izzy13

They make light or sugar free varieties, I don't like artificial sweeteners so I buy the regular kind. I still use it in moderation (1 packet a day limit, and I don't have it every day just days where I'm super craving chocolate or junk food) and I figure 90 calories plus 10 oz of Water toward my daily intake is better than a 200 cal cookie with no nutritional benefits. I am still losing, I'm participating in the New Years weight loss challenge and lost 3 lbs last week so I don't think it's hurting me too much. I'm a public policy person, we do lots of cost/benefit analysis in the day to day lol, the benefit of hot cocoa far outweighs the cost for me

Since surgery (2 months ago) I live on hot cocoa, it curbs my intense chocolate craving, I have a bit of a Sweet tooth. I keep packets in my desk at work, when the Christmas cookies come out I have hot cocoa instead!

Did you have to do a Barium swallow test after surgery? (That's where you drink this god awful stuff and X-ray your new stomach to check for leaks.) I had diarrhea for a good week post op, I talked to the PA and he said the barium is a laxative [emoji15]

Current weight 174.4 [emoji4]

The gas used is surgery is CO2 (aka carbon dioxide), we exhale CO2 that's why they use it. The gas exchange happens at the cellular level and we exhale the excess gas out after surgery. Gas in your digestive tract is much different and that's the type of gas gasx will help. It doesn't hurt to take them, however if you do have gas pain in your shoulders from the CO2 gas x won't help, walking and moving around will oh and of course exhaling (which I certainly hope you'll be doing [emoji6])

177.0

I had a drain after surgery for a week, it sucked and the day I got it out was the best day of my life You can shower with it, I suggest getting a really long shoelace or something you can put around your neck like a necklace to hang it from when in the shower. Also, pin it with a safety way up or attach it to your bra, don't pin it to your pants! One trip to the bathroom and you'll tank that baby and it's gross enough - when it gets tugged it's not pleasant!! Hope that helps with the drain, in the end it's all worth it!!!! Just keep saying that in your head

Sounds like you may be getting too many calories, I aim for less than 1000 and I'm 5'6 at 177 right now. If you aren't working out as much you may be taking in more calories then you are burning which will cause weight gain. Hope that helps- good luck!!

1. My sister is an RN and had sleeve surgery while working in a busy ER, if I remember correctly she took a month off bc of the lifting pushing and pulling she needed to be able to do. I was cleared for all that at my 1 mo po (I have a desk job but freelance as an EMT). My sister sometimes forgot to eat when she was working a busy shift, she had to start setting reminders to stop and eat during her 12 hr shifts. 3. In my packet it indicated that sleeve patients should never allow blind NG tubes be inserted, they need to be X-ray guided. Not sure if that's a thing from my surgeon but I wouldn't want them to punch a hole through my new stomach on accident. 4. I asked my surgeon what his rate of complications was and he indicated that they do happen rarely, mostly from pts not doing what they are supposed to but he said I had to keep an open mind that occasionally a revision to bypass is needed if there are complications with the sleeve. That's always in the back of my mind but so far, knock on wood, no issues for me my surgeon and his team have been excellent (I'm in upstate NY). In a month and a half I've lost 32 pounds and I started with a low BMI of 35, I'm off my HTN meds and feeling great. Good luck, it's a lot to take in but do your research and you should be ok with what ever you decide!

I started doing my own shakes a few days out from surgery, I had a hard time getting the Premier Protein down after drinking them for a few days. I have found that when I blend the chocolate premier with ice it's like a chocolate shake and I have no problems. The Protein Shakes I made right after surgery just had Greek yogurt (I used the oikos triple zero) and plain or vanilla protein powder, if I didn't want fruit flavor from the yogurt I'd throw in some Peanut Butter and half a banana (both were allowed on my stage 2 plan). I used almond milk in these but if I had found fairlife skim milk sooner I probably would have used that instead! Now almost 2 months out I do frozen fruit with Water, stevia and a tbsp of GENEPRO. Makes about a cup and a half -but I only use 3/4 cup frozen fruit- on my way into work. According to my fitness pal it has about 130 cals and it fills me up for a couple of hours. The genepro protein is a god send I wish I had ordered it sooner. It was expensive but I was having a really hard time choking down the other protein powders I got from GNC, I have a protein powder graveyard in my cupboard lol!!!

Weight this morning 179.0 [emoji4]

I live in NY but I have a short term disability policy (I work for the state but we have policies we have to pay for to have that benefit). I'm not sure what benefits are provided if you don't carry a policy but you should check out the NYS Insurance Fund's website. Looks like there is where you would start. Good luck!!

181.4 this morning [emoji4]

I had the same experience, my bmi was on the low end (36) but I had 2 comorbitities. Every appointment I went to, I had to explain to the nursing staff (including the morning of surgery!!) why I was "indeed fat enough" for surgery and "no I won't regret it". I'm 6 weeks po today and I'm down 41 pounds and no longer take bp meds and finally wearing clothes that make me feel good and not self conscious, that's what they don't see when you just hide your fat well!!

