UXgrrl

I haven't had any VSG-related dreams post-op but my partner has been having crazy dreams, mostly about me announcing to her that I've GAINED 5 lbs overnight. I've been stalled for a week and a half and we're both getting frustrated. Plus, she's planning to have VSG as well early next year so bizarre dreams are totally understandable given the circumstances.

It's really hard to sleep in the hospital... they are coming in at all hours to do something to you: draw blood, check your blood pressure, ask you about how much you are peeing, change your IV, etc etc. I've been hospitalized four times now and it's so annoying because you're supposed to be resting and healing and they seem to do everything to prevent that. You need to sleep, though. If you're having trouble, talk to the nurse and see if they can do something for you, like give you some medication, make sure they're quiet around you and wait on any noncritical tests... something. It's possible it's the side effects of anesthesia, and you might just be hyped up because of what you just went though.

My surgery was covered wholly by my insurance. I was required to take a 12-week healthy eating class (called the L.E.A.R.N. Program). It was run by the hospital department where I had my surgery. It was done in a group setting and met for 1 hour every week during the workday. I couldn't miss more than 1 class during this time or I would have to restart the program. It was covered by my insurance as "outpatient mental health services" with a 10% copay. I also had to buy a textbook (I think it was about $25). Before I began the program I did the psych eval, and then again with her after I finished (sort of an "exit interview"). I also met twice with a dietician and a PA for medical supervision. All the appointments counted as "specialist visits" which have a copay of $25 each visit. Considering the costs that others have to bear for this surgery, I consider myself extremely lucky.

I think I was having postural hypotension (lightheadedness after standing up) until about three days ago, so it took almost two weeks for it go away. Like Felicia said, our bodies are basically going "OMG! WTF!" and is adjusting to a drastically lowered calorie level, plus probably less fluids, combined with stress from healing from abdominal surgery. The lightheadedness is probably to be expected. Just when I thought it would never go away, and that I'd never be able to climb the flight of stairs to my 2nd floor without feeling like I was going to pass out or vomit, it did!

How about a cup of sugar-free hot chocolate? If you make it with milk, it will be a little extra protein... That's what I've been doing lately.

No shame in staying on the Lortab. I took my percocets fairly religiously for about 5 days after I got home from the hospital. We're all so paranoid about pain meds in our culture that lots of people don't take them when they should so they can rest and heal. You made it! Now the fun part starts!

It really depends on the surgeon. There doesn't seem to be a really well established progression of diet for sleeve patients yet... some surgeons go based on what is recommended for gastric bypass patients (which is sort of applicable) or lap band patients. Some go based on their own intuition or past experience. FWIW, I was was on Clear Liquids the first 24 hours after surgery, then they started bringing me cartons of Lactaid milk (2 a day for "snacks"). Then they moved me to full liquids for 2 meals, then they had me on purees for about 3 meals. I'm supposed to stay on purees for 3 weeks and then gradually move to soft foods, and then switch to normal diet 3 weeks after that. So, I was discharged on purees. It seemed kind of a fast advance to me compared to the others I have read, but the surgeon is head of Bariatrics at Mayo Clinic, so I figured he knew what he was doing I think the most important thing is to not rush and really pay attention to how your body is reacting. For example, I was doing really well for awhile... measuring my portions, waiting between bites, not overeating... ... and then I tried to do too much exercise and pulled my left stomach muscle, the one that everyone always seems to complain about. A pain increase, combined with a couple days of not getting enough fluids, combined with a cranky mood from a sudden stall on the scale, lead to a perfect storm of overeating at lunch and getting my first experience of "the slimes". uuughhhhhhhh! Lesson learned, and then some.

Congratulations on your surgery, your success so far, and for de-lurking :-)

Wow, I am so impressed at what a supportive and loving family we have here on this board! Kudos to Lissa and sandyd for reaching out to 5DogMa with good advice and well-intentioned pestering!

