Bufflehead

Once I was wearing clothes (other than the hospital gown I mean) I wore loose, flowy dresses with an empire waist for about a week. I found a couple of cheap ones on onestopplus.com, just searched for "empire dress" and voila. Oh, and comfy cotton stretchy bras that fastened in front. No underwire! Definitely being in a recliner chair was more comfortable than lying down in bed for sleeping and napping. Other than that I tried to stay upright and moving as much as possible, it helped with the gas and with getting my energy back and recovering more quickly.

I started with a sample pack of the Syntrax Nectar flavors from BJ's Bariatrics - 11 packets for $14.95. Then when I decided which flavors I liked, I bought from Amazon. The 2 lb. jug was $32 with free 2 day shipping because I have Amazon Prime. Econutritionals.com and luckyvitamin.com also tend to have good prices, but I think a lot of the protein powders are just expensive no matter where you shop.

Can you mix them with water? I mixed them 50/50 with water, G2, or Hint essence water. Just on their own they are too hideous. Obviously you won't get quite the protein bang for your buck if you dilute them, but I figured it's better than no protein at all.

Have you tried the Isopure clear protein drinks diluted with water, or the Syntrax Nectar flavors mixed with water? They are not thick like other protein shakes, more like drinking juice or koolaid. I like the Syntrax Nectar flavors a lot. Isopure has great numbers but I find the taste pretty horrible unless I dilute it with a lot of water or G2.

About Time All Natural Mocha Mint is really good (they have other flavors too, like Birthday Cake, Chocolate, & Cinnamon Swirl but Mocha Mint is my favorite). Make with 8 oz. Hood Calorie Countdown nonfat milk and you get: 30 g protein 135 calories 5 g carbs 55% of your RDA of calcium.

I agree, we need good healthy fats in our diet. For one thing, that's how we can use fat-soluble vitamins! I don't eat artificially reduced fat anything (salad dressing, mayo, etc.). Have you ever read the ingredients in those things? They usually contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and a laundry list of unrecognizable chemicals and frankenfoods. No thank you! I do watch my calories to make sure I am not going overboard and also keep my fats under 30 gm per day but do it without using fake "fat free" stuff.

I ate refried beans with melted cheese, cottage cheese mixed with peanut butter, poached eggs, pureed tuna salad, pureed salmon salad, and Greek yogurt (sometimes mixed with peanut butter or cashew butter).

I didn't need any help after surgery other than someone to take the trash to the street, change the kitty litter, and do the heavier, once-a-week type of house keeping, such as mopping and vacuuming. I don't live with anyone so my extra help was having my housekeeper come for an extra visit. I didn't need anyone hanging around full-time to help me and probably would have found it annoying. My doctor also encourages people to do as much as they can for themselves. He says, don't let anyone else fix your drinks, answer the door, or take the dog for a walk. Getting up and active will help people with their recovery -- within limits of course! You don't want to do stuff that could actually end up hurting you.

This is one of the things I am looking forward to the most! I want to lose about 20 more lbs to be sure I won't have any issues and then I'm heading to the nearest amusement park (Dollywood) even if I have to go by myself. None of my nearby friends like amusement parks -- don't understand that at all!

Whether BCBS covers the surgery depends on whether their employer chose to include weight loss surgery in their plan. If their employer excluded it from coverage, really the only way to get BCBS to cover it is to convince their employer to change their coverage plan when they underwrite for the next year. Your sister and brother-in-law should get their plan documents (they should have a member benefit handbook) and see specifically what it says about weight loss surgery or elective surgery. Usually if it is excluded, the handbook will say so. If it is included, the handbook should spell out the requirements for getting the surgery. The handbook varies for each employer so they need to make sure they have their own specific handbook.

And you may be able to fit into some smaller clothes without even realizing it. I thought I hadn't lost any sizes and was still wearing the same clothes. I went for a visit with my PCP and when I was getting ready to leave, she pointed at my lower half and said "you need to buy some new trousers, you are swimming in those things!" -- so I bought some pants two sizes smaller, hoping they wouldn't be too small. As it turns out, they were at least a size too big. And these were the exact same brand and style of pants as I had before, just in a smaller size, so it wasn't some sort of brand or design difference. You may want to give some smaller clothes a shot if you haven't. But yeah, it does take a while to lose sizes when you just start out. But once they start going down, they go down fast!

I think for the vast majority of people the sleeve helps us out tremendously in learning to avoid boredom eating and emotional eating. I've always been a boredom eater, but since I've been sleeved, I don't find eating particularly appealing. If I am bored I find something to do and eating doesn't even cross my mind. I do think it's a good idea to seek out counseling -- I'm a fan of behavioral therapy -- and find someone who can help you develop alternate strategies for dealing with stress, boredom, etc. But the sleeve is a big help just by itself!

I like the Voskos brand Greek yogurt, as well as Brown Cow and sometimes Chobani. I am a yogurt snob and won't eat any yogurt that isn't 100% natural. I refuse to put artificial sweeteners or flavors in it. All natural yogurt will have a few more carbs, so I just eat low carb elsewhere, or don't eat as much of the yogurt.

