Lissa

I'm noticing who posted on this thread... we all have dirty, dirty minds!

LOL, Niki, he's got lots of volunteers here on VST apparently! Dang that post-op libido spike!!

I swear I saw this as "Has anyone has sex...."! I don't know anything about that doctor, but the search button in the upper right hand corner may help you find threads that mention him, if there are any.

I use a cornstarch based powder on areas that chafe. I also try to make sure that anything touching my skin is cotton, socks, undies, etc., especially when I'm working out and know I'll be sweating.

That is awesome!! Congrats! You're really rocking that sleeve!

Unfortunately, we sometimes do learn things the hard way. The only up side to that is that we learn them permanently that way! Hope you're feeling better soon!

You're getting there!

I had to wait 3 months after my clot to have surgery. You'll probably take warfarin/coumadin for that entire 3 months and have to give yourself lovenox injections pre-op and post-op. Ask your surgeon about whether you'll need an IVC filter placed before the sleeve surgery to reduce the risk of clots going into your heart and lungs. I'm so sorry you have a clot, but there are medical procedures to protect you from this. If you have questions, feel free to PM me. Hopefully, your clot won't send any little buddies out to visit your lungs like mine did! Good luck!! Keep us posted please!

those look yummy! I just posted how to make refried beans in another thread. Yeah!!

I was self-pay, so no insurance hoops to jump through. If I hadn't had the option to self-pay, I'd probably be in a box right now. I had no choice, it was take off the weight or die. That conversation with my doctor was also my ah-ha moment when I knew that I had to do something, and it had to be something big!

Newfoundlove is right, you don't have to start with dry. I use dried Beans because I like them better than canned. If you're going to make beans in the crockpot from dried, here is how: Wash and sort your dried beans to make sure there is no dirt or rocks in the beans. Place the beans in the crock pot with onion, seasoning to your taste EXCEPT SALT, salt and/or tomato will keep your beans from getting soft. I always add a frozen chicken breast or other piece of meat at this point, then I add Water. I do it on a 3:1 ratio of water to beans. Turn the crockpot on medium, put the lid on and then leave it alone. When I'm doing this, I am usually leaving home by 7:30 in the morning and coming back sometime around 5 or 6 pm, so the beans cook undisturbed all day. By the time I get home, everything is soft and yummy. If I want to add salt or tomato, I do it when I get home. Refried beans are easy, too. Do pinto beans as shown above, leaving out the meat. Let them cook until the beans are soft, then drain the water from them. It helps if you have a cast Iron skillet, but you can do this in a regular pot as well. Melt a little lard/shortening (about 1 tablespoon) in the pan, then add the soft pinto beans to the pan. Immediately start crushing the beans with the back of a fork or a potato masher. You don't need high heat, but you may need a little more moisture, water or chicken broth is fine. I add it a tablespoon at a time. It might take 5 minutes total to create refried beans from precooked dried beans, not a long process. I add onion powder/onions, garlic, black pepper to mine. If your sleeve handles spicy well, you can add chili powder, jalapenos, or any other hot seasoning you like. I used to love hot sauce or salsa mixed into my refried beans.

After talking to a couple of folks on here in PM, I've decided to see how much interest there may be out there in a South Florida meet up. I'm specifically aiming this at those on the Space and Treasure Coasts, although any Florida Sleever is welcome to attend if they like. Once I see how much interest there is in a meet-up, then we'll decide on a place and time. I'm thinking it will probably be in Vero Beach. Let's see if we have any interest out there. I know there are at least half a dozen posters that are within 30 miles of Vero, and there are probably quite a few lurkers. Now is the time to un-lurk!

There is a typical three week stall, you may just be starting early. However, make sure you're getting all of your Water in. Not drinking enough can cause your body to retain the water and translate it into a "gain" temporarily. Also, if you're close to TOM, most of us ladies experience a slight gain, followed by a big drop after it's done. You're doing fine. Don't get stressed out now.

I'm not eating lomein (noodles, right?) or most other carbs. I still do a lot of chicken, crock pot pork or beef. I adore Beans now. I have a mini crock pot and will cook up one dry cup of beans in that. It makes three or four servings for me. Beans are pretty high in Protein and they are moist enough to pair with a couple of ounces of almost any meat. I like boiled eggs (1 is a meal), so I'll boil six of them and eat them instead of Protein Bars or as Snacks. One thing I've found that is really good is to cook 5 or 6 chicken wing pieces in the toaster oven. That's a full meal, sometimes a little too much. I use about a tablespoon of fat free ranch dressing to dip them in and they are really good. I don't do many shakes now, although I keep some in the fridge to grab if I'm in a hurry.

Welcome to VST! Use the search function to find answers to most of your questions, or feel free to ask in the pre-op forum! Lots of good information to be found here!

I was told to wait six months for strawberries because of the seeds.

