WLS side effect. Re: the easy way out. People again often have an ulterior motive, or are projecting their own issues when they double down on the whole "easy way out" myth. I have never dieted harder and changed my lifestyle more diligently than I have after WLS. WE do the hard work counting calories and watching macros and exercising. The surgery simply makes it next to impossible to fall off the wagon. Do people who insist it's the easy way imagine it's ... what? Like the tooth fairy? Fat is taken away by the blessed pixies every night as we still eat whatever we like? It's ignorance, or in the case of people who want to argue and not accept the truth: willful stupidity. And they're not people worth having around. Some people also just project their own insecurities and that will manifest as a nasty little emotion called envy. You'll find these people in both the above camps.

This. I've been relying on Protein Water since surgery as a two-for-one method for getting in protein and fluids. Couldn't manage without it!

Pre-surgery, I bought a second-hand 90s leather jacket and tucked it away for myself for when I finally reached a size US8 (AU12). Tried it on today and it's a perfect fit. It's amazing that this day is finally here! It's the jacket of my dreams and you bet I'm gonna wear it out today. 😎

I lose weight evenly from head to toe - the very same way I gain. So it took quite a while before I noticed the loss. We all lose and gain differently and where you lose is entirely up to your own body. There is one place on my body that will never be "thin", and that's my legs. They're slender for MY leg type now I'm almost at goal, but still what you'd call "sturdy". Flat arses and sturdy legs are on both sides of my family, so I can only embrace it! I'm certainly not expecting any miracles in that area.

Yeah, I got an ulcer after I stopped the first five months of Pantoprazole that was prescribed to keep my pre-existing GERD under control while I healed. It took only about 2 weeks for the ulcer to develop, and it really sucked. Pain just under the ribcage. My surgeon put me straight back on Pantoprazole and it went away very quickly. I'm still on the drug even now, with a view to get off it in a couple of months. You have my sympathies! It's no fun. But it's thankfully a quick and easy fix.

I had no hunger and had to force myself to eat for the first 3 months. Eating was a total chore, but after eating myself into morbid obesity, not giving a flying f**k about food was liberating. My hunger came back around the 4th month and it's back to normal now. No matter how much water I drink, I always feel low-key dehydrated. I've come to just accept that this is my new normal now. Things take some time to re-adjust after a major surgery like this. Your entire system has been re-wired and re-configured and your body has a hell of a job healing from it and adjusting to it. Give it and yourself time. 3 and a half weeks is barely out of the hospital. It gets better, everyone will tell you this because it's true, but it will take time. It's all absolutely worth it, though.

Go to the doctor. The dark sticky poop may mean you're bleeding somewhere in your stomach/intestines. GERD is just acid in the esophagus, which burns and feels uncomfortable, but doesn't include 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or 9. I suffered from it acutely for the best part of two decades before WLS. Hiatal hernias can definitely make you feel uncomfortably full, short of breath and very burpy. But go to a doctor asap. No one on here will be able to do much beyond guess and that won't help anyway.

I stopped pre-surgery and just put up with my fat clothes getting loose until they were really like wearing a tent. I had smaller clothes in my wardrobe from when I was smaller and/or had previously lost some weight, so I had a range of clothes to "move into" as the weight came off. Once those clothes started turning into tents, I bought second hand jeans and tops off Ebay and at op-shops/goodwill. I'm still doing that, but now that I'm almost at goal, I've bought a few items that should last me to my goal. If they look a little big, they're only one size different so I should get away with keeping them in rotation.

I took out top health cover and had to wait a year because my obesity was a pre-existing condition. Yeah, it was a long wait, but it gave me time to really get my head ready for the surgery and life change - this is actually SUPER important. Without the surgery I'd still be morbidly obese and miserable. It was absolutely worth the 12 month wait. The surgery nerves kicked in about nine months in and the last couple of months honestly flew by.

I was exactly the same. Didn't want to go out, turned down invitations and didn't want to go to events with my partner because I was embarrassed and didn't want people to think "why is he with that fat woman?" (my partner is skinny and always has been). I promise you that all that changes as the weight comes off! I'm now keen to go out, be seen out with him, and I have so much energy I've taken on a second job that's physical that I would never have wanted to do when I was big. It all just gets better and better, week by week.

