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Chimera

Duodenal Switch Patients
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Everything posted by Chimera

  1. Chimera

    I Hate Stalls! :{

    /comfort Lisa we had our surgery on the same day - and I am at 58 down from surgery weight (the rest was pre-op MWL) so I know exactly how you feel. I stalled for a month and only a few days ago the scale started to come down again - it really is maddening, you do the same thing that has been giving your success and suddenly it stops working - upping the Water, the Protein and giving myself the peppiest pep talks i could muster has helped. we will get there!
  2. Those lasagne cupcakes at two weeks out might hit your little sleeve like a flaming 10 ten ton brick, as they are very dense Everyone has a different experience but those would have been waaaay too much at two weeks out, the edges of the wontons get quite crispy and hard, even with a lot of chewing it was hard to get them down - Nowadays I also like them a little too much, so i will be saving them for a maintenance recipe Ricotta bake (from Eggface), chicken salads all different types, and ground meats and cheeses - ground turkey with a bit of spaghetti sauce and cheese was really satisfying. The little egg quiches from the South Beach cookbook were yummy and easy to eat for me as well.
  3. Chimera

    Lap Band Reject

    Bel12 my husband was approved and they scheduled him as soon as the surgeon had an opening - another patient cancelled so it was 2 weeks. If you have all of your pre-op hoop jumping done they usually green light you. For myself I had to wait a bit as i am a college professor and wanted to wait until classes adjourned for the summer break.
  4. Make sure you are getting tons of liquid in - minimum of 64 oz. - when I started to feel hunger I started trying to up my intake to half of my body weight in oz. of Water per day. I eat a little snack every two hours as well to quell the hollow feeling. These two things seem to help for me.
  5. Here's a link that can help - http://www.livestrong.com/article/452241-how-to-calculate-the-percentage-of-excess-weight-loss/ So far I have lost 67.6% of my excess, I am approaching my 5 month out date - I did lose some on my pre-op plan but it is all part of the same package for me so i include it. To hit my surgeons marks I need to lose another 36 lbs by next May 21, 2013. He says that good marks are 50% excess down in the 6 months following surgery The next 25% during those next 6 months - so 75% of excess weight down at one year surgiversary. And final 25% during the next year - filling out the 2 year sweet spot of losing with our vsgs. I like the way he puts it - that you will lose all of it in time - as opposed to the percentage that you will lose and that is it. What is that number 60%, 70% I know they probably vary widely.
  6. Chimera

    Post Op Medications?

    Here is the general gist of what my Doc wants - mind you all Dr.s are different. Here are my doc's recommendations on supplements: Multivitamin mineral supplement - bariatric specific or 200% dose of standard multivitamin. Should be 100% of at least 2/3 nutrients. Should contain at least 400 IU of Vitamin D, 400 mcg folic acid, 1.2 mg thiamine B-1, 15 mg zinc, and 18-27 mg. Iron. It should also contain copper and selenium. If you take 200%, it should not exceed 10,000IU Vitamin A, or 1,000 mg (1500IU) of vitamin E. Elemental Iron - ASMBS guidelines call for a minimum of 36 mg per day. For menstruating women or those at risk of anemia total intake should be 50-100 mg per day. B-50 complex daily - the B50's I take are Bariatric Advantage in capsule form and have 50 mg each of thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin and 400 mcg of folate, 250 mcg of B12, 500 mcg Biotin, and 50 mg of pantotheric acid. also contains choline 25 mg, inositol 25 mg. B-12 - 500 micrograms per day or 1,000 microgram injection monthly calcium citrate - 1,500 to 2,000 mg calcium citrate Vitamin D: Dose dependent on labs - since we are in Seattle I am still taking 10,000 IU's a day in liquid form. I am getting ready for my 6 month labs soon - I have dropped the D down to 5k, and am taking Celebrate multi-vitamin capsules instead of chewables 9they can make me want to yak if i take them all at once, so i space them out) and the Citrical petites - which are not really all that petite lol. I still take Omeprazole (prilosec) daily, it will help to keep you from forming ulcers post surgery.
  7. Chimera

    Post Op Medications?

