ShrinkyDink

weight: 251, down 3 pounds from last week! exercise: 20-30 minutes in the pool 6 times, had a cool front and the water is now 76 degrees, brrrrr can't get in anymore! eating: controlled portions of regular food

You might want to ask the surgery center, they told me if I had acrylic nails that I only had to remove one index finger nail. All jewelry for sure will have to be off for reasons others already said.

Day 6 was when I crashed also, I started to feel weak and shaky and grumpy beyond belief. Once I moved on to full liquids the addition of a little substance to my diet made all the difference in the world. You say you move to mushies thursday, can you not have full liquids before that? I'd recommend calling your doctor and telling him how you feel. Such low intake for a full week is hard on the body, some can take it better than others, he needs to know so he can possibly allow you a little more substance so you will feel better.

I wouldn't try to get on the mattress on the floor, getting up would be really hard, your tummy muscles are going to be sore.

My doc said a CD size portion, and that fills me up nicely, it's 3 hours later when I'm hungry again that the problem comes in. I'm trying to eat every 4 hours, but I start getting brownies in my eyes at about 3 hours.

It's hard but you can do it! If I were you I'd reward myself by putting aside that $5 I was spending on lattes every day and buying myself something awesome once I succeeded in giving up the caffeine!

I felt the exact same way, once I decided to do it, it was all I could think about. Planning and researching are good, you will be prepared for it. The one thing I didn't plan down to the second is the stairs in my house, I planned to come home and go right to my bed but I was feeling dizzy and weak and wasn't up to the stairs. Thankfully my mother lives nearby in a one story house so I went there for the afternoon instead. After I slept off the anesthesia a a little more I went home and climbed the 564 stairs to my room (well it seemed like that many).

Caffeine is one of the hardest things to give up, and I wouldn't do it cold turkey. Your body has gotten used to having it and the crash you are describing is normal when it's suddenly gone. Write out a schedule of declining amounts over about a week, allow yourself maybe 75% of your previous intake the first day, and lower it a bit every day until you are down to none. You will adjust to it being gone much easier this way.

After surgery I had a hard time swallowing cold liquids, warm was much much easier to get down. I also became best friends with my heating pad in those first few days, it helps with the shoulder pain, the incisional pain, the gassy tummy pain, everything really. Buy some South Beach Living Tide Me Over or K2O Protein Water drink mixes. They are allowed on your clear liquid stage and they give you a little bit of protein and fiber along with your water.

Sometimes the body makes decisions without involving the brain. After several days of taking in almost nothing your body was in a panic and when you were able to eat again, something in you said "better eat all we can cause it might go away again". Don't beat yourself up about it, you have done so well and you will continue to do well.

Something you should think about is your recovery level at 3 weeks out. I'm 4 1/2 weeks out and I still get tired VERY easily and still have some soreness. I host Thanksgiving every year and have it down to a science, but there's no way on earth I could do it right now. Perhaps you could hire somebody to clean the house and cater the most labor intensive parts of the meal. Make it as easy on yourself as you can so you can enjoy the company even if you can't really enjoy the food. As far as eating goes, I second the suggestion of putting a bit of everything on your plate, eating what you are allowed, and pushing the other things around so they look like you ate them and just didn't finish.

My doctor says 40 but that seems low to me, I aim for 50-60.

I haven't given up anything entirely, for instance at McDonald's I order a cheeseburger kids meal instead of a quarter pounder meal. I can't finish it and it still is as satisfying to me as the big meal was before. I think you will find that with the forced portion control that the band will give you, you can have your favorite things, just less often and in smaller quantities. I was the biggest diet coke addict in the world, thought I'd never ever be able to give it up, but I did for those first few healing weeks and I didn't even crave it. I can now sip on a small one from time to time and enjoy it without going back to that have to have it feeling that made me drink so many every day before.

Count me into the hungry bunch, and my first fill hasn't made any difference yet. I'm staying within my calorie limit but it's taking a lot more will power than I can sustain. Going for my second fill a week from thursday, fingers crossed!

