Daisee68

Not funny yet - the stricture was no joke. I haven't vomited that much in my entire life combined as I did in those 4 days trying to figure out what the heck was going on.... And finding info about it online seems a bit tough.... And yea, what @@Babbs said. The WORST part of this journey hands down...

I know exactly how you feel! I remember it wll! Congrats though! It is real now!

Mine was submitted on Friday at noon and I had approval Monday morning. I think they have up to 30 days but I haven't heard anyone say they took near that long.

Agree with @@Bufflehead - take your pain med. Try only half of a dose. They should help make you feel not as loopy but allow you to get past the discomfort.

@@LillyWSL - Curious why 7 meals a day. That seems a bit excessive. Most of us are told 3 meals and 2 Snacks and within that I consider Protein 1 or 2 of those. Also, when they say only 4 oz of Fluid at a time, I think that is really in the very beginning. The fluid will move through your stomach and most of us here can drink 16 oz an hour by 3 or 4 weeks out. You cannot chug 4 oz by any means (regardless of how far out you are), but I cannot think of any reasons why you would be restricted to only 4 oz at each fluid "sitting"

​The thought of loose skin was one of the reasons I didn't want this surgery many years ago (plus no carbonation and no alcohol - or at least limited alcohol). This last year I changed my mind and went full steam ahead not worrying about those things as I was more worried about my health and inability to do some of the things I wanted to. I am 5'10". My highest weight a few years ago was 336. Starting weight at consultation in January was 326. I am 3 months post-op and now down 75 pounds. My neck looks awful on some day (not all days oddly) and my belly button looks like grumpy cat's frown. The skin on my arms and thighs is really starting to get loose, but guess what?! I can cross my legs now and it is all covered up! I will have skin surgery some day but for now, it is what it is and I have to concentrate on getting healthy then I will worry about looking better. In the meantime, cute clothes fit better. All to say, don't let this be the one thing that scares you off. This, of all things, is fixable.

​Ok, don't beat yourself up. It takes time to get there and figure it all out. Your stomach is still swollen, so it takes a while to be able to drink. Regardless of what the dr told you, most dr and NUT's don't expect you to hit all your Protein and Fluid goals in the first couple of weeks. You definitely don't want to dehydrate, so make that your number one goal. Having said that, my NUT counts my Protein drinks as "fluid", so I count that towards my goal. I am 3 months out and don't always get there (but don't use me as an example!) My best suggestion is to sit down tonight after dinner and after the kids are in bed and use a 1 oz. medicine cup and set a timer for every 5 minutes an sip 1/3 to 1/2 of the cup every time your timer goes off. At the end of an hour, you will have 4 oz in. (You may be able to do more than that by now. if you can, do so, but likely no more than 8 oz an hour). If you can do that a couple of times a day, it will help. Be patient with yourself. It will come in time and this 1st week memories will be far behind you. Now that I said that, I am going to take my own advice and get some Water....

My dr didn't have that test, but that is very interesting. I have been warned you will lose muscle mass thus the reason for keeping up with Protein and resistance training not just cardio (my NUT said probably 50/50 weights vs cardio). I have unfortunately not progressed in the exercise area. ​ I wonder if they will redo the test once you get closer? That would be interesting to see if your goal was adjusted. I am 5'10" and at my initial consultation, my surgeon said she would like to see me under 200 pounds but I would have to work hard to get there. <_<​

​Well I seem to be the outlier here, but I told / tell everyone. And I have been very blessed to receive nothing but support. I have lived trapped in a lie about food my whole life and I see no reason to continue that. There is someone else who I KNOW had sleeve and has "magically" lost 100 pounds due to "better eating and exercise". No one buys that! Folks are talking about her behind her back WAY more than they are me. Mostly I have gotten an 'atta girl for taking an aggressive albeit drastic measure to change my health. Not embarrassed at all to talk about it. Hopefully I will turn out to be a success story long term and if not, then they can talk. Meanwhile, I don't really care what they think. It certainly cannot be worse than what they thought about my gigantic a$$ 75 pounds ago!

Whatever you do, just make sure you stop before pre-op liquid diet. The combined headache you will get from stopping soda and all food/sugar at the same time will put you in bed for a day....

I did a few times yes. I would agree chest pain is nothing to mess with but Gas-X won't hurt and if it hadn't gotten rid of mine, I would have probably called the dr, but luckily it helped.

Try to look at it this way - you aren't actually taking anything away from them. You are actually giving them a gift - YOU! I felt the selfish feeling too and I don't even have a husband and children. Totally normal. Just use the sacrifice as motivation to make sure you do this the right way - see a therapist, work with a NUT, exercise. All those things help immensely and are a recipe for success! Best Wishes!!

