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Hello everyone, My name is Joyce. I was banded November 15, 2007. I live on the east coast. I completing my fourth week and I have lost 10 lbs. I have maintained the weight since I lost. I have not had a fill as of yet. I will see the surgeon the first week of January 2008. I am thinking I will probably need a fill. My weight fluctuates everyday. It seems I am losing then I gain it right back. I initially exercised, but my incisions are bothering me. I am getting sharp pains and a pulling sensation when I am standing and walking. My stomach is drooping a little, maybe that is the reason for the pulling?? Anyway, I am getting my Protein requirements in everyday and I am keeping good records of my diet. Oh, well. I do feel a lot better and my friends are complimenting me on my initial weight loss, especially those who didn't know I had surgery. I just want to get the ball rolling though. I am new to this site and look forward to everyone's comments.

I was excited to tell my coworkers. I work in a doctors office. I have work there for 12 years. They have been my biggest supporters through my weight loss journey. I haven't had my surgery yet, but they have always been here for me. So tell your coworkers you might be surprised how supportive they might be.

Means you are on the right track...getting your surgery and losing the weight!

Had my surgery July 9th.. The first few days were HELL.. I got sick several times.. I'm doing much better.. I had a severe sprained ankle and torn ligaments before surgery so I'm sure my body was in over time healing.. Going for my first post op Wednesday.. I don't feel like I've lost weight.. I'm not sure how I am suppose to feel.. Can anyone give me advice on what I should be eating?... Thanks!

So many have had questions about gaining or losing during the "healing" period after surgery (for purposes of this, let us say it is about six weeks). Some gain during the soft food period and after. This is so normal, according to my doctor. It is a time of healing and many of us, after the swelling, experience a return to the same ability to eat as post-surgery - until we start to get fills. What was TRUE FOR YOU? Post is here and VOTE! IT'S MULTIPLE CHOICE - CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY

This is such a personal journey including your decision to tell people. There are some people I have shared with, people that I trust. There are others that are noticing that I am losing weight but I just tell them I am increasing my exercise and time at the gym while watching my portion sizes....its true without telling them I went through with this procedure. I am not ashamed about it, I think it is the best thing I could have done for myself. I just know how they are and what they would say. I am making myself healthier and no matter what path I took, it is MY path. Gracierose...I really felt pretty good within a week but because of lifting precautions, had to take 2 weeks off. Going back to work was kind of like coming back from vacation...you know how when you start off really slow and then pick up. I just wouldn't plan to do much after work when you get back. Do you have enough vacation time or sick time to take 3 weeks off just to be sure you are ready to go back??? Katie

Ok no one hit me, I have been eating to the point of PB, like my band has made me a freakin bulemic. I have continue to lose weight though, slower than usual but about 2 pounds a week with no exercise. So I know that is not a plan and I will no longer do this since I just read what I typed and figure I would yell at anyone else on hear that said it. I will blame it on the stress of the holidays and finals at school while working a 50 hour week at work too. Diets suck, sorry I can't help!

Low carb diets will work but you have to make it a life time commitment because once you go back to eating carbs you will gain FAST!! How about the Mediterranean Diet? Its loaded with veggies and its a very healthy way of eating. My friend lost 87 lbs on it and she's got 10 more to go. She looks amazing. Your even allowed wine. http://www.mediterraneandiet.gr/index.html Personally I've never done good with WW, Nutrasystem or any of those diets but this way of eating is very healthy and you get to eat alot of veggies. Just set a calories level and follow the guidelines. No diet is easy thats for sure, guess thats why they don't like to call this a diet. Its a way of life.

I'm about 16 months out and having a tough time..I've gone back to hoarding food, even if I don't eat it I just want it there. Going to dunks and getting coffee rolls and donuts for Breakfast, snacking on popcorn at night. Just doing it all wrong basically, and I've gained about 9 pounds. I want to be healthy, and skinny, and I don't want to waste this opportunity. Anyone hit this bump? I just feel like a waste of space, and a disappointment and I'm getting horribly depressed again. I just need to know how to get back on track..

