Search the Community

Years before surgery I had only tried Depo. I really didn't care about the weight gain, now I do...lol. So I think I've pretty much ruled that one out. My doctor gave me the mini pill to try but she said she had little faith in it and really recommends that Mirena IUD. I'm just so scared of having something implanted. But it would be worse if the mini pill was ineffective...lol! I am such a baby when it comes to pain, but I have to ask......did the actual placement of the device hurt? Can you feel it everyday? Is it uncomfortable? What about the side effects? It says possible hair loss....lol....=0 .....more loss? Ugh! Did that happen to anyone?

To answer the questions: I'm as active as I can be. I have fibromyalgia, which is incredibly painful and makes it hard to exercise. If I do too much in one day, I run the risk of not being able to walk at all for the next two or three days. I do get a fair bit of exercise at work because I do as much field work as my body will allow, but of course I could get more. I would acutally love to get more and I remember the days when I could ride my bike, but now I'm pretty much restricted to yoga and what I do at work, which is walking and the occasional groundwater sampling. Even at work I can only do so much exercise and field work before I collapse from the pain and exhaustion. Some days I suck it up and push through the pain to get work done, but ultimately I pay the price. Yep, the drugs I'm on do cause significant weight gain. Not much I can do there becuase without the drugs I am unable to function on the most basic level. The PB-ing stopped once I got out that bit of fill. I haven't had an instance of it in about a month now. It was only that one particularly bad week. Part of the problem may have been that I ran out of my anti-inflammatory drug and everything in my body puffed up. Yeah, we won't be letting that happen again. I do keep track of my food as time allows. I work about 50-60hrs a week, and with the 9-10hrs a day of sleep I need to keep my fibro under some control, there isn't a lot of time left some days. I do the best I can on the food front and get as much Protein in as possible. I unfortunately cannot have the protein powders. I have tried a wide variety of them and all of them leave me writhing on the floor in agony within the first few sips. Only when I was a week into my 3 week pre-op diet did it come out of my mother's mouth that I am biologically unable to digest a large number of Proteins due to a birth defect. Thanks for holding that little gem back mother... it's not like that could be important or anything :thumbup:. So my protein has to come from actual food, and even then that doesn't always sit well. Beans, chicken and fish... the holy trinity of the band. It sounds like I'm making 1000 excuses as to why this isn't working, but I am trying. With all the medical problems I have, some days it just isn't fun being me. Believe me, it's in my best interests to make this work. If it doesn't, there is a fairly good chance that the pressure that is building up in my brain will pull the retinas off my eyeballs, causing permanent blindness. If that's not a carrot in front of a carriage, I don't know what is. As I said, it's not always fun being me. Most days it really rather sucks.

I am on Yasmin as well. I am a continuous use gal.. I take the sugar pills at the end of the pack one time a year, (or so my gyno suggests..) which makes for a short spotty 3-4 day cycle, then I'm back to skipping the sugar pills. Yasmin has been the best for me so far, helping immensely with PMDD, and my skin... Plus no weight gain:)

Pookey...I noticed his weight gain too and especially the sweaty, pasty part. It was amazing. I was reading an interview with Anthony Bourdain and he was even amazed at what Adam was doing. He also mentioned that the travel network made Adam sign all these health wavers because he was obviously going to be unhealthy from it. Have you noticed he isn't doing it anymore and now just 'coaching' others on how to beat an eating challenge?

All of this will cause/contribute to weight gain/prevent losses. In addition to the hormones. If you are drinking any calories (alcohol), that will also put the weight on like nobody's beeswax. I could be guaranteed to gain 5 lbs overnight any time I took my old pain meds that I no longer take.

They say that the alcohol is empty calories, it can stall weight loss and promote weight gain. I am not a drinker anyway, so I will not miss that one bit, lol.

