I would love the clothes. Getting down to that size quickly. Darlene Littwin 12561 Mustang Circle Forney,Texas 75126

Hi! Do you still have clothes you need to get rid of??

Just saw your before and after pics - you look amazing! Congratualtions!

Hi Christine. I was just wondering how you are doing now? I am also a low BMI'er and weigh 160lbs. My surgery is scheduled for 12/18/12 with Dr. Almanza. I am hoping you can give me any updates on your weight loss journey. How much have you lost? Are you losing too fast? etc. etc

were you happy with dr alamanza, i originally contemplated between him and dr quniones, any help you can give me on you post op diet would be helpful, also did you do 3 ay clear liquid diet before

I completely understand I am sure I will have an issue with the psychological part also how much did you lose and how long did it take I am 185 now would love to be 136-140

Girl that is AWSOME!! 140lbs WOW!! And thank you for writing me back, I am meeting some good friends here on the board that are sharing some great information. I can share something exciting with you though, I have a very close lady friend that I spoke with just this morning and she is 5 years and 7 months out from her verticle sleeve surgery. She orriginaly weighed 245lbs and she dropped down to 119lbs at her lightest weight which only took her about 6 months to do. Heck I remember the battles she used to go through with trying to drink enough water and daily protein intake battles as well. Well this morning she told me she is at a very happy and comfortable weight of 140lbs and has had very little yo-yo'ing over the years. She still has some challanges with some foods like steak and breads but for the most part she said she can eat just about anything and keep the weight off!! She is also my age around 44 years old if that makes for a good reference.. :*)

Well thanks again for writing me back, I promise to keep you updated on my progress too. 28 MORE SLOWWWW DAYS to go before surgery :*)

Stephen Wallace / Atlanta, GA

Hello Christine I am also wondering how your recovery and weight loss are going.?

Hi Christine,

Just wondering how you are doing? I am scheduled to go for my surgery on 12/13 and I am so looking forward to it..

Hey Christine! I hope you're feeling better and the incisions are healing! :-)

Yep people said the same thing to me for 55 pounds and even a woman in Mexico while at the surgical place made a snarky comment (she was 350 probably) and I shut her up when I said um you don't know me first of all and I am doing this now so I don't end up looking like YOU in a year. Shut her right up too lol

I have dropped from a tight tight 16 (I refused to buy 18's) jeans to a size six - 2 XL top to a M (I still have big boobs lol) and dropped from 172 to 125

Manuka honey is great you can order on amazon. clean with normal saline and syringe which you can make 1/2 tsp salt to each 1 C water that has been boiled, also make sure to sterilize container that you will be putting it in, cover with non-adherent dressing that has a blob of the manuka honey. I tape down with paper tape as the other stuff gives me a reaction if used too long. Change 2x per day, cleaning each time. The hole will heal and fill, just give it time. I have several that did that, I suspect due to nutrition. You don't want to clean with peroxide each time as it is cytotoxic, use normal saline.

I read your post about your incision. I had this happen too and have a friend in Kansas who also had this happen. We received totally different advise. I was told not to use peroxide because it keeps it too moist, instead use iodine which dries it up. We then had to pack the incision with idoform which draws any moisture out of the wound and allows it to heal from the bottom up. You want to avoid any absesses (sp) from forming underneath the incision. Mine could have been deeper than yours too. The packing was a pain but it healed great. Good luck.

Thanks @truffles. I went to the walk in clinic today and the dr told me the exact same thing except now they are slightly infected so he gave me bactrim. I'm hoping in a couple days everything will heal up and I can move on to getting back to exercising.

Re: gapped incision

That happened to two of mine, the top one and the bottom one. My doctor has said to polysporin on it. This is what I do daily:

- clean the wound with hydrogen peroxide with a q-tip (it fits in the hole nicely)
- dry the wound with sterile gauze
- with a q-tip, I insert a dollop of polysporin
- cover with a band-aid
- apply a steroid cream on the surrounding skin that rashes up due to the bandaid glue (sigh)

The top incision is almost completely closed up now, but the bottom one is taking a bit more time. It's not as deep as before, though. BTW, I had my surgery one month ago.

I hope this helps.