Hi there! Most people lose weight very very fast during pre op diet and the first week or two following surgery. You should expect that to slow down drastically. For me I lose on average 3 lbs per week. The thing is, some weeks I don't lose anything and then the next I lose 4 or 5 lbs. As long as you are losing overall you are in good shape. Some people weigh every day and some people weigh weekly, monthly or only when they go for check ups. They do this to avoid the frustration of the scale. I weigh once a day religiously but I don't get stressed when the scale doesn't move. Most of the time you are still losing inches. There is also the dreaded 3 week stall, but if you keep following the plan, I promise you will begin to drop those pounds again. You just cannot expect that you will lose as fast as the first couple weeks every week. Good luck!

So on the topic of airplanes.... It has been a long time since I have attempted to fly and I don't know that I have ever flown without the worry that I wouldn't have seatbelt issues or someone next to me wishing they weren't next to me issues. Know what I mean? Can anyone give me any insight as to what weight I might be able to book a flight without a lot of anxiety? I think that will be my next goal! My BFF is a 12 hour drive away. Although I don't mind a good roadtrip, I would get to see her more often if I could just jump on a plane. I know we are all built different but I was just looking for a general idea.I'm 5'7. Thanks!

I spent the better part of the weekend crying about the turn of events in my WLS saga. I talked to my DH about it (more than he wanted to hear I'm sure! ) He said that we could take a loan through one of his retirement savings accounts so I can still follow my dream :wub: I've always known that I'm a lucky girl to have trapped a good man like him! :tt2: I love him more & more every day. He knows the score with obesity. His dad has type 2. His mom had bypass surgery about 5 years ago. He saw her struggle for so many years, being beaten down by military doctors & the insurance company every step of the way. We've struggled together with our weight over the years. We're like that cartoon couple you see in the Slimquick commercials. :frown: I told him that I feel like being able to have WLS would be like a new beginning for our whole family (all 3 of us!) Y'know how the mom/wife is kind of like the glue of a family, well I know that if I could finally get my weight under control it would have a huge, positive impact on all of us. I could finally set a good example for my child - so that he can grow up with a healthier relationship with food than my DH and I did. We'll be able to "go" and "do" together. I know for sure that I've held them back from doing things recently. It wasn't with malice - I just don't want to go out walking in our neighborhood and risk more people seeing me & how huge I am. (Not to mention that I might make it one whole house away before I start huffing & puffing.) I've had people yell disparaging remarks at me when I was outdoors on more than one occasion. I know that I'm not the first & unfortunately won't be the last, but I didn't deserve it (nobody does) and I don't want to deal with it again. Today I had the pleasure of calling up Pacific Surgical to schedule a consultation. Yay! I spoke with Michelle. I remember her from the seminar I attended a while back. So much of what she said about her experience still rings in my ears. She was so nice! The way she treated me was the polar opposite of the way Karen did. Amazing how when you're a self-pay patient things can happen sooo quickly! I was able to get a consult scheduled for next Monday! Michelle said that it would be possible to have surgery as soon as May 11th! I think we're still going to shoot for a surgery date towards the end of July. My DH said that since we just paid off the last loan through his retirement plan, we need to wait 2 months to apply for another. He'll be back from his partial-deployment in time to help me with a summer surgery. I'll find out the nitty gritty when I go for my consult, but I believe that all I have to do for Dr. Neal is a nutrition consult, and I assume pre-op bloodwork. I'd imagine there's some sort of pre-op diet. Pre-op as in a week or two before surgery - not Dr. Oh's type of pre-op diet. Oy vey! He wanted a 10% weight loss in the months leading up to your procedure & two weeks of clear liquids prior to surgery. Not to mention that Dr. Oh had a huge list of other pre-op things that had to be done. Speaking of that, I need to call and cancel my endoscopy & follow-up. I really hate that we'll have to pay $ every month for the next few years, but... I have a feeling the return-on-investment will be priceless! :ohmy: I'm actually kind of relieved now. If I can have surgery w/ Dr. Neal, I don't have to make that arduous trip over to Federal Way, cow-tow to Dr. Oh & his excessive pre-op testing, and worry about coordinating all the babysitting I'll need to cover those appointments. When I tried to picture myself going through surgery & whatnot w/ Dr. Oh I couldn't quite "see" it; it didn't feel like that was the place I needed to be. I haven't had my consult w/ Dr. Neal yet (just the seminar), but already I feel that this is where I need to be. I'm feeling much better 'bout everything now!

