Joiebean

I use the CVS brand that is in a bag. They have chocolate and cookies and cream. I mix the chocolate with lactaid and it takes just like chocolate milk. And i mix the cookies and cream with sugar free instant cheesecake flavored pudding-AWESOME! Btw-I thought I'd use the pudding cups instead of having to actually make it-they don't work well when mixed with protein powder. Oh, and don't be surprised if your tastes change after surgery. Its really common. So you might not like one thing now, but it may taste great after surgery. Sugar is the biggest thing I noticed. Everything tastes so sweet now...and salt....wow...a lot of things taste really salty. Oh you may want to buy a couple different types of low sugar juices/crystal light, SF popsicles, etc in case you have a hard time with plain water. I couldn't get it down until just recently, but still use just a little crystal light to give it a light flavor.

I went through this about the second week. Turned out to be the muscle that they cut through and stitched was just really sore. It didn't start hurting until I started moving around (the second week) and using that muscle more. I started walking on the treadmill and OH SURPRISE it got worse. My doc told me to stop walking, except what I need to to get to places and around the house and coincidentally I had to stop talking pain killers for another reason, but between those two, poof, the pain went away. But if it really hurting you, it can't hurt to follow up with the doc. I was a bit of a hypocondriac after surgery and called my surgeon A LOT....so if you are worried about that...don't be. They want you to follow up with them if anything seems wrong. Since we haven't been through this before, we can't really judge what's normal and what's not. That's what the doc is there for. Hope it gets better.

I think everyone is different. I'm right about the same stage as you and I can handle egg beaters fine. I add in a little goat cheese to give it a little lube going down and to add more protein. But I can't handle meat AT ALL. I have the same experience you have with eggs. I met with my surgeon today (my one month out check in) and he said the same thing. Its a lot of trial and error and with time, different types of food will become easier. Same with exercise....do what you can. Don't get down on yourself at all. This is completely normal.

Oh one other thing it says on my emergency card is for the ER to contact my surgeon and lists his name, hospital affiliation, address and phone number, so that the surgeon can personally tell the ER what to do in addition to their treatment to accomodate a sleeved stomach.

The hospital I had my surgery at has a whole packet of information that a nurse goes over with you check out. One of them is that you can't be intabated (not sure if I spelled that right-when they put the tube down your throat to help you breath) without having an x-ray at the same time, to make sure it goes down properly. When I asked the surgeon and internal doc they agreed with this as well. Although I suppose if you are in an accident and the choices are 1) die because you can't breath or 2) have the tube inserted, potentially incorrectly, and still live.....I'll take #2.

Something my nutritionist told me when I had similar problems (and the first person to explain it to me) was that you may not have enough bile to break some of the foods down yet. For me, its meat. But shrimp have been awesome. I'm at 4 weeks out and have been eating them since the 3rd week. They are soft, can be cut up into tiny bits, and I usually put sauce on them to 'lube' them up, usually some liquidy avacado. It depends though on how you heal. Everyone on here is right. We all heal at different speeds, so if your stomach only wants certain things right now, focus on that. Keep trying little teaspoons of food as you go to see what you can tolerate, but if it won't take it, don't force it. As my NUT said, right now stay hydrated and get your protein. The rest will come in time.

Yup, I agree with everyone else. But the intense pain will start to ease up shortly. And if you have a recliner, I found that the easiest to sleep, sit in. Pretty much just stayed in it for the first few days, only getting up to go to the bathroom. It can make it easier for your husband to get you up to without causing you as much pain as getting up from a laying down position or having to mess with pillows propping you up just right. Try to sleep and let your body rest. Oh and sugar free popsicles count as liquid too. I used them during this stage cause I just couldn't get a lot of water down. Sounds like your right on track though. Keep with it!! Congrats!

oh and to answer your other question....I am starting to get some energy back, but still can't do a lot. I go to bed now around 9:30 and sleep until 7am. I tried going shopping last weekend and just couldn't muster the energy to keep up with everything at the mall. So I get tired easily and my energy is good for a bit but can deplete rapidly. I think that's normal at this stage though.