At 8 weeks I was transitioning from purees to soft solid foods, with the following rules: --3 meals per day of no more than 3 ounces each, no snacking --each meal should consist of at least 2 ounces of high protein food (meat, eggs, dairy, beans, soy, etc.) --if you eat 2 ounces of high protein food and then want to eat an ounce of fruit or non-starchy veggies, you may --everything should be something you can cut easily with a fork --no potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peas, grain-based food, or sweets --no raw vegetables Things I eat fairly regularly: turkey burgers, all kinds of fish and shellfish, poached eggs, dried fruit, avocados, mini babybel lite cheeses, all-natural yogurt, nonfat cottage cheese, chicken, peanut butter (I like the "Naturally More" brand with flax seed), cashew butter, refried beans. And I'm a big fan of adding hot sauce to my food, it doesn't bother my stomach a bit.

My must haves for at home in the kitchen: --digital food scale --immersion blender (some people use blender bottles with the little wire balls in them to make their shakes but I HATE them) --mini food processor/chopper (for puree phase) --32 oz. Bubba Keg - fill it with ice and Water and sip! Keeps your drinks SO COLD. Must haves in the hospital: --phone and charger --lip balm --loose comfy clothing to wear home (I brought an empire waist dress and a cotton sports bra that fastens in front). Also make sure you have a pillow to put between you & the seat belt on the ride home. --very basic toiletries such as tooth brush and deodorant. That's it! I brought my Kindle with me too but ended up really only reading when I was waiting for surgery because my surgeon was running late.

Coffee won't dehydrate you unless you are drinking about 8 cups in half a day. Coffee has about the same diuretic effect as water does, and no one suggests we avoid water so as not to get dehydrated! http://abcnews.go.co...=5552790&page=1 http://www.nytimes.c...4real.html?_r=0

I think the real question is not whether you can eat those things without physically hurting yourself but why you are trying to get permission to eat them in the first place. All those things are, for sleeved people, nutritional crap. You should be taking this time with your new sleeve to learn to eat healthy, nutritious food in small quantities. Put those things out of your mind and start thinking of healthy, pro-sleeve things you can eat according to the stage you are on. That might be Greek yogurt, it might be cottage cheese, it might be tuna salad -- I don't know your doctor's plan so I don't know. But ramen noodles, oatmeal, and ice cream should be things you maybe consider as a treat MUCH later down the road.

My surgeon's daily plan is 3 meals of no more than 3 ounces each, and no snacks, for six months after surgery. After six months you can increase your meal size to 4 ounces, but still no snacks until you reach your goal weight. So for me I don't think there is any way I'll be giving up shakes until I hit maintenance and that's a long way off.

You might want to ask your PCP or surgeon for a prescription for Nascobal, which is a B12 supplement and comes in either nasal spray or nasal gel. It is supposed to work better than the sublingual tablets and one of its recommended uses is for people who have had VSG. Depending on your insurance situation (drug co-pays etc.) it might even be cheaper to get a prescription than to buy B12 OTC.

I'm cleared to eat sushi as long as there is no rice involved. Was cleared at the soft foods stage which for me was 8 weeks post-op. I haven't tried it yet because I don't have anywhere I can buy just 1-2 pieces of sushi, and I know I couldn't get through a whole box before they go bad.

Unbesleevable one is correct - it is fine for you to tell your work that you are having surgery and need some time off. You are not obligated to tell them exactly what kind of surgery. You can choose to only tell the person who needs to approve your time off, whether that is your boss, HR, etc. If HR acts like they need more information to approve it, get a letter from your PCP or surgeon stating that you are having surgery on X date and need Y days off of work. If your surgeon writes the letter, you may want to request that it be on a letterhead that does not say something like "Center for Bariatric Surgery." Most surgeons also belong to a surgical group with a neutral name like "Acme Surgeons" or whatever and a surgeon could write a letter on that letterhead instead. Alternatives if someone (a co-worker -- NOT boss, HR, etc.) asks what kind of surgery: "Geez, that's kind of personal, right?" or "I could tell you all the gory details but then we'd both be embarrassed." or "Sometimes I want to ask personal questions about other people's surgery too, but then I remember they could be having anal fissures repaired or a hemorrhoid resection and they might not want to talk about it." or "Excuse me? What did you ask me?" (repeat as necessary until the person gets the point).

I would focus on making sure you get your liquids in. For vitamins, you might want to try a gummy vitamin or liquid vitamins (I used Wellesse liquid vitamins post-op) -- lots of people tolerate them better than chewables. Most people aren't hitting their protein target at 8 days out. Keep working at it and you will get there eventually. And I don't know if this is bad news or good news but the medical consensus seems to be that vitamins and protein wouldn't save your hair even if you could get them in. It's a result of the surgery itself (shock - telogen effluvium) and the hormonal changes that come right after. If you are going to lose hair, you will. Some people say that biotin will help with the speed of re-growth, but there isn't anything that will actually stop it falling out in the first place, except luck.

I had incisional pain at one site (the drain site). It took about two weeks to go away. The NP at my surgeon's office told me that's completely normal and it varies for people in terms of whether they get incisional pain and how long it lasts. She said the longest she had ever seen it go on was 4 weeks.

As @ernestine suggests, eat slower, eat less. The two times I've gotten the foamies it's been because I've either eaten too fast or too much. Also, if solid food isn't agreeing with you, it won't hurt you to go back to purees for a week and then try introducing soft foods again, slowly. Good luck to you!

I had to drink them in the hospital post-op -- the ones that come in the bottle and you add liquid and shake. I thought they were okay but not great. Sort of chemical-tasting.