MacMadame

Well, starvation mode is a myth. If you maintain a calorie deficit, you lose weight even though your metabolism slows. Study after study has shown that. But you can lose good weight -- fat -- or bad weight -- muscle and organs. So you don't want to be on an impossibly low calorie diet for a very long time and you need to get your Protein in. If you get your protein in, the calories will follow naturally, so that's good. (One less thing to worry about. ) I wouldn't stress over following all the rules 100% at this point either. When you are 0-3 months out, your stomach is swollen enough that it makes everything hard. No sense making it even harder on yourself by trying to be super-strict. It's better to get all your Fluid and protein in than to be "pure" about your eating. In the early days, I would make sure everything I put in my mouth had protein in it. If I drank it, it was a Protein shake or drink. If I ate it, it was high protein. I bought the special bariatric foods that have 12-15g of protein each and I drank protein hot chocolate like it was going out of style. I never drank plain Water -- at a minimum, it had South Beach Tide me Over in it -- but, if I could stomach it, I'd make a protein drink instead. The one week I tried to drink a lot of plain water is the week I ended up in the ER passing a kidney stone, so I learned my lesson there! Now, once I got farther out, it got easier and I could drink plain water and not everything I ate had to be high protein. But in the early days I had to really work at it. More on so-called starvation mode: Fatty Fights Back: MTYHBUSTERS: Starvation Mode

WLS has completely taken the joy out of alcohol for me. I get word-slurring drunk on a tiny amount and 30 min. later I'm stone, cold sober. I never get that nice mellow feeling. I didn't do alcohol for most of my weight loss phase though... I wanted to lose as fast as possible because I knew maintenance would be the hard part and I wanted to start on it as soon as I could.

Whenever I do high carb, I get in trouble. I've never had an issue with not losing on low carb though.

I like it when they use the music to time the lifting. Some instructors are better at that than others.

The pepcid gets rid of acid after it's formed. I think a PPI is much better. It stops the acid from forming. I have a prescription for Pepcid too but it didn't work as well as the OTC prilosec for me. So now I keep it for when the prilosec also isn't enough.

Here are my answers: 1) I hope to have a free and easy weekend for a change. Just got back from the gym - Group Power class - and am about to take off for a monthly lunch with some folks from the CA board on OH. Tomorrow is my tri club's annual picnic. In between I have to fit in a bike, run and swim workout. It sounds packed, but there is a lot less in there than normal. 2) I've been having trouble sleeping and actually had to take a nap at work yesterday as I was too tired to keep my eyes open at my cube. 3) I went to the gym and did my strength workout on Wed. anyway even though my trainer cancelled on me so I had no one to hold my hand and tell me what to do. 4) Thurs. was my one year "surgiversary" and I was giddy all day.

My one year anniversary was yesterday!

Here's a thread on foamies: http://verticalsleevetalk.com/general-sleeve-surgery-discussion/553-lets-discuss-foamies-sliming-3.html What happens is that your body thinks it's choking so it makes tons of saliva to help wash whatever it is down. But there isn't any room for all that saliva so it just makes everything worse!

Hi! It's good to have some people farther out here. Sometimes I feel lonely. :thumbup:

I still do this at one year out. Just not very often compared to the early days.

Most people can go off their PPIs eventually. I don't know why I've been having trouble. I was actually okay for two weeks when I went off the prilosec but then it came back. Sigh.

I've found trail mix to be a slider food, unfortunately. I stopped making it (I was using it on long bike rides). I still have nuts in the house, but I haven't been into them lately so that's okay. When I start going nuts with them, I stop buying them for a while or buy the kind Mr. Mac likes but I don't.

Well, I'm going from memory. So take it with a grain of salt. :thumbup: But most people 6 months out or less were reporting 4 oz. or less. I was 5 oz at 7 month. Once you got past 6 months, people were reporting 4 to 6 oz. At one year I was 6 oz. So I think I can eat more than most people. But I want to redo my test because I didn't have a big tub like you are supposed to. I had two individual servings. So I wasn't sure how much Water to pour in (i.e., were the line was).

Thanks for reposting that. I am at work and don't have my bookmarks handy!

I found shakes would fill me up early on. They still do but not as much. Sometimes this has to do with how fast you drink them. They are supposed to be drunk as fast as a glass of milk and I just can't do that. It usually takes me an hour to finish on! I do make them super thick though, like a smoothie.

