slimthickens

It could be from taking your meds with only liquids. I know if I take ANY meds without something mushy or semi-solid that I will be nauseous as soon as the medication hits the bottom of my stomach. Our new stomachs have a narrow curve at the bottom now so pills tend to sit there as they dissolve and it can irritate the stomach lining quite a bit if they are sitting on bare tummy. Try taking them with something solid or yogurt or pudding at the very least so that the pills can dissolve in the food and not directly on the stomach lining before passing into the pylorus.

I'm 3 weeks out and have not felt hungry once since the surgery. I have to remind myself to eat now. It is the weirdest thing but don't worry because you will have almost no appetite for a while. Now you may have head or emotional hunger but that it different from actual hunger. Emotional hunger is easy to overcome if you just talk yourself through it and stay busy with other things and before you know it you've forgotten all about it. You do have to set up some barriers to avoid battling head hunger though. For me It is making sure not to watch cooking shows or channels, not browsing through cookbooks or any other outlet that causes you to focus intensly on food. Keeping a journal has also been a huge help for me.

I experienced this for the first time last night or at least I think it was dumping. I added a tablespoon of superfood powder-its a highly concentrated powder of 24 fruits and veggies-to my juice and within 10 minutes of drinking it I was in the bathroom with cramping and diareah. Was this what you experienced?

I have noticed that the max I can eat per meal is around 2 oz of mushies. This raises a question for me. If I am only supposed to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks at a sitting yet I can only consume 2oz's or sometimes less of mushies then how will I get in enough calories to avoid going into starvation mode? Also I'm only supposed to eat for 30 minutes and then stop but it is taking me an average time of 1 hour and 5 minutes to get those 2oz's down comfortably. Any advice on how I can work this out? I'm never hungry but I don't want to rob my body of the calories it needs to function properly and if I try to eat faster I risk pain and discomfort so I'm a little puzzled by these rules. I am averaging about 500 calories a day and am 3 weeks post op.

Thanks for the input Forensikchic! That really puts my mind at ease. I'll just eat what I can comfortably in that hours time and then call it quits until the next meal. I tend to eat slower because I DO NOT want to ever have to experience sliming or vomitting and so far so good so I guess slower is better in my case. Thanks for the advice and congrats on your awesome success!

I'm glad you feel relieved too! I was really starting to worry about that because we really need our nutrients to heal. I'm ok with losing slower and having stalls just as long as my body is getting healthier and not weaker from not enough food.

I meant to say I am only supposed to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day...lol

These are just my opinions: The lapband has had a ton of complications for a signifigant amount of patients such as band slippage, vomitting, food getting stuck, heartburn/reflux, costly maintenance, permanently restricted foods, and damage to the stomach itself often requiring revision to sleeve surgery anyway. People often think it is best because it is touted as being "Reversible" but there will most likely be scar tissue or damage once it is "Reversed" that can cause you signifigant problems down the line. My surgeon is dropping this procedure all together due to increasing patient problems. When I had my first consult with him and told him that I wanted the sleeve he said he was so relieved that I did not ask for the band. Gastric Bypass has malabsortive properties that prevent complete absorbtion of much needed nutrients especially when eating so little. It also has the dreaded dumping syndrome which can be painful and upsetting to experience. I've also noticed that bypass patients tend to sometimes have a sickly or drawn appearance to the face and neck that I can only assume comes from depleted nutrients. I have yet to see a sleeve patient with that same appearance. The sleeve has all the benefits of weight loss surgery without the malabsorbtion, dumping syndrome, maintenance issues, etc. I did tons of research before deciding on the sleeve including talking to both bypass, lap band and sleeve patients and I think the sleeve was the best choice for me.

Be sure to walk no matter what time of night it is. I was up wallking every 2 hours all through the night. My nurse even laughed as he took off my compression socks and told me that I didn't have to wear them anymore because they were really only for people who wouldn't get up and walk...lol

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to get to the point where exercise becomes enjoyable...thanks for the motivation!

How do you keep the Protein Powder from curdling once it hits the warm coffee?

I'm almost 3 weeks out and I CAN'T STAND sweets now. Sweet puddings, sweet protein drinks, sweet yogurt, sweet popcicles YUCK! lol I feel like barfing at the very thought of anything sweet nowadays.

I'll just chime in to tell you that if you are having your surgery with Dr. Suh you are in amazing hands! He is one of the top bariatric surgeons in the country and has an excellent reputation in the field. He was not my surgeon but partners with my surgeon (Dr. Benjamin Leong) quite often. Best wishes to you.

It is always good to lose some weight prior to surgery but I sometimes think that surgeons are a bit unrealistic when they require you to lose up to 20 pounds before WLS. Most of us are food addicts in the first place which is why we are seeking the surgery to begin with and I think that should be taken into consideration. We would never expect an alcoholic to go without a drink for 3 or 4 weeks before being allowed to go to rehab so why would a surgeon require so much weight to be lost? I understand that the liver needs to be shrunk just prior to surgery but that could easily be accomplished with the loss of 5 to 10 pounds in the last 2 weeks prior to surgery. Requiring so much to be lost causes those of us with food issues to go into panic mode and begin bingeing and results in weight gains not losses. In my opinion if you don't think this is something you will be able to handle in a healthy way I would advise searching out another surgeon who's requirements are a bit more reasonable and that will allow you to lose a minimal amount of weight without causing you so much stress that you end up gaining. Oh, and for the record I was only required to lose a few pounds the last week before surgery which I did and my surgeoun said my liver looked perfect because of it. I did a diet of liquids for breakfast and lunch with string cheese and cottage cheese for snacks and for dinner I had a low carb meal of a meat, veggie, and salad.

