*susan*

That is great news. I stalled for two weeks also, but this week the scale moved again. I am determined to hit onederland before my birthday, which is in two weeks.

Jeff, thank you so much for updating us on how things are going. I am glad surgery went well, and it sounds like you are well on the road to recovery. You are going to get cranky at times, we all did during the liquids stage. It is just part of the process. Once you move on to more solid food, you will feel a lot better and those feelings of regret will also pass. Keep on keeping on, you are doing wonderfully and we are all here cheering you on!

I think Shanda made a good point about the confidence angle as well. Before surgery, we tend to try and be as invisible as possible to others. We feel fat, we feel like we are unattractive and we prefer no one notice us as opposed to someone noticing us and making an embarrassing comment. After we have the surgery, and we see the numbers on the scale getting smaller, we start feeling better about ourselves. The people we are around start commenting on the differences, which make us feel even better. Pretty soon, we start feeling more confident about ourselves and it shows, to everyone. That is why men start noticing us. We are not trying to be invisible anymore. And, I do believe that many men like a confident woman and are able to see past our weight. Confidence in itself can be a very beautiful thing.

Hey Dancer, glad to have you join us! Like Vegas said, I think you will be fine to return after two weeks. You will be tired, but once you move to mushies, that will help a lot. Keep us posted on how things are going.

I didn't have any gas pain at all. In fact, I had very little pain associated with my surgery.

Charity, I agree with Vegas. Every doctor is different. Some of them have you do the pre-op if there are certain medical indicators that you need to. If he isn't having you do a pre-op, then you are fine. Don't worry about it, everything will be wonderful.

That is pretty expensive, according to my budget, lol.

Congratulations on making the decision and getting a date so soon. You will do wonderfully. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.

They say eventually your body will compensate for the loss of the ghrelin production and begin producing it again. However, it will not be anywhere near the extent of what it was produced pre-sleeve.

36.5 inches!! Whoa, that is awesome and a major NSV! Congratulations!! :thumbup::thumbup::party4::party4::thumbup::woot::woot:

I have been having a very, very bad food day. I am too embarrassed to even post what I have ate today. But, tomorrow will be better.

It is definitely worse for me during the colder months.

You have such a great attitude! That makes all the difference.

Oh my gosh, I thought this was some weird thing that I was the only person on the face of the earth to experience. I am so happy to know now that I am not alone in this! I have no idea what causes it, but would love it if someone could offer an explanation.

Alex, I hope you had a fantastic birthday!!! You deserve it.

1) Weekend plans? Cleaning, laundry, geocaching, watching the race and hanging out with the family. 2) Beatles: Overrated or Musical Geniuses? I think they were very good, but I wouldn't necessarily call them musical geniuses. 3) Name something positive that happened to you this week. I found a best friend from high school that I had lost track of for many years. You have to love facebook for that! 4) Do you like your job? I love my job, I love what we do and why we are doing it. But, there are some people that I would love to see leave and then it would be the perfect job.

Que, welcome to our forums and thank you for sharing your story with us. It sounds like an awful experience to have gone through. I see you are from Pontiac. We used to spend a lot of time up there when I was growing up. We had a trailer on Lake Cadillac and did a lot of snowmobiling up in that area. Lots of wonderful memories.

Wow, glad you weren't hurt in the accident and everything was able to proceed as planned.

I noticed the first thing to disappear was my shelf, aka, the big butt.

Hey Shanda, at least you were prepared for it. But, even when we are prepared and know what to expect, it still stinks. The worst part is, we never know exactly how long the stall will last. Now is a good time to make sure you are taking your measurements. Even though you might not be losing weight, you could be losing inches and it helps to see evidence of that. Be patient, allow your body the time it needs to adjust and you will start losing again.

I have never heard anything like that before. Like you, if I get sick, the first thing I do is brush my teeth to get that nasty taste out of my mouth.

Thank you for updating us on how you are doing. It sounds like things are going well, that is good news.