Miss Mac

I lost 22 pounds on the pre-op diet. It took a week and a half to lose that, then I started soft foods and gained a few ounces again. Then I started losing and at three weeks hit the dreaded third week stall. Then at week four started losing a few pounds a week.....slower than some folks, but the process works. I am one of those people that does weigh every day. That is a crazy-maker for some folks but it keeps me on the straight and narrow. Stay with the particular plan you were given, chin up, and good luck.

Make a list of questions to ask your surgeon. One of them should be, "How do you handle pain management, especially in preventing redsidual shoulder gas?" My doctor said the he extracts as much of the CO2 as possible. Consequently, I had no shoulder gas. Some people suffer miserably with it for days. I had a morphine drip day of my surgery and therefore did not care what was going on all day. I stayed two days and two nights. Second day, I had hydrocodone, an also came home with a prescription for that. I only needed it for two days. Yes, I did sleep in a recliner my first night home, but not after that. I did have some nausea, but they sent me home with meds for it. I did not throw up at all until about six months out when I had some kind of 24 hour bug and was sick all night. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. I did not holler for help soon enough and got woozy and passed out twice, hitting my head on the tub twice. I ended up in the ER two days later for dehydration, and stayed overnight for observation with IVs. One guy on here said he passed out and fell on a coffee table, busting his jaw. If you get woozy, sit down and get help. Don't be brave. My sleeve was lapascopic with four tiny incisions. I went to the hospital pre-pared with a bariatric teddy bear. It has one solid side and all the rest is soft cuddly teddy bear. I did indeed keep it handy for tummy support at the hospital, on the way home, and about the first week in bed. I hear that some hospitals provide one, but I bought mine online. My recovery was pretty much textbook without complications. I had a three month pre-op diet and a 10 day liquid diet because my liver was a bit large and needed to be shrunk a bit. Post-op, I was on Clear liquids in the hospital, full liquids my first week at home, then purees for a week, the soft foods for a couple of weeks. At 4 1/2 weeks I started regular cooked food as tolerated. At three months I tried raw foods and salad greens, but had to back off for a month or so. My energy was really low until I started soft foods. It was almost two months before I was back to a regular day, but I am retired. My heart goes out to my bariatric brothers and sisters who have to return to employment or care for small children. They are my heroes. Hope that gives you an idea. Good luck with your bariatric journey.

While you are waiting and hanging out here for support, you can initiate the following steps that most of our plans have us do for our pre-op preparations. Drink no calories. Drink Water until your eyeballs float - 64 - 80+ ounces per day. Don't eat anything made in a factory. You can do this by shopping the perimeter of the supermarket and avoid the aisle unless you need a spice or paper towels...that kind of stuff. Eat at least 60 ounces of Protein per day, and at any meal, eat your protein first - then veg - then fruit. Dessert should be something like an apple, not apple pie with two scoops of ice cream. Avoid sugar, grease, and salt as much as possible. Eating clean will help you discover the real taste of natural food. If it weren't for sugar, grease and salt, McDonald's would have no business. When I gave up candy bars and started eating dark chocolate, I realized that it wasn't the chocolate I missed - it was the sugar. Try to wean yourself off of soda and diet soda. Most bariatric plans discourage soda pop and anything with bubble post-op. Reduce starchy carbs like bread, flour, sugar, rice, noodle, biscuits, white potatoes, macaroni, spaghetti etc. So what is left to eat? meat, eggs, cheese, Beans, Peanut Butter, yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, and fresh fruits and non-starchy veggies. You can adjust your current recipes to reduce carbs. The World According to Eggface is a good place to start. We have a forum here for recipes. Also, Sparkpeople.com and Myfitnesspal.com. Many of us use Myfitnesspal.com for logging our food every day. It is really an eye-opener if you are honest with yourself about what you eat. Weigh and measure your food to acurately acknowledge your actual portion size. There is a scientific principle that says, "You cannot control that which you do not measure." Exercise where you can. Move your body every day. Don't become part of the sofa. I have 35 exercise DVDs of all kinds and variety from bedfast exercises to chair exercises, to Zumba, Hip-Hop Abs, Pussycat Dolls, Bollywood, Salsa, Strength Training and Toning, etc..... and ridiculously enough, my favorite is still Richard Simmons Sweatin' to the Oldies. If you can't afford videos, crank up some loud music and dance like nobody is watching, or take wal There are also a TON of Youtube videos with exercises you can follow. Now is a good time to make regular visits to a physician so that your weight can be monitored. Many plans require several months of medical diet supervision as a pre-requisite for approval. My plan was two years. You may also have to provide a list of all the different diets that have failed you. I wish you best and hope that you can have your surgery with an uncomplicated recovery. Good luck, and visit us often. And just so you know, opinions and tact will vary here.

