Wheetsin

Yes, your feet get smaller. With my band I lost 1 - 1.5 shoe sizes, and went from wides to regulars.

Here's how I think of it. The weight you've lost so far is going to be fluids - the vast majority of it anyway. Once those initial Fluid losses are gone, you can actually start seeing numbers that reflect fat loss (well, kind of, but that's another post). So which would you enjoy more: knowing post-op that the dropping numbers are increasingly reflecting fat loss, or knowing that post-op, the dropping numbers are losing the same fluids for the 2nd time? Whatever fast food it is you're wanting, you can have it as soon as you're at a "as tolerated" state. Nothing is a never again.

You can definitely lose weight on fewer than 40 or 50 gm Protein a day, or else no one would ever starve to death. It's about the weight you're losing. The protein intake goals are about supporting healthy fat loss, not just weight loss, which would otherwise include loss of lean muscle mass. The guidelines per my nurtitionist are 60gm - 70gm. Call yours & see what their requirements are, they vary. The most I've been able to do is 60s, and just a few times. It's much easier for me to actually eat the protein than drink eat - Protein drinks sit very heavy for me, but I try. I'm only 7 weeks out & still trying to dance around capacity issues. If you do things that require more protein, you will need to increase. And yes, the 50s, 60s, 70s you're hearing are lifelong daily minimums. Type of protein matters too. They are not created equal. whey isolate is one of the better ones, plan whey works. Bunches & bunches of types out there. I just typed this earlier: generally if protein comes in packaging that looks like a test tube or a vibrator, you don't want it.

Protein shots usually are not made with "good" Proteins. General rule of mine: if it looks like a test tube or a vibrator, it's probably not good protein. "Shots" tend to be based on collagen, which is not a protein we want to take. Search for "incomplete protein" or "collagen protein" and you should be able to find quite a bit of information. Even the ones labeled "Whey" or "Pure Whey" are not. Here's a snippet from the "Pure Whey" shots, for example. My additions in blue: Collagen has it's place, but it is not a good replacement for the type of proteins we need to replace (the ones we aren't getting through foods like meats and whey proteins). It does not have adequate amino acids to really even be a healthy replacement (and let's face it, we really are replacing more than supplementing for the first long time after surgery). The Isopure drinks - I've not tried them myself, but as soon as I can find time to get to a GNC I plan to pick one up. I would get 1 bottle of the 2 or 3 flavors that sounded the best. Even if you like it now, you may not like it post-op. Something about these bariatric procedures tends to scramble our tastebuds a bit. Lots & lots of people find their tastes are completely different. GNC should sample things for you, the one by us does anyway. Have them make up some samples and see what you like. I don' think GNC sells unjury, but I really don't know. Let me know if they do. The Isopure powder tastes like infected ass. Don't waste your money. I haven't met anyone who likes it, ever, in like 7 years. HTH

I'm really bad at translating heights & weights into a visual of what you look like, so there may be some exception to what I say. But at 30, and guessing you're more than 100 lbs overweight (?), you will probably have saggy skin. I know this isn't what you're wanting to hear, but it's the most probable reality. Really young, and by that I mean - 15 - maybe early 20s - may get off with less saggy skin but if significantly overweight for any significant period of time, there's more than likely some saggy skin that's going to happen. Lots of things can play a role. Genetics, mainly. Also lifestyle (fitness, health, and everything that could play into those such as smoker vs non-smoker, generally hydrated or generally dehydrated, etc.), ethnicity, sun exposure... etc. I don't think 30 is going to help you much. Maybe if you were 12. I had my lapband at 30 and my saggy skin - well let's just say I referred to it as my deformity. Yes, our skin is different, but for age to play a factor it has to be significant. Here's how my surgeon puts it (I love this quote): “It is a matter fact. If you lose 150 pounds from an elastic organ such as skin, you’re going to have saggy skin.” But here's the bright side. Saggy skin is much healthier than fat, and can be covered up much more convincingly.

