Yasman

re gurgling. i also don't have the throat noise problem. that said, i am now, after eating or drinking something, constantly burping these little burps. it's like for every sip or bite i get 2 or 3 petite wanting to be polite burps. so frustrating!

interesting. my surgeon and support team aok'd the gummies for me. I guess we can chalk it up to one of those things that doctors have differing opinions about.

I'm using the Alive! brand of gummy vitamins.. one bottle for women's multivitamin and a second for calcium. They taste good and go down easily and iirc they are not particularly expensive, either.

Care to share what Protein Powder that was?

Hi Mayshula! I have been tracking my food and exercise in a app called Loseit on my phone and i have noticed that on days when i eat 1000+ calories and not exercised I might stall or gain a portion of a pound and when I both eat and exercise if my "net" is in the 600-1200 calorie realm I may lose something. I haven't had calorie-specific guidance from the doc's office and when I asked them today in my followup they pretty much waved a hand and poopoo'ed tracking your calories. They want you to track Protein and Water intake now and figure that the portion sizes and items available/on our diet right now will regulate the rest. I still want to have some guidance on calories and I think that the app's format helps with that. On the top of the screen it tells you how many calories you've eaten, how many you've burnt off, tells you the "net" amount of calories your body is taking in (eaten minus burned off) and then a bolded section that tells you how many calories you are over/under the day's allotment of calories. My pre-op amount of calories for weight maintenance (was calculated by a nutritionist for me) was 2263. No matter what I do i simply can't go over (post op) something like 1200-1500 not counting exercise and so far today i'm at a net of -658 or under 2,899 calories. (big 12+ mile bike ride today, and a food intake count of 878). Anyway, calorie counting does help with monitoring how well you are doing and i plan to continue doing it because even if i'm stalled (same weight +/- 1 lb. for last 4 of 5 weeks) I can at least know that I'm not being a bad behavior person and that the stall is because my body is changing, not because I'm overeating or eating exactly what ineed for maintenance. some folks use my fitness (something or other, there's a third word) but i've been using loseit for almost three years now and i love it. if you want to start using it there is an in-app ability to connect to your friends to be loseit buddies. i've never done this but would love a buddy. yas

I think this is a good goal for everyone, WLS or not, to work towards for general good health. That said, if we are talking specifically about after surgery, it's probably outside the realm of possibility. I like all the suggestions and stories everyone has said so far but will add my bit... My nurses were indifferent to my interest/need for walking and I had not had any guidelines other than "walk after surgery before you go home" so I ended up walking twice the day of surgery and then one long long (into another ward and back) the second day. It was hard to get the nurses (who were supportive) to go with me and I wasn't permitted to go walking around the floor on my own. I didn't have an IV or catheter to worry about, just those damn booties. I would have walked more if I felt I could have, but I will warn you you will feel weak, slow, and possibly also dizzy so I don't think the idea about walking is to achieve some kind of marathon goal of distance. You will want to pay attention to your own strength and ability and the distance will figure itself out. I probably didn't walk as much as I should have because the plastic receptical they had hanging out of me to collect drainage collected a blood clot right away. Walk as much as you can because the walking will help reduce the likelihood of clots, which can kill you. I'm glad my clot got collected, and I'm grateful that was the only one. yas

Hi Gabrielle! I'm just 5 weeks into this, had my sleeve surgery done on july 14th, and here's my 2 cents: 1. the surgery itself with no change in eating behaviors is not possible, at least not at first. your new tummy will tell you, powerfully, when it is full and you will have to obey or get sick. it's not hard to obey. if you get 2-3 ounces of Soup on the liquid diet, you may eat less because your body can't even take that much yet. this is in the beginning. as you go on in weeks your eating behavior can (and will/would) change the size of your "tummy pouch" because if you eat until painfully full every time or most of the time, it is indeed possible to stretch your tummy and it can increase in size to the point where there's really not any point to having the surgery in the first place. I think/hope that that scenario is rare. but it is possible. so the eat whatever you want (choice of meal, size of portion) attitude is really not the place to start. I understand it is also really critical to keep to the recommended diet plans (eg clear liquid, then full liquid, then puree, etc) while your stomach is healing is also key. 2. once you get to eating "normally" aka normal foods... this is where some people find they cannot eat certain things because they make them sick, which changes their meal choices. other people can "stomach" anything. so far everything I've eaten I can handle, and so far i'm finding that my best mental attitude is probable to consider myself on a diet for the meal planning because portion sizes may be small now, but portions of what have a direct impact on my weightloss. in my opinion, if you (people considering WLS, not necessarily you personally) aren't committed to making better food choices and sticking to portion sizes etc. for the rest of your life then the surgery probably isn't a good tool to pursue. It shouldn't be the only tool in your toolbox is what i'm saying. It's not magic surgery that will get a person down into target bmi zone without any further effort. That said, i understand that RNY/gastric bypass people have issues with dumping syndrome and persnickety food tolerances which are not a problem for the most part with the sleeve. and, to a certain extent, if you include "in moderation" or "occasionally" to the phrase "you can eat whatever you want" I think that's a fairly true statement for sleevers. You may find things you can't tolerate, but when I asked at the doctor's office they said that food intolerances may be time-sensitive, meaning that if you can't tolerate something <6 months post op that doesn't necessarily mean you can never eat that again. It might just be chalked up to your stomach is that of a baby, having to relearn how to eat everything right from the beginning. So if you have a food intolerance (eg beef) <6 months, try it again after you pass the 6th month mark and you may be pleasantly surprised. All of that said, I'm not sure where things stand with bread, rice, soda, etc which starting sleevers are not supposed to eat because they tend to expand in the stomach. The reason for not eating them now is the gas/pain they would cause. Hope that helps you yas

