theantichick

LOL My doc prescribed it, and I filled it in case I needed it. But I had zero discomfort other than the "bubble" feeling when eating/drinking, so I never took it. I had my 2 week checkup Wed and she asked about it. When I told her I hadn't even taken it she laughed and said it was the single least compliant med she prescribes. No one likes it. But she didn't say it was to protect my sleeve, she said it was in case I was having burning, reflux-type symptoms.

Just reading your story. How was your eating before hand? I tend to snack and binge sometimes out of being board i think. I wonder if this would really help those cravings. Its so hard to tell as everyone has a diffrent story. Do you feel you can stick to the diet once you get back on to solids? I am an emotional eater. I also tend to eat a lot of the wrong things. Anyway too much of those wrong things. In addition to getting the surgery, I have also been seeing a therapist since February about my emotional eating issues. The surgery is just a tool. but so far, it seems like a really darned good tool. sent from mobile device

I'm only 2 weeks out, so FWIW... the part of the stomach that is lost is responsible for a lot of the hormones that drive our cravings. I have zero appetite. I have to remind myself to eat and drink. It's a whole different world from what I had pre-surgery.

Interesting. I had seen the adverts for Dr. Kim and his inverted sleeve, but never could find out what made his technique different. If it's just the oversewing of the staple line, my surgeon does that as well. And since she used to teach bariatric surgery, I suspect many of her former students do as well. The 360 video of the procedure by the doc in Mexico also does oversewing of the staple line. My surgery is already done, and by all indications quite well, but I'm still curious if that's the only difference in the "inverted" sleeve.

I had to switch things up... Protein powder in Soup broth (tip: heat the soup up separately, mix the powder with a few oz of warm Water, then mix the two.... Protein Powder in hot water clumps and protein powder mixed with something and then heated gets gritty), popsicles made with clear Protein drinks (I use Syntrax). It was day 7 or 8 before I finally made my Fluid goal, and day 10 before I consistently was getting my protein in (day 13 now, it's still a bit of a struggle, but I'm doing much better). Remember that fluid is more important than protein, especially at first. I likely got a little dehydrated, but not enough to need to go in for IV fluids, so I call it a win. Good luck!!

I get cleared for puree's tomorrow, here's my favorite place to find recipes so far: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html

I'm down 18 pounds from surgery ( 12 days out) but even better, got my original wedding ring on today for the first time in months and months. sent from mobile device

I was told at least 2 weeks. I had surgery Wed. Out of work Thu and Fri, then work from home (IT) the entire following week. Then I'm back in the office. I needed all of that, honestly. sent from mobile device

Whether you decide to confront the doctor or not, get copies of all of your medical records before you do anything. They legally can't prevent you from getting them, but they can put all sorts of obstacles in your way including charging you for each and every page and depending on what computer system they use, they might be able to change the entries after the fact and it might not show up on the type of copy you get. (Though with all of the major systems, there is a way to get records of what has been changed, you probably just have to have it subpeona'd.) Get what information you can before you start rocking the boat. If you had a perf and they didn't tell you, that's major misconduct.

I was never diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia, but when I was pregnant, my blood sugar would drop to the high 40's (normal fasting is 70-100). I managed it by eating several small meals - every 3 or 4 hours - making sure I had good amounts of Protein in each. Which also cleared up my all-day morning sickness. Outside of pregnancy, I've had a few times where I got clammy and shaky and knew what it was and got some sugar on board quick. You can get glucose meters and supplies without a prescription, but a prescription is required for insurance to cover the cost. But it's important to be working with your doc and team regardless. I'm not far along enough to see if it's better or worse after the sleeve, but I'm on the lookout for it. This is a great topic, thanks for posting it!!

LOL. I think a little about it, since I can see where I'm going to have a decent sized stomach pannus. But I figure shapewear and good lingerie can make any of that look good. My hubby loves the way I look now, he'll love me when I've got loose skin. If I want, I'll be able to save up and have skin surgery, but I'm not going to worry about it until I see what the end result looks like. Being healthy and more active will be worth it!

