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You must be really well hydrated. All seriousness that is quite a feat, if you've been doing what you've supposed to have been doing then I would guess it comes down to timing. Perhaps your last weight measurement was off because you were dehydrated.

I'm pretty sure that your doctor didn't cut someone open to verify the size of their liver (perhaps that's what they tell you to scare you). The reason being not everyone's liver shrinks the same on the pre-op diet, which is why they use a device to move it out of the way if it is too big (I would think a "center of excellence" would be able to deal with that). Secondly they generally gauge whether your liver has shrunk by looking at your blood to see if the level of Alanine Aminotransferase has decreased.

I would think it would be much cheaper to replace than to resize. That said you could turn them into a blanket I would think pretty easily.

I like the trader joe's adult chewable multi vitamin. It has Iron, but I think generally you would probably need to take more iron than any multivitamin would contain, so you may want to look into a separate source. Keep in mind that in addition to not taking iron with calcium it also can't be taken with any antacid you may be prescribed post surgery (usually you will be on the antacid for 6 months post surgery. Both of which are meant for an empty stomach, which for me means that I wind up taking the Iron at night right before bed, rather than take the iron in the morning, then the antacid 30 minutes later, then breakfast (shake) 30 minutes after that.

My doctor has kind of a Laissez-faire attitude, he said by three weeks out the worst any food can do to you is make you want to puke it up, so start really slow and stop if anything gives you problems. I like egg whites so i do eat them a lot for supplemental protein, but I've been slowly trying new meats. I've had mahi mahi, tuna (salad), grilled chicken, chicken sausage, and turkey bacon so far. I'm not a huge steak person, so I haven't tried, but I would think that would be on the list of things to hold off on until you are more comfortable. I'm going to have some sushi/sashimi for dinner tonight to see how that goes. Trader Joe's has these spicy pickle chips that are great.

Start with stuff you like and chew. I'm still supposed to be on puree, but doctor gave me the go ahead to try pretty much whatever I like and I haven't had any issues so long as I chew it well (I love pickles). That said I think soft foods is pretty much anything that is easily chewed, cooked vegatables, fish, chicken, etc. You probably want to avoid beef jerky.

I don't know how this would get calculated but some of the folks who post here and have had the excess skin/fat removal surgery have said in total it took off about 10 pounds. Not sure how much that would vary from person to person.

Just an update and this is a fresh batch (that needs to soak for a few hours), but chia seeds while not a perfect substitute for tapioca do turn into something similar after soaking them in your tea mixture (like small tapioca pearls with a strawberry seed in the middle). Worked out pretty well. This mix was made with Oolong tea, Skim Milk, and two tablespoons of vanilla almond sugar free coffee syrup.

None of is terribly surprising to me (trust me we all cheated to some extent or another in the lead up to surgery), but the fact that you are still down 15 pounds tells me that you committed to preop diet plan pretty darn well.

Everyone's journey is different and FluffyChix is comming from a place of concern. I'm not reading into your comments the same thing she is, but she's right that to get the most out of the surgery you need to be prepared to stick to the program to a certain extent. If you think you can do that then the gastric sleeve is going to be a huge help.

Your statistics seem to back up what I was saying, that at 5 years out most patients have maintained the majority of their weight loss. I don't think any diet in the world can match that. I would also add that my Father is one of those success as a failure stories. Growing up he was 350lbs had an RNY and dropped to 180 before slowly over the next 10 years going up to and settling at ~225. He's part of that 80% that failed in your book, but he is so much healthier than he ever was before. As for the rest I'm not in any position to try to psychoanalyze the OP, but what she wrote sound more like she has been stressed out by the prospect of the surgery which has caused here less than ideal response.

Depends on the season, but Spring-Fall: Go to gym. Go to garage sales and look at other peoples crap (I do this more because my job doesn't give me much normal human interaction during the week). Wander around Homedepot. Go home where my wife is usually just getting dressed. Go wherever my wife tells me we are going/doing for the remainder of the day. Winter: I have a house in the Catskills that we use as our base for skiing at the local mountains.

