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Here are few favorites: Oppenheimer, Hockstein, Earle, Zuriarrain, Hammoudeh You can check out their website, IG FB, etc for before/after pics. Miami is the center of the PS universe. If you go to Miami, I would recommend the private practices only, and stay away from the clinics!

Starting purees is great! After the liquid diet, it's nice to be able to eat something resembling real food. You should mix protein powder into purees to make sure you meet your protein goal. My advice for that is to use flavored protein powder for sweet foods and unflavored protein powder for savory foods. Here's what I ate in the pureed stage: Fat-free, no sugar added Greek yogurt (vanilla yogurt + birthday cake protein powder; vanilla yogurt + chocolate protein powder + powdered peanut butter; strawberry yogurt + strawberry protein powder, etc.) Fat-free, sugar-free pudding (chocolate pudding + chocolate protein powder + powdered peanut butter; vanilla pudding + strawberry protein powder, etc.) Unsweetened applesauce + cinnamon roll protein powder Protein oatmeal + cinnamon roll protein powder Pureed refried beans + unflavored protein powder, topped with enchilada sauce + Laughing Cow cheese Pureed black bean soup + unflavored protein powder Mashed cauliflower + unflavored protein powder, topped with gravy

Also, it was totally worth every penny. I paid 21, 800 out of pocket.. My surgery was 6 months ago. I started at 393 lbs. and a bmi of 69.9. I'm am 272 now and I think my bmi is 49.8. I still have a long way to go, but I am so happy I chose to pay out of pocket. Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using BariatricPal mobile app

I am in Orlando, Florida. 6 weeks post-op with Dr. Smith of AdventHealth.

Chapstick/lip balm, iPad, phone, charger, pajama bottoms to wear under my hospital gown for walking. I wore the same clothes home that I arrived in. Above is what I used.

Yeah, just about everybody loses hair after surgery, and there's not much you can do about it. It will grow back. I have fine hair to begin with, so it was pretty noticeable when it started thinning. It has started growing back and it looks terrible because all the new hair is so much shorter than the hair that didn't fall out, but at least my scalp isn't looking so bare anymore.

I will share my experience!!

Best wishes for you!

Just as you shed water weight during your 3 days with minimal intake, your body is re-balancing its hydration level now that you are drinking again. It may bounce around for a while before it settles down and you start seeing a steady downward trend.

Congratulations on your upcoming surgery. The one thing that was never mentioned was you can get gout during the fasting before surgery, and also after. I'd say that was worse than any pain I'd ever had. After surgery, food tasted terrible. So for me, I could care less what other people were eating. The surgery also disrupts your hunger hormone. So, people that I know that had the surgery, just were not hungry. Constpation was a problem for me, but it settled after a few months. I wish you the very best on you upcoming surgery and for a smooth transition after.