orionburn

It's going to come down to how well your surgery goes. For many they feel like they can do anything. Others are on lifting restrictions, deal with a lot of pain, and find they have little to no energy to do much. Once I was home (note I had a prolonged hospital stay due to complications) I was okay on my own during the day while my wife was at work. However trying to manage the house and dogs without her would have been a struggle that first week. I recall having a really bad dizzy spell in the shower one day and damn near passed out. Luckily I didn't and my wife was at home, but that could have easily turned badly for me in a hurry. Not trying to scare you...just things to consider. I hate to give a non-answer but this is one of those things where it really will come down to how you feel afterwards. Hopefully you have somebody that could at least stop by to check on you or be able to ring somebody up in a jiffy if needed. An alternative would be to consider looking into having somebody short term. Kind of like that Visiting Angel service for seniors. Even if it isn't about the physical need for help have somebody check in on you. Keep in mind as well that typically they (1) won't let you drive home from the hospital by yourself and (2) don't want you driving the first few days if you're on pain killers.

There's a lot of debate on the acidity thing. Honestly it comes down to how you tolerate it. I was allowed decaf coffee as well right away if I wanted it. Generally the concern with coffee is with the caffeine. It can act as a diuretic and since the early days can be so difficult to get fluids down they don’t want you peeing anymore than you need to! But again, there are a lot of arguments to the diuretic side of caffeine. From personal experience the only issue I had was transitioning back to regular coffee from decaf. I am much more sensitive to getting caffeine jitters since surgery. I had to do ¾ decaf to ¼ regular for a while, then went to ½ and ½, and up from there. I’m a year out and actually thinking of going back to half and half because I love my coffee but it doesn’t love me back so much.

As long as you take the right approach then use your experiences to help teach others. There have been people on here that intentially went around scaring people because they weren't happy with how their surgery went. That's the wrong way. However if you simply want to tell your story then by all means do so. I had a fluke spleen bleed on my third day after surgery. I don't have any hesitation in sharing that story with others, but I present it in a "hey it was an oddball thing, these things can happen, but moved on and am doing fine now." I know for others, like yourself it sounds like, that weren't as fortunate. There are risks with this surgery and people need to have an honest sit down with the pros/cons. Either way I'm sorry to hear that you've struggled. :/

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This site has a lot of good ideas. The ricotta bake was one of the things that helped keep my sanity. It was as close to "real food" as I could get and it tastes wonderful.

This site has a lot of good ideas. The ricotta bake was one of the things that helped keep my sanity. It was as close to "real food" as I could get and it tastes wonderful.

This site has a lot of good ideas. The ricotta bake was one of the things that helped keep my sanity. It was as close to "real food" as I could get and it tastes wonderful. http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html

That's awesome to hear that things went to smoothly for you! Also I'm jealous and hate you now. Seriously it's great to hear you're having a smooth transition and aren't having problems getting your fluids down. Keep up the good work and welcome to the other side with the rest of us losers!

Yes, I can read. There's only so much you can do with liquids...lol. Honestly outside of getting some different flavors of jell-o, broth, popsicles, drinks like no calorie Powerade or Propel, and protein shakes there's not much else you can do. Comes down to just having to make the best of it and tough it out. The first few days can be tough, but after the third or fourth day you kind of settle into it and just ride it out.

Didn't your doc give you a plan in advance with a list of what you can and cannot have? We all get told different things and doctors have their own way of doing things. Some were allowed lean meats, others (like myself) were not. Liquids diets generally mean broth, speciality bariatric/protein soups, shakes, and maybe things like jello. The liquid diet isn't going to be tons of fun no matter how you cut it. It's a short bit of suffering for a lot of long term good. Main thing is that you should be getting a solid answer from your clinic and not this website. Go with what your doc tells you to do.

Things that he should give you info on as it's pretty standard, but if not: What sort of pre-surgery diet will you need to do? Liquids? Low carb? For how long? What is the post surgery diet plan look like? What kind of follow up schedule will you have after surgery? (I'd be leery if they said none was needed) How long is the hospital stay? How much time do they recommend to take off after surgery? What to expect during the first month, three months, six months, etc. Wouldn't hurt to ask about what all testing needs to be done as well. A lot of times this varies between doctors and/or insurance requirements. Many require a psych eval (which is no big deal). Some require 6 months of supervised diet monitoring, some none at all.

