JamieLogical

I was told to avoid soups after my full liquids phase. Soups don't bump up against your restriction and are basically a "slider" food.

Yeah I am glad my surgeon had me on omeprazole straight out of the gate. He has all of his patients on it for at least 2 months and then reevaluate staying on it. Unfortunately I'm still on it at 19 months post-op. Oh well, small price to pay.

It depends on the surgeon whether or not they will perform VSG on someone with that low a BMI. Most surgeons have you at least fill out a medical history questionaire before determining your eligibility. The cost is also very dependent on the surgeon. I've seen prices as low as about $3500 and as high as about $7000.

In three months I was down around 30 pounds. I want to STRONGLY advise you against setting any time-based weight loss goals. It is a recipe for disaster. There are a lot of things you CAN control post-op, but rate of loss is not one of them. You should focus on setting goals around the things you can control. Set goals around getting your protein and water, tracking your food, getting in X number of fitness minutes per week, etc. Those goals will motivate you and keep you moving in the right direction without making you frustrated and crazy.

If you aren't on a PPI, you should be. It could help and it will also protect your stomach from acid as it heals.

Take lots of Vitamin C and wash your hands constantly. You may also want to try to get a little extra sleep. Are you on a probiotic? I've heard that can help boost your immune system as well, though I take Vitamin C and a probiotic ever day and still get sick all the time.

It might also be acid. Are you on a PPI? As for the difference between real hunger and head hunger, for me it was pretty easy to distinguish in the early days. I would see a food commercial on TV and think "I NEED THAT RIGHT NOW". That was clearly head hunger. There was no way my body was physically capable of ingesting that food without me ending up in the hospital, so I definitely didn't physically need that food. It was all mental.

It's likely you'll lose some hair. How much is dependent on a lot of factors, most out of your control. What you can control is your Protein intake, making sure you take your Vitamins, and making sure you get your Water in. After that, it's in the hands of fate. The good news is, permanent hair loss seems to be INCREDIBLY rare. Mine started growing back in immediately and I never lost so much that anyone besides myself and my husband would notice in the first place. The regrowth was actually more noticeable than the loss, because I had little baby hairs sticking up all over. Not all surgeons insert drains. You'd have to ask yours if they use drains or not. Gas pain is pretty standard. Some people experience nausea and vomiting, others don't I never vomited, though I did have two bouts of dry heaving the day after surgery. Keep in mind that many people experience nausea just from anesthesia with ANY kind of surgery. So add onto that the fact that this surgery is actually on your stomach, and yes there is a good chance of nausea. If it's a problem for you, your surgeon should be able to provide you with meds to control it. It's very common to feel nervous at this stage. Just hang in there and it will all be over soon.

Not going to lie. The first week post-ip sucks a lot! But in the grand scheme of things, it is so worth it. The misery is only temporary and you will survive. I didn't throw up, but I did have two bouts of dry heaving the second day. I had gas pain for about 4 days. My incisions didn't hurt, but I had terrible menstrual-type cramps until my drain was removed the 3rd day. I also had issues drinking Water for the first two weeks or so until the swelling went down. Even the tiniest sip caused a whole chain reaction of constriction and spasms in my esophagus, followed by gurgling in the back of my throat, then usually followed by burping. Oh, and I was super emotional and tired all the time. On the bright side, every day it got easier and easier and once I was able to eat soft foods, I was pretty much back to feeling human again, if not "normal".

As has already been mentioned, the sleeve won't limit what you can eat, just how much. If you continue to eat junk and not exercise post-op, you won't be any more successful long term with surgery than without. Sleeve is simply a tool and it's up to each of us to wild that tool to it's fullest effect. Now, that being said, I have always thought of my sleeve as weight *maintenance* surgery, not weight *loss* surgery, because I am and always have been a pro at losing weight. Maintenance is where I have failed over and over. In the past, I would lose the weight and as soon as I was "done", I would go right back to eating badly and not exercising. Since my sleeve is forever and I can never be "done" with it, it has been a very different process losing weight and keeping it off this time. So far I've maintained below goal for 7 months and counting.

Glad you are feeling better and I can completely see how you would consider it an NSV. I had a similar experience when I was in a car accident in December. Wasn't self-conscious about my weight when bystanders and EMTs tended to me.

@@Andrew0929 I am a firm believer that we all have to figure out what will work for us long term. All the guidelines from nutritionists and surgeons are critical for healing and establishing new habits in the beginning, but ultimately YOU are the one who has to be able to live the rest of your life and find the balance that will allow you to do that.

