IncredibleShrinkingMan

The instrument he uses to measure the size of your sleeve is called a bougie, and it's size is measured in FR. The typical bougie size is 36 fr, but they generally fall between 32-40 fr. Personally, I had a 38. My surgeon said that he has seen the best results with a 38, despite the fact that that is not the smallest available. There are very good reasons to want a bigger sleeve, as long it is small enough to eliminate most of your ghrelin cells and to create the satiety benefit after a small meal. After that, the differences are negligible, and indigestion is more likely than additional weight loss. Anything higher than 40, however, runs the risk of not getting the full benefit of ghrelin elimination, which is the key benefit of this surgery (restriction can be had at similar levels by all the other surgeries). Be sure to ask him how your diet progression will go afterwards, as I have seen some variation. I only had to do Clear liquids for 3 days, but some need to do it for 3-4 weeks before moving onto purees. I am now seven weeks out and I am able to eat everything (with nutritionists' approval).

You are typically given a very detailed set of instructions by your surgeon. The most common instruction is 2 weeks of a 1000 calorie diet. However, there are all kinds of variations on this. Some are required to do clear liquids only, usually with a lower calorie quota, and the length of time ranges from the day before surgery to several months before surgery. Call your surgeon's office to make sure you are in compliance with what they want.

Welcome! Congratulations on your decision. Be sure all your kids and grandkids are supportive of you and will show that with actions as well as words. It's never too early to start getting accustomed to your post-op diet. If you are able to exercise and set up a program, the earlier you commit to it the more likely you are to stick with it. Best wishes!

You are lucky in one sense...you have landed in that cohort whose taste buds appear to have completely changed. I have had no change whatsoever in my inclinations towards food. I just have to eat some dense Protein to kill the hunger. I agree with the poster above...ISOPURE is amazing, and is no-fat and 1g-carb for...40g PROTEIN per 20 oz bottle. I used them until just about a week ago when I was still struggling to get my protein requirement. They are available as single bottles or as 12-packs at the Vitamin Shoppe. Are you still taking any pain meds? Anything I took gave me horrible nausea, so I stopped taking them altogether while I was still in the hospital. Also, drinking Water more quickly than you are prepared to can generate this sick feeling as well. Best of luck!

Don't ask don't tell is the way to go. If somebody asks me, I am not going to lie (nobody has asked me point blank as of today), but I would kindly tell the person that he or she heard that in confidence and that I would respectfully ask that it not be passed around. I feel that is a more common occurrence if you have lost enough weight such that you have become unrecognizable. Weight is such an emotionally loaded topic in today's society that courteous people have simply stopped broaching the subject as they would've even a decade or two ago, unless there was genuine concern about your well-being. On that note, it is important to remember that just because nobody remarks doesn't mean they don't realize something huge is going on, and that it is likely that if a person is aware that these sorts of procedures are available, they may suspect that you underwent one, and that they have the decency not to inquire. If you are dealing with people that are going to look down on you as having taken the "easy way out," well, then you have a few people to remove from your life and conscience IMHO.

It is entirely your call, but sometimes seeing your numbers or your progress measured up against others is not constructive. If someone is having a flash of seemingly limitless success, that can get you very down and discouraged, while in reality, that person is probably setting himself up for failure, while you are losing weight in the disciplined and approved manner. Of course, you can always come back to the group-motivation mode when you feel comfortable, as long as you make a promise to yourself not to become dismayed when you see something you don't like or when somebody appears to have made more progress than you over a stretch of time.

