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Welcome Yolanda! I'm glad you had a successful consultation. Good luck with the rest of your pre-op appointments!

Good luck!!! Welcome to VST! You seem to have your head in a very good place to go forward with this AND be successful. Thank you for sharing your story and keep us posted on your pre-op journey.

I'm so happy for you and know you'll have a blast!

Congratulations! I'm so glad you are continuing to progress so well. Good job as well on the walking, that was one of the best things I feel I did in this journey...started exercising early on.

Thanks Tiff for the well wishes:-) Isn't it funny how our journeys twist and turn. I was kind of where you are in thoughts over the last few months. I just wanted to be normal. I think I wrote about it here (bored everyone to death) a time or two:-) There was more to me than my weight loss and that seemed to be all people would ever mention. I now feel completely normal in the way I eat and the activities I do...but I do have "battle scars" (loose skin) that will always help remind me of the journey I've taken and that I haven't always been here. I want to return the hope for you in that you have continued success and lots of joy over the next few months and new stage in your journey!

Well, yesterday marked my 7 month anniversary from surgery. I am pretty happy with where I am health-wise. I'll be having a follow-up visit with my surgeon the beginning of next month, so will have my labs drawn in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure they will show some deficiencies. This past month I've done pretty poorly taking all but my multivitamin, which has been pretty good. I've been ill off and on most of the month and I've just not been as good as I should have been. I've also struggled this last month with my exercise routine. When the snow hit, things were closed and schedules erratic for working out. I then flew home for a week. So basically I went from consistently exercising for 5-7 days per week (since 1 month post-op) to 2-3 days per week. I'm hoping this virus is finally out of me and I can get back to normal. My weight has continued to decline, but at a nice and slow rate. I lost almost 6 pounds, making my grand total weight loss -95 pounds. I think I'd like to try to maintain a weight between 140-148 pounds, but who knows where my body will be comfortable. I'd like to not drop below 140 pounds to try to maintain some curves and not have as much lose skin. Just today at work (spirit day-wearing jeans and a tee shirt) I was mistaken for a middle school kid (from the side and back) by two different teachers and a custodian. I NEED curves...I don't want to be mistaken for a teenager (although I wouldn't mind it so much in the face:-). Other ramblings... I've become much more accustomed to receiving compliments about my weight loss and they don't bother me hardly at all. I'm pretty okay with people constantly talking to me about my weight loss, although it still does get annoying at times...especially the "wasting away" and "you're disappearing." But usually when I say I'm done losing, they have nothing more to say. One mom said I should be the one to talk with her son because it might come better from the "pretty, enthusiastic, young teacher." When she first said it, I was thinking oh, I'll have so and so across the hall talk to him then and then I realized she was talking about me. It was really sweet and made my week. Today a teacher came up to me and said, "I can't stand to look at you anymore." He had a smile on his face so I knew it wasn't meant in a bad way. He explained how when he met me 9 years ago he never thought I had it in me to get so healthy. He saw a very happy person who enjoyed her food and was happy to live her life the way she was living. It lead to a really good talk about food addiction and the benefits of wls for some people. I went up to one of our administrators after school to set up a time to meet next week because I couldn't do today as I was already busy. I thought she wanted to discuss the state tests coming up in May. She said, "no big deal I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your procedure...not that I'm really convinced it's for me, I just wanted to talk some things over." I look at this as a huge step and it makes me happy that I decided to tell others about my surgery. Well, I guess that's all for now. Still chugging along. Still super happy with my sleeve and loving life. Can't wait to see what the next 7 months bring. Weight Loss by Month: Starting 238 pounds July 2009 -16 pounds Pre-Op August 2009 -21 pounds Month 1 September 2009 -15 pounds Month 2 October 2009 -11 pounds Month 3 November 2009 -13 pounds Month 4 December 2009 -9 pounds Month 5 January 2010 -4 pounds Month 6 February 2010 -6 pounds Month 7 Current -95 143 pounds

