2ndSpring

Yes, plus you can also subtract sugar alcohols, like xylitol and erythritol . I avoid those now, but consumed them right after surgery because they were in the protein powder i liked. @ayanna_vsg - Are you wishing to follow a ketogenic diet? or just limit carbs? or are you counting as a tool to make sure you are following the doctors plan? or are you asking because you are on pre-op prep diet? different answers to each. For the long term, I find that staying around the 50g mark is best for me. I am not currently in ketosis, but I avoid all white carbs because they trigger bad things, both in my body and in my head. I get carbs from fruit, veg, & beans.

its ketosis from being zero carb right now. Your body is adjusting to burning fat as a fuel source and the stank breath is an unfortunate side effect. - btw, your breath stinks too LOL it will taper off in a few weeks. drink as much as you can to flush the ketones out. I relied heavily on warm decaf tea.

i agree with @Navigating the Wilderness. I've had fruit as a snack on its own a few times, and I got a little queasy about half the time. so now, I always eat fruit as part of a meal and don't have a problem anymore. Also, are you chewing well and still eating slowly? Whenever I forget, and eat the way I used to, I feel sick for a while.

what worked for me was putting the fork down between every bite. I don't pick up the fork again until I'm done chewing that mouthful. it took many months and I still screw up every so often.

Sorry some of your questions werent answered. what to pack is there a special shampoo I can use for my hair: I packed a ton of stuff and never used most of it. I wore the hospital gown and walked around in the little booties they provided even though I had brought my own stuff. You won't feel good, so you won't care. the biggies are a phone, charger, ponytail and chapstick. Make sure to ask them for the little mouth sponges and a cup of water. You can't swallow, but you can swipe them around your mouth. I made good use of the little push button for pain meds and slept a lot in between the nurses taking me for strolls. You're out of there the next day and can shower when you get home. I am worried I won't eat anything good again: You will need to change your relationship with food and will need to change your definition of "good". Once you get past the post-op recovery and pureed stage, there are so many delicious foods that are also healthy - you never need to be bored. Also, your new tiny stomach won't be screaming at you to eat all the time. You will need to let go of junk food, sweets and white carbs - they were fake friends anyway. Good luck next month!

Wow - the last time i wore a minidress was middle school! way to go - you look amazing.

I recommend that you wait. At 4 weeks, you may still be very exhausted with low energy. Some people bounce right back, but it is a big surgery and for a lot of people, it takes a while to get your energy back. Also, you'll still be very reliant on shakes and have to lug them around with you, and you'll also have to find soft foods to eat, which could be problematic in a foreign country. Have fun on your trip!!

I'm sorry you got sick right after surgery. that must be so hard, trying to recover from surgery and dealing with strep throat at the same time. I got dehydrated right after surgery too and had the same symptoms with the rapid heartbeat. It was very scary. I got an IV in the surgeon's office and felt better immediately. After your doctor wasn't able to give you an IV, did she send you home? maybe at the ER, they would be able to get an IV in you? Make sure the water you are drinking isn't ice cold. cold water tastes better, but in the first few weeks, your stomach is super tiny and swollen from the surgery and the cold water can make it contract, giving you even less room. Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.

Agreed! I never had any of the horrible gas pain that everyone else described

HI - welcome!

I use the Roslyn office too. The doctors at the group are great. They have a ton of experience and super low complication rates. I saw Dr Angstadt and he is very kind and willing to answer any and all questions. The PAs are very nice as well and you will see mostly them post-op. There is also a good support group that meets there once a month on a thursday night. The next one is 7/13. It is open to pre-op and post-op. I had my surgery done at St. Francis. They had me come in the week before surgery for a mandatory educational session with a nurse practitioner. I know Mercy also does the same thing. That session was really informative and went over everything in a lot of detail. You'll feel better after that and can ask all the questions you want. The post-op diet is a little different than what I've seen described on this forum. Basically, we skip the post-op liquid diet and can jump into soft foods as soon as you get home and are ready. In the first week, focus on staying hydrated. Drink your shakes when you can, but your stomach is very inflamed and sore and it is hard to get in anything so you want to put hydration above nutrition. The nurse from the hospital will call you a few days after you are home to see if you are ok and to make sure you are drinking enough. As soon as you are ready, add in soft protein foods like scrambled eggs. Month 2 you can add soft cooked vegetables and will have 3 oz of protein with 1 oz of veg for each meal. After the 3rd month, you can change one of the day's veggies to a fruit. That's kind of it for a while. 3 oz of protein and 1 oz of veg/fruit, slowly weaning yourself off the shakes. We don't get white carbs added back in until maintenance.

when was your surgery?

