theantichick

I was 2.5 months out when I tried to drink a hard cider for my birthday. I had maybe 1/4 C. before I passed out on the couch. Tried again this last weekend, got maybe 1/2 C. down and got super sleepy again. I'm wary of trying hard alcohol, I think it may be a little hard on my sleeve.

I had almost zero issues with recovery as well. I had the same thoughts at times... waiting for the other shoe to drop. My pain wasn't bad (which was fortunate since we discovered Dilaudid has almost zero effect on me), I was tolerating liquids just fine, diet progression to solid foods went without any major hitches. I had 2 episodes of violent hiccuping early on from drinking too fast, and have had a few bouts of nausea when I ate too much or too fast. I've also had several "mini dumping" episodes when I tried to eat something my sleeve doesn't like. But I haven't thrown up yet (knock on wood) or had any of the "don't trust a fart" situations, and I'm coming up on 3 months out. Count yourself lucky, and don't borrow trouble.

My hubby makes all of his underoos decisions, so I don't have anything to add to the discussion, but wanted to thank you for a huge laugh this morning.

I would definitely talk to your doctor about it. Diatomaceous earth has a lot of tiny particles with very sharp edges. I have never heard of anyone eating it, we use it for pest control in our garden and home. During the healing phase after the surgery, I would think it could be very dangerous. As far out as you are, it probably isn't as much of an issue. But food goes through the sleeve faster than it would with a whole stomach, and potentially has less exposure to digestive juices. So I wouldn't take a chance on it without discussing it with my surgeon.

I personally think a lot of it is how you approach it. My sis had VSG a few years ago, and she lectures everyone constantly at family gatherings about how she has to eat now, and how to lose weight. It's so bad that our Mom's biggest concern with me getting the surgery is that I won't be any fun to have get-togethers with or go out to eat with anymore. But I've gone out to eat since then, and I just order what sounds good, get a takeaway box early on to separate out what I won't be eating, and when I'm full I just push stuff around on my plate. Have never had anyone really even notice. I made the choice to be open about my surgery to pretty much everyone. I don't talk about it at work much because I don't talk a lot about my personal life at work in general. But people who notice the loss and ask, I tell them I had the surgery and am doing great. Sometimes they want more information, and my nurse educator hat goes on. I take it as an opportunity to get good information out there about weight loss and why diet and exercise aren't the right answer for everyone. But that's me. I blog and am generally "out there" about most things in my life. LOL.

(RN here) While you're in the OR is not an issue. If you're under general anesthesia (which I'm pretty sure everyone is for this surgery) they put a breathing tube down your throat and breathe for you while you're in the OR. They don't take the tube out until you are coming out of it and start breathing on your own. Make sure the anesthesia/surgery team knows about your apnea, because they'll need to have a BiPAP machine and respiratory therapist on hand in recovery. Once the anesthesia is out of your system, you should be fine. They will tell you whether or not to bring your personal machine to the hospital. My apnea is mild enough and I was sleeping with my head elevated so we didn't need my machine. Worst case, respiratory always has BiPAPs they can pull in and set you up on.

I think everyone uses a different definition of "meals" and "snacks", so it's important to talk to your team about what exactly they mean when they say those words. I know if I eat even one bite too many, I am desperately miserable for the better part of a half hour. So pushing the sleeve to hold more is NOT a good option IMHO. My instructions are to eat 4-6 small meals/snacks a day (every 3-4 hours), with a total calorie intake around 1,000-1,200 calories and a minimum of 80g Protein. A Protein shake can replace a meal. I cannot do super low carb, but I focus on complex carbs and have been keeping total carbs under 100g. My weight loss has slowed down but it's still chugging along. There is no way I could meet my protein goals if I didn't eat multiple times a day. I also think that there's a difference between having planned Snacks and grazing. Some people hear "snacking" and think "grazing". For me, a "snack" is just a smaller meal than normal, and is planned out, not just grabbing something from the pantry and laying into it.