I think I may be the exception here. I can't eat meat yet, at all. I can eat fish and shrimp. Shrimp actually go down really well. My typical day is: Morning: Decaf coffee with 1 cup low fat soy milk, and either yogurt or egg beaters with goat cheese Mid Morning snack: Babybel light cheese Lunch: Greek Yogurt (mix regular and fat free) Afternoon snack: Small Protein drink Dinner: Shrimp and avacado I met with my nutrionist last week and she told me to cut out the applesauce and juice I was eating/drinking because it had to many carbs and that can cause a stall (which I am in..I think I may be starting to come out of it.) But she told me otherwise, to just keep what I was doing. Also that she didn't anticipate that I would be able to eat meat this early anyway. I have to say I was looking at my husbands steak last night, longing for a bite, but still had no interest in actually taking a bite because I knew it would just get stuck and hurt. Oh and ice cream...yeah that's awful. I almost threw up when I had some last week. It was one indulgence that I gave myself in the 4 weeks post op. I won't do that again. I felt the worst I have since surgery because of it.

Keep it up. The more you walk, the better you will feel. Once they took the catheter out, whenever I had to go to the bathroom, I added on a few laps around the floor. Gets the pain out, keeps your temp down, and improves your lung function (after all the anethesia.) Hope all is well! Keep posting!

I went through this after surgery. I asked the nurses, the surgeon and my internal doc what it hurt so much and they said that it was because 1) that was the main incision site and 2) they had to cut the muscle and stitch it back together to get to my stomach during surgery-I think that's pretty normal. I also noticed it got worse if I exercised at all. Once I stopped that and coincidentally stopped taking the pain meds, that particular pain (very similar to what you describe) went away. I'm 4 weeks out and when I tried walking on the treadmill last week, it came back. My surgeon usually gets people exercising at 3 weeks but because of the pain from the muscle, they pushed me out to 4-6 weeks before exercising. This is just me though. I would ask your doc/surgeon.

I was also given a card when I left the hospital to keep in my wallet that tells medical personnel that the tube can only be inserted with radiology because our anatomy is now differnet. They also recommended I get one of those medical alert bracelets, but I haven't.

I was noticing this too....and specifically when I was put in a stressful situation. I normal can eat 3-4 big shrimp, but I was around some family that yell all the time and being put in the situation made me uncomfortable and stressed. WHen they made me 4 shrimp I could barely get a couple bites down (I cut each shrimp into about 4 bites.) I haven't really paid attention about the relationship with BM's but I have to say that I am really constipated, but hungry (or what I think is hunger). And now I'm trying to get yogurt down and its just grossing me out. Go figure.

My doc said the same thing. He is going to determine tomorrow whether its necessary. But he said if I keep gurgling, then he will probably do it, which has continued since my last visit. Doesn't seem to scary from what the surgeon says, but then he has a warpped sense of pain.

Well, I couldn't hide it anymore. Not that I was hiding it at all, but people don't typically feel comfortable saying anything about my surgery and I'm not going to engage them in a discussion about it, if that's the case. Well, a coworker's last day is tomorrow so we took her out to lunch today (I work with a team of 7, so it was us and our supervisor.)The restaurant we went to had NOTHING sleeve friendly (at least 3 weeks out sleeve friendly) that wouldn't be awkward to order "Yes, I'd like a side of mashed potatoes please" (you can get away with that with friends and family, but its completely different with coworkers) so I ordered a sauteed veggie wrap and ate the veggies out of it, but left this heaping mound of yucky overcooked squash and wrap shell. And I ate maybe four french fries...again leaving a heaping mound. None of it I wanted to take home, but we were all splitting it 6 ways anyway and I didn't want to get totally shafted (not ordering anything and having to put $20 in anyway) so I ordered the wrap and ate what I could. WELL...there was such a huge wave of judgement that I was wasting so much food because I didn't want to take the rest home. And when I was picking it apart, one of my coworkers, jokingly asked, 'What can you eat? What's the point?" I blamed most of it on the hiatal hernia repair, to embarressed for some reason to say to the whole group at the table "I had weight loss surgery and can't eat as much as you all anymore." Not sure why I felt so embarressed...as I've said to others and have to keep trying to remember...we'll have good days and bad. The most important thing is that I got through it.

