Bufflehead

Your doctor is not just being conservative. From what I have seen the vast majority of surgeons place a weight lifting restriction of 5 -10 lbs for two to four weeks. You've got a lot of internal stitches and staples -- damaging them could be not just painful but result in severe complications possibly requiring more surgery (my surgeon emphasized this a lot with me). I feel so sorry for your little child but hopefully lots of cuddle time with mom as you recuperate will help him get used to you not lifting and carrying him for a few weeks.

tilapia is recommended by my plan, of course it has to be pureed! I think I might puree it with some chicken stock and sriraca sauce.

I might judge you if you were using heroin after surgery, but otherwise . . . I don't know much about phentermine but it sounds like a valid medical tool that you and your doctor have found works for you. I think it's great that you are figuring out what isn't working for you in the standard post-op plan and have found a good solution in partnership with your doc. Kudos!

I was marginally better but I had some lingering issues with the drain site. My pain there didn't fully resolve for about two weeks. The NP at my surgeon's office told me that for most people it goes away in a couple of days, but for others it hangs around for up to a month. Hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones and only have pain at the drain site for a couple of days.

Yes, I had to do six months of medically supervised weight loss. I met with my doctor (PCP, not surgeon) each month to go over my diet and exercise for the past month and plans for the next month. We agreed on a 1500 calorie per day diet and moderate cardio exercise. I was not offered any appetite suppressant meds (and would have refused them if offered). My diet wasn't a super-regimented eating plan, but my doctor and I agreed on basic goals of low fat, low sodium, high fiber, and high potassium. I tracked my eating on myfitnesspal every day. It was frustrating to wait six months but actually that time turned out to be really useful in getting focused on healthy eating habits over a long period of time. I'm glad I did it.

I would just double-check with your insurance to make sure they don't cover complications before you spring for it. If you can, do it in writing and make it very clear, i.e., "I see on page 32 of my plan booklet that you exclude bariatric surgery from coverage. If I elect to have bariatric surgery and pay for it myself, and develop a serious complication (leak, stricture, or blood clots, for example) as a result, will Acme Insurance cover treating the complication? Please respond in writing." etc.

y'all are making me jealous, my surgeon doesn't allow red meat until six months out (I love steak and I'm under two weeks out, I've got a long wait ahead!).

I've liked low-sodium V8 (nice change from sweet drinks), Gatorade G2 Natural, skim milk, and decaf chai tea with a little unsweetened vanilla almond milk and splenda (you can also add 1/2 scoop or so of vanilla protein to a mug of warm tea to help you towards that protein macro).

After I completed my required six months medically supervised weight loss I had a bit of a hiccup because my PCP's nurse sent my clearance letter to the wrong surgeon :/ After that it went really quickly - I had all my tests and stuff done, so the insurance coordinator at my surgeon's office had everything submitted within one day and then I got approval less than twenty four hours after that. Then I got my surgery date, but it was six weeks out since that was the first available. That part of waiting was tough! I was all ready to go, approved, etc. but just had to wait for my turn with my surgeon.

I really like the Unjury powders too. There is a great thread pinned up at the top with a bunch of protein shake recipes btw. My favorite concoction that I've come up with so far is a simple chocolate mint protein shake using 12 oz. of mixer (I use 1/2 unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 1/2 Hood Calorie Countdown), 1 scoop Unjury Chocolate splendor, and just a drop or two of peppermint extract. Yummy! Other things you can do while you are waiting: practice not drinking 30 minutes before or after meals, give up caffeine and carbonated drinks, start an exercise plan if you haven't already.

well, my surgeon doesn't allow any form of beef until six months out. So I can't help you there. We are allowed to either strain everything from soup and drink the broth as a liquid, not a meal, or strain a high-protein soup such as lentil soup or black bean soup and puree the beans and eat that as a meal. We aren't allowed veggies or high-carb foods like rice or noodles at all on the puree phase, so straining a chicken soup and pureeing the solids wouldn't work as most chicken soups have veggies and something like rice or noodles. So, under my plan, what you want to do would never, ever be permitted in the puree phase, and not even in the mushy food phase (because we aren't allowed high-carb foods or beef then). But every surgeon has their own rules. Does your surgeon's office have something set up where you can email questions in to the nutritionist? That way you could email the question now and not worry about forgetting to ask later.

I had a sleeve + hiatal hernia repair in about 90 minutes.

The hospital was bringing me shakes (not the clear ones, either, regular protein shakes mixed with milk) the morning after surgery. I've had no problem with them other than that I have to take them slow, they fill me up pretty quickly.

