HappyCat

Yep. I am indeed allergic to latex, which I have avoided like the plague since finding out in 2000 while working in a hospital. I have never had food allergies, nor such a strong reaction to the grass/tree/mold/dust/animal dander allergies that I have. I am thinking that as I stopped the daily Zyrtec since a week before surgery that it might have something to do with the severity of my reaction to whatever caused this. Just a guess as I am no expert.

Thanks! Glad to know I am not the Lone Ranger!

Ok, so I am two weeks and one day into my new sleeved life. I am feeling great in general and am so glad to be moving forward. I haven't posted anything much until now as it has been enough of a challenge getting fluids in and doing my best with the protein intake. I was so looking forward to the puréed stage of the diet and wanted to start getting protein in other forms besides the shakes, but I am still having a hard time even getting an ounce of puréed anything down. I feel full on so little - and although I enjoy the taste of the soups (blended) and thinned mashed potatoes with puréed chicken, I know when the stopping point has to be. So, I have returned to the land of the shakes! In order to increase the protein and making the shakes more palatable, I mix Lucerne protein fortified fat-free milk with one-third of a protein shake every morning and every evening. That wayI can experiment with other puréed foods during the day. I don't mind taking the next six weeks slowly My doctor gave me the go ahead to hit the treadmill and elliptical machines at the gym, so that is the goal for this week. I don't have an excess of energy (did a few things around the house and pooped out over the weekend) so plan to take baby steps so I don't collapse. I do make the rounds in the hallways of my apartment complex and went down four flights of stairs last night to check the mail (elevator back up). Good things are that I am down to 215 and can see my clothes are fitting loosely already. Also, weirdly, I used to be a big time snorer and have not snored since the surgery. I am sure that is why I am sleeping more soundly at night. What an unexpected blessing! I also met a couple of old friends I hadn't seen in years: my ankle bones! I travel a lot with my job in the spring and fall, so I look forward to fitting in an airplane seat without having to ask for a seatbelt extension Last year, I actually delayed a puddle jumper flight because they ran out of seatbelt extensions (flight full of husky oil and gas workers took all the available supply!). I was mortified when they made the delay announcement - never again! So this entry is a bit of positive musing ~ I am happy with my decision to take this leap of faith to change my life and get healthy. If you asked me last week if it was the righ decision for me, I would have had to think about it... But, today I can unequivocally say YES!

I think it takes a few times of feeling overly full to gauge where you need to stop eating. I have slowed way down on how long I take to eat the puréed foods so that I can give my body time to register that it is full before taking the "one too many" bite. Hope that makes sense. Plus, I have always dreaded vomiting in general and don't want to pop a staple!

OMG, me too! I freeze all the time - interspersed with what I can only describe as hot flashes. I can get maybe one half of an egg white down (poached) and the pouch warns me it has had enough. I have read so many posts where people say they can eat whatever they want without the feeling of restriction. I guess we are kinda lucky, right?

Greetings from my hospital bed: I am absolutely flabbergasted at how good I feel, already! Didn't sleep much more than an hour last night and arrived at 5:00 am to the pre surgical unit. I distracted myself with a book for some of the waiting time, and ended up not needing any anti-anxiety medication other than what was already in the plan. Yay me! I woke up in the recovery room with a sore, dry throat and had already been given a pretty awesome painkiller by IV (some kind of pump). I am on a strict day of nothing by mouth and will be administered the leak test tomorrow morning. After that it will be clear liquids as tolerated for a couple of days. The doctor said everything went well in the surgery so I am one Happy Cat! My husband has been an angel and helped me to the bathroom twice and took my arm for two short walks in the corridor. Other than a little dizziness and minimal nausea, I am truly blessed to be feeling great at the end of the first day of the rest of my life I hope my sleeve sisters and brothers out there had the same experience, but I know that another phase will start tomorrow and am praying for the best! Good night all and sleep tight xxx

I wish you both smooth sailing

Be strong and don't be afraid of putting YOUR well being first. You did something very brave to give yourself better health and a longer life. Don't waste the time you have worked hard to gain.

