Ray92

My doctor recommends the surgery for anyone with a BMI of over 35. He refuses to do it however for people under that BMI because he says that it is a more complicated decision then. He also does the surgery under the circumstances that your weight has caused health complications in your life. For me it was tired knees, elevated cholesterol (still in the normal range but about to break through) and endometrial hyperplasia caused by my PCOS. He said that he even has some women who specifically came to him to do the surgery in order to lose weight and reduce their PCOS symptoms in order to get pregnant. I read an article about the benefits of bariatric surgery with PCOS and obesity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3334389/ Here is the article. It is suggesting that we really look into bariatric surgery as one of the treatment plans for PCOS related obesity and MS. My uncle is a gynecologist and he told me straight up one day, if you want to control your PCOS, you need to lose weight and if at this point, you can't do it then maybe it is better to just get the surgery done. You are exponentially more likely to be affected by an obesity or PCOS comorbidity than any complications from this surgery. Especially considering that the sleeve has been relatively successful, only 0.08 mortality rate and very low complication risk. That is why I finally took the decision. Sometimes I can have severe anxiety issues and I just couldn't deal with the pressure of feeling that at any point I could become pre-diabetic from my weight and from my PCOS. MY weight wasn't just affecting my physically, it was seriously starting to deteriorate my mental health. EDIT: I would also like to add that there are several genetic obesity related comorbitidies that run in my family which only further fueled my anxiety. I now feel 10000x better knowing that I am controlling it. The list includes: Cholesterol, my father got it at an early age and he wasn't even overweight, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks, sleep apnea, strokes. One of my uncles has the trifecta: type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol. Sometimes I couldn't sleep at night imagining myself becoming ill like him.

@@WLSResources/ClothingExch I am not very good with Asian cuisine to be quite honest. I live in Atlantic Canada and the most interesting "Asian" dish I made was to make short grain rice, add up some chopped sashimi to it, seasame seeds, lettuce, cucumber, avocado, ponzu sauce. It was like a sashimi, salad bowl. On another note, did you know that you can get low fat halloumi? I recommend grilled halloumi, olive oil and zaatar. I would adopt you if I was a great middle eastern cook but I am very mediocre. If I crave something, I usually ask my mum or grandma to do it for me. I try to learn but they live in the Middle East so the times I do get to learn from them are limited to when I am visiting. However, you are welcome at my dinner table any time.

Ahh you are talking about wara2 dawali, I thought you were talking about wara2 bil zeit/yalanji. I love wara2 with kousa. It sounds like you have the authentic recipe. My grandma adds some diced onion and tomato as well but not always. 3/4 of my family is on a diet so someone is always asking for a special recipe. Instead of using rice for the stuffing she does exactly like yours only adds onions also without too much oil. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Never is a strong word. Maybe after a while you can have a small piece. Something in a very small amount and in a moderated setting will not harm you. We just have to learn self control and management. It is very heavy though I would probably wait, like a long time till you feel 100% well Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

@@WLSResources/ClothingExch I have never tried it with feta but I think the premise works even though shanklish is an aged cheese usually covered in zaatar or chilli. Other than shanklish cheese which is now grated, you add diced onions, diced tomato, parlsey and mint (if you like those things) and then you drizzle it in olive oil as the dressing. That's it. The zaatar herb adds a very nice flavour to it. @@TheNewSusie How do you make it without the rice?! I am very curious. I stumbled upon your baked kibbeh recipe on the page before and it seemed great.