I bought this one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.../dp/B001N07KUE/ It's $25 and eligible for free shipping via Amazon Prime if you have that. You can choose to measure in ounces, pounds, grams, or kilograms and it has a tare function. It comes in five colors. I love mine and use it all the time.

My surgeon requires four weeks post-op of liquid diet. We aren't allowed to liquify soups or oatmeal or anything like that. I could take a broth-based soup and strain out all the solids and drink the broth, but that seems wasteful? So far my mainstays have been: water (min. 30 oz per day), protein shakes (RTD: Isopure and Premier Protein, homemade using various Unjury flavors), skim milk, Gatorade G2 Natural, low sodium V8, miso broth and beef broth infused with unflavored protein, Unjury chicken soup protein, and as a treat a few ounces of Atkins Advantage Cafe Caramel shake (Yum!). So far I've been doing fine on hitting my liquids and my surgeon's protein goal. I set my personal protein goal higher and have mostly made it. I am 9 days out from surgery. It's not driving me crazy but I will say I am looking forward to advancing to purees!

whoops, wrong thread! Nothing to see here!

My surgeon's team recommends Milk of Magnesia (take the lowest adult dose given on the label) and Senokot.

Coffee doesn't dehydrate you. This is a common myth. In fact, the Mayo Clinic says it hydrates you just as well as water. http://www.mayoclini...-drinks/AN01661 http://abcnews.go.co...=1#.UczCfdi0Qk4

I'm so new at this I hardly feel qualified to respond, but here goes. I read a post (I think on OH, might have been here) by a successful vet who said something like, and I never had a stall or a plateau, not once, ever. Here's how I did it: I didn't weigh myself except at the doctor's office. And I decided that's what I will do, at least for the first three to six months, assuming I manage to religiously follow my surgeon's plans for me in terms of eating and exercise. As long as I do that, I have faith that the weight will come off and I don't want to stress about how much or when or whether I might be in the "week 3 stall" or whatever. So, I didn't weigh myself during the two week pre-op diet. Showed up at the hospital and learned I had lost 16 lbs. Yay! I had surgery on June 19 and have not weighed myself since. I have my first post-op follow-up on Monday and presumably I'll get weighed then. I think further down the road, when my eating is more according to my own choices and weight loss gets harder, I will probably weigh once a week.

lol, I've also had a couple of food dreams. The first night home from the hospital I dreamed that I found a three pack of king-size Snickers bars in my bathroom and started eating them -- ate an entire one before I remembered, oh, I'm sleeved, I can't eat this anymore! The thing is, I've never been terribly tempted by candy bars (cookies are more my speed) and even to the extent I am, I don't like Snickers bars very much. So I have no idea why I dreamed about them magically appearing in my bathroom.

I'm taking the Wellesse liquid vitamins (Multivitamin, calcium, and iron) and I really like them.

What's the surgeons full name?

I have a personal and family history of autoimmune disease that would make it difficult to get the right meds after bypass (prednisone etc.). I also hate the idea of cutting out and rearranging my intestines. I know that removing most of your stomach is also drastic and unnatural but the intestinal chop-job and reroute is more than I want to inflict on my body. Lesser considerations: struggling to get adequate vitamins for the rest of your life with the bypass, strong possibility that you will have to completely give up several types of food and not even taste them again (asparagus, steak, bread, sweets -- I have read that all of these can cause major distress to people with bypass), greater risk of surgical complications with the bypass, stronger possibility of lingering unpleasant digestive problems with the bypass (gas, diarrhea, vomiting), the idea of a blind, inaccessible portion of your stomach floating around and possibly getting cancerous with no way to scope it and see what's going on, and the fact that the few people I know who have had the bypass did well with their weight loss but struggled with energy and health after. This is a sleeve board so likely you will get lots of people singing the praises of the sleeve and explaining the downsides (as we see them) to the bypass -- make sure you get lots of good info from all different kinds of sources before you make your decision. Good luck to you!

I think some of both -- you get paralytics + sedative/something to render you unconscious. Unless your surgeon/anesthesiologist does things very differently, you'll have both an IV line (probably two) as you are wheeled into surgery and be fitted with a face mask after that. I didn't have any recollection of experiencing the effects of any kind of anesthesia. I was just awake and communicating with the surgical team one minute and then *bang* waking up in the recovery room later. No sensation of either inhaling gas or feeling anesthetic enter my arm or anything like that. It wasn't scary at all. My anesthesiologist offered a sedative (Versed) before going into surgery but I declined.

I gave up coffee at the beginning of my preop diet and it was HELL - for about two days. After that I felt fine. I think this is true for most people - you will live with a couple of days of feeling absolutely miserable: headaches, fatigue, fuzzy brain, but after that, things get better very quickly.