MacMadame

Which doctor told you they will "not work at all" after surgery? I've never heard of such a thing. Lots of people with WLS continue on the pill with no issues.

Eggs are a mushie in some programs but they are rather high up on the food chain so a lot of people can't deal with them this early out. For me they were a lifesaver, though.

You can't gain 16 pounds of real weight in one week unless you ate 56000 calories more than you burned. But you can gain a lot in Water weight in a short amount of time. When you say two cups of "food" what do you mean? A Protein shake? yogurt? baked chicken? At two weeks you should be on mushies or liquids and liquids pass right through you. It's quite possible to have two cups of Soup or Protein Drink and even a cup of yogurt, if it's thin. It's not possible to have two cups of roasted chicken, even years out, so if you are eating like that, I would be on the phone with your surgeon to find out what he actually did to me. The thing about hunger is that it's multi-faceted. You could be feeling hunger because liquids and mushies are not engaging any satiety mechanisms based on restriction. Or it could be acid because your PPI isn't working (or you aren't taking one). Or it could be "hunger" because liquids aren't mentally satisfying. Some of these things will go away, some you can easily control and some you need to learn how to deal with because they will be an issue your whole life, surgery or no. And, guys, if people are having problems, accusing them of being posers is not cool. This poster posted late at night yesterday and 24 hours haven't passed yet. It's not unreasonable for them not to have come back yet.

And I'm 5'1" and can wear petites just fine. But I know people who are 5'3" and the same pants are too long.... What can you do?

I think I might go back to taking Co-Q10. I had more energy when I took it. I'm waiting to see what my labs look like in Sept. though. I may get to cut back on my Vitamin D3 since I'm out in the sun all the time these days.

Also, once you are two weeks out, your chances of developing a leak go way down.... It really sounds to me like you ate too much at some point. That can stimulate the vagus nerve and that can cause the rapid heartbeats. But I'm not a doctor so I don't want to discourage you from seeing yours if you are truly concerned, just reassure you as to the unlikelihood of it being a leak.

Yeah, that one. Don't konw what happened to the link. Anyway it's called the "Tanita Ironman Segmental and Full Body Composition Monitor" and it "only" costs $300! :thumbup1:

Eh, on the shows I've seen, a lot of the women were pharmaceutical reps. Which is only vaguely professional ... iand there were a lot of barmaids and "models" and stuff like that. You need to be able to take off from your job for a month or more for those shows and so that is going to skew what see there.

Extreme unexplained pain and fever.

Well, those aren't the signs... so relax. :thumbup1: The main signs are extreme, unexplained pain and fever.

A lot of the stuff that scares people about Coke is because it sounds scarier than it really is. :thumbup1: But soda in general isn't very good for you for a variety of reasons. My teeth are whiter since I stopped drinking Diet Coke, for example.

Most lightweights get to goal around 6-12 months out. It may be "only" two pounds a week but if you only have 60-70 to lose, well, that's good enough to get there that fast! :thumbup1:

In order to find a Protein you like and not spend a fortune, here is what I did: Get samples, not big tubs: chikenutrition.com will send free samples of their products Syntrax nectar has a sample pack you can buy unjury has samples you can buy Vitalady.com has samples she'll sell of everything she does sell. She makes up the sample bags herself, if the company doesn't provide a sample size Buy at places that accept returns: GNC (and I think Vitamin Shoppe) will let you return opened containers of Protein powder, if you find you don't like them. Those are safe places to buy an entire tub. Use "bariatric" food: There are a number of companies that sell higher protein versions of things. Their names are Healthsmart/Healthwise, ProtiDiet, WonderSlim, Focus28, SmartForme, to name a few. These guys have protein hot chocolate, protein Soup, protein sloppy joes, protein oatmeal, protein everything. I don't think most of it tastes good enough to eat once you can eat regular food, but when you are early out and on liquids or softs, protein soup can give you an extra 10-12 g of protein that you wouldn't be getting otherwise. In the early days the most important thing is to HYDRATE. Push those fluids. Can't find a Fluid with protein? Any fluid is better than none. This includes the broth from soup. It's even better to drink juice (with all its sugar) than nothing. You don't want to get dehydrated. Once you can get fluids in, work on getting protein.

