juny

I was given 2. One for the night before, one the morning of. I was told if I had a reaction not to use the second pad so I didn't.

well sometimes being the only sober one in the room is no fun...also i've seen a 2 year vet post on these forums how she's been a beer drinker 2-3 times a week. It has carbonation and she's fine. Be extremely careful on the first go around of course but have a little fun!

When I left the liquids are started the softs/mushies. I gained 4lbs in a couple days.... i didn't think about it too much. Figured at some point the weight would come off. It has, it just took a week or so. I think its a time of the month thing, I seem to gain 2 weeks before and it takes a bit to lose it. The sleeve will work if you let it. Don't get hung up on the numbers.

I was also on the long full liquid diet, 8 weeks as well. I was good for about 7 of them. I was switched to blendered pureed week 9 but my birthday was on the 1st so I opted to start my pureeds a week early. I think it's lead to a few problems with my choices. After 2 months with only a shake I'm at a complete loss as to what to do for my foods now. I'm also only supposed to eat 3 times a day, which bothers me. I'm more comfortable having 5-6 small meals. Since I'm mostly on soft food now, my carb count is higher and it looks like I've gained 2lbs on the scale because of it. Also I'm tired of being on a diet, or rather any kind of food restriction which I think is having me act out a bit foodwise. Water doesn't sit well on an empty stomach and after 2 weeks of clear liquids right after surgery I cannot tolerate any of the crystal lights, mio, gatorades,etc that are added to water. I don't drink tea or coffee. I do well w/ chocolate milk and my protein shakes but the shakes are a meal according to my nut so I can't have too many of those. And since I'm still on blendered I'm not really eating anything that keeps me any kind of full. Refried beans are still not on my list or I'd eat them, I can eat scrambled eggs but I don't have time before I go to work. I think my main issue right now is that I'm still not really able to establish a pattern of eating so I'm just feeling a loss as to what to do because I'm not really able to eat enough protein between 3 meals. I'm sure it will work out once I'm off restrictions but it will be another 6 weeks before that. I guess I just feel like I'm still in between the surgery and getting back to the regular every day business of food. I think right now my biggest issue is the water because, it doesn't sit well I'm not getting enough.

A lot of people on this forum actually still take nsaids. there's some debate whether its ok after surgery. The reason is that dr's are worried about ulcers because of the way those drugs effect the stomach lining. My nurse did say that after a year occasional use is fine. There are a few people who take them on a daily basis w/o issues.

I felt the same and it's totally normal to be freaked out by the enormous change you've just made to your life. It's a big adjustment, you're not even 2 weeks out right? the first 3 weeks were EXTREMELY challenging for me. I completely freaked myself out. I had crying jags and slept maybe 2 hours in an entire day. It was awful. But I got through it and so will you. It's amazing how much progress you can make in just 3 weeks. It's going to take time to get back to yourself but you will get there. Unfortunately there is no way to speed that part up. I can't even count how many people I told that I just wish it was 5 months from now. But I'm 2 months out and way better. The addict in me still wants to eat with wild abandon but I know it's never going to be like that again. At least I don't think it can to the degree it was.

i also love posts like these. I didn't have the surgery to live on slices of turkey and cheese sticks for the rest of my life. 600-800 calories a day just was never me, anything less than 1000 and I just feel like I had no energy but couldn't sleep. My nut told me the Protein shake I chose was too high in calories. I ignored her advice, I know shame on me. Right now just w/ the shakes I'm getting in 600 calories a day and that's before about 400 calories of Soup for dinner. . The whole 600-800 calorie thing made me feel like I was screwing everything up right out of the gate. I'm transitioning to blendered/pureed food this week after 7 weeks of full liquids. If I stay w/in a couple hundred calories of 1000, I'll be happy. I'm just looking for smooth transitions that don't get me sick and keep my energy levels up.

just my 2 cents Told my mom. she spent the entire time trying to talk me out of surgery until and including the day. I told my dad, I was going to chicago for a couple days.....yeah i live w/ both my parents. After surgery I had a few complications and stayed an extra couple days. My mom and I decided to tell my dad that I had a haital hernia repair. A few weeks later, he's figured out on his own that I had wls. We don't talk about it. He's not the parent he was before the stroke and I just don't feel like letting him in the door on that one. My mom has become the more hopeful one. She's so excited and thinks I now did the right thing. I spent a solid month out of my mind w/ worry and anxiety after surgery, wasn't sleeping at all. It was not a great time. But since coming out of that, I'm so much more myself and feeling pretty good about the future. You have a right to keep things private until you come to terms with this on your own time. You have a right be as private as you need to be until then. Telling them its gallbladder surgery is not the worst thing in the world and will give you the time you need to deal with the changes.

