Nadurra Deb

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On Aug 6, 2012, I had my VSG surgery. I started at 230 lbs and today I am at 150 lbs. I lost 80 lbs in 11 months. I am 5' 4.5" tall. I'm not quite to my person all goal but I hit my surgeon's goal for me about 10 lbs ago. VSG has changed my life. I have no regrets. I love my sleeve!!

Hi everyone! I have not had as much time to be on OH the past couple of months. But I thought I would pop on here and give an update on my progress. I had my surgery 6 months ago on Aug 6, 2012. Since then I have lost 61 lbs. My starting weight was 230 lbs. I am 5' 4.5" tall. Today I am 168 lbs and feeling great!

I have tracked my food on myfitnesspal.com since a few days post-op. I am realizing more and more how important this habit is. I can now eat more at one time and my hunger has come back some which makes it easy to go over on calories if I am trying to guess. I still measure my food and log everything.

Here are some before and after shots to show you my progress. They are not very pretty but they really show how the body changes over the first 6 months after VSG surgery. I really recommend taking pictures and videos of yourself before and as you progress...even if you don't share them with others. It has really helped my brain catch up to the changes in my body. I also have a before and after video on my YouTube channel. Videoing myself through this journey has really helped me to be able to see what others are seeing as I change.

OH has been a huge part of getting me where I am today. I wanted to thank everyone for all of their support. It has made a huge difference in my journey having this support.

THANK YOU!! I LOVE MY SLEEVE!! :) Deb

Nothing says you have lost weight like when the clothes you use to wear are falling off!!

Yesterday was 10 weeks since my VSG surgery and I'm happy to say that I'm down 38.6 lbs! My scale read 191.4 lbs yesterday, a number I have not seen in a very long time, probably 10 years. My size 18 jeans are fittiing now...nicely, some are lose already. My wedding ring is falling off. Who know my fingers carried any fat! I have to get a ring spacer now so I don't lose it! I added to my photos...a before and after pic from 2 days before surgery and now. I will attach in here too. I can finally see a difference and that is exciting! I'm starting to believe this is actually going to work!

Great news! I stepped on the scale this morning and I was 197!!! I was 202 last week so that is 5 lbs AND I blew right past 200. YAH! I'm so excited! I have not seen the 190s in more than 10 years. So this is a big milestone for me. It makes me really believe that this just might work. I'm 8 weeks post-op today and have lost 33 lbs since my highest weight which was 2 weeks before surgery. Down 30 lbs since surgery where I was 227 lbs. It's a miracle that I just had to share!

It has been 7 1/2 weeks since my surgery and I'm happy to say that at 202 lbs, I am down 28 lbs. It has been a bit slow the last 2 weeks with only 1 lbs a week but a pound down is a pound I will hopefully never see again. I'm dying to get to the 100's! I knew this would be a fight since my body has not been willing to go below 200 lbs for 10+ years. I have been down to 200 many times only to get stuck there and end up going back up. I only weigh on Mondays. Today is friday, so who knows maybe I am already there now. Hopefully monday (8 weeks) will see a 1!

It has been an adjustment. I get bored with eating the same foods and find that I shift around to new things and keep experimenting. The hardest part for me has been getting enough water. I know that is why my weigh loss has been slow this past couple of weeks. This week I can finally take 4 big swallows of water at one time so I have done better overall with the water. We will see if that makes a difference.

I am logging everything I eat on myfitnesspal.com. NadurraDeb is my member name there if anyone wants to be friends there. I find it interesting getting ideas from what others are eating and I really feel like we can all keep each other accountable. I have had my calorie goal set at 650/day. I was struggling to get that in for a while. Now I think I might raise that goal to 750/day since that seems to be where I am at today. Otherwise, I'm keeping my carbs under 40g and my protein to at least 80g. I'm tracking fat too but I don't really worry so much about that number. Sometimes I will go for higher fat if falls within my calorie goal and it means getting my protein in.

I have a vlog on Youtube (NadurraDeb) if anyone would like to follow me there. I try to post a video weekly with updates. I owe a lot to Obesityhelp.com. I have learned so much here. I don't get to post as often these days since life has gotten busy. I have so much more energy now that I feel like I'm playing catch up from years of being in a fog. I love my sleeve!