The electors in the electoral college are not bound by the constitution to vote for the "winner". Some states have laws that require the electors to vote as directed by the general election, but the rest don't. However, I think it's a pipe dream, as it has never happened in the history of the U.S. They occasionally get one or two "faithless electors" who refuse to vote for the winning candidate, but it's never been a large movement. Certainly not enough to pin hopes on.

This is typically true, but not an absolute rule. The shingles virus infects nerve bundles and outbreaks happen along the nerve, and nerves typically only serve one side of the body. However, it's entirely possible to infect the same nerve bundle on BOTH sides, and then you will see a wrap-around rash. Not the most likely scenario here, I'd suspect the injections or the clorhexidine wipes (or something else) first. Best to consult the doc.

Hypoglycemia is one of the reasons I cannot do super low carb, it is not unusual for me to read in the 40's or 50's. However, carbs do not have to include sugar and other "fast" carbs. Once you get super low, you need something fast to bring it back up (OJ is a very commonly used one), but keeping it level is the real goal. For meal planning, complex carbs are better for both weight loss and balancing out blood sugars, and balance the blood sugars better when eaten with Protein. It should not be necessary to eat a huge amount of carbs in order to keep it balanced. http://www.livestrong.com/article/27398-list-complex-carbohydrates-foods/ However, low blood sugar isn't a terribly common complication. You'll want to talk to your doc about it, there may be other things they need to test for.

Appeal. And appeal again. Seriously, make them send you in writing the criteria they are using to refuse. Get documentation together from all of your doctors saying this will improve your health. I needed a knee surgery to fix the cartilage, and there were 2 options. The one I needed has an 18 month rehabilitation, but has been shown to last 15+ years (most patients in Sweden or wherever it was pioneered still had good results 20+ years out). Insurance considered it experimental and investigational despite the reams of peer reviewed research and articles showing it wasn't. The option they would pay for had an 18 month rehabilitation, but was guaranteed to fail within 10 years, most people didn't even see 7 years of success before it failed. It took me 5 appeals (insurance company lied to me about the appeals process) over 10 months and over 3 reams of paper overnighted to them. My final appeal outlined the federal regulations they had violated in the appeals process and demanded that an orthopedic specialist review the file. In the end, they paid for my surgery. 8 years later, the knee is still doing well.

The system is designed for two parties, and the only persons that can change that setup are those two parties. They have absolutely no incentive to change the status quo. Too true. I wish we had a parliamentary system, I believe it would encourage more cooperation between the parties. But that would require a constitutional overhaul, so I know it's not happening. :/

My rationale for the surgery is laid out in this post: http://www.theantichick.com/2016/08/05/the-easy-way-out/ Try to de-stress a little. I'm someone who over-thinks everything, so I can empathize. A *lot* of the same thoughts were running through my head the days leading up to my surgery. Don't second-guess your decision. You more than likely have thought about this a lot, and talked to doctors and specialists about it in making your decision. I can't lie, the first days after surgery were rough. But it wasn't nearly as hard as I'd thought it would be. And everything has gotten better almost daily since. You got this.

I think that any major change with one person in a marriage just highlights and exacerbates the cracks that were already there. One of my BFF's had WLS (bypass) before I met her. Her husband was controlling and incredibly tempermental before, but things seemed to be OK before the surgery. After she lost so much weight and had a boob job, other men started paying a LOT of attention to her and her career improved dramatically. Even though she didn't do anything to encourage those other guys or compromise her marriage, her husband started getting irrationally angry at her, and things escalated to the point police had to be involved, and the divorce was super ugly. The WLS didn't cause any of it, but the underlying problems that were there got a lot worse. I know if I'd had this when married to my Ex#2, it would have been an unmitigated disaster, if he'd even allowed me to do it. Every time I tried to get healthier in that marriage, he sabotaged it. So I know he'd have somehow kept me from doing it or continued to sabotage me. My current hubby is awesome, and we have a great relationship. So far, it hasn't caused any tensions. We're still figuring out the whole cooking and healthier foods in the house, but we're working together to do it. He has never had any kind of real weight problem, but has put on a few pounds since we got married and his shirts aren't fitting well anymore, so he's wanting to join me with the exercise and eating healthier. We approach everything as a team, so I don't forsee any problems with the WLS. And it only took me three tries to find him!!