I'm only 6 weeks post op now, still grieving. It probably doesn't help that I'm still on full liquids so nothing but Soups and Protein shakes. But it gets easier every day and I know I'll be able to get back to food again. Right now I'm craving fish and cauliflower and an egg broccoli thing i make...I have cheated on sweets, ie dairy queen chocolate ice cream, that passed fine. But right now I just want real food, no matter how little it is. Right now my biggest challenges are self sabotage and sense of frustration. I'm working on it w/ my therapist. HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend seeing a therapist to get you ready for surgery. Someone competent to your needs. I so wish I'd had it. When I had surgery, it was like falling off a cliff and it took me 3 weeks to walk out. I had crying jags, was only sleeping about 2 hours a day, and had panic attacks like you wouldn't believe. None of those things are me normally and it was hard to get through it by myself.

what has your dr/nut said? They had me on clear liquids for 2 weeks, followed by 6 weeks of full liquids...which i'm still on. It's been difficult. Most people end up doing a 2x2x2 diet. 2 weeks clear, 2 weeks full, 2 weeks mushies to softs. I'd kill for some cauliflower and fish at this point.

have you tried really thinning out your Protein and maybe making a protein fudgsicle? Even if it's not the amount of protein you need, it might be better than trying to dump a whole lot of protein in your system at once. The first month sucks and there's no getting around it, I felt the same way. When you're uncomfortable and frustrated about how hard even the simplest stuff is, it's really hard to feel like you made the right choice. I promise that feeling will start going away. I know everyone told you how it's supposed to go, but it's really important to do what's best for you, if it means you don't get all the protein in w/in 2 weeks of surgery, it's ok. Best of luck!

hw: 325 weight before preop: 300 cw: 267 Sleeved 2/5 33lbs total, about 11% of my bodyweight

I'm at 6 weeks and I wouldn't just say it's head hunger, somehow it makes it seem less serious than I feel like it is. I"m completely FIXATED on food. I'm still on a full liquid diet and It'll be another month before I'm on to soft foods and it's just wearing on me. I want to go out to eat and be like I was or at least have a couple of bites of what I used to eat and can't and I think about it all the time. When I'm not thinking of what I'm going to eat I worry about not being able to eat what I used to eat (the type not the quantity). I'm not like everyone else on this forum who plan on living on turkey slices and string cheese for the rest of my life. I have a running list in my head of the things I want to eat again! My therapist says i'm grieving....I'd like to know what not grieving looks like.

pain for my stomach was almost nonexistant, was a nauseous but it was mostly controlled. However the bougie they stuck down my throat just wrecked it. I had and still occasionally have spasms in my esophagus. They aren't anything painful now, just irritating. The spasms were extremely bad for about 10 days after surgery, to the point where if i drank anything it triggered the spasms that felt like a charlie horse in my throat, it was so upsetting. But I did recover, relatively quickly and so will you. edit- my surgery was 2/5/13

dude, i've been dying for just one of the sliders from white castle, I dont even need the top bun! maybe i can liquify that sucker when.....

eh i'm still supposed to be on full liquids for 2 more weeks, been on liquids for a total of 6 so far.... I'm currently eating blended potato Soup that has not been strained...so that's 2 strikes. should have just been the cream of the potato and not the potato and I didn't strain it. It's not all that lumpy and i chew the crap out of the lumps BECAUSE I CAN...i've missed chewing, give me a break. oh and no no's....yeah I had a hershey's chocolate bar on 2 separate occasions...Yes the whole bar and while it took me a little to eat it, I suffered no real difficulties...I'm not even sure I'm remorseful. This diet has been hell, I see a bunch of people crab about the week long preop, I'd just like to say to them, "that's just the warm up!" but then I think or right, it's really just my dr that has us do 8 solid weeks of liquid diet post op. I have a bone to pick w/ my nut who had the balls to say to me that she gets no complaints on the liquid diet stage about the 8 weeks they keep us on it...

