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Hi everyone been a while. Earlier this tear i was aiming for the Lap Band .I had everything they asked me.So there i was in the Doctors office and they said we don't deal with your insurance anymore??? I said screw it and left.A little depression and new insurance later and here i am.Going to my doctors 10/27.08 And will tell him to start the paper work to getting the lap band,again.I am not complaining but that was messed up! My insurance said ,they would cover it if the doctor ,deems it necessary and he does,yeah.So hello once again,to everyone.Part 2 of this journey.Hey i got Tylenol.

I'm hypothyroid, it runs in my family as well (most of them who have the problem were never obese). I have been taking synthroid for many years (can't even remember the dosage right now lol), and it lands me well within the normal TSH zone. However, being hypothyroid didn't really seem to affect my metabolism at all, as I have a pretty good one. Being hypothyroid didn't make me gain any weight that I can tell (other reasons for that, nothing to do with thyroid); being treated for it (while helping other symptoms) did not help me lose any weight either. It's quite possible that the synthroid helped me to stay the same weight for the past >10-years prior to VSG, though. No real way to tell. I'm still on the same synthroid dose post-op as I was pre-op, when I get my next labs I'll be interested to see where the TSH is now, though I don't expect anything to change on that front, frankly. I have heard of many other hypothyroid people who've had loads of success with WLS, so I definitely think it's do-able.

The main thing I have heard is to keep hydrated. I had my week post op visit on Monday and he said right now my body was eating itself. Which was fine with me! Just keep trying to sip and get as much down as possible. At first I made a 4 oz protein shake it took me an hour to get down. Now it takes about 30 minutes. Just keep trying. Take it easy. Your body will know if it is too much then stop. You don't want to get sick. Also try to incorporate your vitamins as you can. Good Luck! I lost 10 lbs in 6 days. Hoping it continues:) Robyn

Stalled from September/October until this post. Gained muscle mass been working very hard. Was discouraged but never gave up. I’m sure by the end of the month I’ll have a 10 pound weight loss.

Hi there. I was banded on Nov. 19, 2005 and I think it is o.k. to eat spicy foods as long as you do not get a lot of heartburn from it. My doctor said that chili is one of the best sources of protein. This week I had some refried beans and they were very spicy and well I threw up until they were all gone. I do not think that was due to them being spicy though. Good luck with your band and I hope you love it as much as I love mine.

My surgeon told me I could start light weights when I saw him 10 days post op...esp arms, shoulders, etx. Just listen to my body

@@Malin Not telling you what to do..... but i gained 10lbs to be at a 40 bmi.... and would do it again. gain 10 to lose 100.... hell yess You have to leave your mom out of this situation.... she is not you. You have to make your own choices... Every surgery is different and you may not experience what she is

This seems so long ago....now I'm almost 10 days post op, trying to hang in there with stage 2.

I feel ya! And my misery loves your company. :-) Sleeved on 10/17. Down 28 pounds. It's been a slow go for me. I've already hit two serious stalls and a couple mini stalls. It is frustrating, but I am keeping the faith that it is working and will continue to work. I will admit, I do compare my weight loss with others and it leads to no good. I've always been a slow loser and it looks like I will continue to be a slow loser. Hang in there! And I will be a hanging in there with you.

That's funny that your best friend's name is Debbie. What a coincidence. A stricture is when scar tissue or inflammation narrows the connection between the stomach and intestine. The opening narrowed so much that food was unable to pass. I had take a Tylenol that I had split in two and I ended up in the ER. The pain was a 10/10, worse pain that I have experienced in my life. I have a high pain threshold and this almost knocked me to my knees. With the pain I was having severe nausea and vomiting, sweating and an overall horrible feeling. The second time it sent me to ER (4 days later), I had tried to eat spaghetti, which I had tolerated before. After 2-3 small swallows, the pain started 15 minutes later. Then it progressed to a 9/10. The surgeon performed an endoscopy and used a balloon to open the opening to more than twice the original size. This was a couple of weeks ago and yesterday was my first pain free day after eating or drinking my Protein...YIPPEE!! The protein that I use is unjury. I did check the ingredients and it does have soy. Since I am just now eating "real" food in very small amounts, I am very hesitant to stop the Protein drinks because I will not be able to consume enough protein for an adequate maintenance. I "WISH" I could drink my protein in three big swigs. lol It takes me 20-30 minutes to drink it because I would either get discomfort or nausea if I consumed it too quickly. I like this protein company since they produce medical grade protein. As for my thyroid, I had problems with it years ago. I may ask for my doc to check it then next time I have blood drawn. My post RNY weight was 203 and I am now at 163. This past week, I have not lost any weight. It has been up and down all week with a result to only equal what I weighed the previous week. Having not been able to tolerate much food for the last three weeks. I thought I would have lost more. A little about me...I live in Wyoming. I have been married for 23 years. I have two wonderful boys, ages 16 & 20. I also have two crazy dogs, a Siberian Husky and a Weimaraner. I am more of a cold weather kinda of gal but I don't mind the beach/hot weather if it is for a vacation. As for your comment about a "standing on your heads, doing jumping jacks while drinking a "kale smoothie"...ummm, no thanks! lol Thanks for all of the input ladies. It makes all of this easier to deal with.

