joatsaint

This is what I lived on: scrambled eggs, creamy peanut butter, greek yogurt, refried beans, cream of mushroom soup, and very well pureed lean meats like turkey hamburger.

The 7 or 8 days post-op were the "What the Hell did I do to myself????????" phase. I was pissed at the world and depressed at the same time. But I knew there was no going back. I was in a lot of pain, but knowing what I know now, I'd do it over again in a second. Each day will get a little better. Remember, this was no minor thing you had done. It was major surgery, no matter how "everyday" it seems to be portrayed in the media and online. Your stomach had a major trauma. Your system is putting all it's resources towards healing and you probably still have some of the residual medication from surgery in your system. Hang in there, it does get better.

The pre-op diet for me was hard. At the time, an all liquid diet was mentally stressful. After all the years of being on diets that failed, I couldn't believe this one was going to do me any good. Just the thought of being deprived was causing me stress. But I made it through. And I can say that it was much tougher than the surgery. If you can get through the liquid diet phase, surgery is a breeze!

I can understand your frustration. I would make it easy on myself and tell the doc who I'd like to continue therapy with, get the surgery and then decide if I wanted to continue therapy or not.

Hey guys, Atkins is still giving away their Quick Start Kit, which includes 3 Atkins bars - completely free. I did an Unboxing and review video of the contents, it's posted below. The link to the Atkins free offer is below the video. Meal Replacement bar. All 3 were delicious, it was hard not to eat all three of them. Just a word of caution, the bars are sweetened with sugar alcohols, so those of you that can't tolerate sugar alcohols might not want to eat the bars. The kit also includes some literature: 2 coupons for $1 discounts on Atkins bars, Snacks, and meals. An Atkins approved food booklet and the Atkins Quick Start guide that explains the Atkins diet and the phases. As well, there are links to the Atkins support community and where you can download the Atkins app. The Atkins app will help you: *search for nutritional info, *keep track of your carb intake, your weight and how close you are to reaching your goal, *provides a daily meal plan or help you design your own, *has a database of the foods considered acceptable for each phase, *and has a restaurant guide to help you make Atkins friendly food choices when dining out.

Hey guys, Atkins is still giving away their Quick Start Kit, which includes 3 Atkins bars - completely free. I did an Unboxing and review video of the contents, it's posted below. The link to the Atkins free offer is below the video. http://goo.gl/1mAv8A - This is the link I promised to the sign up page for the free Atkins Quick Start Kit. There's no catch, they need your email and shipping address, they even pay shipping and handling. The kit included 3 different Atkins bars - one small, one medium, and full size meal replacement bar. All 3 were delicious, it was hard not to eat all three of them. Just a word of caution, the bars are sweetened with sugar alcohols, so those of you that can't tolerate sugar alcohols might not want to eat the bars. The kit also includes some literature: 2 coupons for $1 discounts on Atkins bars, snacks, and meals. An Atkins approved food booklet and the Atkins Quick Start guide that explains the Atkins diet and the phases. As well, there are links to the Atkins support community and where you can download the Atkins app. The Atkins app will help you: *search for nutritional info, *keep track of your carb intake, your weight and how close you are to reaching your goal, *provides a daily meal plan or help you design your own, *has a database of the foods considered acceptable for each phase, *and has a restaurant guide to help you make Atkins friendly food choices when dining out.

I was able to ditch my CPAP 9 months post-op. It's been 8 months since I stopped using it and I get enough sleep to feel rested. I started experimenting with sleeping without the machine when I started having problems sleeping because my machine was pumping so much air into my stomach that I'd wake up. I was passing so much gas that it was literally waking me up. :-P I wasn't able to go off the machine when I tried sleeping without it at 8 months post-op, but I tried again a month later and noticed an improved sleep and I wasn't waking up every few hours. I am pretty sure I still have some light apnea, but it's no where near the severity it was. I occasionally wake up because I wasn't breathing, but I still wake feeling like I've gotten enough sleep. Before the CPAP machine, I could barley function at work and I spent all my time at home trying to catch up on sleep because I was so sleep deprived.

For me, it's hard to separate the two (restriction/healthy eating) in determining which I rely on more for success. I pretty much ditched all my unhealthy foods right after surgery and then relied on my restriction to keep me from over eating on healthy food. After the 1st year, I let some old habits (eating when I'm not hungry or just eating out of boredom) creep back in. Even though I was eating really healthy stuff (Beans, lentils, low glycemic vegetables and lean protein) the calories stared adding up and my weight loss stopped from December 2013 to March 2014. I had to get back on track and go back to carefully watching my caloric intake. And when I wanted to eat, I had to think on it and decide if I was really hungry or was I just bored and wanted something to do. Now, I'm no healthy eating purist, I still let myself eat a little dessert here and there. But I know that if I take in too many calories of any food, my weight loss is going to stop.

Congrats on such a great NSV!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am looking forward to my next flight. It will be the 1st time I will be able to put the tray all the way down!

I was driving on day 6 or 7. I was feeling pretty weak for the 1st 10 days or so. But I was back at work on day 10. I wore the elastic stomach binder every day and never had any pain problems driving. The drive back from the hospital after surgery was a different story. Even with the binder, I felt every bump, jiggle, and curve in the road.

My 1st week post-op I went through the, "What the Hell did I do to myself!" phase. But on day 8 or 9, everything got better and I've never regretted it for a minute. It was the best decision of my life and I'd go through every minute of it again without hesitation.

