Alytastical

Hope everyone is doing well and hanging in there. I keep getting asked if I would recommend the surgery by pretty much everyone I know. The first couple of months, I would not have recommended, to be honest, I was pretty miserable and had some serious stalls in weight loss. Now though, I'm doing great and have lost 50+ pounds. My surgeon told me not to expect continued weight loss like this due to my thyroid & height. Yet, I'm still chugging along. Drinking plain water is getting easier for me, though I still usually have a lemon wedge in there. I am FINALLY able to drink 1/2 a protein shake in one sitting. Hair loss is intense right now regardless of all of the vitamins. I've also had bronchitis, a bad cold, and ear infection since thanksgiving. So I have been struggling with working out while being sick and not breathing great. Trying to go easy on myself.

I am right there with you. I've looked up some recipes online. I found a really cool ricotta recipe and spruced it up with some unflavored protein powder for extra protein. I can only eat about 3 tablespoons of food right now so it will last me for about 10 servings. It is a container for ricotta (low fat part-skim) cheese mixed with an egg, spices to taste (garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley), and mix that with a scoop of unflavored protein powder. Then I put 2/3 a cup of low-sugar tomato sauce on top and 1/2 a cup of low-fat part-skim mozzarella cheese. I baked this at 350 for about 30 minutes until bubbly. It's really good! 96 calories per serving, 4.6 grams of fat, 4.3 carbs, .3 fiber, 1.2 sugar, and 8.1 protein. I also made a protein pudding that went down really well. I got sugar free fat free pudding mix, mixed with 16 oz of fair-life 0% milk (fair life milk has more protein) and 2 scoops of protein powder. It makes around 18 - 1oz servings for 33 calories a pop .1 gram of fat, 2. carbs, .2 fiber, .7 sugars, and 5 grams of protein. I love sharing recipes and hope this helps.

If I can give you hope, I am so glad! I've heard this mindset is really normal and goes away with time. I drove by a bunch of fast food places and rolled down the window to get some smells in, but I know if I had a bite I would be so sick. lol If peppermint settles your stomach, have your tried peppermint tums? I swear they are the only flavor tums that works. I'm supposed to take 3 a day. G2 and Powerade zero went down horrible at first, they were/are too sweet. I've found the colder the better for me, also G2 lemon-lime flavor is not nearly as sweet and mixing them a bit with lifewater (which has electrolytes) helped cut some of that sweet taste for me. My hospital experience wasn't all I hoped it would be, but I made the best out of it. They eventually gave me Toridol, but it didn't touch the pain. Then they gave me benadryl, which just made me sleepy and in pain and I needed to walk around to relieve gas pain. I did feel like that first day they were cruel. I hope you get to feeling better soon! Just be patient with yourself, you're doing great. This is such a hard time.

I had so much pain and even threw up blood in the hospital I was so nauseous. But I attribute a lot of that to poor pain management. They only gave dilaudid for pain and I am allergic to it (it stops my heart). So I went hours and hours without anything. That gas pain is unreal, walking does help! Mylicon infant gas drops helped me a bit too, especially when I would swallow a bit of air. Going to the gym is a great idea. I was so surprised I drank it all! Warm and frozen goes down really well, it's the room temp things that are giving me issues. I miss food as well, really looking forward to purees. It gets better everyday, so take it one day at a time. This time last week I was barely getting in 20 oz a day and thinking what the heck did I do to myself.

It IS crazy how different everyone's experiences are. Some people are in a lot of pain, some people not at all. Some can drink right after, some aren't allowed to. There really is no telling exactly how someone will do with it because it is so different for everyone. I had some drainage on my top incision. I think keeping them open a bit allowed for drainage without having a drain in. I was able to take a shower the next day while I was still in the hospital. My incisions just look like little cat scratches right now only not nearly as red. The only one that might take a little longer to heal is where they pulled the stomach out. The staples did hurt the longer they were in though and I was very glad to get them out. I got down 12 oz in 30 minutes today, I was so proud of myself! Progress is definitely a good word for it, thank you!

It is amazing to me how different everyone's experiences have been so far and how different each bariatric program is. For example, I wasn't allowed any liquids for 24 hours and then it was just powerade zero and G2. Update: I am totally off tylenol and just taking my normal medications alongside prilosec. Getting in all 64 oz of liquids in, it really is like a full time job. Monday, I move onto pureed foods. I've lost 18 pounds since surgery, which is totally nuts to me. I keep telling myself that this is the healthy way and I am following doctors orders. Incisions are almost all healed. Overall, I can't believe how far I've come in 9 days.

No! Not your internal staples. Those are there for life. My doctor put staples on my incisions on the outside of my stomach on my skin. I had five incisions and ten staples total. You absolutely should not be cut open again unless something is very wrong like I leak that cannot be fixed with a drain. No worries!

I got my staples out this morning and my incisions feel SO MUCH better. It didn't hurt at all for those who may be worried about it. I finally got my 64 oz in yesterday, and it's still tough. One more week of clear liquids and then I move onto purees. Down 14 pounds since surgery and I still feel like I have a bit of bloating left. Overall, hanging in there and getting back to my normal routine now that I am a week out. It's amazing how far you come in a week, this time last week I was in so much pain I thought I wouldn't make it, now I'm off my tylenol regularly.

