Kris

You are doing great! Way to go!

Hey there, I am only a week ahead of you in being sleeved and I am still letting out some good burps when I eat or drink! I do hope this passes soon!

Thanks you guys! Venting helps, thank you for listening and encouraging. I am so looking forward to February when things will hopefully normalize somewhat. I think I am not getting enough protein/calories and that is probably some of the reason for the low energy.I just am not loving my protein drinks at all and it's hard to drink them and get regular fluids in as well. I am a bit dehydrated and also need to work on water intake. I wish someone could just put me in a coma or something and wake me up in 3 weeks!

BonnieJune, I watched your first youtubes -- I am in week 2 post op and boy did it help me to hear from someone who has been there/done that and gotten through it fine. Every day this week has been a trial for me. I'm normally a pretty cheerful, upbeat person, but man am I down in the dumps lately. Like you, I just want to CHEW so badly and can't! Also it hasn't helped that every night for the past 3 nights my hubby has eaten pizza or a hamburger and cheese puffs ... come on dude, you are KILLING me eating that stuff while I'm stuck sucking down broth (for the 12th freaking night in a row). Keep up your videos so I know what is in store for me as I progress!

Try carnation sugar free instant breakfast. It doesn't have as much protein but is the most palatable drink I've found that has over 10g protein, and it's in pretty much any grocery store. If you like chocolate milk I think you will like it. I also really like kelloggs protein water. It has 5 g protein per 16 oz and tastes good, like crystal light. I hope these help!

Hi all, I felt really pretty good the first few days after surgery, but have noticed my energy level is a lot lower than it was the day I was released from the hospital. Last night I slept nearly 10 hours and even after taking a shower (which usually perks me up) I have extremely low energy. I am just starting my first Protein Drink of the day (Nectar) and hope I feel better after that, but is it normal for your energy level to be lower after 9 days than after the first few days? I also have been battling a cold for the last 5 days, which I am sure hasn't helped, but even as my cold seems to be mostly gone I find my energy level is at rock bottom. have to go back to work in 2 days so if I don't get some energy back here soon I don't know how I'm going to make it through a full work day on Tuesday!

I love that show. I know the contestants are working out something like 6 hours a day so maybe with the extreme exercise there is a need for more calories to repair muscles? It is truly amazing how much weight those folks are able to lose in a short time!

But I am sure thatdudesmom's broths are even better!

They have beef, chicken, and vegetable broths. The beef has lovely spices in it usually, very subtle but full of flavor. Chicken is wonderful too. Enjoy!

I wanna join the party train! I was 211 at this morning's weigh in and am hoping to get to ONEderland by Valentine's Day (better gift than chocolate for once!!!!). I haven't been below 200 since, uh, like 1998 ... LONG time ago.... I am SO ready to get there!!!!

WOOHOO!!!! WAY TO GO, DIVA!!!!!

If you don't want to make your own broth and live near any good Vietnamese Pho (soup) restaurants, let me tell you their broth is to die for! You can buy a large container (about a quart) of broth and it is dirt cheap, like $3 or $4 for the container. Pho broth has been my salvation the past couple of days!

Hi Cinderella, I think you are right that I wasn't getting enough Protein. I had my husband pick up a container of pho (vietnamese soup) broth for me yesterday and drank it all, and today when I woke up I was feeling better. Tomorrow I go on full liquids which includes Protein Drinks made with milk/soy milk and I think that will help too -- I have unjury chocolate splendor and vanilla to try out. Also trying yogurt starting tomorrow, so my protein grams are going to go way up compared to what they have been.