Thank you one and all your positive input has been very helpful. One of my main things is I only have a 10% chance of keeping my weight off that I have lost so far. Only 1 out of 10 who lose 100+ pounds keep it off. I know the band is not a fix but a tool. My surgeon feels that with the good eating habits I now have and my workout routine the band will be a successful tool for me. I talked this over with my best guy friend today and he said if I do it good, if I don't that is fine to. But a couple other friends told me they were proud of me taking such a big step. So I think I'm moving forward with this. Less than 9 days to go!!

Can't overstate enough about those fluids and protein! It's the hardest part for me, getting all those fluids in. I'm 8 weeks out, and if I'm a little light on the fluids, I get bound up. If I'm light on protein, weight loss and energy drop off. I am at the point where I can put benefited in my water bottle, but more importantly I have to actually drink ALL the water! ^Benefiber

Hey everyone! I hate to bring up this little situation but I had my sleeve successfully done January 30th. Yay! I’m 34lbs down from my highest weight of 298. Yay! Here’s my question. How long before I have a BM?? I haven’t had one since the day before surgery. I feel super constipated and I was going to call my doctors office Monday morning but I figured asking y’all wouldn’t hurt either.

The idea of touching my intestines is what has put me off weight loss surgery for years. The complications and the types of complications are just too risky. I would rather die fat than deal with intestinal issues. The people that I have known that have RNY, they get hungry, really hungry about a year out. I think it is because their stomach is still there producing all those hormones and interacting with their brain. In the end it is a personal choice, but I felt the sleeve gave me the best chance with the least amount of risk. I didn't like that RNY would make me too different for the rest of my life. Plenty of people have parts of their stomach removed for all kinds of reasons and live perfectly normal lives. Rerouting your intestines sets you up for issues for the rest of your life.

May 21, 2014 will be 1 year post op from gastric bypass, my goal was 200 lbs, but have changed it to 199lbs., current weight after 11 months is 210, started at 340 lbs. may not make 199 by May 21, but should be close. have no regrets in doing this, feel so much better. I have had my ups and downs, but glad i did this a year ago

First of all, just a general disclaimer: everyone is different, so while this is my experience, yours may be different. Good luck on your 2 week liquid diet. The first 2-3 days will be your hardest. By day 4, I wasn't hungry or anything anymore. It'll suck, but you'll get through it and have lost some weight. I, personally, lost 12 pounds during my 1 week liquid diet pre-op. I didn't pack anything for the hospital since I planned on going home, and we live close enough for my husband to pick up anything I may need if I had to stay over night. My husband brought his laptop since he stayed with me the whole time. I reported to the hospital at 5 in the morning and was in the OR by 7. I was in the prep room for about an hour. I woke up at about noon feeling no pain only nausea. Nausea and gas were the only "pains" I ever had from surgery, and the nausea was actually from the anesthesia and the pain meds that I was given afterwards. I lost pretty steadily for the first 3 weeks, though the loss didn't start until about day 2. I attributed that to the gas they pumped into my stomach. The pain that I felt in the recovery week was gas pains. I expected the pain in my chest, but what I didn't expect was the gas pain in my shoulder. Gas-X helped for the chest pain since it made me burp, but nothing I could take helped with the shoulder pain. What I ended up doing was putting a heat pack on my shoulder to help a bit. Another thing I didn't know until the class before my surgery was that my surgeon required an additional 3 weeks of liquids after surgery. I just about went crazy by the end of the 2nd week since I had already had 1 week of pre-op liquids under my belt. I was extra careful when showering because my staples were super annoying. Once my incisions started to heal, they itched like crazy! My surgeon's office told me to put some benadryl anti itch cream on it. Well, it worked...until I had an allergic reaction. But, it worked! I hated how itchy the incisions were. So what I wish people told me before surgery: * Wait until anesthesia wears off before taking pain meds because apparently, I don't do well with pain meds and just get nauseous. * Prepare for a month of liquids. Protein shakes, Soups in between, sugar free Jello, etc. FOR A MONTH * It's possible to get gas pains in the shoulder, and it's annoying. It's like a dull ache that you can't massage out. * Healing skin itches A LOT. I actually couldn't sleep some nights because it itched so much!