I've never watched the show, but I'm not surprised contestants on it would have significant weight gains after it finished. They were losing weight in a hermetic environment detached from the reality of their daily lives, and knowing that an audience was watching them. I think for weight loss to be sustainable it needs to be realistic. You need to weave the habits that will lead to you losing weight and being healthy into your actual life. My weight loss post surgery has been relatively slow, but I'm not depriving myself on a radical diet or dropping everything else in my life to focus on it exclusively. In the past my weight really yo-yo'd, so I'm more determined to lose weight sensibly and keep it off instead of rapidly dropping just to have it pile back on. Prior to having the VSG I did watch several YouTube videos, and one was from a former contestant on the show who gave her perspective about her experience, and some good advice about WLS. She'd also gained all of the weight she lost plus quite a bit more in the years after being on the show, before deciding to have the VSG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caB3iv_iSxo

I wrote this as a pre-op back in Feb 2004. It goes out to all of you with love!! Sung to "American Pie" by Don Mclean New version by Dori Mc-LEAN A long long time ago We can still remember How a twinkie used to make us smile And we knew if we had our chance That we'd soon outgrow our pants And maybe we'd be happy for a while But the weight gain made us shiver with every step our chins would quiver Good news found on a website We weren't alone in the fight We all shared how we'd cried Over failed diets that we'd tried Then we were banded deep inside And one day, the hunger died So.. Bye, bye to the fat on our thighs We were heavy, like a Chevy, so the band we did try Us good ole banders stick together, no lie Singing, tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Did you write the post above? About your clothes fittin' like a glove? Does your mirror tell you so? Now do you believe fat takes it's toll? And bandin' might save your mortal soul? And can you teach yourself how to eat real slow? Well, I know that you'll be getting' thin Insurance approval will come in You'll kick off your blues Once you start to lose I was a lonely overweight eatin fool Any kinda food would make me drool But I knew I'd found some luck The day the hunger died. I started singing Bye, bye to the fat on my thighs I was heavy, like a Chevy, so the band we did try Us good ole banders stick together, no lie Singing, tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Now, for ten years I was on my own And fat grew thick upon my bones But that's not how has to be With banding you can be so lean Wear smaller clothes than you've ever seen As the pounds fall off of you and me And as our weight is going down We might PB all over town Our food it will return Til proper chewing we have learned Some think this option is a lark But we'll do laps around the park And chat online until it's dark On how one day our hunger died We'll be singing Bye, bye to the fat on our thighs We were heavy, like a Chevy, so the band we did try Us good ole banders stick together, no lie Singing, tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Helter skelter in the summer swelter pounds fly off with our fat melter Eight pounds down and falling fast I think came off of my ass A handsome man made a pass Perhaps celibacy will be in my past? Now half way to goal we'll start to bloom And turn heads when we enter a room We'll all get up to dance Not afraid to take the chance As the fat began to yield Our hipbones were revealed Do you recall with glee we squealed? The day our hunger died We started singing Bye, bye to the fat on our thighs We were heavy, like a Chevy, so the band we did try Us good ole banders stick together, no lie Singing, tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Oh, and now we eat at a slower pace We no longer stuff our face With no room left to binge again So now we're nimble and we're quick And our waists are not so thick Cause the band is our true friend And as we lost our flabby cage Life's journey turned another page No pound cake made in hell Could break our losing spell And as the pounds went out of sight We knew our decision was right You'll see our post of sheer delight T he day our hunger died We were singing Bye, bye to the fat on our thighs We were heavy, like a Chevy, so the band we did try Us good ole banders stick together, no lie Singing, tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Tomorrow smaller pants I will buy I met a girl who sang the blues Because she had some pounds to lose But she got banded yesterday!!! Now she knows just what's in store As she starts losing pounds galore I n the future, it surely seems She'll achieve her weight loss dreams On food no longer choken Her plateaus all were broken And the fellow banders I admire most I can't wait to read their posts Of all of us, they've lost the most One day their hunger died And they were singing Bye, bye to the fat on our thighs We were heavy, like a Chevy, so the band we did try Us good ole banders stick together, no lie Singing, tomorrow smaller pants I will buy Tomorrow smaller pants I will buy

Insurance may cover removal of excess abdominal skin if it causes infections or rashes that do not repsond to medication over a period of months. Keep in mind that a simple skin removal (panniculectomy) is a far cry from a nicely done abdominoplasty. My website has links to many of the INS companies plans a criteria, plus some useful tips for getting coverage: http://www.drlomonaco.com/plastic-surgery-patient-resources.shtml As for pregnancy, I have a number of young patients who are not comfortable with themselves, much less another person, while undressed. Some have never even dated. For these individuals, a tummy tuck prior to pregnancy is a good option. In general, a tummy tuck will "undo" some of the result, but most patients will never re-develop the amount of skin they had after massive weight loss...assuming their pregnancy weight gain is normal.

