rustynail

A bougie is the tube the dr slides into your stomach to give a shape to staple your stomach up to and also what he snugs the excess stomach skin against. Then they begin stapling and cutting the stomach away. When he is done they remove the bougie from the stomach. It is there to insure that someones stomach after the procedure and once swelling goes down, is a specific size to begin with. They definately dont eye it up. Bougies come in a half dozen different sizes.

I am new to the sleeve only having mine less than a month. I did do many diets before the sleeve... actually when I come to think of it, it was more like an endless stream of one diet or another but the one thing in each case that fell short was the tools. Please follow me here. We are or were all quite a bit bigger and our drive to lose was there, we followed in a large part the diet restrictions but there was always a huge stomach and by only putting a few hundred calories into it made us perpetually hungry. Day and night everyday screaming hunger. Your body was saying help me I need food. And when we slipped because we just couldnt take it a moment longer we felt guilty and tried a different diet. Sound familiar anyone? I hated myself when I failed. My kids would see me eat a diet meal and listen to my stomach growl for hours... all day long and say hey dad I think you need to eat something. They say it out of concern because thats what you do when your hungry. You hear your stomach growling and they know your hungry... or starving actually. You are set up to fail way before you begin. I will use a simple analogy, pretend our body is a car. You have a huge gas tank but your only putting in a quarter of a tank or less and expecting to go just as far. And as like with a car it will not run right. It will sputter and all the idiot lights will come on. Eventually you will give in and fill up the tank to get it to run like normal. Our bodies as we would diet would act similarly. You can have all that will power, determination and drive. Eventually somewhere it would all break down because your stomach wants some volume. We all finally give in and fail. It is not easy. Now someone who only had 10-20 lbs to lose has a smaller stomach. They are very close to their goal. Altering their daily intake a small amount will get them the weight loss that they want without the agony we go thru to lose 100- 200 or more. And we do lose lots of weight. Way more than those 10-20 lbs. So for the rest of the population losing a bit is not a major life changing event, it is not agony, it doesnt feel like starvation. But at that point we are doing it without the proper tools. These procedures, whether it be the lap band, the sleeve or a gastric bypass, they all give each one of us a tool we did not have before. Real portion control and a real chance to succeed permanatly. This is a lifestyle change. We are now not just changing our diet! We have the tool we absolutely needed and did not have on any previous attempt at any other diet. I can speak about my sleeve and that it is a lot smaller. I do not have the agony from hunger but some still do but that might be head hunger. But the portion control is now there. We have to all embrace a completely new lifestyle that encompasses a healthy way to eat, exercise and proper planning. There will be some of us who will not see the tool for what it is and push it beyond its capability and fail. The large majority of us will not because of everything we had to go thru to get us here. I will say between multiple hospital stays, the pain and healing, the dehydration and beginning this journey as we all have has been a lot harder. Before a diet was only that. Eating less. Or eating based on points or whichever of a hundred different diets. This is so much more and as of right now so much more involved. I for one know and feel this is so much more difficult. Think of every hoop we had to go thru just to get approved, then everything we had to do to get ready for the procedure. Then there was the procedure itself and the recovery and the hospital stay! Maybe even multiple hospital stays and complications! If this was the easy way out, what would anyone call all of that in addition to the post op dietary plans and restrictions! This is not the easy way out. I can see down the road when we acclimate to this new lifestyle and it becomes second nature and a normal way to think, some may think it is then easy or easier. They would not be seeing the bigger picture. We have to look at everything we did and went thru to get to this point which is a lot. This is the last resort. This is the mountain at the end of the course. This is the hardest way to lose. Eventually and hopefully it will get easier down the road as this lifestyle change becomes our everyday normal but it will always be the most difficult way to lose weight in my opinion. Also just a side note, there will always be people out there to rain on someone elses parade or to make you feel bad. That is life. Dont let that negativity into your life. This is hard enough without the haters and hecklers. Those people do not know what you have been thru, what you had to do and what you go thru on a daily basis or what your life is like. Surround yourself with positivity, mentors and people who care. Focus on your goals and ignore the ignorant.

