swizzly

Woohoo! 35 lb is excellent!!

I'm four months out and have been hungry since one week post-op. I follow my plan of three meals + three snacks per day. I can't eat much at one go, but I do get hungry again pretty soon after. Kinda sucks, really. Oh well, it's manageable and I've still lost 50 lb in four months, so here's to staying hungry!!

FWIW, I have chewable Gaviscon galore, just bought some more when I was on vacation, it does work really well. (Doesn't make me not hungry though, unfortunately. ) My doctors and nutritionists get all up in my stuff about having too much artificial sweetener -- they think having sweet stuff causes cravings, even when it's not actual sugar. I'm not sure about their theory either, but they seem quite convinced. I'm not craving things per se (definitely not sweets), I'm just HUNGRY sometimes. Sigh...

Yeah, I was getting the special bariatric-specific meals, so the only 'sweet' thing I got was a wee tiny cup of SF Protein shake and a serving of SF panna cotta. Other than that, it was all savory stuff, which I was REALLY glad about!

Everything you've eaten would have been fine for my program, they served me mash when I was still in hospital, along with coffee. I too would watch the sugar levels on anything, but aside from that, seems fine to me. I think you should add in more protein if you can, but mostly focus on drinking loads of water. Good luck!

It DOES suck and make things more difficult. I find it almost more difficult in some ways, because pre-op if I was hungry, I would just eat something, no big whoop. And then I'd feel fine. But now I feel like I can only eat something when I'm supposed to, so then I start to obsess over when I can eat something and the hunger just gnaws at me in the meantime (it's not acid or anything, I've got that well-covered). I NEVER did that before. It's bumming me the eff out if I'm honest. I feel sometimes that I'm hungrier now than I ever was pre-op. Sigh.

I say go for it! And have a very happy birthday!! :)

Feels great, I'm off mine too! I was surprised, my doctor took me off mine when my BP was still at the higher levels of normal, but she was right because it keeps going down.

Well done you!! I am down about 22 kg myself, but I am four months out, so you're faster than me! I am sure if you lost all that in three months, you will have no problem to reach your goal. Go you!

Yeah, I have been watching this too. Problem for me is, where I'm at, the naturally skinny women all eat these HUGE portions of food at lunchtime -- that is their big meal of the day, they have like one croissant or a piece of fruit with their coffee for breakfast, and presumably a smallish supper. But I'm not kidding, everyone around me is fully cleaning their plate at the canteen at lunchtime and the portions are not small. I couldn't even do that pre-op. I think I have to come up with my own special brand of 'normal'. Mini-Me -- I think it IS normal to eat a whole bagel for breakfast and then be hungry again by lunchtime. That, in my experience, is totally normal (this pretty much describes half of NYC every day). The only thing is, you just wouldn't have a bagel every day, just once a week or so. Given that you ate it kind of slowly over at least 1/2 an hour, it's not surprising you could get the whole thing down. I think you are doing great.

I take them, too. Twice a day, huge giant tablets. I have to take them for six months, so I'm just being a good little patient and doing so. I am keen to keep the parts I still have left...

Oh god, I feel your pain. I accidentally ate a whole, whole-wheat tortilla (with hummous no less!) the other day and I was in AGONY. But even more distressing was that I COULD get all that in.

Well done you!! I WISH I had lost 60 lb by now!! *Envies*

I'm four months out and have lost ~45 lb so far. That is 45% (thanks, Tiffy!) of my excess weight in four months -- which I think is great, though it's not as fast as some people. I am fine if I lose slowly, but I hope I lose some more still.

Yeah, I'm still waiting for mine to go away too. Has never left me since surgery, but it's okay, it's easier to manage it now I think. Good luck!

God, the Starbucks light fraps are my new addiction (pre-op I never even had a regular one, always drank hot or iced coffee....booorrring) -- I get a tall, skinny one with SF hazelnut or vanilla added in. ADDICTIVE I tell you. I crave them. I SO wish I could get the SF syrups here (uh, yeah, and ice too lol). I am allowed coffee by my plan, pretty much as much as I want -- only after three cups (I would say 1.5 cups in US size), I would then have to add in an extra 1/2 litre of Water to offset the diuretic effect. I have one coffee with an extra shot of espresso in it every morning at work and that's mostly the extent of it....except now I've come to crave the fraps, so I usually have one of those every week as well... That shake sounds delish, I am sure I would live on them.

I second the Gaviscon, it works really well for in between PPI doses or when acid flares a bit. Also, I have found that Protonix (pantoprazole) is for me by far the best PPI. I mean, they're all the same class of drug, but they just work differently on different people. PS -- I also get hungry a lot -- about as much as I did pre-op. It is easier to ignore it now for some reason...?

I don't know if it's at all the same thing, but I had terrible sciatic pain for about two weeks after my surgery, it was awful. But it just suddenly went away, so I hope yours does too. (I didn't have any swelling there, or surface soreness though.)

I feel your pain. No kidding, I can't stand to use the GD thing. But I have to use it all. the. time. And it doesn't expire for two more years. I must investigate what happens if I "lose" it and have to replace it... I would scan it in (along with my WRETCHED work ID) just to prove that I WIN when it comes to V. BAD PHOTOS, but I don't even want a digital record that it exists anywhere on the www.

My driving license is okay, because here you can get your own photos done, so I made sure it wasn't a pile o' doodoo. BUT OH MY GOD, my work ID is HIDEOUS. SOOOOO awful. I need to go in and get them to redo my photo. Passport is a whole nother story. Train. wreck. Giant pink bowling ball for a face/head. Awful.

I always used to get absolutely hideous jet lag from going the eastward direction (not so bad going back -- now I don't get it anymore in either direction, not sure why). I once spent my first three days in the UK sleeping like someone had drugged me, I COULD NOT wake up. I also couldn't eat and was nauseated, which happened on several trips actually. Jet lag seriously messes with my stomach, so I am not surprised if that is worse after surgery. I think you are doing the right thing by focusing on hydrating and resting -- the food can slowly come back again when the stomach is feeling better again. Feel better!

Well, perhaps I'll add my freakish experience in here, just so you don't feel like the odd one. I had zero liquids/clears/mushies pre- or post-op. They are very against getting calories through liquids here, so I have been on food since day four post-op. Granted, it was quite soft food at first, but no shakes or soups phases. So I've been eating cottage cheese and refried beans and tuna and stuff since right out of surgery practically. The only restriction was against raw fruit and veg, which I was cleared for at four weeks. It's very trippy how varied the rules are. (It's also clear that I had little post-op swelling, or it went down very quickly, because I didn't have a problem eating almost anything -- though I kept it pretty conservative. I swear, if I didn't read the boards, I would think I was normal and all...lol)

I also didn't have one, but didn't know what it was or how common it was. I was half out of it when my surgeon dropped by my hospital room, and, among other things, told me I didn't have a hernia. I was like, huh...? What hernia?? LOL. I only really learned about them after my surgery. I have dingbat syndrome too.

W00t !!

Well, all else being equal (eg, blood clots are statistically pretty rare anyhow), I think getting some sleep will help your recovery much more than being up in the night stewing about blood clots will. (That said, I totally understand -- I was paranoid about everything too. I had to take the blood-thinner injections for FIVE WEEKS though, so I'm guessing that helped me sleep easier...) Hang in there!