Well I completed another task on my TO-DO LIST today.. I had a root canal done in a tooth that has had problems for a very long time. I haven't been chewing properly and now I will be able to again. I was very fortunate to have a good doctor and have not had any pain issues as of yet.. The weather here has been crazy and I have been struggling to get in enough walking. My son and I went yesterday and had to cut it short because it started to rain and thunder. We haven't been able to go swimming everyday either which was my goal.. I just reread my surgery and clinic information again and I am going to be required to lose 15 lbs even though my insurance doesn't think it is necessary.. I am really struggling with that, gained a pound according to the nutritionists scale. I believe I was retaining fluids that day because my hands were swollen,, and think is was the pizza sauce we ate the night before. I will try harder for the next two weeks and hope there is some change. It would be devestating to have my surgery cancelled because of weight gain. I wish the doctors had a better idea of what is going on with me, I don't want to fail.:frown:

I spent most of my life thin. I was a thin and active kid, thin through my 20s and early 30s and then BAM! my metabolism slowed to a virtual standstill and I gained weight effortlessly. I had it tested several times - if I ate > 800 cal a day I'd gain weight. I had test upon test to see why and nothing came back abnormal. I never ate much, rarely cleaned my plate. Not a big fan of sweets (only on special occasions), not a snacker - I could walk by the office candy bowl and not even think about it. Don't like Cheetoes. If I ate fast food, it was maybe once a month and then it would be a Happy Meal. People would assume I was a closet eater, but I wasn't. Didn't drink sugary soda or beverages. My SO and I could eat the exact same thing, I'd eat less and STILL gain weight. I ate only because I had to, no to fill some emotional void. I've frequently gone all day without eating just because I wasn't hungry. My point is genetics play a huge role in weight gain. My mother was overweight and didn't eat poorly either. There is nothing that I can look at in my eating habits and say "that's it! That's the problem!l" except eating out, an unfortunate byproduct of my career and lifestyle. With the sleeve that will change (and I'll save a ton of money!). But seriously, genetics do play a huge part in weight - don't discount that.

One week ago I slipped and fell. I hit my head hard and my ribs and scapula are hurt too. The scale jumped up 6 pounds 2 days after. The scale has been down 4 pounds and back up 2 pounds. I'm eating the same. Is this weight gain from swelling?

