RhondaR

Hello to all. I am a newbie to this site. I had my surgery on Dec. 15 and am 3 weeks post-op and I had my surgery done in Memphis by Dr. Woodman. All is good; I had minimal soreness after the surgery and was back to work in a couple of days and on the 7th day was in the gym walking a mile on the treadmill and did some light weights....including some easy crunches. My incisions are looking great but I can feel my port when I bend over or lay on my stomach, which is weird. Yesterday I was back to walking 2 miles at 3.5 mph on the treadmill and it felt great. I am so excited about this new adventure in my life. I have been large my whole life and with grandkids and I'm not getting any younger, I was ready to make a change. I quit smoking 6 months ago after smoking for 30 years and I quit carbonated drinks 9 months ago and I still lost the weight that my INS required prior to approval for the surgery. Ok, I know that isn't the norm, and it was a challenge but I replaced smoking with the treadmill. I'm still in the pureed food stage which hasn't been bad but I really have to work on eating slower. I haven't thrown-up yet but have gone through all of the motions of "sliming" and I really don't like it too much so I’m going to work a bit harder to slow down. I really don't feel like I’m eating less than I was but I guess when I look back at everything, I am. Everyone says not to freak out because it's slow at first until everything settles down, heals and gets regulated. I'm still hungry between meals so I’m going to try and drink a bit more and see if that will fill me up instead of snacking and I’ve also tried chewing gum and that does work for a minute but it's not long term. I'm going to read some more posts and see what others are going through. RK

Gas-Ex strips are wonderful. i had my surgery 3 weeks ago and started taking them that night after surgery. Until your body absorbs the gas they weren't able to remover during surgery you will have some discomfort but the strips help. Mine didn't get to my shoulder but my mother's did. Everyone is just a bit different. Also, i'm lactose intolerant so when i was able to start with the cream based Soups, i was dying and the strips and lactaid helped but i just opted to quite the milk based anything. I enjoyed some sugar free banana popsicles because they are cold and felt good. By the end of the second day you should be feeling a bit better. Good luck and hang in there. RK