I am doing so much better today. I was able to eat two saltine crackers (to liquid consistency) and I got 45 oz of fluid in yesterday plus all of my medications. So I'm pretty proud of myself. It's rainy here today so I'm going to go walk around the mall and try to feel normal for a bit. Only weird thing is I feel so weak, but I attribute that to lack of food. Pain is being managed with 1000MG of tylenol. I've lost 7 pounds since surgery.

Thanks for the advice. Last night I was struggling with my fever and the pain. I think I had just let the pain get too high before I took any tylenol. The tylenol still isn't doing a great job at keeping the pain down. I almost feel like I'm being punished for having this surgery? Idk... I can definitely relate to the shot deer. It feels like I was hit by a semi truck and stabbed 5 times. I'm trying to walk out this gas pain in my back, but it's just not coming out. Had to call the office this morning because they never called in my lovanox shots... *sigh* I really wouldn't recommend the program here in Kernersville NC. I feel like they have too many patients to keep up with. After surgery my surgeon prescribed me dilaudid, but I cant have that due to it causing cardiac arrest back in Feb. So I had to wait HOURS for pain medicine until he was finished with another surgery. Then he came up and told me I wasn't walking enough when I was throwing up blood and in so much pain I couldn't think straight. I had already walked like .75 of a mile too when he said that. I think I'm just really disappointed with the care I've gotten.

I'm gonna be honest with ya'll. I had my sleeve done on the 9th, around 7AM. That was the most pain I've ever been in, in my life. And I've had a c section after 24 hours of natural labor WHILE I had Hellp syndrome which means that my liver was failing. That was a BREEZE compared to this... It's day 3 now and it still hurts to swallow, but I'm home now and trying to get liquids in. They didn't prescribe me any pain medication, other than 500MG over the counter tylenol so I feel like my pain is just getting back up there. I walked 2 1/2 miles the first day and 4 miles yesterday. Gas pain is still intense in my back. Kind of regretting getting this done, but I'm praying it will all be worth it in the end. Just trying to mentally push trough these next couple of weeks.

Me too! I can't believe the 9th is tomorrow. I am all packed, and childcare plans have been made, medication is all picked up for afterwards as well as the foods and drinks I'll need. House is all cleaned. I'm on clear liquids today and had to drink milk of magnesia. My goodness it was disgusting. I think I've VSG nested as much as I can! Now it's just time to get it done!

I have been overweight for as long as I could remember. Like most of us here, I would go on crazy diets, or severely restricting diets and lose some weight, but I would get sick and then fall back into old habits. Every time I would work out and get into a good pattern, I would end up sick as well. I had an extremely hard time giving birth with my son and had Hellp syndrome. Finally, I lost all the weight from that and was under 200 pounds for the first time in 10 years. I started to get chest pains and was told to stop exercising until they figured it out. The weight crept back on even though I was eating in moderation. Finally, they determined nothing was wrong with my heart. The past time, I joined the Y and I ended up in the hospital with pleurisy. They gave me dilaudid for the pain and it caused a vasovagal reaction and I went into cardiac arrest and died for 3 minutes. I found out through this experience that I have lupus, hashimotos thyroiditis, and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. Pretty much a syndrome of autoimmune diseases. I was told that I would never be able to lose the amount of weight that I needed to naturally. So weight loss surgery was suggested and I got into a great program that takes it very seriously and considers it a lifelong lifestyle change. I read a lot of books and blogs and vlogs and posts on here. Finally, while I know due to my thyroid I may never hit my goal weight, I will be a lot healthier and my joints will feel a lot better. Surgery is tomorrow and I am so excited to start this new journey.

October 9th here! It seems I may have a longer pre-op diet than most (4 weeks). I've lost 14 pounds so far though and I have two weeks left, so I can't complain. I've stock piled on the sugar free jellos I actually like, bought bone broth with protein in it, found protein juices that are low carb and sugar. I'm getting nervous that my son will be upset if I have to be gone more than one night (he's 3 and very much a mamas boy), so I am hoping for the best recovery possible.

Due to my BMI, my doc is requiring me to go on the pre-op diet for 4 weeks. Surgery date is oct 9th. At first, I was floored and thought I couldn't possibly do this. I have to replace two meals a day with a high quality protein shake, and one meal can be 3 oz of lean protein and a cup of non starchy vegetables. I can also have two snacks such as a boiled egg, or two TBS of greek yogurt with 1/2 cup of veggies. The first four days I wanted to just slap somebody. I have children, and had to fix them meals and even feed my nephew his food. It was hard touching it and not tasting it, but being 10 days into it, now I'm fine. We had some really ripe bananas and I made healthy banana bread for my son that I didn't have. I've fixed my husband and son dinner and it's been ok. Managing the hunger. Drinking broth when hunger does get bad and making sure to get my water in. I've lost 14 pounds in 10 days, so I feel like I can't complain. My only problem is such a high protein diet is hurting my already sensitive kidneys. I talk to the doc about this on Monday to see what I should do about it.

Mine is on the 9th!