PhatGurl80

Hi Emily, Today is day 8 post op for me. Did clear liquids for the first week (7 days) and just made the switch to full liquids this morning. I started off w/ a 16oz protein shake (w/ juice, not milk) and it went down pretty well. Then, I tried the soup and it really didn't take much to ge full. I was at work so I didn't push my luck either. If your Doc says you're good to try full liquids, go ahead an try it. Best of luck to you!

I haven't asked my Doc how long I could drink Alcohol. I just figured, it wouldn't do anything to help with weight loss, so i was content to just wait until i hit my goal. Coffee on the other hand.... For now i'm okay because of the B12, but I do miss the taste

I'm looking forward to: * My Greatgrandma NOT commenting; "Girl you just so fat, look at those fat legs" * Finding the weeing dress of my dreams w/ out having to only look at plus sizes * Crossing legs * Not having to wear shorts under my dress because thighs rub together * Being the one that everyone comments "She eats like a bird" lol

Hello everyone! So, today is 7 days since my surgery and I'm back at work as of today. I'm feeling pretty good, other than some lingering gas and some sorness from the wounds. I went to my PCP on Monday for a non-related issue and she looked at the incisions and gave a thumbs up and a smile. They are healing great. And overall I feel, well, pretty normal. I am having a bit of trouble getting all my fluids in. And decided that Gatorade or Powerade is the best for me for the time being. Drinking only Water left me feeling pretty weak but the Gatorade/Powerade has the necessary electrolites. The Doc has me on Clear liquids for one week, full liquids for week 2, and then week 3 I can try to start testing out normal foods. He said there is no real need for me to puree everything in week 3. He actually advised that I try out all sorts of foods so see what I can tolerate. My overall experience w/ Dr. Garcia and his staff was an A+. Right down to the nurse (who didn't speak english). Wendy and I got very good at playing charades lol. My only gripe was that apparently my veins are hard to find so I got STUCK like 8 times in attempts to put in an I.V. After the surgery, i was allowed to walk within about 2 hours because the gas was TERRIBLE. Honestly, that was the hardes part of this whole thing. And there's really nothign you can do about it. I brought Gas-X strips per the information I gathered on this forum, but was quickly slapped on the wrist when the nurse saw that i was taking them. The Dr. said that teh gas I was feeling was coming from outside the stomach and the strips only affected gas inside the stomach. By Sunday, the day i flew home, the gas was so much better. The hotel we were at was marvelous and even had a night club downstairs that I peaked into. Another Dr. came to the hotel to visit me and to answer all the questions I have and they emailed me Post Op diet along w/ a website in which we can communicate comments on their service or general questions. Again, I feel pretty good overall and I dont' know if I would have needed an entire 3 weeks off work lol. I think I would have gotten antsy sitting at home for that long. Oh, and my wonderful fiance somehow got them to allow him to take a picture of the part of the stomach that was taken out, plus he took a crap load of pics at my worst hour lol. He even talked the Dr. into getting a copy of the surgery video. I'll email them to anyone who's curious! lol

My surgery was on the 14th and I feel really good. I'm down 8 lbs . Waiting for the rest of this gas to go away!

Okay, so i signed up for the Susan G. Komen Race for the cure on Oct. 22nd. By then i will be 5.5 weeks post op. Any tips on how NOT to kill myself on this 5k? or maybe just keep it at 1 mile?

Thanks for the replies! Doc said i should be good to exercise by then. I doubt I'll be doinga whole lot of running or even jogging, but just wanted to get started w/ using this new tool!

LOL. My fiance has been doing some research about the sleeve on his own and came up with SIX MONTHS! We did it the night before surgery, so i´m not going to tell him it can be a lot sooner. I¨ll just see how i feel lol...ssssshhhhhhh!

Thanks NikiJj. I didn´t think i´d really go through with it, but here we are! Good luck with you on Tuesday, let me know how you are doing.