Here you go. If you have a few mins, read this. It will help you understand what complication rates really mean, and how they really do look worse than they are. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/20758-anyone-wish-they-had-not-done-their-gastric-sleeve-surgery/page__st__80__p__176256#entry176256

I like perspective. The complication rates for this surgery are lower than the risks of driving a car. Do you question your potential for a fatal car crash every time you get into a car? Likely not, because it's routine. The difference is that surgery isn't routine for most people, it's a fairly rare event. Like when planes crash. It's traumatic because it's unusual, and concentrated. Far more people day in many other, obscure ways each day. But it's the plane that people tend to be afraid of. Surgical rates are also overblown, because the way they're actually reported is not the way that the everyday interpreter assumes they are. I have a fairly long post explaining this somewhere, let me see if I can find it. I've had a lot of people tell me it has made them feel a lot better.

I had to go to my doctor yesterday for some antibiotics, so I was weighed. The exact same weight that I was about 4 weeks ago when I went in for my last post-op. Stalls suck. Stalling for more than half the time you've been sleeved suck even more!

There's a thread where we've consolidated quite a few myfitnesspal.com usernames from members here. I'd suggest joining, then adding some of the people from here - perhaps at various post-op stages. Assuming they're sharing the info, that will allow you to see what people are eating on a daily basis. I like to browse and look for higher protein sources than what I've found so far.

I don't know if this applies to you, but it got SOO much easier for me when I went back to work. When I was off, I didn't have much routine. Well I did, but it wasn't a good one. I'd get up at my normal time, help DH get kiddo ready and while he was managing clothes & teeth brushings I'd pack lunches, get chis coffee ready, etc. But then I'd go back to bed for 2 hrs or so. Sometimes it would be 9:30 before I'd even really get out of bed for the day, and maybe as late as noon before I was ready to do much of anything. Now by noon, I normally have at least half my protein in.

At only 6 days out you're probably not going to be able to comply completely with your post-op diet. It takes a while. I'm in my 7th week out and have only met all the guidelines in my schedule once or twice. Capacity-wise I just still can't do it yet. WHen you say you're eating until 6pm, do you mean that you're eating ALL DAY (grazing?), or that you're not eating UNTIL 6, or that you're supposed to stop eating sooner, or what? Irritable is normal. Lots of wacky hormonal things going in with your body right now, and for a few more weeks at least - but they should start tapering off in the next week or two.

On the go and you've packed your own food: Pouch tuna. You can add travel/condiment packs of mayo, relish, etc., or eat plain. My favorite is pepperoni chips (from my band days, it will be another week before I can eat them with the sleeve). I buy Hormel turkey pepperoni. Line a paper plate with paper towels, then the pepperonis. Microwave until the fat renders out (they will get really crunchy like a chip). Blot any surface grease and let cool. They are excellent with cottage cheese, or garden vegetable cream cheese. Or plain - but they have a very concentrated flavor that is nice to cut a bit. Again, can't do it quite yet with the sleeve, but in my band days I used to buy sweet & hot turkey Jerky (I don't eat red meat) from a local store that makes their own jerky. Sooo good. I see it in the stores now, but only beef. If nothing else, as others have mentioned, there are always Protein bars. On the go at restaurants: Chili's fajita quesadilla minus the tortilla (since OP mentioned Chili's). Chipotle bol, no rice is one of my favorites. Subway will put sandwich contents on a plate, and since Ii'm not getting the bread they often give me double meat (without me asking for it). I like their tuna and the fake seafood one. Any burger place will lettuce wrap a burger instead of putting it on a bun (every place I can think of, anyway). Fish is always a good choice, though not always great for on the go. Non-fried meat dishes at places like Panda Express (e.g. the pepper chicken) - I also like their hot & sour soup which is fairly heavy on egg & tofu. HTH

I can't do veggies or ground meats yet, but with my band (similar restrictions) my go to was soup or lettuce wraps.

Gah you snuck in while I was typing so now I look just brilliant enough to type virtually the same answer.