Be careful with kibbeh, when its fried its very very unhealthy. I second the kibbeh nayyeh suggestion. It is the most delicious mazza in my opinion. For the grape leaves/dolma suggestion, pretty sure once you have no restrictions you can eat them. Also be aware, they are stuffed with rice. Might I make some middle eastern suggestions that are low carb?: 1. Shanklish, a goat cheese salad. 2. Muhammara, a red spicy paste with nuts 3. Tabouleh salad. Has bulghur but not essential to the dish and not enough to be high carb. 4. Grilled kafta. Can be high fat but 0 carb so if you are going keto it should be fine. 5. Hummus or foul without bread. Also be weary, you would be surprised how much fat there is in hummus from the seasame paste. Again, works for keto. 6. Grilled chicken with toum (garlic paste). 7. BBQ pro tip: grilled onions and grilled tomatoes. Very common in middle eastern bbqs and very delicious. Things that should be occasional because they are high carb and fat: fried kibbeh, shawerma, muajanat/manaeesh/middle eastern pizza although as an alternative to regular pizza they are relatively good. Thin crust and if you get the zaatar then you avoid the cheese, fried falafel, our rice dishes also have lots of oil, phyllo/cheese rolls (fried). Source: I am Jordanian. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I am still a ways off until I get to where you guys are at but there is one thing that has started to affect me in a negative way already. For whatever reason, my feet have super deflated. I am guessing it is a combination of weight loss but mainly the fact that I no longer hork tons of salty foods which means there is no excessive bloating. Also the weight loss has given my knees, legs and feet some great relief which also means that they also don't bloat as before. As a result, all my shoes are starting to feel loose and wide. I am obsessed with shoes and have put in A LOT of money into buying really nice shoes from all over the country and all over the world. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that I will not be able to wear my shoes after a few months because they are really starting to loosen up. I also think that maybe I always used to buy shoes that were a size or two bigger than my foot length because my feet are wide due to the weight.

2 weeks out, same exact pain, just 2 inches left of the belly button. Sometimes it radiates even deeper almost to my back. I don't have a fever, rapid heart rate, abdominal pain or anything like that. I have a feeling it happened because I have a nasty habit of stretching out in my bed when I wake up in the morning. I stretch my arms and legs out which causes my abdominal muscles to contract. I do it out of habit and have tried to stop myself from doing so but I am not too concerned to be honest. Sometimes the pain also comes with itchiness which makes me feel like it could be something to do with nerves reconnecting as well. I have an appointment with a doctor less than a week from now and I will ask him and update my post!! Hopefully everything will be fine.

When I am really thirsty, sometimes I forget that I cannot gulp Water and I take about 2 gulps before I realize what I have just done. Of course my stomach also reminds me in the form of pain... I don't consume enough Soup, juice, water etc. as they have recommended on the program. I am trying to get better at that by leaving the glass of water or tea beside me and drinking it over an hour if necessary. Other than that I have not tried to consume anything out of my program. I am too scared lol.

Pillow under the belly, one between the knees. I was able to sleep on the "other" side, i.e. the side opposite from where they removed the stomach. I was able to comfortably do that just past the week mark.

I am going to give the nut a call just to get a green light and then I am going to do that. Also today's fatigue I discovered was because I have not consumed any juice or anything with sugar for more than 48 hrs. Once I had a glass of juice I felt energetic again. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

After browsing the forums for quite a bit now, I can't help but notice that there is quite a bit of variation in the post op diet plans that are given to each respective person by the surgeon and nutritionist. So, out of curiosity I am making this thread for anyone interested to post the plan that they were given to see what are common factors and what are different approaches. My assigned plan: Day of surgery: nothing entered my stomach. I was on IV fluids all day. Day 1-7: Clear liquids only. chicken, beef and vegetable broth. The seasoning was limited to very little salt, pepper and cumin. Only 2 juices are allowed: apple and watermelon, preferably fresh and without artificial sweeteners. Highly recommended: Tea with anise to soothe the stomach from gas, green tea, any kind of tea. Can add honey or up to 2 tsp of sugar a day only. Day 8-25: Anything mentioned above. oatmeal. Low fat/Non Fat plain yogurt. Yogurt drink called laban ayran or kefir. pureed Soups such as lentil Soup, squash, potato, carrot soup. Still avoiding any citrus, fruit heavy dairy. 2 times a week instead of juice: pudding, milk pudding or Jello. Day 25-35: Anything mentioned above. 2 spoons of soft rice without oil/butter etc. with grilled/steamed/boiled veggies, savory yogurt (this is a middle eastern thing), thin tomato sauce. Fitness Cereal with low fat milk. Make sure the cereal gets soft with the milk. A cracker or biscuit with tea. After that, no restrictions but they have given a long guideline of things to avoid, nutrition tips etc. So far I am hating the diet plan. I want meat, I want solid food, I want fruit, I want orange juice. All those things are banned for 35 days