Because the majority of people aren't in plus size clothes. You can be in the overweight BMI range and not be in plus sizes. I was still in the obese range when I got out of plus sizes. Anyone who is outside of the median, is going to have a harder time. That's just life. I got when I was MO and now I've got it now that I'm a normal weight. Do you know how few stores carry anything smaller than a four and, even if they carry it, it's just a few items that sell out fast?! But I accept that because I'm short, I can't buy pants in every store, and I have to go to specialty stores to get variety in my sizes. I understand that most people are a lot taller than me (and therefore bigger). I don't like it, but it's life. But to maximize my chances, I do try to shop in parts of town where there are more, shorter people. That helps. For example, the Macy's closest to me has no jeans in a size 2 or smaller. But the Macy's in the next town over does. Same store, same lines, but the stock is different. The other issue is that there are more variations of shapes when people get larger. Some people have all their extra weight in their middle, but their arms and legs are normal. But some have really big arms and legs because their extra weight is more spaced out. Others have all their extra weight in their butt. So now you have to design a garmet that is going to fit them all. Well, it can't be done. If the arms are big enough for the one with huge arms, the outfit will look ridiculous on someone with relatively skinny arms. Or, if the arms and neckholes look good on the person who looks like an apple with sticks, they won't fit the person whose weight is more all over. And the one with it all in the middle needs more room in the chest area but only a little more in the butt but the bottom heavy one needs more in the butt. Yeah, you get variations in the "regular" sizes but it's not as great. When you only have 0-10 excess pounds, the differences in where it can go aren't quite so drastic. Designers (in general) really don't like designing for plus sizes because of these issues (it costs them more, for one thing). So then you aren't getting the really talented people addressing our needs. Maybe the clothes are graded (sized up) via some lame CAD program that makes bad assumptions instead of by a talented pattern maker who knows how to adjust for real people. Which makes it all worse. The other thing is, each manufacturer and each line has a target market it's aimed for and is sized to fit. But this information is NOT made readily apparent. So you have to do a lot of trial and error. For example, VegasAngel says Plus Size clothing assumes you're short. But I used to bitch that they assumed you were an Amazon. This is because I was shopping at Lane Giant and their clothes are targeted to the big all over including tall. I bet VegasAngel shops where I should have shopped, if only I'd know about it! :thumbup1: I've been reading about sizing on a fashion industry blog and it's been VERY eye-openning. I don't necessarily agree with their POV, but it's still interesting to see why the world works like it does.

But pretty much no one who is consuming 800 calories or less is getting enough food to be able to get every macro-nutrient. There are definitely supplements you should NOT take if you don't know if you need them. Iron comes to mine right off the bat. You can have too much iron in your blood and get metal poisoning. But I already know my Vitamin D is low from my labs. Some of the other stuff I've taken over time isn't anything you can know from your labs if you need. Like the Co-enzyme Q10. It works more like an anti-oxident. So there is no test to know if it's working for you. Just if you think you have more energy or not. The Omegas are very safe to take. My dh's doctor told him there was no downside to taking those. (He has bad cholesterol and triglyceride numbers and they help.) It's no more harmful than eating a lot of fish... less harmful in some ways as you don't have to worry about mercury poisoning. :thumbup1: Sorry, that is simply not supported by the scientific evidence available today. Taking supplements, in reasonable quantities, isn't going to tax your system any more than eating food that contains them. The worse that happens with most vits/supplements is that you end up with expensive pee. :biggrin0: Again, this is not including the ones that you need to be careful about overdosing on. But most aren't like that. And the amounts in a typical Multivitamin are just not enough to be an issue.

For many people, disagreeing with them is considered by them to be a form of personal attack. Shrug. The camera does distort. It doesn't necessarily "add 10 lb." (or 20 or whatever) But you are converting a 3D object into 2D and there are going to be distortions. Some people actually look THINNER in pix and video but most people look heavier and this seems to be even more exaggerated the heavier you are. So, haven't seen the show, I think the jury is out... I get so irritated when people assume their experience is universal. She is a basket case so, of course, every one was or will be too. Well, my son is about to turn 18 and I want him out of the house NOW! :biggrin: She's not. I've seen that happen but it's pretty rare and usually involved a particularly controversial person who delighted in upsetting people. But I do think boards have personalities and the OH board is very lightly moderated and a lot of stuff is allowed that wouldn't be allowed here. That includes all over the board, not just Rants & Raves. So their "rest of the board" isn't as bad as their R&R section, but it's much rougher than any other board I'm on.

I have to boast! We did a mile time trial last night at track and I was able to run it in under 9 minutes! I did in 8:40, in fact. This puts my predicted half-marathon pace down to 10:36 when it was slightly over 11 min. before. Woot, woot!

