ShelterDog64

@@katragina Are you just feeling awful or do you truly regret having the surgery? The first week SUCKED, pretty much, but things have gotten better and better as the weeks have passed, no regrets here at all.

This is much more polite, but not good advice. I'm firmly on the 'food is fuel, not treats' side of this WLS thing and you'll see me object nearly every time I come across a post, especially from someone new to this, talking about 'treating yourself' and advising people to 'try it and see if you can handle it' with known trigger foods like chips, sodas, candy, ice cream, etc. You don't stop eating your 'bad' foods until you're healed then start introducing them again...get over that mindset. To the OP, guacamole can be a good choice at 3 weeks if it's fairly smooth...I wouldn't eat big chunks of onion or jalapeno. I eat avocados with a spoon, right out of the skin, with a bit of balsamic vinegar. Very high-quality fat and a surprisingly high amount of fiber, too! Enjoy! Avocado and fiber, yeppers! I've never been able to eat avocados because of this problem. It is a crazy natural laxative for me. 30-60 minutes after eating and I'm glued to a toilet seat. Which is one of the reasons I love them! This high Protein diet is a little, um, congesting?

It's such an inspiration to me to see someone do such a fantastic job with this surgery! Thanks for sharing your story, and I'd bet money on you getting to that final goal

This is much more polite, but not good advice. I'm firmly on the 'food is fuel, not treats' side of this WLS thing and you'll see me object nearly every time I come across a post, especially from someone new to this, talking about 'treating yourself' and advising people to 'try it and see if you can handle it' with known trigger foods like chips, sodas, candy, ice cream, etc. You don't stop eating your 'bad' foods until you're healed then start introducing them again...get over that mindset. To the OP, guacamole can be a good choice at 3 weeks if it's fairly smooth...I wouldn't eat big chunks of onion or jalapeno. I eat avocados with a spoon, right out of the skin, with a bit of balsamic vinegar. Very high-quality fat and a surprisingly high amount of fiber, too! Enjoy!

I think there is something in between "cuddling" and "a kick in the ass". I'm neither a cuddling person but I'm also not a fan of this so called "tough love" (which is more often than not simply just plain rude). I'll never understand people who want to be yelled at instead of receiving factual criticism. I just don't get it. --- Not directed at a certain user: As for myself: I don't want to be cuddled but I also don't want a swift kick to my back. Give me factual criticism and keep sarcasm and whatnot to yourself! So if someone holds the opinion that he/she needs to give me some "tough love": Just F*** Off! If you're not able to voice your opinion in a civilized kind of way, just go away. Your "advice" might not be as unique and special as you think and I'm sure there is someone who's able to voice the exactly same advice in a more factual manner. I think you've lost sight of where this post is...it's in Rants and Raves. And I think telling people to fuck off while demanding civility isn't a very sound piece of (high) ground to stand on, for anyone. Again, thus the function of a place where we can blow off a bit of steam while still being civilized out in the rest of BP.

GENEPRO and unjury unflavored I have found that both of these are good as far as not changing the flavor, but they do change the texture for me which is unpalatable to me. Not disagreeing, but just to contrast...I can't detect any texture change with genpro, but Unjury tastes AND feels weird to me. If you can get a sample or borrow a scoop from someone in your support group, do that. Everyone's taste/sensitivity is different.

@@trekker954 A few thoughts: Dairy Protein is easier for me than animal protein. I know you said you don't care for it, but I can't imagine doing this without using greek yogurt. Have you tried several brands and flavors? I'm not a big cottage cheese fan but you can't beat it for protein, so I eat it. I also use GENEPRO in my morning coffee, plus if I have Soup or refried Beans, I add a scoop to that. If I have a cup of tea later in the day, I add a scoop. There's no way you should push beyond your restriction to get protein in. That would be antithetical to the surgery we all just had. Your nutritionist must have some rationale for requiring 3 meals a day, I'd ask for the reason for it. If you've never been a snacker/grazer, maybe she'd feel comfortable supporting a 4th or 5th meal a day, or maybe like @@Bufflehead's NUT, you could add Protein shakes without them counting as a 'meal'. That wouldn't be the case with my program, if you eat it you count it, but clearly there are variations and semantics to deal with in comparing us all.

You said 'banana support'! Hahahaha...

@@summerset ** don't know how to deal with patients who have an addiction as strong as causing them to engage in really harmful eating behaviors in the healing phase. I guess maybe they should not have had surgery in the first place at the current stage of their addiction. However, I feel awkward making a statement like this, it feels too judgmental.** I don't think it's judgmental when you can see the failures we see every day here. Maybe it's the difference between just lack of willpower and true food addiction...the sleeve has been enough, at least so far, to facilitate the cure of my lack of willpower, but I'm not sure it's capable of providing the same for true addiction.

sleep apnea is something your anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist will be able to manage during your surgery. They'll ventilate you with positive pressure through your endotracheal tube. They deal with obstructive sleep apnea all the time, particularly in WLS patients. It's vital that they're informed of the severity of your apnea, but you shouldn't be concerned about not waking up or having complications due to it. Also, you'll need your CPAP in the hospital afterward.