We are all on this journey and its new. We need to share recipes that work! Also please tell which stage you are in so the rest of the community will know when it is appropriate to try. I am still stuck with ice, ice pops and iced Water. The broth and anything hot hasnt worked for me yet so I have been experimenting with what I can get down. So for those of you coming home from your procedure and are on a liquid diet, this is something to try. (Hey we have to get up and walk and be active, give this a try) Melon pops Watermelon about 2 cups Half cup water 3 Long ice cube trays Popsicle sticks Simply squeeze all the melon juice into a bowl it should give about a cup of juice and add about a half cup of water. Pour it into the ice cube trays and lay the popsicle sticks in each one. Into the freezer and a couple hours later enjoy. It is a small volume popsicle and you do not have to feel rushed eating it. It has a mild flavor. Apple cinnamon pops Cup of apple juice Half cup water Shaker of cinnamon 3 long ice cube trays Popsicle sticks In a bowl add the apple juice and water. Just need a single sprinkle of cinnamon and stir. Then add the mix to the ice trays. Add the popsicle sticks. Into the freezer for a couple hours until frozen. If you want a bit more cinnamon flavor sprinkle some on the exposed side of the pops as they just begin to freeze over so it embeds in the ice surface. About 30 minutes after putting them in the freezer, depending on how cold your freezer is. Currently these 2 are my favorites. I did hear about a shepards pie and a chicken pot pie Soup that I want to try when I am able. I will search for the recipes and post them.

There are lots of recipies. I have been thinking of posting with favorite recipies because all this helps so much but I will list some sites with some amazing stage 1, 2 and 3 soups and purees. You can also find on these sites recipes for protein shakes that are different than pour the powder in the water or milk and drink. https://www.lifeweighbariatrics.com/47.html http://bariatricfoodie.blogspot.com/p/favorite-recipes.html?m=1 http://milestogo.squarespace.com/post-op-food-phase-2-full-liqu/ http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/cookbooks.asp?cookbook=355078 Just cut and paste them in your browser or type them in and check them out.