Diridon, thank you for posting this link... wow i never knew that about the colors. I thought I was drinking enough, but I'm not usually at the top color. tmi= i'm usually the 2nd or third color which indicates i should be drinking even more than i already am. doesn't seem possible, but i'll work at it. today was my 2nd post op visit, where I asked the doc about my stall - I lost 21 pounds right away and have been stuck at 23 pounds lost for the last 4 of the 5 weeks since my surgery. He asked me about my exercise and i told him and he then proceeded to poopoo me and said a. you are only 5 weeks out you shouldn't be looking at things that way at this point and b. as long as i continue with a good exercise regimen the pounds will shed off of me and to not worry about this at all. (nota bene: my ticker is going by my highest weight on record, which is why it says 33 lbs lost. the doctor/official number is 10 lbs less than that because they are using a weight from a preop office visit that's lower than my highest recorded weight.) which is good, but then i look at everyone on here that are 4-5 weeks out and I'm seeing 30+, 40+, 50+ and sometimes even as much as 69 pounds lost in a month since surgery and I can't help but compare myself to that. Which I think I need not to do. that said, it's hard. I love reading everyone's posts here and i'm glad to be a part of this july sleever's forum. thanks for being here guys.

Congratulations! That's a great story. I think i have a long way before others will be able to see or notice the difference in me... but hooboy am i looking forward to that! I hope it felt good to be back at work, too.

Lylabelle, what is the 5 day pouch test?

Hi Kindle, I have a question for you. Your tickers show you had your surgery 3 weeks ago and you've lost 89 lbs. How is that possible? Am I missing something? I had my surgery the same day as you and am trying to be happy with (only) 23 lbs lost and trust that the weight will start coming off again soon. Were you maybe a revision person? i dig your peace be with you. we should all say that more often in this world!

I'm from the Palm Beaches, had my surgery on 7/14. So far, 23 pounds lost. so far, so good!

Tobytoes i too have been wondering if i stretched my stomach somehow already (i'm at 4 weeks). it's good to know now that there's such a thing as a dye test.

I've been using an alternate app for the last 2 years and love it. It's called Lose-it, you can track all the same things as MFP but also you can track your exercise and there's a buddy system element (which i've never used... yet) where you can connect to other users and challeneg eachother and stuff. I like how it let's me determine for myself what my body's calorie needs are, shows you what your intake is, takes off your exercise calories burned, and shows you how many more calories are available for the day before you exceed your planned intake. It also shows the nutrients for the day so you know your protein, carbs, fat etc. Another thing I like is it's available as a web page as well so its convenient you can enter stuff easily either on the phone or the web.

I really like LumpySpacePRincess' advice I also really like LipstickLady's advice here. I have personally noticed that when I do my laps or go walking and see someone of comparable size to myself I wonder to myself if they have ever considered WLS and find myself wanting to have a conversation about it with them. Not so much to recommend it to them (I'm only on week 4... too early to consider myself a walking advertisement) but just as a conversation topic of curiosity. Thankfully I'm not feeling those angry judgemental feelings the original poster mentioned but who knows... maybe I will. I just hope if I do that I have the same strength to restrain myself and not say anything untoward to anyone and either start a fight or make someone else feel bad. Because that would suck. I do think therapy is a great piece of advice - that's a good way to work through a thinking process to identify the source of some negative feelings and hopefully nip them in the bud in the future.

at the bottom of the screen there is a big square box above which says "reply to this topic" that will reply to the overarching topic "july 2014 sleevers" rather than replying to anyone's prior post within this topic. To reply to a person's post i think you know you hit the "quote" box below what they said. Otherwise, if you want to create a new topic for the entire website audience you would navigate to the top page of a forum and post there.

MB40buf - I'm going to reply to your questions below but everyone take this with a grain of salt - seems like all doctors are different so answers I have gathered may be different than what your treatment team would say. yes, i'm definitely feeling the huge difference between what my brain thinks is a portion vs what my new stomach can hack as a portion. i can be done eating and full to bursting with the pressure full on and still be thinking about food.