Congratulations! I think this board is great for pre-op and post-op advice. Since you are asking about post-op, my candid advice, and the advice least likely to be followed without special reinforcement by you and your supporters, is to get your exercise. I read so many complaints on this site about weight loss stalls, insufficient weight loss after a period of weeks and months, and weight regain, and when people list off everything they believe they are doing right, the vast majority of them don't mention anything about physical activity. It is imperative, and you should start while you are still pre-op and preferably before you have even begun your mandatory liver shrinking diet. You have to learn all kinds of new habits, so why not learn that one? Even if you are already active and have an athletic history, developing a program is essential now because you are less likely to stray from a well-thought out plan, and even if you don't follow it to the letter, you are much more likely to stay active when your diet has completely changed to a dramatically lower calorie intake than if you just count on doing exercise naturally. Your body will attempt to stop you from exercising to guard the accumulated fat, and you just have to hijack that and all other efforts by your body to keep you the same weight. So while you have the opportunity, be sure to perform some brain surgery on yourself, because you need your brain on your side, not your body's, to be successful. Best wishes!

If you rely on him for things that's unfortunate, because he does not sound like he is the least bit supportive. However, you can very easily say to him that if he wants to eat junk and is content with your son developing those habits as well, he will have to make the efforts on his own, as you have begun a new and better life.

That's very normal and understandable. Last suppering helped somewhat with that standstill phenomenon, as my window to enjoy last helpings was closing before my very eyes. However, you guys should also be prepared to have a good deal of mental estate occupied with post-op tasks. I am seven weeks out and the overall management of weight loss and other diet and nutrition care is taking up more than I would've anticipated of my spare time. Don't get me wrong, it is worth it many times over, but don't expect to coast. You will be addicted to crunching your numbers, you will be come obsessive statisticians, and you will want to share your wisdom and experiences with those behind you in this march. It is just another dose of discipline that will be necessary to keep the rest of your life on track as you advance through the stages.

I found that the chewable vitamins caused me greater difficulties than the capsules. I went off them immediately, and I am hopefully absorbing a sufficient amount from the capsule. Everything else they gave me to take is going down fine, and the only vitamins I am taking in chewable form are B12 and D3.

-crowding onto a subway train with gazillions of people pushing and shoving and being the only one being looked at ("if only that guy would get off this wouldn't be happening...uh, yea it would) -watching the sigh on somebody's face when they arrive at the row on a plane and realize they are my seat partner -having every take out place in town have my order memorized and then watching them in shock when I order something else -and others...

The standard advice is to start varying up the diet more and to slash calories, but that's kind of hard since we have slashed virtually every calorie we can already by dint of the procedure. But as our tolerance for exercise increases, we can start varying that up more too so that the body can't learn to become efficient with any particular form of exercise. It's a great way to restart weight loss, surgery or otherwise, in my experience.

45 minutes, compared to roughly two and a half hours for the RNY. However, the wait and delay time and all the rigmarole in the pre-op and recovery areas make that a negligible part of the total time commitment. I arrived at the hospital at 8 for a 9:30 procedure, but I wasn't taken in until almost noon, and I took a while to recover because I was so nauseated by the pain meds. By the time I was actually aware of my surroundings and awake in my nursing floor room it was early evening and dusk was gathering.

@@tacocat I hit FDC three times in July (8/6 surgery). You know how to do it. I amped up the frequency of visits in hopes of growing tired of it and getting it off my mind for post-surgery life (kind of required). Not exactly successful, but my final memories with the friends I went with were great. Other than deep dish pizza, nothing else was as important to me as a clean break with FDC. I agree, I am having a huge leftover crisis now as well.

Congratulations! If I were a fall sleever, I would enjoy one last round of autumn goodies, now that the cooler weather is here. Don't overdo cider donuts though! Good luck with your pre-op, whenever it starts!

I would urge you not to consider your post-op a "no-foods" diet. It is most definitely a "different food" diet, especially in the clear liquid stage, but since you always need nourishment, you never actually go without food. Don't psyche yourself out by getting into your head that you will not be able to eat...if that were true, then you would also not be able to live. You will learn to enjoy new foods, and I think this is really the beginning of you and food, not the end. You can't possibly have gone out and had that stuff the night before surgery. Your surgery would be cancelled, or if not, you may have experienced immense complications. I imagine you had a pre-op diet, and that you were able to indulge in those things immediately before starting it. As for myself, I went to a Brazilian Steakhouse and other fine establishments in the last few weeks before pre-op, and I am more than content as to how it went, and don't feel like I left anything on the table (literally or figuratively). I don't miss it today, and it's been a month and a half since surgery.

