Matt Z

Congrats and Good luck!

Cauli-Power pizza is pretty damn good and since the "crust" is vegetables, it's ok to eat! They are expensive considering, but... when you want pizza and can't eat pizza... you can eat cauliflower crust pizza.

I'm more shocked that there are surgeons still putting the band in. I was banded in 2011, worst choice in WLS I could have made, got stuck on foods I shouldn't have, could **NEVER** get to the "green zone" no matter what we did. Leafy greens and other things I should have been eating hurt to eat. Even though I had no major complications, my band was 100% encapsulated in scar tissue and took my surgical team more than 3 times longer to remove it than it should have taken. If I had left it in, I would have been faced with some serious complications. I didn't even know I had Grade 3 Esophagitis until I had my upper endoscopy to make sure everything was ok for the revision to the Bypass. The band caused the Esophagitis. 2 of the major manufacturers of the band, don't make them or replacement parts for them any longer because of how badly they are doing. I mean, good luck and all, but I'm very suprised your doc didn't alert you to all the issues, revision rates, etc https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3266497/ Seems on average 20-30% (depending on where you look) of all lap band patients will need revision of some nature.

I brought too much, most people do. The *ONLY* Things I used were: Cell phone and extra long charging cable/charger Dry mouth spray (made things so much more tolerable the first day post op, highly recommend this!) Lap balm of some nature (This and the dry mouth spray made a world of difference!) Sweatpants/pajama bottoms Slippers Blindfold (hospitals are still pretty bright at night) Ear Plugs (hospitals are still pretty noisy at night) Pillow (extra pillow for the overnights and for the ride home) That's it. I brought a bunch extra, clothing, book, etc etc... but I didn't even touch them.

Good luck today! Taking the vitamins daily isn't even really that much of an issue overall. I'm curious how you are going to be revised to the mini bypass after the sleeve since the sleeve removes the part of the stomach that gets attached lower during the bypass/mini bypass.

Welcome to a stall. They are common and happen often. You can search for "Stall" and you'll be faced with hundreds of posts about it. Sucks, but, part of the whole process.

Was doing some researching into this...and this was like the first thing that came up https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lani-simpson-dc-ccd/calcium-heart-attacks_b_1553873.html Digging a little deeper, I think the recommendation is for Sleeve patients only, given the issues Sleeved folks have with acid production, it would make sense that using an acid reducing calcium carbonate would be a decent idea, however in bypass patients, with the stomach coming in later to our tracts, it might not be such a smart idea.

Here is more than likely why your arms got bigger, you are doing upper body strengthening.

Personally, the Bypass is my choice. I had the band installed in 2011, long story short, I was revised to the bypass this past march. There are a decent number of folks that end up having their sleeves converted to bypass as well. The Sleeve has issues with GERD and acid reflux that the bypass doesn't have, Not sure why he even offered the band, even 2 of the largest band manufacturers have given up on it at this point. Good luck in your progress forwards!

If I'm remembering correctly JP Drains are subcutaneous, they do not go through your muscle.

Ok... turn this around and look at the positives. Did they cancel on you? No. Did they reschedule you? Nope. Just take the win where the win is. I get that you don't want to wait any longer and having to wait the whole day seems rough, but, it's better than if they postponed it on you.

Personally, I respect the rules. It says "no men" in the women's room.. so I don't post or reply there. Just because someone CAN do something, doesn't mean they SHOULD do something. It's a respect thing, but I guess not everyone seems to care, I'll joke around and point it out to some members posting in the Guys' room... but I've seen others ask women not to post, or let them know it's the guys room... and they just don't care. To me. It's about the rules and the respect in following the rules.

So, did you have 4 or 6? LOL

I had 8 beers at a Foam Party on Saturday night. Had to take my time because the "too drunk" would start to creep in pretty quickly. But overall, no issues, like at all. Which actually is another one of those "WTF" times... because, "I'm not supposed to be able to tolerate beer"... but it went just fine. So now, it's like YAY I can drink beer without any issues... but also Dammit I can drink beer without any issues...

Personally, I don't typically, I did in the calculations above because folks do (and have been advised to).

Stalls occur all over the place. If you are not tracking body fat, you are missing another key measurement. You can lose body fat and not "weight". Happens quite often, just not many folks are tracking their body fat %'s with their weight, so they don't see the decrease in body fat %, just "weight". But as much as it's called "Weight Loss Surgery" it's really "Fat Loss Surgery". Muscle atrophy is "weight loss" but it's not what we are aiming for, which is why it confuses me that so few people are tracking their fat % trends along with their weight trends.

