Kindle

Oh yeah, I forgot about the safe in the room. I put my extra cash, passport and ipad in the safe when we went out.

There was one gal in our group that travelled there alone. Not sure what she did with her valuables. You do get your own private room, so keeping your luggage there isn't a problem, and the clinic itself is very secure... Enter through a locked underground garage, then up a secure elevator where a key is required and then another locked, coded door to get into the surgical area and patient rooms. If you are going down the day before and staying at the Marriott, they may have a place you can store your luggage for one night since you will be back the next day. As for your $$$$, I guess I'd ask your coordinator (Lori or Carolyn) what your options are.

80% of my stomach and 2000+ calorie meals

He used a 48 One study I read stated that the US standard for bougie size for VSG is 32-50. Besides bougie size, There are other deciding factors as to how big your stomach capacity ends up being.... How tight against the bougie does the the surgeon put the staple line and whether or not he oversews (which will further decrease the diameter of your sleeve). Scar tissue, areas of stricture, and gastric motility will also play a role in restriction. My surgeon used a 34 Fr bougie and oversews, so everything else being equal, I should have greater restriction than if I'd had a 48Fr with no oversewing. However, our eating habits (whether or not we overeat and stretch our sleeves) will also play a role in long term capacity and overall weight loss.

Saw this on their website when I ordered my unflavored protein powder. Being a "cheesehead", how could I resist? 140 calories, 21grams protein, 2g sugar and 3.5g fat....pretty much in the same ballpark of a lot of protein shakes so I have used it in place of one of my three shakes on some days. Fortunately, I am allowed green veggies on my preop diet, so I have used it as a dip for broccoli, green beans, zucchini, etc. Also poured it over Brussel sprouts and mixed with spinach. Yum! For post op, it will definitely be something I will eat with eggs, chicken, whatever, when I get to those stages.

Idle wood...any protein powder can't be mixed above 130-140 degrees or it will denature and clump up. Kind of like what happens to an egg white when you heat it..it turns from a liquid to a solid.

What size bougie did your surgeon use? That's the biggest gauge of how much restriction you will have

I mix mine in Water or Soup with a Blender Bottle (the kind with the wire whisk ball in it) then I heat it up slowly (like 10-20 seconds at a time in the micro) until it's warm. Never had clumps. BTW, being postop on full liquids now, I've discovered this is really good mixed in chicken broth or especially delicious with the Swanson's Mexican Tortilla Soup Base broth

To my surprise, the pain med my surgeon sends home with every patient is a sublingual NSAID to be taken twice daily for up to 4 days. I took it for 3 days. I forgot to ask why, but my guess is that the benefits of reducing the post op swelling (thus decreasing stricture and leak complications, and increasing ability to drink fluids right away) outweighs the risk of ulcers over such a short duration. Plus we are on 2 weeks of an anti ulcer medication and 2 months of a PPI, so our sleeve is pretty protected. We were told to take regular Tylenol if we had anymore pain past the 4 days of the Rx NSAID. Luckily I never needed to.

Mazzers120 - Glad you had a good surgery. I really enjoyed my time down there. Are you headed back to San Diego tomorrow? Tell the driver hello from the "stressed out girls" who were trying to get to the airport on time on Monday the 23rd. And ask him if he ever got that bottle of tequila.

I was up 5 pounds 5 days post op. Didn't weigh myself again until today (11 days postop) and I'm now down to what I was the day of surgery. Don't weigh so often and certainly don't stress about it this early on. It took you years to put on and maintain your weight. It's not going to come off in just a few weeks , or even a few months.

My friend who had gastric bypass years ago complains she's always cold. Make that 2 of us now. As a vet tech working in sub zero temps, long underwear and layers is nothing new for me at work. But now at home I'm Always covered with a blanket on the couch and I've got something even better than a heated mattress pad.... A waterbed turned up to 95 with two blankets and a 100 degree English Pointer on each side!

Good luck to everyone. I am 11 days out from my VSG with Obesity. Control Center in TJ. Had a great experience. The OCC staff and Marriott staff were incredibly kind and accommodating and I am feeling great postop. Looking forward to 2014, as I'm sure you all are, too.

Jhealan, you're right....lots of variations in surgeon/nut preferences. For me jello and DRINKABLE yogurt is OK for liquids but not pudding and regular yogurt (that's puréed stage). Knowing the only drinkable yogurts in my local grocery store were kiddie style...loaded with sugar and artificial crap, I asked the nut if I could just take regular yogurt and blend it with milk or water to thin it out. Well she looked at me like I was crazy and asked "why would you do that?" The day after surgery I walked to Walmart and realized why my comment was so weird to her..... In the refrigerated aisle, there were dozens of brands and flavors and varieties of drinkable yogurt on BOTH sides as far as you could see! Apparently they really like their drinkable yogurts in Mexico. Unfortunately I was flying home so I couldn't stock up.

