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Wow, they day time flies when you are having fun! Well, I MUST be having fun, cause today is the 3 WEEK anniversary of my surgery! It seems like the 3 weeks have just flown by, and I have to say, I feel SO much better than I did three weeks ago today!!! When I woke up from my surgery I was sore and hurting (mildly) in the area of the five ports (incisional areas). It hurt to cough or take a deep breath. I felt like I had a huge gas bubble in my stomach that I couldn't belch up, and I just wanted to sleep, but my doctor and nurses kept telling me to "get up and walk, walk, walk!" I was SO tired to boot. But today I am three weeks out, I have lost a total of 44 pounds so far (20 lbs pre-op and 24 post op) and I feel so much better. Initially I had trouble with getting enough water in. And it is still a small battle. I sip most of my waking hours, trying to get my 64 oz of water in. Some days I come close, some days I don't do so well. But this morning, I woke up at 5:00 AM (!) and was thirsty, so got up and got a ProJoe out of the fridge and drank the whole thing in just about 15-20 minutes! (ProJoe is a coffee protein drink from www.mybariatricpantry.com ). I ordered a sample pack of 12 and they came yesterday. This is the first one I have tried, and I was amazed that it was so good, and I could drink all 9.5 oz in that short of time!!! It usually takes me an hour or two to get 9 oz down. I am sure that my swelling (internal swelling that is) must be going away, allowing me to drink more fluid at a time. ProJoe also has 20 gms of protein in the 9.5 oz, which is great. I have been really struggeling with getting my protein in every day(usually without success!). I was a huge Starbucks drink fan prior to my surgery, so am looking to substitute ProJoe for Starbucks. The drink I had (Magnifico Mocha) had 110 calories in the 9.5 oz, which is about the same as a Small Starbucks Skinny Iced Carmel Macchiatio (my favorite Starbucks drink). Also have to report that I am swimming daily with my roommate. Yesterday I got up to 22 laps in the pool. (We have a pool just 1/2 block from our front door). My roommate swam every day in June, while I was home on vacation, and is up to 60 laps. Wish I was able to do that much. But am happy that I can add two laps per day! Am hoping that the swimming will help firm up my upper arms and thighs! I really want to improve my stamina and get some cardio exercise in, and hope that swimming will do that for me too! In my opening paragraph I said I feel so much better today. I neglected to say that the "Gas bubble" sensation has finally gone away. I am finally having some bowel movements (sorry if that is TMI!) without the aid of a stool softener or laxative, eating a little bit without feeling miserable; in general, everything seems to feel better "all of a sudden"! Now if I could just get my energy back (I am still tired a lot of the time) I will feel REALLY GREAT! So all you newbie VGSers out there, take heart! It seems that time does heal most things! Have a great day and GREAT weekend. I am off work this weekend, and am anxious to do something fun! Later.........

I have tried alot out there. The Ortho tricyclen made me a crazy woman. I tried Merena...made me crazy too. I could be sitting on the cough watching TV with my hubby and all of the sudden get pissed off for no reason. I mean teeth gritting, ears red, wanting to throw something pissed off. I also tried the diaphram, my hubby didn't like it cuz it would rub the head of his penis raw....sorry I know TMI, but its true. Plus it is a pain to put in and take out. I liked today's sponge. I used it for about a year after I decided it was the Ortho tricyclen making me crazy. Again it is a pain to put in and take out. My doc finally believed me when I told her the hormone birth control and others like it were gonna eventually make me kill somebody so she changed me to Ortho Novum which has the opposite hormone that tricyclen does....I have been on it for about 4 months now and it seems to be working out good for me. Every one is different though. The trick is finding what is best for you!

