Search the Community

Ok wow. So my weight loss and everything has been Ok, could be worse. But my mood, my...i don't even think it's that. When you need a friend and you don't have any...where do you go? Seriously. Besides that, I'm just so empty. It doesn't matter if I'm depressed or ok anymore...I'm just empty no matter what I do. I love my b/f, my family, my friends. I love school, I look foward to being somewhat ok at my future job...but the emptiness never goes away... I really don't want to be on meds again...I feel ok sometimes...ish....even then...I'm so empty and up in limbo that my diagnosis is just "Not otherwise specified".... And I've been pretty much diagnosed (went to 4 doctors that all said i had this) with Trigeminal Neuralgia...and i just discovered that mine might be caused by stress/emotions...great. Seriously after being completely pain free for almost a week, i start crying and the pain kicks in again. I feel crazy.

Hi Band, First of all, Tiffykins advice is dead on!! I did my surgery on April 14th... I had only told 2 very close friends, just in case.... Just this week I ended up telling 2 more people whom I am very close with because I am visiting their house in another country, and I know that they would wonder about my new eating habits.. I explained everything to them.. I consider them my surrogate mother and sister... The mother asked a bunch of questions and was very curious about my reasoning, but she has been so very supportive.. they even took me shopping for new clothes to shrink into.. Anyway, my point is, you don't need to tell people.. Only your husband and any friend that you can really trust should suffice.. NOT one single person in my whole family knows about my surgery, and frankly I trust my friends to keep it secret more than I trust my family... My friends know how hard I've struggled to lose weight for so long, they support my decision, ask questions often, inquire about how I'm doing with my diet and exercise, and help keep me motivated... They are also vital to have around if you plan on going out to restaurants cuz they can finish my food .. So, tell people who you are comfortable with, and be sure to tell them that you would like to keep this a secret until you are ready to share it with more people. I too am a very private person, and most of the people you tell will judge you and talk about you behind your back.. If you can't deal with that, then just tell your hubby and nobody else. I'm glad your surgery went well and that you are doing fine!!!

I actually gained weight and they still did my surgery. I remember being so scared that they would cancel on me but thankfully they didn't. Welcome to LBT!!

I went to the doctor today with the intention of having .2cc taken out of my 5.8 until after the holidays. That .2 makes a huge difference and I just wanted to enjoy the holidays and my son who will be home from college Saturday for 3 weeks. When the doctor asked me how much to take out, I rethought and decided to take out .5 instead. My band is going to be sooooo loose! I can already feel a difference. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't gain!

for my sil who today, as i type this, is getting a tummy tuck and lipo. i should be happy for her! but i am not! i am having such a hard hard time with it. i am so jealous. but its more then that. well, prolly not really, but.... i am working at losing this weight. i am half way to my goal. it has been an incredibly hard journey, as you all know. she wakes up one day, decides she wants it done, and that is that. she is doing it. she didnt even lose the weight her doc recommended for her to lose. i am being so catty and insecure and just shallow about it! but at least not to her, just here and my mom and dh know how i feel.... i dont know if this is really it or not, but its like, i finally get to where i weigh less then her and bam, she takes that away. (so that is my own insecurities, i know.) my dh tells me not to get so upset/worked up. i am doing this the "right" way. our deal is i get to goal and stay for a year and then i get a tt and lipo and boobies. i KNOW i am doing it right. i know i will have great results and look good and its ok. it really is. its just so frustrating to watch her eat what she eats and i eat....ARGHHH!!! why is this so hard for me? i should be happy that she will be happy! i know what its like to be so unhappy with yourself and your appearance. i guess it all just comes back to being insanely jealous. i just want to cry. and i have. i have bawled my freakin eyes out. what is wrong with me? why am i hate'n on her? i look at people here who have had these things done and i am like, right on! good for them! they are awesome! i want to be like them! but there are not these icky feelings. ughh, just so frustrated with myself....:huh2: thanks for letting me vent.

Love your post. I too only focused on the weight loss. But when my blood pressure when from 170/100 to 109/72 or lower I felll in Love with my sleeve. You are doing a Fantastic Job. Here is to a sleeve with Benefits.

The band "aide" is just that, pre-banding you don't have the help, post...you do. It helps stop over eating. Less food equals weight loss, weight loss sparks increased self esteem, that means more self interest, more self interest means more desire to do good things for ones self (for a change), which increases energy. An increase in energy, means an increase in your activity, whether it's general exercise, or just increased playfulness... you'll move more...more movement equals weight loss... it's a cycle of sorts. For me the band is a perpetuator of motion in all the right directions.

My doctor already have me waiting till 22nd Jan for my first fill and we had same date surgery. I been loosing ok amount of weight also since surgery but I am starting to get little more hungery and I dont want to start gaining. Gotta also do some blood work before appointment also...

