LittleBill

I see you already got your answer, but I do have some similar symptoms with regard to an occasional lightheaded feeling when I stand up. Before surgery, my blood pressure was considered normal. Now, after surgery (I am just a few days ahead of you, Oct 11) my BP tends to run low. I bought a machine for home and have been checking it daily. The lowest it has been has been 99/61. I have been putting more salt in my food and talking politics whenever possible. It seems to be helping.

I am seven weeks out from my surgery. One of the things I was very thankful for was getting to the soft food stage in time for Thanksgiving. I did very well, eating mostly turkey, with just a taste of PA German potato stuffing, and a smaller taste of sweet potatoes. Three hours later, when everyone else was still feeling bloated, I did it all again. I was able to max out and then some on my Protein, and still have a taste of the other goodies without feeling stuffed or bloated, and I was completely satisfied the whole day.

I am six weeks plus out from my surgery, and doing well. I have been off work (I run my own small business) since surgery because of lifting limits, so I have been goofing off and doing hobby stuff or light duty around the house while I heal up. Today will be a big day, and a test for how well I have been healing. The little monsters, aka my four grandsons, will be arriving with their parents for Thanksgiving. The boys are seven, five, three, and one. Papaw (that's me) is one of their favorite people. They love to attack en masse. Wrestling with me is a huge thing for all of us. I am doing very well with my incisions healing up, but I will be interested to see how things go. Hopefully I won't be posting in the "I sprung a leak!" forum later on this evening.

Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours too!

The first round went successfully, and no one busted a gut (so to speak). I am 58, and for my birthday last month my parents gave me a brand new copy of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. This was one of my favorite books as a small boy, and my mother read it to me "every single day" by her report. Here is a pre bedtime picture of me reading that book to them for the first time. Even the baby sat still through it, although he was impatient to get to his book called Trucks Roll.

Interesting. I have found that I am the exact opposite on this. I hated wearing stretchy pants and slippers around the house, but since I came home from the hospital, I have been changing in the evening, often before dinner. Of course, I am trying to extend the use of my clothes for as long as possible, so some of them have gotten quite baggy on me. Maybe that is the reason. I hadn't thought about it until you posted.

Thanks. We always have a good time, but I need a day to rest after a weekend with them. They are one of the big reasons for doing this WLS thing. I want to keep up with them as they grow up.

We've gotten closer - mainly because we are both losing weight! Seriously though, my wife has been very supportive. We've been married almost 33 years, so we've been together through a lot of what life brings. Both of us have been the strong one for the other at various times. I don't see this as being any different.

I bought a pack of them, something like eight bags or so. They ain't potato chips, that's for sure, but you do get used to them. I keep them in my shop in case I am working and need a snack. I have yet to decide if I will buy more though.

I've been losing weight fast enough since I started my pre-op plan that I seriously debated going through the surgery. I went ahead with it. I am mystified by the cheaters though. This whole thing is to lose weight. Why sabotage yourself, especially after all the work, pain, and suffering? The people where I went prescribe an 80/20 approach to eating, once we get where we are going, or are happy with our progress. Each person is a little different in how they can apply that. It amounts to eating good food at least 80% of the time, with the other 20% allowed for treats and goodies. I'm probably running at 90/10 right now, and am losing at a very comfortable rate. I don't intend to jeopardize that by stuffing myself with the bad stuff just because I can. It has been too much work to get where I am, and I have a ways to go yet.

I never had that issue, but I can report it is easier to scratch certain areas of my body while driving.

One I would love to use, but someone might take me seriously is this: "Studies show that drinking milk is good for your teeth. Do you know what else is good for your teeth?" "What?" "Minding your own business!" I tend to confront things a little more head on than a lot of people, but I would not threaten someone, no matter how richly they deserve it.

Ha! I think the problem is solved. Those morons at Microsoft probably hate fat people. I had enough stuff in my junk folder to make my computer tip to one side. Hopefully they will get through now. I should add, I am using a Mac, so my junk folder on my computer is NOT the same as the one at hotmail. I had to go there instead of just looking on my machine.

I finally found this forum so I could write in about not getting notifications as well. There are so many subforums I was expecting to find a subforum dedicated to "sleevers who aren't getting notifications in their email" or "RNY who aren't blah blah blah". In any case. I have nothing in my junk folder. I will check with my ISP and report back.

That sounds like a good idea. I bought a five pound pail of the Gold Standard stuff, so I am going to be drinking it for a while though.

