Margie14

Okay, I want to use Alvarez to do my daughter's sleeve, but am afraid with all the violence and boarder mess going on. Plus, someone on another thread stated in '06 he did not have the credentials he states he has. So, are you at all worried about the crime on the boarder or his credentials? Did you actually contact the societies he states he belongs to? Did you negotiate the price on the website at all? I really want answers to these questions. He looks absolutely brilliant on paper, but squeaky clean sets off my alarms too.

Yes! The over the counter medications used to work for me and now I have to take a prescription one. My Doc wanted me to take chewable pepcid after surgery and that was like taking nothing after years of using a variety of antacids and PPI's. The funny thing is the one I use now (dexilant) I can get by taking once every other day. This makes it so much cheaper in the long run. You can actually develop a "resistance" to medications. Talk to your doctor though, as he/she may want to up the dose first, try another, or It could be something else that needs to be addressed. I do know that dexilant has been very user friendly for this sleeve patient from at least a month after surgery till now. I used to break it open and swallow the little beads, now I can take the whole capsule.

My question is, "does everyone lose hair?". I am at 5 months and haven't had any loss yet. I have been taking Biotin, zinc, and Omega 3 and 7 to thwart it, but am I just a late hair loser or is what I'm taking working?

Ask your surgeon. Maybe she can give you a medical reason for surgery that you can use. Gall bladder surgery, or hiatal hernia repair? You know your boss is going to ask, so be prepared with a canned response. I won't tell anyone either except my immediate family, and they are sworn to secrecy. I don't want to deal with the nay sayers and the back lash. It's just nobodies business. I will say this though, if your boss has any intelligence he/she will assume that after you lose a lot a weight you had bariatric surgery. Too much of a coincidence that after surgery you lose a lot of weight, especially with someone who has been through the process. However, that being said, they see you everyday so it won't be for awhile that they really know something is up. For me, hiatal hernia surgery was my excuse. Since having that repaired I'm just not hungry as much. That's ma story and I'm stickin to it!

I'm five months out and I have a problem with some foods. I can eat certain foods and not feel full until the damage is done. I'm talking about the bad stuff. I'm able to eat a lot bigger portions as well on everything. chocolate, ice cream, and cheese puffs will go down a little too well, so I have to avoid having them in the house. I have to make a concerted effort to stay away from certain things and measure the rest. It will slow your progress as well as I speak from experience. Everyday is still a food struggle for me. I do get hungry unfortunately it's not head hunger or acid. Two hours after I eat...bam...hungry! I know I will never be able to eat the portion sizes I once did, but it scares me that I can eat as much as I do sometimes. Most people don't have this issue, I'm just one of the unfortunate ones that do. I think the best food for me personally is any form of Protein. It stays in your stomach the longest. chicken, tuna, salmon, cheese, Greek yogurt. And, don't drink after eating when you get to solid food! It flushes the food out fast and you want to eat again much sooner. I know why that rule was put in place. I'm really trying, but I still struggle everyday. Food, evidently, was my drug of choice and I need to deal with it. I was just like you after surgery, could drink the 64 oz of liquid with no problems. Liquids slip right on through where as food kind of sticks in your sleeve for a while.

I just read this topic ( I know, men's board and all..) as my son has just had sleeve surgery (Like me) and I wanted to see if there were any new or different revelations pertaining to him on here. I had to answer and hope that you won't do that and here's why. You have to eat after surgery in order to get your digestive tract operating again. If you follow your surgeons advice you will have minimal impact and get everything functioning properly. If you maintain an all liquid diet for a lengthy time, your body won't know how to deal with solid food when you finally eat it you could cause an impaction. Sometimes, when you get impacted (stool backed up and like concrete in the bowel) it requires surgery and can actually cause bowel perforation and death. Do follow your doctors guidelines. Impaction, even when slight, causes a great deal of pain. You should be pooping once a day, even if it is small or diarrhea (liquid in liquid out). If you go more than 2 days without you risk getting backed up and need to talk to your surgeon. Usually they will recommend using Mira-lax as this is the gentlest on your system and new stomach ( I just whirred it up in a shake for a while to avoid this). Be careful, my son wanted to do a liquid diet as long as he could after surgery and I told him "no way". You won't die, but you risk something worse. Getting impacted is not like constipation, It's more like giving birth trough your....well, I think you'll understand my meaning. Your body needs to learn what to do with solid food all over again as this surgery is traumatic internally, even if you feel "fantastic". I hope some of the medical people on this board will chime in on this. Maybe you can work up to food and then regress back to an all liquid diet?