I did end up seeing a therapist because the emotional swing was so bad and caught me so off guard. He told me something at least a little helpful. He said I was grieving and that it was ok to grieve the loss of food, of being able to binge on food and using it as a means to bond w/ my family. He said eventually you have to move it towards acceptance of what happened and start focusing on the things you still have and who you are becoming and only then will the grief end. I think I was like a lot of people, ready to make the next 10 years different from the last ten of always planning my life around my next meal. But as ready as I was I was not expecting that I would grieve for what I lost because for so long it was the thing that has kept me from living a full life and brought me such personal pain.

You aren't alone in the after surgery regret. I felt that way for about 3 weeks. Emotionally I was a mess but at least I was able to get in the liquids I needed. I'd lay down to sleep and the tape would start playing about all the reasons why it was a bad idea. I needed an rx to get my lights put out for a couple weeks. I was on clears for 2 weeks and that was a serious drain on me, I got a lot better once I was able to push full liquids and I'm hoping for better once I start transitioning to soft food in a couple weeks time. Are you on full liquids? I wouldn't beat yourself up too badly for not getting the 64oz in, most days I don't manage it but I get to about 50-55oz..which was about what I was at pre op, so I can't really argue w/ that. I know it's hard to hear patience when you're tired of feeling like crap but it does take time, it was major surgery, and it's no real surprise that 9 days after having most of your stomach cut out you feel like shi!t. But that doesn't mean it was a mistake and it doesn't mean this hasn't been worth doing. I hope you feel better soon, many hugs to you!

I'm able to get in about 4-6oz of soup at a time myself takes about 15 minutes maybe, I could do more but I"m comfortable w/ that amount. I'm 4 weeks out tomorrow. My drinking situation is a little weird. I can drink my protein shake of choice (muscle milk) w/ ease as well as the thicker soups, but water for me is giving me issues. It feels like I"m getting too much air or that right in the middle on the way down it sort of splits and some of it comes up and some of it goes down. Then for a while after I can feel the muscles on the way down still sort of trying to figure out what they're doing, which results in discomfort. The muscle milk has a slightly odd (not a bad) flavor that pretty well masks the b complex I take. I weighed 300lbs at the drs office on 1/23 and now I'm sitting around 275. I'm pretty good with that. Still trying to figure out the head thing. It's come into sharp focus just how easily I can cheat on this plan. I had a teaspoon of ice cream and it went down so easily. And the not so low fat soups I'm eating go down way better than any of the broth did.

i couldn't sleep after surgery on the 5th. My dr prescribed trazadone. puts my lights right out.

absolutely had a last hurrah and zero regrets about it. had cake and pasta from my favorite italian joint, really excellent last meal. it was a vast quantity as well. probably 3 cups of pasta and the equivalent of 3 pieces of cake. Just a little reminder that portion has always been an issue for me... I think i really had about a month of last meals....pretty much ran out of everything I ever wanted to eat.

I had terrible trouble sleeping, so much that the dr gave me a sleep aid. when I got home from the hospital I'd get about 2 hours of sleep a day. The rest of the time I was a zombie who couldn't sleep. They gave me trazodone which puts me out completely but I'd like to not make it a habit. I may try my melatonin again because it did help prior to surgery. . If you're not sleeping you're not healing, don't be afraid to ask the dr for help in this.

my dr used a 36.

Have you seen a therapist? I wish I had before surgery. As ready as I was for the change, I didn't have the skills to cope with it. Being a few weeks out, I've been grieving for the way things were and worrying about the things to come. The surgery doesn't fix what's going on in your head, it fixes your capacity and can fix your hunger. The single psych visit was not enough for me. With my insurance, it required a 6 month supervised diet. I thought that was a waste of time. I wish they'd had 6 months of required therapy to make sure you were ready.

Mine little episodes have been tapering off. Which is good, mornings are the hardest. By the end of the day, I'm happy that I got through but then I dread the next day because it's going to hard in the morning all over again. I do feel a little more in control but not myself just yet.