YellowRose

Dr. Wilkenfeld - Conroe TX says "NO" to follow-up for self-pay Mexico patients. His nurse suggested I just go to the ER.

I'm in Houston. You think it wouldn't be hard to find one, but so far no positive responses.

I also do bookkeeping and accounting. I had my surgery on a Thursday, and "tried" to return to work on the following Tuesday. I was miserable and ended up going home early and taking the next day off. I could not take any more time off, so one of the things I did to help me was to take a nap during my lunch hour. I brought a small sofa pillow and put it under my desk (I have a private office). During my "lunch" I would lock my door, turn off the light, set my cell phone alarm,, and rest. THAT REALLY HELPED. I am now almost 4 weeks out, and work is still hard. I have good days and "tired" days. I have been crashing at night around 8:00pm to 9:00pm. I am glad that you are getting 10 days to rest & recover!! That should really help.

Pretty sure it is related to the acid reflux and heartburn.

I googled several questions about it. ONE of the things I found talked about GERD (which I know nothing about). It said that acid reflux & heartburn can irritate the throat and cause a persistent dry cough like an "allergy". The only relief is what all of us already know -- take your meds to keep the reflux & heartburn calm. It also said it can be worse right after you eat... which I have noticed. Which was why I kept wondering if it was a food allergy. Now I am wondering if I need to take stronger doses (or more frequent doses) of Pepcid & Prilosec. What doses are YOU on?

LOL... mine was the opposite. I never used to drink a lot of Water. NOW I love it and cannot stand juices. I bought a bunch of the small bottles of G2 - they actually made me gag. I ended up giving them away. I've noticed a change in the way foods taste too. I tried a container of yogurt and all I could taste was the artificial sweeteners. I tried different Soup broths and all I could taste was the potato starch in them. I guess it's not a bad thing, but it just makes every bite an adventure. lol. SO SORRY about the water thing!

Bumping thread for a response. I also wonder if I picked up some kind of infection or something. Anyone?

Okay... I'm about to scream. Husband is eating his dinner (I was just sleeved last Thursday). He is crunching and slurping and sloshing, and clanging that dang spoon against the bowl. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH... I would leave the room but I am in the middle of a project. I am going to have to work this out because the smell is sickening, but the sound is deafening. .... hmmm... think I'm detoxing????!!!!! Someone lock the knife drawer, please. hahahahahaha (JUST KIDDING.... about the knives but NOT about the God awful eating noises.)

misread the post -- AFTER solid foods... sorry about that.

Linda Sue! -- http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/ She gives all the nutritional information. She rates the recipes and adds "tweaks". 99% of the items are common items you can buy anywhere. It is "real" food and all low carb. One of my favorites of hers - spanish rice (mock: http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/spanish_rice&hamburger.html Enjoy!

Dee - you are one day ahead of me so I know what you are feeling. One day I feel almost 80% better and then the very next day I feel so draggy! I have ALSO developed some kind of sinus/allergy thing. I have a dry cough and constant sinus drainage. Now I don't know WHAT is going on - whether it is still residual affects of the surgery OR affects of sinuses! BOTH will make you feel draggy. AND my back hurt, but doing a little better now. AND I had an incision issue where the drain tube was. It kept popping open. I finally put steri-strips on it and it has healed up -- BUT where the adhesive is on the strips has made bad sores because of an allergy to the adhesive!! So -- yeah -- healing is hard and miserable. BUT -- I don't feel as bad as I did 2 weeks ago, and I don't feel as good as I am going to feel 6 weeks from now. I have been eating a lot of tuna & chicken pate -- lol. AND creamy egg salad, and whatever Protein I can take just to try and get my energy up. Remember that good fats supply energy so be sure you are putting good fats in the mix!! I put a tsp of coconut oil, olive oil, or real butter in some of my foods. The good oils keep your skin soft, your hair shiny, and you nails strong. etc. Don't neglect the good fats!

AND you can add me for June 30th! Me, Me Me.