I took a week and a half off from work to have surgery and recuperate. Tomorrow is my first day back to work. Part of me is excited (it gets a little boring at times to be at home) and part is dreading it (my energy level today is OK, but this morning by the time I was done showering, dressing, and making the bed I was ready to rest a while! Tomorrow, no such luck. I might try to get up earlier just in case I need to rest a while before going to work, so I won't be late getting in. I promise myself if I really can't do a full day of work I will take part of the day off until I am ready for a full day. But I will enjoy seeing people at work again, and getting back into the groove. I had my first walk yesterday ... just up to the local park and back, probably just shy of a mile. It was a little too much ... I really noticed my abdominal muscles and my incisions once I got home. But it did feel good to move a bit. Today I will take another walk, but just half as long as yesterday. I have to say that is one characteristic I really notice in myself. I tend to try to overdo things when I ought to be content to under-do (or more accurately, do the appropriate amount). Could've taken 2 weeks off, but no, I wanted to be macho and get back to work earlier .... I could've walked 10 minutes, but no, I had to go 20 minutes right out the gate. Dumb. It is really something I need to work on. Better to under-commit and deliver easily than overcommit and feel like crap getting it done .... I always find a way to get it done, but usually it costs me ... sigh. I wonder if this is because I have low self esteem and have to overcommit to people to "prove" to them that I am worthy. Enough truth in that observation to sting, for sure. It's something to think about. I know my weight issues are not stand-alone, they are part of a complex web of emotions and self-talk and self-perception. While I am on my weight loss journey I also want/need to be on an honest self-exploration journey too. I don't want to end up at my weight loss goal only to find myself overweight again a few years later, and that will happen if I don't deal with my emotional/mental issues as well as dealing with what I put in my mouth and how I move my body. Well, on more cheerful news, the scale told me this morning I am down to 211. I am so happy about that! I had surgery 11 days ago and have lost 13.5 lbs. -- a little more than 1 lb. lost a day. I don't think this is sustainable for long but for now it feels really good. When I look in the mirror I don't see much change, but because I am so big it will take a while to see change. I can't wait to get to ONEderland and hope/expect that will be sometime in February (if it happens in January, I will be over the moon with joy -- but with only 2 weeks left in January I would have to keep losing nearly 1 lb. a day in order to hit that, and I don't want my hopes dashed if I have a stall, which is very common around the 2nd or 3rd week after surgery). So my mini-goal is ONEderland by Valentine's Day. I am sure I can meet this goal!

Hey, well at least you know tomorrow you can have full liquids! I have 2 days to wait. Know what you want to have yet? I am going to have an unjury chocolate milk, Soup, and some sf chocolate pudding on my first day of full liquids. I sure am looking forward to a little more variety! I have been reading postop diet of other surgeons and it sure does look like Dr. A has a strict plan for us, but considering he's in Mexico and we're back home in the US I am sure he doesn't want to take any chances with problems with our new sleeves the first few weeks. Enjoy your last day on clears!

Hey Priscilla, this is Kris, I met you at the hospital! I definitely want to know the answer to this because I have been counting 10 days as starting the day after surgery, like you. I tell you I never thought one day would make so much of a difference, but it does! I have been wanting something other than clears for a few days now and am really getting really fed up with clears!

This just happened to me too! I was taking a shower yesterday and I didn't notice that the waterproof adhesive tape sealing the edge of my main incision bandage had separated from the bandage. The bandage got wet. I took it off and noticed that the incision had opened -- only the top layer of skin -- but the fluid was yellow and a little red, like watery blood. OMG! I panicked thinking I had gotten an infection somehow. My post-op paperwork said however that sometimes fat leaks out of the incision and looks either like butter or red wine, and it is not an infection but is normal. I put a dollop of antibiotic ointment on it just to be safe and put on a fresh bandage. This morning I removed the bandage just to check, and there was a tiny bit of discharge (like the equivalent of one small drop of liquid) and it was yellow. There is a small bit of yellowish almost like gel sitting on top of the skin that appears to be congealed a bit and I think that is new scar tissue forming. I am going to email my patient coordinator just to be on the safe side but I am thinking it's belly fat. You know I am paranoid about it though!

