VSGAnn2014

Boy, some of the programs are so different, even outliers. On my program, crackers and chips are listed as "slider foods" ... Highly processed, low nutrition, carby foods that your sleeve doesn't restrict at all. But if your program says to eat them ...?

I believe you would! You're just that kind. xoxoxo

To all you quitters -- awesome possum! Seriously ... RESPECT!

Gina, I've been following your posts, although I haven't responded until now. I don't have any experience with this kind of thing at all, so I don't have any meaningful advice to offer. I'm glad that you're going to have more tests this coming week and that your medicos are still trying to figure out what's going on. Please let us continue to know how you're doing. And yes -- perhaps a local church could provide some in-person support for you. There's nothing quite like actual human contact to cheer us. Thinking of you! Ann

It could also be a sign of how badly you need to find a bathroom!

LMFAO!

@@goplay94123 -- you are definitely living up to your BP nickname. Seriously, great work. You be cool.

@@hamoudi -- that's a rough story. I applaud how you handled that scene. You met him where he went. And you stood up for yourself and your decision. Again, respect!

So happy for you, @@her1981 , that you've taken control of your body and your life. Respect! And respect to us all.

@@Andrew0929 -- I hope you find the fat clothes purge as therapeutic as I did. Doing it was a serious statement to myself that meant a lot, and all positive. Doesn't mean it was easy, because I had never ever done that before. But it was the right thing.

Oh yeah ... the lessons haven't stopped for me yet either.

Oh, @@rydersmama ... how exciting! What a huge accomplishment. I'm so happy for you.

What @@theimprovedjulie said.

I had VSG surgery at age 68. I started at 235 pounds, lost 100 pounds, and have been maintaining at or below goal for the last 14 months. I weigh 135. I'm 70 years old. And my life is amazing. :)

Definitely! Yogurt was a real lifesaver for me the first few months post-op. I still love it. Enjoy.

Hullo to the OP. And congrats on getting through surgery in good shape. Every day you'll get more and more Protein drinks down. Likewise with the Water. You DO have to work at getting the Protein Drinks and water down. But it'll get easier every day. I was able to hit my surgeon's minimum protein gram standard of 60 grams by Day Five. But it took me that long to get there. And I was definitely working at it! Sipping the water seems like a bit of a magic act. But it's really just boring hard work. A lot of patients figure out how many ounces they have to drink every hour or half hour or even fifteen minutes and then just measure out that much every time period and get it down. More good news -- in two or three weeks you'll be shocked at how much easier drinking liquids will become. One of the reasons it's so hard now, aside from your tiny swollen, mangled, stapled sleeve is that your throat is sore and swollen because during surgery you had a hard plastic tube stuffed down it. This is the least pleasant part of the program. Just do what you've gotta do each day. In a week or so you'll be through the roughest part. Again, congrats.

I gotta say ... I now want to find a Lululemon and encounter that kind of response just so I can RESPOND to it! If I do make a field trip there, after having been well forewarned, I will report back and relate the fun I had at their expense.

This is a great topic, even if it's an old thread. I've been at / below goal for 14 months now. And I definitely take notice of heavy strangers when I'm out and about -- probably more now than I used to. (BTW, I don't pay much attention to the size of people I already know, because I'm focused on what we're doing together or discussing.) It would be hard for me, as a WLS patient who recently lost 100 pounds, not to notice others' sizes and wonder if they look as big as I used to be, or bigger, or how our sizes compared before I lost weight, or how our sizes compare now, etc. The thoughts and emotions I have about these heavy strangers are all over the place, depending on my mood, how they present themselves, and so many other things. Do I feel superior to them? Honestly -- sometimes, I do. But that feeling is immediately coupled with immense gratitude to the fates / my surgeon / my PCP / my own efforts / whoever invented the sleeve / etc. that I'm no longer in their shoes. I'm also overwhelmed by how much change I've undergone in the last two years. Often I project my old memories of obesity onto these heavy strangers. I think I know the pain in their joints and back. I think I know the mental exhaustion they go through just finding the energy to go to the grocery store and the resolution it takes to keep moving their carts toward the back of the store and finish their shopping lists. I think I know from their lack of eye contact how frustrated / embarrassed / mortified / angry they are about their situation, their appearance, their health concerns and how disadvantaged they feel at work and in their personal relationships because of their growing weight. Sometimes these encounters are emotionally overwhelming. For me, being obese was brutal. It was an awful way to try to live. It's hard to see others in that situation. On a related note, I recently started being a guest lecturer at my bariatric surgeon's all-day educational seminars for patients now prepping for their own WLS. When I'm standing in front of those folks I feel like I'm with my tribe. I try to tell my own WLS story in a way that makes it easy for them to identify with the "skinny bitch" I now look like at 135 pounds and to imagine they could soon feel renewed health and social freedom. I show slides of myself over the years -- of unflattering weight fluctuations, aging, with obvious growing exhaustion and health challenges. From their head nods and strong eye contact and smiles I know we're connecting. I wouldn't walk up to a stranger and offer them some version of "WLS could save you, too." But those pre-op patients are sitting where I sat three years ago. I know how badly they NEED TO FEEL that their hope is not irrational and that they really can escape the prison of obesity. I feel so honored to give back this way.