I had to laugh. I was reading that article while eating dark chocolate with some unsalted peanuts. I did have just Protein for breakfast: scrambled egg, a piece of bacon, and a few bites of tomato. But for lunch I had a spinach salad with a homemade bean salad made with salsa and 3 kinds of Beans, fresh mushroom, yellow pepper, cukes, tomato, and carrot. For dinner tonight I am having baked eggplant stuffed with lean ground beef and veggies. In a days time, I don't eat as many carbs as I used to, but I will eat enough to stay out of ketosis. I call BS on that article, too.

At 16 months out, I can top out at around a cup of food. There is no way that my body needed all that food I was shoving in before my sleeve. How in the world did I eat a full plate at the buffet, go back for seconds, then eat a desset, maybe two, and wash it down with a quart of soda pop? No wonder I was fat! How could I eat a loaded omelet with cheese for Breakfast, with four pieces of toast, three cups of tea, and an orange. On a day off from work, lunch was an all-day graze out of the fridge every half-hour or so. At dinner, I could eat a big salad with 1/4 cup of ranch dressing, a seven ounce steak, a big loaded baked potato, corn on the cob, green Beans, and apple pie with two scoops of ice cream. Why could I eat oatmeal at home, stop by McDonalds on the way to work at get a sausage egg cheese muffin, with hashbrows, a cinnabun, and large orange juice, the eggs, biscuits and gravy, and bacon plus more orange juice from the cafeteria at work, the several Cookies for a mid-morning snack, a full lunch from the cafeteria, two candy bars in the afternoon, stop by Burger King next to work on the way home to ge a whopper, big fries and large soda pop, a few mile down the road stop at McDonalds at get a fish sandwich, more fries, and another large soda pop.....the closer to home get an ice cream cone, and a mile from the house Stop at another McDonalds and get a Southwestern salad with chicken and four packets of dressing, eat it in the parking lot, then go n the house, take a shower and get comfy and then eat a full dinner? Not to be outdone, at bedtime I would have a microwave bag of popcorn all to myself, plus a 2 litre of soda pop. Most nights I would wake up hungry enough to eat my thumbs and have a large serving of whatever leftovers were in the fridge or a Jethro-sized bowl of Cereal with 1/4 cup of sugar. This was every day, and no different in front of company plus birthday cake and more ice cream for the celebration of it. And Thanksgiving or The Olive Garden?....let's not go there If I went bowling with friends, I could easily eat 1/2 the pizza by myself, plus another two-liter of soda pop. What I am saying is that with my little bit of food I am eating, I am thriving just fine, thank you, and am so much healthier for it. Just tell anyone that speaks out on it that you are eating in a nutritionally excellent manor and healthy and thriving for it. Become an evangelist about it, not an apologetic shrinking violet. Go enjoy your social situations and become a great conversationalist. People are not like to hold you down and force feed you because you are eating lightly. Good luck and speak up for yourself.

Michigan Chic.....I would love to know where you shop. At 165 I was size 12 top and size 14/16 bottom I got my weight down to 135 one time and was still a size 10. What stores am I missing?