I understand. I'm just starting the nutrition classes, so for me it will definitely be next May. I at first was dismayed about the wait, but I'm working on being Zen and really making the most of this time to address non-hunger and binge eating and get myself into as good physical shape as I possibly can (given that I have some mobility challenges due to my weight) so that I will heal well from the surgery, But I totally feel you. The day will come!

Hi, I'm new here. Female, 49. I have been lurking since I started my journey, in September. Since that time, I have been making many changes, awaiting a date for my surgery. (Gastric Bypass). I had my surgical consult a week ago, and everything went very well. I feel very confident about my surgeon. He seems to think despite my having previous colon resection surgery that I am still a good candidate for what I believe he called a low limbic Gastric Bypass. I have made a lot of changes, which I notice everyone else has too. I just hit my 1 year smoke free anniversary I stopped drinking diet soda, gave up caffeinated coffee, I am drinking about 100 oz. Water daily, passed all my psych evals. I am recording everything I eat, and I'm losing, a small amount of weight. I'm on 2 types of insulin, so that's not an easy task, but I am working on it. I eat Breakfast, and I haven't done that since I was a kid. I still worry about one thing, I still have a craving for something sweet after a meal. I don't bring bad things into the house which helps. It still doesn't change my cravings. Maybe that in and of itself is a problem, thinking foods are bad or good. I have my last dietary meeting at the end of the month. They told me about 6 weeks from that appt. will be my surgery. Anyone else have issues with specific foods, or sweets? I have done so much work, but I know I have to tackle this last craving to be successful. Sorry if I seem like I am rambling. It's just a lot and I hope to make some friends here, and work through some of these fears and doubts with others who may be having the same thoughts. Did anyone else have to have an endoscopy because they have GERD? I do. My surgeon is doing it though, so I'm glad of that, he should be able to tell me right away if there are any issues that would prevent surgery. Thanks so much for reading. Gahhhhhhhhhhh I'm really doing this. Maybe that's why it took so long for me to actually get up the nerve to write here. It's getting so close, there is no turning back, and I am happy, and ready, but I could use the support of others who are going through this and have gone through it.

Not losing weight in 4 days is not a stall. My doc says that a platoe is when you are not losing in months. I know it's hard but sometimes is better not to get on the scale every day. Consider that you are intaking lots of fluids and since your food intake is not much your body stores fluids and calories to survive. Your body is learning to adjust to a different life style. Also if you are not intaking enough fluids that can affect your progress. So do not stress over 4 days that you have not lost. Eventually weight loss will become slower but keep in mind that is not about how many pounds you lose but about the % of overweight that you have to lose. The more you lose, the smaller that percetange of exess weight you have to lose becomes. In my case I sometimes don't see any changes on the scale for days or even weeks but I can feel that my clothes fit better so I realize I am still losing inches. Don't feel discuraged or anxious, it is happening! just keep up the good work!!!!

