softwsolu1

I took a week of food funerals (no pre-op diet for me) and in fact had my last pig-out end right at the moment I was required to stop eating or drinking the day before surgery! Which I wouldn't recommend, btw. Pastrami + surgery = bad idea. But I will say this - I know many people who say "you know, I'm just fine eating" and I feel the same way too - only 4 weeks out I have had no problems eating anything I've tried, and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to eat what I want, only in smaller quantities. This also helped me get over "head hunger" - "I could eat that, but it would last 4 meals" is actually a great feeling!

I can't imagine going for the band after being sleeved, and I'm suffering with the "overconsumption" issue you mention - I've heard too much skepticism from patients and doctors alike about the long-term effectiveness of the band. Better to get the sleeve revised. But based on what you lost, are you sure your sleeve isn't ok as it is now? I don't feel the same restrictions as others either, but I've lost 41 lbs in 4 weeks - my POV is that my calories, despite being higher than most, are way under where they would be on a normal diet, and as long as I am losing weight the surgery is effective.

It's very highly dependent on your doctor and nutritionist. In fact in my case, my nutritionist and my doctor gave me two different diets! Which was frustrating. In the end, the doctor explained to me that the first phases of the diet are about protecting the sleeve. Initially you want nothing small and granular, which is why liquids and full liquids only - you don't want tiny bits getting caught in your staples, where they can lodge and cause irritation, get infected, etc. Additionally pressure caused by excess food in the stomach can also tear the staples - combined with the inflammation this is why amounts are so small initially. Later, as the staple line begins to heal/scar over, you can tolerate more solid-ish foods, but you still don't want anything sharp that can cut your healing wounds. This is the reason for the "mushies" phase, which is where I am right now. Finally, by about week four, the wounds are healed enough that you can't jeapordize them with sharper foods, which is when you start to reintroduce toast and crackers and so forth. PLEASE NOTE that not only am I not a doctor, I don't even play one on TV. I also am sharing information from my doctor about my condition - your surgery or requirements may be different. But understanding the above helped me to understand why I couldn't just "sneak a bite" here and there of something more crunchy or flavorful initially.

I'm sorry to hear you are going through that...I'd be so frustrated. I'm definitely getting in my protein first and avoiding drink for 30 mins before and 60 mins after eating. The hunger abates when I eat, but comes back in ~ 2 hrs. If I eat a small snack I can push it back another 2 hrs, at which point I need a meal to keep things under control. It may very well be acid. The too much or too little question Sunny raised is vexing, though.

Hi folks - I've been lurking since my surgery, and have gained lots of help from reading everybody's insights. Now I've got a question of my own... Until this week, I've been fine on food intake. When I've tried to eat too much, I've had the predictable pain/nausea/slimies. According to my surgeon my sleeve was extremely tight, and he predicted rapid loss - and in fact, I've lost around 40 lbs until this point. Everything has been as predicted and as my NUT and dr suggested, until this week. I'm now on mushies and eating more than before - 6 oz per meal, plus Snacks in between. This is again according to plan. But I find myself continuously hungry, even just after eating. I feel like I could eat a little more, but my real concern is that, even if I just eat every 2-3 hours, I'm putting away a lot of food now. Protein and Water are just where they belong, sometimes a bit high. I know we're not calorie counting but I decided to do so for a few days just to see if maybe I was inadvertently building up a big calorie debt or eating the wrong things. I'm regularly eating over 1500 cals a day. If I don't eat or I wait, my stomach discomfort increases steadily and eventually acid starts heading up the esophagus. I've struggled with GERD and I'm on PPIs, etc to manage. Now, I'm a big guy so I anticipated that even with a tight sleeve, my stomach would be larger than average. But I worry that if I continue to eat/increase at this rate I will at most be maintaining. Is this normal? Any tips for decreasing the hunger? I'm still losing steadily and I'm not afraid of eating well, I just worry about the disparity between what the NUT is telling me I should be eating, and what I am right now. Advice/hints? Thanks!

I'm getting > 70 oz a day, sometimes far in excess of that.

I do feel more full when I eat more solid/dense foods - for instance string cheese or soft babybels, crab sticks, etc will leave me feeling more satisfied with less, and for longer. But I can easily take in 6 oz of either of the former in a sitting. That's the amount my NUT told me to expect to take in, but based on feelings earlier in the process (and what other people tell me) I should be very full having eaten those. That's suddenly no longer the case. I *am* losing weight though, so part of me thinks that as I ramp up physical activity, I just plain need more calories to keep myself going.

Don't underestimate the effect that just having a smaller stomach and more energy will have on sex. Even just a few weeks post-op my wife and I noticed quite a difference.

How much Protein are you getting? I'd definitely check in with your doctor one way or another - general achiness can be a sign of lots of things, even ones unrelated to the surgery.

I'm not so sure it's a long shot actually - I have been looking into this as a possible resolution. And it's interesting to note that the foods that settle me are actually more acidic. But it's nice to hear somebody else point it out - I've been tentative around it as drs can be dismissive of the suggestion. Thanks!

Had severe pain in all those areas for about 3 weeks. For the past 2 days it's been slowly abating...I've heard that it's common to last 4 or sometimes even 6 weeks. Re a leak, I'm pretty sure (and keep in mind I'm not a doc) that's not where you'd feel the pain. You should be conscious of pain on the left side of your chest, in the arm and under the breastbone - that's where your stomach is.

I can see that re: hungry days vs not. I do suspect acid as a cause in this, but doc says I'm as PPI'd up as I'm going to get, so now it's just a matter of time. I may have to accept slightly slower weight loss as a trade off for reduced acid, as I seem to need to have something in my stomach to soak the acid up. Maybe you're right though - I am losing weight, perhaps now isn't the time to sweat it too badly.

3.5 weeks post and I'm still sleeping on the couch. Sleeping on my back was OK after a week or so, except that when I woke my abdominal muscles were often very sore, and I had bad stomach acid. I'm going to try the bed again soon, but for now, I'm still reclined.

This. Doc said even if I *ingested* all the protein I was supposed to I probably wasn't absorbing it right away. Protein was less important than Water - drink your water, because dehydration is just about the worst thing you can do to yourself right now. But protein, Vitamins will come when you are ready.

Ditto the comments about only regretting not having it done sooner. And while I didn't have many of the serious complications (leak) I had a rough go - badly torn abdominal muscles and bad GERD. But even with all that, I'd do this again in a second.

I've been sleeved for nearly a full month. Everybody's experience is different, but I did not have pain drinking Water. I did experience some nausea and it wasn't easy to drink - for me it was as if I'd had the stomach flu, and so my stomach was inflamed and sore. Mostly, day one was lots of pain and thirst - you can't drink until they test you for leaks the next day, so I was really dry and thirsty. A nurse was kind enough to give me a foam swab to moisten my mouth a bit, and I was on dilaudid for the pain. These got me through a very painful day one. But I was up and walking within 6 hours of the surgery, albeit very very slowly. Expect the first week to be just awful. It's not as bad as all that but better to over-anticipate your unpleasantness and be pleasantly surprised. After that it's a slow climb back. At almost 4 weeks, I feel very tired and still sore, but I'm nearly back to my old self.