woo woo

5'6", apple. I am pretty sure that the 8/10 of my college days (early 90s) is different from today's 8 or 10. In those days I could wear a 6 or 8. I would be happy to be in a 10 if the sizes were still the same as they used to be. Today I will be happy ending up with any single digit. Prefer a 6.

A heating pad helps a lot with the left side pain, if you haven't tried it yet.

Re: hotel costs, I am pretty sure that Dr. Nicholson includes hotel in his self-pay cost. It's possible (actually probable) that some others do too. You would want to rent a car though for sure. I just had sleeve w/ Nicholson and only needed one night in the hospital. From surgery time to discharge was roughly 24 hours. I could have stayed longer, I just didn't need to. That was a wonderful surprise, I had expected to for sure stay 2 nights.

I did the research last year, and as far as I can tell, you're not going to find anything in the northern US at all that offers self pay for less than 28k-ish. The only exception I found was Dr. Curry in Cincinatti, OH. I'm not sure if he will operate on less than 35 bmi or not. If you consider travel to Dallas you will have several good and very reasonably priced options.

Are you talking about regular soups at the grocery store, or special protein/bariatric soups?

I'm sorry but the guy behind the link you posted sounds deranged.

@@DonRodolfo are you out there?

Many people are on facebook or linked in nowadays, is there any way you could find him that way? On the other topic, I think a good low key way to encourage/express interest is to say "I have always wanted to see/do/try that" thing that is mentioned. Easy for him to grab onto and ask you out, but also painless if it's not. ETA: If you friend him on Linkedin, I think that he would certainly get the hint and make contact if he is single, etc.

I would caution against thinking of the band as a "starter" WLS. If you want the band because that is the surgery that you want, that is one thing. Getting a band because you now feel, based on your recent weight loss, that you need a less serious procedure than a sleeve or bypass, on the other hand, is not a good way to choose. Yes it is sometimes possible to revise later, but some insurances won't cover more than one WLS per lifetime, not to mention the additional risks of more surgery, etc etc. Just my opinion.

Depending on your insurance, approval can take as little as 5 days.

Agree pretty much with most of the above, I just wanted to say that not every doctor uses a drain for this procedure. Mine didn't. You have to get up and walk around as much as possible, as soon as you possibly can after the surgery. That is the only thing that will get rid of the gas pain. The actual stomach itself doesn't hurt at all and never did for me (I am 12 days out). The large incision has been pretty uncomfortable. There is a stitch placed deep inside there to close the abdominal wall. This will pull and cause pain when you try to use your abdominal muscles (which is almost all the time you are moving around). A heating pad helps SO much with both gas pains (if any) and incision pain. I am still using it part of the time. Bottom line, not super easy, but not nearly as bad as you might think.

Ditto. I did nothing, I was required to not lose weight but even if I had been higher bmi I think they would have just required that I not gain anything.

Not really. I liked the GNC shakes a lot, the flavor was good but especially I liked them because they were thin (almost Water consistency). The thing to remember is that after surgery you are doing liquids only for so long that pretty much anything with a flavor you like is going to taste pretty good. Post op I've been switching up between the GNC and the Premier chocolate flavor pre-made shakes and then also using the unjury unflavored Protein in regular broth Soups. I'm getting ready to start week 2 of three weeks of post op liquids. I will probably be sick of everything by the end of the three weeks!

I agree using shakes and bars for at least part of your diet will help simplify things for you and should be quite effective. I used the GNC Lean pre-made shakes (strawberry is the best flavor) and used the Atkins bars (Peanut Butter granola bars are delicious). I used 5 shakes or bars each day and had a caeser salad with chicken breast (no croutons) every night for 2 weeks! Worked like a charm. Lost 7 pounds. ps obvi caeser dressing is not exactly lowfat, but that is what worked for me.

I just went with stomach surgery and left it at that. People are generally too polite to pry any further than that.

Okay day 9 how is everyone doing? I'm feeling much stronger but still experiencing a lot of soreness. I am wondering how fast we should be drinking? I'm not sure if I should still be taking tiny sips or what. Any idea?

I have been doing best with things other than Water, G2 (the low calorie gatorade) has been going down really well. I have read that many people do have trouble with plain water soon after surgery.

@@sweetcin I am on day 7, one thing that really seemed to work for me was to always, always take my nausea meds just before taking my pain medicine. I did this religiously and it has really worked. Also force yourself to walk around at least once an hour. It gets better!

Day 4 how is everyone feeling? I am worried I'm not getting enough Protein but I feel I'm doing pretty good with the liquids.

I'm not. Are you getting enough liquids?

OK I tried just taking liquid tylenol this afternoon instead of the narcotic. So far so good. If anyone has not tried using the heating pad yet, it works!! I had a wonderful nap with it today.

Forgot one thing, in recovery i was finding it very hard to beathe. It was kind of awful. Did anyone else have that problem during recovery?

Just having dinner also taking walks. The only thing that hurts is gas in upper abdomen. The posicle tastes awesome! Surgery was around 1pm today! So far so good on this end. I am pretty drowsy though

Best of luck to all today! Special shout out to the travelers for a safe trip home!! Going in at 11 today :)

Only thing I would add is be wary of repeating old patterns. You have shared how your last serious relationship was devoid of the physical relationship and affection that you need. Just something to think about. You are fabulous dont settle