I have just got back from a months holiday overseas and am really pleased that in spite of not eating very healthily I still lost weight. Down approx. 1.8kg and almost at goal. The main reason for the not eating as healthily as I should have should have is that for most of the holiday we were staying with other people so restaurants were selected that suited the larger group. We started off in California where we ate mainly Mexican or burger/ribs. I have to say that I like the fact that your restaurants allow and encourage meal sharing as it meant I could have some of hubby's food instead of having to order a huge plate of my own. I know the US has a reputation for huge meals but some of them are so oversized its not surprising so many people struggle with their weight, 4 sliders is not a starter and a sandwich is supposed to be 2 slices of bread not 4 plus chips! It was great to be able to eat ribs without spending the rest of the night in the toilet throwing up which is something that happened to me on countless occasions when I had my band. Then it was onto the UK home of the pub and pub meals. They are fine the first or second time but pubs are like Mexican restaurants - all the same once you get to no 3! We also ate a lot of lunches at store and stately home canteen style cafes. So I was sharing sandwiches with hubby and also sharing cake! One place I loved in both the UK and Hong Kong was Pret a Manger - they had lovely quick easy healthy options like Bircher muesli, yogurt with fruit, sandwiches etc. Our final destination was Hong Kong. This was the only part of the holiday where hubby and I were on our own. We should have had lots of lovely Asian food but we were so busy we mainly ate on the run. The "pasteis de nata" in Macau probably weren't the healthiest breakfast choice but they were fabulous. So essentially I ate a small portion of whatever I wanted without worrying about weight gain. Poor hubby did have lots of leftovers to eat and his relatives in the UK kept commenting on how little I ate although I thought I was eating heaps! I drank alcohol but not in huge quantities. The serves of wine and cider in the UK are huge, they would never allow that much to be served in 1 glass in Aus. I ate cake and I ate chocolate and even had an icecream. I ate that very cautiously as I was terrified I would dump but luckily I didn't. I did have 1 or 2 minor episodes of dumping ( nausea, shakes and palpitations) but that was when I deserved it for doing something stupid like eating chocolate first thing in the morning! Prior to my op I was very concerned as I kept reading about people that had accidents post op.I had visions of having to always carry spare undies or wear adult diapers. Luckily that hasn't been an issue although when I need to go I need to go - sometimes I had to find a loo in a hurry and the hardest place to do that was Hong Kong. Travelling with the bypass has been so much easier than travelling with a band and the variety of food I eat is so much greater and healthier.

Obese people have all sorts of emotional connotations attached to the word "diet", so you'll hear many people saying that you don't need to diet with the band. The truth is, if you want to lose quickly, good old-fashioned diet and exercise are the best ways to do it. The difference now is that the band helps to control the Hunger Daemon that rages inside all of us, so that we can actually STICK to the diet week in and week out for the long haul needed to lose all the weight. Yes, you can lose slowly if you don't consciously diet, provided that you make reasonably sensible food choices. The restricted portions will allow you to eat pretty much anything in moderation and the scales will still slide slowly down. However, if you allow too much junk to creep into those restricted portions, you can stall your progress or even gain weight. The key word there is "IN MODERATION". If you want to lose quickly though, pay attention to what you eat, count your calories, do the exercise and let the band (wonderful invention that it is!) HELP you to achieve success. I think that one of the best things about the band is it's flexibility. You can control how quickly or slowly you lose. When you get to goal, you can let go of all that focus on "dieting" and live like a "normal" person. That means that, like normal people, you need to keep a general eye on what you eat and try not to overindulge too often, but can get away with treats now and then and not have to worry about binge eating or rollercoaster weight gains and losses. Good luck!!

