New to Forum

Hi Everyone! I've been a long time lurker here on the January 2006 surgery date forum. I read it on a daily basis, I've just never posted until today. I had my RNY surgery on 1/11/06. I hated the first month. Pureed foods are icky, but like all of you, I survived it! I haven't had too many food issues, no diarrhea or dumping either. My starting weight was 362. I'm 5'10" and i've lost about 70 lbs so far. I'm starting to experience some hair loss, which I learned in my support group meetings is very common during the 4-8 month period. My only problem so far has been exercise. I had a knee replacement on the left knee a few years ago and need one on the right knee soon. My surgeon wants to wait until I've been out of the bypass recovery for about a year. I walk as much as I can, which isn't very much but I can do more than I could prior to the bypass. The more weight I lose, the easier the knee replacement surgery will be. Today in my support group we talked alot about the emotional impact of our surgery. Is it what we expected? What has been the reaction of family and friends? One topic that seemed to evoke the same reaction in all of us was hearing people say that having the surgery is "THE EASY WAY OUT". Has anyone here experienced negative reactions and how do you deal with them? Some people mentioned that some of their overweight friends were having a hard time dealing with them losing weight. I don't like to focus on the negative, but it would be positive to know how others deal with it, right? lol I'm looking forward to chatting with everyone and would like you all to know how supportive it has been for me to read all your comments. Thank you.