It's August 5 which is the day before my surgery. It's also my Anniversary which is kind of a bummer, but we celebrated last week knowing today would not be a great day. This is the 3rd day of a clear liquid diet which has been brutal. The only protein is from the Isopure Zero Carb clear protein drinks. They are okay over ice with a straw drinking really fast. Otherwise, it is water with SF flavors, SF jello, SF popsicles and broth (which has saved my life). I have been taking daily naps because of the headaches and also to escape the stress and hunger of being on a liquid diet. I'm really tired and not really nervous about the surgery now. I was more nervous last week. Now I just want it to be OVER!

My surgery is 7:30am tomorrow morning. I'm first up which I like...no waiting...get up and go! See you all on the other side!

I am sitting here today with so many things that I SHOULD be doing to get ready for my surgery. Honestly I'm not sure where to start. Today my allergies seem to be bugging me....all i am doing is sneezing! ANNOYING!! I'm really tired today and not very motivated. My surgeon turned in my request for surgery to my insurance on Friday. Today is Sunday so of course I haven't heard back yet. I think this won't feel real until I do hear that my insurance has officially pre-approved my surgery.

I have several graphic design projects that I need to get done (or at least done as much as possible) before my surgery. And I also have much cleaning and organizing that needs doing around the house also. My Mom is coming to help out with the kids during my stay in the hospital. I want the house to be more presentable for her and so I don't come home from the hospital to a mess!

I NEED to hear back about approval from my insurance!!! I really think my brain is waiting for that green light to really dive into getting everything lined up like I should.

I have a date set...my surgery is now on August 6...31 days!!! CIGNA changed their pre-op requirements from 6 months to 3 months. YAH!! This is awesome BUT this means I have had less time to get all of the pieces together for sending in to CIGNA. According to my surgeon's office, they have my psyche eval and nutrionist eval already done. I have my 3rd WL class on Monday which completes my 3 months of Dr supervised WL...of course I didn't lose anything...sigh....but supposedly that doesn't matter. I still need a medical clearance from another dr besides my bariatric surgeon.

I had a pre-op physical with Dr Gulley (PCP) a couple of weeks ago. I told them I needed a letter of medical clearance to dr Metz by July 9. As of yesterday they have not sent the medical clearance letter to Dr Metz so I called them today. They claim it is in the works and will be there shortly. This is my new PCP who I don't know very well. So far I'm not impressed if they can't get a medical clearance letter to my surgeon. They have had 2 weeks which should be plenty of time! ARGH!

I have another Dr who is also sending a letter of medical clearance... my pulmonary dr who I met with a week ago. I had a pulse-ox overnight (to check if my CPAP is set correctly) and a chest x-ray. As of yesterday their letter had not gotten to my surgeon's office either...sigh...so I called them today too. My pulmonary dr has written the letter. They found it in my chart. So I asked them to fax it again to Dr Metz office. They said they would do that right away. I had also asked my therapist to write a letter for insurance. Her letter has not arrived at my surgeon's office yet either...of course. I don't know that I will worry about that one. I have my psyche eval and they said that was enough. With any luck my surgeon's office will have all of the pieces by Monday to turn into insurance.

If I can give any advise right now, I would be to stay on top of your insurance requirements. Don't assume your dr office is taking care of things. Make sure YOU know what the insurance requirements are directly from your insurance company. Keep checking with your drs to make sure all of the pieces get to whoever is turning things into insurance. Bug them every day if you have to! I will feel SO much better when I am officially approved by CIGNA. If they have everything they need, the will turn in to insurance early next week. That needs to happen so there is enough time to get that approval back. I need my surgery date to stick! I have been planning! Wish me luck!

I started this journey in March when I made the decision to seriously pursue the Lap Band. I met with my bariatric doctor on April 11 (nutritionist and social worker too). My doctor educated me on VSG which I had not considered (or even heard of) before then. He said that if I were his sister or if he was doing this, he would do the VSG verses the Lap Band. He told me to research the sleeve and check out the forums here and see what I thought. It didn't take long for me to decide against the Lap Band. Now I'm set on the VSG. My goal is to make a life change that lasts and helps me reach my weight loss goals.

Right now I am in the anxiety phase of deciding if this is the right move for me to make... trying to get my head around it. The waiting part is a bit annoying but I'm seeing that it is not a bad thing. It will be a turning point in my life for sure. It's good to have the time to really prepare. I hover between totally terrified and excited. It's all rather overwhelming to me right now. I am enjoying reading all of the posts on this forum. It had already helped me feel more at ease. I'm an information junky and need to know the facts and see what others have experienced.