Same happened to me. I think I had an allergic reaction to the bandage tape. I have never had that before - but for some reason I did. I put benadryl cream all around my belly (but not on the stiches) and I tool a small benadryl capsule every 6 hours. I was pretty groggy, but it was the ONLY way to relieve the itching. It went away in about 4 days. Whew! But TOUGH while it was happening.

I'm 56. I drive a Ford Focus. I paid a lot less for it than a Mustang. It's still a Ford and it still gets me to where I need to go. Do your research and do what is most comfortable for YOU. And don't let the alarmists make you feel guilty.

As far as preparation for after surgery -- I knew I wouldn't feel like shopping for a couple of weeks so I wanted to be prepared. I bought a bunch of juice - apple and grape mostly. I drank a few small bottles to get me through the first couple of weeks of Clear liquids. NOW I have all this juice leftover! hahaha (I'm not drinking juices, but concentrating on Protein now). I read a lot about dehydration so I bought some of the little G2 bottles. I drank about 1/2 of ONE bottle and it was yucky. My taste buds were super sensitive. You are better off sticking to Water for hydration! THEN I bought a variety of canned Soups. I figured I would just strain them and drink the broth - BAD IDEA. The broth tasted SO processed and bad! Again, my taste buds just didn't like the potato starch in these! So I have about 10 cans of Soup to donate to a food bank. What I DID eat a lot of was boxed or home-made broth. The low-sodium, organic chicken broth was great heated and sipped. I also boiled some stew meat, onions, & spices then strained the broth from that. I kept 3 or 4 bowls in the fridge with broth for my meals. Now - 3 weeks out - I am on mushies. So far my favorite has been pureed tuna salad. I keep about 3-4 containers of pureed foods in the fridge to take for lunch & dinner. Hope this helps on the food part of preparation.

DivaDee, my dear room-mate - Patience, girlfriend. It will happen. I've been reading and studying on this. Week 1 & 2 are 'trauma" weeks where you recouperate from the surgery and rest. Weeks 3 & 4 are a double edged sword - you get to add mushies - YAY! - which then cause a stall - Waa! So, you patiently wait through those couple of weeks. THEN weeks 5 & 6, you begin to feel more normal. You can start exercising a little more. AND then you begin to see the scale turn around. Most people begin to lose. So then the NEXT thing is 2-3 months out you are posting some "before/after" photos and "re-shopping" your closet! BUT -- MONTHS have to pass for this to begin happening. Wait for it.... wait for it .... wait for it.... lol...love ya!

June Sleevet - you need to watch "Fathead: The Movie".

So now we know! lol Thanks for the warning. hahaha That is funny!

One week out and I started itching. Everywhere I had any surgical tape itched and had raised whelps. It was HORRIBLE. I took benadryl every 5-6 hours & slathered benadryl cream around my incisions for almost 3 days. (NOT on the incisions, but AROUND them). I walked around kind of dopey, but it was the ONLY thing that stopped the itching. it went away in approx 4 days. I had to just lay around on that weekend with my belly exposed (no bandages) to try and let it all dry out. I am now at week 3 and NO residual affects of the hives. I was very worried about taking the benadryl so soon after being sleeved, but there was NO problems.

I like this post. I'm only 3 weeks sleeved, so still on mushies. LOL -- BUT this weekend I used my "stick blender" on everything. i tried it with tuna salad, chicken salad, etc. As I am playing around with different things, I wondered -- lol.... Okay... DIDN'T DO IT... but was wondering..... I wonder if I took a small burger, peeled off the bun, and frappe'd that sucker to baby food -- would it still taste like a burger? Hmm? lol. It is my first weekend since liquids so I was going a bit wild. lol.