So sorry you are having this trouble but given it is this soon after your surgery, it seems likely you already had undiscovered gallbladder issues prior to surgery. I know how horrible and depressing it feels to feel so bad but you cannot live on liquids forever and I think you will feel so much better after you get the gallbladder out. I keep thinking I have issues with mine but 2 CT scans later, they keep saying everything is fine and not to worry until the pain gets bad. (Doesn't seem like best advice to me but what do I know. I can promise I will let them know if I ever get the horrible pain you have!) Look at it this way, at least you are getting it over with and not having to be sick for several more months and then go through another surgery and then have to recover again. Now you are getting it all done very quickly and then you will be on the road to recovery! Best wishes to you! I know you will do well and be on your way soon!

@VanessaVSGforme - It's pretty soupy. You should be able to eat it as it comes. If you aren't sure yet if you can handle spicy or grease, you might tell them to leave off the red sauce and don't add hot sauce, but luckily spicy has never bothered me even post-op. @ - Taco Bell Pintos & cheese is something regularly told by many NUTs that we can eat. The nutrition stats are pretty good and really help if you are stuck out running around and don't have something with you. It is a little high in carbs (21g) as are all Beans but it also has 11g protein and only 7g of fat. Plus most at the puree stage won't eat the whole thing. A relatively good choice all things considered.

​I did not have a catheter (or at least if I did, it was out before I woke up in recovery) and I still had the same issues. I am 3 months out and still don't seem to get the urge. I asked my urologist about it (I have chronic kidney stones and have for years) and all she could come up with is that maybe my body was using Fluid differently? She said as long as I was drinking enough and my labs didn't look bad (and they didn't), then she wasn't worried about it. I saw a post about it here a while back where several had the same issue. Someone said their dr told them to just try to go every 2 hours and remind your body. Good advice, but can't say I remember to do it!

@@VanessaVSGforme - Hummus is basically ground chickpeas with some spices. I bought Athenos brand - Roasted Garlic flavor. It has 2 g Protein per 2 Tbsp. And girl I just ate it with a spoon! Desperate times, desperate measures. Once I could have some more vegetables, I eat it with cucumbers. http://www.athenos.com/products/hummus/roasted-garlic

​The real food will definitely help! Have you heard of the Ricotta Bake from The World According to Eggface website? It is wonderful and was my first food! I ate (still do) a lot of fat free refried Beans with some onion powder, garlic salt, cumin and then shredded cheese on top. I also mix in vanilla Protein powder into my greek yogurt (generally using only half the container). I also ate a lot of hummus (not too high in protein really but was a nice change of pace). And I ate pimento cheese mixed with unflavored Protein Powder. Just some ideas. Good luck! Keep up the great work! http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html

Ok, wait I have one more thing to say. As I was saying, I was telling my sister today about my milestone of 75 pounds and she asked me if I had a goal weight. I don't so much other than my surgeon told me on my first consult that she would like to see me get under 200 pounds (I am 5'10") but I would have to work hard for that, so that has sort of been my goal. Then I realized that to not be classified as "overweight", I would have to be more like 165 pounds. So I shared that with my sister who is a 5' 6" bombshell with a killer body and she said "NO WAY! I weigh 142. 165 is way too thin for you!" Now I am not going to let her dictate that but nor am I going to let my scale dictate that. I don't care what any of my drs say about BMI. As long as it gets close, I am going to be good with that. (I know, I know I say that now....) But my point is, I really appreciated the perspective she gave me on weight. I have never been thin, so I don't know really what "weight" would be an ideal weight for me. But if I can assume I will have a shape similar to my sister (hourglass with an amazing BUTT! )​, then I can see that realistically, 165 may very well be too small for me. That is still a ways off, so I will worry about it later, but meanwhile, I just wanted to share the perspective I got on weight today. Have you ever been on mybodygallery.com? It is really interesting. You can plug in your height and weight and body shape and see others shaped similarly. It definitely gives perspective. (It will also tell you how many women either lie about their clothing size or just wear the wrong Damn size, but that is a post for another day....)

Yep, and I had RNY and got the stricture. The picture they gave me from the endoscopy is AMAZING! Seriously, it was a tiny pin hole left open. I don't know how anything was getting through. @@bellabloom - I am glad you are seeing a therapist and working through all this. I hope you didn't hear judgement in my tone at all, because it certainly wasn't meant that way. I too know that I will struggle with this. I was just saying to my sister that while I know the scale says 75 pounds down, and I know I am thinner (I can see it in the mirror, not just in my clothes), but it is still very difficult to comprehend. Mostly that I am down 75 pounds and still am as big as I am. Just keep seeing that therapist and talking about it. You are a beautiful girl! It will click someday - I'm just sure of it! But please, get the stricture taken care of. I truly understand you not wanting to have one more procedure, but as I am sure you know, it truly only takes like 10 or 15 minutes of being under and then it is done. You do not want to end up unhealthy. That completely defeats the whole purpose of the surgery - which was to get healthy. If you are not keeping in your nutrition (which you are not if you are vomiting protein), then you will lose muscle mass, bone strength, all kinds of things. The "ideal" number on the scale just isn't worth that. I will stop nagging and leave you to decide on your own now, but just please keep in mind that HEALTH is your number 1 priority. Please do not become a sad statistic of this gift we are given with WLS.