@@drmeow As per the doctor's orders. No meat,chicken or fish for 35 days. He didn't prescribe any Protein supplements either. I think he expects patients to focus on consuming dairy and high protein Beans, lentils and such. To be very frank, the program is not working out for me today. I feel very faint and very fatigued. I really need to find a way to get more protein into my system. Unfortunately I still have 22 days to go until I can eat meats.

@@BLERDgirl This was a few days post op. I was having a little bit of runs and it was a little dark. Back to normal now!

You are lucky! I was sleeved the 19th too and I've only gone once! I know you have probably heard this line a million times but are you drinking enough Water? Makes a huge difference. Also plain, lot fat yogurt. It really gets my stomach cleaned out. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

My acid reflux varies but I mainly get it at night. Here is what I noticed: by virtue of this surgery I never ever feel like eating, especially at night. However tonight for example, I had panadol (pain killer similar to advil or Tylenol) because of some uterus cramps and my birth control pill. Since my stomach is empty, the acid reflux is here with vengeance punishing me for taking the pills on an empty stomach. HOWEVER when I eat a couple of spoonfuls of low fat plain yogurt or the yogurt drink called laban ayran, I don't get the stomach aches/reflux as I usually do. My reflux pill is in the morning so I find that by the time night comes around if starts to fade and consuming some Probiotics really helps.

My surgeon told me no citrus for 35 days as it can be harsh on the stomach and because of acidity. I think he is being very cautious about it which is good!!

@@4MRB4PHOTO I have been following my guidelines to the last letter. Haven't faltered once and wouldn't even consider it! I don't want to end up harming myself. Not to mention, I put my body through a surgery and I am not going to botch it over some cravings, thats for sure. Thanks for putting in perspective though! It's good to remember that in the grand scheme of things, I am blessed. @@BestDayEver Good luck with your nutrition plan! It sounds very much focused on Protein intake which sounds great. I have a 35 day restriction on raw vegetables and peeled fruit.

omg crazy!! I did it with Dr. Khrais as well. He seems to be very popular in Amman. I hope you are feeling better too. Please feel free to pm me! Maybe we can stay in touch and exchange thoughts and ideas since we are in the same region, same surgeon, same cuisine.