When getting up out of bed, roll over on your side as much as possible and put your weight on your arms. The idea about a pillow is a good one.

I think they're still trying to figure out the differences between us and the gastric bypass patients. I bet that's one reason why there's so much variance in pre- and post-op diets between surgeons, and what the aftercare is with regards to Vitamins and minerals. The gastric bypass diet is very well established because it procedure has been around for so long; give the VSG another ten years and it will standardize, I suspect. I was discharged from the hospital with instructions for self-injected B12 monthly shots for the rest of my life, which I refuse to do (I have an extreme needle phobia). They did give me my first one in the hospital. I plan to start on the sublingual B12s starting next month. Sounds like I need to be careful with the B12 dosing!

Trixie, I'm finishing up my 2nd week post-op and I'm feeling the exact same things as you. I came to a startling realization that I actually had/have a problem with food. Holy cow! I can't believe I was almost to 300 lbs and I honestly thought I didn't. I made good food choices, I didn't snack on crap all the time... but I ate too much quantity. Consistently & frequently to the point of feeling ill. This surgery has made me face this fact head on. I'm still struggling with old habits, bargaining with self, pity parties and the like, and I went through a VERY black couple of days at the end of the first week when I realized what had happened and there wasn't any going back. But I'm getting better. The whole reason why I wanted this surgery in the first place was to completely eliminate the cheating, the bargaining, and the fatalistic thinking (e.g. "I blew it at lunch, might as well blow it at dinner too... in fact, might as well blow the rest of the week..."). Knowing myself as I did, I wanted a "hard stop" to all that behavior. And boy, I sure got it. In the last couple of days it's become very clear to me that I've been eating to soothe pain and to fight sleepiness (I have fibromyalgia, among other things). Being off work has been a godsend in this department -- I am sleeping 8-10 hours a night and even napping on occasion. Before I was lucky to get 6 hours. Now when my inner voice says, "I'm hungry," I do this little check-in on my physical state, and my emotional state. About 8 times out 10 it's reacting to pain, tiredness, anger, thirst, frustration, or just good-old boredom. I've realized that it's important to remember there is a non-food solution for every one of these. I think this what people mean when they say "eating your feelings".

@PdxMan, I love your attitude. Very refreshing! We all get so wound up about minor stuff that we forget to relax and just enjoy our life with our new tool.

Hormones are a definite possibility, but I discovered it was being caused by another culprit: my Protein shakes. On days that I ended up being low on protein, I was drinking one shake just before bed, 8oz milk with 23g protein, and I was finishing it within a half hour. Within an hour later I started sweating profusely, getting shaky & nauseous (usually by the time I was in bed). I googled this and it sounds like some of the other fitness/workout buffs were having this same problem (and were being told by their buddies and nuts that they were off their collective rockers). They suspected that the net thermodynamic somethingorothers was causing a reaction caused by digesting the protein too fast. I checked the canister of protein in my cupboard and there was a lot of writing about how "easily digested" this protein was, so as an experiment I added a half cup of Fage 0% yogurt with my next shake, figuring it would slow down digestion. Didn't get the sweats. Had one more yogurt-free shake to finalize my hypothesis and got the sweats again. So mystery solved, at least for me. HTH.

Man, I so wish medical professionals would put numbers behind these kinds of statements when talking to us. How much is "too much"? Define "hard"? Does it mean you tripled your chance to have kidney failure after consuming 100g Protein shakes every morning for a year, or will your kidneys explode if you have a 50g shake once? Can you have 100g, but divide it into three servings? I work for a medical institution so I have access to the same medical libraries that the surgeons do, and I've been known to go and research something myself if it doesn't sound right. It's amazing how one well-publicized (but not necessary well designed) study result can make everyone spread rumors... especially if it's very contrary to what everyone originally believed, because that just makes better gossip.