I'm glad you are starting to feel better and I hope they can get you healed and fully recovered soon. You are one courageous gal to have gone through so much and still have such a beautiful attitude. Best wishes to you.

So glad things are working out for you. It sounds like your Sunday dinners are a real family treat with the table surrounded by your loved ones.

Walk as much as you can. For me the gas was trapped right under my breast bone and in the top area of my back. The only thing that helped was walking and laying down alternately. By the 4th day it was pretty much gone.

With the sleeve you HAVE to measure out your food until you can get used to eyeballing out your portions. You also have to listen to your stomach signals and STOP before you start to feel stuffed or you will throw up or have chest pain and pressure. I've gotten used to when my stop signal alerts me and I haven't had even one single episode of nausea or vomitting because of it. I'm almost 3 weeks out.

I think that surgeons who discharge their patients without prescribing or insisting on an acid reducer are irresponsible! The research plainly shows that the acid MUST be reduced to avoid pain and reflux since the stomach will be relatively empty most of the time and the acid will be just sitting in there boiling your stomach and esophogus.

*Noticed*

I've notices a trend of people trying to advance their diet against their surgeons advice and it seems like they are the ones having extreme naseau and vomitting along with pain. Now that is certainly not the case with everyone who is having these problems but there are a few that I have notices mainly from other fourms. I saw where one guy was trying to eat chicken and tuna in the first week and was barfing everything up and he was surprised! Until week 21/2 there is nothing holding your stomach together but staples and sutures so putting that kind of stress on your tummy is insane. For the record I am almost 3 weeks out and I've not had one bout of nausea or vomitting and I've followed the diet to a T. Hope this helps.

Not really much we can do to stop our hair from falling out temporarily after WLS. There are 3 phases to hair growth. In one of them the new hair pushes out the old and we shed it naturally but the new hair is right behind it so we don't notice it. After WLS the phase where the new hair pushes out the old stops so we lose what we would normally lose but there is no NEW hair right behind it as that phase stops briefly during weight loss. After a month or two this phase restarts and our hair starts to regrow again. We will not go bald but we will lose some hair no matter how many supplements we take so it helps to keep things in perspective. We have gained so much with our WLS so if we lose temporarily lose some hair the trade off will be sooo worth it. Since I know that hair loss is inevitable I cut my hair very short the day before surgery in hopes of boosting the new growth phase before it shuts down temporarily in the next month or two. I hope this stimulates new growth before that cycle shuts down. Most hair loss will occur between months 3-6 and it will stop shortly thereafter. A good friend of mine just finished this process. Her hair started thinning 3 months out and now 8 months later she has a full and thick head of hair like it never even happened.

I too was taken off my combo pill for BP the day of surgery and my blood pressure went through the roof once I got home. At my follow up appointment 3 days after discharge it was 145/113 and I was freaking out. My surgeon reassured me not to worry and that it would slowly go down over the next week or so. He said "Look at my face. Do I look worried?" lol He was right it has declined to 114/78 and I am completley off all pills. The reason he wanted me off the pills is becuase they dehydrate you by pulling off water which is something we absolutely must avoid just after surgery when the risk of dehydration is very high. Talk to your surgeon as see what he says about this. Best wishes for you.

Grateful, I too am stuck drinking the dreaded protein shakes but I have switched to the Nectar brand now which taste more like juice. I have the lemonade flavor, the ice tea flavor and the crystal sky flavor and they are so much better tasting than the standard strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ones everyone sells. Give em a try!

Yippee! I can't believe I am down 16 pounds in 2 weeks. I feel so much lighter and like I take up less room in my car, at my desk, everywhere...lol The best NSV for me is that I am officially off ALL 3 of my blood pressure medications as well as my cholesterol meds. I have another 70 pounds to go to get to goal but I am so happy to have already lost 30 pounds post and pre-op. If there has been any downside to this process it would have to be the emotional process of letting go of food as a coping mechanism. I've had a few rough days where I had to realize that I would no longer be able to use food to alleviate stress or combat feelings of negativity. I've replaced that tendency with art journaling instead. Now instead of reaching for a bite of something bad for me I will grab my art journal, some paint, paper, stamps etc. and journal everything I am feeling at the moment and when I am done I feel such a release. It has been especially helpful to go back and re-read those entries when I am no longer in that moment of distress and can see things more clearly. I've learned a lot about myself and about what got me fat in the first place in just these 2 short weeks. I had another notable NSV when I inadvertantly leaned back in my chair and crossed my legs with ease while visiting with friends. I was so shocked when I realized what I had done that I had to pretend I was still listening to the conversation while I was actually celebrating and having a dance party in my mind...lol My husband has been very supportive of me even if he doesn't fully understand what the hell I have had done with the surgery...poor guy is clueless but glad to have his support nonetheless. Many thank you's to everyone here on the forum for being sources of motivation, inspiration, dedication, discipline and hope.