Well I have been a member of this site for almost a year and havent told my story & thought I would today. January 2010 I decided to have the sleeve after researching for many months. The sleeve it was..until I went to see my GYN, umm (sorry TMI alert), I have been menstrating for many months, I kept thinking-'if I can just lose this weight, it'll be okay'. but Dr. decided to do a sterilization/ablation on me to see if that help, well it didnt. So after many ultrasounds, the 'ultrasoundist' asked if I had been told I had endometriosis. Noone has ever told me that, infact after 12 years of trying to concieve even with doctors interventions (all self pay), noone has told me that, they just called it 'mysterious infertility', (finally chose to adopt). Now 12 years later a new doctor is going to finally diagnose me? Of course I thought the ultrasound lady was wrong but dr wanted to 'go in and see' as this is the only way you can be diagnosed for sure with this disease. Sooo(had to put my sleeve on hold) April 2010, she did a look see laproscopic and indeed found that I had one of the worse cases she has ever seen of endometriosis, I had stage 7!. Endometriosis is a disease that feeds off of your estrogen, and produces a rock hard 'glue' that had 'glued' my ovaries together and had adhered to my intestines and bowels. Dr. immedialtely closed me up without taking anything out, because she needed a robot to help her. So,again my sleeve on hold til we get this out of the way. June 30, 2010 I had surgery for her to go in and get that out of me, after two hours of trying to cut this out of me laproscopic, she decided to open me up and take everything as she described 'it was just one big ball of mess all glued together.Thankfully she didnt nick my bowels while cutting that away! I was happy as I knew now, no more things in my way of my sleeve, I scheduled my sleeve for sept 17, I get a call sept. 6 , drs office telling me that dr has jury duty on my surgery date!! OMG really? I cried with her office personel, they called me sept 8, told me to be at the hospital in the morning Sept 9th.!! Ok I wanted the surgery but wow tomorrow? Lots of things went thru my mind: I thought of my kids, my life, was this really going to work, am I really prepared for it, will I make it thru surgery? Well I made the 4 hr drive to the hospital crying while thinking of all these things... I had the surgery, everything went great, I was out after spending two nights. I am on week 13, lost 58 pounds, I just keep thinking somone pinch me, this is too easy. I HAVE NOT ONCE REGRETTED HAVING THIS SURGERY. My sleeve has been faithful to me, and I treat it right too! I look at myself in the mirror and see ME! The person I knew was in there long ago. I AM ALIVE, I particpate at my kids schools, I feel good in a crowd of people ( I always felt the biggest in the room at any given time). Sunday was the first pic I had taken with my kids in 8 years, and even better, I liked the pics!! ITS BEEN AN AWESOME RIDE, WORTH THE WAIT!! Anyone thinking of getting the sleeve, I say 'go for it', you owe it to yourself. Your life will change for the better... God bless!! Kelly

I've been very happy with being sleeved. I've lost 81 lbs since December 28th. I did have some problems with getting lightheaded...I think it was a consequence of my blood pressure going down. I hated the protein shakes, but I know that's just me. The only other bad thing that I've had going on is that I've had diarrhea since the surgery. I know that is probably TMI, but it's probably been the biggest problem I've had. I suspect this isn't normal at all and just a problem that I personally have. I've been referred to a GI doctor. That being said, I don't regret anything! Good luck!!!!

No but I'm ovulating sorry tmi

Fallon I don't think I have told him how much better our sex will be but I will do that tonight we have good sex now but I am limited to what I can and want to do tmi I know but I want to be able to give him the best and here lately I don't even want to have sex cause.I'm thinking of what I look like and what he thinks of me he says he thinks.I'm sexy but I don't and he just don't understand that

