Bubbaloo10

I'm also on My Fitness Pal and i highly recommend it. You can track your food, exercise and water intake every day. They have a database that includes almost any food you can think of and, if it's not in the database, you can enter it yourself and it will be there for others. Try it!

Keep this in mind....it's hard to have a stomach the size of a footbal and have nothing but shakes and/or 3 oz meals and convince yourself that you're not starving to death. The sleeve makes it much easier to do what you need to do to drop the weight.

I'm at 7 weeks out and I eat about 700-900 calories but I work off 400+ with exercise (treadmill). I make sure to get at least 70 grams of protein a day and drink at least 64 ounces of water. So far, it's working well. I'm about to cross over 50 lbs lost, hopefully tomorrow. Rebecca, you're doing great!

I was sleeved 4/16 and I'm pretty much on par with you. Getting 2 oz of meat down is a real struggle, but I can eat up to 6 oz of mac and cheese or any other soft food. I know some are staying away from pasta, and I do it only once a week, but it does make a very satisfying meal without feeling that awful lump at the top of my sleeve. I'm gettin my 70 grams of protein every day and staying under 1000 calories without too much trouble.

Mexican food was always my weakness, so as soon as I hit the mushy stage I tried refried beans with a little pico de gallo mixed in. Great!! Then when I hit the soft food stage I had half of a cheese enchilada. It was very good, but I filled up very quickly and did not crave it after that. Then I went on to a soft taco....a real treat, since I had been craving the lettuce. I stay away from chips though. Too harsh on the sleeve.

You don't really want to take 30 minutes to eat, but when you don't, you will experience pain at the top of your sleeve, just below the sternum. Believe me, when you experience that pain, you will slow down. It morphs from an unwanted discipline to a choice.

The docs took almost as much time to intubate me as for the surgery itself. Apparently I was a tough subject. I woke up with the usual sore throat, but was hoarse as hell for 2 days.

I was having a mild version of the same problem. Assuming you are eating very slow and not eating too much, try a PPI such as Prilosec (Omeprazole). My doctor wrote a prescription for a 90 day supply before my surgery, and I didn't think I needed them, but they definitely helped when I started to take them just on a hunch.

Is it possible to arrange the pictures in my gallery in chronological order? For example, I uploaded some AFTER photos last night and to my dismay, they placed themselves right in the middle of my pre-op photos. Is there any way to re-arrange them or must I create a separate album?

Lortab may taste nasty, but not as nasty as the dye they make you drink for the leak test. The good thing about Lortab is that when you have stomach pain post surgery, it goes straight to the source of the pain and you are feeling good again almost instantly. If you have to, down the Lortab, then wash it down with something more palatable. Good luck......

When I saw my surgeon for my pre-op appointment, he gave me (among other things) a prescription for Omeprazole (Prilosec). After surgery, I didn't think I was having any problems with acid reflux and I couldn't understand why he prescribed 180 capsules for me. At the rate of 2 per day, that's 90 day's supply! When I started to move into mushies, and later to soft foods, I experienced mild discomfort, the kind you get when you're testing the limits of the sleeve. I usually stopped eating before that discomfort turned to real pain. A few days ago, I started feeling like I was getting slight discomfort between meals from acid, so I began to take the Omeprazole, 1 at morning and 1 at night. Surprise! I no longer get that discomfort when I eat and I'm much more comfortable after a meal. This doesn't mean I can eat whatever I want as fast as I want, but it took the tentative feeling out of eating that I was feeling before. So, if my story sounds like yours and you have Omeprazole, you might want to try it, even if you think you don't need it.

Most of us have had some kind of waiting game, some longer than others. Sometimes I think that's why they call us patients. Best advice, be patient....it'll happen. Good luck.

Documentation is the key. If the documentation was not submitted by your coordinator prior to submittal this is her fault, not yours. I would think you have more than enough history to warrant the surgery. Get back to your coordinator, get her to pile up the documentation and drop it on them...you're sure to be approved...Good luck

You will have some hoops to jump through, as most of us did. There will be medical tests, insurance documentation, psych eval and othere challenges, but the biggest one will be the pre-op diet. Some of these run 2 weeks, others up to 6 months. The two week pre-op diet is usually an all liquid diet, though some are allowed one sparse meal of real food per day, depending on doctor's orders. The object of the pre-op diet is to shrink you liver so the doctor can get at your stomach without nicking it. It's tough, but not impossible. Most of us had the same doubts, but got through it. The first few days are the worst, then it smoothes out. We all faced challenges during our pre-op diets like birthday parties, holiday feasts, etc, but if you make it through (and you will) you will have demonstrated that level of commitment. After surgery, you can look forward to about 6 weeks of liquids, then mushies, then real food. Here's the neat thing though.....you probably won't be hungry, and you will find that many of the things that led to your weight gain over the years you won't be so attracted to. Couple that with the fact that initially your stomach will only hold about 3 ounces, you will feel full very quickly when you eat. Good luck, and I assure you that you won't regret this decision. We're all here pulling for you. Use this site as a support resource and post whenever you have question.

