217 - 87 = 130 (or) Go me!

GOOD point (especially re: vomiting) so you bet I’m going to be asking a ton of questions tonight. If you don’t mind me asking, how long did you have to stay in the hospital? How long was your recovery?

And again, congratulations. We who are about to enter the fray salute you.

I was in the hospital for 3 days, though I could have left after 2… they just sort of dropped the ball on letting people know that. I was down for a week or two but I could have gotten up earlier.

I went to Wal-Mart on the way home from the hospital.

You can follow the journal entries regarding my surgery here:

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=opalcat&keyword=weight-loss-surgery&filter=all

(and actually, you will throw up quite a bit the first month, maybe two months. This is for a few reasons… first off your stomach will be swollen and tender, so it holds almost nothing and swallowing even water hurts. When the swelling goes down it gets WAY better. Secondly, you go through a transition period where you learn to gauge how full you are. There is a threshhold you need to learn not to cross, or you feel ill. It just takes trial and error (and error often means barfing) but the sooner you learn, the sooner you aren’t feeling yucky.

By 12-18 months my stomach should be 6-8oz or so, I think, and will probably stretch more over the next few years, so I should be able to eat a reasonably normal sized meal when all is said and done. Contrast that with the gastric bypass :X

Oh another point. You may not have a surgeon near you who does the DS. It’s pretty common for people to travel to other states or even other countries (self-pay folk often go to Spain or Brazil, those two surgeons are excellent and much cheaper) to have the DS specifically rather than one of the other options.

I know of patients of my own surgeon (Washington DC area) who have come from Arizona, Minnesota, Canada, etc. It’s well worth it. Remember, you’re talking about the rest of your life.

You look terrific! You’re so lucky! I hardly lost any weight at all, especially not compared to you, and I’[m all flabby and baggy!

Shirt, blouse thingy. The pink shirt. I like it. :slight_smile:

oh ok. hehe

I’ve been losing weight for some reason. Actually, I’m not sure a scale would agree with that statement, but other people have said it looks like I’m losing weight, and my clothes are getting bigger. I haven’t been doing anything to lose weight, except for the occassional walk. I’ve been eating junk food left and right and not exercising as often as I should. So, I really don’t know why I would be losing weight.

Opal, not only does your figure look great, but I love your hair in the third picture. The really short bangs are really cute.

When I read the thread title I thought you had gotten 87 bucks taken off a $217 ticket…made sense at the time!

Those aren’t short bangs, my hair was just pushed back. My bangs are about mid-eye.

<dance style=“happy”>So I’m only 7lbs away from goal now! I’m 122 – goal is 115</dance>

http://tinyurl.com/lvpr
http://tinyurl.com/lvpt

I’m faintly scared of the pants. But you look great!
-Lil

  1. 4lbs away from goal. :smiley:

http://tinyurl.com/mkov

Someone at Wal-mart referred to me as “tiny” when I asked her if she thought a shirt would fit me. Btw, it was a size “S 4/6” and it fit easily. In the above picture, I’m wearing my LiveJournal t-shirt… size small. Catzpjs sent me a box of jeans and they all fit… even the size 7s.

http://tinyurl.com/mkp7

Awesome!!!

You look incredible.

Thankie :smiley:

Congratulations!

Opal, you are:

  1. Courageous and determined.
  2. Extremely cool.
  3. An example to everyone who wants to improve their health and appearance.

BTW, from a guy point of view, I like the outfit. It makes you look like the smart nonconformist relative that everyone wishes they had. :slight_smile: