JamieLogical

See my signature to see how much I lost each month post-op. It seems like your loss has been great so far. I don't know why people think they should be losing like a pound or more a day post-op. Some people might, but that is certainly NOT the norm! What you need to remember is that this is not a "diet" like you may have done in the past. You aren't ever going to be "done" with your sleeve. So you have plenty of time to lose weight and the rate of loss will be meaningless in the long run. If you are getting your Protein and Water in, taking your Vitamins, getting up and moving regularly, and the scale is trending downward, you have nothing to be stressing about! Someone posted an average weight loss chart on another thread a few days ago: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/366204-estimated-post-op-weight-loss-chart/?hl=%2Bexpected+%2Bloss+%2Bchart#entry4138642 According to that, with your starting weight, you are well ahead of the curve.

Is everything sorted out now? I certainly hope so! How scary that must have been!

I was without internet for a week on vacation and that was bad enough! Must have been super tough to go without for several weeks! The good news is, we are still here and the world is still turning!

Those are actually pretty awesome! I like that the dividers are removable so you can go from as little as 1 oz. to as much as 4 oz. per side. Wish I'd found those back when I was measuring out all my food post-op!

Why do so many people stall? Is this only with the Sleeve? Were you pretty active pre-op? I can't even imagine running to my car much less a mile. lol It's common with any type of weight loss. Not even unique to surgery. When I lost 90 pounds "on my own" back in 2010, I had lots of stalls along the way. Your body isn't a simple machine. It is constantly trying to adjust and adapt to everything that happens to it. Rapid weight loss is very traumatic to your body and the instinct is to try to stop the weight loss for fear of starvation. There are a whole bunch of different reactions and systems that kick in so your body can "defend" itself against whatever "attack" that is causing you to lose weight.

It does suck, but I agree with @@Christinamo7 that it's better this happened pre-op than immediately post-op. You would not want your body trying to fight off this infection while you were still healing from surgery. Hopefully it won't delay things too long. Especially if you were already on a pre-op diet and now will have to be on one longer! Though I guess the tooth issue would make eating solids a challenge anyway.

Oh my gosh! What happened? WLS usually involves minimal bleeding. Did your spleen or liver get knicked?

1. You should only be doing "birsk walking" to start out. I wasn't cleared for more intense exercise until 2 months post-op. You should discuss this restriction with your surgeon. 2. That guy is an idiot! Of course you should be drinking Protein shakes while you recover. None of us are working out in the first few weeks post-op. Some people never work out at all. But we all need to get our protein in and shakes are the only way to do that in the early months! 3. You should have been given a food stage schedule by your surgeon or nutritionist. At one week out I was on "full liquids" which included protein shakes, strained cream Soups, and yogurt. 4. There is speculation on whether sleeve size affects how much weight on can lose and how hard it is to maintain, but the conventional wisdom is that long term results are pretty consistent across the board and that slight differences in sleeve size don't really matter.

So glad you posted this. It's fascinating and pretty depressing at the same time. I have long suspected that losing weight TOO quickly or by creating too large a calorie deficit would wreck your metabolism. I see it here on these forums all the time. People post that they are gaining weight by eating 1100 calories a day and everyone assumes they are just lying or at the very least, inaccurately tracking their food. I suspect those people have genuinely, permanently altered their BMR. I feel very lucky that my BMR still seems to be "normal" form someone my size. Not sure how true that would hold if I began to regain weight, but I don't intend to find out!

Phew!

Doesn't it feel amazing?!!? Huge congratulations. Keep up the hard work!

Awesome!

If you stay in ketosis, then this probably won't go away. It's the ketones being released by your body burning fat that cause the bad breath. So as long as you are burning fat for energy, you are going to keep releasing ketones.

See you on the loser's bench in a bit!

Use your food scale. That's what I always did. The serving size should list grams. I always put my blender cup/bottle on the food scale and then weighed the protein powder I added to it.