I have a pretty active job and went back after 6 days. But I have been able to control my hours... Day 6 3 hours, Day 7 6 hours, Day 8 2 hours, Day 9 off, Day 10 5 hours, etc. I normally work 10 hour days, so definitely couldn't have jumped into that on day 6!

Why?

So glad you posted! I am 10 days out and having the exact same anxiety. I was a little fatigued and had a little more gas and cramping than usual yesterday, and didn't sleep all night because I was sure I had a leak. I've been following my postop diet to a tee, but have been fairly active, which should be seen as a good thing. But I'm becoming incredibly paranoid over this, and just waiting for something bad to happen. What a freak!

"Oh I might add the winner will receive a free Body of Christ (a bread like wafer) to suck on like a dirty bread eating heathen that you are!!" I was too late to post on the "hot" thread before it was locked, but I wanted to say, despite being a "believer", I thought this was f...ing funny! Thanks for the chuckle. I love PI (that's Politically Incorrect) OK, lock this thread, quick, before it gets out of hand.

Glad your surgery went well, but sorry you had such a bad experience in TJ. I was sleeved on 12/20 at Obesity a Control Center and had a completely opposite experience. There were no communication issues as most of the staff spoke great English. My night nurse was probably the least proficient, but she still knew what I wanted when I explained the volume button on the TV remote wasn't working. (Seriously, that was my biggest "problem" postop). Other than the first night in the clinic We recovered at the Marriott where again, the friendly staff knew enough English to be accommodating. We were shuttled back to OCC each day for rechecks. Daily walks to the Walmart Plaza were a great distraction, and on day 2 our driver took us to Avenude Revolucion market area for shopping. There were travel/scheduling issues that came up the last day, but the OCC concierge pulled some strings and got us fast passed over the border to make all of our flights on time. I'm wishing you all the best with your successful recovery.

Luckily no nausea whatsoever. I'm only 10 days out and I've heard of it kicking in later when we try new foods, but so far so good. I had another surgery that I woke up from EXTREMELY nauseous, not to mention I get motion sickness pretty easily. So I warned the anesthesiologist preop and he had the nurse give me something IV before surgery. Whatever it was made me see double (which surprisingly didn't make me nauseous) and I woke up just fine.

Since you are having trouble with Protein shakes, have you tried adding unflavored Protein Powder to Soups? I usually have a Protein shake with added drinkable yogurt (recommended by nut to replace normal GI flora) for Breakfast, Soup with protein powder for late lunch, and a second shake (usually vanilla Matrix with PB2 added) for dinner/desert. I also drink an additional 20 - 30oz flavored Water throughout the day. I've really enjoyed my soup selection... Tortilla soup base, cream of shrimp, butternut squash bisque, strained French onion, and today had cream of asparagus. I dilute and strain the creamed soups to make them pretty thin. Mixing unjury protein'd cheese sauce with the tortilla soup was especially yummy. Good luck!

We had surgery the same day and as of Friday, I was UP 5 pounds from surgery day. I'm assuming it's leftover water gain from surgery. I'm not weighing myself again until Jan 1 so I'll have a 2014 starting weight. But I guarantee I won't be 19 pounds, so you are way ahead of me. I've been getting in all my fluids and protein since day 5 and I feel good, so I am not complaining.

Sounds like you are set up for success. As for the worst part of preop, mine was the 1st 3 days when I had bad headaches and then surprisingly, day 14. For some reason I got REALLY hungry that day and almost cheated. I kind of had a panic attack over the whole decision to have surgery then, too. But I made it through and am 9 days postop. Believe me, you will hardly give your preop diet a second thought once it's over.

You're right about the sugars, but it sure was a better choice than the high fructose corn sugar, sucralose, modified corn starch, aspartame, and artificial colors that are in the other choices of drinkable yogurt I had. . The plain Siggi's has nothing but pasteurized skim milk and active live cultures.

My nut recommends drinkable yogurt as soon as day 4 to replace normal GI flora. The only drinkable in my local grocery store is "kiddie style" with tons of sugar and crap. I found Siggi's at Super Target and LOVE it! Sweetened with agave nectar and absolutely nothing artificial or unnecessary. And 12billion live cultures/serving is awesome. I drink the blueberry and vanilla straight and add the plain to my Breakfast Protein shake.