I don't want to scare you, but I had a hiatal hernia repair with my lap band and I had a lot of pain afterwards. The first day was awful and I had several days of being very uncomfortable before I started to feel I had it under control. I don't know if they pain was from the hernia or from the band surgery, but it was much more than I expected to have. Still well worth it, but it was a surprise to me.

Howdy, I see a lot of people here talking about using Crystal Light and wanted to see if you all had found the South Beach Living Tide Me Over or the K2O Protein Water drink mixes. I prefer the taste of the Tide Me Over over the K2O but they both give your water more than just flavor, they have a little bit of protein and a good bit of fiber in them They cost more than Crystal Light, and they add 30 calories instead of 10, but I find I have a hard time getting in enough protein and fiber with my smaller portions, having this added to my water bottles a couple times a day really helps.

The Tide Me Over is with the Crystal Light and similar drink mixes, there are only 2 flavors so they don't take up much shelf space. I also prefer to use the mix cause to me they are too strong in 16 ounces so I use the 20 ounce water bottles.

I was pretty swollen for about 2 weeks and a month later I still have some swelling but not enough to cause any problem. I can still see that the left side of my abdomen over my port is bigger than the right side.

I had a lot of trouble when I first started eating too, I still had some swelling even that long after surgery that restricted me a lot, but after a few days it was much better and I was able to eat more. It will get better with time, maybe add a protein drink or two during the day until you feel like you can eat more, they go down easily if you are still swollen or irritated and will add some nutrition to your diet.

My full liquid stage included pureed anything as long as it was mixed a little thinner than usual, 1 week of clear liquids - 1 week of full liquids/purees - 1 week of soft food - regular food. I think mushies are put in different categories by different doctors, some consider them with the full liquids, some with the soft foods.

I always look at the kids menu and if it has something on it that looks good to me I ask if I can order it and I've not been turned down yet. I don't say why, I simply ask (except at a buffet of course where a reason would be called for). If it doesn't have anything I like on it, I order from the regular menu but I'd rather order the smaller portion for the smaller price than deal with leftovers. That being said, if it's the restaurant's policy to not allow that and they POLITELY turn me down I can handle it. Golden Corral told me they had changed their policy and I wasn't allowed to pay the child price but they were very rude and mocking about it, that made me mad. If they had kindly and discreetly explained to me that it was against policy I would have been fine. At least for me it all lies in how it's communicated.

I didn't know it, but I had 4.5cc put in the APS band at surgery. I've been feeling full on smaller amounts but getting hungry after 2.5-3 hours and have had no problems with anything getting stuck except for one bite of chicken that was stuck for about 5 minutes and I've eaten all kinds of things that people have said they have trouble with. I just got a fill of another 1cc on thursday and just ate my first soft food this morning and so far so good, a kids meal from IHOP (one egg, one strip of bacon, 3 mini pancakes with a touch of syrup) filled me up and it's now 3 hours later and I'm still not hungry.

4 weeks :wink_smile:

1. I didn't measure my water, I just kept a bottle by me all the time and sipped on it constantly. It was hard to get much in during the first few days but it got easier with time. I did find that room temperature or warm liquids were easier to get down than cold in those first few days. 2. I did feel heaviness/tightness in my chest, but water didn't seem to affect it. I think it was just from the swelling and trauma in there. 3. I didn't have any rumbling for about 4 days, didn't feel hungry at all. 4. I was fine lying down but going from up to down or vice versa or turning over while lying down was very painful for a few days. I couldn't sleep sitting up so I did it anyway, but it hurt. 5. I take the Centrum chewable vitamins and Caltrate with D calcium supplement, one with breakfast and one with lunch since taking them together can cause you to not absorb all the calcium. I didn't take them the first few days after surgery.

You could put a little peanut butter on your toast for protein, or scramble an egg, or have a piece of string cheese