Bufflehead

1. The SteriStrips fall off your incisions? I had glue, not steri strips, so n/a 2. Your incisions stop hurting? I only had one incision that ever really hurt -- the drain port site. It took a little more than 2 weeks for that one to stop hurting. It only hurt when I did some significant movement, though. It never hurt if I was just sitting or walking or something like that. 3. The swelling in the sleeve seem to go down? I don't think my swelling was ever too bad. I was able to get 64 ounces of fluid and 64 grams of protein pretty easily within 24 hours of surgery. Within a couple of weeks I didn't have to sip anything and felt like I was drinking normally.

I hope you do well with your weight loss, that sounds like a lot to manage. I find that when I eat high protein and high fat foods, but low sugar and low carb, I do a lot better with feeling satisfied yet still losing weight -- good luck to you!

There is no "we" in bariatric surgery food plans, unless you are talking to someone with the same surgeon and the same insurance plan. Some insurance plans require a 6 month diet pre-op, but even those vary in what exactly they require from the diet and how it is to be documented. Your surgeon's insurance coordinator should be able to fill you in on exactly what your insurance requires. If you are self-pay, then very likely no worries -- I've never heard of any surgeon requiring a 6 month pre-op diet for a self-pay patient. It would be a great way to lose patients to competitor surgeons!

There's I think about 30+ pages of people answering this question here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/326557-how-long-is-the-gastric-sleeve-surgery/ My answer: my surgery was about 90 minutes but it also included a hernia repair and was done by a surgeon who is known to be, let's say, meticulous and methodical in his work rather than running a chop shop in the OR

I did a lot of savory protein -- you can get high protein soup at the New Life office. Unjury chicken soup protein is also good. I also did SF popsicles and SF, FF fudgesicles. I know the four weeks of liquids sucks! I would just remind myself that New Life has one of the absolutely lowest rates of post-op complications in the country and their conservative eating progression is probably one of the reasons. And while it seems like it goes on forever, in 6 months to a year from now you'll barely remember it, I promise.

@@Sandy GlueStick I checked in alone and told anyone who wanted to visit to stay the F away. No interest in friends or family seeing me with my butt hanging out of a hospital gown. I had no problem at all. You'll need someone to drive you home, of course. That you can't do.

No, you need to follow the plan your team gave you. Don't look to a message board of internet strangers to grant you permission to go against medical orders. If you feel like you are ready to progress to mushy foods, you need to call your surgeon, dietitian, bariatric nurse practitioner -- someone from your team -- and discuss it with them and see if they think you are ready.

Yogurt and tuna are very different. Yogurt is not dense protein and it tends to slide right through your pyloric valve, thus your restriction is not engaged. Also, at two weeks out your stomach nerves are still healing and aren't necessarily capable of reliably telling your brain that you shouldn't give it any more food. That's why it is so important to measure or weigh a small portion and eat that, and only that, regardless of what physical signals you may or may not be getting. Good luck!

Sorry you are having such a struggle with pain! I also had oral (liquid) pain meds, no IV, but I don't think my pain was as bad as what you seem to be experiencing. My bariatric team had me sipping protein shakes within a couple hours of surgery. No mashed potatoes for me though -- high carb, low protein slider foods like potatoes are completely off the menu under my program until goal weight has been achieved and maintained for at least six months.

You are still bloated up from all the fluids you were pumped full of in the hospital, plus your body is recovering from trauma. Weight loss isn't a race -- stay off the scale for a while if it is going to stress you out. Stalls happen frequently even when you are following your program perfectly. Stress isn't good for weight loss, so let go of the idea that weight loss will happen with mathematical certainty and that you should be regularly stepping on the scale and seeing the number plunge down. You will lose the weight if you follow a good program, but it won't be predictable or smooth!

There is a separate forum on this app for DS people here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/1018-duodenal-switch-surgery-forum-new/ Not that I want you to feel unwelcome at all in the VSG forum, but you will probably find more people who know exactly what you are going through and can help you with specific information and reassurance in the DS forum. Good luck!