Hello Kiddies... today is Day two after surgery and we are back at Hotel Ticuan after staying overnigyht at the Hospital Mi Doctor Tuesday night and Wednsday night. I was very comfortable there at the hospital. There were 3 Doctors that handled my case. One was the Anestegiolist, i had a general Doctor, and then the Surgeon Dr. Garcia Govea. All were extremely personable and spoke good english. I think Dr. Garcia spoke the least amount, but I could still understand him pretty well. My nurse, Wendy, spoke very little,but she was very good at letting me know what she was doing through gestures plus, I knew just enough spanish to get her attention on certain things. I was almost a bit apprehensive to leave the hosptal to go bck to the hotel. I was given 3 medications -- pain, gas, & antibiotics--- to take for the next several days. I do have to say that I wasnt´really allowed to take the Gas-x strips that i bought because the Dr. said gas medicine was already being pumped into my IV. Oh that reminds me. The I.V. was one negative experience. Apparently i dont´hav eany visible veins on the tops of my hands or on the side. They stuck me so many times to get a good veign, but it left my arms all bruised up. Finally when they got one on my right hand, it slipped out the next day and the process of prickling me started again. They finally went for the big vein in the crease of my right arm -- where they take blodd when you´re donating. Other than that, everything else worked out well. The first day, I layed down for most of the day and eventually begged the nurse to get me up and walking. The gas pain was almost too much to take! I didn´t fell any soreness from the wounds, only GAS. Each time i burped, it felt sooo good. When i tooted a little, it was like a ray of sunshine lol. I wasn´t allowed to try drinking the day of the surgery, but at the end of the second day, they gave me gatorade, water ice chips, apple juice and that blue stuff to check for leaks. Needless to say, the only thing I really drank was the blue stuff becaus I know it was very serious for me to do so. Everything else i sipped, not getting much in at all. So today, day two:´I´m back at the hotel, forcing myself to sip on some gatorade every 30 minutes and walking every 30 minutes. I can tell you I feel 75% better than how i felt on Wednesday into Thursday. I´lll just keep walking and keep trying to sip sip sip on my liquids. My fiance, was with me the whole time and has been pointing that camera in my face the whole time. There was a little bit of nausea after the surgery so I did vomit once or twice and he was there w/ the camera lol. He got the surgical assistant to show him the part of my stomach that was removed, so yes, now we have a picture of that. lol. I´m going to post as many pics as I can when i get home on Sunday. Well, i´m in the business center at the hotel and it´s directly across from the restaurant so I´m ready to go back to my room lol. TTFN!

Hello Mike, I am so jealous of you right now. Today i´m 3 days post op and I can barely get down a whole 8oz bottle of Water in one day. I go back and forth to chewing on ice, but i really want to be able to drink something instead. I did try some warm chicken broth today, which surprised me because i was able to get down about a qtr. of a cup...teaspoon by teaspoon at a time. The gas is horrendous, when i woke up from surgery, i was literally begging the nurse to let me get up and walk lol. She finally let me get up about 2 hours later. I started popping Gas-x strips while in the hospital, but they shut that down very quicky because they said there was gas medicine comeing through my IV. I sure didn´t feel it! But now that i´m out and about, the gas pain really did lessen and i feel like I can take a nice stroll without feeling like im ready to jump back in to bed. As far as bowel movements, my doc also gave me something to take home for that...it´s chalky and disgusting, but it actually worked! I think i´´ll t ake the tips of some of the other posters and try some sugar free popscicles....of course i´ll have to remove the 50 or so icee pops that the "kids" already have in the deep freeze. lol. I wanna be like Mike! lol Good luck to you!

My Dr. gave me somethingto drink every 4 hours. She said it´s for my bowels and It´s definitely working.

Sleeved on Sept 14th! So far so good. Still in TiJuana...will be home on Sunday. Yay for me!

