luvzpitbullz

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure that it's gas though. I have been walking a lot and that actually makes it worse. I basically have to keep taking the lortab every 4 hours to even keep the pain manageable. It also seems to be worse after emptying my bladder or bowels. No fun As for my ct scan, they noticed a small spot or mass on my liver. They don't know what it is so I have to go in for more extensive testing next week. I guess the concern in always cancer but I have no family history of cancer and I've heard liver cancer is very rare. It's probably like a fatty deposit or something. Guess I'll know for sure next week!

Starbucks is my weakness. I was a twice a day addict for a loooong time. I just started drinking coffee again (I'm 3 weeks out). So usually I have one of their canned Double Shots Light when I get up in the morning. It's only 70 cal. But for the most part I have been avoiding the drive thru. I've gone twice since surgery and have gotten a skinny vanilla latte made with soy milk or a skinny hot chocolate. I'm trying to stick to the one coffee a day because I hate to drink the extra calories and see what it does to my carb count. So, it's not the devil in moderation but if you can get by without it, that's even better. If it's more of a social thing for you, try one of their tazo teas or an iced americano or heck, even an iced water. They have a list of drinks on their website that are 200 cal and under plus the baristas are always most helpful in recommending ways to cut calories out. But even under 200 cal drinks are like 25% of my daily caloric intake so you just have to decide if it's worth it to you. :-)

I seem to be only having a bm once every 5-6 days. Maybe in part because I'm still on liquids and mushies? I've had this horrible pain in my side that I thought was constipation so I took a laxative. Big mistake. I had horrible tummy cramps and diarrhea for the next 2 days. But lost 3 lbs so there's that. It's Sunday evening now and I haven't gone since Thursday. Is this normal you think? What are you all doing to stay regular ? I don't get a lot of fiber in because I'm concentrating on protein. And I really don't want to take another laxative.

coffee did the trick this morning! Yay!!! Thanks for reminding me :-)

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to load that onto my iPad. Did it help either of you if you were smokers?

lol no pun intended? :-)

yes! That's what always did it for me before surgery. It was my am routine. Cup of coffee and trip to the bathroom. I haven't been having my am coffee because I've traded it for a protein shake but tomorrow I'm trading back to coffee and I'll do the protein shake at work.

did the miralax give you cramps and other issues. On the risk of being tmi, after I took the laxative, there were a couple of times I didn't make it to the potty in time. I soooo would not want that to happen now that I'm back at work!

Scrambled eggs, refried beans and cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, my go to meal has been a little ricotta with about a teaspoon of spaghetti sauce microwaved for a couple minutes with a little Parmesan on top. Sooooo good after being on mostly sweet liquids for so long. I also love beans w cheese from Taco Bell or any Mexican food place with a little sour cream. Boston market has these delicious mashed potatoes that have cheese and other stuff in them. Not great for getting protein in but boy are they yummy. I'm making deviled eggs tonight to have something quick and easy to take to work. Costco also has this really yummy chicken salad that is premade and I run a bit through my blender to make it mushie. And the other thing I can't wait to try is blending up some chicken with a little bit of broth or mayo and topping it with a tiny bit of buffalo sauce and some blue cheese dressing. Kind of like puréed buffalo wings! If you do a search for gastric sleeve puréed diet or similar wording, you can find a lot of ideas. Also good is The World According to Eggface. She has some wonderful recipes on her website.

I'm not sure but I think the Greek yogurt has a higher protein count than cottage cheese. My 4oz container of Greek yogurt has 15 grams of protein. Of course it's high in carbs though. I think my single servings of cottage cheese are only about 6 grams protein. What would you do with the cream cheese since bagels are obviously out of the question?

ya, me and my stomach have been through a lot together. So by handling tomatoes, do you mean because they're acidic? I do feel the effects of that a little but I take my ppi everyday so it's not caused me a problem. And of course I take in very small amounts of any of it and very slowly. I am so thankful that my clinic said I could progress to puréed after 10-14 days because I was STARVING and it was definetly not head hunger. But I've been taking it really slow and introducing foods one at a time. I'd say for the most part I'm still relying on the shakes and Greek yogurt just because it's easy and readily available.

I'm just about 3 weeks out. I eat a lot of vanilla Greek yogurt, premier ready to drink protein shakes, blended chicken salad, Taco Bell pintos and cheese, ricotta with a little Ragu and Parmesan nuked for 2 min, tomato soup.... Well almost any soup. Sugar free pudding, skinny cow truffle bars, chicken or turkey meatballs blended finely, oatmeal, scrambled eggs w cheese.... I'm pretty sick of the sweet stuff and sick of having to wash my blended several times a day. Planning meals for work is a pain in the butt. I do the pintos and cheese several times a week because it's easy and no mess! I'm pretty lazy when it comes to cooking.

when I'm getting sick I always take oscillocoxicilliam You can get it at any drug store or target or wal mart. It's homeopathic and it comes in little tubes that you open and swallow what's inside. They are teeny little balls so easy to swallow. I swear it's like a wonder drug. I even take them when I'm just feeling tired and worn out. Hope u feel better soon. Get lots of rest and fluids. And an ice bag on my neck and a dab of icy hot on each temple usually drives my headache away.

aww that really sucks. I too had a slip and lived with it for 3 years. When I finally saw my surgeon to discuss options, he said that if he were to place my band again, like likelihood of me losing the excess weight I had put on was about a 50/50 chance. Hopefully when you get your next fill, it will get you closer to restriction. Do they do your fills under floroscopy? Maybe you should see if they can order you a barium swallow to see how things are moving through your band. You may have a large pouch above the band like I did which will allow you to Eat more and not lose. I wish you luck. I didn't end up repairing my slipped band. I had it removed in sept and got sleeved 3 weeks ago.

what's wrong ? Maybe the kind folks here will have some ideas that can help u feel better.

