Berry78

Oh, wonderful!!! I'm glad you feel great.. you should! Congrats!!!

I'm so sorry! Dang bands not staying where they belong... Hoping for a speedy recovery for you!

The knot in the throat is irritation from the breathing tube during the surgery. It can take a while to go away.. I wanna say a couple or three weeks. Annoying, but not harmful. (It probably feels like there's a lump that you want to swallow, but it doesn't go anywhere).

Sounds like a plan! Guys have it easy... they know when to stop when they can count abs! Lol!

Pretty sure we're saying the same thing. The only difference is our comfortable end point. You want to end (after the 20lb bounce) within a "normal" BMI. If I simply touch down at normal, and bounce into overweight, I'm ok with that. Part of my reasoning is my own history. I DID touch down at 150lbs for all of a month or so, back when first married. I looked good, too. But, I saw how hard (impossible) that was to maintain, and 170 was a lot more reasonable for me, for long term maintenance. And that was back then. Now I'm looking at all this potential loose skin. If I drop another 60lbs, I couldn't possibly be happy looking in the mirror (I don't think). A bit of padding will help the skin issue.. and ultimately if we're talking HEALTH, I won't see substantial health benefit changes between the 170 and 150 mark. In fact, it's possible that if I were to get sick at some point, having a bit of reserve could come in handy. Don't forget that extra skin has weight too, so you may have a 150lb body, but the scale says 165. 15 pounds of loose skin isn't unheard of. My hubby once got either strep, or a tick borne illness. (Positive for Strep, negative for tick, but he was SOOO sick.. way sicker than strep usually makes you by its self). He didn't have much excess weight on him to start, and he dropped 40lbs in a month. Looked like a skeleton. Antibiotics kicked in, and he got better.

Yes, fingers definitely change sizes! Rings can be resized, but it may be better just to hold off on the "actual" ring. In the meantime, you could get a pre-ring, ring. Can't have too many rings...

Oh, Geraldine, YOU LOOK FABULOUS!!! AWESOME JOB!!!! You are my absolute hero! Now, I hope you don't mind if I use you as an example to FluffyChix. Ok, Fluff.. and she is still "overweight"! Lol. When we look at her, if she said "I want to lose at least 55 more pounds to get to the lower range of a healthy BMI".. what would you say to that?

Definitely take it as you lay down for bedtime. Take it after drinking or meals, so it can stay in your stomach as long as possible. When we drink now, the liquid pretty much just pours right through the stomach, washing anything that is in there out. The liquid antacid works while it is in contact with the stomach, not after it leaves.

Wow, Fluff, you make it sound like I said for him to not lose another pound! There is a danger we all face, and it is called Anorexia. Anorexia does not EQUAL being too skinny. Anorexia can LEAD to becoming too skinny. Many of us have a skewed perception when it comes to our body image. When we're heavy, we tend to think we're smaller than we are, but when we get down to a normal weight, the pendulum can swing the other way, where we perceive we're still much too heavy. Feedback from friends and family can be useful to modulate our perceptions. Thank you for pointing out that friends and family can start getting concerned before it's warranted. That is absolutely true. That's why we need some kind of metric to go by, and the body scans are a super idea. That way it's no one's "perception".. it is actually cold, hard numbers that don't lie. A size 34 pant, if there is no overhang/love handles/muffin top.. is actually pretty close to ideal for a man who is 6'1. But, lots of guys carry excess above the belt, so "size 34" may not mean much at all.

My energy levels went up and down a lot postop. The body, once it gets into fat-burning mode, is actually very efficient, and you don't feel tired from lack of calories. You DO feel tired from having just had major surgery.. but not necessarily every minute of every day. I was SUPER winded for the first couple months doing things that wouldn't have made me winded before. So, yes.. things can be tough with that. And walking is important for the recovery.. it helps rid the body of the gas they use in surgery, and helps prevent blood clots. Frequent little walks are more important than long distance ones. Pain management should be an issue you bring up with your team so you can remain as mobile as possible postop.

Alright, then you have a plan. I do think you're more concerned about the HCG than you have to be. Just get a note from the abortion place that you had an abortion and the date, that should take care of it for the surgery. It will all work out, I'm sure!

I'm hearing a lot of uncertainty. I think you should talk to someone (preferably a doctor) to find out just how risky this pregnancy would actually be. You should absolutely do what is right for you, but I hate for you to make this big of a decision based on an insurance deductible. Money comes and goes, but regret might be there forever. You may also be feeling some pressure because of your hubby getting a vasectomy. You are closing the door to the possibility of a post-op pregnancy as well. (There are less permanent forms of birth control if you decide to go ahead with the surgery now, and leave the possibility of another pregnancy open for a later date after you've lost weight). Don't worry about depriving your kids of a sibling. Kids don't like to share, anyway. This is about you and your vision of the future.

I actually don't remember.. Maalox or Mylanta will work. Just read the bottle for dosing instructions. And it's only for a couple weeks until things settle down. When I looked up antacid to try and remember which I took, it popped up Alka Seltzer. WHATEVER you do, DO NOT TAKE Alka Seltzer. People have died from taking it right after surgery. The gas bubbles were more than the poor stomach could handle..

