SleeveToBypass2023

I could realistically wear a 4 1/2, but I would never get it over my knuckle. I can juuuuust barely get the 5 over my knuckle, so at least I know it won't come off. That is insane to me. Even in high school, when I was at my smallest, my ring size was a 6. My wrists are so small right now that I can't even wear a normal sized bracelet. I used to be able to in high school, and that was my goal again, but now my wrist is too small. Just like now my fingers are so small I can't buy standard sized rings in the store lol That's what I wanted to be able to do again, and now I'm right back to having to buy specialty sizes again...just on the other end of the spectrum.

Make sure you're getting your protein and fluids. I know you're 1 month out, so you can't get your full calories in yet. But don't push yourself too fast. Give your body time to heal, prioritize fluids and protein, and trust the process. You'll get there, but it's a marathon, not a sprint. You didn't gain the weight in a month or 2 and you won't lose it in a month or 2.

The patient portal is 100% the way to go. The front desk has zero access to it. No one except the medical assistants and the doctors can access it and respond. And the medical assistants can only respond if the doctors tell them to, and then they respond with whatever the doctor tells them. I do it all the time. I can go in and tell lab results, inform about medications and referrals, that type of thing. But anything that involves patient questions about care, visits, surgery specifics, etc MUST be responded to by the doctor or by the medical assistant AFTER the doctor sees the message and tells the MA what to say to the patient in response. I have 5 different patient portals lol And I have 1 password I use for all of them, that way it's easy to remember. That password is just different than what I use for anything else.

I finally got my actual wedding ring sized. It was a size 8 when we got married. I was able to wear it for several years, and then I sized it to a 9 and wore it for a few more years. But once I went up to a 10, I started to wear a plain men's band. Now that I'm done losing weight, I finally got it sized to a 5, although I could realistically wear a 4 1/2, but I would never get it over my knuckle. I can juuuuust barely get the 5 over my knuckle, so at least I know it won't come off. I have to be honest, it looked smaller when my hand was bigger lol Now that my hand is a lot smaller and bonier, the stones look A LOT bigger, which is kind of weird lol I definitely wasn't expecting that.

I do 2 capfuls of Miralax every morning. It keeps me regular enough (I go on average of one good poo every other day). I try to incorporate fiber in my food, but honestly, I'm not super great at it. So I started adding Benefiber this last week and it's helped me do an extra 2 poos a week, which is fantastic. I do have some stool softener/laxative combo tablets if my magic combo doesn't work for 3 days in a row. On day 4, that's when I take the caplets.

Girl...if you don't smile... You look absolutely FANTASTIC!!! I definitely can see the difference. And don't worry about the scale. She's a shady bish that likes to cause drama. Pay more attention to your NSVs (Non Scale Victories). How are your clothes fitting? How are your rings fitting? How are you fitting in chairs with arms and booths? Are you able to move and walk and be active easier and more often? The thing that helps me is to look at the side by side pics a lot. Sometimes I still look in the mirror and see 421 pounds. But then I put on my size 30 outfit or my size 10 ring and it shocks me back to reality, Or I look at the side by side pics and then I can REALLY see the difference. You're doing AMAZING, especially since you're only 1 month out. Give yourself some grace and enjoy your progress. It's going really, really well.

Absolutely. If you have a patient portal, ask your questions there. That goes directly to the medical assistants AND the doctors. If you don't have one, just make appointments to be seen by whoever you feel actually knows what they're doing. You can go in or do telehealth (at least, most offices offer telehealth). Girl, that people pleaser stuff has GOTTA GO. With a quickness. Especially when it comes to your health and medical care. You have to advocate for yourself, and who cares if anyone finds you annoying? If they do, they aren't doing their job properly anyway. You do what you gotta do for yourself and to hell with anyone that doesn't like it.