Congratulations on the weight loss. That is great!!! So proud of you. I have about 60 to 80 pounds to loose...so maybe i should start exercising those areas to build muscle.

I had the sleeve. I lost about 127 I gained back 25. How I handle stress lately varies. Sometimes eating, sometimes drinking sometimes working tour I don’t hate exercising I love it. Never gave that up. I don’t have a bariatric buddy to face time with or spend time with

i just started to do volunteer work at our local hospital i totally have "put" myself "out there", amongst REAL people would never have been confident/brave enough to do this before i lost all my weight I am so happy since WLS waiting for the "new" next event to happen!!! today, volunteering - tomorrow......... life is good

I'm so nervous I gained 2 pounds in between my 2 required NUT appointments. I was also on 2 steroids for bronchitis surfing this time. The NUT said it could be from that, but I am extremely nervous that my insurance will now deny due to the gain. Ugh. Anyone else have this happen? Wht was your outcome? I have BCBS of SC.

I just bought the Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies book. It explains all the various surgeries, side effects, recipes. I'm about half way through it. It was recommended to me. Good luck. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

I am ready for summer. Every year I am miserable when I go on vacation with my family. Cute summer clothes did not fit and all I wanted to do was stay in the condo. Talking about spoiling the fun for everyone. My husband and daughters enjoyed so many actvities without me. This year will be different. Losing weight has lifted my self esteem. I am ready to enjoy all that life has to offer. I am challenging myself to lose 10 more pounds before the end of June. I slacked on my exercise and still managed to lose 18 pounds in 2 months. Now I am highly motivated and will not use the excuse of being too tired to skip my workouts. Come join me. My goal is 40 miles for May.

I weight myself every Monday, I battle getting on the scale every day but everyone says once a week. I was in bandster hell for about 2 weeks didn't lose a pound a 1/2 pound a 1/4 pound nothing. I still haven't had a fill and can and occasionally do eat what ever I want. I get my 1st fill on the 24th, but i the last 2 weeks I've lost 4 lbs so I'm happy with that, and don't expect it to go up much more than that I'm just looking forward to not being hungry every 2 hours.

I think there's a weight loss conference in Vegas sometime in the future.... Congrats on the weight loss.

No it's temporary. Use this time to lose your weight because it doesn't last. No worries... You will be able to eat normal around 7 months

My surgery is on Wed too. I've been lurking on this site for months, but this is my first post. Hard to believe it's finally happening. I am so overwhelmed. I took today and tomorrow off to get my stuff together, compose myself, etc., and all I can do is obsessively read posts on this site! I need to pack - going to my mom's straight from the hospital - get my dog's things together, etc. I think I'm worrying too much. One thing I did do was contact a lawyer and have my will done. At age 56 I figured no tine like the present! Now I'm superstitiously wondering if I'm sending a bad message out to the universe:) The pre-op diet has been fine. I'm a very good short-term dieter. Haven't shown much weight loss, but my "regular" habits are all messed up. Wish I knew how big my liver was! Bottom line for me, and I suspect for all of us with close dates, is no second-guessing!!! Living as an obese person all these years is probably much harder than the next few months are going to be. Good luck to all the August sleevers! Ellen (aka ECR)

Hello all I am shirley. i just had my surgery 4/24/06 and so far everything has gone ok. I did have an episode with not chewing my food to its consistancy. The only thing I would like to advise anyone who is considering having this surgery done Just to do it..but expect the day of the surgurey to be hell when u wake up from the operation..U are gonna ask your self " what in gods name did I do?" But a few days later u will be ontop of the world. (hopefully your experience will go as good as mine has.) If anyone has any ?'s please feel free to contact me...Also u must make a serious commintment to yourself about exercising..I started this whole diet at 265lbs ina size 22-24 i am proportioned very well but its been 1 month exactly and i have lost 37 lbs & am in a 20 .. i eat 5-6 2 once meals a day mostly of protein ...i walk 2.5 miles everyday for 3 weeks i also quit smoking..(hey I an't put the weight on right...lol) and i go to the gym starting yesterday and do the weight & crunches...and tan too..lol. well i look forward to chatting with ya! oh and i am noT :hungry: at all TTYL shirley

Went in to see my dr. for my post surgery appt. All is going good and now I just have to wait till Oct 15th for my first fill Checked out the accuracy of my scale with the dr's and they were the same, so I guess I am doing ok with the weight loss. Plus I got the ok to swim, so I will be adding that to my daily walking. Hope everyone else is doing good too.......Dave:whoo::whoo:

Its going great! Losing a lot of inches. I haven't weighed myself because I get consumed by it. A week ago I was at -25 lbs. I'm 24 days post open and big changes are happening. sleep apnea is subsiding. I barely snore at all. I am on no pain meds at all for joint pain. I exercise 6 days a week at minimal. Don't compare your weight loss to everyone else's because everyone is different. I've slowed down from the dramatic jump in the beginning but I am still losing. I've been told that sometimes when the scale isn't moving you are losing inches. I am happy to be feeling less winded and tired all of the time...

