Taoz

Not so great with pyjama pants! I'm starting to trip over these ones now and only started wearing them a month ago.... Gotta be careful I don't do myself an injury! Thankfully in another week or two I'll fit properly into the next smaller pairs I bought for winter (size 18-20) and can donate these barely worn ones for someone else.

Awesome! Welcome aboard and I'll keep a place warm for you on the losers bench!

I'm a terrible singer but it doesn't matter when no one is in the car with me My little Blue car will be buzzing all over the place this week as I see about getting stuff DONE. Need to get lots of walking in again now and beachside is where it's at (I live in a very hilly area and the climbs are a bit extreme for me at this stage - I wasn't allowed to walk the area for at least a few months after birthing my kids). I managed almost 300 calories today, but got in 45g protein according to MyFitnessPal (thanks to having a protein water for breakfast). I'm going to try half a meal replacement shake tomorrow to keep pushing for at least 60g protein asap.

I consider myself something of a foodie too, and while intentionally NOT DIETING the past decade (because it always made me sicker and fatter in the medium to long term) I had been working on resolving any problematic eating behaviours (late night snacking, eating take away when I'm not organised/well enough to cook etc). I've always been the only cook in our family, and have been dating my husband since I was 15. I also discovered over time some of the food intolerances I've developed, with Aspartame, Soy and MSG (in it's many hidden/processed forms) being primary headache triggers for me, and present in pretty much all take away and processed food. So even though I wasn't dieting, I was progressively moving towards healthier from-scratch cooking for other health reasons. When I did previously have potato or corn chips, I'd only have the plain ones, to avoid all the flavorings and MSG, and I'd either have the REAL ice cream/sugar rather than the artificial sweeteners that made me ill - thankfully stevia is a newer sweetener option that seems to agree with my system. While my diet is modified at the moment with the post surgery liquid/puree/soft solid stages, I will eventually be back to eating the same good healthy natural foods I (and my family) were eating pre-surgery, just in smaller amounts, and without any breads/rice/pasta/extras adding in extra unnecessary calories. I have been developing a large veggie patch where I grow quite a lot of our veggies now, and am happy that when feeding the naturally home grown stuff to my family we get fresher, better tasting and more nutrient dense food (I scrambled the past few weeks to get this years carrots, broccoli, snow and sugar snap peas, garlic and onions all planted pre-op). I make real chicken stock from scratch for our soups, I cook at lot of our chicken and steak sous vide for delicious flavor and texture (the super-soft chicken will be extra good for my soft foods phase!), I just need to steer clear of pasta/rice based dishes for myself, but still enjoy making the odd spag bol or creamy tuna mornay for my family to enjoy. Now more than ever there are better quality/health food options available everywhere, and most cafes and restaurants should offer plenty of suitable options for bariatric patients who are well into regular food phases. I very much look forward to new years dutch oilebollen at my parents house this year, but will likely be thouroughly enjoying and savouring one or two, not 6+ and it will probably be my breakfast and half of my lunch that day With regards to your wife, I expect things will be fine. Other peoples comments about your weight or weightloss are going to suck whatever situation you find yourself in. You may find that your surgery success does prompt your wife to more seriously consider surgery herself later, or to just work to improve her own food and portion size choices in a way which complements your future eating together. My husband is 6'3" and built pretty solid, currently 106kg (I've almost made it below his weight 5 days post op, woohoo) and should probably be about 90kg to be in "normal" BMI, he is super happy for me, and we will just see what happens with his weight as I become less prone to illness and exhaustion and am more keen for things like bushwalking and other more physical activities with the kids. Good luck to you, and I think you're making a great decision for your future health.

I checked with my surgeon's office today, as not driving makes me crazy. They said I am cleared to drive from 48 hours post procedure. I have minimal pain and no movement restriction, so was VERY happy to take myself off to the shops for an hour this afternoon ON MY OWN. Will also allow me to get out for some walks on my own on/near the beach the next few days before the rain sets in on Wednesday night, and letting hubby (who took the week off to manage the kids with school and anything I needed) can get onto some of his own projects during the school day. win win