Doesn't make any sense to me... Respiratory can use an auto adjusting PAP post op if needed. sent from mobile device

I agree with him. I cannot be on a diet low enough in carbs to put me in ketosis or it will cause my blood sugar to fall dangerously low. I also personally believe based on my understanding of physiology from my nursing training that a ketogenic diet is not a long term good idea for most people. That's not to say I think simple, refined carbs are a good idea, but many of the ultra-low carb diet plans restrict ALL forms of carbs. Hearing all the low carb and ultra-low carb plans here presented as if that's the only option had me worried until I met with my surgeon. My surgeon doesn't push ultra-low carb in the first place, but part of what convinced me that she knew her stuff was that she was prepared to modify any and all of the eating plans as needed for my personal medical situation. Not the progression for the healing phases, but the composition of each stage. A cookie cutter approach without any deviation no matter what is a sign of the inability to account for patient's individual situations and/or laziness IMHO. Now, maybe if the surgeon had met with him instead of having his PA do it, the response would have differed. That he made a specific appointment with the surgeon and instead got the PA is disrespectful in my book unless the surgeon was ill or there was an emergency, in which case he should have been told that by a phone call before the appointment or at least when he checked in and given the option to reschedule.

Hubby said I was real quiet for the first several days after surgery, just really got "back to myself" yesterday. So, so far, no crying jags or super-B fests at him or kiddo. Figured maybe I'm just lucky enough to have a smooth ride through this mess. Nope. I have a sister who's 19 years older than me, and granted in many ways she's more of a mother to me than our mother. However, I get tired of her telling me things like she's the end-all-be-all of information for me. Especially when she gets it wrong half the time, and just tells me I don't know yet when I point out that she's wrong. For Pete's sake, I'm a freakin' NURSE and she'll lecture me about a medication or a condition and she's misunderstood something, but by gosh, it's absolute fact because she says it. So she had the sleeve several years ago and has been harping on me to get it ever since. Telling me I can't possibly lose the weight without the surgery, it's the only option for me, etc. If there's one single reason it's taken me this long to get to it, it's because of my knee-jerk reaction to try and prove her wrong. Well, she's right about the surgery, but ever since I decided to get it, she's been lecturing me on what I HAVE to do, and how I HAVE to do it. I've tried to shrug her off saying I'm already on support boards and have plenty of research materials at my disposal (I'm in grad school so I have online access to several medical libraries) and am fine. Well, it's not the *right* support group unless it's *her* support group (not this one, obviously). Her guru on that board is the end-all-be-all of sleeve surgery success advice, I just HAVE to ask her about whatever thing it is sis is lecturing me about this week. The Protein shakes I ended up with aren't the good ones. I need to be taught how to make shakes taste better. I have to "change the pH of my water" in order to drink enough, whatever the frak that means. By the way, I'm pretty sure the lemon Mio flavoring doesn't do jack about the pH of the Water no matter how much she tells me it does. Now I post on my FB that I'm still struggling to get in my water and protein goals, and she's lecturing me that the fluids are more important than the protein. No, duh. But I'm not going to abandon all protein because I haven't gotten my fluids in, especially since my Proteins are in the form of fluids, for pete's sake. One is not exclusive of the other. ARGH. I love my sis, I really do. Most of my life I've just shrugged off her overbearing lectures. Today, I'm ranting here in order to keep from biting her head off, because I know she means well, and I know this is just hormone dump from the weight loss (down over 13 lbs since surgery). But OMG she's on my last freakin' nerve!!

Yeah, there's nothing nutritionally valuable in Mio, but it does a good job of flavoring the Water. W.C. Fields and I have the same attitude about water - "never drink the stuff... fish f**k in it, you know?" I really do not like plain water. When I drink water without flavor it has to be bottled stuff with electrolytes - not because there's a significant amount, but because the potassium they use changes the flavor a bit. So a little bit of whatever crap is in Mio in order for me to drink the water I need to is a fair trade in my book. I like lemon because it doesn't taste like crap if the ice melts and it gets diluted, like some of the other flavors. So the even funnier part about all of this is, I'm already doing the stuff my sister claims has to be done (just not for the same reasons, because you know, science) but she still needs to make sure she tells me. (eye roll) whatever. LOL

Well, the bicarb in alkaline water I can see might actually help, but that's opposite of what she's saying. She's saying that we need to put lemon juice in, which would make it more acidic. But with the flavorings she's advocating (Mio) which have zero lemon juice and only slight amounts of citric acid, there's not much chance of altering the pH significantly with the little squirt of it. Like I said, she hears stuff wrong and then it's the gospel in her brain and she has to share it. Drives my little internal nurse educator insane.

Totally get that flavorings can help... I can't stand plain water and add flavoring... but I don't think it's because of pH changes. LOL. It's something someone said offhand and she misinterpreted, frankly. I'm already pretty much over it, I just needed to rant instead of burying her head off. LOL sent from mobile device