@@darima77 I think you DEFINITELY need more water. You should be aiming for 64 grams a day. And don't waste room on crackers and pretzels (I wasn't even allowed those until 3 months post-op). Focus on protein first. Not just shakes, but real food with protein. I assume you are cleared for solid foods now if you are already eating crackers and pretzels? If so, you should be incorporating some meat in there. Here's a general idea of what I was eating at about 40 days post-op: Breakfast: protein shake Morning Snack: string cheese Lunch: 2-3 oz. of meat, usually leftover from dinner Afternoon Snack: Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt (only Greek yogurt I could stand the taste of) Dinner: 2-3 oz. of meat Evening Snack: protein shake With that plan, I was able to get close to my goal of 100 grams of protein a day. The "meat" listed above was usually whatever meat my husband was having with his dinner. Pulled pork in BBQ sauce, meatloaf, shrimp, sausage, indian style chicken prepared int he slow cooker, chili... I usually tried to do ground, pulled, or very tender meats, not just like a steak or piece of grilled chicken. Super dense meats were still hard for me to eat a lot of. So softer meats in some sort of sauce were usually easier.

Thanks! I am definitely very proud of it it. I never in a million years would have thought I'd one day complete a half marathon. It's amazing what you can accomplish with some hard work and dedication!

I don't know if there is any causation or just correlation, but I got my ears pierced only two months post-op and it took them a VERY long time to heal. No evidence that it was due to the surgery, but I feel like there might have been some connection at least. I would maybe wait until you are a few more months out.

I had my surgery at OCC with Ariel Ortiz and I definitely felt "heard" with all of my pre and post-op concerns with all of the members of the surgical team. I didn't have the same concerns as you about anesthesia, but I had a good long talk with the nutritionist, the cardiologist, Dr. Ortiz, and the anesthesiologist before my surgery. Plus the techs that did things like my blood work and putting in my IV were great.

Post-op care in Mexico can be fantastic, as long as you make a good choice of surgeon and recovery facility. When I went for my TT and breast lift with augmentation, I stayed for 2 full weeks post-op in a recovery house where I had 24/7 nursing care, all my meals prepared for me (made all my food specific to me... had given them a huge list of foods I wouldn't eat), had all sorts of equipment to make my life easier (motorized hospital bed, walker, raised toilet seats with handles...), and my surgeon came and checked on me every single day. Had I had the same surgery in the US, I would have been discharged to fend for myself one day post-op and had to be driven to see my surgeon maybe once or twice those first two weeks? I can't imagine relying on my husband or family to care for me in those early days post-op. I couldn't even use the bathroom by myself! Now, if you are only having breast lift done, the recover is MUCH less intense, so you might not need so much aftercare. I had already discussed with my husband that I might consider staying in the US if all I was having is breast work or an arm lift. But anything like a lower body lift, tummy tuck, or thigh lift, I would definitely want the round-the-clock care you receive in Mexico.

Well, I don't know how much help I can be, because I always had small breasts. Even at my heaviest, they only got up to a C. Once I lost weight they were sad, empty, droopy As. I had a breast lift with implants and it is simply a miraculous difference. My advice would be to just start by looking at before and after pictures on sites like RealSelf. Next you would want to set up consultations with surgeons in your area. Then you can start the process of actually picking a surgeon and decide if you want to look outside of your area or even outside of the country. I had my plastics in Mexico, but I know that's not for everyone.

I think a huge percentage of WLS patients have similar stories. I've lost significant amounts of weight many times through diet and exercise. As much as 90 pounds one time, but 25-40 pounds several other times. 5% of people may be able to keep the weight off, but I failed at it 100% of the time until I was sleeved. I've now been maintaining under goal for 8 months!

Do you have access to a gym? If so, you should be able to do most of the weight machines and the recumbent exercise bike. Cardio will help you build cardiovascular endurance, which will make climbing stairs easier. But strength training is great for making sure you don't lose muscle as you lose weight, plus it boosts your metabolism. So make sure you come up with a plan that includes both cardio and strength training.

I second what @@Clementine Sky says about Syntrax nectar. They mix into Water to make a "clear" Protein drink, versus a shake. I liked the Kiwi strawberry flavor. If you do use genpro, I caution you to only count it as 15 grams of carbs toward your protein goal, not the 30 grams they claim. There has been no third part or independent study confirming their claim that their formula is the equivalent of 30 grams.

If you do try the EAS shakes, you might want to add a little extra unflavored protein powder to them, because they only have 15 grams per shake on their own.