Tufflaw

Well the liquid diet was no fun, but actually in retrospect (and while I was doing it) not as bad as I thought it would be. I was actually fine during the day, it was the evenings that were tough. Dropping 25 lbs in 2 weeks was pretty nice too! I can't speak to the other surgeries, but I did have an appendectomy and umbilical hernia repair a year before I got sleeved and the recovery was tougher for that and more painful, for what it's worth. Can't speak for your doctor, but I wasn't intubated when I woke up, they had an oxygen mask on but they do that for everyone. Good luck, don't let your nerves talk you out of saving your life!

It's so strange how all the different doctors have different rules. I did a 2 week liquid diet pre-op, but I've heard of others who only had to 3 days. Or 2 weeks but could have a small "real" dinner. And apparently my doctor is a rarity in allowing soft foods starting the day after surgery. Now I have two scrambled eggs with cheese every morning, totally fills me up. i keep trying to think of new things to keep from getting bored. Yesterday my whole family was eating turkey meatballs for dinner and I wanted to join in, so I microwaved three of them (3 oz), ground them up in the food processor, heated up 1.5 oz of meat sauce, mixed it all together .5 oz of shredded cheese, heated it up a little more in the microwave, and it was DELICIOUS!

Not if their doctor told them not to.

No problem! I just eat it with a fork and sometimes throw some shredded cheese on it. I'm still on my soft food phase and can't eat veggies yet so this is all I can do. Good luck!

Have you ever seen Finding Nemo? Remember the scene with "fish are friends, not food!" Well, right now, fish are your friends, AND food. Tuna fish is great, it's filling, and has ZERO fat and ZERO carbs (get the stuff in Water, not oil). For dinner tonight - 0 carbs, 0 fat, 26 Protein, and only 120 calories! I added some lite mayo, 1 carb, 3.5 fat, 0 protein, 35 calories. Also put 1 oz of shredded cheese on top just for taste, 1 carb, 9 fat, 6 protein, 110 calories. Healthy, protein-rich, low carb, low fat, low cal, and I was stuffed at the end. Very filling. If you're craving bread, I've heard good things about a cauliflower crust pizza - just make the base and don't put any toppings on if you don't want, and you've got a bread-like snack that's much healthier. For several days in a row I had homemade chicken salad. I put 4 chicken breasts in a crockpot with some low sodium chicken broth and a little barbecue sauce for taste. Next morning they were really soft. Ground them up in the food processor, add some some lite mayo, sweet relish and mustard, and it's great! One 4.5 oz serving (are you ready for this?) - 0.5 carbs, 3.1 fat, 39 (!) protein, and 196 calories. That's half your protein in one meal. And it's filling too. Just plan ahead, I know it's a cliche but if you don't plan to succeed you're planning to fail. One last suggestion, I've been eating Shelly's Ricotta Bake almost every day (it's amazing) - one serving is 6.8 carbs, 12.5 fat, 16.3 protein, and 206 calories. You can do it, just remember why you got the surgery in the first place. Nothing worthwhile is easy, just tell yourself that you WILL do it.

I brought my tablet to read - never opened it. Brought my CPAP per doctor's recommendation and never used it since we had to get up every two hours to walk. I used my phone to text a few people but was too exhausted for anything. And I did bring some chapstick which was handy.

Never heard of those, are they similar to pork rinds? Never heard of those, are they similar to pork rinds?

My hospital experience was fantastic. Rather than repost everything I posted a really detailed log of my experience here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/385831-three-days-post-surgery-the-journey-so-far/

I had to do one, actually I don't know if it was my doctor or my insurance that required it. I have Empire BC/BS, and my surgeon was the one who did the procedure.

25 lbs on the 2 week liquid diet, then a little under 15 lbs the two weeks after surgery.

It sucks, I did drink a lot of caffeine and cut it all out day 1 of the liquid diet. Your body is probably craving carbs and sugar. Not much to do, gotta just push through the pain. Keep telling yourself just a few more days.

Yeah the recliner helps a lot! Very comfy and easier to get out of than a bed. Time wise my surgery was 26 minutes long, and I was under total for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Six months for me. First consult was sometime first week of May 2016, surgery was Dec. 21

I told a few of my colleagues and then it just spread from there. Nearly everyone has been very supportive which is nice. There's no way I could have gotten away with saying nothing, several of go out to lunch a few times a week, they would have known something was up even before surgery with the liquid diet.

They told me that they push a board or something up against your feet to keep them from moving and that might be the cause of the pain.