To be honest I think this is probably the story of 95% of us. That's why we are did or want to do this surgery, because it will give us new tools to lose weight and keep it off so we can get off the lose then gain then lose then gain carousel. I understand that you may be nervous and people talk about the surgery as "life changing" probably add more pressure. At the end of the day though this is a relatively simple surgery with less than 1 out of 100 having any sort of serious complications, that will give you the ability to lose weight while longer term helping you keep it off. People talk about the risk of stretching their pouch and all that jazz, but at the end of the day that isn't the likely outcome because you will feel full (feeling hungry was always the reason I gained weight).

My pleasure.

Ok this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, but people here sometimes get frustrated and/or elated based on fictional movements of the scale (which is why you shouldn't weigh yourself daily). As a general rule a pound is going to equal about 3500 calories burned (give or take depending on a number of factors). So when you are operating at a caloric deficit you are going to be losing pounds, even if the scale says you aren't losing weight (I know that this sentence doesn't make sense). There are a number of reasons for this including (but not limited to); * "Water Weight" - and I don't mean just retaining water, but more specifically depending on the time of day your weight may fluctuate more than 4 pounds based on what you've had to drink and when you have urinated (64oz of water has no calories, but still weighs 4 pounds) * Food in the digestive system - This is why everybody complains that when they go from liquid diet to puree/solid they seem to hit a "stall." That stall in many cases is complete B.S., you are just building back up the 4 pounds of food that is normally in the digestive pipeline (on that same note unfortunately it also means that most likely 4 of the pounds you lost on the pre-op liquid diet weren't real losses). I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all get frustrated at times with our weight loss, but that when we are doing the right things there is absolutely no need to get ourselves down because the scale doesn't show us losing every single day. Rant over.

I wouldn't use the ensure as it isn't a great source of protein only 16 grams I think? You should get some whey protein powder (or whey isolate) and make it with fortified skim milk (Skim-Plus or Fairlife Fat Free) so that your 8oz shake is closer to 30 grams of protein. As for the stool that's normal after all you haven't eaten anything you are just evacuating some liquids (and some fat). Trust me when you get to the puree stage you are going to miss your current BMs.

Congrats!!! The lack of pain will make everything go so much smoother over the next week. Start downing those little cups of water so you can get out of the hospital ASAP.

I haven't seen any books or podcasts (not sure what "vlogs" are), but I think this fear of backsliding is to one extent or the other on the minds of most folks here. I don't know if there's a secret other than having a support system to help on your journey (this board is a decent place to find some emotional support if you don't have other sources).

Every insurance is different, but that sounds weird. I would assume you could use any doctors visit or checkup if you have seen your PCP provider over that time. Alternatively if your PCP will work with you perhaps they could document your weight in a way that would help you. For example a letter that says "I've been seeing Ms. Sasa since 2008 and in that time her recorded weight has been in the XXX to YYYY range."

I would also add that every one is different and if you are experiencing pain and/or discomfort that can also sap whatever energy you might otherwise have. As you heal everything will start getting easier.

Those side effects you mention are a largely a function of not properly taking care of yourself after surgery. As for gulping water (I'm not even 3 weeks out from surgery and I'm able to drink pretty much as normal when I'm thirsty. The only real difference once you are fully healed is that you will have a smaller stomach and get full faster. Don't let the irrational fears sidetrack you from doing something that will improve your life immensely.

I would probably wait for the soup, (and honestly I'm surprised smoothie would ever be on the approved list). I found my first week that a bit of a knorr builion cube made with 2x the water was about the most amazing thing I had ever tasted. Like cup o' noodles sans the noodles.

No I mean the gastric sleeve vs. lap-band. Both are laparoscopic and the only reason that the sleeve isn't outpatient is because they have to make sure you are able to get enough liquids on your own before releasing you. That said I was speaking about it in terms of long term complications, which is the reason that you find fewer and fewer surgeons willing to perform the procedure. All that said, obviously from a 30-day serious complication perspective lap band is going to be "safer" because as you said it's less invasive, but at this point I believe the serious complication rate for RNY, LapBand, and VSG are all under 1%. My point to the OP was that she has already been through this and the VSG is going to be no big deal.

This is such a minor surgery compared to lap band, nobody is rerouting any plumbing, just making your stomach smaller so you get full faster. Just curious when you say you had lap band surgery in 2007 does that mean this is a revision surgery or did you previously have the band removed?

I asked and was told "rice pudding" wasn't allowed. I'm not sure how tapioca breaks down, but I would assume it is similar in terms of rules. That said try it and if it gives you issues don't do it again.