agives130

I LUUUUVVVV MY SLEEVE!! :001_tt1: So I went to my 8 wk. appt. 2 weeks ago & I had lost a total of 32 lbs.! Sounds good right?? Well the first 30 pounds pretty much happened in the first month. So I had only lost 2 pounds the second month. So after a big lecture my doctor told me I wasn't eating enough foods. I was shocked!...not enough foods. My intake has been 600-800 cal/day. He instructed me to eat more Protein to uptake my caloires so I did. Within a week I had lost 4 more pounds! It was hard to get it all in because I am pretty full all day. What's interesting is my tale tale sign that I wasnt eating enough protein....I was getting hungry...no FAMISHED every 2 hours. So I would eat a tiny bit of yogart or something low cal/low sugar and I would get full pretty fast but was wondering why I was starving 2 hours later. My doctor is great...he recognized the culprit immediately. Now that I've been eating dense Proteins I feel totally stuffed for 3-4 hours and sometimes longer if I eat steak. I even started to think I was in a stall even though I felt I was eating right and working out 5 days a week at the gym (1 hour cardio/ 30 min weights). I've been out of town for a week now so I don't know if I lost anymore weight yet. But I did bring along my beef Jerky to snack on instead of the sugar laden Snacks that my employer offers throughout the day. I go to see my doc. next month for my 3 mo. post op. So far so good... 37 pounds & counting =0). I should update my ticker... SW/CW/GW 307/270/140

Congrats on your sleeve! Don't worry about the liquids, your sleeve will relax and you will get them in. I'm just 3 weeks out and I can drink 4-8 ounces at a pretty normal rate now. Right after surgery it was only a sip or two every half an hour.

Champ, Sorry to hear that you and your wife are going through this. I will keep you in my prayers. Things will get better!

Today I decided to get a fruit & yogurt parfait from McDonalds for the first time. I ate about half the yogurt but not the fruit. 10 minutes later I had some serious back pain going across my mid back. It lasted for about an hour. Well, jus to make sure that I wasn't imagining things I just ate the other half of the yogart. Lo & Behold my back is killing me again. Has anyone experienced anything like this? What causes this type of reaction? Any info. would help. Thanks!

For some reason I never felt my heartburn before my surgery( although my Dr said I had GERD) so I didn't know what it felt like. Post-op, I never feel heartburn in my chest... not tightness or anything. I always get a pain in my mid back or feel a burning sensation in my stomach. I will definately take your advice on taking the acid reducer next time. Hopefully, it will save me hours of discomfort. Thanks!

Way to go!

Hey Everyone, Good news! I went to my 2 week post-op appt. today and I lost a whopping 25 pounds. The staff was so shocked they weighed me 5 times. I did a 5 day post-op diet. In which I lost 5 pounds. So that's a 20 pound drop since my 4/28 surgery date. Kudos to me! Yay SW/CW/GW 307/282/140

Thanks Everyone! Goodlife, 12 lbs. is awesome too! Congrats to you on your loss. Happy Dance! SW/CW/GW 307/282/140

(Some of this is nasty, just in case you have a weak stomach) I don't know what happened. I had my VSG surgery on 4/28 and didn't have any problems with gas or holding down food. Now all of a sudden after 1 week goes by I start having issues. About 5 days ago I noticed whenever I took the Carafate the doctor prescribed (its suppose to protect your stomach lining) I get a major stomach ache and I can eat or drink anything for at least 12 hours. So I called the doctor's office and the nurse there told me to stop taking it for a while because some people cannot handle it. She also told me to get some liquid Tylenol and lay off the Hydrocodone for a while because it may be giving me a stomach ache. So I did and I started to feel myself again. Well this past Thursday my back was hurting like crazy (so much I couldn't sleep) so I decided to take the liquid Tylenol. I had to take 30ml so I sipped it slowly followed by a tiny sip of Water. Immediately my mouth started to water and I barely made it in time to the bathroom to vomit it all up. So I'm thinking okay....no more tylenol for me. So I wait 4 hours and I try to take a half a dose of hydrocodone because I still can't sleep with my back pain. I take one tiny tiny sip and once again immediately I vomit it up but this time I start vomitting a lot of blood as well. UCK!!!!!! So now I'm about to panic and run to the emergency room but decided to call the doctor first. It was about 10 at night but I got through to my doctor pretty quickly. He told me that I need to start taking the Carafate again and that I shouldn't be taking Tylenol. He also said the Hydrocodone can cause bleeding so I had to stop taking that. He instructed me to take the Carafate as soon as I got off the phone and go to the emergency room if I vomit anymore blood. Sooooo... I took that freaking Carafate and like before I had a massive stomach ache that kept me awake ALL night. Around 4am I ended up vomitting what was left in my stomach but thankfully no blood. Now its almost 9am and my stomach ache is just now starting to go away. I drank 2 sips of chicken broth at 7am and managed to keep that down. However, I just went to go brush my teeth and vomitted again...what the duece!!! I don't understand. I was doing soooo well and now I feel like I need to be in the ICU. I called my pharmacist this morning because I had read that my reactions to the Carafate was considered serious. He advised me to ask my doctor to change my prescription to something else. There is no way that I can continue to take that Carafate this weekend. I would be dehydrated by Monday! I feel terrible......