There are studies that show that patients who attend the support groups do better than those that don't. But statistics are not predicative for the individual. :thumbup: You have to do what is right for you. Dr. Jossart does the San Francisco support group every month. I don't know if he does any others. If you prefer interacting with Tara and Amy, I would set up a series of reoccuring appointments with them. You can visit in the office or it can be a phone consult. They have people they call every month, even every week. It's part of what we paid for so you might as well use them, is my philosophy. I really like Dr. C. But we have a similar sense of humor. You may warm up to him, if you go to the support group meetings. You can see a different side. Nicole goes to those meetings too and she's very nice. I think she had bypass so that makes her "one of us." There also may be other groups in your area that are open to all patients regardless of who their surgeon is. Maybe one of those will be scheduled at a more convenient time for you. Online support is great, but I find I need the in person support too. They can both work together.

A BMI of 39 is not actually that high. It's only obese, not morbidly obese. We call people whose starting BMI is around 40ish or less "lightweights". (It's that ironic? I certainly never thought of myself as "light" at 223 lb and morbidly obese.) Some surgeons require a pre-op diet for everyone, but some surgeons only require it for people with a BMI of 40 or higher. Some don't require it for anyone, merely strongly suggest it. Being a lightweight, it's much less likely you'll be required to do it. Losing weight is a good idea though. OTOH, it doesn't have to be a liquid diet and you don't have to lose much. Anything low carb will do and just losing 10 lb. will make a difference in lowering your surgery risks and easing your recovery. I see my surgeon all the time. He runs the seminars and support groups. So I saw him several times pre-op, including for my surgical consult. I saw him in the hospital post-op. I see him for my follow-ups, of which I've had more than they say you will, and I see him almost every month at the support group. I have had two c-sections and an open surgery and this one was eaiser than those. I don't know how it would compared to a lap hysterectomy though. You will have lifting restrictions for at least a month. Something like less than 25 pounds and then you can lift more as time progresses. (They all vary on the exact details.) I didn't feel particularly sad about not being able to eat. I was pissy from week 7 to 12, but that's because I was on regular food, but could hardly eat anything, and I kept overeating and getting the "foamies" which hurt. One I could eat more and once I slowed down in my eating, everything went much better. I went back to the gym at 2 weeks out and started running at one month out. I was back to work at 1.5 weeks out, but I think I should have taken two full weeks. But lots of people go back at 1 week and are fine. Um, did I miss a question? :cool:

Proton pump inhibitor. It's a class of acid reducer such as prilosec, nexium, prevacid.

Blood clots are rare. They know how to manage them better these days. You'll get a shot of something in the OR to thin your blood and there will be other precautions they will take (they vary from surgeon to surgeon). But the main thing you can do to prevent blood clots is MOVE. Get walking ASAP and make sure you move around as much as you can as soon as you can.

hair loss is a side-effect of all WLS, not just VSG. Mine started very early, probably due to hormones, and then around 7-8 months out, it slowed way down and now, at 12 months out, it's a trickle and some days I don't lose any in the shower. I have very thin hair and no one but me noticed my hair loss. Well, my hair dresser finally noticed at my last haircut, but no one else. Thank goodness!

Some quick notes: -everyone does not have to do a pre-op diet. It depends on your surgeon and your starting weight and your medical issues -acid reflux can make you think you are hungry. Getting on a PPI can really help with that -some people report being totally hungry while on liquids. Liquids don't have a strong restriction feedback loop that more solid food has which tells your brian you ate something and should be full. Most people who experience this feel much better once they start on mushies or sometimes they don't feel better until they are on solid food

Some people take longer for the swelling to go down. I could only do 1/2 to 1 oz. at at time at 7 weeks out and only 1-2 oz. at 3 months out. But I did supplement my "meals" with Protein shakes and other liquids so that I was getting the calories and protein I needed to have adequate healing and energy.

Thanks. :001_tt2:

LapSF is one of the top programs in the country. They do all the surgery types and have been a pioneer of the sleeve, doing as many as anyone in the US and publishing papers on it. They've put a lot of effort into perfecting the operation too. If you like blunt doctors who won't coddle you and will push you to lose all the weight you can, there is Dr. Cirangle, my surgeon. If you like a surgeon with a gentle bedside manner, there is Dr. Jossart. So you can pick what style works best for you. Oh, I will say that the office staff can be disorganized. You need to keep on them sometimes.

Did you appeal to the DMHC? They always make Kaiser overturn the requirement in every case I know about.