So, I've officially turned rebel! My surgeon wanted me to stay at the hospital ANOTHER night and have staff discharge me Sunday morning (surgery was Wednesday morning) because I had thrown up twice back on Thursday but I dug in my heels and opted to discharge at 4pm today (had to sign a form stating it was "against surgeons advice"). I had realised both times the vomiting had happened was because I was made to go from a long period of laying down on the bed to sitting/standing upright and immediately swallowing tablets without having 5-10 minutes for any more gas to bubble out of me first. (thankfully the vomiting didn't hurt much because my tummy was pretty much empty). once I started insisting that I be upright for at least 10 minutes before swallowing any tablets I never vomited again... it just meant that for "controlled substances" like endone pain killers they had to take the tablets away with them and come back 10 minutes later for me to swallow them. I also had to take more pain killers yesterday than I would have liked, not because of gas or incision pains, but because overnight Thurs/Fri my IV point slipped out of my vein and started pumping lots of fluid into my arm. I had someone check the IV at 4am as my arm was feeling a bit sore, but they said it looked fine, That reassurance plus an injection of morphine not long beforehand allowed me to sleep through until I woke at 7 with my arm now REALLY swollen and throbbing. I had to keep up endone all day until the pain and swelling subsided 24 hours later. I still got 500ml oral fluids in Friday and didn't need to have a new IV put in my other arm. I was only receiving "bariatric soups" at mealtimes which I was initially told was made with "real stock" because the aspartame in optifast triggers nasty headaches for me, however it turned out that the "soups" were also loaded with other forms of MSG, the other major additive I told them I have to avoid because of headaches. I ate half a small bowl of scotch broth soup at lunch yesterday, and some soup at dinner last night, and today the 24-hour MSG headache roared into gear so I had to alternate codeine and endone to manage the severe headache today, again not pain from the actual surgery. This left me with nothing but water that they could supply that was "safe" for me to eat/drink, only my sugary tasting protein waters and a little chicken broth I brought in (I tried some formulite shake but making it without a blender and crushed ice meant I just couldn't stand the texture/taste). I still got nearly a litre (4 cups) of fluids in orally today before 4pm. I also didn't do too well with the loud call-bell buzzers jerking me out of sleep half the night, it did a number on my nerves every time, especially with those patients who liked to really LEAN on their buzzers for ages. still woke me even with ear plugs. And I walked... I stalked up and down those hallways for days... many laps.. even made a few friends in my travels (including a lovely lady sleeved by my surgeon 18 months prior who was in recovering from skin removal operation, and who pulled me into her room for a good hour long chat). So yeah, I tried first to see if I could get surgeons permission to leave this afternoon/evening rather than spend another interrupted night without decent food, then switched to leaving against instructions when I was told that was going to be my only option allowing me to leave today. I am super happy to be home. Have had a little REAL soup from my freezer (cauliflower and sharp cheese made with genuine home chicken stock), had a decent shower, threw some washing in to wash (hubby will hang it up), and now sipping slowly at a stevia-sweetened decaf mocha before bed. Feeling 10 times better already (even with the two mega loud children in the house), and the remnants of the MSG headache. Good night all, and best wishes to you and your journey! Taoz

Good on you making your own. Always healthier and tastier with the real stuff. I'm really sensitive to msg (in all its many hidden forms) so I make my own chicken stock to use in soups (and other dinners like casseroles) that are safe for me to eat without triggering headaches. Be aware that after veggies are cooked for hours to produce stock/broth pretty much all of their flavour is drawn out into the liquid, leaving the remaining solids quite bland tasting (I just throw my spent veggies away with the bones into the green waste recycling bins here). So don't be disappointed if your blended carrots don't have a lot of taste.

I'm 38 and suffer with very heavy painful periods. I was due about 23 April but it never arrived (I assume because I was almost 2 weeks into VLCD at that stage) and I've been expecting it "any time now" since. No sign yet, even after being sleeved 2nd May. Although hubby had the snip 18 months ago I even did a pregnancy test to be totally sure not pregnant before surgery day! Hearing about how heavily period hit post surgery, I'm kinda hoping aunt Flo has lost my address and just never returns!!!

You might need to either take smaller bites, or just stop after two bites at this stage. The sleeve is VERY restrictive with solids (versus allowing liquids to move through more easily) especially so soon post op?

I pity you guys having this kind of swelling pain! It's gone back down to normal size now, just a bit tender in places. Do watch it with your op if your veins are tricky, you Danny want ouchy leakage.

As I'm the family cook, I'm going to focus on watching the others enjoy the food I make them for a while (after I go home tomorrow). We'll get to enjoy better sized real meals of lots of lovely healthy natural foods soon too. We just need to be patient with our bodies while we heal and adapt.

Yep, it's a bit lonely walking on your own (and i was feeling like a bit of a weirdo walking back and forth laps down the hallway, dodging all the medical staff). I did make a friend during one of my walks though, a lovely lady who was sleeved by my surgeon 6 months ago and was back in recovering from a tummy skin removal op. We had a lengthy chat in her room and exchanged Facebook details to keep in contact during recovery. Now that I have permission to leave the ward and no IV trailing I can at least go up and down a few flights of stairs on my walks. Thank goodness the halls aren't clouded with gas

*hugz* what pain meds have they sent you home with? Sucks when pain catches up with you

Right at the bottom of the screen when I look at the website on my mobile is a kind of global ticker recording how much weight everyone on bariatric pal have lost. You can change your current recorded weight in that ticker window too.

