VSGAnn2014

I loved Rosarita traditional non-fat refried Beans (in a can at any grocery store) mixed with cheddar cheese -- then heated up / melted in the microwave. It was literally my favorite go-to food during puree phase. One egg mixed with cottage cheese and cheddar cheese and "microwave-scrambled" (remixed up every 15-30 seconds) Grind up water-pack canned chicken and add to refried dish (above) as your tolerance for this increases Blend frozen fruit (or fresh fruit) to Protein drinks (occasionally) Add ground water-packed canned chicken to Soups. It's an easy way to get i more protein. FYI, I never did fully "puree" food -- instead I just ground up stuff. I'm 4-1/2 months out. Obviously, I didn't die. Also, FYI -- some foods will go down better for you than others. For example, my tummy liked chicken, but not tuna. Don't worry about it. Just keep looking for things that your tummy likes. BTW, re your "vague instructions" about pureed foods ... there's really not a lot to say about pureed foods. You puree them. You eat them. That is all.

You're the customer / consumer / patient. You should get value for your dollar. Find and negotiate the best price you can for the benefits you obtain. BTW, if you have insurance, your insurance may pay for some of the blood panel work you need done. And yes, I think you should have those blood panels done after WLS. The point of having this surgery was not just to become "skinny," but to become healthy. You need to find out if you are. Best o you.

You can also request that the hotel put a small refrigerator in your room. If you think they might be food-in-the-room averse, tell them it's for your medicines.

P.S. At this point, my carbs are a lot higher than the rest of you -- typically, 65 to 100+ carbs a day. I'm doing this on purpose to: (1) avoid ANY chance of developing bariatric hypoglycemia (this happens to only a few people, but you do NOT want to be one of the people who suffer from this lifelong malady!), (2) to add in veggies and fruits (I'm up to at least 5 a day now -- yea!), and (3) I just simply need the carbs to keep my energy level high.

I'm almost 20 weeks post-op. On December 10 (3 weeks ago), my surgeon's office told me to start ratcheting my calories up from 800 cals/day to 1,000 cals/day--because they want my metabolic rate to keep increasing. Fine with me! But that calorie increase and Christmas coincided with my first stall. However, I was OK with that, given the reason for the calorie increase. I've been successful in getting my calories up to 1,000 most days (it was actually a little harder than I'd imagined it would be). And this morning the scales finally dropped 2 pounds. So onward and downward.

Fabulous pix. Nothing like a picture to tell the story accurately. That stomach actually looks enormous to me! I too would like to know if it's average-sized or smaller or larger than usual. You sure can see why we get so full immediately post-op. Compared to that sucker, our swollen little pencil-tube tummies are miniscule! Thanks again.

Nope. Didn't cry. The pre- and post-surgical nurses were lovely company. The anesthesiologist and anesthetist were nice people. My surgeon and then his head surgical nurse came into give me high fives and more information and were confident and kind. The drugs were great. Choose not to be be upset. It is your choice.

^^^ What a b***h! Just wait ... there's gonna be a reckoning. LOL!

Nope. It's not wrong. I was hitting 60 grams of Protein on Day Five. In the early days post-op, Protein shakes are how you'll get to 60-80 grams of protein. Eventually, you'll be able to get it in by all or mostly regular food.

Thanks very much for those study citations, @Smye. In the first study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24352748/ the big difference was that bypass patients lost more weight during the first year than VSG patients did. However, in all the long-term studies I've seen (I'll look for some citations) VSG patients' weight losses by the end of the second year post-op were the same as bypass patients' two-year losses. In other words, VSG weight losses catch up with bypass patients' weight losses during the second year. I was surprised to read, however, that super-morbid VSG patients had higher early post-op complication rates (22%) than did super-morbid bypass patients (9%); not sure what that's about. The second study you cited at http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2006/20060922-weight-loss.html was published in 2006. The study compared Roux-en-Y (gastric bypass) surgeries of super-morbidly obese patients to those of similar patients' duodenal switch surgeries. This study did one-year and three-year followups (which means the surgeries studied occurred no later than 2003-2006, and probably earlier). But the study reported that DS was much more effective after one year (83.9% vs. 70.4%) and after three years (84.2% vs. 59.3%). Wowzah! Very impressive. The third study you cited at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22791102/ reviewed patients' whose VSGs were conducted a helluva long time ago (2002 - 2004). All those patients had originally planned to do the VSG as a first stage and then go on to a bypass, but for various reasons they did not. And they all had big bougies (50F), which I suppose didn't matter, since all the patients thought they'd be going on to a bypass; nonetheless, very few surgeons these days use such large bougies (most use 36F these days). Their long-term results were followed between 38-95 months post-op. BMI decreased on average from 66 to 46. Personally, I think this study population and their surgical conditions differ considerably from typical VSG patients' surgical conditions these days. The fourth study cited at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22498357 studied French patients at a university hospital there. The study compared patients who went through "staged" surgeries (patients first had a VSG and later had a DS surgery) vs. patients who had the entire DS procedure in a single surgery. A third group emerged--patients who after having a VSG never completed the DS procedure. The follow-up was pretty short-term (averaging only 13 months post-op) and showed average excess weight loss for 50.8% for VSG-only patients; 72.7% for the staged, 2-step DS patients; and 73.3% for the single-DS surgery patients. I think this study proves only that VSG patients, on average, didn't lose as fast as the DS patients. But (as we all probably agree) the long-term results are what we really care most about. FYI, there's a relatively new Duodenal Switch forum here at BP. I've not spend much time there, but I've seen some DS patients bragging about "how much better" the DS is than the VSG. I've also seen some VSG to DS switches among those folks. And I've seen some really big folks (on this and other online forums) lose 100% of their excess weight after VSG surgery. Final comment: All these studies cite averages of study samples. They don't describe the best results obtained by some patients. Again, thanks for citing these studies so I could review the abstracts. Good stuff. And best to you.