I wonder whether y'all's eating habits has changed since pre-surgery? Like, are you consistently getting more Protein and nutrients then before? I know I sure am. Maybe during those stalls our bodies are working on rebuilding tissues and fibers that were dormant or malnourished for so long from chronically low levels of Vitamins and protein. Shh, let's secretly replace one of Lisa's fat cells for a muscle cell and see if she notices... I know it's not really like that (you don't actually lose fat cells, they just shrink) but it's a funny thought.

Anyone have suggestions for getting the last of the tape off my skin from all my IVs, catheters, etc. ? I'm finding it in strange places -- like my left armpit -- and it's attracting lint and turning black, and is really annoying me. Regular soap-and-Water scrubbing isn't cutting it. Also I have sensitive skin so I don't want to use some kind of chemical unless I know it will work.

I'm only 9 days post-op, but this surgery has given me one thing which I never thought I'd have again: hope.

I would strongly recommend staying away from it for awhile beforehand... maybe taking a break for a couple weeks... and then not doing it right away afterwards. My reasoning is this: the sleeve is done using general anesthesia -- inhaled gas -- and right after surgery there's a lot of crap in your lungs that will make you cough and it will hurt your stomach. There's an increased risk for pneumonia right after anesthesia also, and if you're smoking regularly you will have a buildup of that thickened mucus and junk in your lungs going into surgery, even if you're using one of the "cleaner" ways to smoke, like a vaporizer. Some people smoke to ease nausea, others to relax... it depends on your personal reasoning. If it tends to make you hungry or lazy, then it's not very compatible with a post-op lifestyle, when you need to be hyper vigilant about your food and liquid intake and exercising. YMMV.

The plan my surgeon uses has me switching gradually to soft foods starting at 3 weeks. He emphasizes the gradual part... very important to go slow and respect how the change in texture makes me feel.

I know what you mean. I'm not getting those comments from other people but I remember being shocked that was heavy enough to qualify for WLS. I didn't realize that I was THAT overweight. I've been heavy since puberty so it's been such a gradual slide that I refused to notice. I have a really good attitude about myself and I'm a big believer in "fat acceptance", so much so that I wonder if I might have been deluding myself for a decade or two. That being said, I'm hearing about people who weigh much less than I do (I started at 270), like people in the low 220s or so, getting approved for surgery. I guess as a society we've drifted on what is considered "normal" weight. Just because it's "normal" doesn't mean it's "healthy" or "optimal".