I do love going to the gym... well, not the "going" part, but working out and the feeling you get from all the endorphins afterwards is quite a pleasing feeling. I know you said to not say that, but, it's true, for me anyway. Now the rest here might start treading into some of that slippery slope junk but.... I still eat "ice cream", I just buy Halo Top "ice cream", super low calories for an "ice cream" lots of protein and almost no sugar. The trick is to find alternatives to the foods you ate and loved. For that Lasagna, it'll be a totally acceptable meal, just swap out the noodles for noodles made from veggies. Make sure the meat is a low fat version and then make it how you normally would. You'll be more than able to eat it that way. You'll be able to have wine down the road, your doctor might tell you 3 months, or 6 months or 12... some say "never"... but once you are healed up, if you can tolerate it, you can consume it. Just as long as you track the calories, etc I've found that some cut strawberries and a banana makes a fantastic snack. I also keep Kay's Natural's protein snacks around as well. Snacking is more than ok, just need to find those alternative items.

@hayr995 I was all over the place for the first few weeks: Happy that I finally had the procedure done (I was a revision from a lap band so I was happy the band was out too) Depressed on and off over the foods that I couldn't eat that I would see on TV or smell as my family was cooking their meals. I just would take a second to remind myself of how much better life in general is going to be once I shed the extra weight. Excited over the weight loss. Frustrated over all the things I couldn't do. Even had a few moments of being totally unsure of what I did, not feeling like it was the best decision. This occurred while I was on my second night still in recovery. Just felt scared and nervous and upset that I screwed up and made the wrong choice again. But, I just kept moving forwards and eventually all that went away. I still get moments here and there where I go "sigh, I'll never be able to eat that without some serious issues" usually that happens when I'm watching TV and a commercial for some new food product comes on, I just make sure that when that does happen, I remember what that food did to me, how it made me feel *after* I would eat it and how much happier and more energetic I am now. It's normal to be scared, to have emotions that fall all over the place at the drop of a hat for no reason with these surgeries, but it's very important to just keep reminding yourself that, the journey might be hard but the reward is well worth it!

@GeminiSky odd shapes and appearances around or under areas that were worked on is normal.. it's crazy weird looking, but it goes away as you heal. For coughing, you want to cough, it's a very good thing. To make it hurt less, you can take a small pillow and press it into your incisions decently hard when you sneeze or cough, this will help keep things from pulling apart. Eventually you can just use the heal of your palm over the area that still needs it, for me it was the main incision.

Over 4 months out... still no hair loss. Not everyone has to deal with this for whatever reason. I didn't do much of anything differently than most folks do, I took biotin for a few months before surgery and I still take it daily. That's really the ONLY thing I did specifically for hair. But others have done the same and had issues. So it's a gamble if it'll even happen to you.

@George OG for muscle growth you really don't need to hammer down the proteins, you just need to be a bit smarter about them. Casein protein taken at night, is a slow acting protein that helps repair and build muscle mass overnight while you sleep. For muscle growth, find out what your 1 rep max is, just like it sounds, this is the max amount of weight you can only lift once and that's it. If you can lift it twice, that's not your 1 rep max weight. Once you know what your max is for that body part, reduce it by 20% and do 8-12 reps, 4 sets. Growth takes time though, but if you keep up with this method, you'll gain mass. There are lots of other different types of sets you can do, but if you focus mainly on doing 8-12 reps at 80% of your max for 4 sets... you'll be good. Don't worry about anything else extra for your intake, outside from lots and lots of water.

There are a LOT of variations in these. Your best bet, if you want to know EXACTLY what *YOU* will be facing, is to contact your surgeon's office and ask them. Every doctor/hospital/patient is going to be vastly different.

I think it was just morphine or codeine, it wasn't a mix. I wasn't taking them throughout the day though. As far as the boots, I wore them for the time I was in the hospital (3 days total, Surgery was Wed at like 6am left on Friday at noonish), but that was it. I didn't need any extra medication, no nausea meds, no extra pain meds. When I was in recovery, I had the tylenol drip and an on demand morphine pump as well. Same deal there, I'd hit the morphine button before I had to move or if I was trying to go to sleep. If the act of laying down is hurting, check out the "log roll" method of getting in and out of bed. I used that A LOT. Might help reduce the irritation and speed up the healing for you.

I used my pain meds as sleep aids. They sent me home with 10 of the high strength narcotic pain management pills. I didn't need them throughout the day normally, so I would take them prior to going to bed to help keep any potential pain issues at bay and allow me more sleep.

Try to add some Mio or other sugar/calorie free flavoring to it, might help.