I love Duluth Trading Co.....anyone with Ballroom Jeans deserves a little love!

@@summerset If I can lay my hands on the study (and I'm not even sure it was a full study, it may have been an abstract) I read, I'll cite it. Our medical library did a literature search and printed it for me, it's somewhere in the mass of papers I accumulated during my self-education re: sleeve/RNY/DS. Seems to me I couldn't get to it on the non-subscription site. It didn't address post-op care at all, just pre-op education, iirc.

@@busybeebug I had my surgery June 21st and my stomach started rejecting meat about a month ago. Not sure what the deal is, but I'm almost completely on dairy, Beans and Protein powder right now. Meat, pork in particular, has made me foam, slime and vomit...not exactly craving it right now, but I've been told this is probably a phase and will change.

@ My guys (52, 22 and 19) really like boxer briefs. They're a little sexier than the standard brief (I don't know a single woman who thinks tighty whiteys look sexy) and they're not all loose and weird like boxers. They all really love the BoxerJocks that UnderArmor makes...they're pricey but they also last forever and they can wear them to work, to class and straight to the gym. They hold all their bits in place nicely, apparently.

@@Aggiemae You can add unflavored Protein to almost anything...refried Beans, cottage cheese, any drink whether its hot or cold, applesauce, yogurt, broth, etc. If you get into the habit of doing that, you can eat more 'real' food and use fewer shakes for supplementation.

Link to full paper? Been a smarmy bitching long? Good GRIEF, she asked for a link to a paper and you call her a smarmy bitch? What the hell???

Link to full paper? I read something similar to this in SOARD, which is the journal of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. But it didn't address time between decision and surgery, it addressed education between the same. I think sometimes people decide that time = education when that's not necessarily the case. There are differences of opinion about practice norms across the entire spectrum of healthcare, but there are known best practices as well. For example, our bariatric surgeons implemented an educational pathway in response to studies that showed improved outcomes in well-educated patients. They've also discontinued routinely having patients do pre-op liquid diets, as there is no evidence of improved outcomes by doing so. These are considered best practice decisions, but they also have some silly things they've left in our post-op instructions, like not using straws post-op. This is the preferred outcome for most of for-profit healthcare, unfortunately.

And I am sure a lot of them had to wait months for surgery and had to go through pre-op programs to get approved. Or is there any evidence they all had no or only short waiting periods? This is what I was thinking, summerset. I'm unconvinced that waiting time correlates to education and then to success. I moved very quickly through our pathway, about 60 days start to finish. I learned very little from the slew of classes, appointments, meetings, etc. that I didn't already know from my extensive research, prior college education and self-education. I spent those 60 days seeing the same people, some of whom absorbed a great deal and some who might as well have skipped the whole thing, judging by their attitudes, questions and issues during post-op support group meetings. I think some people are learners and some aren't...you could have a year of classes and there will still be those who eat fried chicken on their way home from the hospital.

I took pjs to change into before I started walking and my own slippers...I hate hospital gowns and those socks. Hygiene items, phone/tablet/chargers. A book if you don't read on a tablet.

I'm almost 5 months post-op, so this will look like a lot of volume to you: Breakfast is a cup of coffee with a scoop of Protein powder, for 20g +/-. Sometimes I also have a greek yogurt, but I'm not a breakfast lover and the protein in my coffee keeps me going until later in the day. A single-serve greek yogurt is 15g protein and if I don't have it for breakfast, I'll have it at lunch time. Mid-morning, I'll have a cheese stick (8g) or a couple of apple wedges with a tablespoon of Peanut Butter (4g). Mid-afternoon, an ounce of almonds (6g) or 1/2 cup cottage cheese with pureed no sugar added preserves (15g) dinner is usually two ounces of some kind of protein, like salmon (15g) and a couple of ounces of a vegetable. Before bed, if I need more protein for the day, I'll eat more almonds, or another cheese stick. Other things I eat regularly are Beans. 1/2 cup of refried beans with a T of grated cheese (6-7g) Lentils, 1/2 cup with sauteed onions (8-9g)

@@Babbs I've never really eaten meatloaf until I had my VSG...now I LOVE it! I never thought of making mashed cauliflower to go with it, but it sounds perfect. Thanks for sharing!

@@LisaMergs Lentils with arugula...that's heaven to me! The bruschetta...that's in a jar, right? I'm going to make this for a party we're having next weekend

I make a warm salad out of red quinoa, a small amount of butternut squash (or sweet potatoes), caramelized onions and chicken thighs. A little olive oil and balsamic vinegar makes it moist and gives a little tang. Now that I'm off meat I make it with chunks of goat cheese, instead of chicken. I just add them at the very end so they don't completely melt into the dish. Lentils have been a family favorite for years, so I use them instead of the quinoa sometimes...I like the tiny dark green Du Puy lentils because they hold up better and don't turn to mush. High Protein and easy to digest, I love them! When I use lentils I like to add some roasted garlic to the dish, too.

@@Butterflywarrior I HATED Isopure unflavored, it was disgusting. I use GENEPRO, but I'm going to keep the one you use in mind just in case Genepro becomes intolerable as well.