dawn of dibley

the muscle milk light taste doesn't bother me. i have them in the 100 calorie package, so i can just toss one in my bag and keep it with me in case of emergency. it kills my hunger pretty fast. i think the Glucerna shakes taste better than muscle milk, but they have more calories for the same amount of ounces, and they don't curb my huger as well. i have been having at least one glucerna every day though (i just started mushies, so i will try to cut back and only drink them when i need them). to me, the glucerna was almost like a treat at the end of a protein shake day. some people hate them though, but you have to find something that you like.

The first month should really be about healing and not about losing weight. you will have plenty of time for weight loss to come afterwards. i think you will set yourself up for failure if you expect to lose tons of weight in the first 4-5 weeks. you *might* lose weight because you will be on a liquid diet, but once you start adding solid foods back into the mix, you might see a slight gain. don't be discouraged by this. just use the early time to heal and then once you are cleared to begin exercise, then begin. don't jump the gun because you might do some damage. follow whatever your surgeon suggests and be patient. eventually you should be losing 1-2 pounds per week with some plateaus thrown in as your body adjusts. it's not a miracle though, it will require work....just don't get discouraged if at the beginning your weight loss is wonky. your body has to adjust to a foreign object being placed inside of it, then your stomach has to heal from the surgery.

mac n cheese is my weakness. i'm a southern girl, so i make it from scratch and it's soooo delicious. it's really the only food i dream about.

today is my first day of mushies...i'm pretty excited. my hubby is making me some mashed potatoes for dinner tonight. i can't remember the last time i was so excited about mashed potatoes!

i had that too, my doctor gave me some nasea med. mine is mostly gas i guess because i actually kinda dry heaved a few times and a lot of gas escaped. you should just call them and see if they can give you something. the nausea meds made a HUGE difference for me. i almost feel like my old self again.

without telling anyone that they need to dwell on what a scale says, i think it would benefit you during the liquid phase especially, to invest in a scale. during the liquid diet, weigh at the same time every day to see the changes, it will keep you motivated. i would say after the surgery/liquid phase, etc, then change to weighing every week or every 2 weeks,,,,but it definitely helped me psychologically to get through the endless liquids if i saw some sort of movement on the scale. i would say even if your doctor is looking for something else, your doctor isn't the one suffering on the liquid diet, you are, and you should do something to motivate yourself to get whatever results he wants. i really saw a difference in my attitude toward the liquid diet once i got a scale. on saturday, i'll change to weighing once a week, but for now, i weigh first thing in the morning and then again before bed. (i usually gain 3-5 pounds by the end of the day, but it's gone the next day) it has been fun to watch things going down, down and down. like i said, once i start eating real foods again, i won't dwell on the scale, but it has been very motivating for this past 3 weeks. plus, it's nice to see that it's close to the scale at the doctors's office. there is 1 pound difference. my scale weighs me heavier than the doctor's scale.

that sounds about right to me. my surgery was may 4th and i had zero interest in anything for the first 2 or 3 days. it was difficult to get my Vitamins and i only got about 28oz of fluids those first couple of days (instead of 64) it really helped me to write down what fluids i was taking in every day and the next day, i tried to beat it. today, a week later, i am able to finally drink semi-normally and i start mushies tomorrow. it will get a little bit easier every day. try writing it down and do your best. tomorrow will be an easier day.

i was allowed to shower 2 days post op with the instructions that over the incisions (which were still covered with steri strips) that i just allow the Water to cascade over them, no scrubbing or anything like that. the water didn't budge them and i didn't get any soap on them unless it rinsed out of my hair or off of my shoulders. i was very careful. they removed my steri stips for me yesterday as i had an appointment anyway and they wanted to look at the incisions. i can't bathe or swim for 3 more weeks though. only showers.

so, i am about 6 days post op. I haven't had a lot of trouble healing, I haven't had any of the gas pains that people have talked about (which i am grateful for). my incisions seem to be getting better and my insides no longer feel as if they are going to fall out when i walk, another great thing. Also, i am still on my liquid diet, as per doctors orders, and haven't had anything soild at all..... today was going pretty swimmingly until around 6:30pm. i went for a short walk with my hubby, just to get out of the house and off of the couch. we stopped to rest for a bit in the park before we returned home and suddenly, out of nowhere, a wave of nausea came over me. i told him, "we have to go home right now!" and so we did. we walked back home, i took a gas x strip to try and calm things down, then i chewed on a tums.....no sooner did i get the tums down when i had to go to the bathroom and wretch. nothing came out, just what felt like a big bubble of gas which relieved the nauseated feeling right away, but it SCARED ME TO DEATH. now i'm quite sore internally. do you think that i have caused any slippage to the band by heaving so soon after surgery? i am seeing my doctor on wednesday for an appointment that i had made with him last week. i'm not sure what to do. the nausea is gone now and about an hour after the episode, i was able to drink 1/4 cup of broth with no problem. my throat is very sore and so is my abdomen from the wretching. i just don't know where the nausea came from. could it have been the gas? just looking for some advice or someone to put my fears at ease. usually if i am nauseated, it's because i'm sick or i ate something wrong, but with just my fluids that i have been sipping on, i can't have any kind of food poisoning....and nothing but air and some spittle came out, so no stomach contents. i am just a little bit scared.

I'll add the mylicon to my shopping list for saturday. the doc's office says I can start mushies on Friday!!!! yippeeeeeeee....i don't remember the last time i was so excited about something. so. sick. of . liquid.

just posting an update. i went to my doctor's office today for my esophagram. they wrote me a prescription for the nausea which has helped a LOT so far. the esophagram shows that my belly is full of gas and that is what is probably causeing all of the trouble. so weird. anyway, i am doubling up on gas x today to try to get some of it to dissipate and taking the anti-nausea meds, so hopefully i'll be back on track in no time.