I think you should lay this at the feet of your bariatric surgeon's insurance person. Most bariatric practices have a person (usually a lady) who is well versed in what it takes to get approved. They talk to insurance companies all the time as part of their job. After all, the doctor's success at getting patients is primarily up to this person. They need your insurance money more than they need you, so let them find out the criteria. Then, if they're worth their pay, they will do everything they can to get you cleared. Don't stress over this...it's just another hoop you have to jump through. Good luck.

The only thing I can think of is to warn him that hormone changes post surgery may cause you to get a little crabby. I had read enough on this forum to know it was coming and I warned my wife, so she wasn't too upset when I bit her head off a time or two. Happens for men and women too.

I'm only a week behind you and I am looking forward with some trepidation to trying meats. I do know that eveyone is different and some will handle it bette'r than others. Remember, you are being released to eat full foods AS TOLERATED. What you don't tolerate at 6 weeks may be tolerated at 8 or 10. Keep trying, and don't beat yourself up if you can't handle a food by a certain time. Your sleeve will tell you when it's ready.

I was told by my doc and NUT that the part they remove is the stretched and stretchable part. The part they leave behind is the muscular part that pushes food throught your system. It will stretch some, but they said I would probably not be able to eat more than 8 oz at one time when it stretches to its max.

I sent away for the Syntrax Nectar sample packs. I thought they were ok when I drank about 2 of them before surgery. Now, after surgery, I can't stomach (pun intended) them. If anyone would like to have them, I would be happy to give them to you for the price of the shipping.

At the start of my bariatric journey, I bought, among other things, a vanilla cappuccino mix from my doctor, manufactured by a company called Health Wise. When I used it all up I wanted to buy some more, but when I attempted to call the company, which I located on line, they said that they do not distribute direct to the public....they only wholesale to the doctors. I thought I would have to find another brand, so I started looking and found one offered by Bariatric Choice called Bari-Wise and ordered two boxes. Guess what? The product is exactly the same, same packaging, same nutrients, etc. What kind of game are these folks playing? About a week ago, I ordered a product from a company called Diet Direct. Today, I get two separate e-mails from Diet Direct and Bariatric Choice, offering the same product, listing the same subject matter in the e-mail header, everything. Does this mean the competition among bariatric specific companies is being reduced and they are price fixing? Maybe I'm paranoid, but something doesn't smell right here.... I can understand the same product being offered by two or more separate companies in the distribution chain, but these name games seem to me to be an attempt to fool the public. Does anyone else have any input on this?

I had surgery right about the same time as you (April 16). You're down 36 lbs and I am down 38. I weigh every day (yeah, I know I'm not supposed to) and I've seen a steady loss each day until this morning when I was the same weight as yesterday. I'm not worried if that happens, and neither should you. We all know we will hit stalls at various places along the line. It goes with the territory. However long it takes you to break out of the stall, don't worry. Just keep working the program, get all your calories and most important 70+ proteins per day. Exercise will help, as much as you can do without landing in a smoking heap on the floor. You're doing fine. About that ravioli....I find that a little ravioli or spaghetti about once a week helps to keep the calories up. If I stay strictly to a bariatric specific food program, I don't get enough calories, so I don't think it's a bad thing. If you have to have something like that from time to time, go ahead and enjoy it. My rule of thumb for a blowout meal like that is this: less than 300 calories (easy to do when eating only 4 oz. per serving), less than 1/3 fat, and at least a few grams of protein. You can always make up the protein with a diet shake or whatever you do for protein. Don't beat yourself up. You are doing fine.

I had the same problem, so I started out with chili and chewed real well. Same with baked beans, spaghetti, corned beef hash, etc. I figured I could mush it up in my mouth as well as a blender. I got away with it, but the decision to do as I did is up to you. Take it verrrrrrry slow...