Hello all, I would like to share my gastric sleeve story as it is a little bit of a bizarre one, at least for me it was. It feels like I have been riding a roller coaster for the past month and now I am finally getting off. So a little about myself, I am a graduate student living in Canada and my family lives very far from me. Like Middle East far. Anyway, a very close cousin of mine got married on the 1st of October and since I hadn't visited my extended family in over 2 years, I decided I would make the long trip out to Amman, Jordan and pay them a nice, long visit. Little did I know that I would leave a part of my stomach behind in Amman. Over the course of university my weight kept ballooning from eating all the fast food, junk food and drinking. About 6 months before my visit to Amman I received a message from my uncle asking to consider getting the gastric sleeve. I was furious at his suggestion "how could he?" I thought. It was none of his business in my mind and after a failed lap band I was completely turned off by the idea of WLS. I think it is important for me to establish a little background about my extended family. I have a huge family and we all have a nasty habit of being able to put on tons of weight. I guess it is a combination of genetics, environment etc. and it is very inherent in the females. While we all struggled with obesity at some point, all my cousins, aunts and mother managed to eventually control their eating and drop the weight. They now all eat very healthy. Seriously I have an aunt who probably hasn't had bread in over 5 years. My uncles were also huge players in this story. I have two uncles who happen to be doctors. The first one, the one that suggested the surgery six months ago is a pediatric cardiologist and is very famous in his field in Jordan. He has an obsession with healthy heart, exercises like crazy and eats very little red meat, hence his peaked interest in me losing weight. He was worried that at some point in my life, I would start to massively suffer from hypertension, cholesterol and god forbid, a heart attack. My second uncle is an obstetric and gynecology doctor and has helped treat my PCOS over the years. In retrospect, I should have anticipated that I was going to be bombarded as soon as I arrived with health, diet and surgery advice. Now I was very open to everything they said despite the fact that I would get annoyed from time to time but at the end of the day, I know they all love me and wanted the best for me. So I was in Jordan for my cousin's wedding. My grandma would always harass me about my weight which was NOT fun but she is old so I didn't want to offend her. In the time that I was in Jordan I ate so much food by nature of a wedding coming up and because Jordan has a lot of good food. In the mean time, my uncle the gynecologist would keep suggesting the sleeve. Now I was at first apprehensive because I was worried about long term prognosis, risks and how much it would change my life. He managed to clarify all the information for me and I was starting to think about the surgery. While still being apprehensive, he asked me to just go in for a consultation with a bariatric surgeon that he was friends with. I went to the meeting and came out feeling confused about my feelings but a little more clear about the gastric sleeve. The next thing I knew, I was going down to the hospital lab getting pre-op blood work done but I still had not made my decision. EVERYONE and I literally mean EVERYONE advised me to do it and I knew in the back of my mind I really wanted to do it. The only thing holding me back at that point was how much of a scaredy cat I was being. So finally, my uncle told me that he would watch my surgery if I wanted to. I started asking around about the surgeon and found out that he is the most famous bariatric surgeon in Jordan, if not the whole Middle East. It was common knowledge that he had performed the most procedures in the Middle East and had a stellar record. This guy was a bariatric surgery beast and would perform up to 30 procedures a day. With that knowledge in mind, I booked my surgery immediately. A week later, I was laying down in a hospital bed, sleeved and my whole family (around 15-20) of them were around me. It was like they were throwing me a party for finally taking the decision. They were cheering and singing and literally everyone was ecstatic and this made me feel even more excited and comforted by my decision. I came to Jordan to basically attend a wedding and gorge on food and ended up leaving with a life changing decision. Now a lot of are you are wondering, what about the pre op diet?!!!? Well, my pre-op blood work came back with unbelievably good results and despite my weight, I was still relatively healthy because I had been trying to control my eating habits for the past year. As such, the surgeon felt more than comfortable performing the surgery knowing I didn't have any health risks. So I just wanted to write this post and share my story as well as say Thank you. Thank you to my very large, loud family who in a way cared more about my health than I did. And also thank you to the amazing surgeon who did my surgery. He is a very kind, helpful doctor who answered all my questions and gave me all his contact info so I can ask him ANYTHING once I left Jordan.

11 days post op, had my surgery in the middle east which is where the origin of this advice comes from. My surgeon recommended adding a drop or teaspoon (depending on how much I like the taste) of something called orange blossom water or orange flower water to my glass of water. It's a natural 0 cal water substance extracted from the orange blossom. If you have ever had middle eastern desserts and noted a flowery taste, its the orange blossom water. It is popularly used to soothe the stomach and gives the water a nice taste. A warning though, the flavour is pretty strong and I would advice trying a teeny tiny bit. It's not for everyone but it has helped me quite a bit.

Sleeved on the 19th. Going through mood swings here and there. TMI: I poop twice a day. Not sure why it happens so often but it does!

My surgeon told me no fizzy drinks for 6 months after the surgery. I am totally fine with not drinking sugary sodas at all but before the surgery I was a fiend for Perrier or S.Pellegrino which are both just carbonated water. I am going to wait out the 6 months and give the carbonated water a go but not if its going to stretch out my sleeve. I plan to ask my surgeon closer to that time.

Happy Birthday! Good job resisting the temptations.

My weight has been dropping like crazy because I have 0 interest in actually consuming any food. Everyday I have to force myself but I am starting to feel weak so I think I need to pay more attention to getting nutrients into my body.