I had a somewhat similar situation with my insurance provider having one set of requirements and the plan administrator having completely different requirements. I wasn't sure whose rules would apply! The person who helped me straighten it out was the insurance coordinator at my surgeon's office. If you have a surgeon picked out, make an appointment to speak with their coordinator and if they are reasonably knowledgeable and skilled, they will either know the answer or be able to figure it out right away. It is their job!

Don't worry about it. The purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink your liver, not to lose weight. Just keep following the plan and you will be fine. And if it gives you any comfort, pretty much the exact same thing happened to me. I lost 12 lbs the first week of pre-op diet and 2 lbs the second week. I didn't weigh myself every day though -- I would advise getting out of that habit because sooner or later (like now) it will make you unhappy and stressed to just focus on the numbers on the scale. Good luck!

To the OP, I prefer the powders and making my own shakes, the premade ones all taste like industrial wastewater to me. I use an immersion blender -- if you are using whey powder and a regular blender, the shakes tend to get super foamy and that's pretty much impossible to drink post-op.

@@ehedary my surgery was three years ago.

It would absolutely not have been okay according to the rules given to me by my bariatric team. What do your rules say?

Have you tried a PPI such as taking 20 mg omeprazole in the morning and another 20 mg at night? That was what I took the first several weeks after surgery. I know you are taking Pepcid, but that is an H2 blocker rather than a PPI and post-sleeve, many people find a PPI more effective.

2 lbs is just normal fluctuation. Water weight, you need to poop, your hormones are being weird, you weighed at a different time of day, your scale is just being mean as scales sometimes do . . . it isn't anything to worry about. And yes, you should be stalling right about this time. Pretty much everyone does. Stay off the scale for a while and keep following your program, you will be fine.

Chike iced coffee and Chike chocolate bliss; Unjury chocolate splendor, Syntrax Nectar Cappuccino, Syntrax Matrix perfect chocolate, Syntrax Matrix mint cookie. I mix my protein shakes with unsweetened vanilla cashew milk. If you are using powders, what you mix yours with can make a big difference. No protein shake is ever going to taste like chocolate milk (Unjury chocolate splendor comes closest IMO). Look for something you can choke down fairly easily rather than something you "love."

I lost some hair but it wasn't a huge deal for me because I had lost a lot of hair already before surgery. So, I knew how to deal with hair loss. I haven't ever felt sick since surgery other than a couple of times accidentally eating too much, and I got a cold once last year. My health is terrific and I feel great.

I didn't wait for my body to tell me anything. Waiting for my body to do what it wanted got me over 350 lbs. I hit my goal weight and then very carefully started experimenting with exercise and calorie allowances -- tracking everything -- to find a good range for me to maintain at. It took a lot of work and planning and math, not waiting for mystical messages from my body

It took a little more than 2 weeks for that pain to go away for me.

Ugh, that sounds like absolutely no fun at all (understatement, I know!). I am really glad that your medical team seems to be taking such excellent care of you. Fingers crossed for happy eating and no pic line!

I feel like no matter how much I prepare and research there's no way to be 100% prepared for what post-op life will be like until I'm going through it. This is always true, whether you have surgery or not. You are never 100% prepared. You'll have a learning curve but you will, overall, do just fine. Your life will be immeasurably better as a slim and healthy person, though, no matter if there are a few bumps along the road to get there. Good luck!

You shouldn't feel any restriction with drinking, that is normal. Liquids go right through your pyloric valve, as will runny type foods like yogurt. Your nerves are probably still healing after surgery, so for more solid foods, if that is what you are eating (you don't say what sorts of things you are eating in your post), you need to carefully measure or weigh your small portions and eat only your measured portions. My guidelines for early stages were: puree stage: no more than 3 tablespoons of food. Soft food stage: no more than 3 ounces of food. Also, probably good to get rid of the idea of looking for the "full" feeling. Eating until we are "full" is what made us all obese. Stick with a carefully measured small portion of food and look for satisfied, i.e., no longer hungry, not "full." "Full" means you are stretching your capacity and that is a road you do not want to go down. Good luck!