​I have had the dizziness too - especially after exercising. (Though I had it today while shopping and there was no exercise involved.) My NUT said it was likely not enough carbs to be exercising for an hour at a time but that doesn't answer why it happened so much today. Not enough fluids? Not enough salt? I don't know. It does scare me a little because of what has happened to @djmohr. BP doesn't seem to be low. I am trying to remember to stand slowly and move my feet and arms a little to get the blood flowing before I stand as suggested. Ah the trials and tribulations of WLS! Down 75 pounds today (almost halfway) so I am certain somehow it will all be worth it in the end!

I am so sorry. I completely understand! Do not get dehydrated. Maybe try sticking with just liquid for a day or two and see how it goes? Use a medicine cup if you have to sipping only 1/2 of it (i.e. 1/2 ounce) and sit and sip every 5 minutes. If you can do that for an hour or so a few times a day. If you get where you are not holding anything down, go to the ER. You can tell them you think you have a stricture and maybe they will do an EGD. When I went they just did CT scan which showed no stricture (WRONG!). I knew there was something wrong. I felt so justified when they found the stricture. I said "SEE?! I knew there was something!"

I don't have this (yet - hope I don't) but I was going to say I haven't seen @@Djmohr comment yet and I am pretty sure dr's decided she had same. I think they said more electrolytes / salt - i.e. G2 or Powerade Zero.

You are so welcome! I too fear dumping but @@Djmohr encouraged me not to be afraid to try new foods, so I am trying to follow that advice now that I seem to be tolerating better. PS - Great job on the weight loss so far! Clearly you have worked hard pre-op! That is a great start and you are going to do great!

The FEAR of regain is real. I get that. In fact, just this morning (before reading this post), I was thinking I needed to talk to my therapist at my next appt on Tuesday on how to beat this. We have talked about it before, and she just keeps reminding me this is one day at a time. Fear has controlled my life for WAY too long and I have no intention of allowing it to continue. I want to enjoy a new healthy life, not be in fear of losing it. That is no better to me than the trap of this unhealthy body and running to food for comfort that I have lived in most of my life. This journey is about becoming a new healthy person - mind ad body, not about a diet and getting skinny. Eating disorder is also very real. We can easily shift from overeating to undereating. Do not fall into that trap. Please go see a therapist. FYI, stricture occurring this late is unusual; however; it can occur. There was someone else that just posted in the last week or so about getting a stricture at 18 months out.

@@VanessaVSGforme - Welcome! I just want to add that I am not at all a proponent for going against your individual team's advice. So please don't read in to my post that it is ok to ignore them. I just wanted to say that it isn't quite as overwhelming as it may seem. And as far as eating in a restaurant, that is a tough one. And you will need to wait a while before you try that. Best advice is to stick with a restaurant for which you can find a nutrition guide online first so you can see your best choices. I went to hibachi grill last night for the first time. The specific restaurant didn't have a nutrition guide so I looked for similar restaurants who did (i.e. Benihana). From that I decided shrimp would be the best choice. NOW what I should have done is ask the cook to leave off the butter, but I didn't. I sort of wanted to "test" how I would respond. (Stupid, I know. What is it our parents used to say? Do as I say, not as I do?) Anyway, I was able to eat 4 shrimp, 1 mushroom, 1 piece of onion, a little broth and a couple of bites of lettuce with dressing. And luckily I did fine. The fact is, the butter could have caused me to dump but I wanted to know if it would or not and I was close to home and it was a Friday evening, so I knew if I was going to get sick, this was as good of time as any. Some people don't dump at all. (So far, so good for me but that doesn't mean it won't happen.) I will not make it a habit to eat this way (i.e. butter laden foods), but I am still so low calorie/fat the rest of the day, I could afford it. I track every bite I put in my mouth - including micronutrients - and as I good to dinner, I look and see if I can afford to eat more carbs or more fat. If I can, then I may have full-fat cheese instead of low-fat cheese or I may add a cracker or two. I am only 3 months out and have recently had a complication (stricture) that they have fixed, so I am sort of experimenting with new foods finally to see what I can tolerate. PLEASE be sure you follow your NUT program as best as you can. I think it was @@toasty that said to me recently that once you start blatantly avoiding your program rules (such as using a straw which is what I wanted to "cheat" with), then it becomes a slippery slope. I hope that helps!!