Unfortunately most Stevia based shakes/powders also contain a sugar alcohol to help balance the taste (plain Stevia can have quite a strong aftertaste) . So make sure you check the full ingredients list of any Stevia sweetened one.

Hi baribetty, I'm doing mostly ok. I was still taking endone a few times a day yesterday, but that was more needed for the pain in my arm after the IV spike moved out of my vein overnight and made my arm really swollen and sore with fluid build up - took all day to subside and it was far more painful than my incisions at the time. I dropped to paracetamol and coedine tablets last night, and just paracetamol this morning however still slightly nauseous and still being given tablets for that plus buscopan to reduce cramping. I had a bit of pain in the middle of my chest this morning, and was surprised when I figured its actually hunger pain (was barely ever hungry on 3 week pre op and not hungry first few days post op). I'm now working through a formulite meal replacement shake in small sips as breakfast (can't have the hospital standard optifast because of aspartame intolerance) . Did the hospital move you down to oral pain killers before they discharged you? The initial Morphine is pretty strong.

Almost 11pm here, so heading to bed. Didn't have to get a new IV in this afternoon as I swallowed 500-600ml fluids today, and will work on more tomorrow. I look forward to a sleep without all the IV noises. Goodnight all, and good luck to those sleeved today and tomorrow

Aww. Mine visited the day after surgery, but soon learned hospital is a boring place to be. Once they had seen me alive and well mine were ok. Hubby asked if I want them to visit again tomorrow (since I'm here until Sunday) and I suggested he ask them first, and as I'd expected they'd rather do fun stuff with him and possibly have a friend over rather than visit hospital again. I'll see them soon enough on Sunday.

I'm currently 2 days post op. Although I enjoyed the taste in my mouth of a tiny bite of the soup they provided, I'm not feeling any hunger yet, but did have quite a bit of gas and incision pains. Today my swollen forearm from the IV dislodging overnight and pushing a lot of fluid directly into my arm has overtaken the other pains, so I'm assuming the gas is getting better. 🙄 I find I am at risk of vomiting if i go from laying down straight to sitting up and swallowing tablets (even with only a tiny swallow of water) so I make sure I'm either standing or sitting fully upright for at least 10 mins for any new gas to bubble out before swallowing any tablets and they're staying down. I was on nonstop IV until the removed it early this morning though, so might have been more thirsty without that. Check with your hospital team if you are meant to be on a drinking schedule. Here they were just encouraging the occasional sip while taking medicines on first day post op. Today they want to monitor hour much fluid I manage to take in. Best of luck, and welcome to the losers bench

Ack, in pain this morning, not from my incisions but from my IV line! Forearm felt a bit sore in the early hours of the morning so I called a nurse to check that all was fine. She reassured me it was ok and I must have been laying/leaning on it awkwardly in my sleep. When I woke a few hours later at 7 though it was REALLY sore, and quite hard and swollen. During the night the IV to had moved out of the vein and was pumping fluids into my arm. Very ouchy. They removed the line immediately and I went and has my shower. They are waiting on the anaesthetist to stop by late morning and put a replacement one in my other arm (since I'm not getting much fluid in by mouth yet, I have to be really careful around swallowing tablets with a minimum of water to prevent it coming up again. The endone they gave me about 30 minutes ago has at least reduced the pain for now. Has pains are now minimal and I'm trying to walk a lot while I'm not stuck dragging my IV with me at the moment. Blood pressure is recording a bit high overnight and this morning, but that may be because of IV issue. Still not feeling hungry thankfully, but will work to get more water and protein water in today.

I'm still mostly doing good, but did throw up a little while ago after swallowing some pain meds that hurt. Boo. Managed to not lose the meds though. 11pm here so going to sleep soon.

Doing well over here. Just to my IV fluids for a leisurely stroll. Had a tiny bit of the pumpkin soup they brought me, and will try some formulite meal replacement shake later today. I'm expecting a few visitors later today so may now post again until tomorrow. Wishing everyone being sleeved now and soon the best of luck and rapid healing. 😍

My surgeon has a minimum of 3 nights stay just IV fluids yesterday, and the occasional sip of water this morning when taking small tablets. Starting don't bariatric fluids at lunchtime, but has to bring my own, as they only have optifast which gives me headaches. I wish I could go home sooner but at least the IV will keep me hydrated.

I'm doing ok folks. Has some pain and some nausea but they've kept me on various medications for it. I hated being woken up every 90 mins or so for them to change stuff on my drip or give other medication - the short sleeps reminded me of having a newborn again! I threw up once this morning after they had me swallow some medication, but it wasn't too bad. The leg Massage/squeeze things to help prevent blood clots were really weird but thankfully didn't stop me sleeping. I was so tired post op I was probably only awake and hour total between op finishing around 1pm and late night time.

Currently waiting in pre surgery waiting room. My day is here! See you all on the other side!!!