I would be surprised to see the NIH actually *recommending* any single WLS over another. Would you mind citing cite the study (studies? recommendation?) that you saw? Thanks.

It's the lack of ghrelin, the hunger hormone that the 85% of our long-gone tummies produced. And now we're low on. Yeah, it's awful.

LOL! Seriously, you do have to figure this out. Because if you continue eating no Protein you're going to have worse problems than feeling bitchy. Like losing a LOT of hair (and more than other WLS patients). And losing muscle mass, despite how much you're working out. Or having your weight loss completely stall because your body goes into starvation mode. So welcome to WLS post-op and doing what's good for you -- not just what you feel like doing. I know it might be hard to eat and drink now (and oddly so for those of us who've always liked to eat pre-op). But when you agreed to this surgery you sort of agreed to do what went along with it. And that includes eating what you need to eat to be healthy WHILE you're losing weight. Very best wishes to you.

I finally (!) made a Pinterest account and have been pinning stuff there. I feel 29 years old. LOL!

Ya gotta eat! So eat! Your appetite will very, very likely return. Enjoy this time of no temptation. But in the meantime also be sure you get enough good nutrition (Protein, veggies, fruits, as you can tolerate them).

Kids, we can't control a lot of this stuff. However, we can control: * How much we weigh * How much we exercise * How we react to things that we can't control. Don't worry. Be happy.

Nope, no changes so far.

To @@sukik ... why do you think you're a slow loser if you've lost 30% of your excess weight in two months? Frankly, I'm gobsmacked that anyone would actually think that. Did someone tell you that? If so, they are wrong. And to the OP @@10/6/14 -- only you can possibly know if you are "slacking" or not. The % of excess weight you can lose by any point in your journey depends on many factors. For instance: Some people started losing weight pre-op, either on their own or required by their surgeon or insurance. Others didn't. Some people have longer pre-op (liver reduction) diets than others. Some don't have any required pre-op diet. Some people are older and lose slower. Some are younger and lose faster. Men ALWAYS lose faster than the women. Remember how that works? Muscles? Some people work out like banshees, and others don't or can't. This whole process is quite nuanced and involves so many factors. The only thing that determines whether you will lose all your excess weight is whether you keep losing weight until you reach your goal--no matter how long that takes. Very best to us all.

Through Week 16, I found it easy to hit 800 calories/day. But in Week 17 my P.A. told me to start moving my daily cals up toward 1,000 to increase my metabolism. I did, and that resulted in my first stall (have been bouncing up/down a pound or so during the last two weeks). However, I'm sure the stall will break soon. At this point, I have only another 22 pounds to lose, so I'm fine with losing a little slower now. This is such an interesting process. My advice to you would be to keep it simple: Just follow your center's instructions and listen to your body. Everything you do eat should offer your body good nutrition. Stay away from low-value foods and sliders. Eat Protein first. When you can add more food, go for vegetables and fruits. This is the biggest opportunity you'll ever have to learn how to feed your body, not your head. Best wishes to us all.

Alcohol doesn't affect me any differently than pre-op. But then I've never had more than a single drink since surgery. Serious question, pinkbunnies -- how many drinks did you have? I'm going to be in a situation in about four weeks where I'll likely have more than one drink. I'd like to know what could happen after that.

Follow your doc's instructions! (Unless you got an MD degree when they took out 85% of your stomach)

Third day seems to be the hardest for most folks, and was for me. I had a two week pre-op diet. After that, it got a lot better. Best wishes.

Nope. Didn't cry. But obviously ^^^ some people do cry. However, anyone who thinks that THEIR experience (no matter what it was) is THE universal experience everyone else had or that everyone else will have should take notice that ... no, it ain't. VSG patients have many different post-surgical reactions and recovery experiences. It's kind of like menopause. You get what you get for as long as you get it. And then, eventually, it's over.

Stevehud, on 30 Dec 2014 - 19:20, said: Even without bringing your parents into it, ignoring a rude comment or question could be a valid choice if the rude comment were infrequent, random and said privately. But what's the right approach when a bully or a bigmouth says it? What's the right approach when there are elements of stalking and harassment present? What's the right approach when the comment is said in front of others who might be encouraged to mimic the bully's behavior? Hard and fast rules don't apply to all situations. As others have said, context really does matter.

@@wannaBthinsoon ... Really sorry to alarm you. And thanks for checking with me. I'm just fine. @@LipstickLady is right ... "F U" is something I just might say to someone who came up with one of these bizarre comments, especially like the thing @@Bobby46 's boss said to her. I'm actually famous for using the F-bomb at highly appropriate moments.