Bufflehead

Your nut is insane. Milkshakes and ice cream are a terrible idea. Your body has all the calories it needs packed away in the fat cells in your body. If you want to focus on getting your calories up, add a tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter to a protein shake or some Greek yogurt.

Each insurance policy and company can vary a lot. What co-morbidities qualify you for surgery should be listed in your member handbook or plan document. If you can't find yours, call your insurance company and ask for a copy. This is the sort of document you definitely want to see in writing. Other co-morbidities that I have seen include high cholesterol and arthritis -- but you definitely need to get the specific list for your policy. Good luck!

Sounds like you are in ketosis. You can try to mask things with altoids, drinking lots of water, etc., but there really isn't anything you can do to stop it. The breath is caused by the chemical balance in your blood, and no amount of mouthwash or brushing your teeth is going to change that. It's a good thing -- it means that your body is burning through fat cells at an extremely high rate. For most people, they have the death breath (and pee, and sometimes BO, etc.) for a few weeks, and then their body gets things a little straightened out even though you are still in ketosis, and your breath and so on improves. Just keep in mind that it's a sign of the wonderful work your body is doing and that it's going to be a small blip in the big scheme of things. It'll get better and in a few months you'll probably look back and laugh about what a big deal it seemed like

I'm surprised your program didn't give you any guidance on these matters. You should share who your surgeon is so that pre-op people looking for a surgeon will know to avoid him/her and his/her team's shoddy post-op care. That said, these are the guidelines I had when I was in the puree phase: 3 meals per day, no snacks other than protein shakes. Meals are to be 3 tablespoons of food max. No liquid calories other than protein shakes. All foods must be high-protein: meat, eggs, dairy, soy, beans, nut butter such as peanut butter or almond butter. Small amounts of sauces are permitted with your meat. Nut butters must be weighed and limited to no more than 15 grams per day. All meat must be pureed in a food processor or blender.

Virtually everyone hits a significant stall at three weeks out. If you don't believe me, do a Google search for something like "vsg 3 week stall" or "weight loss surgery third week stall" -- you are not alone! That said, I strongly recommend not weighing yourself so frequently. There are going to be times when weight doesn't come off like you want it, and you will never lose in a way that would result in a straight downward slope if you plotted your weight loss on a graph. If you find three days of no weight loss discouraging, buckle down, because you will have stalls for far longer than that, and you can't let that mess with your head.

Yes, it gets easier, I promise.

tuna, other canned meats (chicken breast, turkey, sardines, etc.). You may want some refried beans on hand for soft/puree phase. Nuts and dried fruit are a ways off (maintenance) -- I wouldn't bother having them on hand for weight loss phase. PB2. You may eventually want turkey jerky or similar, such as ostrich jerky. For the first few weeks after surgery, I had creamed soups and broth on hand, but not after that -- not a long-term thing. As someone who is almost 3 years post-op, the only non-perishable type things I generally have on hand are tuna, salmon, sardines, nuts (raw), PB2, protein powder, shelf-stable almond or cashew milk (unsweetened), dried fruit, fat free hot cocoa mix packets, Splenda, tea, coffee, light salad dressing & other sauces (curry sauce, marinara sauce, bbq sauce), and crystal light type drink flavorings.

They vary a little from practice to practice, but mine were: 10 days 4 weeks 3 months 6 months 1 year 2 years Hopefully you'll still have some sort of insurance after you lose your current plan? For later appointments, a PCP should be able to take care of running and reviewing your lab work to make sure you are good there, checking your weight, blood pressure, etc. to make sure you are healthy. Good luck!

Greek yogurt or mashed ripe avocado for me.

I had a hernia repair and I couldn't tell I'd had anything extra done after surgery. I had an easy and uneventful recovery.

I didn't have any gas mask, my anesthesia was via IV. I was wheeled into the operating room, transferred to the operating table, was chatting with the doctors and nurses, and then BAM I woke up in recovery. I never had any sensation of "falling asleep." Just one minute I was conscious and completely awake and aware and then I was in recovery. I had some pain from the surgical gas used for inflation during surgery, but no problems from the anesthesia itself. I was afraid I was going to be nauseated and throwing up after surgery (since that happened to me with general anesthesia before) but I wasn't. They gave me an anti-nausea patch behind my ear before surgery and I think that helped a lot.

No regrets here.

