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Well, I'm almost 2 years out now. Only down 120 lbs. From 318 to 198. I have not lost much the last 6-8 months. I have done a real good job at maintaining where I am. Got my sleeve 11/17/10. I went from a size 28 to a loose 16 now. I have gotten comftorable with where I am at, after all I am back at the weight and size I was when I graduated HS. I need to get with it and get the rest of now. My goal was 155, I'd like to be in a size 12. I don't remember ever wearing a size 12 even in high school. I always wore a 14 then my senior year I started gaining and got into a size 16. I have 43 lbs to go to get to my goal weight. I know I can do it. I need to cut out the sugar and carbs. I am real bad at getting in Protein. I'd rather just have a snack of chips and homemade salsa, that is my downfall. I love chips and homemade salsa. I think the coffee I have every morning is a big problem also, I use way too much creamer. I use splinda in my coffee but too much french vanilla creamer. I know what changes I need to make. I need to really buckle own and make them. Also, Water. I don't get in near enough of it. I usually drink maybe 1 bottle of water a day, the rest of my liquids come from 1 soda a day either a diet coke or diet dr. pepper. I really don't get in enough fluids at all. I have not by any means fallen into my old self, but I have some chagnes I need to make for sure. I may go all day with out eating anything until dinner. I know I definately need to get back to having at the least a Protein shake for Breakfast. Almost 2 years out. I should already be at my goal. Can't beat myself up though, just need to get back to what I know is the key for success and use my tool the way it is supposed to be used. I do still love my sleeve, I love the restriction on portions. That was always my biggest problem, portion sizes. How is everyone donig on thier Vitamins? I have never taken mine the way I was suppsoed to until here lately. I have made a big effort to take all my vitamins daily. I'm currently taking Barartric Advantage Multi Capsuls, Iron, Calcium and B 12 injection monthly. Hope all of you other Nov 2010 Sleevers are diong good and at your goals. Brandi

Total 35, since surgery 19 Sent from my iPhone using RNYTalk

Thank You all.. In the original post I had talked about how I was having pain in my left shoulder "above the left breast, bellow the collar bone" and how it was down in my left ribs. I had called my surgeons office about it and they said it sounded like normal excess gas pains from surgery "They have some patiants that complain with gas pains 3 months out" They told me to take it easy and if it didn't get better in a few days to call them back. That was Tuesday that I was finally able to talk to them. Friday I called back because I couldn't take them pain any longer. It was to much for me to be comfortable with, and I was already a big cry baby that day because I was hurting all week. Anyway off subject I called the surgeons office back and they told me that if its hurting still then I need to go to the nearest ER and get it looked at it didn't sound like it was gas pains any longer. The first hospital I went to was in our home town. We sat there and waited for hours before finally getting called back and after they took me back they stuck me twice to put an iv in. Finally i went back for what I thought was a complete CT Scan of my abdomin "boy was I wrong" They scanned my heart and the top part of my lungs for blood clots said everything was clear and perfect and that I could go home. The following night "Saturday" we had dinner with hubby's boss and co-workers. I felt ok "still in pain" so I sat back and listened to everyone chat around 8 I couldn't take it anymore we had to go home. By the time we left the restaraunt and got home my temp was 103.2 I took some tyelnol and a cool shower and went to bed. All night long I ran fever as high as 104.7 and as low as 102.9. Finally hubby was able to get ahold of my surgeon and thank goodness for that. He told hubby to bring me straight to the hospital he was calling ahead for test, but he wanted me here asap. That was around 9:30 we live an hour away so I got here around noon. Got checked in and the test started. First on the list was the chest x-ray which showed pneumonia 2nd on the list was blood work which showed elevated white blood cell count. 3rd on the list came around 10 that night and that was the Contrast CT Scan of my abdonimal area all the way down to my pelvis. That is what showed the fluid build up around the diaphragm and the absess on the outside of the lung. It was from that ever so scary OMG What if It happens to Me Leak!! I never knew I had it and never felt any pain in my stomach/abdominal area. It was always in my chest/shoulder and down my ribs all where the pain from pneumonia presents. I am not pleased with the hospital in our home town and will probably never use them again simply because had they found this Friday Night I would probably be typing this at home instead of in a hospital room over an hour away from my family,,

