PatientEleventyBillion

Never regretted it. Went into the situation educated, didn't have unrealistic expectations to be let down from, didn't expect instant results. It's a tool that's part of a life-long process, and it's certainly not for everyone, especially those with no patience, or no willingness to implement long term changes.

I've already tried some things I hated before, like pretty much all Asian food (my wife is Chinese) , and sure enough, from what I've tried already, I still hate it just as much post-op.

How do you guys know which incision your stomach was removed from?

Does this use the splenda-like sugar substitute? Or like stevia? I've been interested in frozen pops but the ones at the store either are 1) the fake sugar which tastes terrible, or 2) the regular sugar ones and have like 22g of sugar per pop, as in, might as well have a 7-Eleven slurpee. So mostly I've just been resolved that I can't really have any good tasting frozen pops that have normal sugar but like 1-3g each, or get confirmation that stevia does well in frozen pops.

Yeah, the whole concept of detoxifying the detoxifying organ seems pretty funny. Taking care of the liver really doesn't require anything special, just as you said, don't load it up with carbs. Loading it up with carbs causes the liver to convert excess carbs into glucose and then fatty acids which then infiltrate the liver itself, destroying useful liver cells like hepatocytes. The liver is quite forgiving, as I've found out first hand, so doesn't need any gimmicks.

You should have been told how much is adequate per day, and per meal, and followed those instructions. Part of having 90% of the stomach removed, especially certain parts of it, is you lose the hormone that regulates satiety. So you don't get the obvious triggers from your stomach that you're hungry. That's why one sticks to a plan their nutritionist or dietitian goes over with them. Also, you do not eat until you're full. If you're full, you've had too much.

So many angles with this..

5 days post-op, wanting to compare it to people 4 weeks post-op.. wat?

I had talked to my surgeon about taking pictures of my liver far in advance of the surgery. I reiterated it when I was at the hospital. Given the prior advanced state of liver disease, I wanted to see my liver for myself. He didn't have to but he did. I'm gonna hang this picture of my liver next to the picture of my mother in law.

Well, compared to how I was a year ago, I see myself not dead in 15 years.. that's a plus I assume.

What's your food intake? As in more specifically.. cals, carbs, protein, etc.

Personally I wouldn't have fruits that late out. Though, there are some fruits with fiber in it to reduce the impact the carbs have. So long as you don't touch fruit juices. Fruits were a type of food I loved, it's unfortunate that most are just too carb laden.

For liquid stage, of the things you didn't already mention, I had (and stopped having at soft solids) Fruit smoothies (frozen strawberries, bananas, blueberries) mixed w/milk and yogurt drink. Unsweetened applesauce Glasses of 2% milk Soft solids Ragu meat sauce w/blended lean ground beef Refried beans with melted block cheese String cheese Glass of 2% milk once every day or two Come in a few days when I do regular food will be reintroducing burgers and chicken nuggets. Didn't have to worry about family get-togethers, my family are in the US and Germany, in-laws are safely across the country (Ontario, Quebec).

Yes, which means be more careful getting up. They cut through muscle and tendon in several spots in your torso area, expect pain for a while.

Unnecessary. A simple low carb, low cal, high protein diet is more than sufficient to shrink the liver. Example foods that I used: - Lean ground beef, lean chicken, etc. - Almonds, peanuts, low carb peanut butter - Eggs - String cheese Plenty of others, but those were my bread and butter. The best way to know during a diet like this that your liver is shrinking is you'll lose weight.. maybe not right away, but after a few days or a week or so and beyond. Not only did I lose 79 pounds on a 3 month pre-op diet consisting of this, but I had pictures of my liver taken, and from stage 3 fibrosis before pre-op, it was in great shape on surgery day.

I've heard of all kinds of stuff with prevention of extra skin/sagging/etc. Since I have no idea if any of them are true, I'm just doing absolutely nothing about it.

Indeed. Lifestyle changes won't let you down.

Chewables are fine just make sure to chew them very well.

Keep us updated I hope everything goes well.

My suggestion is, if you're not going to chew thoroughly you should be careful what foods you eat. For example, during pre-op diet I had a thing for almonds, but I didn't chew them sufficiently and they absolutely tore me up giving me hemorrhoids coming out.

Hear hear. I have no idea though how a poster was on their liquid phase and getting under 10 (was it?) grams of carbs a day. Pretty much everything I ate from unsweetened apple sauce to yogurt drink to milk was all over that in one serving. But, I'm back on high protein foods w/soft solids so happy I can cut that stuff out.

I got off the hydro but my BP is still hovering between 105-120/65-90 so sometimes slightly on the higher normal side. I don't anticipate I'll need to be on metoprolol for much longer.

Why bother doing it a second time? You'll just wind up in the same position.

There's no need for an education about marijuana, we know what it does. It's just ironic that this is the forum for learning lessons, and here we are. I prefer edibles and strains that help with my ADHD (smoking = carcinogenic, and I already have respiratory issues), I'm just not dumb enough to do it while trying to find a job.

This is the perfect forum for the lesson of choices and consequence.