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Things are going well. I'm on regular foods though I'm still eating mainly protein. I experience hunger which is supposed to be unusual for the first 6 months or so after surgery. They tell you that you can mistake hunger for thirst but I've tried to drowned the hunger and it's not working. It's ok I'm sticking to my 3 meals a day. I did snag a piece of cheese before bed the other night because my philosophy is if it's keeping you from getting to sleep it is worth a little piece of lowfat cheese to quell it. 

On the clothing front I'm ready for new sizes. I try  not to buy much and I'm going to find some consignment shops. Our support group does a clothing swap now an then but I am so hard to fit that I didn't have much hope for finding anything. I discovered recently that I really am a petite and by buying petite sizes rather than average my pants fit much better. 

I'm getting used to leaving a lot of food behind. I hurt myself once or twice by just eating 1 bite or 2 to many and all of you post-op people know your bites have to be miniscule to begin with. I'm only eating about a 1/4 cup of food at each meal right now. 

Still loving the journey and I hope you are too.  

I've lost about 137 lbs. Thats 23 lbs since surgery. I've been on the soft food phase for a week now. I can only eat about 1/4 cup of food right now if I'm lucky. I've been doing pretty good getting all my fluids in, although this week I've been at the office a lot and it's easy to get distracted. Where before surgery I had purchased a nice 32oz Contigo water bottle, I now find myself going back to bottles where I can use a straw. It is so much easier to sip constantly with a straw to get those fluids in. I'm going to have to invest in new bottles. I may stick with what I have.

I am enjoying the journey and I hope you are too.

I think that I have been very blessed to have the PCP that I have and to have been referred to Weight Wise in Oklahoma. I definitely knew what I was getting myself into from the moment I attended the free seminar. So by the time I went to my first appointment with the surgeon, nutritionist and exercise physiologist I was fully commited to the whole program. I had to see the surgeon, nutritionist and exercise physiologist once a month plus attend the support group at least once a month. Our final post-op diet and pre-op diets are very similar so unless you were one of the few who had to be on a liquid diet before surgery you already know what you're eating regimen will be like post-surgery when you've healed and are back on the regular foods.

Today we had our post-op diet class. This is a follow-up and repeat of our pre-op diet class. It is all about what we can eat and when to start each phase post-surgery, and when to incorporate vitamins etc. 

There was a person in the class today that did nothing but complain. They whined about everything, from not getting in their fluids to every instruction about vitamins and so forth. To give them the benefit of the doubt I am not them and they're experience during initial recovery may have been rough. However they didn't sound like they had a good reason to not get their fluids in. Honestly they sounded like a spoiled big whiney baby, it's not like you can get your stomach back after surgery.

I kept thinking "did you not listen at all during your pre-operative phase". Everyone at Weight Wise has to lose some weight before surgery. Some more than others depending on your health and BMI. Some people get to have surgery in a matter of weeks, some months. I just do not and cannot believe that this person did all of the prep work, saw the surgeon, nutritionist and exercise physiologist once a month and attended the required support group meetings and didn't know that this is not the "easy" button method to weight loss. 

If you are pre-op and have any doubts, don't have proper support and education or don't realize there will be food restrictions you need to take a step back and make sure you do know what you are getting yourself into. If you don't you may not make it to your goal. 

If this were a person in a program somewhere else where they didn't give you this kind of service I might have some sympathy, but  for a weight wise patient... I was a little perturbed at the attitude. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

It has been 5 days since my surgery. I am exhausted but I feel pretty good. I did not get to go home the day after surgery like most of the other patients who has surgery the same day. I had to stay in an extra day. The ice chips were contributing to the nausea and between that and the gas pressure I couldn't get the liquids down as needed in order to be released the next day.

The IV backed up into my hand and up my arm so it was swollen to about 3 or 4 times its size up to about the elbow. They had a tough time changing it to the other arm and it is finally normal or close to it. I think the bruising from the shots they give you after surgery are almost worse than the bruising from the incisions. Most of the incision sites look pretty good. The larger one where they pulled out the part of the stomach they removed is very bruised.

I did not have buyers remorse at all. Maybe I will at some point but I had about 9 months to get used to the idea and I had fully commited mentally before starting the process and I reminded myself at several points along the way why I made this decision.

Warm liquids feel best on my stomach right now. I'm an in the liquid phase right now and am drinking about 3 protein supplements a day in addition to my 64 oz minimum of fluids. I have about 9 more days and then I can move into the soft food stage for a few weeks.

I heard several times, but there's nothing like first hand experience, that I would be fatigued for a few weeks after surgery. I am constantly tired. I constantly feel like I need a nap. I am refraining though because if I'm asleep I'm not drinking fluids. I'm afraid that I will not get them all in one day and end up going in for IV fluids to catch up. Expensive and not preferred.

I hope all of you are having great success. I'm off to get a protein shake down and go find a park to walk around in.

My surgery is in 2 days. Wow it is getting close. For the past 4 months or so I have been having panic attacks. These aren't sitting around worrying until you hyperventilate attacks. These are wake up in the middle of the night gasping and not knowing what the heck is going on.

The first one scared me. After that I kind of figured out what it was and that I was really ok which helped, but they started happing about once or twice a week. So I started asking my mom who has had some experience in the area and is a nurse. Then I had discussions with my PCP and the Weight Wise Psychologist.