Hey everyone. I have been reading these posts for a while. Honestly since I decided to get sleeved. A friend turned me on to it. I am going to approach this like an open theraputic and info forum. What I had done is not unheard of but it is also not done all the time. So here I go. I was and am overweight. SW289, CW (not sure because I threw out my scale), GW 205. At between 5'11" and 6'0" I have battled all my life with weight. I chose to get the sleeve and my journey began. Did all the clearances which were easy. And the pre op diet which was an eye opener. That brings me to the surgery on January 28th 2015. I went in like everyone else a bit nervous. Saw the nurses. Got my iv and saw the dr and anesthesia before hand. Then they gave me something to relax me. Wow. Then nothing till I woke up. A nurse was jiggling my shoulder saying its all done. I was like hey I was waiting to go in and that whole counting backwards thing didn't happen. It was like I nodded off and just snapped awake to realize it all happend and I missed it. It is kind of funny. Well anyway the dr popped in to say hi and he says we had to fix the hiatal hernia you had and then we did your sleeve. We have you on pain meds and we will have a pca pump in your room so just hit the button if your feeling anything. He also said no eating or drinking till we do the x ray. Which was a day later. Oh my god. Let me tell all of you, I did not feel hungry at all. There was no hunger or thirst. I did have fluids going into me via iv but the was no desire to eat or drink. And man oh man there was discomfort and some pain. First the pain when inhaling from this combined procedure hit me in the center of my chest and felt like it went straight thru to my back also at the top of my lungs. I know now that it can be from the hernia repair and the co2 they use during surgery. Best advice... walk! Walk!!! It helps. Use the incentive spirometer. Btw they give you one at the hospital. Ok so first day of surgery post op I spent walking around the unit I was in and watching tv oh and pressing that button. It helped. The next day was the x ray with the contrast which is in a plastic 1fluid oz cup. Like a shot. I stand in front of a x ray machine and waited for a dr to watch and low and behold I took my first shot. It felt fine for about 10 seconds then there was a lot of pressure in the center of my chest. I stood there waiting for it to go thru. 2 minutes. 5 minutes. Then they asked me to take another shot or the contrast. More pressure instantly. Waited another 5 minutes. Ok so they had me wait in the waiting room for 20-30 minutes. Again in front of the x ray and they say you are a bit swollen. We will have to give it another day. So back to my room I go with all this pressure. It felt like I had been to white castle and had 20 sliders and a large drink to wash it down. It was so much pressure! So into the bathroom I went and I vomited the 2 fluid oz up. Back to bed. And no drinking or food. So I spent that day walking and watching tv. Again hitting the pca pump button and no hunger or thirst. Day 3 post op back to x ray in the morning and I did 1 fluid ox of contrast. It took longer to feel pressure but it went down in 10 to 15 minutes completely in my new stomach. Ok great. So back to my room I go and the drs partner came in and says ok so it went down. Want you to try 1 fluid oz an hour and chew ice. So I did that and they did bring a tray for lunch which had broth jello and hot water for decaf tea and some orange sorbet. I did stick with water and the sorbet and ice. The broth was not to my liking. Jello was too thick. Again with walking and tv and hitting the pca button. I was supposed to only spend 2 nights in the hospital but the dr wanted me to be able to do 4 fluid oz an hour before I left. So I stayed. Day 4 post op. Walking. Hitting the button on the pca pump and those trays for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Day 5 removed from pca pump and was up to 4 fluid oz water an hour barely. It was superbowl sunday and I was hurting. The pills for pain are not the same. And take a while to work. I saw the dr and he said its time to go home. See me in a week. And I was signed out. My brother took me home and just that made me feel better. I went home and slept. Then back to my brothers for the superbowl. I was up and moving around like the dr said. Being active. Drinking my water. On a side note they give you these sponges on a lollipop stick to help you take fluid down. I checked a few times. If you use that sponge 9 times you get 1 fluid oz of fluid. So that sponge thing became my friend. I used it way mor than the cups but the cups do help when you can do 1/2 fluid oz down at a time. Otherwise just get the fluid oz down using the sponge. It makes life easier. You will have to do it at a rhythm. It helps. Please understand it may be easier with just the sleeve but I did have the hernia repair too and I was swollen a lot longer than even the dr expected. Also again I have no hunger and no thirst. I did try coconut water. My brother got me some for football. I love the stuff and pre op I would suck down a whole container in a few seconds. Now I still like the taste but it did not want to be in my stomach. Lots of pressure. And I got sick and vomited. Which is also not that bad in terms of feeling. It relieves the pressure fast and feel ok pretty fast after. Day 6 post op at home and I admit I wanted to try jello and tapioca. I did. They both felt heavy in my chest and made me vomit a few times. I did still have that pain when I breathe or when I take a deeper breath. So back to trying broth. I did and tried seasoning it. It worked. Real chicken broth seasoned like you would a chicken and boiled. Important to let it cool. I burnt my tongue and lip on broth which was too hot in my excitement to try it. Please let it cool. Day 7 post op. Back to the basics. Water and ice. I had enough of trying things. I do want an icee thinking the ice content and the very cold fluid which is clear would be good. I am doing my plastic cups today. 1 fluid oz at a time drinking a third at a time. It is working. My fridge decided to stop freezing so no ice unless I run to 7eleven which is where I got the idea of the icee. Still no hunger and no pain meds either. I did get a script for percocet but I dont like the way they make me feel. I am feeling everything from the surgery now. The sites they made for the laproscopic procedure are all sore. And the sleeve is sore when I drink and that pressure in the center of my chest which was bad when I drank too much is so much more pronounced. I have pain when I breathe in. Deeper breaths and it still goes all the way thru into my back and I also feel pain at the tops of my lungs. Do not be discouraged by any of these things I have said. My experience was not just from a sleeve, I also had a hiatal hernia repair. A sleeve seems to feel a lot better to deal with alone from the post I have read and I am sure the ones you have read. If I had a choice to do it again over knkwing what I would go thru, I would definately still do it. I know the difference between what used to go into my stomach vs what goes in there now. On any particular day I would make a meal or eat out and meals were always oversized because a normal meal left me hungry. Very hungry even if I took a half hour to eat it. I did gorge and have eaten those contests to see if I could get a shirt and always did. I would eat more than half a crave case of whitecastle cheeseburgers at a time or a whole pizza for myself. I have polished off a package or more of hotdogs on many occasions... I love to bbq. And when I cook it was always a second or third helping of my own cooking. Now I just have my little 1 fluid oz cup. I am just drinking until this swelling goes down. It must be swelling still. I have no hunger and no thirst. I do stand under the shower at room temperature to soak in water too. Hoping it will help. I am at this moment thinking about a run to 7eleven for a cup of ice or an icee. I believe the ice will help with swelling. Also it is something to chew. Hey almost forgot. Gum. Listen, gum seems like a good idea. Please dont. Take it from me. It makes your saliva like a gel and thicker. Guess what doesnt go down so easy? Jello and anything that has a gel like consistency! Dont put yourself thru that. Vomited quite a few times before I realized what was happening. Do not do the gum. Ice is ok. Water. Cold water is ok. Do not push youself. You can expect to have no hunger or thirst so just do the basics because they work the best. Cold water and ice. The sorbet was good too which is like the icee. So try it for yourself. See what happens. Get the smallest they have. I wish you all the best and do not give up. Just fall back to the basics. Cold water. Ice. And anything like that. Walk. Walk! Walk!! And dont push your sleeve. Let it guide you. If you feel any pressure or discomfort stop drinking immediately and let it go thru you. If you have to vomit because there is too much pressure, lean forward, make yourself burp and cough and it empties and comes out. The pressure goes away. This is a new journey with new rules and a whole new lifestyle. What works for one doesnt always work for the next person but I do believe if you hear from many people who had their own experiences it will help you go thru yours. And there wasnt much about the combo hernia repair and sleeve. So here is a good long one all of you. God bless.