Wow, that last picture was powerful. Exactly how I have felt for years. I'm a musician and artistic in nature and keep it to myself anymore. No one sees talent, love, patience, hard work, dedication, etc,.. through the obesity. They just see a fat person. A joke. I remember being thin in my young adult life and people always complemented me and listened to what I had to say. The bigger I got the more people shut me out, made everything I said or did appear ridiculous and then the shunning started. I see it happening to my kids and I know it's the weight. The last great prejudice in this life is against overweight people and getting worse. It's practically illegal to pick on someone for race, religion, or sexual orientation anymore, but it's a free for all on obese people. My son is now headed toward surgery and next will be my daughter (PCOS related). We feel less than human when we go out, that is the mental toll of society on obese people. The vicious circle that causes us to go home and overeat in the first place.

Wonderful suggestions Buff...I just want to throw in one more. I love peanut butter shakes with both chocolate and vanilla protein powders, and sometimes even throw in a banana for a peanut butter banana shake. \The way I keep the calories down is by using PB2. It's basically the peanuts with all of the oil taken out so you save a lot of fat and calories. Kroger, WalMart, and Amazon all carry it. Are the Nectar flavors good with water? I haven't tried that yet and my son is getting ready to have surgery as well. I hated the Isopure clear drinks so anything that tastes better than that would be a welcome change.

Hi Firefly! My son is due to have surgery soon and it's good to see another guy on the forum. I never did use slim-fast because it has a high carb/lowprotien ratio. That may be why your weight loss is not as big as you may want. Did you mean diet Jello or Jelly? If it's Jelly, take a look at the carbs on what you are eating. A better Protein shake would be something like Muscle Milk light or Premiere protein ready made shakes. They have a very low carb/high protein (premiere has 30 grams of protein per shake) ratio. If you try to stay below 6 grams of carbs per meal you should be dropping weight super fast. If you get bored with the flavors of the shakes nectar makes some really awesome flavors of shakes, but you have to mix them yourself with either Water, non-fat milk, or almond milk. Hope I helped a little. Good luck on your surgery!

For clear liquid before surgery I made sugar free Jello jigglers and ate them constantly because i was so hungry. I also had the clear Protein drinks (which I hated the taste of, btw) Isopure makes them. A lot of people like them, but I didn't. I drank them anyway because they helped with the hunger. I really like Osem chicken consomme for a hot broth to sip. Popsicles are good before and after. After surgery the Isopure, regular jello, the Osem, popsicles, and caffeine free iced and warm tea with stevia. My stomach really like the popsicles and they seemed to calm it for some reason. By the time I was into full liquids I was ready and so sick of jello! Three days after surgery I started full liquids and had puddings, Protein shakes, pureed Soup of any kind, applesauce, and anything that could be made semi liquid. I think after two weeks I started on puree foods. I didn't have any resistance with liquids like some people do. I could drink fairly regularly pretty much as soon as they let me. I know a lot of people say they can only sip. I was taking full swallows. Good luck on your surgery!

I felt the same way. Best of luck you you and speedy recovery!

Call your Ob/Gyn. This is not normal.

Completely! Good to know things are working after surgery?!? I had it until liquid diet ended and I think most do. Just beware of gas! It may not be gas! I had a couple of "accidents" and learned that real fast. Also, when I go all liquid for a day or so it does come back...liquid in, liquid out. Congrats on your surgery!

A big warm welcome GOM! Yes, you will feel much better and have energy to spare! I've lost 41 lbs. and feel amazing. I'm an old fart on top of it all, so at your age you will feel even better. I started to get my energy after losing about 20 or so lbs. I remember the days of having two little ones to keep up after and that's not an easy job. Pretty soon you will be wearing them out, and still have energy for "me time". Good luck on your journey!

Ouch, can't you put the grams to ounces for those of us that are metrically illiterate here in the states? 100 g = approximately 3,5 ounces Y'all. Good article though!

