SerendipityHappens

Ladies.. there comes a point in life where you must choose.. your face or your figure... Fat in the face really helps keep a youthful appearance. I'm HATING how my face is looking and I'm only 1/3 of the way into my journey... but I know that I have to take off the weight for my overall health. I'm loading up on night cream.. and day cream.. My neck is the worst.. where I used to have a regular double chin.. I now have a wrinkly old lady turkey gobble.

When I was 360 pounds and hiking a lot, I would get stress fractures in my feet and what you are describing is what they felt like. Now I wear merrell hiking shoes even for walking in the city and I lace them up tight... I even wear them if I'm at the gym on the treadmill! Once I'm below 250 I'll experiment with something different but for now, I can say that wearing these uber-sturdy hiking shoes for my weight bearing exercise is helping to keep my feet healthy!

My post op advice says a minimum of 64 ounces of liquids.. it does not matter the form.. Protein shakes, coffee, Jello... all count as liquids. Also I was on clears for the first week.. not even taking protein until day 7! When I first started adding back in the protein, I'd mix with a sugar free drink or Water.. the Protein Drink was very thin this way since I use jay robb powder which makes a thin drink anyway. I didn't start using dairy milk until around day 12 since it can be kind of hard on the brand new tummy. Also, I am allowed two cups of coffee a day. Vanilla Protein Powder mixes nicely with coffee if the coffee is not too hot.

I used to have reflux before giving up WHEAT. Since going wheat free haven't had reflux even once... even since being sleeved. The sad things is, When my reflux was really bad before, I'd eat things like pretzels and toast thinking it was going to help me! I just mention this because if this was your first experience with wheat products after being sleeved then who knows.. could be an issue.. also some people experience problems with other Cereal grains as well (corn, oats, rice)

Seems every doctor does it differently. First week I was on clear liquids. 2nd week I could do milk with protein powder in it.. 3rd week I could do yogurts and purees. Now I'm in my 4th week I'm adding cheeses and soft fruits/veg and soft meats. My diet is fairly middle of the road.. I've seen some people who say their doctor cleared them for regular food after week 2 and I've seen where others were on liquids for a full month!

Well since many of us use food as something to calm ourselves down and comfort us, not being able to do that might cause anxiety for some. I literally burst into tears and my heart was racing on more than one occasion during my 3 month preop diet because I "needed" certain foods. My grandmother used to mix Peanut Butter, honey, cocoa powder and coconut and keep it in a jar and call it her "nerve candy" She was using food to soothe her nerves. We ALL knew that we were welcome to anything at Grandma's house, EXCEPT we'd better not touch her "nerve candy". It was literally her drug of choice and if you took that away she'd be a basket case.

I'm 3.5 weeks out and my gurgles are getting better already.

The thought of having to take chewable vitamins made my pre-sleeve stomach turn... I can't imagine having to take them on my new tiny tummy... I have been taking the bariatric advantage capsules and they go down so nice and easy. The serving size is six capsules so I divide it up into three two capsule servings and take them with my meals. By taking them with meals and taking smaller doses more frequently, you are less likely to feel nauseated from them.. also the capsules are nice and small and slippery- smaller than my omeprazole capsule. A 90 day supply was $40.00 from amazon.com

OUCH! I'm soooo sorry that you are having to go through a painful recovery. Having a revision is so much harder on your tummy than just getting sleeved. I didn't have a revision so my surgery took less than 45 minutes to get sleeved... If yours took 4 hours you can imagine how much more trauma your poor tummy had to endure than someone like me who didn't have to go through the revision process! Feel better soon!

If you make your own yogurt at home instead of buying the yogurt, it will taste even better... When you make it homemade you can control how sour it is so it doesn't have that strong sour taste that many commercial yogurts have. Give it a go, you won't be sorry.

You mean funny taste like you've been chewing on a tin can? If so it could just be a ketonic reaction to the low calories low carbs.

Uh, no cracked ribs here but I'd take the pain from VSG surgery over a sprained ankle! That was MY experience.. Unfortunately not everyone has the same experience so you really can't compare.. I mean there are people who can barely get out of bed and are dry heaving for days.. All I had was a few waves of nausea and some stomach spasms that went away pretty quickly.

could be... also ketosis can make your pee stink... oh and vitamins.. vitamins can make pee stink... and some vitamins make it neon yellow.. that's fun too.

She did say why already. It's in the thread.

Congratulations on starting this exciting process... Your friend may come around. It's quite a shock to some people. If she's truly a good friend, once she's over the shock, she'll strive to understand why you're having the surgery and she'll support you...

