NurseGrace

You know, it really depends from office to office but here is what I can tell you. You need to think about what you are about to do to yourself. Liquid diets are hard so I am not even about to beat you over the head about straying but you need to think about how you strayed. You didn't give a ton of details in your post so I dont know if you had a binge, or you cheated with a tablespoon of Peanut Butter but you do need to stick to that diet closely because you are putting yourself at risk, and yes, there ARE offices that WILL turn you away for not following the pre-op diet and it will show in how much weight you lose or do not loose come surgery day weigh in.

Personally, I do not do sequels. BUT - every situation is different and if the main reason you broke up the first time had more to do with distance and less to do with relationship problems then I might consider trying it again, especially since its been 4 years. Just don't get stupid attached right off, try to be realistic

I am not quite as far out as you, I'm about a month out but I seem to have phases of wanting to eat and then not wanting anything at all - its weird.

Generally the more support your incisions have the nicer they will look long term, it keeps the skin together.

you look fantastic!

Thanks, I try.

I notice sometimes people almost bragging about how they didnt need their pain medication and this and that and I just wanted to say something about that - if you truely are not in pain thats fantastic, but to the rest of you out there - TAKE THEM. It helps you sleep better, and the better rest you get, the better you feel and the healing process is better for it. I am not in excruciating pain but it does help.

what are the signs and symptoms of a leak specific to a VSG?

I think I remember now - some woman set off a **** storm asking if she can haz cheeseburger.

what is it about you people and cheeseburgers? Inside joke I don't understand? lol

wut.

I feel like people are being a little bit hard on you, but they are right, at least about the chicken. Its too soon to be sitting down with 4 chicken wings, and you might be shocked to learn how many calories those things have. My husband and I Celebrated our anniversary at outback steak house and of course we just ordered the wings and shared. I had one, but ONE SERVING of those wings is 2.5 wings, and they had OVER THREE HUNDRED CALORIES. You catch my drift. The soup thing in my mind isn't AS big of a deal, and people may jump on me, but I was told to count Soups as a liquid for those first few weeks and to stay hydrated and keep sipping on whatever I felt like, within reason, we are not talking milkshakes here people. I do think its probably not a good idea to sit down with the whole can though, because then its not teaching you what proper servings are. Even more than measuring by volume though, you need to WEIGH food. Because somethings it will say like... a quarter of a cup OR 28 grams. Well, a lot of times if you just pull out your measuring cup and scoop a quarter of a cup, it actually weighs WAY MORE than 28 grams, and you are still going over your serving size. Understand what I am saying? You need to go to walmart or target and get a 20 dollar digital food scale. You don't need the most expensive model, but you do NEED one, and you need to set it up were it will always be out and there for you to use for everything.

If you feel like you are able to eat too much you need to set a time limit for eating. My doctor recommends sitting down to eat for no more than 20 or 30 minutes on a regular basis (not social functions) because yeah.... if you take long enough I bet you can get a lot down because it turns into this grazing type of behavior.

sugar free would be ideal but beware of sugar alcohol and that is what most sugar free candies are made from - that stuff gives me horrible tummy troubles. I would rather just have one or two regular.

I think its fine for people to give their opinions on alcohol, the subject at hand, no one was mean about it. I have been asked to not drink for a year, and I plan to stick with that, but if I WERE going to drink I would probably have vodka and cranberry, or a cape cod, which is just vodka, cran, and lime.

Thats pretty good then, it must just be a big one.

Do those make you feel bloated? Do they make you go in the AM? I have been considering picking those up

Ummm Yes and no - you do not want to make yourself laxative dependent, so I do not really think you should be taking them on any sort of daily basis but I do have both dulcolax and milk of mag in my bathroom and I tend to take the milk of mag maybe twice a week if things are not working themselves out if you know what I mean. The dulcolax was left over from my pre-op bowel prep but I might take that if things were really bad. I will admit I do use the milk of mag the day or night before my weigh ins because if I dont I usually cannot get an accurate weigh in because I cant use the bathroom on que like I used to be able too and that just comes from not eating a lot.

I should clarify that starvation mode (god, even the term makes me cringe) as most of us know it, is largely mythical. I've gone into great detail about this more than once here so it should be easy to find with the search function but I will include some links for some better explanations about why most dieters really misunderstand it. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/761810-the-starvation-mode-myth-again http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=35501 http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/2009/03/mtyhbusters-starvation-mode.html

thats pretty high, is that more than one Protein Shake? how much sugar? It probably doesnt matter much, I'm just curious.

Yes, considering "starvation mode" is largely mythical

Good. Hopefully you will be back to normal soon. Pain is really hard to deal with when you are trying to sleep because I know at least for me - its all I can focus on, and when I am focused on something there is NO WAY I am getting to sleep.

with NSAIDS and weight loss surgery, you have to do a cost/benefits analysis. It is deal to never take them, but some people need to because of pain issues. However, if you are already getting stomach aches, I would discontinue use. If I am right in understanding, this has been over 4 months ago now, are you sure you can't manage on your own at this point?