joatsaint

At 3 weeks, I was allowed soft foods or purees. At home things were back to normal. At work things were back to normal. My job doesn't require any heavy lifting. Just to be on the safe side, I wore the elastic stomach support the hospital gave me for the 1st month post-op. During this time, I never tried any weight lifting exercises, but my doc encouraged me to walk as much as possible.

You will quickly learn how much Water you can safely gulp at one time... either the easy way or the hard way! :-P It's become an unconscious habit for me. I can take about 2 big mouthfuls of water without overfilling my sleeve. And no, you won't stretch your sleeve. From what my doc said, and what I've researched, it takes a lot of deliberate effort to stretch your sleeve. And it ain't a fun feeling when my sleeve is over full!

Welcome to the forum. I don't think you will have any issues putting up your link. But you might consider creating a blog on this forum and copying your stuff in both places, that way, the people on this forum that follow you will be notified of a new post.

I don't have enough proof that this works, but here's what I try when I want to break a stall. High Intensity Training - giving maximum effort for a short period of time. My exercise routine only consists of walking, but at work, I have access to the stairwells. I try to climb 5 flights of stairs as fast as I safety can. My best time has been 1 min 26 seconds. My lungs and legs are burning by the 3rd flight and I take a 10 second break at the 3rd and 4th floor. If you are doing the same exercise routine, eventually your body is going to become more efficient at it. If your weight program consists mainly of free weights, try alternating with weight machines that force your muscles to work in a different way. If you're on the elliptical, pick a program that changes up the one you're used to. Alternate speeds, add in inclines or switch off to a Stair Master for a few exercise sessions. When I used to do the elliptical, I set up my music playlist to have one really fast, motivating song ( like Motley Crew's "Kick Start My Heart") every 4th song, and I would go all out for the duration of that song, then slow back down to my normal pace. Keep up the good work, you'll get there.

I was allowed ice cream, but I wouldn't start eating it again until I was back eating a substantial amount of calories. You'll need to eat the most nutritious food you can get, at first, to recover and heal. And if you're eating sugar free ice cream, it is probably going to contain sugar alcohols, sugar alcohols were very hard on my new stomach.

At 4 weeks, I was down 21 lbs, but having stated that, I also have to say at 4 weeks, I still wasn't eating more than 400 - 600 calories a day.

The food companies pull that all the time, when they don't want to increase the price and lose sales. Instead they shrink the packaging, most people don't look at the count or weight. If you start looking around, you'll notice that lots of products aren't in 1 lb packs anymore - sausage, bacon, lunch meat, coffee, ice cream, frozen vegetables. I even saw one grocery store that had a smaller package of Crystal Light. The price was the same as Wal-Mart's, but instead of 6 packs of Crystal Light, it only contained 4.

For me, it really depends on the spice. When I was at week 3 and could eat purees, I was eating a mix of refried Beans, puree turkey hamburger, cheese and taco bell taco seasoning. I had no problems until I added the Taco Bell taco sauce, Frankensleeve would go into knots and it felt like rocks being ground up in a garbage disposal. I had no problems with Pace or Old Elpaso salsa. I'm in month 17 post-op and can still feel my stomach lurch whenever I give Taco Bell taco sauce another try, but I stir cayenne and crushed red pepper into most of my meals with no problem. It wasn't until about the 6 month mark that I could tolerate cayenne or crushed red pepper.

I can't remember a time when I didn't know about weight loss surgery. I've been overweight since grade school and have been researching different ways to lose weight since middle school. I can remember my parents taking me to the doctor and getting me a prescription for diet pills before I was 10.

Sorry to hear about your cold and I hope the x-rays turns out well for you. Getting used to eating so much less was a big adjustment for me too. At 17 months post-op, I still tend to have eyes bigger than my stomach... especially if there are a lot of things to choose from, like at a buffet. And I still struggle with leaving food on my plate, I come from the "clean your plate" family, but I'm getting better at it. It really helps to use saucers and 1 cup sized bowls to limit the amount of food I can bring to the table.

It was after I'd lost about 60lbs that I noticed that my feet stopped swelling. The more weight I dropped the less frequent I noticed it happening, along with a reduction in the random pains in my knees and ankles. I believe that people are most often told to stay off the scale because they get frustrated when the scale isn't continuously going down. Weight loss isn't a going to be a steady downward path. The body is going to figure out at some point that calories have been decreased and start trying to conserve it's food reserves, but eventually weight loss will begin again. I never had an issue weighing myself several times a day. It was just something to do and I wanted to see how much I weighed before and after eating, before and after peeing and pooping. I know, I'm weird... but I'm not the only one! Check out my blog post - How often do you weigh yourself? If start out with the attitude that there are going to be days when the scale isn't going to move and promise you'll be patient till the weight loss starts again, then you shouldn't be afraid to weigh yourself as often as you want.