A million times this. It's actually easy to regain if you really want to. Eating slider foods and grazing all day on the wrong things makes for an easy way to take too many calories in and start gaining again. WLS is a tool that needs to be combined with a lifestyle change. Over time your sleeve will stretch somewhat (it's supposed to) but as the others said it's pretty much impossible to stretch it back to its old size.

Are you asking if you're failing already (you have to answer that yourself)? How long did it take you to eat it? Are you eating other slider foods? What surgery did you have? Did you drink with your meal? Was it morning or evening? Was it a full moon? Seriously...if you want people to take the time to answer a question put more than 5 seconds into a post. That isn't asking too much.

Hope everything went well with your surgery, Fluff! Look forward to getting updates on how things are going.

Original poster - the person that started the topic and/or original topic the thread was about. People usually do this when a topic gets pages deep and has been side tracked.

One word of advice - don't chase the perfect "last meal" prior to surgery. Even if you think you've come up with the perfect meal you'll end up wishing/wanting something else the next day. Truth is in time you will get cravings for old comfort foods. Some I have from time to time and have no issue with. Others I haven't even bothered with. Moderation is the key for anything in life. Naturally you'll want to stick to plan as much as possible through the honeymoon phase. On the other side you'll be so excited at seeing results that it will help you stick to plan. It's when things taper off and you hit some stalls that it will be more difficult. Those are the times that test you. Don't go at it with the sadness of "I've never going to eat these things again" and feel like it's the end of the world. For me dollar menu burgers from McDonald's was at least a weekly thing for me before surgery. Haven't had one now in over a year and don't really care about it. Sure I get a craving for one every now and then, but I still get those cravings to have a smoke and it's been like 6 years since I quit smoking. Long story short don't worry about it so much. This is the time to take a good hard look at your relationship with food, and yes, it can be eye opening at how much control it has in our lives.

Just go in knowing that while there is always a risk look at how many people have been successful. Damn near all of us get the jitters in that final week. For me I'd been under a couple times before so that didn't bother me. It's a "hope for the best / prepare for the worst" mentality that worked for me. Thing to remember is that when you wake up from surgery even if you feel like crap remember it is only temporary and it will get better. If it wasn't worth doing you'd have a lot more of us that have gone through it be telling you otherwise.

Doctor plans vary, so don't be to surprised. Our goal was 64 oz of water a day along with 60g of protein (through shakes and such).

Scheduled for 2 nights but ended up being 5 or nights due to complications. By the last day I was about to climb out the window to escape. Loved the staff but after nearly a week there I had my fill.

Well done!!!

Best wishes to you, Fluffy!

Usually they don't want you to have anything red 24 hours prior to surgery. I've heard that it's more of concern of coughing up any phlegm or saliva while being under giving concern to the anesthesiologist that you’re bleeding. It’s simply a precautionary thing.

Before surgery I was taking a combo of Humira and methotrexate. Humira alone didn't cut it but that combined with the metho did help joint pain out a lot. Ironically at the time my arthritis started I hadn’t had any psoriasis related skin issues going on for years. It had cleared up when I was in my 20s, but probably 10-12 years later the joint pain started to set in. I had to give up my meds about a month prior to surgery as metho is pretty tough on the liver, and as with most arthritis meds it suppresses the immune system so they wanted me off of it to avoid delays in healing. As far as NSAIDS go be prepared to wave bye-bye to them for good. They don’t want you taking them after surgery because of the increased risk of developing ulcers. You’re pretty well stuck with Tylenol based products only. Sucks on the days when I have headaches because the Tylenol doesn’t do near as good a job as the ibuprofen did. Still, I haven’t had a single ibuprofen in over a year now and have managed fine. And I was one that was chomping down at least 1600mg a day even with my arthritis meds.

If you file it as FML then you should be protected, or have you not been there long enough to be covered under FML? I had initial complications but was able to return to work after 2 1/2 weeks. The main issue was having very little energy. I had a desk job so it wasn't as difficult for me to return and kept my days to 8 hours on the dot. If I had a physically demanding job then I would have needed at least another week. Keep in mind most docs recommend 2-4 weeks off not only for healing but to get into a proper routine of getting your protein and water in. It's so easy to return to work, get caught up on busy day to day things, and then get behind on your water intake. Do that too much and you're screwed.

Last two weeks... Me: I'm going to mind my carbs and lower my calories again a bit and walk some more and this and that and this and that... Scale: Hahahahaha. Yeah no you're not losing anything. This week... Me: Screw it I'm going back to my normal diet. Scale: Okay you lost two pounds this week.