Let me say this I had the lap band in 2002 to 2004 and it slipped twice so I had it removed in 2006. I was already used to running, exercising daily and eating healthy so I was able to maintain my 80lbs lost. Once I had got down to that smaller size I was so self conscious of my belly because my skin didn't tighten right back up. Then in 2007 I became pg and delivered a beautiful healthy boy in 01/25/08. Long story short I gained the 80lbs back and he is 3 now and I haven't lost any of it. I am over here waiting for my surgery date 09/02 and thinking the next time I get that small I am going to enjoy it and not worry about what any one thinks and feel good about it. I didn't get to enjoy it then because I was always worrying this time I am just going to LIVE!!!!! AND IF I have a small roll I will be happy with that instead of this tire I am carrying around. ENJOY LIFE NOW!

I worry about it as well. The last time I was a healthy weight was at the age of 10 in 1988. My weight is my identity and the change will be life changing. I'm looking for a good therapist to be part of my health care team and will see a therapist for the rest of my life. I want to be happy. I want a re-do on my lost childhood.

So I was where you are now... I was sleeved on 10/6. I ditched all the Protein that everyone suggest prior to. I went and got the pre-made premiere shakes which were a lot more palatable and easier to get down. And one 11oz shake has 30g of protein! But you can now make low fat yogurt smoothies... you can do cream soups strained ... it's going to get better I promise. Cottage cheese... I swear I can say I was you. It will get better. Hang in there! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Welcome aboard, Captain, and enjoy the flight. Generally, we have little problem overshooting the mark on our weight goals with the sleeve; indeed the more common problem is to fall short of the goal, though as a guy with a low/moderate BMI, rapid loss is more common. The typical loss pattern is for declining loss as we progress, since we have less excess mass to move around and that burns fewer calories (think of having to retrim to maintain altitude as your fuel burns off.) Occasionally someone will get over-hyped on exercise, working toward marathon goals or the like and will experience stable or increasing loss as they progress, but they are the exception. Assuming a nominal sleeve (one without defects like a stricture or twist that blocks things up,) after things are fully healed and flowing smoothly (a few months' time) it is fairly easy to adjust our diet to meet our needs. The restriction that we get varies with the composition of the food that we eat. Your basic meats will still be fairly restricted, 3 ounces, give or take an ounce or so, as the pyloric valve in the bottom of the stomach closes up to let the stomach process it. However, there are lots of "slider" foods out there that require minimal stomach processing and slide on through with little restriction; unfortunately, most junk food fits into that category, but so do a lot of good things like fruits and many vegetables. Drinking calories, using "meat lube" (gravies and sauces) along with slider foods can be used, in the negative sense, to "eat around your sleeve" or in the positive sense to help you get in the calories and nutrition that you need to be stable. These are variables that we learn to play with attain stability. Given that our sleeves mature to be of similar size, (there's variations depending upon surgical technique, starting point of the patient, etc., but we are all much smaller there than we started out at,) some people will wind up maintaining at 1000-1200 calories, while others will be at 2000 or more, and anywhere in between. Yet these variations can be accommodated by how we adapt our eating technique. As a reference, I can eat about 4 oz of meat if that's all I have, but cut that back to 2 oz and thrown into a salad, that salad can be around 10 oz and often pushing 500 calories (quite a bit of avo and some cheese in there boosting that count, and I could easily make it more caloric if I were so inclined.) Isolating other variables, as a tall guy, your stomach is typically longer than average to start with, which leads to a longer and overall larger stomach capacity once the surgery is complete and things have healed, so you will likely be able to eat somewhat more than average. Compensating some is that your metabolism is likely higher than average, and will remain above average. In short, overshooting the mark for any length of time is rare with the sleeve (more common with the DS if they get a substantial mismatch between the malabsorption part and the patient's metabolism.) Typically the only time we see such problems are when the patient develops an eating disorder where they are so afraid of regain that they can't stop dieting - but that's a psych issue rather than a physiological one. Enjoy the ride an please remain seated until the captain brings the plane to a screeching stop at the terminal.