I've been obese all my life. It got to the point where it was pretty damn obvious that I couldn't do it "on my own." I could lose weight (never enough to get to a normal BMI though) but then I would re-gain it all plus more. To cap it off, I looked at actual scientific studies and saw that for morbidly obese people, only something like 5% can maintain any kind of weight loss, even a modest weight loss (10 - 20 lbs) without surgery. With surgery, the percentages goes up exponentially. I realized I am not a special snowflake. I am not in the 5%, and even if I was, I would want more than a 10 lbs weight loss. So I gave up on beating myself up over concepts that people don't even understand but like to throw around like "willpower" and "choices" and decided it would be idiotic to try to solve a serious, medical problem without serious, medical intervention.

I used Wellesse liquid multi-vitamin for the first several weeks after surgery. I did a double dose, one in the morning, one at night. My lab work was always great. It didn't taste bad to me, but was definitely better if kept in the fridge. The cheapest place I found to buy it was on Amazon. They sold a two-pack that was a pretty good deal.

I'm a diehard myfitnesspal user. You can use either the app or the website -- I prefer the website but I think most people use the app more.

I had an incision right at my bra line. An underwire bra would have been out of the question. Thankfully someone warned me in advance and I had purchased a soft cotton fasten-in-front bra (no underwire!) and used that until my incisions were more healed.

Your BMI is 56, you have a much, much greater risk of death and all sorts of health complications if you don't get weight loss surgery than if you do. Staying super morbidly obese should be at the very top of your list of things to be afraid of. As far as what you will look like post op: you will look much better after you get this surgery and lose a lot of weight even if every hair you own falls out and you end up wearing wigs for the rest of your life. Think about how you will look five years from now if you keep gaining weight (most of us do). I think you are focusing a lot on possible negatives with surgery but not really considering the serious negatives of *not* getting surgery. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15319713

Sublingual B12, Vitamin D3. Make sure your multi-vitamin is chewable, not a big horse pill or a gummy. Walmart may also carry liquid multi-vitamin (Wellesse is a common brand) that might be good for post-op. If you have a Trader Joe's near you I've found that their vitamins are cheaper than Walmart. I've been taking their High Potency Chewable multi-vitamin for 2.5 years and my labs have always been great.

Take them with a sip of water right before your meal.

Water and other liquids go right through your pyloric valve. There is nothing about the sleeve surgery that per se will restrict liquid intake. That's why most surgical teams caution against drinking your calories once you get away from a mostly liquid diet -- you could sit around and drink frappucinos and milkshakes all day and gain weight rather than lose it! The reason many people struggle with liquids in the first days and weeks after surgery is because of the swelling and trauma caused by the surgery. If you aren't experiencing that, it means you have an excellent, skilled surgeon who did meticulous work AND that you are lucky because your body heals itself very quickly. So, be happy, this is a good thing, not a bad thing. I promise you, you'll feel restriction when you move on to real solid foods (probably not puree consistency foods like yogurt or poached eggs though).

When I was in weight loss mode, I weighed infrequently -- every couple of weeks or a month. In maintenance mode -- weigh constantly (every day) in order to be vigilant about pounds not sneaking back on and honest about my eating habits.

Sometimes you can get free samples by calling the company -- they don't offer them on their websites. You can buy different samples/individual servings and sample packs at these places: http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/protein-powders/protein-powder-samples-1-serving.html https://vitalady.com/protein-supplement/ http://www.unjury.com/products.html (note, if the Unjury link above messes up, just Google Unjury starter kit) http://www.chikenutrition.com/buy-singles.html http://www.mybariatricpantry.com/SYNTRAX_NECTAR_PROTEIN_POWDER_SAMPLES_p/nectar-sample.htm http://www.mybariatricpantry.com/SYNTRAX_INNOVATIONS_MATRIX_SAMPLE_PACK_p/matrix_sample.htm http://www.jayrobb.com/protein/whey-protein-samples.asp

Eh, I'd go with the one closest to my home or work and/or with the easiest parking.

It is not weird but you need to be getting your protein in (shakes or otherwise) whether you want to eat or not. That is crucial.

When I was 8 months out the maximum I could eat was 2 ounces of protein with 1 ounce green veggies, and those were the limits I was given by my program. I can eat more now (almost 3 years out). I stick with 3 ounces of protein (meat/eggs) with 1-2 ounces of green veggies.