POSSIBLE TMI - you have been warned. I slept almost all the way through the night. And then I woke up and had diarrhea. And yes, I do think that's awesome too. We went to bed around 11:30p. I had a hard time falling asleep. It shouldn't be because Jess was in the bed. I couldn't stop coughing. And since I can't get a real cough in, I couldn't dislodge whatever was stuck. After a while I figured out I could brace my 3 middle incisions by putting very light pressure on them with my hand while coughing. I also used my inhaler once and that seemed to help. I finally coughed out some icky stuff. Not a lot. Jess ran and got me a roll of tp so I could spit it out. After that it was much better. I woke up around 1 / 1:30a and I had to pee really bad. First time that's happened in a while. I took more pain meds and went back to bed, I didn't bother walking around. I slept till around 7:50a when I heard the front door close. Jess had left for work. I felt like sleeping more but I had to go to the bathroom, so I got up. I felt like I had to poop. I wasn't expecting that. In the binder it says that you probably won't poop for 5 to 6 days after surgery. Technically I am 5 days out. I just wasn't expecting it. It was fantastic! I had to brace my stomach with my hand so I could push everything out and it took a bit of effort. I'm surprised at how much came out and just the fact that anything came out at all. I wonder if it's from the broth I've been having. The last time I drank broth was years ago when I was sick. It went right through me and I haven't drank it since being post-op. I was curious if it would have this effect again. I also started taking my vitamins yesterday. I took 2 Calcet Creamy Bites. The chocolate has 4 grams of sugar and the lemon has 5 grams. So I wonder if that did it too. I'm sipping broth now and get the feeling it was the broth. Yesterday when I took my multi it made my stomach hurt. This morning I took 2 sips of broth, then the multi, then 2 more and had no pain. It takes me a good 3 minutes minimum to eat each chewable. My parents are going to stop by today. That means I have to take down my board in the kitchen and hide my meds and kaiser paperwork. My mom knows but my dad doesn't. So it'll just be like I have a weekend off for once. I feel like I'm going to get the runs again. It's gotta be the broth. I haven't had a creamy bite yet. I called the pharmacy where I live and I could barely hear the lady, but what I got was that I should refill my liquid vic when I have 2 days worth left. I'm confident that I am at that point, so I emailed my dr to refill it since calling the number on the bottle would probably refill it 45 minutes away where my surgery was and I want it sent to the pharmacy where I live. Hopefully he will email me back soon. Today I am going to walk around (and maybe dance a little too) to music after I post this. Then organize my meds. I bought an organizer at Target yesterday. I can't do much cleaning b/c I have a weight restriction for lifting. Once my mom calls saying their leaving I'll take a shower. They live about an hour away. I'm having a hard time working carafate into this. I did it 3x the day before yesterday and not at all yesterday. Well, better get on with my day. I'm sure I'll post more later. ~Liz

Thank You Meggiep And Congrats to youJG407!! I am trying to walk and sip as much as i can also chewing on some gas x. With the gas pain it has been hard to tell if im hungry or full idk for me anyways anybody have that problem with the gas pain? Also maybe a little tmi but the diarrhea just hit me today andbody take imodium ad for it? I agree JG407 i will be so glad when this part is over and focusing on the amazing part of this journey

Yep I had it too! I was so empty that I could take a drink & listen to it traveling through my bowels as I ran to the bathroom! TMI! Sorry! "Liquid in" "Liquid out" Pretty much sums it up I think! It'll go away post-op when you get to the mushies.

Mhaz..., I was the same way after I moved out of my Roach apartment! It makes you paranoid. It was an old one near the city so there was no way of controlling it, just leaving. We bombed all our stuff before we moved into his mother's but I was always worried that they'd still be in boxes. And believe or not I gave away a lot stuff for free because I knew there were roaches living in it. All my living room furniture was given away. You can open up a cookbook from back then and see a dead one, I know TMI, but that's how infested this place was. I was dumb to move there but it was close to the subway and cheap! I'm afraid of the lion pits at the National Zoo in Wash DC. It's been a while since I've been there and now that an incident happened, I forget at what zoo and what animal but they can get out. Also they have/had a gorilla house and it's all glass and these huge guys will come right up to you face to face and pound on it and I remember screaming and running away thinking they could break through! dandy brandyII.