Hello. This is just an update. Today I am 22 days post op. I feel ok right this moment but you need to know what has happened to get me here. After the initial stay for the procedure I went home and tried to get the fluids down. I failed. I tried the liquids and anything with ice. It wasnt my fault. I was vomiting quite a bit. At day 11 I was so dehydrated I wanted to go to the hospital but didnt have the energy to get there and was passing out at home. I went to the drs on the 12th day which is in the hospital. I found out I was 263lbs but on the day I had the sleeve I was 290lbs. Yes I lost 27lbs in 12 days. It was not a good 27lbs because I was super dehydrated he sent me to the er. Before the drs I had no idea I lost much weight at all except I gained a single belt hole on my belt. I was admitted and had another 4 day stay. I had a swallow eval done with the contrast and they saw fluids were not going down.(I watched the x ray as I did the swallow eval and have been doing research and it looked exactly like a stricture, google gastric sleeve stricture x ray) So dr decided it was swelling and decided to send me for a picc line and ordered tpn (total parentaral nutrition) which is a liquid which has protein and all the vitamins I need and it goes directly into my blood. Bypassing my stomach. I was encouraged to eat a little ice but that was it. I went home with the tpn and told to eat ice or ice pops if I can. I have been and doing the tpn I have very very little energy. I know my stomach is beginning to flow and the blockage or stricture is slowly resolving itself. Yesterday over the day in addition to the normal cup of ice I was able to get a very cold 16.9 fluid oz bottle of water down too. It did not dawn on me but the first week and even the second week, the stomach which was cut down by 80% will have swelling because it was cut down and injured. This is normal during any surgical procedure. The swelling is normal but when you want the stomach to flow a little, the swelling is countering the ability to flow. They gave me the choice to eat broth if i wanted post op which I am sure everyone got but the hot broth did nothing for the swelling. If I was told to just eat ice or liquid just a hair above frozen like an icee without sugar, sherbert, italian ice, or a snow cone... maybe it would have been easier. I would give anyone who had the sleeve or a gastric bypass done very simple advice. Please just go with the iced and super cooled liquids. It will get liquid in you and it will help soothe and reduce the swelling and inflammation. It took a lot to figure out because the dr and dietitian are focusing on making sure you get the protein and the vitamins and trying to give a variety for anyone to sample but if you look at it like a kid who just had their tonsils and adenoids out, they only get ice cream and any other iced dish like italian ice, sherbert and icees. Very very very cold liquids. Its soothing and helps reduce the swelling and inflammation in the throat. It works great for the sleeve and I am assuming the gastric bypass too because there is a lot of swelling in both. Like I said it is day 22 post op and beyond the one time at the drs office when I stepped on the scale, I do not know what I weigh (I had a dissagreement with my old scale, I wanted to know my weight and it wouldnt tell me... like it was some sort of secret! So I had to relocate it to the recycle can). I have other markers which were more important. By day 10 I stopped snoring when I slept. I can lay on my back and sleep without snoring now. I gained 2 belt holes on my belt now. Without a belt my pants do fall down. I do not have real hunger at all, my head wants me to eat because I do wish I had some flavors and food but its not a physical hunger from my stomach like before, its only head hunger. (I do watch the cooking channel and it makes me feel better for some strange reason which I still do not really understand) I also dont feel thirsty. If I dont get enough liqid in me I do feel lethargic and tired and a bit dizzy so I have to think about it. With the tpn running I feel ok and it runs about 18 hours a day for one bag. But the 6 hours off it I can see without ice running thru me, that tiredness comes right back especially if I do anything. So exercising which is walking and dumbbells for now wipes out the little energy I do have. Its 4:30 am right now and its the last few hours of the tpn. I think I have another week and a half on this tpn before trying food. On a side note I did go back to work and I work 12 hour shifts at night. I did the tpn right up to I had to work and I have to say I ran out of energy about 4 hours into work. I pushed myself thru the last 8 hours. Got right back onto the tpn when I got home. I did eat ice at work and did have a cup pretty close at hand. I did get as much as I could down. Which was a little over a small cup of ice. The tpn after work did help. I slept and woke with some energy. My journey is a bit different from others because I dont know anyone personally who has gone thru the things I have. I do have to say the past few days I have felt a lot better then any other days post op. No vomiting, no dizziness and I do have a little energy. Definately steps in the right direction.