Last minute fears are normal. I had a lot of "what if?" thoughts as well. I think I remember reading the stomach cancer post you are referring, but cannot remember all the details. I think that it was not related to vsg, but people who had cancer, so not sure if the correlation could be drawn between the two since we had normal stomachs without disease to begin with...I just cannot remember. As for long term consequences. My family has a history of diabetes, both overweight and healthy weight individuals, so I might not have missed the boat on that. There are also numerous cancers that have killed many (grandparents, great aunts and uncles, cousins) in my family and I'm probably not safe from those either. I guess I just felt in my situation it's a crapshoot. I might as well live as healthy as I can in the time I have on this earth...not saying that I'll do anything to intentionally hurt my health, I personally just felt after my research on the vsg, the pro's outweighed the possible cons. I'm very happy that the surgery is not reversible. I don't ever want to gain all of my weight back. Good luck on your decision. I couldn't have done this if I had MAJOR concerns, but although I had fears of having complications, everything else was settled in my mind. I felt if I made it through the possible complication's phase (although many on here have had them and done just fine as well), I'd live a much healthier, longer life than without the surgery. Good luck coming to a decision you can live with!

Each week post surgery got significantly better and I just kept waiting and then one day I felt good/normal around 3 months post-op.

At this point, actually starting around 4 months post-op, I eat pretty much what I want to following simple good, healthy eating guidelines. That might mean anywhere between 20-100 carbs per day, although it was a gradual increase in months 4 and 5. I also get in around 500-1000 calories per day, averaging between 700-800. BUT I started exercising 5-7 days per week, in ADDITION to walking, beginning my 2nd month post-op. During the winter I stopped the walking, but continued with other forms of exercising. This past month, my exercise routine has suffered a bit and I only got in 2-3 days per week. I agree with the previous poster regarding the need to change up the routine. Just yesterday a friend and I took a walk for a couple of hours (pretty leisurely) down to the boardwalk and around town. Within the first 20 minutes she commented on what a great workout she felt she was getting. I realized I wasn't anywhere near sweating or really even feeling it. Just saying that my stamina has now been built up that basic walking no longer gives me the workout it used to and that might be you too at this point. Now by the end of the 2 hours I felt soreness, but it wasn't like it would have been as a pre-op or early post-op. I know we are all different, so you'll need to see what will work for you. I guess my advice would be to either drop your carbs back down to under 30 per day and/or really work on upping your exercise. Good job on your weight loss so far! Let us know of what you decide to do and keep us updated with your progress.

Lynda, I completely understand your worry about the pressure. On the down side to telling everyone, I now have the food police issue (although that is dying down some). Barbara, thank you. Reading other's stories and viewing photos is what kept me motivated during my journey too. Mommaof4yoopers, you are so close, it really will be here before you know it!

Congratulations on your decision. We also went to California to get married, just the two of us. My plan was never to do a big wedding and he didn't mind at all. The funny thing was my family (and there are a lot of them) were all okay with it and actually expecting it, but his were kind of weird about the whole thing. Oh well, it wasn't their day, but ours. Yep, all we needed (wanted) was bridal bouquet, officiant, marriage license, and photographer (we went the day before to get the license and bouquet). Good luck!!!

It's hard for some who have never been obese themselves (and even some who are) to understand this step. It sounds like you did well and realize a bit of where his reluctance is coming from (all natural side). Good luck!

Tiff, I'm so glad you got to the doctor about this. I'm hoping to get in this next week regarding my low blood pressure issues. It got better for me for a couple days (I increased sodium and water intake), but this last week had a few readings with the top number 90 and 91. Good luck and please keep us posted.

I tried to listen to my body and when I started craving carbs when working out so hard, I increased my intake by adding more fruits (and even some bad carbs, not that I'd recommend that). Now I'm not a runner, so I don't have any answers for that per se, and my weight loss did slow a bit when I did it, but it never stopped. If more carbs becomes a bad thing to your weight loss then you could always drop them down again. Good luck and congratulations on your fitness journey!

Congratulations to both of you!

Those are all great victories...CONGRATULATIONS!

Thank you for the update. I'm glad things are going well!

I'm glad you're doing so well, especially with the protein. If you like seafood, I'd suggest trying it. It always seemed to go down easily for me, things like crab and fish just melted in my mouth. Good luck introducing new foods.

Welcome to VST! Congratulations on your weight loss so far! You don't mention if you exercise consistently, but that would be my advice...up your exercise routine. Many have also found luck breaking a plateau by lowering their carb intake to 30 grams or less per day (I did that my first 3 months and it worked for that stage). Good luck and keep us posted.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! No advice, but good luck on the pre-op diet.