Update.. So I went to the DR today and everything looked great. He didn't feel the need to do the Endoscopy since all of my symptoms have stopped. Unfortunately, the Protonix made me break out in hives so I am now trying Prilosec in the morning and Pepcid AC at night. We've came to the conclusion that the Carafate was the the root of the problem and everything just spiraled out of control from there. Through it all I never vomitted when I ate or drank. Only when I took that darn Carafate. I happened to be in the 1% of folks who just can't tolerate it. I really appreciate all of the concern & support. :biggrin2: Oh one more thing. I lost a total of 25 pounds so far! (5 days pre-op + 12 days post-op) Now that's AMAZING! :001_tongue: Off to try my first soft food.. mashed potatoes & taking it slow. Later! SW/CW/GW 307/282/140

My doctor prescribed me Protonix which I took my first dose of yesterday....awww so much better. However, I'm starting to think I might have an ulcer because last night I woke up with my stomach burning like I swallowed 10 whole jalepenos! It went on for about 3 hours and I couldn't get it to stop. Finally, I drank some ice cold powerade/water mix and it seemed to start calming down. Needless to say I lost a lot of sleep this weekend. I'm glad I will be seeing the doctor tomorrow. One good thing is that I am up to drinking 2oz. at a time now. So it is getting better. I will keep you all posted!

So I feel pretty normal now. However, before the vomitting episode I was able to drink 4 oz. of liquid in and hour. Now I can only get in about 4 tablespoons in an hour and I am totally stuffed. Has anyone experienced something similiar to this?? It's like I just came home from the hospital.

Thanks everyone for your support. My doctor called to check on me and said he is changing my Carafate prescription and he wants to do another Endoscopy to see if I have a hernia...GREAT! So I have my 2 week appt. moved up from next Thurs. to Tues. I still feel naeseous so I am not getting much fluids in. I will take your advice and go to the ER for an IV if needed. I will keep you all posted.

Hello Everyone, I am doing much better today with the fluids. I seem to be able to take in more warm liquids. Odd but it works! Now all I need is for this stomach soreness to go away & I will be good to go =-).

Greetings! So here's my sleeve story... I was officially sleeved on 4/28. My doctor put me on a 5 day full liquid diet before the surgery. After my sleeve surgery, I spent two days in the hospital. Today is the early morning of my 3rd day since my surgery and I must say I feel pretty good. I never had any gas pains in my chest or anything and was walking within a few hours after the anesthesia wore off. The worse part is the soreness I feel in my stomach. To best describe it I'd say I feel like I did 10,000 crunches on my left-front side non-stop. :scared0: However, that's nothing a little liquid pain killer can't resolve! Yesterday I physically drank about 24oz. of fluids after being taken off of my IV and released from the hospital so I am not sure if I had enough fluids or not (with the IV fluids from the morning). My nutritionist says I need to get in 64 oz. a day so I am really trying to figure out a strategy here. To stay hydrated I figure I would need to drink 2oz. of fluid about every 30 minutes but I don't feel there is room in my sleeve to accomplish this... any suggestions would be great! Before Surgery:307 lbs. Surgery Day:302 lbs Current Wht.: ?

Thanks everyone & hello fellow 4/28 sleevers out there. Yes I am doing fine otherwise. I do get full on water alone which is kind of frustrating because before the sleeve I drank at least 80 oz. of water a day. I always had a 32 oz. water bottle with me. Now I feel like my mouth is constantly dry and when I try to drink I can't get more than 1.5 to 2oz. in before my stomach starts feeling wierd. I actually prefer water to any other fluids, I just wish I could drink more. I even started sucking on ice chips since the hospital to help quinch the dry mouth which provides about 10 seconds of relief before I get the dry mouth again. This morning my nurse told me since stomach is swollen it may be the reason why I can't drink as much so guess I will have to just wait it out...unfortunately. Thanks again for all the great suggestions! I will keep everyone posted. :tongue_smilie:

I've been approved & it only took 1 day. =0) Surgery date- 4/28 Good luck to you all!

Its a done deal! Just got this off the aetna website...clicked on the Last Review Date 4/9/10. This CPB has been revised to state that sleeve gastrectomy is considered medically necessary when criteria are met. This CPB is revised to provide selection criteria for bariatric surgery for adolescents, based upon criteria from the Pediatric Bariatric Study Group. :lol0:. Now I'll be waiting on the official approval letter...hopefully within the next week. I'm soooooooooooooo excited. :thumbup1::lol0::biggrin2:

Hello Everyone, I've been floating around the board for a few months now but never posted anything. I too have Aetna and guess what...drumroll please... I was scheduled to self pay next week but read jbmf's post last night. At 8am today I was on the phone with my case manager asking if she heard anything about Aetna approving the sleeve next month. She had not but promised to research it and call me back. Well, she just called me and said that she spoke with a very reputable source today and they told her that they are denying claims now and they can't leagally tell people they will approve it next month but indeed they will...Yaaaaaay =0) So mid April is the timeframe for approval! Now I can use that money for my new wardrobe! Thanks a bunch jbmf!! SW/CW/GW 305/305/140 5'6/f Surgery Date: Hopefully sometime in April 2010 when Aetna Approves the Sleeve!