I got a heparin shot every 8 hours, I think I got either 4 or 5. Pain in ankles went away after a few days, just disappeared one day.

Received my explanation of benefits from my surgery, and it was over $43,000!! 100% covered by insurance, and they actually didn't even discount it, they paid what the hospital was asking. Unbelievable.

So she was fine with you as long you were the "fat" one in your relationship, but now she's going to hate you when it's the other way around? If she's serious, tell her to go fuck herself.

I use MyFitnessPal. I have the free version and it shows more than just calories. On the bottom of the Diary page click on Nutrition, and there are three tabs. the Calories tabs shows just calories. The Nutrients tab shows Protein, Carbs (breaking it down into Fiber and Sugars), Fat (breaking it down into Saturated, Polyunsaturated, Monounsaturated, and Trans), Cholesterol, Sodium, Potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron. The Macros tab shows Carbs, Fat, and Protein with a little pie chart for the day.

Premier Protein shakes from costco are part of my daily routine. They taste delicious, are 11 ounces counting towards your daily liquids, and have 30 grams of protein. I have one every morning about an hour after Breakfast.

The danger of lifting after surgery is that there are holes in your abdomen from the surgery and if you strain too much you can give yourself a hernia which will require another operation to fix. I had an appendectomy last year and they found an umbilical hernia also which they repaired and it SUCKED, much worse recovery than after my sleeve.

I have a 4 and 6 year old. The 4 year old was 3 when I started my 6 month diet. She likes to sit on my lap and lay on my "belly pillow". I told her when I started the diet that in a little while my belly pillow was going to get a lot smaller. She asked me why and I told her it was too big so I needed to make it smaller. She looked at me and said "That's OK daddy, I love you just the way you are." How freaking cute is that?? I didn't mention it again until the day before my surgery. That evening I told both girls that they weren't going to see me the next day because I had to go to the doctor's and I'd be there overnight. They asked why and I told them that my tummy was too big and they needed to take out part of it. They said OK and went back to watching TV. After the surgery my wife and I told them several times that they had to be very gentle with me and not to touch my stomach since it would hurt for a while. My 2nd day out I think, my 6 year old went to give me a hug but went too fast and slammed her head right into my main incision and it was pretty bad, she got very upset and now she's very cautious around it. They ask me every day how daddy's tummy is and they give me gently hugs and kiss my stomach. I told them pretty soon it would be all better.

Things continue to go well, feeling better every day. Hit another milestone this morning, down 40 lbs since day one of my liquid diet (12/7/16) so that's awesome. i think my two incisions that were bleeding have stopped, I'm not wearing the bandages today so we'll see how that goes. Hope everyone is doing well!

Every morning for Breakfast I have two scrambled eggs with 1 oz of shredded cheese (about 270 calories). About an hour later I drink an 11 oz. Premier Protein drink (160 calories), then usually when I'm at work I have 16 oz Water after that. For lunch I've been mostly eating Shelly's Ricotta Bake which is amazing (about 200 calories)! (EDIT: It won't let me add the website for the recipe, just google Shelly's Ricotta Bake). If I don't have any portions left, I'll have tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, or turkey salad which is all homemade and pureed (calories vary). I usually have 4 oz and sometimes I'll put shredded cheese on top. dinner is more of the same, one of my pureed salads. Non-water drinks - either Powerade Zero or Diet Snapple. For Snacks, either Yoplait light yogurt (90 cal) or sugar free Jello pudding (60 cal) - today I had one after lunch and one after dinner. Or I might have one or two Sugar Free ice pops (15 cal each). I've had no problems getting my protein in and I never feel hungry. In fact the other night I overdid it with the egg salad, I tried 5 oz and felt uncomfortably full after, so I reeled it back to 4 oz. I've tried some seafood - I bought some flake crab meat from Aldi's and it was OK, not great. I might try again and made a seafood salad with it. I also got some Mahi Mahi from Trader Joe's and it was underwhelming. Very bland even though I made it with lemon juice and a bunch of spices. I have one piece left and may try a seafood salad with that one. Good luck!

Yeah you want to keep them up - 500 or thereabouts is way too low, like dangerously low. Your body might just shut down and you won't lose at all unless you increase the calories, which seems counterintuitive. I was sleeved on 12/21, and post-op I was around 700-900 calories a day, slowly slowly increasing. Today I hit 1200 for the first time, only notable because the MyFitnessPal app gives you a warning at the end of the day if your calories are below 1200! Still losing.