Nurse here, I unfortunately had to get out of bedside care due to my chronic illness. The major problem is that hospitals are chronically understaffed. So when someone calls out, it puts the unit further down and stresses everyone out. The hospitals I worked for had worse insurance than when I worked in IT for corporations, and were the worst about asking us to work sick or injured. I worked ER and had what I thought before shift was just eye redness from allergies. About an hour into my shift it became obvious it was pinkeye. I notified my supervisor immediately, and was told we were too short for me to leave. I worked an entire shift contagious with pinkeye, and it looked horrific. My patients were really freaked out. I took every precaution I could, didn't touch my face, washed/sanitized my hands so much that shift they were chapped. What should have happened is that I should have been sent home. I wasn't able to take FMLA because I hadn't been at my new job a year. But it's my understanding that HR approves FMLA, and your boss has zero say in the matter.

My situation is a little more complicated than just an injury. I had a knee re-built in 2008 and I have a couple of restrictions for it, he's working with that, no problem. My situation is that the activity that seems OK at the time starts a system-wide inflammation flare that causes extreme fatigue and all over joint and body aches for several days. We haven't had enough sessions to work out the right level of resistance, and figure out what I need to be doing in between visits.

I don't think they can do that. https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/1421.htm

I liken this to an alcoholic saying "I just HAD to have a taste, so I swished it around in my mouth and spat it out." o.O Yes, most of us are here because we have food issues. No, we're not all perfect. But as a support group, we need to do more than say "that's ok, we're all human." We have to support each other in moving toward a healthier interaction with food. It's easy to think "oh, it's just for this short period of time when I can't have [insert food here], and what's the big deal??" Heck, I admit to licking a Dorito hubby was eating at about day 5 post-op when I was looking at another 9 days of liquids only, and thought I was going to die if I didn't get something other than my Protein shakes, Jello, and popsicles. All of us who have had the surgery have been there. No one is saying we don't sympathize with the thoughts/feelings that we just HAVE TO chew something. What others are saying is please don't start down a road that may injure your health. The problem is that chewing and spitting is a bona fide eating disorder, right up there with bulemia. It has health repercussions that don't have anything to do with calories. Others have covered the issues with the saliva starting the digestive process, etc. so I'm not going to belabor it. If we all had perfect control, it probably wouldn't be an issue to one time or maybe two times chew something up and spit it out. But if we had perfect control, we wouldn't be here. Alcoholics can't touch a drop of alcohol or they risk losing control. People with food issues have to be very careful to stay away from maladaptive behaviors, even if we justify it saying "it's just this once" or "it's just until I can have solid food again". Justification is what got a LOT of us in the place we were to need the surgery. So please back off the vitriol for the vets who are trying to save you some pain when they share their experience and advice.