The last time I needed a fill, I was eating about 1 and 1/4 cup food, and getting hungry between meals and snacking. Right now, I'm only eating 3/4 cup food, but I lways get hungry between meals now and am snacking between meals as a result, to hold me over (trying to stick to healthy snacking, but its still adding too many calories). I was just wondering if others get hungry between meals when they need a fill, even if they aren't eating a whole lot more than half a cup. My doctor seems a bit strict on giving fills if you are eating less than a cup, but I'm hungry often. I swear it's generally not head hunger, though I have experienced that (head hunger to me feels more like a craving, actual hunger more in my stomach). The lack of hunger just doesn't seem to last long lately... perhaps a couple of hours. Also, I'm NEVER getting any kind of stuck feeling or caught in the stomach feeling. I used to get it occassionally for a second or two if I rushed things or carelessly swallowed a large chunk. I THINK I'm just stopping too early or something at the hint of satisfaction and it's the food moves through too fast. So in short, do you ever need a fill due to getting hungry too soon rather than just eating too large amounts? Is the band tricking me into stopping eating before I get enough of the 'full' sensation to keep me satisfied long enough? I'm not losing very much weight anymore either. I do need to exercise more, but at the same time, I'm still doing some and making healthy food choices... but I'm eating pretty often the past couple of weeks. It's solid foods (mostly chicken and various veggies and such) and I'm not drinking for a little bit before and for at least 30 mins after and I try to stretch that to an hour if im not too thirsty. Thanks for your advice. I just dont want to go into my doctor and be denied a fill or anything. It just seems like I should be eating larger quanties if I needed a fill. I've only had two fills that gave actual restriction, with the last one giving me the most. I'm still kind of getting used to this fill stuff. Oh, and I've lost about 22 pounds since my last fill about 9 weeks ago. More than the 2lb/wk. Most of my weight loss was in the beginning though.

Vertical Sleeve Talk was created as a place for people with a common goal to come together, seek advice and offer support to one another. It is a place where we want everyone to feel safe to ask questions, seek advice and gain support without the fear of being judged or ridiculed. In keeping that in mind, I would like to remind everyone of a few of our key rules: We take the "Be Polite" rule very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning. Members will treat each other with courtesy and respect, especially when they disagree. We understand that bright, intelligent and educated people may not always agree, but personal attacks in the form of insults, abusive language or other means of obvious harassment will not be tolerated. Do not attack, mock or otherwise insult others. You can respectfully disagree with the message or topic, but you cannot attack the messenger. This includes attacks against the user's spelling or command of written English, or belittling a user for posting a duplicate topic. No hi-jacking topics. Please stay on-topic with a forum topic. Off-topic or derogatory remarks are disrespectful. Please either contribute politely and constructively to a topic, or move on without posting. We reserve the right to respond to violations of these guidelines by blocking and/or banning members from this forum. Violation of these guidelines may lead to disciplinary action. We reserve the right to delete or lock topics, to disable the posting privileges of any member, or to deny anyone use of our site at anytime, for any reason, at our discretion without warning or notice. Recently, there have been numerous topics created for the sole purpose of insulting, ridiculing and/or criticizing other members. Placing these topics in the Rants and Raves forum does not justify their creation. As stated above, the VST team members goals are to create a safe place for everyone to post. Many members have contacted us regarding their fear of asking questions, stating their concerns publicly, etc. because they are afraid they will see themselves later being mocked in another topic. That is not the environment we wish to create here. It is a violation of the above stated rules. And, in accordance with those rules, the moderators and administrators have agreed that any such threads will immediately be locked and removed. If any member continues to create such threads, they do so at the risk of their continued membership here on our forums. If you have any concern about a topic that has been locked and/or removed, you are welcome to contact a member of the VST team via private message to discuss those concerns. It is not appropriate to start a topic solely for the purpose of questioning topic closures, disciplinary actions and/or banning of members by the moderators and administrators of this forum. Threads such as those will also be locked and removed. The VST staff work very hard at keeping the forums a happy, safe and productive place for all, and we ask that in turn, you respect them and their decisions. Thank you.

Hi, I'm about 30 pounds away from my goal and my weight loss has been very slow....EXTREMELY slow. But hey, it's going. It's taken 3 weeks to lose 1 pound. Does it slow down like this as the goal is approached or am I just hitting a plateau? I'm at optimum restriction so a fill isn't in order. Thanks for your advice as I'd like it to go faster, but don't want to complain.

WHOA....That is strange. For now, I can't see mine at all or feel my port. Thank God, that would weird me out, TOTALLY! I hope it stays that way too once I lose all my weight. For now, I can't feel it or see it!