Rootman

Being sleeved 4 months ago my appetite is almost totally "ruined". Pre-sleeve I would come home in a daze with my sugar dropped too low and eat everything and anything in sight. I ballooned up to 375+ pounds. Now I have to force myself to eat, can only eat a small amount and get terrible pains and gas if I go a bite or two over my limit. I am FORCED to eat less and frankly with no real appetite WANT to eat less. I've lost 108 pounds in 4 months. I am told that my appetite should perk up in the 6 month range. I am also never truly hungry, I get a small funny feeling that I can easily ignore. I call it by an old fashioned word - for lack of anything else - "peckish". Now, this being said, there are no guarantees that it will work for you. I've heard of a few people that are still hungry after the sleeve, the are a vocal few. I've heard of still others that can and do eat too much and don't lose - they too are a vocal few. I've even heard of a few out and out failures, people who get the sleeve, lose their weight and then gin it back by constantly noshing on the wrong foods. Then there is the people whom it works and stays working for, they are the majority. If you have serious, deep seated psychological food issues then it may warrant addressing them first before the sleeve. If, like most of us, you just just love the high calorie, low cost, plentiful food we enjoy too much and simply overeat because it's there - the sleeve should work. See my sig for me Mexican sleeve surgery site.

Welcome to VSG Talk! As you have found there is a lot of opinions on what and when you can eat. It isn't really that hard. Take it easy and stay on liquids for 2 weeks (you're past that), then eat soft foods like applesauce, thin non creamy broth and yogurt and stuff you COULD suck through a straw (you don't have to eat it through a straw just to get an idea of consistency) for another 2 weeks, then start on pureed foods, blend up soups and soft foods for another 2 weeks. You have to let that tummy heal, it's been through quite an ordeal. After about 6 weeks you can eat ANYTHING you want. The key is to eat the RIGHT foods. Remember you can only eat a small amount, likely 2 - 4 ounces of food. Since we can eat so LITTLE we have to concentrate on the best stuff, and that is Protein. Always choose PROTEIN over carbs or fat. Eat the protein FIRST then if you have room and want more than carbs, then fat. If you think you are eating too much and exceeding 600-900 calories then measure your foods out an ONLY eat small portions, like 1/2 cup. The REASON for protein first? It's what's best, you are going to come up short in calories and you body wants the energy it needs from SOMEWHERE, if it doesn't get it from calories then it takes it from fat AND lean muscle mass. We WANT to keep the lean muscle mass and lose the fat, so you have to give the body what it wants in order for it NOT to select muscle mass for energy and that is PROTEIN. Lean meats, chicken, turkey and stuff like that, red meats - which includes pork. You can also get protein supplements like whey shots. If you are losing weight and have enough energy then you are eating right. If you CAN'T lose weight examine your diet and try to find out if you perhaps taking in too many carbs. We wish you the best.

Well I might of been able to but then I clicked you profile and found out you're a FEMALE. I doubt my clothing choices would agree with you. I thought womens sizes went in numbers like 16 or 24 or something like that.

What mini-me said. You ARE a loser - of WEIGHT. It's great what you've done so far and a WHOLE LOT better than GAINING 26 pounds.

Like anything mankind does it seems like only the "bad news" travels very far. We don't hear much about success stories because there is no excitement in that, it seems that all we want to hear about is someone failing, getting hurt or doing something stupid. The success stories are out there, seems like they succeed and get on with their lives. A lot of people who make it don't want to stick around - who can blame them for not wanting to be reminded of where they WERE on a daily basis. There are a few that stick around, Tiffykins is a prime example http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/user/11-tiffykins/ .

It is a narrowing or closing up of a passage, in this case the stomach or esophagus, it can also occour in blood vessels but is usually called stenosis there. It can be a naturally occurring band or the result of an operation and the tube attaches to itself and narrows. Read more here : http://www.gicare.com/diseases/Esophagitis-Stricture.aspx

Any WLS can fail if the person just continues to stuff their face continually and slowly with high calorie foods. Just goes to show how truly messed up we can get.

4 months out and besides kidney stones ( caused by not enough liquids and popping Tums ) I've had not complications either. Best thing I've ever done. We all wish you the best and continues success.