Gosh LL, true that! I don't admonish anyone for their path. Mine, good some days and bad others. I wish I had the tenacity and drive of some people, but I don't. I have a cup of reg. coffee everyday and have had extra thin crust pizza with chicken chopped on top (Dr. Oedeker's I believe). Of course one small slice (oh yeah, I also add stuff like olives and sauteed asparagus on top) is not bad! I do know my weight loss has slowed and stalled on my bad days. I just broke out of a 2.5 week stall by getting back to phase 2 (all liquid). I still have hunger not related to acid (take medicine for that, the strong stuff - dexilant) and wish the surgery had killed that for me, but sadly it did not. When my sleeve gets empty I am starving! Just about every 2-3 hrs my sleeve says, "feed me Seymour" like a monster! I do know when something bad happens I tend to chew thoroughly... all day long. Emotional eating is still my problem and something I have to struggle with on my own. Plus, I never had to sip Water, I started gulping from the start and the only reason I know I'm sleeved it the amount of food I can take in is limited. liquids go down real easy for me. One thing I did give up that was excruciatingly hard was diet Mountain Dew. Yes, prior to surgery I was addicted and had at least one two liter a day. I gave up that a couple months before surgery and weened myself off of caffeine completely. If you do it slowly you don't notice it as bad. I know the fear of those who drink it everyday as I never thought I could give up my sodas! But, I did and you can too, just focus on what you really want out of life and try to de-focus on the "bubbly". I recently had a sip of my kids just to see and found the taste disgusting. If you give up the soda, you may(like me) not crave or want it anymore. Now I'm a decaf tea with stevia junkie. Water is still hard some days to get down plain and I cannot stand the fake tasting overly sweat flavor drops. So, my poison of choice is Iced tea.

Wow! I'm not sure what that is, but the gas goes away in about two to three days. I didn't have any pain after day four or five and before that it was more like discomfort than pain. I think you need to call your doctor back. If it gets too bad head to the emergency room of the hospital your surgery was performed. The sternum area is just about where your stomach lies. Is the pain worse after drinking? Are you nauseous with the pain or throwing up? It could be gas, but after 11 days that doesn't sound right. Usually by day 11 you should be feeling pretty good.

Fat is not the problem, your body (especially your brain) required fat. Sugar is the problem, in any form. As a matter of fact, a lot of people who suffer from seizure disorders are placed on a high fat, mid Protein, extreme low carb diet and they either have remission of seizure or a remarkable decrease. Fat was demonized in the early 90's with the low fat diet craze which was a complete failure for so many of us. I would gather to say that the fat in the Atkins shake is very acceptable. What are the calories of the shake? What is the sweetener in the shake? I think those would be the more important issues. If you are tolerating the Atkins shake with it's high protein, I say good for you and keep up the good work! Believe it or not you can drop a lot of pounds on a high fat, mid protein, extreme low carb diet. Problem is it's boring and hard to keep up. I lost 24 lbs in about three weeks on one, then lost all control to carbs as I missed them and was bored. Gained every bit back and then some. (reference Keto Diet)

I want to try it, but the cost is prohibitive for just trying. Does it taste as good as the canned stuff you put on nachos? Is it worth the cost? If any of you have tried it please give me feedback. I am on the liquid phase and just want something for puree phase that is not sweet. I hate to say it, but I'm already getting sick of chocolate and I love chocolate!

Thanks for all of your replies! I suspect there are more who dislike it than like it, so I will pass on ordering it and just get regular cheeses sauce and cheese. After all, regular cheeses have a lot of Protein in them! I do like their Protein shakes as well, but they are sweetened with sucralose and I am trying to stay away from artificial sweeteners. I'm sticking with stevia sweetened protein and plain for now. The Vitamins, are awful. My daughter tasted one and said it tasted like fruit loops and broccoli! I'm going to use them up, but I won't reorder. The D3 is not bad, but the multi and Calcium are not very pleasant, to say the least.

Congratulations! Hope all of you who are having surgery tomorrow have a smooth transition and a speedy recovery!

It will get better everyday. You will take in more and more as you heal. You don't have to push too hard on the liquids right now as you are probably over loaded from I.V. fluids. Over the course of the next week or so you will be able to get in most of your Fluid goal. Remember, 64 oz. of fluid includes your shakes, Soups, and Water. At least that is what my surgeon stated. Here is a simple test to see if you are dehydrated. When you pee, is it pale or dark? Dark, not Vitamin neon yellow, urine is a sign of dreaded dehydration. If it is dark you definitely need to drink every seconds of the day until it gets really pale again. You are going to do fine.

Last night my temperature was 99.8 and I was miserable. I stopped taking the pain med as they make me feel dizzy and a little queasy. I'm taking tylenol, but feel really out of it. Is this normal? So many people feel great by this point and I just feel sick. When should I expect to start feeling normal? I'm not feeling much pain if any, just feel kind of flu like (with no flu). I would love to get up an go for a walk, but all I feel like doing is laying down, being lazy, and sleeping. Is this normal for day 4? Or, is this not a good sign. I'm 55, so I'm an older patient. Also, I had a hiatal hernia repair and can't seem to take a deep breath anymore. Will this get better and is it normal? I am really starting to worry at this point.

Just want to thank everyone for the input and thoughts. I was feeling much better by day 5 and now at 1.5 weeks I have to slow myself down. I am amazed at how well I have been feeling.