heidikat72

Focus on the postive aspect of that NSV! and hey if the lady calls you back out for more work, you'll know she enjoyed the show!

Like you said - it's head hunger not actual hunger. Keep reminding yourself of that. You didn't go through major surgery just to continue to eat the same. When the head hunger hits - do something to take your mind off it - in the early weeks (and even now if a craving hits) I knitted, used adult coloring books or other crafts. If your hands are busy and your brain is focused on something else you won't be eating. Or even go for a walk - being physically active is important and does a great job of switching off the head hunger.

Some bariatric centers are ok with straws, others prefer you not use them at least initially because of the tendency to drink too much at once and too quickly. At this point, it is all about taking little sips. As for the milkshake - are milkshakes/ice cream on your plan from your surgical team? They weren't on mine due to the high sugar/carb/fat/calorie content. Your goal right now is Fluid and Protein - if you are on full liquids, now is when you should be Protein shakes to make sure you get the protein you need to heal.

Alanis Morrisette when I was 22

As the others have said, your labs will be the definitive answer of if the gummies are working for you. Since your bariatric team ok'ed them, I assume they have seen success with them. My team told us not to get gummies since many contain sugar and typically the gummy vitamins aren't considered a "complete" vitamin - meaning they may be missing some vitamins/minerals all together or not have a high enough dose of some.

I applaud you for doing some research and setting yourself up for success!

Check out the blog "the world according to eggface". SHe has a post devoted to the pureed phase. And when pureeing meat - you can add some low sodium stock to get it to puree. Although I mostly pureed either tuna or chicken with a little plain nonfat greek yogurt - think pureed tuna salad. Her ricotta bake recipe also makes for a nice warm savory change. During soft foods, I also did the tuna/chicken with greek yogurt - just not pureed. And baked tilapia - it's a fairly soft fish so as long as I chewed it well, it worked. When I baked it, I had it wrapped in parchment paper to keep it from drying out in the oven and just be careful not to overbake. Low sodium deli meat was also on my plan at this phase - again, chew very well.

as one of the veterans in my support group constantly reminds us "it's stomach surgery, not brain surgery. you have to do the brain work yourself"

Amen!

Apologies for hijacking a guy's room post, but as a single female I too can relate. I was worried about going home post op with no one there but at the same time, I hated the thought of asking someone to stay with me - so I didn't. I had one friend drop me off at the hospital friday morning, another friend pick me up and drive me home sunday. I was able to get my pain meds and other scripts filled there at the hospital pharmacy or you can even ask at your pre-admissions appointment if they can give you the scripts then so you can get them filled before surgery. I was absolutely fine being at home alone. I did have three friends calling/texting to check on me each day that first week. It just happened to work out that one would always do it in the morning, another midafternoon and one in the evening. And if I hadn't answered them right away I'm sure they would have been on their way over to check on me. But it worked out well, and bonus - I could stay in my pj's all day and didn't have to worry about anyone chomping away on junk food right in front of me! So bottom line, it is no problem to be at home alone after surgery. I would recommend having someone on standby checking in with a call once in a while.

Congrats! What an impressive accomplishment!

Even without a history of depression, it is completely normal to be an emotional wreck that first week or two after surgery. You just had major surgery and can't really do much except sit around and think...and think...and think. It does get better! When the negative/self-doubting thoughts come on, focus on why you got the surgery and all the things you want to do as you get healthier. For me, it definitely helped planning things to look forward to. If you have a counselor, see if they will do a session over the phone with you until you feel like venturing out. Although as long as you have someone to drive you if you are still on the pain meds, you might welcome a chance to get out of the house! I know as soon as I'd been off the pain meds 2 days, I was very excited to get out even for just a little bit. That also helped get past that early emotional funk. Take care and trust that it does indeed get better.

well, it used to be "Brick House" lol but these days, "Damn, it feels good to be me" - Uncle Kracker/Kid Rock

I take two Centrum adult complete chewable Multivitamins a day (one when i get up and one before i go to bed) - they are orange flavored ( kind of like the old chewable baby aspirin but much much bigger) I prefer the Bariatric Advantage Calcium chews over the Celebrate ones - the celebrate ones are ok but a little more gritty in texture than the BA ones. The BA strawberry is good and they have a coconut now, the chocolate ones taste a little like a tootsie roll. These also contain Vitamin D so you might not need an additional Vitamin D supplement. My plan recommends getting 1200-1500mg calcium per day. I was taking 3 chews a day but realized I was getting enough calcium from my food (yogurt, skim milk etc) that I could cut back to 2 chews a day. For B12, I take a sublingual 1000mcg every other day. I think the one I have is nature made found in pretty much any pharmacy. My 3 month labs looked great!

i'm going to say that's wrong. I looked in my fitness pal and they didn't have the muenster sticks but all the other Wisconsin Cheese Co. products were in the 80-110 calories per ounce range

are you sure? that seems crazy high. I have cheese for a snack often and typically 1oz is around 100 calories. Varies some depending on type of cheese but 400 calories for one ounce is very very high.

I'm three months out and have yet to eat a Protein bar or a "ready to drink" shake. For the first two weeks when I was on liquids only, I did use a whey isolate Protein powder added to either Water or skim milk. Once beyond two weeks, I was able to start pureeing real food to eat (still had to supplement with a shake a day for a while). All surgeons have different plans for the progression from liquids to food. The Vitamins and mineral supplements are needed because you can only consume very small amounts of food and there is no way you could ingest enough fruit and vegetables to get all the vitamins and enough meat/dairy/vegetables to get your protein amounts as well. At least initially. I do know some sleeved patients who are down to taking only one Multivitamin a day and no other supplements once they are a year out and their labs come back fine. I would suggest you meet with several bariatric centers in your area and discuss your wants and see whose plan best matches what you want.

As for the medication absorption question, that is one of the first questions I asked my surgeon when I was trying to decide between bypass and sleeve. His response was that that is one of the benefits of the sleeve - there should be no absorption issues when it comes to meds. If your tablet is small, you shouldn't have any problems taking it whole immediately after surgery. Only large tablets need to be cut or crushed. However, if you are taking an extended release drug, DO NOT CUT OR CRUSH IT! Instead of getting a slow release of the drug into your system throughout the day you would have immediate dumping of the entire dose into your system at once. If you aren't sure if your meds are extended release or not please check with your doctor. Many people (especially women) go through a hormone dumping phase with rapid weight loss (estrogen is stored in fat cells, when you break down the fat cells the estrogen is released). Not sure if this would affect the effectiveness of any of your meds but it might be worth asking your doctor about.

Yeah! I recently started doing yoga and i love it

While I do attend the one of the ones for the bariatric practice I used, there are several people in mine who had their surgery performed outside the practice. No issues at all with having them there - the coordinators welcome everyone.

check the sugar substitute in it. there are some that give me a fluttery feeling.

I used the dietician at my surgeon's office - i also met with the surgeon each visit. I could have used my PCP but the surgeon's office warned us that often a PCP will end up just writing one report at the end rather than an individual report for each month and then insurance won't accept it. When the surgeon's office billed my insurance for the 6 monthly visits with the dietician they did bill it as appointments with the surgeon (who I also met with each time) because typically insurance policies won't pay for dieticians.

If mobility is an issue, there are chair exercises you could try that wouldn't have you putting your weight on your knees. Go to youtube and search for chair exercise videos and chair dancing.