Here's my take on it, and as with anything else online, take what works for you and leave the rest. And this is my 3rd attempt, my computer apparently doesn't want me commenting. LOL. When I rant, I try to keep it focused on my issues. "I get frustrated by ..." rather than saying "so-and-so is an idiot". I have honestly seen very little in the way of true personal attacks on this board, for which I am grateful. Here's the issues as I see them. 1. People who want validation for their choices. Frankly, we're all adults here, and I don't get the need for validation or some kind of forgiveness or absolution. I don't feel a need to shame them for their choice, and I don't agree that shaming them is a good response. (Of course, I've seen very little of that.) However, if the people who post "my doctor didn't tell me anything about a post-op diet" actually did not get good information about how to eat post-op, they need to have an opportunity to get better information than nothing. For this to be successful, we cannot continue eating and making choices about eating the way we always have. Saying "from my perspective that wasn't a good choice" is not the same as shaming them. To me, this is a little like AA. You don't see people coming to AA and saying "hey, I had a beer yesterday" and having people respond "that's OK sweetie, we're all human". No. The response is "we're all human, and we make mistakes, but you get that it was a mistake right?" That's not shaming, it's being honest about how their choice fits in. Note about #1. I don't do low-carb. If I came on the board and posted about eating bread, and had 15 vets go "hon, bread is the devil, you won't be successful that way" I wouldn't feel that they were shaming me or telling me how to eat. That is their experience, and they are the ones who have lived this a heck of a lot longer than I have. They don't know that my eating plan is approved by my doc, all they know is their instructions, and their experience. It would be crappy of me to then start blasting them for sharing what they know in an attempt to help me. And I don't know what I don't know... not restricting carbs may bite me in my ample butt. I may not make goal or be able to maintain because of it. I'll let you know how it goes in another 10 months or so. In the meantime, I don't go around the board slamming vets for preaching low-carb, or trying to preach a non-low-carb diet. I sometimes will point out that not all of us have that option, or we have a different plan from our docs, but I don't get testy about it. 2. People who are reading this board and either don't have a strong surgical team to support them, and read all the coddling posts saying "that's OK, we're all human" or "I did that too, and I'm fine so don't worry" ESPECIALLY WHEN they're talking about early post-op periods. Those of us who are medical professionals or have extensive experience (vets) may feel a responsibility to them to make sure the only voices out there are not the ones saying "don't worry" when there's PLENTY of cause to worry. As an aside: I'm coming to hate the term "cheating" like LipstickLady. When you're talking about a post-operative (especially for a major stomach surgery) diet progression, it's not "cheating" on a diet. It's violating your post-surgical instructions from your surgical team, and it CAN BE DEADLY. It won't be in the majority of cases, but we have no way to know when it will land someone in the ICU or the morgue, or when it won't. You can choose to deviate from your instructions, you're an adult. But by gosh, I'm not going to let you tell someone else that they shouldn't worry without at least voicing the very real potential for disaster. 3. The rants about it come from the way the vets and those who are trying to be a voice of reason are slammed and attacked for doing so. I have seen vets called mean or judgmental when I read nothing mean or judgmental in their tone, their only crime was refusing to become an echo chamber for the "it's OK sweetie, we're all human, don't worry about it" nonsense. As a nurse, I'm frankly scared for the people who don't seem to take this surgery as seriously as they need to. That's what I'm hearing from people who start rants like this, as well. We don't want people to fail. We want everyone on this board to succeed. Even if you are a person I just can't stand, I still want you to succeed. Coddling bad choices and normalizing them is NOT the way to help those who are serious about this succeed. (stepping off the soapbox)

I will try it, thanks for the recommendation. I get my monk fruit from Amazon, "Monk Fruit in the Raw" https://smile.amazon.com/Monk-Fruit-Raw-Sweetener-Ounce/dp/B00BMAGFCO/ref=sr_1_11_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1478540365&sr=8-11&keywords=monk+fruit It has maltodextrin, but no erythritol. I buy packets for on the go, and have the loose stuff in a sugar bowl for at home.

My story is pretty much all on my blog with the tag of bariatric surgery. http://www.theantichick.com/tag/bariatric-surgery/ I'm also a nurse, and am happy to answer any questions people have if you want to IM me or tag me in a thread with a specific question.

Yep. I used to like super-sweet BBQ sauce and ketchup. I am finding that stuff makes me queasy now, and am preferring flavors like mustard which I used to like a tiny bit but not as a primary flavor. I'm finding that lots of the super-sweet things not only make me queasy but I'm not liking the taste as much.

Jello and popsicles aren't for Protein, they're for hydration, especially in the early days when it's hard for some to get water down in enough quantity. Aspartame/Nutrasweet is a huge migraine trigger for me, and I found that sucralose/Splenda leaves a weird taste in my mouth that's hard to get rid of. I switched to monk fruit for my coffee, and use Splenda when I need to. Stevia has a nasty aftertaste for me. Sometimes I have to make the call to eat something with small amounts of sugar/honey when it needs sweetener because the other options aren't good for me. I'm about to start experimenting with cooking with monk fruit because it's the best option for me, it's just not widely available already in products.