*susan*

Ugh, I cried so hard at the end of that movie!!

Good idea for a thread, Daisy! I was born in Michigan and we lived there until I was 14 and then moved to Florida. I met my first husband at the beach after graduation. Despite my parents warning me, I got married one month shy of my 19th birthday. They were right, I was too young, but I was in love and thought I knew everything. He immediately changed and started not coming home at night until 11:00 p.m. and every weekend was gone both days fishing and golfing. It got worse after we had kids. I put up with him, though, for twelve years. Then, my best friends husband found them coming out of a hotel together and that was the final straw. I spent those twelve years consoling myself with food. But, I can't say I regret marrying him because I have two amazing kids as a result. Justin is 18, just graduated high school and will be attending Florida State starting next month for sports medicine. He has always been in gifted classes and everything seems to come real easy for him. Danielle is my Christmas baby. She is 16 and a sweetheart. She is also in all honors classes and hopes to be a vet someday. I couldn't be prouder of them. I got married to Lee in 1999. He has three kids from his first marriage and four grandkids. He is seven years older than me. I thought we had the fairytale relationship. Unfortunately, we recently went through a very rough period in which our marriage almost didn't survive. But, one night we sat up talking until almost 4:00 a.m. and realized we both love each other very much and our marriage was worth saving. We have done the things we need to do to fix our relationship and I am happy to say things are going much better now. I work for a non profit agency that takes care of abused, abandoned and neglected kids. I am the database specialist for the foundation and also help plan our major fundraising events. It doesn't pay well at all, but the rewards I get from knowing I am helping these kids are far greater than a paycheck. I am a technology geek, especially when it comes to smartphones. My main hobby is phones, forums and computers. I also love animals and have two fabulous dogs. On the weekends, my hubby and I like to put our redneck on and go jeeping in the forest. It is fun to pack a lunch, take the dogs and just have a blast on the trails and what not. I guess that is enough about me for now. I am sure we will all learn a great deal more about each other as time goes on, and I am looking forward to it.

I think I made a left turn when I should have gone right. How the heck did I end up in here?

Me and you both!!! He will be over 70 years old before she graduates from college, can you imagine!!

I don't know why, I just felt the need to poke my head in here and say hello to all the men folk. I see I am not the only lady to have done so.

Crystal, I hope we will be calling you "mom-to-be" very soon then!

Exactly, you have to constantly think about every bite you are putting in your mouth. You have to be conscious of when you are feeling stress, because that may cause your band to tighten, for the ladies, when it is that time of the month. It just seems like you have to constantly think about it. With the sleeve, I don't. I don't worry about getting stuck, pb'ing or anything. I just have to make myself stop the minute I get my full sign, or it is very uncomfortable. Life is so much easier now.

See, I have heard that about labs from several people. I have two now and have owned them in the past, but have never had that problem. As long as I have bones and plenty of chew toys, they have been the best behaved dogs I have ever owned.

That is wonderful news, congratulations!

Hi Penny, and welcome! You will find a lot of great information here.

I got married the first time one month before turning 19. By twenty, I was fat. My first husband completely changed after we got married. He immediately started not coming home at night until 11:00 and was either fishing or golfing both days on the weekend. It got worse once we had kids. So, I made myself feel better by eating, eating and eating some more. I should have just kicked his butt out the door and saved myself all the weight gain. But, I can't say I have any regrets, because I did get two great kids out of the marriage.

Goodness, I couldn't imagine having any more kids at this age either. My brother is 50 years old and he and his wife just had a baby girl about a month ago! No way, my youngest is 16 and soon I will be an empty nester. At any rate, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to have a perfectly healthy pregnancy. You would just need to make sure you are getting proper nutrition and taking a good prenatal Vitamin.

I must admit to being a bit curious. But, I still can't help think that it is an exit zone only.

Also, Dr. Herrera with North Florida Surgeons is amazing as well.

Oh my goodness, they are absolutely beautiful! I have a chocolate and golden myself. I agree with VegasAngel, how will you be able to give any of them up! They are such sweeties.

Daisy, you are doing great. Ever since I had my sleeve, I have lost all interest in sweets. I have tried a couple of things, but they just don't taste good to me anymore. Now, if only that were the case with the salty, crunchy stuff, I would be in good shape. I went through about a four week plateau recently. I was pretty upset because at first the weight was literally flying off. Then nothing for several weeks. I wasn't doing anything different, it just stopped coming off. I checked, and I wasn't losing inches either. Then, suddenly about three weeks ago it started dropping again. I was pleased. As long as I am not gaining, I am happy.

I am so excited for you. Don't worry about flying, you will do fine. I flew for the first time last year and actually found I enjoyed it. You are going to do great, Dr. Aceves is absolutely amazing. I was so impressed with him, his staff and the hospital. You will love them. Can't wait to hear how you do!

It is amazing how difficult it is to give up some of our old habits. I still load my plate up with food every night at dinner. My hubby and kids tease me about it, knowing I won't even be able to eat a quarter of what I put on there. I know I won't be able to either, but I still pile it on because I don't want to feel like I am depriving myself. Most of it ends up going in the fridge and I take it for lunch the next day.

Rose, I am so happy for you. It is wonderful that you are able to do something about this battle at your age and be able to look forward to a healthier rest of your life. I have been fat since I was 20 years old. I have always been embarrassed about how I look, which resulted in me being a very withdrawn person. Many probably think I am anti social, it is not that so much, but like you said, not being comfortable in my own skin. If I had had the opportunity to have this done in my twenties, I would have jumped on it in a heart beat. I am sure you will do wonderfully. We will all be thinking about you.

I hear you about flying, is this your first time? I had never flown in my life until a year ago in April when my husband and I went to Vegas. Nobody could believe that at over 40 years of age, I had never flown, but it was the truth. I was a complete nervous wreck about it. I had myself all worked up. Turns out, once on the plane, I actually enjoyed flying. But, for some reason, everytime we took off, my nose would bleed. I just flew in April again when I had my sleeve surgery and the same thing happened again. I have no idea what that is all about. But, I am sure you will do fine. Let us know how everything goes.

I take it from what you say, that your sisters and cousins have never had to battle a weight problem? It is easy for people to say that, but until they have truly been in our shoes, they just don't know. I am sure that every single one of us on these forums have been success at not just one, but numerous diets. Unfortunately, something always seems to happen and eventually we seem to fall back into our hold habits and usually end up gaining everything back, plus more. It is one of the most difficult battles there is to fight. I am so thankful for the various weight loss surgeries available to us now. I am confident they are saving many lives. Now, about those puppies, we need to see pictures!

Interesting read, Mac. Bob, I had to laugh at your post!

I was going to reply, but I think Daisy and Elisabeth did a wonderful job answering. My only regret with the sleeve is that I didn't know about it before I got the band. It has been a wonderful experience all the way around for me.

Hey, I just answered this in another thread you asked this question on. You absolutely can do it all at once, I did, as did many others on this forum. If you are having complications with your band, as I was, they will probably require a complete unfill prior to the surgery. Dr. Aceves also required that I do one week of liquids only prior to the surgery to eliminate any swelling from my band. The surgery itself went great.

Hi Theresa. I had my band removed and the sleeve done all at the same time. I was having a lot of problems with my band, so Dr. Aceves required that I have a complete unfill three weeks prior to my surgery. Then, just to make sure there was no swelling from the complications I had with the band, he did require me to do a week of liquids prior to my surgery. As far as the surgery itself, everything went great.