You can't want something FOR someone. If he doesn't want surgery, no amount of wishing on your part is going to make him want it. Hopefully it is something he will come around on, but it ultimately has to be his decision. I feel badly for you. I have a very close friend that I am afraid of losing to a stroke or heart attack any moment because he's over 400 pounds. I had hoped that by seeing how successful I have been with the surgery, he might consider it, even though he was very opposed to it at the time I had mine. Well, it doesn't seem to have swayed him one bit. Every time we go out together, he eats enough food to feed a family of four, while I sit there and eat my 3-4 ounces. I've resigned myself to the notion that some people just really don't want to make the commitment to lifelong change that surgery requires. It does sound to me that this could be a deal-breaker in your marriage though. If his weight continues to go up and his heath continues to decline, then you might very well end up in the position of care-taker, which would be very unfair to you.

When I am working out, I move it far up my arm and then tighten it a notch tighter than I usually wear it. That keeps it in pace pretty well. But I guess it depends on your arm shape.

The good news is, while you may have lost a bit of cardiovascular endurance and muscle during this time, you haven't gained weight. I had a similar period of inactivity in the late supper and fall of this year. I didn't regularly exercise for a full 5 months! In the past, when I had gone off the rails like that with fitness, it was always SO daunting to get back into it because, along with losing my conditioning, I'd also gained a good 40+ pounds. I actually found that when I got back into regular exercise in January, I wasn't as bad off as I'd thought I'd be, because at least I hadn't gained weight. I was able to get back into a routine much easier than in the past. Hopefully you will have a similar experience.

Yep. You're going to be on quite the roller coaster these next few weeks/months. Hormones are stored in fat. As you rapidly lose weight and that fat breaks down, the hormones are released back into your bloodstream. So you will have so crying fits, violent mood swings, and maybe even some horniness! You may also experience incresed fertility, so make sure you use back-up birth control methods if there's any risk of pregnancy.

The main "fiber" in those is a pre-biotic Fiber called "chicory root". Maybe your gut bacteria was hungy. All joking acid, most people find that increasing pre-biotic fiber intake makes them MORE gassy, so it's interesting you've had this result.

I have been using the FitBit site to track my calories since I got my FitBit Blaze. Seems to be working fine today.

Actually I don't eat all of that at once. Spaced out between 10:30 am and 3 pm. But total calories for the day around 1700. I'm in maintenance and told by nut to keep calories below 1900 and that's worked well. Okay, that makes way more sense. So it's not really a "meal" more like a morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack? Or do you actually graze that who time? I was told grazing is a big no-no and have tried to avoid it like the plague.

@@Muted_Tummy Sounds sensible and realistic to me. I need about 1900 calories a day to maintain right now at 19 months post-op (actually more than that right this second because I'm training for a half marathon). As I increased my activity, I worked really hard to increase my calorie intake as well so as not to wreck my metabolism and it seems to have worked. I will say, though, that I can't come close to a full cup of real food still, unless it has a high liquid content like chili.

@@Andrew0929 You must have WAY less restriction than I do to be able to eat that much each meal. Your "lunch" is 19 oz. of food! I top out around 6 oz assuming the food has a high liquid content, like chili.

Some people have a little pain around their incision sites. Most of the post-op pain comes from gas. The gas pain usually lasts 3-5 days. Honestly, the pain is pretty minimal compared to other things I've experienced. There is a lot of "discomfort", but not really pain. I was only on pain meds the day of and day after surgery.

WLS is actually pretty safe, as far as surgeries go. Especially if you factor in that most patients who have WLS are considered "higher risk" for surgery in general, since we're obese. The complication and mortality rate of VSG is lower than knee replacement. Would your family be discouraging you from having a knee replacement if you needed one because it's "too dangerous"? Of course not! I'm glad you've put your foot down and told them you've made up your mind. This is a decision we ultimately have to make for ourselves with the help of our medical doctors. While I'm sure they are well-meaning, family and friends aren't medically qualified nor do they know what it's like to be YOU.

My thought is that, while having a goal weight gives you something to strive for, it shouldn't be set in stone. You should go by how you look and, more importantly, how you feel. Weight is just one metric. You should be taking measurements, get a scale that measures body fat percentage, have fun seeing what size clothing you fit into, see how things go with your skin.... There are so many other factors besides just that one number on the scale. So set a goal weight just to have something to work towards, but don't let that be the end-all-be-all of determining "success".

Awesome! I had a TT and breast lift w/augmentation and it was definitely right up there with some of the best decisions I ever made. I am going on 5 years post-plastics and still loving my results every single day!