Okay, I experimented. I made up 8 oz of skim milk with Gold Standard Extreme Milk chocolate Protein powder cold, and then zapped it for a little over a minute in the microwave. It got very warm, and a little frothy on top. It did not clump, but I think if I had continued to heat it, the froth would have continued to build. I may conduct further trials. In any case, it is almost like drinking hot chocolate with a little whipped cream on top. It is very good, and since it is about 39° here with the wind blowing at up to 35 mph, it is going down very nicely.

We are doing the cooking, and will have all the traditional stuff for all the regular folks. My wife is gluten intolerant, so we have been doing diet workarounds for years. Now it's my turn. I'm only six weeks out, and I am a week into the soft food phase. I am sticking with turkey and a tiny bit of stuffing. If I get my Protein in for the day, I will go back for some cranberry sauce (jellied for me) and maybe a tiny bit of pumpkin pie for my following snack/meal. But after that, it will back to the salt mine (figuratively speaking of course). I figure eating less will give me more time to pontificate at the table during dinner.

I just took about $500 worth of fat clothes down to Goodwill last week. Some of them were hardly worn, but I was starting to swim in them. I look at it from this point of view. I am not eating at the local diner 3-4 times a week anymore, so I am saving a bunch of money there, and that can go to new clothes. It is a challenge though, finding stuff that fits and is not real expensive for the transition.

We've taken over the family dinners from my parents, as they are in their 80s now and just can't handle it anymore. Just getting them here can be stressful, but we are grateful for their presence. My sister-in-law always finds an excuse not to attend, so that relieves a bunch of stress on everyone else. She is an MD. Between the two of us, we know everything in the world. She knows everything except that she is a butthole, and I know that. All of us do, actually, but most are afraid to say anything about it. We will have four little monsters under the age of seven (aka grandchildren) running around, but they are well behaved for being boys, and provide as much comic relief as they do stress, so that's a wash. This will be my second family gathering since I started the pre-op program, and the first since my surgery, but I am not having any issues with food, such as how much I can eat. Once I am full, I am content, and waving stuff around in front of me has had no effect. My wie is very supportive, so anytime I need to blow off steam, I can vent to her. I can also disappear out to my outbuilding that is converted into the man cave if things get real bad, but that almost never happens. Now, if the doc were to show up...

Experiment and report back! I have been thinking about doing the same thing, so perhaps I will give it a try today. The worst that will happen is you'll ruin one serving, right?

I was on a "might as well be all liquid" diet pre-op. I was allowed a small bit of meat and a very few carbs for dinner each night. I lost 15 lbs in the two weeks I was on it. The week after surgery, I lost 18 lbs, but I think part of that was spare parts that were removed. I have slowed down a little, but am still doing about 5 lbs a week right now.

I did a search on this and found a couple of threads started by singers, but nothing real conclusive to answer my question(s). I am only about six weeks post op, so maybe it is early yet, but I have noticed my voice is not nearly as strong or as clear as it used to be. In the fat old days, I could stand in front of a group of 50-100 people and speak all day (6-7 hours) without amplification, often over the sound of running machinery. Now I can barely run my yap for half an hour of conversation. If I am attempting to sing a hymn in church, my voice starts getting all raspy halfway through the third verse. I seem to have lost a bit of range as well. Singing well will never be one of my skills, but I can go way low, like five notes from the bottom end of the piano - or more accurately, could go. Now it it very difficult to hit those lows. I've also noticed a larger than amount of mucus being produced by my system, which contributes to the problem. Is this something common? Are there others here who have had this issue, and is it something I can expect to improve as I progress along? Do I need special exercises? Do I need to talk to the people on my medical team about this?

Well, six weeks isn't quite months. I can hold my own for normal conversation. Long ones are what gets me, and I don't have the stamina I used to. I guess I'll just wait and see. In some ways I feel like it has been forever since surgery. Then my wife reminds me I'm still supposed to be taking it easy with a lot of things. I did have a very small hiatal hernia repaired during surgery. It was small enough that the doc told me he didn't see one during the endoscopy a couple weeks earlier. In fact, my throat hurt more from that than it did from the surgery itself.

I can see where that could be a possibility. I've never had any real problems with reflux though. Before starting the pre-op program, I was taking about three Prilosec a week. In the pre-op program, that dwindled to less than one a month. Since my surgery, I've been taking one a day on doctor's orders, so I've had no reflux since I can even remember.

How local? I had mine at LVHA in Allentown.