Thanks for sharing Forsenikchick. You summed up a lot of what a whole bunch of people out here are going through. Each year i saw myself 10, 15, or 20 lbs heavier than before. I did Weight watchers 3 times at work, which was pay roll deducted. I did all those little fad diets, like atkins, south beach, the celebrity diet. They all worked, but not for long. So, now i´ve started to notice things like, my kneed hurting when i walk up stairs, geting out of breath, not fitting bracelets when i try them on at stores, and a bad case of planters fasciitis. And now i´m in that crucial time of life where having kids may or may not happen....especially if i´m heay. I just want to feel normal again and go from being 270lbs and really uncomfortable,to my college weight of about 175. I really felt like a hot momma then. I don´t think my build would allow for me to be any lighter than that, but if so,even better. So, good luck to you. I hope i can get my fluids in, i don´t want to go through any more surgeries w/ gall bladders! (i was just sleeved on Tuesday)

OMG I can't believe my surgery is tomorrow. I'm sitting here at the San Diego airport waiting for Ricardo to pick us up. I can't stop thinking if this was the right thing to do. I know I've struggled with my weight all my life, but did I try hard enough? Now I'm going to go through with this permanent body altering procedure. Ok will continue! Ricardo is here! Continued.... I am here now at the Hotel Ticuan in Tijuana. So far it´s very very nice. I bet the food here is awesome...but I wouldn´t know Ricardo was very very nice and personable, and I´m very pleased so far. So, for some reason, i feel a little better than <i did an hour and a half ago when <i started writting this blog entry. <i guess i´m now finally easing into acceptance. Well, me and my honey are going to enjoy the city a little bit before i got in tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Hey everyone! I an currently at the Hotel Ticuan in Tijuana. My surgery is in only way few hours. I'm very pleased with the Hotel...very nice and comfortable. I'm so nervous! Had all kinds of dreams last night, including one about food lol. Has everyone gone through Sandy for coordination? I'll post more updates as soon as I can!

Hey Everyone! Well, the time is near. In two days, I will finally be sleeved. This journey so far has been full of emotional ups and downs for me. My original surgery date was a month ago on Aug. 11th. But, then my grandmother passed away the week I was s upposed to have surgery. Not even 10 days later a very close uncle of mine passed away. I've been snapping at the fiance over trival things because this pre-op diet (extended) has gotten me so irritable. Yesterday he finally just hugged me asn finally asked if I was OK. I"ll be flying out for my rescheduled surgery tomorrow morning and being sleved on the 14th. Wow. It's here. The feeling I have now is the one you get when you're climbing the first hill of a rollar coaster. click click click click... you hear the noise as you inch further and further towards the sky and the only thing you feel is that knot in the pit of your stomach. And you say to yourself (or maybe even out loud) "why am i doing this!! I want to get off this ride!" So, on the inside i''m screaming lol. And unlike being strapped into a rollar coaster, there is still a way out for me. I sometimes feel that I might jump ship, but I try to repress that feeling as much as Possible. I know this is the right choice. So maybe once I reach the top of the rollar coaster, and edge over that hill and look down i'll be able to see my whole life that is waiing ahead. And then they'll be screams of joy.

A friend of mine was in the same situation. Only they actually may have run into eachother once or twice before her surgery. It wasn't until maybe a 4 or 5 months after that they started dating. He did notice that she was waaay less heavy than she was when they had briefly made contact before and he was concerned about her not eating the 'normal ' amount of food. She finally told him right before a scheduled Thanksgbiving meal with him and his family. He's been very supportive so far. I guess my point is, only you know when it's the right time to let him know. Good luck to you!

Wow! Yay for you!! I hope I'm doing as good at 5 weeks!

Wow....3 days away.....

Wow. This is a great post. Just reiterates that we are all different and you really can't go in having very rigid expectations. All you can really do is prepare yourself as much as possible by reading other people's experiences and through your own research. Good luck to every one. I wish you all the best! I'm going under the knife on Wednesday!

$5000 for Dr Garcia in Tijuana. My surgery is on Wednesday.

I went through the guilt too. Heck I have a wedding to pay for yet I'm spending $5k in cold hard cash to have this surgery. But then I thought about it....If I added up the cost every weightloss gimmick, plan, diet foods, gym memberships, Dr. Appts, prescriptions, spent so far in my adult life - I KNOW I've spent 3 times as much. I think now the decision is a no Brainer.

I agree with trying meetup.com . Its a good way to just get yourself out there to meet people in general and start to feel comfortable with yourself. Check out the meetups I your area , I'm sure there's something that suits your interests. And if not you can even start your own group for say... Bariatric patients I started a group for people who were new to the city and now there are 70 members! But good luck to whichever path u decide to take!