Today is day 15 since I was sleeved. I have not had much pain. I DID, however, have a HORRIBLE case of hives everywhere tape had been - all over my belly, all around my stitches, AND on the back of my hand where the IV was. THANK GOODNESS they only lasted through 1 weekend - I took benadryl every 6 HOURS and kept cream on them. I'm still on liquids, although today I can add "thickquids" lol -- just made that up! hahahaha BUT ... I have been SO TIRED. I had to go back to work on Day 5 (called in sick Day 6), and finally made it all day on Day 7. I have been dragging myself to work, sitting at my desk bundled up in a sweater - don't know if the office building is cold or if it is me. When I go home in the evenings I go straight to bed. I went to my follow-up doc and got a B Complex shot, hoping to get some energy. It didn't seem to help. I brought a small pillow and throw to work with me so that I can lock my office door at lunch, turn off the light, and lay down in the middle of the floor and nap! I send an email to the bosses - "gone to lunch" -- and then crash for the hour. FOOD: (I take 30 to 1 hr to finish my shake or my broth) Everyday I start with a 1/2 cup of milk, 1 raw egg, 1 pkt splenda, & 1/2 tsp vanilla (Egg Cream - in the blender) - just to start with SOME Protein. I ordered a BUNCH of Protein shakes (kaching), but I cannot stand any of them. I'm going to go back to my tried and true "Designer Whey" because I always like it before. -- Water Mid-morning - 6-8 oz of juice (either apple, grape, or OJ) -- water Lunch - 3/4 - 1 cup of Soup broth (depends on what I made the night before) - Last night I made "Egg Drop Soup" - chicken broth, 1 egg, onion powder, salt, pepper in the blender, then heated on the stove. Yummy. --water Mid-afternoon - usually the other part of my mid-morning juice dinner -- some kind of soup broth (The other night I boiled stew meat with cilantro & onions. I strained the broth for me, then turned it into "fajitas" for the hubby. PROBLEMS: My BACK hurts. It is a dull ache in the middle of my back and sometimes close to my kidneys - sort of like when you have a low grade fever (no, I don't have fever). Not sure why, but it is annoying. Yesterday I had a little pain. It felt sort of like a burning in my chest. I laid down last night and was uncomfortable. I slept kind of propped up last night. I was clueless - then the light bulb came on - Is this... HEART BURN? I never had heart burn before - rarely - so it was kind of a new sensation. I kept thinking it was the surgery. So, this morning I took a Pepcid. Well, surprise surprise - I feel almost normal! Back is still achy, but stomach is gooooood. I was not "officially" prescribed anything for that - so my info is from these wonderful boards!! TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY I HAVEN'T FELT LIKE I HAD TO TAKE A NAP!! I see people posting about stomach pain - this MIGHT be something they need to consider if they are NOT taking something for heartburn. AND my last problem - my sense of taste seems to be heightened. Everything is OVERLY sweet or OVERLY spicy. I'm eating small teaspoons of vanilla yogurt today and really NOT liking the flavor - which is not usual for me!! I love yogurt. Even some of the canned Soups that I bought to strain are nasty because all I can taste is either potato starch or tomato puree. I started looking at the labels and was like - YUCK - everything has "potato starch" in it. UGH- GACKKK - NASTY. OBSERVANCES: I'm SO ready to do this! A co-worker brought me a cherry cheesecake slice today (a thank-you for something I had done). I graciously accepted it - OH you shouldn't have!! -- smiled and cooed over it. They left. I placed it in my trash can, on the bottom, UNDER the papers. Later I just said, "I love cheesecake! Thanks again!" and left it at that. So, I fired up fitday again today - haven't used it in over a year. Looks like I will be getting around 45 grams of protein today -- NOT bad for day 15. JUST NEED ADVICE ABOUT MY ACHING BACK! UGH. BECAUSE my tummy is not hurting and because I can have a little yogurt today, I have a little more energy.

SeatleSue - I hear you about the sweets. I owned a bakery; I was a severe sugar-holic. NOW? anything sweet tastes blaah. Artificial sweetners taste like metal. Things with real sugar taste like they are WAY too sweet. I'm NOT complaining! .... I am thrilled by this change.

Day 16 - back pain was better today, but I slept in the guest bedroom on a firmer mattress. Hubby says he will swap them out until I feel better. food intake was "okay", but not as much Protein as yesterday. Routine of taking Prevacid has REALLY helped with the stomach pain. Almost non-existant now - almost. Drinking plenty of Water. AND -- wore a shirt from the back of my closet today that wouldn't fit me 16 days ago.