Tippy2us

Yep! Small price to pay!

....is not ever feeling guilty about not exercising! I'm off today, and can enjoy doing nothing if I want to. Feels really good!

I started drinking coffee two days after surgery and I don't do decaf. I just drink a lot of water in between. I know that's not the right thing to do but I have to have my coffee! Good news is I can only drink half a cup now. And I only drink it in the morning, no more at night.

The sleeve works better because you can only eat so much because your stomach is so small. When I had the band I learned that certain foods went down easier, and I still had my whole stomach so I could eat way too much. Now I can only eat a little bit. I LOVE my sleeve and I LOVE having that band out!!

Wow! Wouldn't it be nice if there was a "standard" diet for us that all doctors used? Such wide variations from doc to doc. I love to buy really good hamburger meat from my butcher and make my famous meat loaf plus some patties out of the meatloaf mixture. The meat is so tender and delicious but my doc says not until 8 weeks out. I've heard others on here say they ate meatloaf in the mushy phase... I don't think would push it though. Beef is hard to digest. Good luck!

I'm 4 weeks tomorrow and I'm still supposed to be on full liquids and pureed soups. I've been puree'ing bean and bacon Soup and topping it with a little 2% cheese and it's very satisfying. Other soups I put in the blender and just pulse to keep them kinda chunky then I chew the heck out of them. Campbells chicken Dumpling ready to eat soup worked great because the veges are so soft. In the last few days I've aso eaten watered down refried Beans and mashed potatos...all have gone down great. I was getting so weak that I recently added scrambled eggs and they are going down fine and have helped me a lot (I can only eat half of one). I made french onion soup one day and instead of putting in onions I put in onion powder and about half of a hamburger bun for the bread, and topped it with some parmesan cheese and that was so good! I couldn't eat it all, but what I did eat was great! I'm planning to try tomato soup soon but I've had some problems with acid so I will crumble up some saltine crackers and let them get to pure mush first. Keep drinking your Protein drinks so you get enough protein too! I make my own using a heaping scoop of whey Protein Powder, 1/2 a packet of banana smoothie mix from the produce department (35 cal for half the packet) 1/2 cup of Water, a little vanilla, and 2 tbs of Peanut Butter. It's about 32 grams of protein and about 360 calories but even so, I'm only getting about 800 calories a day so I'm not worried about it LOL Try the egg drop soup recipe on the recipes forum. It's unbelievable delicious! I hope this helps you!

Welcome! Wow, only 19!! I'm anxious to see how your journey goes so keep us posted.. My daughter is 22 and wants the surgery but I'm afraid she's too young. Maybe she isn't!!! Congratulations and keep up the great work!!

My surgeon for the lap band and the sleeve is Dr. Mark Paya. His office is in West Hills, California and my surgery was done at U.C. Irvine (required by Anthem). My band never slipped because of a technique he does to ensure it stays put. I just didn't have the success with it I had hoped for. It wasn't for my particular personality. I hated having it in me and I learned how to eat anything with it. It wasn't any fault of Dr. Paya. He's a fantastic surgeon and I found him while researching lap band surgery 4 years ago. He was actually recommended by the manufacturer of the lap band. Love you Doc Paya!!

Welcome! I started out with the band 4 years ago and hated it. I just had the revision to sleeve 4 weeks ago and couldn't be happier! Keep us posted on all the pre-op stuff and your surgery. This is a great website!

Oh my gosh congratulations! That is inspirational! I'm only about 4 weeks post op and have not stalled yet but when and if I do I will remember your post and not give up! Keep up the great work!!!!

I don't know about banding the sleeve, but the sleeve can be revised to gastric bypass. If I were you I would try shaking things up. Eat different stuff...vary your daily calorie intake, do totally different exercise, even exercise at a different time of day if possible. Then talk to a dietician. Good luck and huggs!