Hello everyone, I am pre op however I am excited to hear about the increased fertility that comes with being sleeved! My Husband wantes to use Condoms for the first several months before I am Cleared by my Physican to begin trying to have a baby. Note that this will be our first child, I have been on birth control for over 10 years and this is thee first time I will be going without BC. To add to that My Hubby who is Military will be returning around the time I will be having surgery which is SCARY! For the first time in my life I am excited about the possibility of having a baby~ I am 29 years young and have been married for nearly 6 years~Birth control has also resulted in me gaining extra weight or other complication~~~~I know he wants to use condoms and not traditional birth controls but I don't wanna get preggos too soon and have complications~ What has been YOUR experience with Pregnancy Post op? When did you begin trying? How long after Surgery did you get pregnant? Thanks in advance~ T~ :wub:

I work at a convenience store 50 hours a week which is definitely not a sedentary job but I've begun to sneak some extra walking around. Today I logged over 7 thousand steps from briskly walking up and down the aisles in between helping customers. I also do 10 body squats at the top of each hour while at work which adds up too. and I'm walking a half mile to and from work. Beyond that I'm not doing any vigorous exercise. Today I went 200 calories OVER my 800 limit I got stuck at work for three extra hours and wound up eating some nuts...yikes.. but that's only the second time in the whole month I've been over so for me that's pretty good... and thank GOD, I've managed to stay out of the junk food.

What a wunderful new period in your life! My surgeons practice actually asks all female patients to use 2 types of birth control during the first 18-24 months post surgery. There are a number of reasons why, even with a sleeve, there is malnutrition that you suffer when losing the weight, the high amount of Protein is very hard on your kidneys and anemia is common as are vit B, A, D and Calcium deficiencies. hair loss is a big complaint due to the shock to the system and malnutrtion. When you become pregnant the fetus requires nutrition that you're body may not be able to provide without detriment to you or the baby. What leads to infertility for so many women is the excess estrogen stored in all the extra fat we carry, therefore, drop the fat and boom fertility increases! I can tell you about my closest friend who suffered from PCOS and was unable to get pregnant until she had Gastric Bypass. She had open surgery nearly 10 years ago and lost a good 50 lbs when she began actively trying to get pregnant (against medical advice). She was blessed with a healthy bohy and relatively few complications despite being 12 months out from surgery when she delivered! Since then she has had 2 other sons but has gained some weight back and recently lost a pregnancy. The surgery was a success for her and she was able to get pregnant right away, she would tell you she doesn't regret any of it! I'm so happy for you and your husband, I pray your surgery is also a success and that many babies are in your future! Please keep us posted on your journey! :-)

When is it ok to have a drink? I'm 10 wks out. I know every dr has their own opinions . What do you think? How have you done, if you've had it?

Yes, you may be over doing it. Sounds like a good bit of work....would hate for you to burn yourself out and give up. Would you consider scaling back just a little? P90X will pretty much kick anyone's butt and is really tough....that kind of intensity really needs to be added gradually and in increments. Basically slowly working yourself up to something like that would help with recovery between exercise. Also, I've never heard of not counting liquid Protein (shakes) into water intake. I always have. If I mix whey with 10 ounces of water, I count that water. Now I have heard it with caffeine based drinks since they can act as a diuretic and cancel out some of the water taken with them causing one to need to consume extra water. Anyone else heard of not counting fluid from Protein shakes? BPN....regardless, I'm guessing you're getting in plenty of fluid if you're not counting fluid with shakes.

It will be two weeks Monday since I've gone I had surgery on 10/23. I called the doctor's office and they said if I'm not taking pain killers anymore and passing gas, it will happen. It is kinda freaking me out. ????

I am only a week out as of tomorrow and have lost 19 pounds since the day of surgery 4/23. I weighed myself on Thursday at a loss of 12 pounds and 2 pounds a day since then. I know it won’t always be that way but enjoying it while it lasts [emoji3]

It takes 10 days for the nicotine to get out of your system.