As someone who use to do the front desk job at a doctor's office, I can tell you that many of them think just because they work around medical professionals, the knowledge somehow rubs off on them and they think they know things. Now, you have insurance eligibility, scheduling, payment, or phone questions? Those are the ONLY people you want to talk to (the doctors and medical assistants really don't deal with any of that and will just refer you to them anyway). Anything OTHER than that? Nope. Don't even try it. Ask to speak to the medical assistant (who will immediately either get the provider for you or get the CORRECT information from the provider for you if the provider isn't available at that moment) or ask to see your doctor or the NP there. Those are the ONLY ones you want to trust with ANYTHING medical at all. Signed, your friendly neighborhood clinical medical assistant who actually knows how to do her job and what her scope of practice is lol

I can say that I have a good idea how you feel. 2 years ago I had my sleeve surgery. A year ago, I had my revision to bypass because of all the complications and surgeries that happened as a result of the sleeve. I lost a good year, between the tests, procedures, surgeries, complications from the surgeries, recovering from the surgeries, losing work and struggling to pay bills, etc... It took having the revision to finally get my life back. And even then, I was still fixing the last of the issues the sleeve caused. I'm so sorry today is so hard for you. Just know you're strong, you made it through, and you're doing way better now than you were then. And while the road to where you are now certainly wasn't ideal, it's led you to this point now, and you're really doing great. I'm very happy that you're doing so much better, and I fully believe things will keep going up and up and up for you

Being that you're a night shift nurse, you're already burning a ton of calories. You should probably cut your workouts way back. If you want to still work out frequently, maybe try for 45 minutes 3 days per week. Definitely increase your fluids. Get plenty of sleep. Increase your calories to AT LEAST 1000 per day, because with what you're burning between work and working out, your body likely thinks it's in starvation mode and it's hanging on to everything it can. If you decrease the workouts a bit and increase the calories a bit and increase your sleep and fluids, you should be able to wake your body back up and start losing again. Also, what are your stats? What surgery did you have, what was your starting weight and bmi and what is it now? You lose more and faster when you're heavier. As you get closer to a healthier and "normal" weight and bmi, the weight comes off slower.

I actually hadn't thought about that at all....I may give them a call on Friday, as well, and see what they say. I have a feeling my surgeon's office is going to LOSE IT when they hear what she has been saying and what she wants.

So my doctor has me seriously ticked off. She told me she'd like to see my weight and bmi down. I said "WHAT???? I weigh 183 and my bmi is 30. What's wrong with it???" She told me she wants to see my weight around 155 or 160 and me at a normal bmi. I was like "if I do that, I'll look sickly!!! I've always been bigger boned and somewhat curvy, I carry my weight differently. Not one person would look at me right now and think I look like I weigh 183. No way would I look healthy if I went down to 160" and she said it would be better for my health and I should at least think about it. I told her "my blood pressure already runs on the low side of normal. I struggle to keep it up to 103/55!!! My A1c is 5.0 and my glucose is 96. I'm not on any meds except what I take for my MS. All my labs come back perfect. What else do you want??" I told her I feel amazing, I'm really active, I'm able to work as a clinical medical assistant for a busy specialty practice (infectious disease) which has always been my dream, I hike, I work out, literally I'm living the life I only dreamed about. What am I missing here???? I was so mad. And she said we'll discuss it at our appt on the 17th. I said "oh we'll discuss some stuff, alright, but that ain't happening". She's going based off my height, weight, bmi, and their supposed "ideal weight" BS. My bariatric surgeon is ecstatic with my progress. He actually said I've lost more, with both surgeries, than he realistically expected that I would. My neurologist is thrilled because losing all the weight has significantly improved my MS symptoms. My gastroenterologist is thrilled because all of my GI issues have gone away. Just this idiot yahoo isn't happy. I definitely think I need a new doctor. This is just too much. For reference, here's what I looked like when I first started seeing her, and here's what I look like now, literally this week....as in Monday and yesterday.....