In anticipation of significant hair loss, I did cut mine real short and bought the caps and turbans that chemo-therapy patients wear. I was ready to buy a wig if I had to. I followed my doctor's orders of Protein (80 g), calories 800-1200) and fluids (60-80oz). In additon, I took and - still take at 16 months - 20,000 mcg of Biotin per day (Walgreen's Finest brand 2 x 10,000mcg). I did not lose any unusual amounts of hair beyond the few daily strays that are normal. This result is definitely not typical. Maybe I am just lucky and the biotin is nothing more than expensive pee. Who knows? There are a few other rare birds on this forum that have not experienced unusual hair loss. I wish you the best in this regard. Good luck.

Riddle me this, AussieSam.......How do you explain metabolic syndrome and its effect on weight loss?

Liars unite!

They took mine out second day post-op. I was able to pee, but it took a lot of muscular coaxing to get the job done. It was like my bladder was still asleep and not ready to wake up yet. After about a week, I did not have to work at it so much. I was one of those post-menopausal women who had to pee suddenly and woke up frequently during the night to pee. By the time I lost the first thirty pounds, that problem totally disappeared.

1. Go to Youtube and watch a gory surgical video on the kind of surgery you had, to remind yourself of how brutalized your stomach is right now. 2. Follow the plan your team gave you. 3. I hope you don't have any complications. Why would you risk it? 4. If you get complications because of rushing the process, here is a hug from Chicago.

At 16 months out, I can eat a total volume of 3/4 cup if it's solid, or 1 cup if it's soupy. That is in 1/2 hour period, not all at once.

Artificial sweeteners. I have been using them for decades (well, at least since they came out 1960's.) Today is my day to go cold turkey, after watching Dr. Matthew Weiners Youtube video about sweeteners yesterday. He explained the science of it in a way that I could understand, how they wreck your metabolism, so I am done. I consume the most with the tea that I drink all day and all night, with 2 in a cup. Sometimes I will use 30 in a day.......I was putting that stuff in my salad dressing, tuna salad, actually everything. It is time to stop and make adjustments. Monk fruit sweatener is sooooooo expensive, like 3X the price of other sweeteners, and Stevia tastes like licorice - that thing which I hate. I guess Water is going to have to be my new best friend. This journey has been all about making adjustments, so whats one more, eh?

Thanks. I bookmarked that page.

it certainly is easier and more fun because I am much lighter and more flexible. Plus, I feel better about myself and a bit more sassy. By the way, I am 63. You are never too old.

My capacity at 16 months is very similar to Bafflehead's. I could eat a 3 oz burger with a slice of cheese and no bread, or 2 oz of burger and a few bites of steamed veggies. For Breakfast today, I had a scrambled egg, with 1/2 oz of cheese and 1/2 oz of ham. If I am having a casserole or beef stew, I will measure out 1/2 cup, because it is more dense than Soup. If I am having soup, I can eat a cup, because it is more liquid. Bread, corn, potatoes, rice, are a rare treat.

Go to Youtube and watch the videos by Dr. Matthew Weiner. He is a Bariatric surgeon. I just discovered them today because someone else on the forum mentioned him in a post. I was especially interested in the ones on why you are not losing weight, and are artificial sweeteners making you fat. In the one about artificial sweeteners he mentions how whey Protein shakes (even though his own practice requires them pre-op) can contribute to stalls because of the sweeteners. He explains very well how sweeteners confuse your metabolism. I am going to implement some of his suggestions starting today. Sweeteners are my vice, and now I know that they (and my whey protein shakes) are slowing my roll, I am going to have to make adjustments. Maybe his videos will help you, too.

To djmohr, I had a three level Anterior Cervical Dissection and fusion on February 14 of 2013. I was in a soft collar for six weeks. I had to be careful all year, but was able to have my sleeve surgery on December 23, 2013.

I started soft foods at 21 days, and had to measure and weigh my food. I was allowed 1/3 plus 2 tablspoons, and often could not finish the last bite. Closer to six months I couls eat about 3/4 cup of food (6 oz.), and it was not until nearly a year that I could eat a cup of anything. Just be careful. It does sound like a lot to me so early in the game.