    My surgeons office is pretty militant on the vitamins - they dont allow things like Flintstones, many chewables, etc. - let me go see if i can find my big list in an old post.
  8. This just might have to go in my sig
  9. Bariatric surgery today is light years ahead of where it was even a few years ago. I too thought that mortality stats, complication stats were very high until i went to my information seminar. My chances of dropping dead were much higher doing nothing that lying on my surgeons operating table. In a very short amount of time I now have lost so much that I no longer would qualify for surgery at my Dr.s office. I wish you courage to make the changes for a healthier life - surgery or no surgery. I was scared to death, but it is bar none, the best decision i have ever made in my life. Prior to vsg - every day was fear - now those days are getting brighter
  10. Chimera

    Hoping For A Miracle

    Best of luck to you!
  11. I agree - I enjoy a healthy debate, it is good to discuss these topics because they are issues that we all deal with everyday. I know for myself that getting to my goal weight is VERY important - and when i started I had 188 excess lbs to lose, that is quite a journey so I need to be serious and I need to be brutally honest with myself in regards to my food consumtion, its nutitional value, Water, Vitamins, exercise etc. If I am not I will not get to where I want to be - i am getting too old to keep farting around with this dance with the food. I am human and am always stumbling at this but hopefully I will reach that elusive goal. I myself am addicted to substances that are crunchy and savory so I cannot keep them in the house - that is one of the things that has contributed to my success. ice cream i could care less - so, know your demons and work with them accordingly
  12. Just wow on that one lol. Chiming in on this after just coming off of a month long stall which began the very day that we brought a big mess of the foods we used to eat into the house for our 16 yo's birthday and visiting out of town guests. We had a few slices of birthday cake, croutons, and baked potaotoes over the course of a week - I know nothing major right - let me tell you how insulin resistant my husband and I are (he also had a vsg two weeks before my own) those carbs instantly set off a cascade of old addictive responses and cravings that took two weeks to dampen down. When I eat stuff like that all I can think of is food. When I eat those foods, my losses stop - and the cycle of negativity once again rears its ugly head - that I am a failure, that I am weak. The key is balance. When I eat the way my nutritionist and surgeon advise to - I no longer feel those cravings and am fueling my body in a healthy and nutrient dense manner. I simply feel better and I am also changing my body chemistry - because we are not really designed to eat the crap that the food industry makes billions on, and destroys our health in the process. Take a look at Gary Taubes or David Kessler's work - or Paleo and primal sites.Very enlightening. Lumping the fine group of folks here into two camps is utterly ridiculous - we all come here for information, insight, and support and have a wide range of experiences. I know that I have tried to model Tiffykins - someone who eats quite normally now - but was strict during the losing phase - there is a reason that this first 6 months to a year is referred to as the honeymoon phase.
  13. Chimera

    I Need To Lose 150-180 Pounds, I Need Your Opinions!

    When I started I had 188 lbs. of excess weight to lose - now I have 87 more lbs. to go to hit goal. It does slow down a bit - so it is very important to follow post-surgery nutritional and excercise directions - I am glad that I had a restricitve rather than a restrictive/malabsorptive procedure. My surgeon was thrilled when he saw that my insurance covered vsg - even though I started with a BMI of almost 57 - it was still the choice he suggested due to the fact that complication rates are lower and the losses are statistically coming very close to the gut-rearranging procedures. Best of luck to you!
  14. Chimera

    Boot Camp Anyone?