Five days is pretty close as far as detecting it in your urine or blood. It’s possible it could go either way. My doctor told me they would test but the definitely didn’t, but don’t let my experience guide you. I had self pay surgery in Mexico and I suspect once I forked over the cash there was little that would have interfered. Here is what webmd (uhg) says about testing: “Generally, nicotine will leaves your blood within 1 to 3 days after you stop using tobacco, and cotinine will be gone after 1 to 10 days. Neither nicotine nor cotinine will be detectable in your urine after 3 to 4 days of stopping tobacco products.”

I had a massive fight with the old biddy at Weight Watchers a few years back who measured me at 5 ft 9. I'm 5ft 10. that of course made me even more overweight. She remeasured me about five times but I kept getting 5ft 9. When I decided on lapband surgery, I also measured in at 5ft 9. I decided I must have shrunk but at a BMI of barely 36, I think that shrinkage saved me, made me eligible for the surgery! I happened to mention it to the nurse about two years later, and she remeasured me, sure enough 5ft 10 AND a half. She laughed and told me my bum was much smaller and now I could stand close to the wall.

I lost 32 lbs over 4 months. My program required me to lose 10% before they would schedule surgery. They provided a pre op diet, which I followed pretty closely. I was very motivated because I felt it was my last chance to get the extra weight off. Lynda

I'm a month out now, and my daily routine is typically this: - Protein shake in morning (30g protein) - 32 oz. water between 8-11am - Cheese stick & protein shake for lunch (37g protein); sometimes 8-10 almonds if I want to chew on something - 32 oz. water between 12-4pm - Small "meal" for dinner, usually 2 to 4 oz. meat or eggs - 16-20oz. water or Crystal Light in the evening, sometimes some sugar-free Jello or pudding too I aim to total out around 80g protein and 500-600 calories.

Tuesday is my "Sleeve" day also & I am so nervous. I had a 2 week pre-op liquid diet and thouht things were going well. On last Tuesday I had lost 7lbs, then my "friend" came 10 days early and with alk the bloating I habr water weight and I am so nervous of what my surgeon is gonna say. I will be so glad when Tuesday gets here. Best wishes to so all my 'Sleevers' for 3-13:)

The hubby and I went to the fair yesterday and what was everywhere at the fair (besides carnies)…yummy irresistible fair food!! They had deep fried everything (Dodger dogs, oreos, cheesecake, snickers, pop tarts, ribs, avocados, PB & J sandwiches, girl scout Cookies, twinkies, bacon, krispy kreme burgers, Cereal, smores, Kool-Aid, and even a deep fried Klondike bar! They had other delicious fair food like bacon wrapped turkey legs, a 2 lb rib and a 2 lb burger, sausage and peppers, fried chicken, chili cheese curly fries, gooey pizza, even chocolate covered bacon! The hubby (who will not get his sleeve until next year) opted for the huge nest of chili cheese curly fries with jalapenos and ranch. What did I get? Grilled shrimp and rice served in a half pineapple with pineapple chunks…and I didn’t touch the rice or the side of butter that came with it!!! WHAT?!! And for dinner I had shrimp ceviche!! Who is this person that I have become?!! In the past I would’ve had to sample soo much of this food, but now I spend 10 hours at the fair and am still under 700 calories for the day!! I ate my light food and had tons of energy while my poor hubby was walking around full as a tick and miserable from those fries. I even lost a pound this morning from all the walking! I was truly amazed! I went into the fair putting no rules on myself (other than what I am not allowed to eat yet for safety reasons with the sleeve). I thought… its one day at the fair I will let myself indulge…but none of it sounded worth it anymore! Although, I do have to confess I wasn’t a perfect angel… I did take a small bite of the chocolate covered bacon just to see what the heck that tasted like. It was actually pretty good but I had a little bite and that’s all I wanted (and I included that bite into my calories on my fitness pal lol). I was sitting at the horse races and my husband had gone to get his food. When he walked back and had the gigantic nest of chili cheese curly fries I was like that is crazy looking. But then he took off to get napkins and left it sitting next to me in the grandstand and I felt bad because I was embarrassed to have it sitting next to me. I scooted it to where it would be on his other side when he came back. IS that bad? I felt silly for feeling like that. The good thing is that after I ate my little portion of shrimp ceviche my hubby decided not to eat dinner there because it wasn’t worth it! I was secretly very happy for him! We both can't wait until he is sleeved too, but I'm so happy for him when he makes good choices for himself even without the fantastic tool I have!