Twitter Are your friends and family helping you lose weight or standing in your way? Don’t let your social network hold you back! Facebook Your friends and family can affect whether you lose weight as quickly as you’d like. You are more likely to become obese if your sibling, spouse, or friend is obese, and more likely to want to lose weight if your friends want to. Ask your friends to join you in eating well and exercising so that you can all get healthy and enjoy life more together! If You Want to Lose Weight, Keep an Eye on Your Social Network One of the first things you learn about weight loss surgery is that you need a support system. The more friends and family you have around, the more likely you are to lose weight. At least, that’s what you’re told. It’s mostly true but it’s not completely right. The truth is that your friends and family don’t always help you lose weight. If you have anyone sabotaging your efforts, you already know that. But your friends and family may be dragging you down without trying to. You may not even realize it’s happening. Once you do, though, you can resist the bad influence. Effect of Friends and Family on Weight Take a look at your friends and family. Are they overweight? If they are, they may be getting in the way of your own weight loss. Part of it may be genetic. If one sibling gains weight, the other is 40 percent more likely to also gain weight, according to research described in the December 2011 edition of the Harvard Men’s Health Watch. You might point to genes to explain why you can predict people’s weight gain based on their siblings’ weight gain. That may be partly true, but consider this. Spouses are 37 percent more likely to become obese if their spouse does. Okay, live together, eat together, gain or lose weight together. That makes sense, right? But do you know whose weight is most closely related to yours? It’s not the weight of your siblings or spouse. It’s your friends’ weights! If you have a close friend who becomes obese, your risk of becoming obese increases by a scary 57 percent! And, if your friends want to lose weight, you’re more likely to want to lose weight. How Your Friends Affect Your Weight You don’t live with your friends, and you don’t share their genes. So why should their weight affect yours? Part of it is just from trying to be a good friend. Your friend’s job is to cheer you up and accept you for who you are. That’s great in most cases because we all need someone on our side. Unfortunately, it works against you when you tell your friend that you just ate a half a pizza because you had a bad day at work, your friend may just tell you that you deserved that pizza. Worse, she might invite you out so that the two of you can split another pizza. Also, your perception of what is normal and acceptable might shift towards what your friends do and think. If they are overweight or obese, you may not see yourself as unhealthily overweight even if you are. If they share a few boxes of doughnuts every Sunday, you might not see any problem with those extra hundreds of calories. But continuing to do what they do can get in the way of hitting your weight loss goals. Make New Friends… When you’re getting started on your weight loss journey, think about making a few new friends who are going to support your new commitment to health. Other weight loss surgery patients: they’re going through exactly the same things that you are. Exercise buddies: find them at the gym, in the park, or through craiglist.com or meetup.com. Don’t be shy about asking if you can join them for a workout or two. If they say no, ask someone else. You might end up making a few new friends that you can hang out at other times during the day. …And Keep the Old You don’t have to ditch your old friends and stay away from your siblings and parents if they’re overweight. Ideally, you can be open with them. Explain how hard you are working to get healthy, and let them know how they can help. If you’re lucky, they’ll be willing to change some of their behaviors to support your goals and get healthier themselves. Meet to go shopping or take a walk in the park instead of to eat at a restaurant. Order an egg white omelet instead of pancakes with butter, syrup, and sausage when you go out for breakfast. Meet your friends to do crafts or pack lunches for a homeless shelter instead of baking and eating cookies. If your old friends and your family are unwilling to change, you don’t need to avoid them. Even being aware of how friends and family can affect you can protect you from following their leadwhile you’re hanging out with them. Be on the lookout for unhealthy behaviors, and make your own healthy decisions. Skip the table’s appetizers and enjoy your glass of ice water. Order what you know is right, like chicken breast or fish and vegetables, while everyone else is ordering pasta or steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Savor coffee while everyone else is digging into dessert. Lean on them for sympathy when you’re struggling, but don’t use them as eating buddies anymore. Eventually, they may see how happy and successful you are, and they may be ready to ask you for help losing weight. Your friends and family are there to support you, but sometimes their love for you isn’t good for your weight loss journey. Ask them to help you out by setting a good example, and keep yourself from following their lead if you know they’re eating badly.

Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the body lacks sufficient thyroid hormone. Since the main purpose of thyroid hormone is to "run the body's metabolism," it is understandable that people with this condition will have symptoms associated with a slow metabolism. The estimates vary, but approximately 10 million Americans have this common medical condition. In fact, as many as 10% of women may have some degree of thyroid hormone deficiency. One of the symptoms of hypothyroidism in weight gain or increased difficulty in losing weight. Because the body is expecting a certain amount of thyroid hormone the pituitary will make additional thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in an attempt to entice the thyroid to produce more hormone. This constant bombardment with high levels of TSH may cause the thyroid gland to become enlarged and form a goiter (enlarged thyroid). Left untreated, the symptoms of hypothyroidism will usually progress. Rarely, complications can result in severe life-threatening depression, heart failure, or coma. Goiters and some other thyroid conditions can be treated with radioactive iodine therapy. The aim of the radioactive iodine therapy (for benign conditions) is to kill a portion of the thyroid to prevent goiters from growing larger or producing too much hormone; I feel that rather than focusing on the weight gain, the better focus should be correcting the enlarged thyroid. I recommend you discuss this issue with your doctor.

