Toddy

I've been using a straw since Day 1. No problems here!

The only guidelines I have been given are 60 grams of protein (of course) and stay under 25 carbs a day and not more than a cup of food at a meal. I'm interested in hearing if others are counting calories or fat grams or whatever different recommendations you have gotten from your doctor's office.

I was banded on 1/31 and went through several days where I felt hungrier than I had ever been before; it wasn't head hunger because my stomach was loud and rumbly! It seems to have leveled out for me now. Hang in there!

If I had a doctor that admonished me and compared me to another patient, first thing I would do would be to find another doctor. WE are paying them! Be your own advocate! First thing that stands to out me is that at 196 pounds, you don't have as much weight to lose as a lot of other people might. It's a proven fact that the more you have to lose the faster you will lose. Also, it helps to know you're not alone!! And I know for a fact that you aren't, because I'm right there with you! I had surgery on the 31st. I Lost 12 pounds on the pre surgery diet. A week and a half post surgery and I have actually gained one pound. I have not cheated. I am living on will-power because I have absolutely no restriction. I'm hoping the weight loss will just catch up with me eventually because I feel like I'm doing everything right.

Yeah, I am not thrilled with the low carb aspect of my doctor's plan, and that is one reason I'm researching what others are doing successfully. I'm not a carb-o-holic at all in that I can live without bread, pasta and rice, and I don't even crave sweets, but the Atkins diet was by far my least successful past dieting experience, not to mention the side effects!

I just wish we were all as lucky as you!

My understanding is that some surgeons will put in a small fill to "prime" the band during surgery. Mine, however, didn't. You are not alone in this hunger thing! I actually feel hungerier now than I ever have. I had no problems on the two week pre-surgery liquid diet at all, but I've had nothing but problems with hunger post-surgery. If my doctor had required a lengthy liquid diet post-surgery I don't know what I'd do. The ONLY bad eating habit I have never had is middle of the night eating, even if I went to bed a little hungry. But since being banded a week ago yesterday, there have been two nights that I couldn't sleep because I was so hungry! I resisted eating because I don't want to begin a brand new bad habit, but after both those nights, when I got up the next morning I felt absolutely awful and it took a good half a day to get back to feeling decent.

It seems like every doctor has a different pre-surgery and post-surgery diet. My doctor only had me on liquids for two days, then I went to mushies for two days, and then right into eating as tolerated.

Each insurance company has different requirements to determine coverage. Find out your insurance company's specific requirements and go from there. If all else fails, I think it would be worth it to self-pay -- it's what I would have done had I been denied! My BMI was 38 with one co-morbidity, but I think the key to my approval was that my PCP wrote a great letter of support. If I didn't have full support from my PCP, I would have been looking for a new PCP!

My doctor's focus is low carb -- he's never even mentioned what my caloric intake should be. I am six days post op and I had the doctor paged yesterday because I was so weak and light-headed I was certain something must be wrong. He told me to go to the ER and I spent all day there yesterday undergoing tests for a blood clot or a bleed, only to be given a clean bill of health. When I got home last night, I ate what I wanted instead of what I was supposed to. I had one slice of thin crust pizza. I wasn't any more full than I would have been if I had eaten the tuna that I was supposed to have, but I did feel better later in the evening and I have felt some better this morning after an egg and a piece of whole wheat toast. I just think my body was reacting negatively to the extremely low amount of carbs I have been consuming. From now on, dispite my doctor's wishes, I think I'm going to follow more of a Weight Watchers eating style than an Atkins diet. I'll still focus on the Protein, but not strictly the low carb. I don't want to ever feel as bad as I did the last two or three days!!

Has anybody experienced extreme fatigue? I had surgery on the 31st and abdomen and shoulder pain are almost completely resolved. Now I'm dealing with extreme fatigue on the least little bit of exertion and sometimes I get lightheaded and dizzy when I stand up. I've never been one to just sit around and that's all I want to do now. I'm making myself move, walk, do a little laundry, putter around the house. My fear is I have to go back to work on the 9th and I don't see how I'm going to manage if I don't regain some of my energy!

I had surgery on Tuesday. My doctor is one that believes in getting you back on food as quickly as possible. Yesterday I was able to start on mushies. It was tough trying to get in 60 g of protein and 64 ounces of water. I was not that thrilled with eating, and I still needed 32 g of protein, so I ended up having a shake for dinner and followed that with an Isopure drink. I also had a shake for breakfast this morning. I didn't have any problems with eating the mushies, just a feeling of being full before I had my 1/2 cup. I'm not looking foward to lunch because I know I'll need to actually eat something and then I'll have to wait an hour to drink something. I'm also anxious to feel better physically. I just feel kind of drained. I think I'm going to try pushing through the lethargy today and get in more movement. So far all I've done is walk laps inside my house.

I'm scheduled for surgery this Tuesday so I've been doing a lot of reading about post-op diet. Everything I have read online is very, very different from my surgeon's guidelines. I have a lot of faith in my surgeon, he's been doing bariatric surgery for 10+ years, however I'm curious about why his post-op guidelines are so different from everything else I've read. Most of what I've read says liquids only for two weeks, then mushies for two weeks, then move on to solids. My surgeon says liquids for two days, mushies for two days. Then day five after surgery is regular as tolerated. I am going to call his office and talk to his nurse about this on Monday, but I was just curious is anyone else has expereienced anything similar.

The 31st must be a popular day for bands!! That's my surgery date, too! I was very fortunate and didn't start my journey until November, so things have moved along very quickly for me. I could have had my surgery at the end on December, but had a cruise scheduled this month and then needed the two weeks for the post-op diet!

Thanks for your response. I've got his post-op diet in writing, so it's not a matter of misunderstanding. From all the reading I've done online there are so many different pre and post guidelines. Seems like since there are only two makers of bands, there should be more uniformity in pre and post diets.

My pre-surgery diet has been/is a two week process. First week was three shakes and one under 300 calorie meal a day. Second week is four shakes and nothing else other than zero calorie liquids. I pretty much got over the hunger around day three and now have to force myself to get in four shakes a day.