Hi y'all I was sleeved on the 14th and so far have lost 21 pounds. I also look at the scale and think ... shouldn't I have lost more today? but the reality is this kind of weightloss is dramatic and exactly what we were looking for when we decided on weight loss surgery. REmember that normal rates of weightloss with dieting and exercise are 1-2 lbs loss per week. I see us all on here 2-3 weeks post surgery stating weight loss in the 14-30 lb category and remarking that we'd like to have lost more by now. Dudes! We are rocking the weight loss! Be patient and stick with the liquids or soft foods wherever you are and the weight will *continue* to just fall off of us. This is good people!

full/empty signals are seemingly very different now with the new stomach. I'm one week since surgery also. I have mostly been measuring out how much i'm going to eat to the size of my tummy/what they say: 3-4 oz of Soup or yogurt or whatever is the "meal" on this liquid diet and restrict my intake to that amount. It seems like at or before finishing this I can tell I'm "full" because it feels like the food gets left in the bottom of my esophagus because there isn't any room in the stomach. This "full" I hope is not the way I will feel full when I get to solid food because that would be 30 times more uncomfortable. Empty/hungry is something I'm confusing with calls to head to the bathroom which is very strange to me but there you have it. I think the stomach gurgles are hunger but they are not. So I don't have answers for you but can at least commiserate that the signals are something to learn from a new perspective. Good luck with your new life after surgery!

HI, I had my surgery last monday and I'm 23 lbs down from the weight taken at hospital intake, 13 lbs loss from the preop official last weight taken by the bariatric team i'm working with. that's pretty impressive for 8 days. i'm ready to be off the liquid diet but since it's been so effective i am able to stick with it till friday when i can start on soft foods. my scale came today and wouldn't turn on. argh!

Hi guys I'm at one week out, and I'm curious about how people are counting their weight loss…. the hospital weighed me at 367 on intake, but the bariatric team weight me at 358 the week before during the prep appointment and are using that as their starting weight. So, in the week since the surgery I have officially lost 13. something pounds, vs. the 23 since my highest weight. Which do you think I should be tracking in my little ticker on here…? a lot of people seem to have a similar dichotomy between their highest weight, their starting weight and current weight but the ticker doesn't allow for that.

My surgeon didn't require a pre-op diet at all. the items you would strain out need digesting if you puree them. your stomach is being given some rest and relaxation so it can heal faster. making it digest chicken - solid or puree form - is extra work. also small bits if you didn't puree could get stuck. Are you coughing a lot? I seem to hve developed quite the bronchitis problem since my surgery (mine was the 14th, one day before you) and i am hating all the deep coughing i'm doing. concerned about if that would cause a problem with the tummy but so far it doesnt create pain or anything so i'm not too too worried. As for BM, Idid start that on day 3 and its going fine although mostly liquid, not that you wanted to know. You will get there.

I was sleeved on 7/14 . I'm really tired of my liquid diet choices and I'm having difficulty reading my new tiny tummy's signals about when its empty, full, etc. I was craving just a heavily squished piece of chicken and broccoli (the chicken part) today but settled for some egg drop soup. Which was delicious and I stopped after about 4 oz certain that I must be full but not feeling full. which is the hardest thing to do when something yummy is in front of you. But that was about 4 hours ago and I can't get even a sip of water down without feeling pressure all through my chest so I guess stopping the soup where I did was the right idea. What signals do you all get when you "feel" full or "feel" hungry? For me it seems like real hunger = true emptiness is actual stomach gurgling with physical churning and audible gurgling going on. at which point one would think I'd have to be dehydrated for all that goings on. real fullness seems to be "oops too late only esophagus area left free" which is a lot of pressure but no pain thankfully as they removed my hiatal hernia at surgery or else I think this would be agonizing. I'm just having difficulty discerning when non-emergency hunger is and when are the last few bites the actually best last few since there are so few altogether in the first place. Anyone else having this problem? seeminglingly totally unrelated but probably not... i'm feeling sort of tired and weak for the second day in a row and don't want to be worried. is this normal? saving the conversation with a doc about it for my already scheduled post-op on tuesday. Lynm I just wanted to touch base because I think the no bowel movement thing goes hand in hand with the swollen thing. I think once that sucker moves you will be dropping weight and feeling better. I dont have a good scale at home (yet - it comes on tuesday) so I can't tell you about my weight loss just yet, but without getting gross, #2 finally came the day before yesterday and I'm certain that's where all the swelling goes.

Hi guys. I was sleeved 7/14, mostly am pain free but sometimes i do have some pain from the left side where most of the incisions were. I picked up bronchitis in theh ospital and that has been making things interesting but otherwise the surgery went smoothly and its just hanging in here on the liquid diet that's tough. I had an aha moment today and went out and got some chinese take-out -- egg drop soup -- and was surprised and pleased when my order total was $1.42. I don't remember the last time I paid so little for something was.

For the m ost part i just feel sleepy. But I'm not in pain really,w hich is a blessing. hard to get 64 oz of liquids in, even with some liquid medicine and liquid Vitamins.