It is usually recommended to abstain for the first 6 months to a year. There are several reasons. 1. Your liver is likely not the healthiest yet since obese people tend to have fatty livers. Then, as we are losing weight quickly, the liver has a bigger job to do as well. When we drink, our blood alcohol levels get quite a bit higher than non-bariatric folk after drinking the same amount. Higher blood alcohol levels means more work for the already-taxed liver. 2. Addiction transfer is a real thing. People with food addictions need to be extra cautious about this one. Those of us with addictive personalities would do best to not ever start drinking postop. 3. Since we can't eat much, it's hard to not drink on an empty stomach. Which means more drunk faster, and possibility of passing out, injury, and accident goes up. Also hypoglycemia. 4. Alcohol may irritate the stomach, and in Bypass patients it has been shown to cause ulcers. 5. Most of the alcohol-related posts made here are people asking about drinking, followed up by people having had a problem after drinking. One or two passed out cold (after a single serving), several have addiction transfers, me personally.. I had a single glass of wine after 6 months, and almost couldn't walk. (I hadn't done the research at that point to know to stop after 1/2 the glass.. oops.) If you still decide to indulge, drink only half a drink after a good meal, and have a designated driver.

Welcome!!

It IS a difficult decision.. but I guess I'm confused. You've gone all the way through the process, and now that you get your date, you're thinking of backing out? Was "backing out" always a possibility in your mind? Was it one of those.. "well, I'm not sure I wanna do this, but just in case I decide to, I'll go through the process and decide at the end"? That kind of open-ended decision is fine, IF that's what you did. On the other hand, maybe you decided early on to do it, there was no question that it was the right thing.. and these are just last minute cold feet... When you started the process, did you make a list of reasons? Many times, if we get nervous, we can refer back to all the reasons we wanted to pursue the process in the beginning. There IS a bit of a leap of faith required. I know for me, once I set my mind up to do it, that was it, I didn't let my mind carry me away from the decision. Sure, it's scary, but then I'd remember some show or movie (or real life) that I'd seen where someone has an accident, and their life is changed forever. Things can and do happen all the time, and if something were going to happen to me from the surgery... well, who is to say that something wouldn't happen due to me NOT having the surgery? Maybe if I wasn't safely tucked away in the hospital, I'd be out driving on the highway and get into a terrible accident. It may seem like a weird way to look at it, but our perceptions that we can control anything.. that's the illusion. Get the surgery, don't get the surgery.. the choice is yours. Which way leaves you with the fewest regrets?

I came across an interesting study. Basically, people with the sleeve end up with GERD mostly because of unrepaired hiatal hernias. People without bariatric surgery get GERD because of ... guess what? .... hiatal hernias. Anyone with GERD should be carefully evaluated for a hiatal hernia. (According to that study, it looked like only 5% of GERD was NOT due to HHs.) There is a complication of the sleeve.. where basically the sleeve gets pulled a bit up through the diaphragm (maybe because of vomiting). This is essentially the same thing as a hiatal hernia, and may explain some of the correlation. In this case, a bypass could fix it, since the intestine kinda "pulls" on the pouch, keeping it below the diaphragm.

Eggs are hit and miss. Lots of people have trouble. The first time you try eggs, cook them extra soft, and eat them when you aren't in a hurry to go anywhere. That way if they don't agree with you, you have time to recover. This is a good habit to get into with any new food. Good luck! (Eggs are wonderful for me).

You may want to shop for another PCP. Mine does tons of bloodwork, no problem. As a DS patient, this is SUPER important! Keep on fighting for proper care. Good luck!

Mushroom and pineapple pizza and a fruit pie (I don't remember, cherry or blueberry).

Welcome! The forum you've chosen is correct. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I have no physical problem, but so far have been just too lazy to start exercising. I'm 7.5 months postop with a sleeve. I'm 39 year old female. And I've lost 100lbs. (I still have about 50 to get to goal). So, long story short, you absolutely can/will lose weight without exercise. Will you get to goal? I don't know. But at least I'm proof that a person can lose a substantial amount. Now, my metabolism is higher than most, and if yours is slower, then you'll have slower results. A good indication of the weight you'll lose postop is how well you can lose preop. I lost 16 pounds on a strict liquid diet in the month before the surgery.

I can't really say yes or no about the tums. The texture is ok, it's just what it is made of I'm not sure about. Maybe someone else knows. Always best to ask your team about meds. The capsule is probably ok. I could swallow those better than actual pills early out. Ice chips are great! If you consume a lot of them, weigh them out since frozen water takes more room than liquid. Sometimes people have to sleep in a recliner for a bit. A pile of pillows can do a similar thing.

I just went to the grocery store. Preop, I got my protein powder from GNC and Walmart. Postop I couldn't tolerate it, so stuck with dairy and other food.

I'm not sure if that is a question, but I think I'd call that moderate diabetes.