185.8 Thanks

Goal weight: 173 Current Weight: 188 on 11/14 (had my 1 month follow up today at dr's office )

Gas pains from surgery are from the CO2 they blow your abdomen up with, we exhale CO2 so to get rid of the surgery gas you need to exhale it. Gas x strips will get rid of gas that's closed in your digestive system they will not help with the CO2 from surgery. Best bet after surgery is to walk and move around when resting as much as you can to get it to the cells that will carry it out of your body through breathing. Good luck!! It sounds bad but everyone is different and everyone here has lived to talk about it

Oh yeah just say no to Lupron!!! (Lol) Doctors L-O-V-E it but it will cause so many awful side effects, I haven't heard from anyone that actually had benefits from it. It originally was developed to treat prostate cancer and for some reason they thought it would be good for endo...it's not, the dr says it will put you into temporary menopause but it really does nothing to help endo just has terrible side effects.

I have severe endometriosis, diagnosed in my mid twenties and have had 6 surgeries since. I have done soooo much research, I found that dr's shrug off the diagnosis bc they just don't understand it. I figured out that endo is believed to be caused by too much estrogen and not enough progesterone so I started take prometrium (straight up progesterone) 100 mg every day a year ago. They usually only use it to help keep a pregnancy so not being prego my dr questioned me a little bit. But it's been over a year since my last surgery, where the dr said he might have to remove an extremely diseased ovary but left it bc I begged him, I am almost symptom free (knock on wood!!!) I don't know of I can get pregnant I'm 35 and never really thought about it but I'm hopeful it could happen. But for now I'm just trying to be healthy, was sleeved 10/12 and I'm really hoping the weight loss will help my endo stay at bay. Research also points to endo being an inflammatory disease and eating crap food can tend to exacerbate the symptoms so I'm hoping my new diet of mostly Protein will also help. I'm sorry you're struggling, and I hope things will be looking up for you in the near future!

At the beginning of October I ended up having my gallbladder removed a week before my sleeve. Similar situation, I had the worst pain on the right side of my chest and felt like someone was stabbing me in the back between my shoulder blades. I had been ignoring it all week bc I knew I had wls coming up and thought it was just gas. I ended up waking my boyfriend up in the middle of the night to drive me to urgent care. I was jaundiced and ended up in the hospital for 5 days and 2 procedures later, (ERCP to clean a duct into my stomach first) I had my gallbladder out then my sleeve one week later to the day on October 12th. I'm feeling so much better though, I kinda wish my gallbladder would have cooperated so I didn't have to have 2 surgeries.

I tried ice cream about a week and a half out, just a spoonful (I'm of the belief that I still need to live my life- but as a skinny eater and skinny people have a spoonful of ice cream every once in a while ) After the spoonful I felt a little bubbly in my belly and then I got super tired I'm not sure if it was my stomach or lack of gallbladder that didn't like it so much. I say give it a try but don't spend tons of money on a big carton lol most of the things I'm gung ho for end up getting tossed. I did enjoy Italian ices when I was just home from the hospital gave me the feel of eating ice cream but was more like a Popsicle in the liquid department. Also, my post op diet plan was more lenient I was on full liquids 2nd day post op and pureed a week out almost a month post op now and on the healthy diet for life plan. Everyone is different but my surgeon wasn't too hard on me.

I will be 3 wks on Wednesday! HW 225 SW 216 CW 191 34 lbs total, and I never thought I'd see below 200 in my adult life time!!! I'm in a bit of a stall, was 192 all last week now 191 but I'm not freaking out bc my pants are too big lol. My boyfriend says last night, "babe you look great, but your butt in those jeans looks a little droopy" I was so happy with that compliment

I had some pretty bad gas pains, laying down was the worst bc it felt like all the air sat right in my shoulders and I couldn't take a deep breath. I think the only thing that helps is moving around (like walking or just changing positions frequently when resting) and time. Took a while, like 5 days to totally get rid of that feeling. I had surgery the 12th and the pounds are just falling off, I'm down almost 15 pounds since surgery day, I follow the recommended diet very closely.

@@paramedic thanks for the tip! Do you put the protein powder in before or after microwaving? I haven't put protein in it bc I heard it gets weird when it's heated up. I did get some plain kefir and put some of that in instead of milk with a touch of cinnamon and honey and it was slamming (lol never thought I would put cream of wheat and slamming in the same sentence [emoji16]) I figured the kefir would bump up the protein a little more.

I had the lovenox every 12 hours after surgery for 3 doses didn't hurt when then inject it low on your belly, one nurse shot me right below my drain which is up higher and I was not happy with it so make sure they go low!!!! It's a blood thinner so you don't get a clot, I don't have a blood disorder and have never had a blood clot so I'm guessing it was preventative.