zonetracy

My Water bottle. I feel like i don't quite get enough water so i take it with me where ever I go. To the store, shopping, friends. Its one of those Tervis ones with a loop in the lid for easy carrying. I was sleeved 3 weeks ago today. Oh and chapstick, but i carried that around pre-surgery too.

I had some pain/discomfort. The worst of it was probably in the first 5 days. Congrats and good luck.

I needed potassium too for awhile before my sleeve. One of my BP meds was making me urinate a lot and I wasn't keeping any potassium. I found this link with the top 10 highest potassium foods and bananas are number 10 in the list. http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-potassium.php

Here is my post from a similar topic earlier today and i can't get more than 1/4 c of food or more than 1 egg at a time. I'm 19 days post op and my days look kind of like this... Protein drink first thing a couple hours later - an egg of some sort all mashed up lunch - 1/4c cottage cheese or chicken salad chopped up super super fine or 1/4c refried Beans with a little cheese snack - 1 laughing cow creamy swiss cheese wedge maybe another serving of 1/4c cottage cheese or chicken salad chopped up super super fine or 1/4c refried beans with a little cheese if i get hungry One more Protein Drink in evening I can't eat more than 1/4c of food at a time so i'm still pretty low with my calories. Usually 600-700 per day.

WTG you look Fabulous! I hope you're feeling just as well

@@emcbee are you in the Portland area? How often have your follow up visits been? Dr. Patterson and staff have all been great especially her PA Lisa. I think she's fairly new there.

I did not have a pre op diet. They asked me to lose 10-15 lbs before surgery (I lost 9) and 1 day of liquids the day before surgery. That was it Oh and my insurance said i had to be in their program 90 days before i could have the surgery so appointments were scheduled 1 month a part for 3 months then i could set a surgery date. The appointments included diet and exercise info as well as a visit with the surgeon.

I'm 19 days post op and my days look kind of like this... Protein drink first thing a couple hours later - an egg of some sort all mashed up lunch - 1/4c cottage cheese or chicken salad chopped up super super fine or 1/4c refried Beans with a little cheese snack - 1 laughing cow creamy swiss cheese wedge maybe another serving of 1/4c cottage cheese or chicken salad chopped up super super fine or 1/4c refried beans with a little cheese if i get hungry One more protein drink in evening I can't eat more than 1/4c of food at a time so i'm still pretty low with my calories. Usually 600-700 per day.

I was really hungry the first couple of weeks post surgery while on liquids. Not sure of your plan but it helped me to not be so hungry to have creamy Soups, thinned yogurt and keeping up on my Protein shakes. I've moved up to purees now and that helps even more. Make sure you're getting in all you're supposed to. You will make it through.

@@GirlOnFire you might ask your WLS people if you can find an alternative equivalent that's more to your liking. I'm lucky in that my surgeon and nutrition person told me to find a Protein Drink that i like and didn't give me a specific one to drink. I absolutely can not stand any artificial sweetners like splenda and nutra sweet and i wouldn't have drank or eaten them either. I found a good Protein Powder with stevia in it and it works for me.

At my job if you know you're going to be on leave you can submit paperwork up to 30 days before you're going to be out and i had until 20 days post surgery to have it submitted. I took my paperwork with me to my pre op appointment 1 week before surgery. They said they don't like to release to work until they see you for your first post op appt, which will be at 3 weeks post op. They submitted the forms within a couple days and had to also submit a confirmation of surgery form once the procedure was done. They want to make sure you actually had it done if the paperwork was submitted before hand. So ultimately i will have been off for 3 weeks and a few days as long as they release me to work on 7/2 i'm sure they will as i'm feeling pretty good.

I'm not quite 3 weeks post op, but i also did a lot of research and found the sleeve to have the same or close to the same average weight lost as the bypass. I chose the sleeve because of the less invasive surgery and less side effects after surgery. I'll be 50 this year and had never had any surgery before except for wisdom teeth extraction in my 20s. So i was apprehensive about any surgery. Co-incidentally while in the process of my weight loss research and switching of insurance to be able to go to my chosen surgeon I fell, injured my knee and shoulder. Ultimately had to have shoulder surgery before my sleeve. I did them 6 weeks apart.

Yeah, make yourself a graph or chart, fill in what you have and best guess the rest, turn it in and see what they say. I think you'll be fine. Good luck!

I switched to Aetna this year so I could go the surgeon of choice for my sleeve and I was lucky in that my last insurance company gave me a graph of my weight history for like the past 10 years. Are you new to Aetna or is that something you can get from your PCP? If you haven't been to the doc in the past couple years I think you can use your best guess during that time.

I keep seeing commercials for no "side effects" bras that are supposed to help with side boob. I googled them and found them at Macys http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/warners-no-side-effects-bra-1356?ID=1249281

I only stayed one night so i didn't bring too much. The only things used were loose clothes and slippers for ride home, my iPad and my toothbrush. The hospital gave me lip balm and no slip socks.

@@BrownEyedTxGirl that was the straw that broke my camel's back too! It was awful for me having to ask for a seat belt extender last time I flew. I will be flying early September and hoping i will have lost enough weight to no longer need one. Wish me luck!

Hi, i'm 12 days post op and had both a sleeve and a hernia repair. I also had some stomach polyps so i had an endoscope during surgery as well. My mule kicked abs were quite a bit better around day 7-8 then i thought i could pull a weed in the garden and had another day or 2 setback. At day 12 i can slightly feel my abs when going from sitting to standing but hardly at all now. You're almost past the pain. My doc puts everyone on a liquid ibuprofen/tyleonl regimen after surgery and that worked for me so I had one oxycodone as i was leaving the hospital and maybe 1 more a couple days post op and that was it. I didn't want to get backed up like i did after my shoulder surgery which was 6 weeks before my sleeve so i tried to stay off the narcotics.

Super great ideas! Thanks @Gingi. When was your surgery date?

I'm 9 days post op and my menu has been looking like this: 8oz Protein drink during in morning 5.3oz Greek yogurt for lunch 2-3oz some type of soup or broth for dinner (I liquify it in my magic bullet with a splash of milk if it's a thick soup) another 8oz Protein Drink later sipping Water and Gatorade throughout the day The yogurt usually still takes about an hour to eat. The other meals take about 30 min or so.

I hope this thread continues. I'll be starting puréed foods next Wednesday and would really love to hear all your ideas too

Hi @@LynRey70 and @@sferriol! I am also 8 days post surgery. I haven't tried anything thicker than yogurt yet. My Dr's protocol is 2 weeks liquids, 2 weeks purees, then on to soft foods. I'm afraid to chance it.

That doesn't sound normal. You should still go in or at least call an advice nurse. I hope you get to feeling better soon.