Had my sleeve on May 6th, 2013. Looking forward to progressing through the diet stages and being able to start exercising

Wow. Talk about a life changing experience on Wednesday! I think I had a full blown panic attack during my discharge. Everything hit me all at once about the finality of this decision and that there is no turning back. I think the pain and nonstop nausea depleted my ability to stay positive and forward-thinking. I am so going to start attending a support group in my area (1st Wed of every month) and seek counseling if necessary to keep this from happening again. I have never felt so terrified in my life! Thank God I had the benefit of a nurse (bariatric program director for my program ) who came by to give me her card during my 1st post op day while,I was still in the throes of yay- I did it! And under the last vestiges of anesthesia. Boy oh boy was she right about the first four days being hell, although it started on day two for me. I was able to connect with her yesterday several times as well as stayed in communication with my sister and mom for extra moral support at that critical time, emotionally for me. My husband was a life saver and had a front row seat for my little melt down. I don't know how I would have coped without this support network the past three days. I am physically doing as well as can be expected and concentrating on following the clear liquid diet up until tomorrow when I start adding the protein shakes. The nurse said I would definitely feel better after that. I trust her opinion since she just had the sleeve done herself about three weeks ago. I can hardly believe she is already back at work! As much as I hanker for positive posts, I also believe it is good to be as honest as possible about the bumps in the road, too. Now I understand why everyone calls this a journey and I feel in my bones that it is not anywhere near being an easy way out. So, from now on, I look forward and keep survival and optimum health as my holy grails. RIP recreational/emotional eating; hello food as fuel to nourish my body. Looking forward to exploring new hobbies. Baby steps, baby steps.

Well, hello out there~ This is my very first blog, ever, and it happens to be on the day before my gastric sleeve surgery. I am less nervous than anytime before since being approved for this surgery and hope that this calm, positive, forward-looking feeling stays with me all the way to the anesthetic! I have had other surgeries before, so I know what to expect in that regard (always a couple of nerves during the medical history/IV pre-surgical stages). For now, I am visualizing my success through the first phase of the post-surgical diet and walking every two hours. I have started packing my bag for the short hospital stay and organized a shelf in the fridge for my shakes and drinks, plus one in the cupboard for the protein powder and broths. Something I found yesterday at Target was a 42-gram protein shake from EAS Myoplex in strawberry cream flavor that may be the best tasting protein shake, ever! Really tasty! If you are tired of chocolate and vanilla this is for you, and better than the Slimfast strawberry flavored shake (plus, 42 grams of protein in one bottle is hard to find). That being said, I did not realize how bad my breath was from the protein shakes in general, until my husband said something. I thought the aftertaste was just something I could detect, myself. Apparently, it rivals my cat's breath (I checked, he's right) so my nutritionist recommended breath strips. I sure hope the bad breath is a temporary side effect that will go away after the protein shakes are no longer such a big part of my diet! Good luck to everyone out there who has had or will have a gastric sleeve! I truly wish success for all of us~ I hope that if anyone posts a comment on my blog that they will be positive and supportive (thanks in advance!).

Thanks to you both. My surgery is at 7:30 am and yet I am still awake. Feeling pretty good, though, considering. I don't know if I will have my iPad in the hospital, so don't worry if you don' hear from me until later this week. Thanks for the support and consider yourselves supported in return! Thanks for the heads up on the lingering ketosis, McKee ~ at least my teeth will appreciate all the extra attention!

Good luck to you, as well! Three of us on Monday all feeling inspired at the same time this is awesome~

Thank you for responding. I just joined today and yours was the first post I read. It is very inspiring and I too hope to be as successful as you have been. One day at a time, right? <3

Thank you for the positivity. My sleeve will be done on Monday, as well, and I'm a bit nervous.