Hello, My name is Stephanie and I am a 19 year old female that is trying to decide if this is the step I should take to change my life. I recently graduated college with a diploma in Culinary Skills. I know I have a full life ahead of me. I have been overweight since I was 13 and it has been very challenging for me through out my years as growing up overweight in today's youth. I recently discovered that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and I have had a very recent spell with my high blood pressure. I know I need to lose the weight for myself but with my family constantly telling me to keep doing what I am trying is discouraging me. I have been trying to lose weight I just end up gaining it right back. When I was 13, I was told that I had a thyroid issue that was causing me to one min lose weigh then get it right back. At 15, I was taken off the medication, finally fixing that problem. A few days ago I starting thinking about getting the lap band surgery. I know that I am ready to change my life for the better because at 19 I should not have all these issues and it is not going to get better unless I change myself and my bad habits. Also, I want to go back to school feeling good about myself like I should and I want to eventually get married, after I start my career (lol) and have children. Now I understand unless I lose this weight the children possibility has drastically decreased. I told my mother that I was thinking about talking to my doctor about it and she was behind me 100 percent, now the rest of the family not so much. Everyone says that you should just work out/exercise and change my habits. It makes me so mad because I have tried that countless times and it has not worked. They do not understand how it feels to keep trying diet after diet and it not working. I just want to fix me. Any advice would be helpful as this issue is hard to go through almost feeling like you are alone(except for my mother).

So, during my initial consult, my doctor asked if I wanted to go ahead and get me psych consult. I agreed because I was sure I wanted to get the surgery. My psych consult consisted of me waiting for psych forever, and then her coming out and telling me she was really busy, so if possible, could I just fill out this quiz and just leave it on the table in the waiting room (privacy?) when I was done and she's pick it up and call me later. The quiz was one to check for depression and other mental issues (asked the same question 3-4 times in different ways to make sure you were honest). So she calls me later and we talk for maybe 10 minutes where she asks about my support system, etc. She asks me about 10-15 questions off a list and we are done. No, it wasn't thorough but it was a means to an end and I was approved. Well, the bill came yesterday. $575 dollars just for her. After insurance, around $400 out of pocket to her for that. My surgery only cost $1500! I'm debating calling and challenging the price---really, she did so little---but I wasn't sure if that was just part of it and I should just suck it up and pay. What do you think?

Has anyone else figured out a way to deal with fuzzy teeth? Or dealing with geographic tongue? It seems like no matter how often i brush my teeth they get an icky texture soon after. I am super worried about my breath too. If it feels this gross its got to be rank. HW 385 SW 359 Sleeved 10/5/16

I have been a slow loser, yet I have been successful at it! I lost very slowly before the band as well. In fact I lost so slowly before that I would go all out and diet and exercise for 2-3 months, and when I was only 10 or 15 lbs down I would get discouraged and frustrated and pretty much give up. I suppose I felt like it was just too hard to stick with it, I wasnt able to make it an actual lifestyle change. The difference for me has been that while I still lose slowly with the band, I have continued to lose the weight! The gradual changes have truly become part of my lifestyle now....healthy foods, daily exercise, awareness of what and how much I am feeding my body..they are like second nature now. I continue to see that pound or two lost add up and it has slowly gotten me almost to goal. There a so many factors that possibly could have increased my loss.... I do exericise, but should do MORE hardcore cardio...I eat pretty good, nice portions and healthy choices 90-95% of the time, but I still severe insulin resistance and still take 1000mg Metformin. Is my age or metabolism a factor? Who knows.... I just know that slow will still get me to 100% of excess weight lost!

I got it. liquids for the next week, then onto mushies! Today is 2 weeks post, and I've lost 10 pounds!! So I'm excited about that!