    I need 108+ oz of Water to get half my weight woo - I filled up a gallon jug and it is on the counter. Doing Protein shakes and dense turkey for dinner - most of my Vitamins are in - Calcium comes in stages later...got a mile and a half walk in with hubby this morning which is quite a milestone as i couldnt even stand 3 months ago from arthritis that water is gonna be a serious one for me off to the sleep doctor to see if i still need my Cpap - have a great day gang!
  15. I would not drink fruit juice of any kind during your losing phase.
  16. Also the nutritionists at my surgeons office tell us that there are no essential carbs - basically we do not need to consume them at all. Ketones produced from the burning of fat is the body's ideal and preferred fuel - and that is what shrinks the liver and is the mechanism that creates weight loss for us during this losing period. Of course there are many Vitamins and minerals we do not consume if we are not eating fruits and veggies - we are getting a good amount from supplementation though.
  17. If you drastically cut carbs when you have been consuming a lot you can go into such severe withdrawal that the symptoms are flu like. There is some great reading out there about why we are not biologically designed to consume the processed food that made us heavy in the first place - and makes billions of dollars for the food industry. This is a great book~ http://www.theendofovereatingbook.com/ I cut everything prior to surgery - I quit a 28 year old, 2 pack a day smoking habit which was utter agony - I will NEVER go through that again, which is why I will never take another puff. I cut out sugar, all white carbs that are processed (bread, rice, flour, sugar etc.) Cut out coffee - because I am addicted - did the same thing with soda. I have tried everything known to man to lose weight - only to lose and regain it all - this time I was not going to f*** around That is why I needed to ditch it. There is a reason it is so hard to cut the carbs - we become addicted to them and they light up our dopamine centers like a christmas tree - its like putting a needle in your arm. I baked a birthday cake for my 16 year old's sweet 16 two weeks ago - and I am still recovering from the tailspin that suddenly upping the carbs does to you, everyone in my family is suddenly voraciously hungry, craving bread, pizza, candy, etc, and is cranky and tired. A couple of slices of cake over a week and a bag of croutons for the salad and this is what it has done to us when we do not keep this kind of stuff in the house. I've read on another forum one woman who has lost all of her weight and is in maintenance was struggling with carb cravings after having a single bag of 100 calorie snack bags - it is so not worth it - because once you stop eating them, you stop craving them. The birthday week set my husband up for a stall that has not broken - perhaps it is just time for us to both have one, we have lost steadily since our surgeries in may. Now that I have the first 100 lb loss under my belt and begin the next phase I am fine tuning and planning to crank up the excersize and start to wean myself off of any artificial sweetners (hi Crystal Lite). Best of luck to you - no one ever said this was easy - though a lot of folks think that choosing this route is - it is anything but. It is also the best decision I have ever made for myself and my health.
  18. If you throw up your chewables - as I did too with those big nasty Bariatric Advantage brand ones you should try these. At our 100 day check up my group was cleared to take capsule Vitamins. This is what they recommend - the NUT's tell us to stay away from the flintstones chewables as even if you double up on the adult dosage they are not a complete form of Vitamin supplementation for bariatric patients (I know doctors are different). These come with Iron or no iron - depending on how you take your calcium - (hubby and I are doing the Citrical petites and the chewables as well.) We tried the iron from Celebrate as well, it is firmer than the Bariatric advantage brand and they dont go dark and soft as fast. they have a rewards program and you get points for every order - so you can get free and discounted supplements and products as well. These changed my post surgical life - whew No more nausea and vomiting. http://www.celebratevitamins.com/shop/multivitamin/multivitamin-capsules.html
  19. My NUT has us on 600-800 cals during our losing stage. Carbs as low as you can get them and 80+ g of protein. They dont seem to focus too much on fat (surgeon has patients do Atkins induction - no liquid diet until clears the day before surgery.) 64+ oz of liquid a day minimum.
  20. Chimera

    The Food Porn Problem

    Interesting article from Fitbie today: http://fitbie.msn.com/food-porn-problem
  21. I am so sorry you lost your friend sleep studies are a pain - I just had my second one and I find out later this week if I still need my cpap - it is really important to take good care of ourselves with the apnea.
  22. Like Bean said - my surgeon said that the risk of dying was astronomically higher if we we were obese and sitting in our seats in the conference room as opposed to lying on his operating table. And like Dr. Oz has said - We operate on cancer - if you have something as malignant and health destroying as obesity, you should operate!
  23. Chimera

    I Need Help And Im Very Sad

    The Greek yogurt that Aligayle suggested is also loaded with probiotic cultures - baskillions of them which are very good for our digestive health. Keeping things moving along and healthy is important! I know that when my losses slow -which they have recently I look at basics - LilDiva's bootcamp plan works wonders - really up the Protein, the Water, take ALL Vitamins (I have been known to be selective if I am really over the flavor of a particular chewable - i am at the point that I am transistioning to more capsule forms though which helps) make sure you get all of your Calcium, move your body. Just getting my 64 oz or trying to hit 128 will make me drop weight like crazy.
  24. She probably means well - but like many folks, she may not be aware of the statistics with mortality with current WLS practices. My surgeon has been practicing a very long time and has zero fatalities - I am positive most of the surgeons here have the same track record. Before my husband and I had our surgeries - I too thought the mortality rate was high, until I went to the information seminar and got up to date with accurate figures. I would be irritated as well if someone told me this before surgery. Just know that your current BMI from your ticker puts you in a super safe zone (barring medical issues and comorbidities that you may have) and you should have no problem reaching your goals rapidly if you follow Dr's and NUT orders. This surgery has been the best thing my husband and I have ever done for ourselves - other than marrying one another

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