Well, except for those who are kind of meh about him. :biggrin: I think people think "molestation" means "had sex" but you can molest someone just with inappropriate touching. That boy could describe MJ's penis. Therefore, by definition, what went on between them was inappropriate IMO. Whether it rises to the definition of molestation, I don't know, but I think --when you combine it with everything MJ admitted to -- it's close enough. Eh, not really. There is too much shame to the victim and demonizing of the victim in these cases. I can see parents deciding they didn't want their kids to go through the stress of coming forward. It happens all the time in less famous cases where the media isn't going to attack the victim so why wouldn't it happen in this case?

Um, I have no special resources to reseach surgeons... I try to keep track of them from studies and what people say on the boards, but these days everyone is jumping on the VSG band wagon so me not having heard of someone is no indication they aren't good. Maybe they just don't publish... I had two c-sections and an open gallbladder operation before my sleeve and none of those interferred with the sleeve surgery in any way. It's not just having scar tissue, it's where the scar tissue is that's important. One reason that some surgeons sometimes prefer to do RnY on former bandsters with a lot of scar tissue from the band is that the scar tissue is right where they'd cut for the pouch anyway so they can make a pouch just above the scar tissue and avoid it. With the sleeve, they have to cut through it. But, again, it just depends on how much there is and where it is. There are plenty of band to sleeve people here who came through just fine. Another way to get around this is to have the operation in two parts. Then the scar tissue can heal in between. But, again, most people don't need to do this. As an example of how it all just depends, my surgeon says that if I were to ever get the switch part of the DS, I would have to be prepared to have him convert to Open because of my former open gallbladder operation. If I'd had my gallbladder out lap, it wouldn't be an issue at all. (Back when I had it done, laparoscopic surgery was in its infancy and my surgeon didn't do it.) It wasn't an issue for my sleeve either. I believe your chance of leaks goes up 3x if you have scar tissue from a band. But your risk should be under 1% for a virgin sleeve so that's still less than 3% chance. Maybe that will make your husband feel better. That's not a high percentage in the grand scheme of things.

To get some Omega fatty acids into me. I don't eat a lot food that is rich in them. For a while I was taking Co-enzyme Q10 too. That gives your cells energy. It's supposed to be good for endurance sports. But I got tired of taking a lot of pills and I cut way back once I gave up on all the stuff I was taking for my hair (that didn't do squat). Right now, I'm trying a probiotic because I don't eat as much yogurt as I used to and I'm getting gassy again. It seems to work better than Benefiber! (I've been lax about taking my benefiber because I haven't been doing a shake every morning for breakfast and, even when I do, I have been trying different powders and I keep forgetting to put it in.

I take my calcium and my flax seed capsules together and my multis and everything else together. (Everything else tends to vary.) You don't want to take your Multivitamin at the same time as the calcium because the calcium will inhibit the absorption of the Iron in it. But you can take Biotin at the same time as your multi. You also don't want to be taking more than 500 mg (give or take) of calcium citrate at the same time as your body can't absorb it all. This is my schedule: AM: 2 calcium citrate pills & 1 flax seed oil gelcap with Breakfast Lunch: 2 Multivitamins, 1 probiotic, anything else I'm taking (which right now is nothing) PM Snack: repeat the calcium & flax seed oil dose Dinner: repeat calcium & flax seed oil It would be better if I split up the multivitamin into two doses but I like having an extra slot. If I forget to take anything during the day, I can take it at night with my evening snack. My surgeon said it was okay to do it this way.

You can dissolve the calcium citrate horse pills in water too, btw.

I found the liquid Centrum to be gross, but I took it anyway. :thumbup: I figured I paid for it and I needed my vits.

But I did have problems with my underwires. I think it depends on where your incisions end up. I would bring loose clothes that don't put a lot of pressure you on. You'll be swollen from IV fluids when you get out of the hospital so loose clothes will fit better and be less binding. I would bring stuff to entertain yourself... books, mags, a laptop. You'll be doing some walking but you won't be out exploring the city ... you probably won't have the energy for that.

A recent study was released showing that bariatric surgery is no riskier than any other routine surgery. Large-Scale Analysis Finds Bariatric Surgery Relatively Safe People have this idea that the band is somehow "safe" and all other bariatric surgery is "dangerous" but this is a misconception. There is a risk to all surgeries, even the band, but bariatric surgery is pretty safe comparatively. It's not dying on the operating table that you have to worry about. If your husband wouldn't worry about something happening to you if you got your appendix out, he shouldn't worry about this. As for having more scar tissue, they'll cut away most of the stomach so you'll actually be losing some of your scar tissue. OTOH, doing a sleeve on a scarred stomach will increase your risk of leaks a bit so you should be very careful. Also, depending on where the scar tissue is, the surgeon may prefer to do RnY on you. It's something you should talk to him about. There are a lot of "what ifs" involved in a revision so you want to be prepared for them.