This has come up a few times. There are a few reasons, and reasons often vary - and not everyone has a straw restriction. Generally it's one of two things. 1) people tend to drink more/larger mouthfulls with straws. 2) straws are full of air until you suck the air up, followed by the beverage. That air is feasibly swallowed, and excess gas in the stomach can be uncomfortable or (hey claim) stretch the sleeve out. I'm sure there are more reasons out there. My documentation says no straws, but immediately under it says that if they don't cause problems for you, you can use them. Well you're already using them if you know whether or not they cause a problem, so -- that's just silly. I always use straws. I've always preferred drinking wth one vs. an open cup. I've had no problems from them. I was a chugger so they actually help me drink less at a time. And if you're worried about swallowing the straw's air volume, just open your mouth first. It's not like our mouths are empty, any more than the straw is, before we swallow. So why the straw air is any different than mouth air... my nutritionist can't answer, and I don't get it.

Yes, I think I truly went into shock when I first started losing my hair with my band. I just washed my hair one morning, and happened to see my hands as I went to rinse them off under the showerhead, and froze. One of those moments where the hair on the back of my neck stood up and everything else just went a little dark. It is so alarming. And at the time my hair was really, really long (about to my waist) so it really looked like a lot of hair. I can clearly remember my first thought being, "So this is what people who have chemotherapy see..." it was that startling. And I too knew to expect it. I just thought I'd see a little more hair caught in the drain, or more strands in my comb or something. I didn't think I'd see furry hands!

There's no research that I know of that indicates Biotin makes any difference. It's not even one of the major nurtients associated with hair growth/loss. IIRC Iron is actually the nutrient most strongly connected to hairloss/growth. It doesn't hurt to supplement though, as long as you're low on what you're supplementing. A girl I know who took biotin trying to ward off hairloss ended up with really, really hairy arms - no joke.

For some people, it can be a reaction to the surgery: the anesthesia, or the trauma to the body. For most people, it's the dietary change, primarily, and probably the fact that it's coupled with the physical trauma. The delay (why it seems to fall into a 3 month pattern, but not always) has a few contributors. For one, the hairloss is a systemic symptom. Nothing happened to the hair itself, so when it falls out it is a symptom of a larger problem. Systemic problems take a while to establish. For our post-op bodies, hair is just not a priority. I'm on my 7th week out and of the 500ish calories I might be able to manage in a day, I can pretty much guarantee that my body isn't prioritizing supporting my hair's lifecycle. (Actually each follicle has its own, independent lifecycle. Your body doesn't care about the hair so it triggers it to go into the telogen/dormant stage. It'll switch back on eventually). Just surgery/body trauma is not often enough. Example: My lapband put in - hairloss around 2 - 3 months (I'd also lost about 70 lbs by then) My GB taken out - no hairloss My lapband taken out - no hairloss My sleeve done - we'll see when the hairloss begins. This is just me as an example, but the only surgery(ies) after which I had hairloss was the one where I also had a severe nutritional deficiency, significant weightloss, etc.

That's fairly common. I don't want to downplay your frustration, but 3 days is not a long time. There are a LOT of luids introduced into your body during surgery, a lot of swelling, etc. There are a lot of physiological reactions to bod trauma, and to organ trauma, and you've had quite a bit of both. Unfortunately most of our body reactions involve Fluid (actually I think it's safe to say that they ALL do) - and a lot of it. Bear with it, and keep in try to focus on "it has ONLY been 3 days" instead of "it's been 3 days already!" A lot of people weigh more when they get home from surgery. A lot of people actually gain weight shortly after, as they're able to drink & their bodies begin to hoard fluids. It's like your investment portfolio. You really can't look at it on a day-to-day basis and expect it to make any sense at all. You just have to trust that it's right, and see where you are after some time has elapsed.