This is a great post!! I'm only three weeks out, so by the time i'm done work, I'm pretty much exhausted and collapse on the couch, but I am getting SO SICK of TV. I was thinking of picking crocheting back up. I used to sorta do it to keep my hands busy. As soon as I am cleared to start working out, I plan on doing that too. But my doc pushed it back a few weeks. Not till 4-6 weeks out can I start doing anything resembling exercise (except the walk to my car, lol)

During my surgery I also had a hiatal hernia repair, which I am wondering is why I am still having a hard time getting anything other than soft wet foods down. I absolutely cannot get any meat down. I tried last week and it started okay, but the more I tired, the less it worked. I've gone back to fish (shrimp work especially well) and mushies. Curious if anyone else had both done at the same time and noticed anything different going on during recovery? I also still get a wicked cramp in my side where they cut the muscle, when I walk on the treadmill. I gave it a week and then tried again on Tuesday night....still hurt. When I sit on my butt...I don't hurt at all. But I'm itching to exercise. Go figure.

I am also 25 lbs down and now in my 3rd week stall.

According to both my doc and hairdresser (yes I consulted my hairdresser too about the hair loss but they both said that you won't lose it in clumps, but just equally spread out throughout your head, so it shouldn't be that noticeable. And if for some reason it really starts thinning out, you can get really great clip in hair extensions (I use them normally anyway for special occasions) to fill in where needed. You can get them at Sally's Beauty Supply. I know this probably isn't the answer you were looking for, but just in case, here's a potential solution. But you should probably call your surgeon and just let him/her know what's going on. My surgeon asked me to call if anything out of the normal happens so that he can adjust meds, intake, etc if necessary.

I have read (when researching VSG) that a white coating on your tongue can indicate dehydration, which is a very likely occurance after having the sleeve done. Make sure you are getting enough fluids.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in your taste sense? I used to like equal and artificial sweetners. I can't stand them anymore. They are so disgusting and thats all I can taste when I get 'diet food'. So I just started getting regular food since I'm eating so much less of it....and the fact that I'll actually eat the regular food instead of just let it sit there in the fridge until I throw it out. (i.e. greek yogurt, juice, etc).

Before I could leave the hospital, I had to be able to eat jello, pudding and this custardy stuff and they gave me some glucerna to drink. So I was only on clear liquids for one day and then they had me one full liquids for a week, then on to mushies. Now incorporating soft food, fish, cucumbers...

Sounds right on track to me. Its a tough road in the beginning but keep on it!! Congrats on getting through the first week!

Maybe try Lactaid? Regular milk was to hard on my stomach and I got sick of soymilk, so I just started using Lactaid and its been working. I know you said you don't like sweets, but the CVS chocolate whey protein shake tastes just like regular old chocolate milk when you mix it with lactaid. I can't really get to much meat down yet, so they've been saving me with the protein and it has 26 grams per serving. So if you can just get three down a day, you're all done. I also got won-ton soup broth instead of plan ole chicken broth. It was a great change of flavor. The first few weeks are rough. We have all been through it and literally wanted to rip our hair out (at least I did.) I said in a previous post that one day I was so sick of it and mad that I couldn't just give up, that I actually jumped into bed, pulled the blankets over my head and almost cried. But I got through it and you will too. I'm three weeks out and it gets MUCH better around 2 1/2 weeks. Be careful with the walking too. I did a lot of walking and caused myself much more pain. Once I took it easy and relaxed (which is what my doc said to do) the pain went away. My body just wasn't ready yet.

I tried a chicken wing last night.....oh dear god did that hurt.