I want to reach thru the computer and shake a new post op!

I know, my first mistake was reading the main board. Someone who is 2 weeks out - I ate 3 bites of a pork chop, 3 bites of peas, and 3 bites of cabbage. Did I hurt anything???? Someone answered and said it was okay since it wasn't a slice of cheesecake! They just don't get it. It's one thing to eat normally when you are a year out but quite another when you are 2 weeks. I really wonder how these people will do. Will they lose and regain? That would be my guess. Was my group of surgery buddies that stupid?? It sure didn't seem like it. What's going on??? I never even tried anything with sugar until I was almost a year out. I wish I never had cuz I don't dump. I was better off thinking I would. Live and learn. And it's not to say that I do everything right, but I sure did the first year. Now at almost 2 years, I'm still trying to get to goal. And it's my own fault for not being there yet. I have 6 pounds to go and I'm hoping that I will lose that much skin with the TT. Lyn 262/148/142

Don't waste your peace on that kind of thread. Most are looking for absolution if not permission and there is never a shortage of others willing to give it. Time will tell if their strategy works. Nowhere Man/PH/Jay

I really wonder how pork, peas and cabbage will doom them? I mean, some docs (like mine) allowed me to advance my diet as tolerated. So by two weeks out I was eating a wide variety of foods - including pork and cabbage (I don't like peas lol). I would say it depends on their doctor's diet protocol.... Hope you do lose the 6 with PS - typically they estimate 7 to 10 pounds of skin per 100 pounds lost.

I really wonder how on earth they ate the pork chop without being in pain. Im pretty far out from surgery, and pork remains one of the things I can't tolerate. I'm jealous! Interesting about the weight loss due to skin in plastics. The plastic surgeon estimates I will lose about 15 - 20 lbs (if I am ever able to afford the lower body lift I want.) I lost 130 lbs with WLS, could it be that I have more skin than most? Michele

You're just WEIRD lol. But I lubbs ya anyway

I saw that one, too, and didn't answer it. It's not that the pork chop was such a bad choice in the overall scheme of things, except that she was not supposed to be eating anything nearly that dense yet, per her surgeon's instructions. The choice itself wasn't as bad (protein vs. sugar) as cheesecake, true, but it WAS against her doctor's protocol and if she's already going off on her own after just 2 weeks, there's NO telling what she will be doing at 2 months or 2 years. Oh well, can't make choices for other people and like Jay said, she just wanted absolution and that's what she got! Jan

Yeah I answered her late last nigth and pretty much, that's what I told her too. Not that the food itself was bad - but busting protocol - not smart. Ugh.

As has been discussed so many times on this board as well as the main, WLS is from the waist down. There is not a surgery, a pill, or any kind of magic that can change behaviors. There is only the hope that in time we all get in touch with our own personal behavioral challenges and make the commitment to change for the better...for life. As you note, you are not at goal and it's your "own fault." I am not certain what that means, except to say that "faults" and blame are negative thoughts...and clearly you have had incredible success to date. So celebrate both your success and your challenges and know that you are at the beginning of changing your life...if you could do it perfectly you would have done it a long time ago. As for the main board, personally I use it to reinforce my new lifestyle and behaviors by occasionally replying, but mostly I take a deep breath and move on. Karen

All this goes to heart of my understanding of how WLS actually works. I see WLS functioning like a surgical intervention to a behavioral problem. It interrupts our behavioral patterns and allows us to become re-habituated, hopefully to a better set of behaviors. During the early post-op period, losing weight is a no-brainer, so the patients new behaviors are reinforced by seeing rapid weight loss and improvements in comorbidities. At some point you become a grad, with a different body and far more importantly, a different set of behaviors to sustain that body. The person eating the pork two-weeks post-op is not at risk from the pork. She is at risk of failing to use the early post-op period to begin to cement in a new set of behaviors. Her clock is ticking. The window is closing. She may soon discover that she can find ways to gratify her old eating habits, and the weight will still come off. She concludes that she can do whatever ans still win at this. Both continue for a while, the eating AND the losing. At some point, something has to give and it usually is the losing. Regain begins to occur. Nothing is wrong mechanically (SLDs, enlarged stomas, etc), they just never really solved the problem. They become angry at WLS, others, or their surgeon. They might start hunting for a revision, thinking that the surgery is the real answer. Then they disappear, and are seldom seen again. Sadly, I am not convinced that there is much that can be done for them. The nature of the battle is just too personal, too close for anyone else to intervene. And saying anything gets one branded as being insensitive and unsupportive. Nowhere Man/PH/Jay

Hi Lyn, you look WONDERFUL and wow only 6 pounds to go. You can do it!!!!!!!! I am rooting for you. The last few are always the hardest but look how far you have come. woooooo hoooooo 302/153/155 6"0