Ooops. I was typing away and realized that you posted this on the bypass forum. Hope you don't mind a response from a sleever..... My doctor brought me in for my last appointment about a week before my surgery date and that was when I had to make my final decision on what surgery I was choosing. Up until then, the approvals and diet and prep were the same for both surgeries, so he said he didnt need to know until then - I think it only matters to them as they plan out the surgery schedule for the day. - so don't feel pressured if you change your mind a few times. they are both good surgeries. each has pros and cons. the trick is to pick the one that matches you. Here are some factors to take into account.... reflux, diabetes, how much you need to lose. malabsorption, and complication rates. If you follow the averages, RNY has greater and quicker weight loss rate..but be careful with those stats. So many people don't make lasting changes and they screw up the averages. By the 2 year mark, for people who are making lifestyle changes and really using WLS as a tool and not relying on it to do all the work, the percentages are the same. Good luck in September

I was always a big water drinker, but after surgery it tasted really bad and I had to force myself to drink it. I drank a lot of warm decaf tea in the months post surgery. the water taste is back to normal now, thank goodness. In the first month after surgery, I also couldn't drink cold water. It constricted my stomach right up and further reduced what I could get in. I discovered this after getting dehydrated week 1 and needing an IV. My best advice is to focus on clear liquids this first week - your stomach is really inflamed right now so you may not be able to meet both your fluid goal and your protein shake goal until next week or so.

Tazo makes Decaf chai teabags. It's really good - strong chai flavor.

What I'm about to say is easier said than done and I don't want to pretend that I have beaten the scale demon down. I still struggle all the time with scale based disappointment and fighting the feelings of failure that can come along. But ideally...... The scale can be a great tool in our arsenal along with all our other WLS tools, but only if we change our relationship with it. We have to use it with the same emotional detachment that we feel towards blenders, measuring cups, food scales, etc. The scale will tell us on any given day how much water, muscle, bone and fat we are carrying that day. The scale goes up sometimes. That should be our cue to do some soul searching. As in.....have we stayed on our plan? have we been honest about quantities? If we followed our plan, then no worries, our bodies sometimes go through adjustments, especially with water retention. If we haven't followed our plan, then the scale is our cue that what we have been doing is not giving us the results we want. I log my weight once a week, but peek at the mid-week mark, to minimize surprises.

I started drinking with a straw at around 4 months. The one thing I found is that you have to be really mindful and paying attention when drinking with a straw. Otherwise old habits will take over and you can suck down way too much at once and it really hurts for a minute.

Way to go Jack!!!!! congrats for the new lifestyle and attitude. You are living proof that if you stay on track, that the results will be there.

I chose to keep it private. I am proud that I had the surgery, but I know myself and I know it would get under my skin when people have to voice their opinions even though they are not educated on the topic. Like this....I knew someone who had the surgery and they gained it all back...or... weight loss is all about calories in vs calories out, have you tried dieting. grrrr... Or the people who will monitor you from now on..... are you allowed to eat that?

I was allowed the day after but was instructed to keep my back to the shower head for the first week. I think that was so that the water didn't pressure wash the glue off.

I don't snack (for behavioral reasons, not because of any nutritional reason) I eat 4 meals a day and make fruit part of 1 of those meals. Each meal is 3-4 ounces of protein and then 1-2 ounces of veggies or fruit. For a max of 5 ounces each meal. Fruit comes pre-packaged with fiber, so doesn't trigger any cravings for me when eaten as part of a meal.

This is a really good question. We all get tested as part of the pre-op routine, but what about down the road? A lot of people are prescribed proton pump inhibitors and antacids long term after surgery and could encounter side effects. SIBO is a major concern. It is nearly impossible to get rid of once you have it. My daughter has it and we traced it back to PPIs she was on for about 6 months.

Hi Laney, thanks for starting a new group. sorry I couldnt make the meetup - definitely next time.

I am sorry for the last minute notice. I won't be able to make it to our meetup. I'll miss seeing you all. I hope you have a good time.

It just happened to me too! It was my first time flying since losing weight. The TSA lady showed me the scan, there were like 5 or 6 dots all showing up around my lower abdomen/groin area. I do have a lot of loose skin there. I didn't trigger the alarms when walking through the regular detector, just when I went through the full body scanner where you have to lift you arms over your head. I had read about this on prior discussions on this board. Consensus has been that it is not the staples because they are very tiny and would not trigger scan. It is something about the extra skin that confuses scan.