This is a pretty common problem for new post-ops. A solution that works pretty well is to put flavored Mio drops or Crystal Lite or some other non-calorie flavoring in your water. That gets high marks from most patients. Other approaches to getting more water down are to drink caffeine-free teas or switch up the temp of your water -- from cold to hot or room-temp (just do a different temp). P.S. Just saw your new avatar -- now, that's funny!

OK, let's talk about concepts like "self righteousness," "compliance," "success," "failure," "consistency" and "perfection." It's easier to feel self righteous when we narrow our eyes and start to engage in "black-and-white thinking," i.e., we start to consider that something is all bad or all good, all correct or all incorrect, 0% or 100%, or that the presence of a single attribute or a single act equates to the presence of scores of other attributes or acts. At nearly two years post-op, the way I see life after WLS is that compliance isn't about being perfect. But there are enormous differences in the ways one can diverge from "100% compliance" and the possible ramifications of those divergences depending on HOW the patient diverged from their protocols and on WHEN (how long post-op) and FOR HOW LONG one engaged in those divergences. I'm probably right in assuming that no one here has been "perfect" -- in the sense that immediately post-op we all have to work hard for several days or even several weeks to take in our required amounts of Water and Protein. I think our surgeons understand that. So "doing the best you can" means exactly that. However, it's abundantly clear to me that some people try a helluva lot harder than others to be compliant with their surgeons' eating / drinking / exercise protocols -- not only in the early days but six months out, two years out, etc. When you're five days post-op, eating bacon is in my opinion more dangerous than drinking only 50 ounces of water instead of the surgeon's recommended 64 ounces. And eating bacon five days post-op isn't even close to the worst behavior I've heard. A friend told me about a patient who ate a Tijuana food truck Breakfast burrito the morning after surgery. I have read here of patients who went back to drinking alcohol the same week they had surgery and patients who didn't stop smoking either before or after surgery. Then there are the patients who argue that ice cream qualifies as pureed and soft foods. Timing and degrees matter. Some patients have a very hard time understanding and acting on the distinction between "cheating on a weight-loss diet" and "being highly compliant with surgeon's post-op recovery instructions." Others don't. I truly don't understand why some can't see this difference. But I know a lot of people never fully get it. I've spent many, many hours on this board trying to clarify this distinction for pre-op and newly post-op posters. Most of the time I'm patient. And long-winded. But sometimes I get frustrated not only with those who immediately post-op do things that put their lives and health in danger, but also with those who provide "supportive" comments along the lines of, "It's OK, nobody's perfect." Very often these commenters haven't had surgery, any pre-op instructions or even attended an introductory lecture by a bariatric surgeon. Sometimes they have. No WLS patient ever suffered from raising their compliance standards from "when it's not too hard" to "just do it!" Will any of us be 100% compliant? I doubt it. But I'd rather shoot for 100% compliance and hit 95% than aim for 80% and hit 60%. In fact, 95% even makes me feel a little ... wait for it ... self righteous.

What a sweet post.

68 235 100

I'd say that probably neither of those descriptions is right. And that maybe "not fully educated about WLS" could apply to you. The two spoonfuls capacity will last about a week or two post-op and is due mostly to your newly created and traumatized and super-swollen sleeve being held together only with staples at that point and hasn't even begun to knit together / heal yet. (The following sleeve capacity predictions are just estimates, although there is some variation patient to patient.) By six months you'll probably be able to eat at least 3/4 cup of dense Protein, healthy (non-starchy) veggies and maybe a little whole grains. A year or a year and a half out you will be up to a cup of food (same foods, see above) at one sitting. However, please know that you could "graze" (nibble) all day on "slider foods" (highly processed, starchy, sugary foods, e.g., chips, Cookies, ice cream, chips, dips, etc.) and eat as many calories in a day as you're now able to eat. Here are the long-term odds for success for all WLS patients: You have a 50% chance of keeping all or most of your weight loss off and a 50% of regaining most or even all of it back. Losing the weight post-op is comparatively easy. Maintenance (and the lessons you learn along the way about how NOT to regain) is the more challenging part of this program. Good luck to you.

Oh, @ -- this is wonderful news. That's a LOT of positive change in just 3.5 months! You're rockin' this.

Oh, heck no -- 12 months is not a cut-off point at all! I reached my goal (150 pounds) at 8.5 months. And then 8 months later I had lost another 15 pounds (down to 135 pounds), which is where I'm maintaining at nearly 2 years post-op. The calendar doesn't control your weight loss. You do.