Well, you are in the right place. You can start with one big change, which is....wait for it........do not eat anything made in a factory. That will pretty much eliminate starchy carbs from flour and sugar, sneaky added salt, and unhealthy fats. Concentrate on the perimeter of the store, where you find real food that you can grow, pick and catch. Just go easy on the butter and salt. The only exception I make is sugar-free Jello, which is my go-to for midnight cravings. Welcome aboard, and good luck with your surgery.

How do you handle pain management? Many people get excruciatingly painful "shoulder gas" after surgery. It is residual CO2 which is used to inflate the abdominal cavity so that the doctor can work more easily with his laparascopic tools. When I asked my surgeon about this, he said that he extracts as much of the CO2 as possible. Thankfully, I did not have any issue whatsoever with shoulder gas, even though I was cautiously expecting it. I had a morphine pump the first day and hydorcodone the second day. Upon discharge, I used hydrocodone for two days at home, and that was all I needed. I have had 12 surgeries in my lifetime (including two c-sections and two joint replacements) and my sleeve was absolutely the easiest.

Hi, BigHarleyGuy1, I am Miss Mac in Chicago. Since I had my surgery 16 months ago, I have lost the equivalent of wearing a colt for a belt. I can't imagine how I carried all that extra weight before. Whatever you decide to do, don't let yourself be swayed by either side. This is your earthly container you are walking around in, and it should be your decision only about how to manage it. I wish you the best and hope to see many posts from you. Keep in mind that your bariatric brothers and sisters are humans, too, and opinions and tact will vary. With that said, "Welcome aboard."

Congratulations! I think that making that call to the insurance yourself is very pro-active thing to do. I called after two days, too, and was told that my BCBS Federal Emloyee had already approved me for surgery plus up to five days in the hospital. I then called my surgeon's office and was told that the insurance coordinator was on vacation and would not be back for another ten days....and that no one else in the offfice is trained for her job. So, they won't know about whether I was approved or not until she returns from vacation! Geese Louise. So, I asked that if I could send them a fax of the approval, would they schedule my date. For that, I was told ok, good luck trying. So, I called my insurance case manager back and she said she would send it in the mail (That was a Friday). I recieved it on Monday and faxed it to the surgeon's office. They called back in about ten minutes and set my date. So, for three phone calls, I saved a week's worth of crazy wondering if I would be approved. And being as their coordinator would be two weeks behind in her work, it probably would have taken several days more. Again, congratulations. I wish you good luck and good health, and an easy, uncomplicated recovery.

Stalls are part of the game. Stalls are like lovers. Your first will probably not be your last. Keep logging your intake to make sure you are staying on the straight and narrow. These things have a way of working themselves out while we go crazy with the little hampsters in our heads telling us that what we have achieved so far is all we are going to get. At 16 months, I have had multiple stalls, and each one was a crazy-maker. Apparently, it is quite normal for the weight loss to stablize when you start eating solid foods, and then all of a sudden the scale starts to move again. Hang in there, eat your Protein first. If you are eating veggies now, it should be non-starchy veggies. Potatoes and corn for example, are starch heavy and will slow your roll. Since my surgery, green Beans are my new best friend. One thing I can tell you for sure is that bariatric surgery is a test of character and patience. Good luck with your journey. Your first year will fly by, and then you can look back and wonder what all the fuss was about!

Is your case manager doing a psych evaluation or just looking to see if you are serious about complying with your surgeon's direction for your new post-op life? Your case manager can actually be to your advantage. Every time I have something serious or chronic going on, my insurance (BCBS Federal Employee) offers me the services of a case manager. My case manager is a liason between me and the doctors, hospitals, and clinical services I encounter in seeking proper care for that particular condition. Many insurance companies take weeks to approve the bariatric packet of info submitted a bariatric surgeon. My case manager got mine approved in two days. I hope your visit goes well for you. I wish you good luck and good health.