Double post. Darn it

Really getting sick of all the planning that has to go into my daily meals. I'm still on puréed/soft foods. It is a pain in the butt to try and pack lunch for work. And #2 random thought , I am READY to see some change in how my clothes fit! 15 lbs lost since surgery and nothing has changed. It's a little discouraging.

Yes! It was the weirdest thing! For the first two weeks I would cry at just about anything. Like I would drive by a homeless person and start feeling sad for them and my eyes would start tearing up. It was quite annoying. Now, I'm back to normal so to speak.

I'm a daily weigher as much as I don't want to. I'm a little over 2 weeks out and getting frustrated. I've lost about 14 lbs which I know is good. But some days I'll be up 2-3 lbs and then 3 days later I'll be down 3.5. I weigh in the am when I've pottyed and I'm naked. I only record my weight when I've lost and I've noticed for some reason I weigh less in the middle of the day. I'm ready to see some bigger numbers.

(Silently raises hand) me! I had one on the way to the hospital and one on the way home. When my surgeon asked me if I smoked, I lied. :-(. My plan was to quit while I'm the hospital. I was there 3 days so I thought it would be easier. Nope! I really want to quit but damn it's hard!

In my experience, the band was like an ex boyfriend that you had a volatile love hate relationship with. When it was good, it was REALLY good. When it was bad, it was awful. I had my band placed in 2006 and lost 124 lbs in 18 months. I adored my band. I praised its work to anyone who would listen. I was in commercials and print ads advertising the wonders of the lap band. And then our relationship went downhill fast. I started getting food stuck and vomiting a lot. I had lost my insurance and couldn't afford to see my dr. I realized if I ate softer, easier to get down, "slider" foods, that I wouldn't get stuck. So I ate. Still had horrible acid reflux every night and woke up choking on it every night but I lived with it. 3 years and 80 lbs later, I ended up in the er not being able to even swallow saliva. They did an upper gi and saw my slip with a huge prolapse . My band had almost turned all the way upside down. So the decision was made to have it removed and revise to another surgery. I'm now 2 weeks out from being sleeved and so far I'm really happy with it. But going from obese and unhealthy to thin and healthy and then back again is probably the worst thing I've had to endure. I know probably 20-30 people that have gotten the band. More than half have had it removed, a few have had smaller issues, port replacement, etc. And a few never had measure able success. I can only think of 1-2 that have not had an issue...yet. And even when the band works right, it's a lot of work to get it there. Fills...finding your "sweet spot"...etc. I so enjoy not having to live around my surgery. The sleeve is no maintenance. I wish I would have gone this route the first time around. Good luck with your decision.

Wow your doc really likes to err on the side of caution. How much do you need to lose? If it's only 30 lbs or so, I can see why he'd say that. But judging by you saying you already lost 30%, im guessing it's more. At any rate, I had my crap band out 7 weeks ago and I was sleeved 2 weeks ago today. I've already lost 14 lbs so my experience is that your doc is wrong. However, my doc has said that he has seen better results in people that do the band removal and bypass or sleeve as 2 separate surgeries. Initially I was set up to do the band removal and bypass all at once. When I woke up from surgery, he said that my intestines were rotated and he didn't feel a bypass was safe. I was bummed at first but so far I am really happy with my sleeve. And at my post op appointment, he said that waiting the 2 months between surgeries got my old bandster tummy to be as much like a "virgin" sleever as possible. Meaning no excess pouch or stomach prolapse that he had to work around. I'm fully confident that I can lose the 75 lbs that I need to and be thin and healthy again like I was when my band was good. I'd say this pound per day weight loss is pretty darn good, even though I anticipate it will slow down as I get further out. I have no opinion on which is "better" , the bypass or sleeve. You can be just as successful with each. But the point is, you can blow your drs 10-20 lb figures right out of the Water with very little effort.

Op I feel your pain, thank god not literally. Day 2 in hospital I was sobbing in my bed because it hurt so bad. Dr ordered me Imitrex at 9am, they didn't bring to me until 330pm. They kept sending in these nurses aids to get me to walk and finally I cursed them out and told them to get me my headache meds or I was calling my lawyer. At any rate, my dr sent me home with a prescription for Imitrex. Worked like a charm. They're very small pills and go down easily and work almost immediately.

Hello. I am 10 days out from being sleeved and kind of concerned at how much I can eat. This morning I ate an entire serving of Greek yogurt and was still hungry after. I just finished a thing of pintos n cheese from Taco Bell. And I still feel that empty hollow feeling in the pit of my tummy although I also feel it a tad backed up into my esophogus. But not enough to make me really uncomfortable. It just seems that satiety isn't what it used to be. So if you're still in puréed foods, how much can u eat? And how do you know when you're full? Thanks

ive heard that too. Luckily or unluckily my surgeon was unable to sleeve me when I had my band removed. When I saw him at the f/u appt, he said I was as close to being a "virgin" sleever as possible. Having an extra "pouch" was of great concern to me having lived with a slip and prolapse for 3 years. But you are right, I should probably start measuring. Do you think, even in the purée/mushy stage? I just figured I wouldn't start measuring until solids, if, at all. TY!