I'm just one week post-op, so i have what pretty much everyone else has....soreness of my wounds, a little bit of gas (not as much as i expected)...but i also have a lot of nausea and chest pains. for the past 2 days, i can't eat (i.e. drink since i'm not on solids yet) much of anything at all. but i have a lot of weight to lose. my goal is to get to 250. anything after that is icing on the cake. at this point, i would even be ok staying where i am, i just want to stop gaining weight. i don't mind being as fat as i am, but i mind being much fatter. i live in NYC and everything I do is walking around, climbing steps, taking public transit, so being much bigger than i am now is an issue. i am seeing my doctor's office today to see if there is something wrong or if all of this is normal.

that is so funny about the saving money thing. my husband says the same thing. he's excited to go out to dinner now because we can afford to go if we only get one plate and share! he's making some big plans. he's also exited about grocery shopping, not buying as much as we normally buy. i really hope this puts a dent in our spending.

sounds like a grammatical train wreck to me. hey romance around, you should find someone who has better grammar to sell your stuff for you.

the long term results (i say long term, but really 5 years out) are about the same amount of weight loss. with bypass, you lose faster than with the band, but you can easily regain all of that weight by stretching out your new pouch. with the band, it is adjustable and removable. you HAVE to learn a new way of eating with it that you don't have to learn really with the bypass. the weight loss is slower (1-2 pounds per week) but it's the healthier way to lose in my opinion, plus, it gives your skin a little bit of time to catch up with you. you still might have loose skin, but hopefully you won't look like a deflated bag like most bypasser's eventually look like. plus, you can can get nutrients with the band. there will be things you cannot eat with the bypass, and you will be on suppliments for life, as you can no longer absorb nutrients from food. you have to do what is right for you, but what was right for me was the band. good luck in whatever you choose.

i can honestly say there is NO WAY i would have put myself through all of this crap that i am going through for 50, or even 65 pounds. to each his own though. this isn't some magic skinny pill that's going to do the work for you. you will still do the work, and so far i'm only a week banded, but it is THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE. you should think long and hard about what you are about to do to your body and be able to live with the consequences. i'm sure there are people here who have needed to lose less than 50 and did just fine, but it's a painful way to have to lose 50 pounds. just be sure that you are 100% sure.

you are still plenty of days away...just stop cheating now and start doing the diet the way you are supposed to. my doctor required that my liver shrink a certain percentage. not sure if yours does or not, but if he would have seen that my liver hadn't shrunk enough, he wouldn't have done the surgery. if you start now, you should be able to still have the results he is looking for, but you need to stop making excuses and just stick to the diet. believe me when the post op diet gets here, you will be glad you stuck to it because you can't cheat on it unless you want to do some damage. don't worry about yesterday, just focus on now and going forward. you will be fine.

I'm so glad he is going to be supportive. that's great news...now you can concentrate on the awesome pre-op diet (if you have one) and the surgery. you are going to be fine. so glad he came through for you.

I only told my husband....because he would wonder why i'm off work for a week, walking like an old lady and sleeping on the couch moaning if i didn't....and one good friend of mine. nobody else knows. you have to do what is right for you. i don't know how long i'll be able to keep it a secret, but when i'm ready, i will share. good luck to you in your journey!

thanks guys for answering and for the encouragement. i am feeling better today, but really sore from the heaving yesterday. i don't think that i was drinking to much liquid or too full because i literally hadn't had liquids in a couple of hours. i had a water bottle with me during the walk and i took a sip or two, but not more than a tablespoon. i really don't know where the nausea came from. maybe it was air, as a big gas bubble did come out. i guess it just really freaked me out and i've been so careful to move slowly and drink slowly because i do not want to do that heaving again.

Hi JanetLynn, welcome to the forums. i stopped by to say hi because I, myself, am from alabama, though i no longer live there. anyway, you will find this website is a great resource. you will find so much info here that will put your mind at ease and help you with making this decision. good luck on your 6 month diet and keep us posted on your progress.

Hey MzNelly, yeah, i've kinda been around, but something happened to my original sign in name, so i haven't been able to log back into it to see or get any messages. so sorry about that. i wasn't ignoring you promise :D I had my surgery done at NYU. I thought they were going to make 5 incisions and they never said they were going to go through my belly button, so i wonder if that is just a decision they made when they were in the room. at any rate, they made only 3 incisions. the one by my sternum is so tiny, it's going to probably heal and disappear. i don't know about the one by my port yet because my steri strip is still attached, and it's still attached at my belly button too, so i don't know how big those are.

believe you me, if your primary doctor has signed off on it, your surgeon isn't going to turn you away. they don't make money by turning people away i know that sounds crass, but at the end of the day, it is the truth. anyway, just put your mind at ease and be honest with the surgeon. do you have to attend a seminar? most surgeon's require that as well as a phych eval. i was more worried about the psych eval than anything, but even then, it was my surgeon's psychologist that i had to see, and they scratch each others backs ,so i wasn't going to get turned down unless i went in saying that i have flown on UFO's and i believe that Mt. Rushmore talks to me at night.... you are going to be just fine.

the pains are directly in the center of my chest. i assume it's because my esophagus is so close to my incision. usually, the pain passes fairly quickly and most of the time it happens when i take a sip of something. it seems to be a bit better today than yesterday. every day i can see that i am getting better at consuming my liquids and better at drinking my protein shakes. usually a burp or just a deep breath makes the pain in my chest go away, so hopefully it is gas. i am seeing the doctor on wednesday for my 7 day post op visit. i will address it then to see if something is wrong. hopefully they will tell me that it is just swelling and that everything is A-OK. fingers crossed.