Ok so I typed up a big long response, then hit some keyboard combo and there it all went bye-bye. I'll try again, a little shorter. To answer your question re: removal, it was a piece of cake. The worst part of it for me was the sore throat from the tubation & such... easily a few times worse than strep. And it lasted like 4 days. But that's not the surgery, that's ancillary. As for the surgery itself, a little sore where the port had been put in (they really want to make sure those things don't move around), but I expected that. I also ended up with an infected incision - but again, that's ancillary. Overall I would rate it just slightly more painful than having the band put in, which was EASY. There were no specific dietary requirements after that. My restriction stuck around for about 2 weeks, but only in terms of not feeling hungry & getting full quickly. Starting the day of, I could eat what I wanted when I wanted. And after a few years of living with a slipped band, I can't begin to describe how awesome it was to be able to drink in the morning if I was thirsty. As for 1 vs. 2 surgeries, my thoughts/experiences below. I'm not factoring in $ since I was covered under insurance, and the $ is all you. Just my thoughts... The risk of complication for a well-healed stomach going into a sleeve is just slightly higher than a "virgin" stomach. The risk of complication for a back-to-back procedure sky rockets to about 30%. I have the exact stats at home, but it's right around there. My surgeon requires 2 months between procedures. That's the timeframe at which he thinks there's the best blanace between risk mitigation and more negative things like weight gain. By "well healed" above, I mean 2 months between. Most leaks that aren't detected at the time of surgery are "hidden" by swelling. The swelling can artificially close gaps that wouldn't otherwise be closed. So as the swelling goes down, a leak can occur. The less swollen you are, the better. You're going to be swollen either way, but you're going to be more swolen if you've just had your band removed a few minutes ago. So it is directly tied to risks. Scar tissue cen truly be a factor. In back-to-back procedures, I'd think there always has to be give & take between scar tissue/adhesions, and sleeve. My sleeve was my 4th abdominal lap and I knew I had pretty major scar tissue. For one, I could see/feel it from the outside. For two, it actally caused be discomfort if I put pressure on my abdomen in the wrong way (like when I would read a book in bed and try to rest it on my stomach). My surgeon removed a _lot_ of tissue, and spent a little more than double his average surgery time doing it. All in all, I'm now glad I had to wait. My 2 months turned into more like 7 because of insurance. But although I initially wanted a back to back procedure, after reading up on the risk rates, seeing what I was like with scar tissue, etc. I'm truly very glad I had some down time in between. I had my band for about 6 years. The length of time you and I have had our bands (yours way longer than mine, but we're both well above the average band lifespan) plays a roll too. The longer it's in, the more adhesions, etc. can form. It makes sense that your surgeon is now indicating a 2nd procedure might be a good idea. All that said, there are lots of people here who had back to back procedures, and are doing just fine.

I think you're fine to skip your vitamins for a day. I'm still bad about remembering to take mine, and have gone a handful of days without any. Not that I'm saying "They're optional" -- just that it's not going to kill you to not take them. Pre-op, if you were sick you'd probably have kept an emoty stomach if sick, and it's OK to now as well. We're supposed to get 640z+ of water every day, but we didn't always do it pre-op, and I don't drink until I'm in pain to get it done. We do what we can, as we can.

Def. sounds like refux, except "bitter saliva" is probably your stomach acid. That's why there's burning, irritation, etc. You can also aspirate the acid (I did several times when I had really bad reflux from a slipped lapband). Usually it's very painful - exactly what you'd think acid in your lungs would feel like, and it always left me congested and wheezy. I even ended up with aspiration pneumonia twice. With our PPIs, reduced content of acid, etc. I'm guessing that's what made it not immediately recognizable as acid, made the irritation not as severe, etc. When you reflux, it's not uncommon to cough stuff up for a while. When I had it really bad, it would sometimes be hard not to puke just because of the taste - and when you're coughing up popcorn husks that you ate 6 hours ago, and have to dig them out of your mouth, that's no fun.

That was a quote from a post I made to someone else last (also from MO) last week, so it was to them, actually. I didn't even know you were another KC area person until I was trying to figure out what you were referring to.

One of these days there's going to be a class action suit filed against Allergan & Inamed, I can just feel it.

I get mine from Netrition.com. SOOO many flavors. Their cost per bottle is a bit higher than other places, but their shipping more than makes up for it.