I was at a crossroads last year, had a lot of weight related issues happening. I heard - third hand mind you - that 2 people who work for our company had problems getting approved. One was "screwed over" for nearly a year in the insurance mill and finally gave up never having received approval. Another started the supervised diet and started to lose weight rapidly - too rapidly it seams and was DIS approved after dropping beneath the 40 BMI mark. He regained all the weight back and said "to hell with it" and never tried again. Now I didn't know these people and heard their stories from another person unrelated to the problem. I decided to go the self pay route and went to Mexico and paid $5000 and had it done within weeks of first inquiring about it. I am not necessarily advocating doing that, if you have the patience, time and are of adequate health then by all means wait on the insurance. It SOUNDS like you are in the same boat I was last fall. I've lost 108+ pounds since then and am feeling MUCH MUCH better, Blood sugar is stable, blood pressure is lower, back pain alleviated, knee pain reduced and I look great compared to what I was looking like then. I wish you the best in whatever route you take.

Sleeved on Monday, flew back Thursday and went back to work Friday - waaaayy too early. I was miserable but had no vacation left. I work in an office but occasionally have to lug PCs around.

Today April 6th is my 4 month mark, I too can eat more than in the past 4 months but a LOT less than I used to be able to pack away pre-op. Your stomach has pretty much totally healed, the swelling is down and things have settled down - so it's somewhat natural. Measure or only server specific portions and don't exceed them. We went out for my birthday yesterday and I ordered a spaghetti dish, I knew I couldn't eat all of it and looked forward to the left overs - YUM! - but sure enough I took maybe 2 bites too much and the discomfort then pain set in. It was 15 minutes before I felt OK. So the restriction is still there - so don't push it. Keep with your same portions.

Doing fine! Isn't it eat to be able to BREATH in your cloths now?

Way to go! Keep losing!

So sorry to hear this, we all wish you the very best. Get well SOON!!!

I've been giving myself a prescription injection every 2 weeks for like 8 months now, I've noticed that I have more problem poking through the skin now, contrary to "normal" advice I found that slowly inserting the needle is less painful for me than jabbing it in quickly. Now when I do this I can't break the skin very easily, I now have the jab through - which just about puts me on the ceiling! So does the skin draw up and get thicker? I suppose it makes sense it would strech and get thinner as we gain weight too.

It's not just you - or females either. I too experienced nearly identical blessings, I used to have a real sour acidic sweat that bugged me. I now rarely sweat and am cold a lot. I was getting hot flashes (I'm 50) which made NO sense to me or my doctor, sitting there and WHOOSH! It was like I was on fire, broke out in a sweat and my face would turn bright red. It would pass in maybe 10 minutes, typically it happened in the evening. Not ONE episode since the sleeve.

Kewl story! You go girl!

Me too, typically when I at too much too fast. I get a hot water sensation in the back of my throat that precedes vomiting - which luckily I've avoided till last Sunday.

We all wish you the very best! We ALL practically come from a very similar place and weight loss is ONE of the many things that can help us to a better place. Keep concentrating on the good things! You can do it!

If at all possible switch doctors, I would personally hate to do this but if my doc was unsupported it would be adios amigo, I'm outta here. If you could find a willing doctor and your insurance allows it try to get into another doctor just concerning this issue, get the approval and use your normal doc for everything else.

We all wish you the best of luck. I underwent a stress test last fall, it had to be chemically induced because I was having terrible knee, foot and back problems, I could not walk for the 10 minutes required. It is a real trip and happens very suddenly, don't panic because it soon passes, be sure to eat something hi carb afterwards to get your energy back - don't worry about the carbs, you have earned them by having this test.

Human chorionic gonadotropin It is a relatively new diet concept. Below is a Wiki article on it, some scary stuff, especially tumor production and forced fertility production. To each his own but I remember all the other "fad" drugs that came out in the past that are now banned - Phen-Phen comes to mind. I'll wait for the fallout, thank you. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Human_chorionic_gonadotropin#Weight_loss

It can and does fail, or at least some PEOPLE fail the sleeve. If you are hell bent on eating too much, too often and the wrong things then you can gain or regain your weight. It is a tool, a very good tool to limit your intake, possibly remove some hunger and help YOU the "user" accomplish a weight loss. YOU have to start and maintain a proper diet, from the operation on out. NOTHING is guaranteed.

We wish you the best, and a few of us know EXACTLY what you're going through. It was dang near a month before I felt fairly good at all, 2 months before I really felt truly good.. It's worth it though, stick to it, You Can Do It!

I feel nothing but pure jealousy It'll be a while before I get below 200. Congrats! Great job and wish you continued success.