About 4 weeks for me. Having said that, I was told by my insurance provider that they were very WLS friendly. I have sleep apnea, so I had met their requirements for co-morbidity. But years earlier, I had been on a doctor's supervised diet plus my BMI was high enough. So I didn't have to go through as much to be qualified for surgery as some insurance requires.

I too wondered if I would be the one person WLS would not work for. After years of trying all the "miracle" pills that promised weight loss if I only took this one, it was hard to believe that surgery would work for me. I can only tell you that my thoughts and feelings about food are completely different now. And it started right after surgery. My biggest problem was cravings for certain flavors. Those cravings would nag at me like a little kid tugging at my sleeve who wanted a toy. The bad part was I couldn't b*tch slap this kid away! :-P It's been 17 months and the cravings have never returned. The surgery was the tool I needed to get my weight under control. As far as "Center of Excellence", that was a label my insurance company used describe hospitals they would pay for. I think it's a euphemism for "it's a hospital that will take what we're willing to pay." I was terrified and worried if surgery was the right thing for me - after all they can't put my stomach back in if it didn't work out. I called my insurance company to get a list of doctors on their approved list in Nov 2012, and then got scared and backed out. After about 3 weeks I asked myself 2 questions that help me make life decisions: 1. Do I want to be in this situation a year from now? 2 Am I willing to do whatever it takes to get out of this? I committed to the surgery in my mind and was willing to go through whatever I had to. I made my 1st doc. appmt. on Dec 7th, went through all the pre-surgery tests in 3 weeks and was Sleeved on Dec. 27th. And I've never regretted a minute of it - even when I was hurting like Hell because I couldn't take the liquid pain meds. Even if I knew I'd have to go through the pain of that 1st week post-op again, I wouldn't hesitate to have the surgery.

I threw up in the hospital the day after surgery. They gave me a teeny water cup and after 3 or 4 sips, up it came. I couldn't hold but a sip at a time. I think you may have drank too much too soon. After I got home, I could make 1 frozen popsicle last an entire day. I could only eat 1 bite every hour or two.

At 3 weeks post-op I was on soft foods. My doc would allow anything soft and mushy. If the chicken is soft and shredded finely enough, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But I know that if the soup had any vegetable pieces in it, my new stomach would not have been ready for it. Being so soon after surgery, you might try my method for introducing new foods - eat 1/2 teaspoon full, wait 5 minutes, eat 1/2 teaspoon full, wait 5 minutes. From experience, if my stomach didn't rebel after the 2nd 5 minutes was up, it was safe to eat.

I can't recall ever being told I couldn't drink alcohol or carbonated drinks. I'm not much of a drinker so it was at 6 months that I tried a drink - I had some old Tequila from pre-surgery and mixed it with some Crystal Light lemonade. It was only about 2 ounces, but I was buzzing pretty quick! Since then I've drank beer and Mike's Hard Lemonade, but I drink them very slowly since I didn't know how fast the carbonation was going to fill me up. And I pour them over ice to get rid of some of the carbonation. I had no problems with any of them.

I can gulp down water, but I know it's not near the amount I could pre-surgery. It takes time to learn how much you can swallow at one time without going too far. But eventually it becomes a habit. I've learned that I can take 4 big swallows (about 1/2 a mouth full each time) without feeling too full. But water is a slider food for me. :-P

Happy NSV!! Keep Pimpin' that Sleeve!

That went on with me for some time post-op. But around the 2nd month, my taste buds stabilized and things started tasting normal again. BUT! To this day I can't eat another can of Cream of Mushroom soup. I lived on it for about 3 months post-op and now I don't even want to look at the label. I had to give away a case I had bought after it set on the shelf for 6 months.

For the 9 months post-op, I had a lot of trouble going to the bathroom. All my life I'd never had problems going to the bathroom and I couldn't understand why people took reading materials in there with them. When I had to go, I had to go, no messing around! After surgery, I had to retrain myself to go to the bathroom at the slightest hint that I needed to go. 17 months later, I still have to sometimes go to the bathroom, strain (to kinda prime the pump! ) and then come back later to finish the job. I've had to really up my fiber intake to solve the problem. Most of my meals include one of these: beans, lentils, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, or salad fixins.

My first 10 days post-op, nothing agreed with Frankensleeve. I only drank iced Crystal Light and ate frozen popsicles. I don't think it hurt my sleeve a bit. The cold temps may have even helped bring down some of the swelling. My doc never gave me any restrictions on the temperature of my food.

I wasn't able to eat anything other than popsicles the first week. The 2nd week, I was eating about 1 teaspoon of food every hour or so. Eating anything made my stomach knot and twist. I was still only eating about 3/4 of Soup per day at 1 month post-op. You will be able to eat more as your new stomach heals and the swelling goes down. I was very happy being only able to eat a teaspoon full or two and being completely full. My main concern was getting enough fluids, which was no problem. As far as eating goes...I figured I had enough fat stored on my body to last a good 6 months!

I'm on month 17 post-op and Frankensleeve still gurgles when I eat pineapple. For weeks after surgery could hear and feel gurgling whenever I drank or ate. It will eventually settle down as you heal and your new stomach gets used to digesting food again.

Congrats on your NSV!

Congrats on having such an easy surgery. I was very uncomfortable from the gas after surgery, but it never hurt me to walk. I was mainly felt weakness. But like they say, get up and walk. It will help you in the long run.