Hi there, I am just a few days ahead of you in being sleeved. Myori is right, every day gets better. I can drink a lot more now, and a lot faster, than I could just a few days ago. If I drink too much or too fast my tummy grumbles but I can feel improvement every day. Just do your best each day to get to 64 oz. and you will soon be there!

Great story, congrats on your tremendous success! I am definitely borrowing your letter to self idea!

Your story really resonated with me. My dad's side of the family had a lot of heart problems, and my dad died at age 50 of a heart attack. The fear of dying young was a major motivator for me to get sleeved. You have given yourself many extra years of life with your sleeve. And you will look fab all those extra years too! Thanks for telling your story and please keep posting!

Today is my one week surgiversary and I am down 11.5 lbs. since my final weigh-in the day before surgery. Unbelievable! I am so thrilled! My first mini-goal is to get to ONEderland by Valentine's Day and I think that is very achievable. My energy level is still pretty low, on account of me getting a cold (most likely picked it up while traveling home from Mexico). But other than that I think I am healing up pretty normally.

I am 43 and was just sleeved on 1/7. I totally wish this surgery was available to me 10 years ago, but I'm hoping to turn back the clock a decade or so once I get to goal.

I don't have much to add to this thread except when I was researching which WLS to have, I attended a seminar at a nearby Bariatric Center of Excellence held by a very experienced bariatric surgeon. He went through all the major WLS in detail, showing diagrams of the procedures, pros and cons, etc. He was careful not to tell people which surgery to have, but made sure to mention that people with DS and RNY have malabsorption issues and have to spend "hundreds of dollars every month on supplements to get adequate nutrition," and he spent time discussing what he called "social issues" (dumping, poopy smell emanating from bowels thru skin, poop issues in general, etc. Man, you could see people shaking their heads "no way" when they heard about poop issues!). Of the four WLS he covered (band, sleeve, DS, RNY) he said DS would be the LEAST of the four to consider for most people and he said he would only recommend RNY over the sleeve for people that had severe acid reflux problems. He was very pro-band and pro-sleeve, even though he probably gets paid more for RNY and DS procedures.

Hey Bugwitch! Congrats on booking your surgery! I was just sleeved with Dr. Aceves a week ago today. My experience was excellent. Every detail is taken care of for you, all you have to do is pack and get on the plane. I've already lost 11.5 lbs. in just a week (I never even came close to that kind of weight loss ever before on any other diet!) and with the sleeve I am hunger free and so happy I did this for myself. I noticed you are still debating sleeve vs. lap band. I just have one story to share with you. One of the ladies that was having surgery the same day as me was getting a sleeve after a failed lap band. She had 3 perfect years with her lap band and then starting having horrible problems, and had to have it removed. She gained 30 lbs. very fast after the band was removed, and so decided to have the sleeve to get her weight back under control. I have to say I have seen/heard similar stories many times since I started researching weight loss surgery; I don't think it is that uncommon. Obviously you have to make the best choice for yourself, but if you are paying for surgery and are watching pennies, just think about what MIGHT go wrong if you have the lap band ... could you afford to pay for surgery if there are complications with it (port flipping, band erosion, can't get the fills right, etc.) or to have it removed, and deal with the weight gain that seems to accompany most people with the removal? The scary thing about VSG is it's permanent, but that's also the good thing too. You don't have to worry about fills, or band problems, or anything like that. I wish you all the best and you are in excellent hands with Dr. Aceves and his team regardless of which procedure you choose. I know many other people here on VSG will say the same. March will be here before you know it! If I have any advice at all for you as a pre-op it is get used to a high Protein, low carb diet. That is what you are going to be on for the rest of the year -- really, the rest of your life. If you follow South Beach or some other type of hi-pro/lo-carb diet, you will also lose a decent amount of weight so by the time you are ready to be sleeved you will be in an optimal position for success. I wish you all the best! Yay for you!!!!

Congrats, that is a MAJOR milestone in your weight loss journey!