Dear Jeter2: Thanks so much for your reply. I have actually talked to my dr and he gave me the instructions for weaning myself off the Paxil. So, I am in the process of doing that SLOWLY - I get VERY ill if I cut down too much at a time or too fast! My biggest obstacle is that I used to work for my family doctor - the one that prescribed the Paxil 3 years ago. He INSISTS that, if anything, it will have a weight LOSS side effect - but NOT weight gain. And because I can't find weight GAIN as a documented side effect - he refuses to admit that that is even a possibility. I haven't tried any other anti-depressants in the past; but may get up the nerve to ask him for something different - if I can't make it without anything. Thanks again! As for the bc pill - I quit taking it. I see my "girly" doctor the beginning of December so I'll talk to her about other options; however, that one does have documented side effects of weight gain.

Don't do it! The number one driver of weight gain is juice and sugared drinks. You need to find something that works for you. Try Water with fruit infused in it if you don't like crystal lite. Used lemons, limes, cucumbers, raspberries, strawberries and leave your water sit in the refrigerator with the fruit. It will not be sweet but it should quench your thirst. Honestly I cannot do any of those non sweetener drinks either so I had to get very used to drinking water. It is all I drink and is the most important thing in your diet besides Protein. I would hate to see you sabotage yourself. Try doing things to get your mind off of it. I crave chocolate a lot and have to entertain myself or convince myself that I would rather have nuts or Jerky. If I do that often enough my brain believes it and I can move past it. Good luck to you!

I agree! Physicians as a whole tend to be dismissive of the mental aspects of our health. Not just bariatric surgeons, although one would think that doctors performing wls would be more in tune with the mental aspect of weight gain and loss. I'm disappointed with the lack of follow-up care with my surgeon. It's not bad, the center has monthly support groups, required visits with a nutritionist, and a patient coordinator who is available to answer questions. However, I find that the support group is more like a pep rally and doesn't give me much support. And my 3 month f/u was scheduled for 4 months, and I'm told by other patients that I won't even see the doctor. I'm ready to cancel it and wait for my 6 month f/u. Why pay the copay just to get weighed on their scale and tell them I have no questions? I've looked for support outside the wls community as well. I talk to a therapist and I've gone to oa meetings. It helps a lot.

I haven't reached goal, but I plan on tracking my food pretty much for the rest of my life. I'd advise you to go back to tracking and measuring so you can get back in control of your portions and fat/carb/protein and calorie counts so you can see where you're going off track. You may only need to do this for a few weeks as a reminder/reset. If the weight keeps creeping up, then you could do a 5 day pouch test to go back to the beginning. It is very easy, and I did do it once already when my carb levels started creeping up (it knocked them back down and got rid of my carb cravings). http://5daypouchtest.com/plan/theplan.html Don't be depressed; you have options. If you let the sad overwhelm you, then you end up doing nothing. Use this weight gain as motivation to get back on track!

I have Aetna insurance PPO II. In the requirements it says that there must not be a net gain. What exactly does that mean? Like no weight gain at all? Or you can't be more than the first weigh in? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

According to whom, and how far out? My surgeon says his average is 80-90% of excess weight lost initially with a small rebound weight gain typical, but not up to 60%. Also, it's said on this board over and over again, but you decide where you fit on that. If you think the surgery is a magic bullet and you don't have to change anything except the amount you eat, you probably won't hit 100%. If you stick to plan 95% of the time and exercise regularly, you'll get a lot closer.