If you're six months out, the only reason you should be continuing to have protein shakes, or any liquid whatsoever other than your required water, is if you are unable to get the required protein from solid food. Are you having such issues? The above posters are absolutely correct about the effect of solid food on receptors, and you should aim for dense protein at regular intervals throughout the day. Over time, the sleeve stretches to accommodate a little more food bit by bit, and it may be that you need a little more to feel completely satiated. To avoid weight regain in this instance, be sure to choose high quality proteins, and maybe throw in some raw vegetables to fill up the rest of the room, provided you can meet your protein quota. Definitely avoid trying to close the satiety gap with starchy foods, but be sure there is some healthy fat in your diet as well...that provides fullness most effectively, although you don't want to overdo higher calorie stuff for any reason.

Until I was about three weeks out, I had pain at the drain site, but after the first week, it only hurt when I coughed or sneezed (I had the good fortune of catching a cold promptly upon leaving the hospital). They tried to show me some trick that I completely didn't get the hang of in which you sit upright in a certain position and hold a cushion to your drain site to absorb some of the jerky movement. It didn't seem to help so I just decided to wait it out. My personal experience, now seven weeks out, is that the pain goes away right at about three weeks, but a slight concavity right around the former drain site remains. It doesn't seem to be getting smaller, even as my abdominal area does.

LOL I wish, but not even close. I love and hate exactly the same things I did before surgery and my cravings have not been mitigated in the slightest. The benefit is that a little bit of food will get me to stop thinking about food altogether for at least several hours. I don't tend to come down on the lucky side of these lotteries, but at least the surgery appears to be doing what it essentially guaranteed.

I am a sleever and I was told that it was extremely dangerous because of the narrower openings, and I can see why this might apply to bandsters too. I chew Dentyne from time to time, but I make absolutely sure to spit it out once it has lost the flavor. I don't know the rules for you guys, but we were told to visit an ER if this occurs. Stay calm, though.

I advocate forgiveness in general, but with your health and mindset, there should be a one strike policy against people. No matter how important she is to you (indeterminate from what I read, even though the friendship is lifelong), she can no longer be a part of this. You can't be hearing voices telling you that you are doing the wrong thing. That will just make it harder to deal with the eventual, inevitable setbacks. You need to surround yourself with people who agree with your decision, or at least will support the decision you have made. Even if she stops these criticisms, I don't see how you could possibly see her as a positive influence from this point forward, and I think the more likely outcome is that she begins making light of your weight loss by reminding you that you had the surgery (like you need a reminder) and that it's cheating. At the peril of being a complete and unmitigated ass, I will say I hope she gains all her god damn weight back and then you can ask her if the surgery is still the "wrong way." But my more responsible advice is to just be done with her. Be thankful that this is not family or a spouse.

@@thall04 I would check your body fat percentage as I strongly suspect that those are muscle gains with the amount you are working out. That is much more likely to take 8 months to put on than fat, especially with our reduced calorie intakes.

@@Jazziegrl A test for class? Wow you are a trooper if there ever was one. You will obviously do great with this surgery and your post-op because that is extreme commitment.

ISOPURE from the Vitamin Shoppe has 40 g of protein per 20 oz bottle, no carbs, and no fat. Very satisfying and filling, I would recommend it without reservation until you can get all your protein from solids.

My guidelines were for about 4 oz servings of any clear liquid, to be consumed over about a half hour period. If you are substantially higher than that, I'd say cut back, and instead, increase the frequency of your "meals." I think you may be experiencing more nausea from water because you can consume it in greater volume than anything else. If you stick to no more than about 8 fl oz each hour, I think you might see an improvement.