JamieLogical

Thanks for reposting that here, Alex. I'm not on Facebook, so I would have missed it otherwise.

Are you sticking to your nutrition plan? Are you getting all your water and protein? Are you at least walking daily? If so, then you aren't doing anything wrong. Everyone loses at their own pace. I only lose about 6 pounds per month and I am religious about following all the rules and sticking to the plan.

I was happy to make it to 6 months without throwing up. Will be thrilled if I make it to 14 months! Sorry you had to learn that lesson the hard way!

I was on a liquid antibiotic for 4 days post-op. Gave me oral thrush! That wasn't fun.

I stayed the night before in the hotel, the night of surgery was at OCC, then one more night in the hotel post-op. I then had to stay a night in San Diego, because I couldn't get a flight back to my hotel that left after 11:00am and the OCC shuttle won't get you to the airport early enough for a pre-11am flight. @ Did you stay at the Marriott? I didn't consider it "kind of ghetto". My room was very nice, large, and clean and the service was great!

I was restricted to brisk walking for two months post-op. But, yeah, definitely talk to your surgeon.

It can be both. There can still be subcutaneous fat beneath the skin, just less of it than before, causing it to hang more loosely. If you pinch two layers of the skin together, is it more than an inch thick? If so, there's still fat in there.

Babbs, you had your surgery 9 days before me and weighed one pound less than me on your surgery day. You now weigh 9 pounds less than me. So you're beating me!

What about my other questions regarding what kind of food you are eating and how long it takes you to eat it?

I only had mine for a day and a half.

I had the easiest time with cottage cheese at that stage. Have you tried it? I had a hard time with chicken and tuna salad, when I was first cleared to eat them, but tried them again a few weeks later and it was easier. It's a lot of trial and error early on, plus things will agree with you one day and not the next. Some great advice I've read since my surgery that I wish I had read sooner is to take one bite of something and then wait 5 full minutes before continuing to eat it. That way you have a chance to find out if your stomach is going to like it or hate it that day before you eat too much of it.

I went to bed early pretty much every night of my pre-op diet!

You don't really have to count stuff to stay on track with your surgeon's plan, if it's anything like mine at least. The only real target I got from my nutritionist was to aim for 100 grams of Protein per day. I guess there's a little "counting" in there, but it's just more of a rough estimate in my case. I know that if I eat my normal, routine foods for Breakfast and Snacks, and get about 15 grams of protein each at lunch in dinner, then I've hit my 100 gram goal. There are some recommended restrictions against Pasta, rice, etc., but I don't have room for those things anyway if I'm getting all my protein in. I definitely don't feel like this is a "diet" the way I did back when I was trying to lose weight in the past and logging every single thing I ate and trying to stay within calorie, fat, carb, AND protein ranges!

I stick to mine VERY strictly and my loss is sloooooow. I'd be terrified to find out what would happen if I went off plan. Probably would GAIN weight!

I would definitely advise that you get regular blood work done if you intend to not take vitamins at all. Deficiencies in some vitamins are no joke and can be life threatening.

I was allowed to keep taking my pill right through the whole process. You should discuss it with your surgeon for sure. Post-op I also used back-up birth control methods, since I was on antibiotics and because I was a little worried about potential absorption issues where I might not be getting the full benefit of my pill.

Three weeks is still pretty early and you are probably still healing internally. What kinds of actual foods have you been trying? I'm not sure what your plan calls for, but at 3 weeks I was still on mushies/purees. I was allowed cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, tuna salad, soft cheeses, etc. So, specifically what kinds of food have you tried, how much did you try, and how quickly did you eat?

It happens to the best of us, thus my overly snippy response earlier. Sorry for that!

Definitely increasing your protein and fluids will help with energy. You can also probably up you calorie intake a bit. I found that in order to really sustain my workouts, I needed to be right at or a bit above 1000 a day. I also started adding a little Kashi cereal (1/4 of a serving) to my greek yogurt in the afternoons, because I found that having a little bit of carbs pre-workout really helped me get through. Then I would have a high protein dinner shortly after my workouts. I always work out in between when I get home from work and dinner. I find that's the best time for me to work out, because instead of changing out of my work clothes and into my house clothes (pajamas basically) I would change straight into my workout clothes. Once my pajamas are on, I know working out is NOT gonna happen, so by changing into my workout clothes right after work, it forces me to go ahead and do my workout!

Thank you for sharing your story. It can serve as a lesson and reminder to all of us about what can happen if we don't stay on plan. I wish you the best of luck in getting back on track and reaching your goal!

Yep. This happens to me pretty much all the time and I'm 6 months post-op now. My best guess is that it has something to do with low blood sugar.

I haven't, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't.

I think you should keep in constant contact with Lucia. Let her know what has happened with your weight gain and make sure you stick strictly to the pre-op diet. As long as you do the two full weeks of liquid diet, your liver should shrink enough for the surgery. Just be honest and open with Lucia and she will help you through it.

As I mentioned, I had an extended tummy tuck. That meant my incision was almost all the way around my entire body, leaving only a 3-4 inch gap above my butt crack. Well, when they do a tummy tuck, all of your lymphatic channels are severed. Those are what allow fluids to move through your body. Since my incision was almost all the way around me, the only place where Fluid could pass between the upper and lower halves of my body was that tiny gap in the back. Well, it became a bottle-neck and fluid built up in the soft tissue of my lower back and it was VERY painful. It made it so I could not sit in a chair. The back of a chair pushing against my lower back was obviously an issue. But even the upward pressure from my butt into my lower back from the seat of the chair would cause me pain. It would get worse and worse the longer I sat. So I just couldn't sit for any prolonged period of time. The only "comfortable" position for me was lying on my side. I had initially scheduled 4 weeks off of work, but ended up taking more time than that and only being able to work half days for a while even once I went back to work. Luckily I live in the US and was covered under the Family Medical Leave Act, so I could not be fired from my job.

It's really best to just measure your foods during that stage. I found myself going from "not full" to "OMG I'M GOING TO DIE" with no warning in my soft food stage. So I measured everything out in little 2 oz. containers.