Not tmi so happy for you... I was excited my self to wear a size small and not XL from Victoria secret. Lingerie is fun in a smaller package the thong doesn't disappear lmbo

Hey Amy! :hurray: And hiyas my fellow double V's! I'm here and still swimming! Doing good, losing slowly, but's it's all good as long as the scale is moving in the right direction. I haven't had as much time for the computer lately, been crazy busy at home with projects around the house and in the yard. Amy, you've lost the same amount of weight as me! :Dancing_wub: Sadly a size 16 is still a dream for me, 214 pounds on a 5' 2" body is still too much for that, but I'm working on it, and feeling great with my progress! My second fill has given me some restriction - I swallowed a piece of fish that wasn't chewed enough, and oh boy, I felt the bandster initiation! :tt1: It didn't come back up, but it did get stuck for about a minute, and I was really surprised at how much "slime"/saliva you can make in that one minute, LOL! Bleh. I hope this is not TMI, just the truth of bandster life. Since then I've reeeeally slowed down my chewing and have been really paying attention to bite sizes and such. I know, I should have been doing that all along, but one forgets every now and again, yanno? :hurray: I am still hungry a lot, so I'm not sure what I'm gonna tell my doc at my next fill visit (May 28th), whether to push for just a small fill or leave it, since something got stuck. I really would like to be less hungry, but I don't want to be super-tight either. It seems the sweet-spot is very close! Ok sorry to ramble on here . . . I do hope all of my fellow Victorious Valentines are doing well . . . please keep in touch, and just keep swimming! (or walking, running, biking, etc., etc. :Dancing_wub:). *Warm HUGS!*

Ladies.....has anyone had to deal with AFTER SURGERY gas pains, followed by their mental cycle? I will have to because I was not able to choose my surgery date. Was anyone able to choose their date because of this reason? Dealing with recover is a task within itself, however; adding cramps on top of that will not make my recovery any easier. Sorry gents.....TMI!!!!!!

TMI WARNING Are any of you having issues with constipation? I've had a couple of episodes and the only thing that helped was Milk of Mag. and they taste of that stuff is just awful. Plus the excrement was so big and hard it stopped up my toilet! Had to go to Home Depot to buy a new plunger.

Ok, so I did it! 8 days out and I know this is wayyyyy TMI but several positions felt just fine! I say if you feel like can do it - do it - cuz I know I feel alot better tonight!

Hmm. What an interesting topic! I think that you should ask him when you go out (if you do). "So, what made you ask me out after you have known me all this time..." Maybe leave the weight out of it and see what he says. I think that there have been great points above about this topic. I also have not dated men that are morbidly obese. I know it is a double standard and I don't know maybe if I really liked the person I would have gone out with him. Married now and my hubby has a bit of a belly but great arms and butt;). TMI I know. Gotta have some muscle though, you know? I don't think you should hold this against him. Go out and see what happens if you have a mind to. Like it was brought up before, maybe you are smiling more. Maybe you are putting yourself out there now in a way you were not before. Best of luck and go rock that sleeve;). Dee

Isnt it awsome to feel comfortable enough to go out on a date again. And In my opinion...I think having more then one with different people is awsome that means I am not settling for that jerk that just wanted sex. lol Granted I miss sex but geesh after 4 1/2 years I can wait a little longer...TMI right? sorry But still I want to meet someone I like...and likes me, and go from there. :biggrin2: Oh and I would LOVE to show off the picture of the guy I have a date with this weekend. HOT HOT HOT:drool:

TMI for the faint of heart....... One month ( but I am old) maybe sooner for you if you are younger. Doggie style worked for me, with pillows supporting my belly. That way there was no weight on me, and the pillows held my belly still so it wouldn't flop around. OH......I love this forum. Happy nookie to you.

TMI again: My surgery was on Monday 5/18 and I still have not had a bowel movement. Am I right to be freaking out?