This strategy may not work for everyone, but it works for me. I'm a sugar addict and just walking past a cake or donuts is enough to trigger my head hunger. When I'm in that type of situation, I try to fill up on Protein or low glycemic foods first. Then, if I still have that nagging desire to eat sugar and just can't resist, I allow myself about 1/2 of a 6 oz coffee cup of the treat. Filling up on protein and good carbs before eating sugary foods slows down the absorption of sugar and fills my stomach.

Me too, I had the knot from the stitches in the biggest incision sticking out. On my 1st post-surgery follow up, the doc grabbed a tiny pair of scissors and snipped the knot off and tugged the thread out. No big deal.

Congratulations on your surgery. I remember all the gurgling in my stomach, it went on for weeks post-op. I ate almost nothing that 1st week post-op, maybe half a Popsicle a day. I wasn't worried about food. Shoot, I was 200 lbs overweight.... there wasn't much chance of me starving to death for months!!! :-P My only focus was getting enough fluids. I'm a side sleeper and couldn't sleep on my side for about 3 weeks. I had to roll up a comforter into a log so I could sleep raised up like in the hospital bed. Good luck, every day will get a little better. I was hurting like Hell that 1st week, but by day 10 I was pain free and back at work.

I did my initial interview with the surgeon a week after I decided to have VSG. And I completed all my pre-surgery tests and was sleeved within a month. But I knew what I wanted and my insurance is very weight loss surgery friendly. I never felt comfortable telling anyone about my decision to have surgery. I had to tell my parents and my best friend, but that was it. It's been 17 months since surgery and I'm just now feeling okay about telling people - but only if asked, I don't volunteer any information. I would not suggest getting sleeved together. If one of you needs help during the1st few days post-surgery, the other may not be able to help. I'd at least stagger the surgeries a month or so apart. You both could go through all the pre-op tests together. You'll still be losing weight together and can be there to support each other through the process.

My doc didn't give me any meds for acid and I've never taken any. But you should really call your doc and get his answer as to whether you should be taking them or not. Every case is different and you need to go with your doc, he knows your situation better than anyone.

I've avoided cereal simply because it's so processed that they have to add things to it to make it taste good and shelf stable. I'm no purist, but in general, I try to avoid any prepared foods. Hmmmm...... now maybe it they could figure out how to make a cereal out of steak or hamburger. New from Kelloggs - Steakios, comes in two flavors, grilled hamburger or smothered steak. I'd try that. :-)

Really enjoyed your video. Keep them coming. You'll look back post-surgery and be glad you made them.

Congratulations!!!

I was eating 600 - 800 calories a day. But the amount of recommended calories is going to vary by doctor. My handbook says 50% lean Protein, 25% healthy fats, 25% carbs. In an 800 calorie diet, that's 400 calories of protein, 200 calories of fat, and 200 calories of carbs.

My doc said I could start taking showers after the 1st week. Before that he wanted me to cover the incisions with plastic wrap or water proof bandages. He didn't want the incision sites to be submerged in water. At one month he said I could start taking baths.

Welcome to the board, poke around and feel ask questions, or just lurk on the boards (that's what I did the 1st few weeks ;-P). You'll soon see we all have the same nervousness about surgery. I'm 47 and got my Sleeve 17 months ago. Never regretted it for a minute. I was nervous about the gastroscopy too, but it was no big deal in the end. They gave me the anesthesia, it felt like I blinked my eyes and it was over. Other than a little scratchiness in my throat, there were no issues.

I'm about to reach 18 months post-op and I've lost 154 lbs as of today. I have been overweight since grade school and was sleeved at 47. I was worried that the surgery would be another empty promise like all the other "miracle" weight loss products I saw on TV. My entire mental attitude changed right after surgery. No more food cravings or the compulsion to eat certain flavors. I assume it was because of the reduction in ghrelin production. My biggest battle has been not letting myself get back into the habit of eating when bored. I've never truly felt hunger since surgery. My stomach growls, but I don't have that mental need to eat. I've stalled out on my weight loss several times, but as long as I go back to eating correctly, the weight starts coming off again. I work with several ladies that have had the Gastric Bypass - 1yr, 4yrs, and 10yrs. since surgery. They are all happy with their weight loss and have maintained it.

Boiled eggs were one of the toughest foods on my sleeve - very hard to break down. You might try soft scrambled eggs instead and see if you have the same reaction. chicken, eggs, whole wheat bread and vegetables were some of the foods that took the longest for me to get adjusted to post-surgery. Frankensleeve felt like a garbage disposal trying to grind up rocks when I ate something he didn't like.