Sleeved dec17. I would have to say my success so far has been not eating, thinking or even look at rice, pasta soda and anything carbonated since being sleeved. Non success for me would be maintaining the same weight for the past 2 months. :-( YEP! Ive lost nothing in the past two months. Im sooo frustrated at that being that i still have a good 50pounds to goal weight. I really hate to think My weight loss stopped just after 4 months of surgery. My tool is just fine. I still eat small amounts as the first 4 months but it just isnt coming off in scale numbers or body inches.

Hi everyone! This is my first time in the forum and my very first post! My journey has been long and hard and I have had to overcome more than my share of heartbreak and ache and loss, but I am still HERE! While I have spent my last 9 years raising my incredible and amazing little girl, it seems that I also forgot to remember to take care of myself through it all and that brings me to where I am today. I am 31 years old and I weigh 274 lbs... Just typing that number makes me ashamed and sort of sick... So before I go back and delete it, I will ask for words of advice. I know that most of us have our own stories, both good and bad that have brought us to the point which we are- here and today. We each have our own story and struggles that have caused us to reach out and take this huge leap into the gastric bypass world. Before last month I had never considered weight loss surgery, but at the end of my last dr appt, the form they gave me said MORBIDLY OBESE... The moment I saw it, tears filled my eyes and I walked to my car and had a good cry while trying to figure out where I had gone wrong... Was it my parents divorce when I was 16?, was it being pushed by my parents to a college I didn't want to attend?, was it my abusive ex husband? Was it baby weight still? Where did the 135lb 17 year old cheerleader who had a never ending smile go? When I stopped crying and wiped the tears off my face I realized that I was the ONLY person in my life who could change the way I feel and that in order to fix myself, I also needed to learn to love myself again. This is the beginning of my journey to find out who I really am and who I aspire to be.... I am NOT the fat girl in the corner who hides in baggy and black clothes, so I won't let that be me any longer. Tonight I took my first step in my new journey and attended a weight loss seminar through the medical group I will be using for my RN-Y gastric Bypass surgery... I am excited and nervous and apprehensive all at the same time!! The referral has been put through and I should be receiving a phone call within the next week to schedule my first visit with the surgeon, psych eval, nutritionist, etc- from there it is just a wait for the actual date!!! I am excited for my journey and I can't wait to find myself again along the way!! I know that I have the strength to get through this and get my life going again!!! Thanks so much for reading my story, and please please please, share your stories and triumphs and your journey with me as well! I think that having a support group will make the whole process that much more wonderful!!! Heidi - age 32 P.S. I can't run right now, my body hates me if I try... But I promise myself that if I get through this and I get healthy, I WILL learn to run each morning as the sun rises over the mountains in the town I live in!!!! Please help me reach these goals

Congrats on getting clean! And your new family! Life has handed you a lot, and I'm proud of you for trying to get things straightened out. Usually a bypass is a one-and-done type procedure. A skilled surgeon can evaluate you to see if there is any "tweaking" that can be done, but it's better for you to focus on non-surgical options. Your stomach is still small, and your bypass is still in place. Those will continue being helpful (probably why you didn't gain ALL the weight back and more!). But at this point, it's time to get back to basics. Protein, vitamins, water, nonstarchy veggies, limited fruit and starchy veggies. No sugar or white flour. Weight loss won't be as easy as it was the first year after surgery, but it IS possible! Good luck!

I am going to get a sleeve in Mexico. I've never had my choice is down to two 1) Dr Elias Ortiz & 2) Dr. Ponce, at Ponce Bariatric. They are both the same cost but Dr. Ponce can get me in by the end of this month (June) so I'm leaning that way. I also had a lap band removed three years ago. So I'd like to have a good restriction because I'm paranoid I won't lose weight with the sleeve... I don't have that much weight to lose, 40 pounds, but to me it's a matter of sustaining this the rest of my life. Every time the scale goes up I have a freak out! 😂 Can you all tell me how much weight you lost going from band to sleeve? Thanks!