Even though it's 4th of July and everything is closed, I'm doing some research today on new doctors that actually have knowledge about massive weight loss in patients who have had bariatric surgery. I plan to make some calls on Friday and set up a new patient appt or 2 (this time around, I'm interviewing them before I commit...neve ever thought I'd be doing THAT, lemme tell ya). I wasn't going to go to my appt on the 17th, but I think I still will to get my blood work done and my vitals, and to tell her that I'm seeing a new doctor and why. Actually, I want to tell the medical assistant because she'll put it in my chart. At this point, I'm not sure if the doctor will. I know I'm due for my 6 mo ekg in office, my full vitals, my meds refilled, and my blood work. I want all of that done before I go to a new doctor so they have the most recent and up to date records on me and the most accurate place to start. I will NOT be entertaining any discussions about phentermine or losing more weight. I may go ahead and lose those 3 pounds that @ShoppGirl mentioned, that way nobody can say anything either way. But still.... I'm leaving that practice no matter what. I'm not happy or comfortable there at this point.

Well now I just feel like my whole life has been a lie!!! Next you're gonna tell me all of Australia isn't remote bushland with extremely large animals around every corner trying to kill me the second I set foot outside in the 135 degree heat!!!!

Thank you all so much. I was so taken aback by this entire conversation. She even had the gall and AUDACITY to ask me if I wanted to try phentermine!!! PHENTERMINE!!! I told her that not only would I never ever take that, I would be finding a new doctor. For her to KNOW about the cardiac issues I had after my hernia surgery in December and then suggest a medication with known cardiac implications....I can't fathom what was going through her mind. She said to me that if I felt better at maybe 170 instead of 155 or 160, she could maybe see if that would be ok. I said "Ok with WHO?? It's MY body, and I'm ok with it as it is now". She said I've come so far and made so much progress that it seems like such a shame to not get myself to a healthier and more normal weight and bmi. I explained AGAIN that I lost 238 pounds from my highest weight, which is what I weighed when I first came to her. I reminded her that SHE REFERRED ME TO THE BARIATRIC SURGEON. I reminded her that I've lost 205 pounds since my first surgery. I've done enough. I've gotten off all of my meds that I wanted to, started the career I wanted, became active and started doing all the things I wanted to. I have my life and health back. There is NOTHING else I need or want to accomplish, besides plastics in a few years. She didn't use to be like this. She was an amazing doctor. But for some reason, she's jumped on the BMI bandwagon and decided that it's the only way to judge if someone is healthy. I can't get behind that, and I can't tolerate this from her anymore. Definitely looking for a new doctor.

so you don't put shrimp on the barbie??? lol

When I know I have to poo, I weigh myself before and after. Makes me feel better to see a pound or 2 just fall away lol

I use cacao powder instead.

bless yer heart = you're an idiot yonto = do you want to ya'll = you all gimme some sugar = give me a kiss touched in the head = crazy use-ta-could = use to be able to ain't = am not or isn't you best not = you better not The list goes on and on lol And the madder I get, the thicker my accent gets LMAO And don't ask us for directions, cuz WE know what we're talkin about but you'll never figure out where we're directing you to go LMAO

I'm from the South. and if I start lettin ya'll know some of the stuff we say, you'd be twice as confused as I am about your vocabulary lol

OMG I never even thought about the Australian lingo. I'll never learn that lol You guys have the MOST....unique....vocabulary lol

We need calcium citrate

EXACTLY. So I've decided that if you don't pay my bills or sleep in my bed, your opinion of me doesn't matter. I'm below my goal weight, through no fault of my own lol I'm actually TRYING to get back up to 190, but I still seem to be losing (I thought I was all set at 185 but I'm now 183 lol). Eventually my body will get where it wants to be, and it'll stay there. People can be so rude. First they had something to say because I was too fat and now they have something to say because I'm too thin. They can go suck a rotten egg at this point. I'm over it.

And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.....

I hit my final goal!!! I'm actually, literally ugly crying right now. I didn't expect it to happen so fast!!!