KenBuzz

I've just completed my first Post-Op week. My plan has me on an initial pureed food diet (for 8 weeks - ugh) with each of my three meals capped at 4 TBSP, or 1/4 Cup.... at least half of which must be Protein. After getting quickly tired of canned tuna and chicken, I started branching out, and I've found a recipe that works terrifically for me. Kroger sells packages of pre-cooked meatballs, 24 in a package for about $3. They're near the cold cuts, not in frozen foods. I put three of them in the food processor with 6 TBSPs of Marinara and a little garlic and chili powder. Makes 1/2 Cup, or two meals. Because everything's already cooked, all I have to do is microwave it for 30-60 seconds and I've got a delicious Italian micro meal with 4g of protein and a 2nd serving in the fridge for lunch at work tomorrow. The rest of the meatballs stay in the fridge in an airtight container, as does the rest of the Marinara jar. Easy to store the ingredients to make this "on demand", and it takes less than 5 minutes from start to dinner.

Ricotta. Hadn't thought of that, though substituting a TBSP of grated parm for one of the sauce did occur to me.

You're not alone. I'm 6 days post-op and woke up this morning feeling hungry. I was hungry again this afternoon, and tonight about an hour after my pureed dinner I'm hungry again. I don't see my surgeon for another 3 weeks, but I'm checking with my dietician via email tonight.

Here's an article on post-op Bariatric hair loss that might help: https://www.drdkim.net/ask-the-dietitian/understanding-hair-loss-after-bariatric-surgery/ From what I can gather, hair grows in cycles with 5-15% of our hair being in a "resting" phase at any given time. Normally at the end of that phase it resumes growing. But for us, hair that was resting when we had our surgery will typically fall out, being replaced with new growth. The resting phase lasts 1-6 months, with an average of 3. In addition to that, stress can cause other hair that is nearing the end of it's growth phase to slip into a rest phase, and subsequently and fall out as well. The bottom line is that most of us will experience hair loss, somewhat abruptly, at a point during the first 6 post-op months. It's normal. And it does grow back.

I'm asking if anyone else out there has vomited blood while I wait for the PA. I'm a patient person, just looking for some helpful info in the meantime I'm sorry if I was unclear. Good luck on your journey! Thanks, and sorry for misinterpreting your question. It seemed serious enough to warrant a reply, with the hopes that it might attract the attention of someone with personal experience. Best of luck, and let us know how things turn out?

I'm in my first post-op VSG week, so I can't help you with any personal experience. That said, your surgeon's office *did* say that you could wait 24 hours to speak to the PA. They didn't tell you to head to the hospital or call your local PCP, so based on that alone I'd think this isn't "critical". Alarming? Absolutely! Would *I* be worried? Sure. But unless it's happened a 2nd time, I'd think that if the surgeon's office isn't rushing you to an ER, then it's probably okay to wait.

Talk to your doc/nutritionist/dietician but why not? I would assume you could count that. Mine all prefer me to get calcium from food if possible. No dice. My dietician just emailed me back: "Unfortunately we cannot count the calcium in the milk towards the 1500 milligrams of calcium citrate daily requirement." Ugh. So it counts toward my daily Protein and liquid requirements, but not a drop of the calcium. And with each shake weighing in at 40g protein, there's no way I can see myself losing weight long term if I take three of them daily, since my target range is 60-75g. Looks like I should just shift back to Water.

I cracked open a can of refried Beans for dinner today, but found them kinda "blah". But having read this thread, I just realized that there's a jar of queso in the fridge. Maybe for Breakfast tomorrow, some scrambled eggs with queso + beans on the side.

My surgery was last Wednesday, 12/30, around noon. Everything went smoothly and I woke up all groggy at 4pm in my room. No pain around the incision sites or along my abdomen, just some upper chest discomfort caused by pressure due to the fluids injected into me for surgery. I ewas breathing okay and my incentive spirometer was helpful as I was able to quickly get up to 3000 ml lung capacity (500 ml beyond the desired target). I was up and walking almost immediately and by the time I was discharged on Friday afternoon (1/1) I had logged 4-1/4 miles around the ward. Yesterday was my first day of at home recovery and I generally feel fine. I'm taking my Lovenox shots to help prevent any DVT and have been relatively pain-free. I *did* wake up this morning with a dull throbbing pain in my abdomen near the incision sites (4/10 on the scale) but took one of the Rx pain pills and am monitoring to see if it helps. My first day at home felt like I was obsessing on the timing of my meals and supplements and shakes. I am confident things will get easier as I gain more experience, but it sure felt overwhelming on Day One.

I'm only on my 3rd post-op day... yesterday was the first day at home where I was on my own for my vitamin/protein/calcium regimen and I used Fairlife 2% Chocolate as the "base" for my protein shakes. I'm not exactly lactose-intolerant but I get very gassy when around dairy products, but I wanted to try this because mixing my protein powder in water was disappointing. Wow. Good stuff! Yeah, I was still a little gassy after taking, but other than that no complaints. One thing, tho, has me a little concerned. After one meal and two shakes I was already at 90g of Protein for the day. I have been using UpCal packets to get my calcium - would add one to each shake before blending - but I hit my Protein goal while still 500mg short of my Calcium goal. Tried taking the final packet dissolved in water but couldn't finish it. I know that 1 cup of Fairlife has 365mg of calcium, but I don't know if I can count that toward my daily 1500mg requirement or not. If I can, then I can stop at two shakes a day. It would be great if I could, since taking less Fairlife daily would reduce my gassiness and make this relatively expensive milk ($4 a bottle) last 50% longer. For the record, my shakes are 8 oz Fairlife (13g Protein), 4 oz water, 4 oz ice, 1 scoop Protein Plus (25g), 1 TBSP PB Fit (2g), 1 Pkt UpCal. Total is 40g Protein and either 500mg or 865mg Calcium, depending on whether I can include the Fairlife calcium or not. Each shake also knocks out 25% of my daily liquid requirement.

Hello everyone. I joined the site back in June after my initial orientation meeting and surgical consult, and have been lurking here for the past 6 months. My preapproval process went smoothly - I began meeting with my PCP monthly in July to track my weight and exercise progress, after 90 days of that the Insurance company approved me without a hiccup, and with the medical pre-op testing done I have a surgery date staring me in the face. Tomorrow is my half-day pre-op dietician meeting up in Indy, and I expect to begin the 2-week liquid diet on Wednesday, with surgery happening on 12/30. In my specific case, I've already been told to expect to stay two nights rather than the typical one night. I am in great shape physically (except for the obesity, of course), but I developed at DVT back in 2011.... so, with that history they want to keep me an extra 24 hours before releasing me to head home. From my perspective, the entire journey I'm about to embark upon is being done to allow me to live a longer, healthier life. I've been fighting with weight issues my entire adult life, with the past five years having been spent actively working with my PCP to find a solution. But without much success, all I've managed to do is become five years older - five years closer to my grave. And with me past 50 now, looking around, I am having a difficult time finding any REALLY old, REALLY fat guys. Since I can't stop aging, the bottom line is fairly obvious. If I want to continue enjoying life, I need to be smaller. I don't really have any questions to ask anyone - I've been approaching this procedure with my eyes open and have been doing a lot of research on my own. I *do* recognize that as a man I'm in a fairly significant minority here, but that's not really an obstacle. -Ken