They of course said it was a fairly reasonable reaction with what I was taking on. I had a longer road to get to a surgery date than many others on the program. I also have a more than full time job and am attending online college to get a degree. Between those things and the financial burdens I guess I was carrying a lot of concern in my subconscious. On the conscious level I didn't feel like anything was really that far out of the ordinary. It took my physicians and mom to remind me of how much I was doing.

My PCP gave me Xanax to take as needed to get me through the next few months. I didn't really take it at first. I didn't want to be on anxiety meds. But I ended up relenting as in the past few weeks leading up to surgery they started up again and I need to sleep.

I have been able to step back and realize the underlying fears that are plaguing me during all of this. I've been getting out more and am able to do more so that alleviates some of the fears. My big things to tackle are coming.

The pre-surgery diet has me eating 6 times a day and after it will be liquids for 2 weeks then soft foods, then back to regular foods. BUT only 3 times a day in very small amounts. At least I won't have physical hunger but I'm a little worried about emotional eating temptations. I've followed the pre-surgery diet to the T. And eating something 6 times a day has made that possible because I only had so long to go before I'd be eating again if I was feeling some emotion I used to treat with food.

After surgery not only is this not possible but not allowed. I know I can do it and I'm doing the right thing but I also know that this is something that is bugging me. I have the same fears as many others. Will I be the one person who completely fails or just doesn't lose more weight? Will I blow it and gain it all back?

I don't really believe that either of these will happen. I also know that come surgery day I will psych myself up and be ok. I can't wait until it’s done. I'm pretty convinced that once I get past the surgery and into the next phase my anxiety will become less and go away.

I finally have a surgery date. I've lost 104 lbs so far. My surgery is at the end of February. I will be taking the whole week off for recovery and then I will be taking it easy for the next 2 weeks as my stomach heals. The first 2 weeks is a liquid diet and from I've heard in our support groups it can be very exhausting. Everyone gets thru it though so I know I will too.

I'm blessed in that I work for a company that allows us to virtual office. So I will be able to work from home for the most part those first 2 weeks of recovery. I'm only out of the house to work about 1 to 2 days a week.

I've begun using a timer that goes off every 5 minutes to remind me to drink fluids. This is something our nutritionists say is extremely important to prevent dehydration and we can't drink too much at one time with our tiny pouches so I figure I shoudl get used to the every 5 minute model now.

My other challenge is cutting up my food to miniscule bites and then only putting 1 bite in my mouth at a time. I'm working on it as I only have a few weeks left. I'm psyching myself up for the major changes coming. As if the changes I've already made weren't major.

It is good for me that the food rules fit my personality so that part has been relatively easier than exptected. I wish I could apply those same rules to the needed exercise. I'm getting back into the routine after the busy holiday season.

It's all very challenging and anyone who says surgery is the easy way out just hasn't got a clue as to what we all go thru.

However it is so worth it. I don't have a problem with never eating certain things again considering how much I've gained from it. I wish I could have done this about 10 years ago.

In April of 2011 I went to my doc for a regular appointment. I had already been contemplating setting up a longer appointment with him to talk about my weight and what to do because I had finally had enough. I was exhausted; I could not walk 10 steps without feeling like my chest was going to explode. I knew I could not keep living like this. Every time I exerted myself even a little it took five solid minutes to catch my breath. I had gas all the stinken time (pun intended). Something had to give.

My doc, the best doc in the world (IMHO), Dr. Justin Sparkes in Edmond, OK, sat down and I could tell he was apprehensive about what he was going to discuss. I'm usually very receptive but several physicians had mentioned WLS in the past and I was not receptive at those times. I just felt like getting surgery meant that I was giving up, admitting failure, surely if I applied myself I could do this on my own. However, my husband and I had been talking in a good way, so I was ready to seriously consider this subject.

I did mention to Dr. Sparkes that I still felt like I should to do it on my own like I hadn't tried hard enough. He said in a good way, "If you could do this on your own you would have by now". He had seen my weight yo-yo over the past couple years as I kept trying things I thought were reasonable. It's not that they weren't but little things like, doing the Jillian Michaels online program and when her new book came out they redid the site and food menus without warning. It threw me way off and with the expense of buying the specific foods on the list each week I said ok I'm not paying for the rug to be pulled out from under me.

I gained back the 25 I had lost and so I tried to count calories. I lost another 25 but that method is very tedious and my lifestyle makes it hard not to turn to convenience foods. Each time I gained back plus some as is the typical experience. Before these attempts I had done Weigh Down Workshop years before and yes it works but I let a few deaths in the family put me on hold and I never got back on track.

Before that attempt, I didn't attempt anything and hadn't since I was a teen because I had learned early on that diets really weren't good for you and fads didn't work. I knew early on that a lifestyle change was needed but when you are a stress eater that is easier said than done. Weigh Down Workshop was very beneficial. After that experience I never had acid reflux again and my feminine cycles returned to relative normalcy.

So back in April when Dr. Sparkes mentioned WLS again I was receptive and he recommended Weight Wise which was right next door. It took me a few weeks of looking over their website and signing up twice for the seminar before I actually went. I attended that seminar on May 16^th. Then it took me a few more weeks to make my first appointment. Why these gaps before I got started? I really had to wrap my head around what I was giving up and could I do this long term. Was I really ready to get on board? Surgery is a serious decision and if I committed, this was it, no turning back.

I had my first appointment at Weight Wise on June 2^nd. The doctors, dieticians and staff at Weight Wise are top notch. I follow the food program, almost, perfectly and I have lost 72lbs since that first appointment. I am hoping to have surgery in early 2012 and kick this weight loss journey into high gear.