I had the sleeve with the hernia repair and I had the pain and soreness as well. It did go away a week later and it was only mildly sore. If it gets worse tell your doctor. Its better to let the doctor worry instead of you sitting there worrying. But if its just the pain from the procedures without anything else happening ie... no fever, no spiking or radiating pain, take it a day at a time and keep the doctor informed. I would say you probably needed a stronger pain killer post op. Tell the dr so he or she can make the appropriate changes for your comfort.

Btw which soft foods were the first that worked for you? I have only had success with apple sauce so far and it was only barely 2 spoons worth.

I will be trying the blended chicken in stock when the time comes but still only on the water ice blend. It works for now until I can get more in me. Your right about the eggs. I thought egg drop soup. Very lite. Barely egg in it but it didnt agree with me. Came back with a vengence. Will not try that one again for a long time.

I dont know if I had the mesh used in the hernia repair. You are a couple weeks ahead of me as far as healing. The only thing that helps is loads of ice in the food processor and squeeze an orange or lemon on it. Eat it by the spoon standing or sitting strait up and down. Btw 3 table spoons seems to equal about 1 fluid oz. I want to try egg drop soup. I dont like to vomit or any of that pressure so I am holding off. Whats worked for you?

I do not know what size was used. I didnt know to ask before hand. Either way there really is nothing I can do about it now. I am getting more water in if its with ice thats been shredded. I am feeling a lot better. Honestly i believe dr greco did a good job. No leaks. No infections. He may have made it small or it could have just been excess swelling. I noticed the difference when swallowing tiny ice chunks. It helps so much. I can get 4-6 fluid ounces down in an hour comfortably with the ice mixture.

Hello all. I had my sleeve and hhr repar on january 28th with dr greco at southern ocean medical center. Going into it I was only expecting a 2 night stay which turned into a 4 night stay. Too much swelling, couldnt get any liquids down. But as far as pain, they did give more than enough pain killers. I was walking a couple hours after surgery. The staff there and the nurses were so amazing. They went so far above and beyond for me. A very big thank you to them, they made the experience so pleasant for me. I did have lots of pressure when I sipped water of those sponges on a stick at the hospital. I have been home for 5 days and it was extremely hard to get liquid down and keep it there. It came up more than it stayed down. At least the first 4 days. I did find a diet orange icee did go down easier. And stay there. The protien shakes make me sick. Tried 6 different kinds. Immediately come right back up. Today is the first day I made a little headway with fluids. Finally. Today is day 8 going into day 9 post op. Finally water and iced water slowly sipped stays in. Woohoo. The last 7 days were very difficult and seemed like I would dehydrate.