I must have lost and gained 500 lbs. in my lifetime. I'm 62 and have run the gamut of diet crazes from pills (that were ever so dangerous) to every living diet known to man. One involved drinking vinegar and Water. That surely had to be the worse. I've done Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, you name it. Yes, I lost a lot of weight. I went from an 18 to a 10 ONE time, and guess what within a yr. of reaching that goal weight and splurging on a new wardrobe because I was determined I would never gain it back, I had to buy a new and even larger wardrobe by the end of the following year. You just can't maintain the weight, nor can you keep affording the food for another thing, plus don't let anyone fool you...it doesn't taste great. I went to a size 22, up from the 18 I started at. These crazes may work for awhile while you are losing and have an instuctor you are paying bookoo bucks for, but poof the pounds come back in no time. I need something all the time to help me keep them off, and I've come to the solution I'm going to work with this band and make it work for me. I just have to get the band which I'm working on. Dody

I was a size 10 for a day, I think it was a couple of years after I was born, LOL. No actually, in 1980, I lost 50 lbs, got down to 125, truly for a day, then never hit it again. I'd be happy as a senior citizen 12.

Ok I was in a Australian 12 at 13 years old! That's about a US 10. And you know what? I wasnt fat! I was tall and big but I was not overweight at that point in my life.

Hahaha .. yea those bug me too. Size 10 (especially in Australian sizes, seems like a real pipe dream at the moment. My favorite thing about all of those commercials though, is the teeny tiny print at the bottom that says "Results not typical", even if they're only saying they've lost 12 lbs. Its laughable.

Ms Lisa I had plication surgery 7/1/10 with Dr. Rod. I have about 50 lbs. to go. edro

I was wondering if anyone else has problems with anxiety since surgery? I have been banded since Jan 12th and have lost 85 pounds. I have been having a lot of anxiety in the past few months and some weeks it is EVERY day! Today was one of the worst days in a long time. I was in Disneyland and all excited to get into the park and had a mental list of all the things to accomplish before going home at 2pm. Well, at 10am it started. We rode two rides and had to quit. I went full on attack at about 11 and it has been going on with little relief for almost 10 hours. The first 6 hours were MISERABLE. I have an appointment with my regular doctor and hope that he can help, on Thursday. Anyone else have these "issues"?

I been so sick and nauseous today. Started wondering I am 10 days post op and have gone from 214 to 193 in 10days is that normal. I thought it would be less then that since I wasn't much heavier person when I started. Goal weight is only 150. I still regret doing this I can just down a bottle water anymore and wonder will I have to be sipping for life. My dog eats and drinks more then I do right now.

I'm 6.5 mons postop and I know the struggle those first few weeks postop. I didn't start losing weight right away either. My surgery was in Feb. I didn't notice any weightloss until May. I don't own scales so I only weigh at the doc. My husband finally had to tell me to go buy new clothes because everything was way too loose on me. So relax, heal and take the time to mentally adjust to the weight loss. It's a huge change in a short time. I went from a 18/20 to a 9/10 in 4.5mons. I'm still adjusting to being skinnier!

I experienced a lot of nausea after surgery, too. Mine was May 19, and now it has subsided almost totally. I happened to have some Zofran lying around, but then I started taking OTC meclizine (the non-drowsy Dramamine) and it helped too (I got a bottle of 100 chewable tabs from costco pharmacy for like $4). From what I understand it's a common side effect of GI surgery, which makes sense since your brain has no idea what's going on in there. As long as you have no sensitivities, the meclizine will also help with vertigo. It was much easier for me to deal with when I had something on hand to alleviate it.

@@Mountedshooter I am December 10. Waiting on approval also

That is how I feel, like the VSG will work for others but not me. I had surgery 10/03 lost 26.4 lbs and still feel like I'm terrified of failing. Sent from my SM-G920P using BariatricPal mobile app

Thanks and u don't mind at all my bmi was 39 and the pic with the black pants was during pre op I couldn't find one before that until today.10 lb loss was the preop liquid diet. So "only" 12 lbs since surgery. All my pics were in bathing suits, watching too many You Tube videos lol. Have to dig up some before pics, but for the past year I've been making everyone who took a pic of me delete them. Sad, but true. It's funny because before I started this journey I never would want my photo taken....I was always the one taking the photos. I have taken to saying.....ok...I need a good before photo!