Ok, so I am 5.5 weeks post op. I am getting in great Protein numbers, my calories are under almost every day. That is all I had been focusing on, but it looks like my carb number is higher than people online say I should get. I get my carbs from dairy pretty much since I am not eating the typical carbs I have been used to. no bread, rice, Pasta, potato. I have been in the never ending stall... I can feel my body shifting still, so I guess that isn't horrible, but I want the scale number too move as well. if I am eating less than 800 calories and my carbs are from milk and cottage cheese, will I NOT be able to lose weight? This seems baffling to me. I was always told that milk is good for me. I crave milk like some people crave candy. I have a cup of milk every night. It is what I look forward to most of the day (I actually smile as I sip it). I usually have cottage cheese in the morning. I really don't want to cut out my milk, so is this really what could be holding me back??? Will suffering thru the sleeve really have no progress if I drink milk and eat cottage cheese??? I have made MASSIVE changes in my diet and entire routine. I have incorporated walking almost every day and like I said earlier... I eat about 800 or less calories a day almost entirely protein... my protein intake averages around 100g each day. Ugh.... frustration is getting to me I want my new life to show on the scale!!!! I lost 24 pounds within the first week of surgery... then got to 29 lb loss pretty soon after and the scale refuses to move since then. I know there are stalls, but shouldn't my body be used to my new eating habits? Could my menstral cycle affect the stall? I should have had my period about 2 week ago (sorry for the tmi), and I have had the PMS symptoms for the past 2 weeks... could I be retaining Water (for another PMS symptom) and that holding up my weight loss? Any suggestions??? help please

I just wanna say if you think your beautiful you are beautiful. I love myself I think Im super sexy at 286 pounds I just had cancer my bra size is 38G and I had to get a radical mastectomy so basically im missing one boob and bald. I have sex with my husband 3 times a week he thinks Im super sexy. People tell me Im lucky to have him I say its not luck when I was dating 17 years ago I knew I wanted someone who would love me for me me. Most guys at that time loved me for my body I was 140 then. When I met my husband we fell in love immediately I didnt compromise my standards. Moral of the story love yourself I love my body and every dimple so when i go out into the world bald and one boob missing guys find me attractive because I know Im attractive. Change your mindset fall in love with yourself then God then all else will follow. Good Luck TMI yeah my bad lol

I hear you all on this! I've been big/fat ALL my life even though I was really active. I was a nurse until I got breast cancer then my 18 year marriage ended, got back on track, worked mental health and then something less stressful, a Phlebotomist. Then 2.5 years ago I was forced into retirement at 48 with a broken back and neck due to some F@@k wit running into me! I met a man in that time, married and thought life was perfect. Oh, I had the band put in to help with weight loss for my back. Now, I find I am SO depressed. Nothing I do seems right, I'm in constant pain with my back and neck, I've just had shoulder surgery also re the accident, yes I'm on anti-depressants, but no matter what I do I can't shake this cloud, plus, I'd really love to have an orgasm... Nothing's working... Sorry, TMI

Ok this may be totally unrelated, but... I have had the Mirena IUD since Jan 2011. Up until surgery it has given me nothing but pain, however I had virtually NO period. I started my period 3 days after surgery so that would've been 12/27 that I started. I have had more bleeding now than the past 4-5 months combined. It has been 11 days now and I'm still going. It's also a really nasty brown color. (Sorry if that's TMI) The good news is that the pain I used to have is gone. Just curious if anyone else experienced anything like this?

Warning this rant is a little TMI. lol Weds I started my monthly flow and I started my liquid diet today also pre-admission testing today as well. I have 13 more days to go for my pre-op diet. I told my best friend to do a wellness check on my husband this weekend. lmao It's coming to the end of the day and my stomach wont stop gurgling. Its a loud gurgle sound too. It started happening about 5pm. I've had some looks from people because of how loud it was. haha I've had 4 protein shakes, 2 jell-o cups, 2 servings of broth and 50oz of water. My next protein shake isn't for another 1hour and I still have 2 more cups of water to drink. I don't have any food cravings but my stomach says feed me!!!! lol I've had the poos all day with a nasty headache. Just keep telling myself that tomorrow will be better and the day after will be better and the day after that will be better. haha Just feel like crawling into bed and waiting for Feb 1st to get here already.