The chews I found at costco were calcium carbonate. Viactive is calcium carbonate.. I have not found any other chews or gummies other than bariatric specific chews available online that were calcium citrate. (vitafusion gummies are not calcium citrate) I am taking citrical petites and puritain's pride minis... they are smaller in size.. I take six per day spread out throughout the day... ALSO, you don't have to do the chews if you don't want to , Bariatric Advantage makes wafers in many flavors that are a lot cheaper and have fewer calories than the chews.

I just shortened my straps.. WOW it was like a miracle.

If all you have is a dunkin donuts.. you can just order an egg with cheese on it. They have wakeup wraps and bagel sandwiches with egg.. so they'll sell you just the egg with cheese if you ask.

YAY! I've been fortuntate to have never had trouble getting out of the tub even at 360 pounds..... but I am eagerly awaiting the day when I'm no longer a human dam!

After you put them in your drink wait 20 minutes.. they expand get gelatinous and remind me of fish eggs or tapioca beads. They have a nice flavor.... ya know.. kind of like seeds... I buy mine from a nice Amish lady at the farmer's market... but you can get them at any health food store, most big grocery stores and of course online.

Not to mention that Mexico sleevers are SELF PAY. I don't know about other self pay people.. but parting with $5,000 was a REALLY big deal. I had to make sure I wanted the surgery pretty bad and that I thought I could make it work for me before I forked over the dough!

I'm three weeks post op and I've been blessed with a perfect recovery so far. My sleeve has agreed with everything I've given her as I've advanced my diet.. No sliming, no pain, nada.. I have very little hunger. I have almost no swelling of my sleeve I can drink big gulps if I want. I can eat 2-3 ounces of meat or half a cup of cottage cheese, or one egg with cheese and 1/4 cup Beans... and I'm satisfied with these portions.. If I was one of those who could only eat a tablespoon of food, I think I'd be struggling more than I am, but I'm really happy so far with my eating and appetite and I feel great. I did go through a period during the first week where I was like WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST DO?????? The permanence of what I had done was really sinking in but now I'm over the initial shock and am really happy with my limited capacity for food!

I've been noticing it too. Of course I expect that someone who has serious complications might regret the surgery, but I've been seeing it from those who regret it because they aren't losing fast enough, miss eating, hate that they don't enjoy food anymore, feel hungry all the time, think they can eat too much, hate chewing their food, etc... Most of the regrets I'm seeing lately seem to stem from folks not psychologically dealing with being sleeved.

YAY!!!!! I LOVE to hear about people getting that horrid thing CUT OFF!!! You've worked so hard to lose the weight, I'm so happy to hear that you'll be able to get rid of the pani and enjoy the results! Can't wait to be rid of mine!

I'm very happy to give my opinion as it is something that I've really struggled with during this process. Prior to beginning my preop way back in December, I was enjoying very little processed food and lots of whole foods.. AND lots of vegetable juices that I would press myself. Even though my diet was relatively free from processed foods, I still ate way more than I should.. especially grains.. BREAD was my big downfall. I really hate artificial sweeteners and stuff like that and try to stay away from them and I didn't really eat a lot of things that were sweetened in any way... to me I didn't need it as long as I had my glorious BREAD. When I started my preop, I knew that I'd have to go very low carb in order to stick with 800 calories a day for 3.5 months... so I used stevia as my main sweetener, and bought jay robb Protein powder because it used stevia... I did cut back on much of the veggie juice, opting instead for a few ounces of kale and ginger juice added to my Protein drinks. I didn't have any starchy vegetables or grains of any kind.. meaning NO BREAD! Also, I had just a little bit of fat.. a handful of nuts maybe and that was it.. With only 800 calories a day, you don't really have a lot of room to eat a lot of carbs OR fat! During my first week post op, I went ahead and did sugar-free everything.. I had to look for stuff without aspartame because too much gives me a headache. I figure, it's just for a short while until I can enjoy a full menu of foods again. This week I was cleared to include soft meats.. I have been enjoying a weird food called "hot bologna" which is mostly scraps and organ meats that are made into bologna sausage and pickled. Definitely not something I'd ordinarily select.. but since I'm somewhat limited, I don't mind having it for a few weeks. Once I can have stuff like chicken and beef.. Hot bologna will be off the menu. As for the main question of low fat vs low carb.. Personally, I just believe in getting in the protein and eating the rest in non-processed healthy foods and being mindful to keep the calories at a reasonable amount. There are some things that I do low fat.. for example, I do PB2 instead of Peanut Butter... and I do 2% cottage cheese instead of full-fat cottage cheese... But once I'm cleared to eat them again I'll also have no problem enjoying a nice handful of fatty nuts.... or some olive oil on my salad... as long as it's measured and accounted for... I'm also not against carbs.. I look forward to summer peaches and also to being able to enjoy my delicious vegetable juices again. Both are high in carbs, but I'm fine with that... I'm NOT fine with breads and pastas and cereals.. those are off the menu permanently as there is very little nutritive value in them.