Hi. I've been lurking for months, but this is my first post. I've come to an abrupt end of my pre-surgical rigamarole, and am just waiting for the bariatric clinic to call me in order to schedule an appointment with my surgeon for the final consultation before scheduling surgery - I wasn't expecting it to be so soon, as I only started the process on April 11th. My insurance - Excellus BCBS - requires a 6 month stretch of supervised weight loss only if they don't feel that your previous attempts at weight loss were serious enough. I guess 25+ years of constant struggle was adequate, because after my 2nd nutritionist follow-up (a group seminar and 2 follow-ups scheduled a month apart are my clinic's required minimum) I was handed my post-surgical diet info and was told to expect a call within a week. Yikes! Anyway. My name is Amanda, I'll be 38 in a month (sigh) and am 5'7" and currently about 282 (and an increasingly snug size 22.) I'm married and I have a 5 year old daughter and I live in Rochester, NY. I'm an MFA grad student and work (incongruously to the MFA) in inpatient pharmacy compounding services at the big hospital in town. I have been fat since I was about 6 years old. When I was a teenager, I was about 170-180 and thought I was the fattest thing on two legs. I look back at pictures of myself and my heart breaks for all that self-hatred, sadness, and lost time - not only because I realize now that I wasn't fat at all (you wanna see fat, 16 year old Amanda?? I'll show you FAT!! flubflabflub) but also because I realize how much it never mattered to my friends and family. This is stuff I still struggle with, though. I started gaining rapidly around 18, and have more or less hit peak mass. I was abut 245 when I met my husband 11 years ago, 270ish after having my daughter 5 years ago, and was 291 when I was weighed at the beginning of the bariatric surgery process. I've attributed my weight gain over the last decade to the insidious "domestic spread" - both husband and I have gotten fatter in that time. But that doesn't explain away all the years before that. I have a progressive, hereditary autoimmune connective tissue disease that is treated sort of like cancer - I get infusions at the cancer center every month through a port in my chest and take a low dose of oral chemo at home every week. Women with autoimmune diseases sometimes see a worsening in disease progression after pregnancy, and this was certainly my experience. I've been having to treat my disease aggressively over the past 5 years, and I've recently reached a really stupid cyclical point where the more I weigh, the less effective my treatments are, the more immobile and depressed I become, the more weight I gain, the less effective my treatments are, and so on. This decline in my health and quality of life is what pushed me to reserve a spot in a bariatric seminar in April. As the reality of surgery looms on the horizon, I've begun to worry about some stuff. Somehow I managed to avoid that certain heartbreak that is endemic to fat kids - I was never bullied for my weight (I was popular in my high school, even as a weird kid with green hair and combat boots,) I have never been (obviously, anyways) discriminated against because of my weight, I've always been lucky in love and never had a problem with finding romantic companionship, and so on. The only person that has ever had a problem with my fatness is me. It's been the thing that I've blamed for every disappointment or unhappiness in my life, even though, intellectually, I know that's total nonsense. I worry about what will occupy my thoughts once the fat is gone. What will it be like to thoughtlessly sit in a chair without anxious thoughts of weight limits and chair-smashing public humiliation? What will it be like to not have to obsessively strategize my wardrobe for maximum chub-concealment? What will it be like to simply take up less space? I feel as though I have never not been fat, and I have no idea what to expect. So, Hi!

I was in the same boat as you when I first started, I thought I wanted the sleeve but after a little more digging and reading people's (long term) journey with the sleeve, I knew bypass would be best. I am now almost 2 weeks post op with bypass and so glad I made my choice. I've had zero complications no nausea, vomiting, heartburn, diarrhea nothing! I have NO issues with any foods I've tried so far which hasn't been much but I can tell I'll be one who can tolerate pretty much anything. I know if I had the sleeve I'd be like so many (not all) on here that have issues with weight gain, because I can see how the head hunger will get you even after surgery and if my pouch was the size of a sleever I could definitely see how most either stop losing after 5-6 months or slowly gain weight back. I would continue doing your research and ask your doctor, ALL of mine encouraged bypass. Just do what you think is best for you. You know your eating habits and patterns better than anyone. Oh and I'm a Teacher so I'm off for the summer but if I wasn't I'd need at least 2-3 weeks unless it was a desk job.

I'm 3 years post op this month. It doesn't seem possible as it went by so quickly. I have gained 20 pounds and never hit my goal weight. So with this extra 20 I'm 40 lbs away. I'm worried my pouch isn't working or I stretched it, which docs say hasn't happened. But I'm wondering if this pouch reset of going back on liquids is a real thing. I have no issues going to liquids and I only eat low carb. I'm confused on this weight gain and disappointed in myself. I have no doubt that I have screwed this up because I have cheated in the past. But getting this weight off is so much more important than eating things I'm not supposed to. Does anyone have a success story on gaining weight and losing it again or any ideas? I'm willing to do anything at this point. I don't experience dumping anymore at all and I have to take miralax daily for Bm's. Help!