I second the advice about small Gladware-type containers (1 cup capacity or less). I have a Magic Bullet food processor, and a Cuisinart stick immersion blender, and you can't really make 1 or 2 oz of pureed food at a time, you have to make a cup or two. Anyway, your leftovers go into those plastic containers. Make sure you label them! Right now I have one for blended chicken noodle soup, blended edamame hummus, and this blended pea and carrot concoction, and they all look exactly the same :-) This way it's really easy to do lunch by pulling out your favorite Protein, a veggie side, and a carb side. Poof, insta-meal. In the beginning you're eating such tiny portions that it feels dumb to make normal-sized quantities anyway. I was given a shopping list in my bariatric nutrition booklet when I met with the dietician right before surgery. Oddly enough she was kind of anti- Protein Powder. She wanted protein to be sourced from "real food" as much as possible. I still don't know why, and she was also the one who wouldn't tell me a calorie range to shoot for while in the early stages of weight loss. I'm sure she had her reasons but I hate it when medical professionals refuse to give you all the information, because they are afraid you're going to try and abuse the system or break the rules. When it comes down to it, the whole point of this surgery is to make it possible for you to be satisfied on an extremely low calorie diet -- I know that getting the nutrients and protein are essential to staying healthy during this process -- but I need to know all the facts. I digress. Other things we went shopping for before surgery: - The Cuisinart stick blender - A shaker cup with wire spiral ball inside - Little disposable plastic 1 oz shot glasses (although I did come home with a pile of medicine cups) - A protein powder we liked pre-surgery and was able to get at a good price (EAS whey Isolate, Vanilla) - Lactaid Fat Free Calcium fortified milk (because I was already lactose intolerant pre-op) - Cottage cheese, 1% small curd - A couple cans of canned chicken and some frozen chicken breasts - "Better than Bouillon" soup base in chicken, beef and vegetable. I used this stuff pre-op and like it much better than the pressed cubes, and they take up less room than the paperboard cartons or cans of premade broth. You can scoop a little bit out on your spoon and add it to your pureed protein with some Water to add moisture and flavor. The rest of the food (frozen veggies, fruits, etc) we already had in our house normally. We just buy the normal bags and transfer them to a big zip-loc one we open them, because we're always going in there and scooping out a few strawberries or a handful of peas to add to a smoothie or cool down some chicken soup for the kiddos. I know this is a thread about groceries but I'm going to talk about kitchenware in general. One really important thing we did, which I would recommend everyone at least considering, was switching out all our plates. OMG it made a huge difference! We replaced all our normal 8" dinner plates and bought 5" hordourves or appetizer-sized plates from Crate & Barrel, then also picked up the dipping plates which are divided in half and hold almost exactly 1oz on each side. We also got new bowls that hold about a cup. We got a set of 4 "normal sized" dinner plates but haven't used them yet in three months. They will likely only come out when we have company or might be used as serving platters. We also bought a set of spoons and forks from Ikea for our small kids to use. They are about 70% the size of typical flatware but have a nice heft to them. I find myself using them a lot while I'm eating my dainty bites from my absurdly tiny plate and I think it helps to keep the proportions correct. All our new dishes seem very small but really, it's what you need to hold a normal sized portion. I'm a lifetime member of the Clean Plate Club, so sizing down my plates and bowls has made a huge difference in making me eat less overall. I think the kids feel less overwhelmed at dinner as well, because we're giving them normal sized (for toddlers and preschoolers) portions. My partner, who is working on qualifying for WLS as well, feels this is helping her too. Whew! Sorry, I tend to ramble!

@PdxMan: Thank you for describing the taste of pureed chicken for the billionth time. :-) I think it's one of those YMMV things. I cannot drink anything during eating or immediately afterwards (I am one week out), or I get this terrible feeling like my last bite is lodged just south of my tonsils. I haven't noticed a problem with eating up to mealtime, even though I'm supposed to wait 30 minutes. Sometimes I remember to stop and sometimes I don't. I think the no-liquids-before-meals thing is to make sure you can fit enough food in your stomach to satisfy you for 4-5 hours, and the rule about no-liquids-at-mealtime or after eating is so you don't flush food out too fast and get hungry. If you're going to break any of the rules, I figured it's safest to break the pre-meal one.

Yeah, Greek yogurt is popping up all over now, it's become quite the trend. I sweeten it too, when I eat it straight, because it's pretty tart. I eat Fage 0% (fat free) and actually have used it instead of sour cream on tacos, etc pre surgery (I'm lactose intolerant but I can handle yogurt). It's great with fruit, granola, flavored syrups, etc. We always have some in the fridge. It has a really nice, thick texture which feels substantial. It's not watery like the typical stuff you buy from Yoplait. If you're buying Greek yogurt with fruit or something added, you have to be careful and watch the added sugar because it can be quite high. Incidentally, Fage is pronouced "fah-yay". Don't call it "***", like my partner's mom's boyfriend did (basically my defacto father in law), in front of my partner and I. He immediately turned red when he realized what he did.

I wonder if caffeine affects us faster and more intensely now, like alcohol does? I used to drink coffee all day, up to bedtime. Then I went on some meds for fatigue and had terrible RLS (restless leg syndrome) so I managed to cut down to a cup or two in the morning. Now I've tried drinking coffee twice, only about 1/4c. in my morning Protein shake, and I got such a case of the jitters! Like I wanted to throw up. No other sources of caffeine, except for the tiny amount in the diet Lipton Green Tea with Citrus that I live on. Maybe I have detoxed from coffee? I've been drinking it for almost twenty years. Who would have thought it was possible?