I never had one to begin with, thanks to arse-less genes on both sides of the family. So my butt is non-existent now. Side on I look like the letter P. It's so flat that my lack of padding makes some seats really uncomfortable long-term. Went to a dinner party at a mate's on the weekend and her dining chairs are flat metal, and after a couple of hours it got quite uncomfortable. It's days later and my butt is still tender around the sitting bones! I'm going to have to take a cushion with me next time.

My band size has shrunk, but my breasts have remained an E, despite them looking much smaller. I was browsing the underwear section in Kmart this morning. Before surgery I'd grumble about them having all the small E cup sizes but not the plus ones in stock. It was the exact reverse today! All the bras were big sizes, and in the smaller bras they had my band size, but no E cups! I felt like I was being punked!

I'm super fortunate that my partner has always been a gem. He never made me feel bad when I was morbidly obese - that was all me hating myself. He was initially against my WLS until I had a meltdown and told him the bald truth about how miserable I was. He didn't know because I don't like talking about my feelings and tend to hide it as best I can. His misgivings about the surgery were all safety related. Post surgery, we've just gotten better, not because I'm small now (though he's enjoying the novelty of new little-me!), but because I'm HAPPY. I'm happy and I've got my mojo back, and I'm lot more fun to be around. We've been together since 1989, and my change in mental health has recharged us both.

I have to say, that is raising a lot of red flags. If they're a treat pusher, they have an ulterior motive here and I'd be vary wary. So you've been losing weight on the pre-op diet. This is a STRICT diet, and if you were to cancel surgery and try to keep losing the old fashioned way, that is still a diet and you'll have to go without eating the comforting/fun bad things your relative is dangling over you with their "reservations". Are they anti all-diets for you for this reason? As I said: RED FLAGS. You WILL have to stick to a restricted diet while you heal, and there is a plan you must follow while you're losing, but contrary to what your relative is claiming, you WILL eat fun/interesting things again once you hit maintenance, just in sensible portions. If there is a chance that you will suffer any emotional issues with the surgery, please get bariatric counseling. They will arm you with the tools you'll need to push through any mental health hiccups.

It's worth keeping in mind that the pre-op diet isn't a sustainable diet - it's a medically approved short term starvation diet designed to shrink the liver for a safer surgery. A lot of nervous folks after losing some decent weight in the pre-op phase then question whether they need the surgery. Do you think you can sustain the lifestyle change without the surgery tool to continue losing? This is something only you can honestly answer. Why is your relative vehemently against it? What are the reasons? I'm yet to hear of a partner or relative with reservations who isn't simply misinformed or flat-out wrong and/or driven by other emotional reasons. The surgery these days is very safe. This isn't to sway you either way, only you can make that call, but have all the facts and honest truths before you before you make the choice.

This is harrowing to read. I completely understand her reluctance due to the language barrier and her friend who would be abandoned without her. There might be a support network in China that people like your mum can reach out to? I would search for one - it may take a bit of looking since they'd be operating in a hostile environment and would be trying to operate without unwanted attention. It might even be something as simple as a social club. But something she and her friend can find some extra support in. I truly wish I could be more help.

I'm so, so sorry you and your mother are going through this hell. Your aunt is evil. No other way to put it. Likewise your father's family. Abuse is unacceptable and I agree with Liveaboard15 that you need to cut them from your life entirely. I get your fears for you mother though. Can she join you in the US, even for a few months to get a break? Does she have friends and other family on her side she can go to?

I'll experience my first summer at goal at the end of this year (Southern Hemisphere), so I'm really curious to see how differently I feel in the heat. On the flip-side, this winter we're currently in down here... I feel the cold like I never did before. I look at other folks who aren't rugged up like the Michelin Man in puffers and beanies and multi-layers and wonder how on earth they can stand it! I've never been so low on insulating blubber!

You still have to diet and excercise with WLS. The surgery is there to keep you on track. I call mine my co-pilot, or the adult voice that says "no, you absolutely don't need that" and it works. People who sprout the "easy way out" nonsense simply don't understand what WLS is or does. It is still hard. Every bit as hard as a "normal diet", because it IS a "normal diet", in fact an even stricter one. You can try to explain it to him. Ultimately though, you'll have to be your own support here. Once the weight starts coming off and you emerge from obesity a happier and more repaired person, they will all see that it was in fact the right thing for you.

Shopping online for a ladder and NOT looking at the maximum weight with dread. They're all 100kg and up! I could carry three very large cats up those things and STILL be cruisin'! I could haul a child up some of them! I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU ANYMORE WEIGHT-LIMITS! COME AT ME! 💪