That's an amazing NSV!! I hope you're keeping track so you can do the tax write-off!

I never heard that the drain bag had to be lower than the opening. I don't believe it works on gravity, but on suction, which is why you have to squeeze the air out of it when you drain the bulb. Mine worked fine, whatever the science behind it.

I had mine for 8 days. My doctor's office provided me with a lanyard to hang around my neck and the tubing from the drain was looped through that. It kept the drain from pulling anywhere and I tucked the bulb into my bra while dressed to hide it. It was a pain to deal with, but it didn't hurt.

I think you may be psyching yourself out. You've recognized and admitted what your issues are, now you just have to deal with them. Posting here is a great first step! The quote I keep thinking about for you is "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right". You need to decide which you want more, to lose weight or to keep eating foods that don't help you lose weight. Once you make that decision, you can move forward. If you choose to lose weight, then you know you need to get back to basics and follow the plan. 70 grams of Protein per day, plus at least 64 oz of Water per day. It's as simple and as hard as "follow the plan". This isn't a diet. It's a complete and total lifestyle change. You can have food that isn't strictly protein as part of your normal diet, but you have to learn how to work it around getting in the necessities. Start using some kind of food and exercise tracker. I like My Fitness Pal and I use that in combo with my Fit Bit. They tell me where I'm succeeding and where I'm failing on a daily basis. It's been a huge help to me when I slow down on losing weight. I also track my measurements and how my clothes fit so that I can see my progress, even if it isn't scale progress. You will succeed. This is just a bump in the road. Get over the bump and move forward. The past is the past and you still have the perfect tool to reach your goal. You just have to decide how you're going to use that tool.

Sliming is more like foaming at the mouth, from what I understand. You definitely know it when it happens. Sliders are foods that you can eat without restriction because they don't fill you up. They just "slide" right on through your sleeve. What I did wasn't productive burping, I don't think. Both times that I got sick, I had eaten bread and then took a drink too soon after eating. The liquid made the bread swell up and the contents of my stomach just came back up. There was no burping and no real drama to it... more like my sleeve hit the eject button.

Shelbi, Protein shakes are definitely not the best-tasting thing in the world. Check out The World According to Egg Face (blog) for a ton of recipes to help make them taste better. You can order samples of several kinds from amazon, or unjury. The samples may help you find one that tastes better to you. I like the Premier Protein shakes they sell at Sams and Costco. They taste pretty good to me now. Be warned that what you like pre-op may NOT taste decent to you post op. I couldn't stand the protein immediately post-op because they were all way too sweet for me. I drank a lot of chicken and beef broth during my clear liquids stage. If nothing else, like likusalema says, the pre-op diet is only for two weeks and you may have to just gut through it. It's a small price to pay to shrink your liver and lose some weight pre-surgery. And having the sleeve done will help you lose the weight and improve your health (and appearance, btw) so that you have a longer life.

My typical breakfast, post sleeve, is 1 egg and 1 sausage patty, or a Premier Protein bar (30g of protein). Sometimes I'll have a yogurt, but I'm lactose intolerant, so that's a very rare day for me.

For me, "full" is a pressure feeling. I imagine it as being like a balloon that is over-filled. Sleevers can still slime or puke, but it seems to be rarer with us than with those who are banded. I try to eat until I'm satisfied, not until I'm full. One of the best things I learned from my nut is to measure my food. I know that I can do about 3-4 oz of a dense Protein (chicken, beef, pork), so I'll measure out that amount. It doesn't leave me "full", but I'm not hungry. If I have room, meaning that I don't feel satisfied, I'll add in a little veggie. I rarely eat carbs because they are sliders for me. I've actually puked twice in 9 months, both times were related to eating carbs and drinking too soon after a meal. I've, luckily, never slimed. And, even when I threw up, it wasn't like it ever was pre-op, it was more like my stomach ejected it's contents and that was it.

Using the laparoscopic technique, the surgeon made five minimal incisions in the abdomen, through which cameras and other instruments were inserted, allowing the surgeon to divide the stomach into sections, and then close it with staples. Following the laparoscopic portion of the procedure, an endoscope was inserted into the stomach through the mouth, and the divided segment of the stomach was removed. The benefits to using the surgical method that allows surgeons to go through the mouth to remove the stomach sections, instead of through wide incisions are numerous. The approach causes less trauma to the abdomen region, lowers risks of developing a hernia and causes less post operative pain for the patient. This almost sounds like the exact procedure used for the sleeve, except that our stomach is removed through one of those "five minimal incisions in the abdomen". My surgeon made those minimal incisions for his instruments, then a endoscope (bougie size anyone?) was inseted into the stomach to guide the dissection of the stomach, but the removed portion of the stomach was removed through the incision on the left side of my abdomen. It almost sounds like someone describing a typical sleeve surgery...but I can't wrap my head around how the stomach tissue could be removed through the mouth.