I hated that lap band but didn't realize how much until now. I'm losing weight quicker and yes I'm kind of weak right now but it's getting better all the time. When I eat three bites of a scrambled egg I'm full, and the full feeling lasts 3 hours or more. With the lap band I still had my huge stomach so I would eat, feel pain high up between my breasts, the food would go down, the pain would go away and I'd be hungry again. The lap band made so much sense to me at the time but now I almost view it as barbaric. And the port was really painful for me. I just thing the concept of a smaller stomach without losing part of your intestines and all that re-routing makes sense! The revision to the sleeve is absolutely the best thing I've ever done for myself and my health. I'm 3 weeks and 4 days post op and started aqua aerobics already, and I love it! I'm going tomorrow morning which will be my third time this week! Who AM I? Have a great weekend friends!

Had the french onion soup at Panera last night and it went down like a dream! I love their soups and they have a nice selection. My daughter works there and says they use mostly organic everything and everything is fresh too. Love Panera!

I just had refried Beans this week too and yes, they were Heaven!! The beans at Taco Bell are 4 Weight Watcher's points so it's good to know in a pinch I can get those and have a 4 point lunch which is awesome.

You all probably figured this out already but I just discovered it LOL There are a few cookbooks out there specifically for people who have had WL surgery! "Recipes for Life After Weight Loss Surgery" "Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery" These two I bought at Amazon and had them sent to my Kindle (that way I can enlarge the print so I can read the recipe while I'm cooking!) Anyway, they both look really good so I wanted to share my find!

Oh yeah!!! I had some refried beans this week and yeowza! I was absolutely giddy!! Just loving this procedure!

When were you able to eat a scrambled egg? My instructions say pureed scrambled eggs starting the 5th week! And what the heck is a pureed egg? LOL Yuck Just curious....

Thanks everyone!

...and I'm down 17 lbs! I just took my first Water aerobics class tonight and wow! What a great workout! I'm so happy I made the decision to get sleeved!!

Oh my gosh, make it 19 lbs down! LOL Yeowza!!

I ate an egg this weekend and it was sooo good and went down great....well, about 1/3 of it LOL Thanks for the replies!!

.....and it kicked my butt ! I even have a desk job! I was sleeved on June 27th so was off 9 days after surgery....but it was all I could do on my way home to keep driving and not pull over to the side of the road and sleep! And I only have a 20 minute commute. Anyway, don't underestimate what major surgery and lack of food takes out of you. If you can stay home longer, do it and don't try to be a hero! My only saving grace is that tomorrow is Friday already!

Hi everyone, Thanks for accepting me into the SoCal group. I'm a Cali native, Valley Girl, actually ughhhh gag me! LOL I'm giddy after having the surgery. I had lap-band in '07 and never did very well on it, and had lots of pain where the port was attached as well as everytime I ate anything. I was so thrilled when my surgeon mentioned the revision surgery to VSG. And this time my insurance paid for it !! My surgeon is Dr. Paya in West HIlls, but my insurance made me go to U.C. Irvine for the procedure. He's a "Fellow" at UCI so that worked out fine but it was so far away we got a hotel for Sunday and Monday night which worked out great. I found this site because once down there I could not get the half lyteley down! Every sip gagged me and I threw it up at one point. I panicked so I hopped on the computer and found this site. It was so reassuring to know that not everyone was required to do the bowel cleanse. I caught my breath and decided I would tell them at the hospital in the morning and if they wanted to give me an enema they could, but they didn't. They said it was no problem. Go figure! Anyway, my surgery was June 27th and I had planned to go back to work today but I'm having a lot of pain on the incision where the lap band port was located so I'm going to try to see my doc today to make sure it's not infected or herniated....then it's back to work. Desk job lucikly! Sorry for rambling! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Take care, Tippy

Hi everyone, I'm 8 days post op and thrilled by the way! I had lap-band in 2007 and lost 50 lbs in 6 months but over the next 3.5 years gained back 15. I hated the lap-band from the get go... My main complaint was pain at the port site. Well now that it's been removed, that particular incision is so painful ! Everything else feels great but that one incision has a small knot under it and gives me so much grief and pain that I still take my pain meds and it kept me from going back to work today. I'm planning on calling my doc... Has anyone else experienced this? Any experiences you can share would be so appreciated! Thanks

I'm now a little over 2 weeks post op and feeling much better! I'm glad for the band experience because I think it prepared me for this. Be sure to keep in touch after your surgery!