CrankyMagpie
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Everything posted by CrankyMagpie
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That would be a very true statement: I am no rambo.
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Friend, this is the first and most important weight you need to lose. This guy isn't your responsibility, and you've already said you think he isn't going to be helpful to you after your surgery. Can you be sure he won't be a liability--sulking where you can see him or whatever, to try to make you feel bad? Can you trust him not to order pizza/cook bacon/whatever would be a food trigger to make you miserable while you recover? You're exes. Not friends. Let him rely on the kindness of friends, instead of relying on you.
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Should I buy a scale?
CrankyMagpie replied to BelleOfBatonRouge's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Wait until 1 month, or maybe even 6 weeks, after surgery. Every day someone new makes a post freaking out about a "stall" in their first month, and "oh no the surgery isn't working," but it's just their body reconfiguring and getting used to its new normal. It happens to everyone. I don't know about you, but I have an appointment ~10 days after surgery and another ~1 month after surgery, and those seem like fine times to get official weights recorded. (I do own a scale now. I had it before surgery. But if I didn't have one, I wouldn't buy one now.) -
Aspirin and ibuprofen (and naproxen and basically every pain medicine except Tylenol/acetaminophen) are super dangerous within a week of surgery, both because it interacts with blood thinners and because it impacts your stomach lining. My team wanted me off them for 10 days before, but 1 week is the minimum. If your surgery is on the 17th, you can't have any more of them. If you do, you need to delay the surgery. My team did allow Tylenol the week of surgery, so if you have pain, try that. The cheats and the alcohol have to stop, too, immediately. More than a week before, eh, we're human. But within a week of surgery, no, you have to follow your team's rules. You've got one week to make your liver as small as possible. A large, slippery liver makes the surgery more risky, because it gets in the surgeon's way. It's a week. (And then another week or more after surgery.) You can do it!
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They're making you drink 4 ounces in an hour, the day after surgery? Monsters. It took me DAYS to get to 4 oz/hour. Be strong.
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Should I switch to RNY?
CrankyMagpie replied to sleevegirl88's topic in Gastric Sleeve Surgery Forums
No, it was also a first phase of the RNY. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1381%2F096089203322618669 You are right that I should have included that it was a precursor to DS, though. This article refers to both: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2444866416300186#bib0365 -
Yep, a week tomorrow! I'm good, mostly! Better than I had expected to be, honestly. My arthritis has retreated. I think my immune system is just busy healing up the surgery damage for now, but it would be pretty amazing if it just stayed away. The biggest incision hurts some, but it's manageable enough that I haven't had even the Tylenol in days, let alone the harder stuff. There's a lot of gurgling in there, just like a pre-op empty stomach, which leaves me feeling like I'm hungry, even though I know I can't force liquids in much faster. I know it'll eventually go away. My sternum hurts with some things I try to drink and, very rarely, when I haven't had anything. I'm on Prilosec, so I am assuming the random times are because I've been doing my breathing exercises wrong or something. I dunno. I'm over 64 ounces of liquid per day without having to work super hard anymore, which is nice: I can take big enough sips now that I felt safe pulling out my favorite coffee mug (which is pretty big), if not the coffee itself yet. Decaf black tea has been the main source of hydration for me, outside of protein shakes, jello, and popsicles. I am, mentally, enough of a small child that the chicken noodle soup broth makes me feel better, when I have it, too. I'm in the high 50s on grams of protein every day (plus whatever's in the broth, who knows?), and I've broken 60 once. I've been doing short walks every day, in addition to the standard hourly pacing around the house; tonight's walk was over half a mile, and I feel good. (I don't want to push too far, too fast.) And it looks like you're about a week from your surgery! How are you holding up?
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I'm drinking the broth from a can of low sodium Cambpbell's chicken noodle soup. My spouse got the solid bits and enough broth that he feels like he has a thick soup. I think we're both happy with the compromise. Anyway, it's interesting to watch people's plans diverge. I just today worked up to not-premade shakes (Quest powder in Fairlife milk), and it was ... more of a challenge than the thinner premades. I managed it, with some gurgles and the occasional sternum squeeze when I took too big a sip. (My team didn't tell me to wait on them, but they're thicker, so I did.) But I'm on "no yogurt, and soups only if they've been strained" until probably Friday, when I have my post-op. I can't complain about that--I feel like anything but the thinnest puree would be problematic for me right now--but it's a constant source of amazement for me, how much plans differ.
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Pre-Op - Full vs Clear liquids...
CrankyMagpie replied to sleevemebaby7781's topic in Gastric Sleeve Surgery Forums
My team allows caffeine both pre- and post-op, but I'll be real: I haven't had any since my surgery (a week ago tomorrow). I've had a lot of decaf black tea. I haven't been brave enough to try decaf coffee, yet, but I drank a LOT of that in the week leading up to surgery. As drinking gets easier (as in, I don't always have to do those "just barely wet your lips" sips, but can do real swallows some of the time now) I can foresee being able to get enough liquids in that I am willing to add a caffeinated beverage per day, but for now, it's enough of a struggle getting to my liquid and protein goals. I'm not going to waste the time it'd take me to drink something that won't count toward the goal 😅 -
Should I switch to RNY?
CrankyMagpie replied to sleevegirl88's topic in Gastric Sleeve Surgery Forums
RNY-to-sleeve revisions happen, but it's apparently mostly because of severe reactive hypoglycemia and other really weirdly specific complications. Sleeve-to-RNY is more common in part because the sleeve was eventually conceived as a safer surgery to give people with much higher BMIs, with the intention of converting them to RNY once they lost enough weight that that was a safe option for them. They started doing it as a standalone procedure when many of those patients opted not to come in for the second surgery, being successful with just the sleeve. But sleeve-to-RNY absolutely does happen, still, especially for people who have uncontrolled GERD or who can't lose enough weight with the sleeve alone. In my pre-op testing they found some small lesions in my esophagus, which might have been esophagitis or might have been a small amount of GERD. I went with the sleeve despite that, because I also have arthritis and might need to take ibuprofen and other NSAIDs again, ever, in my life. (Also, I had been taking large amounts of NSAIDs over a long period of time, and they may have been responsible for some of the damage they found.) I can't tell you how that turned out for me, since I'm only a week post-op, but I will say my doctor didn't try to sway me toward RNY at all, and given that I also had a hernia repaired, I'm pretty hopeful that it'll all turn out OK. -
Just an additional perspective: when you buy yourself the liquid Tylenol, go ahead and get yourself some caplets or capsules, too, just in case. The liquid made me so sick. I couldn't swallow even half a dose. I did fine with the extra strength caplets (the ones shaped like pills were easier to swallow than the round ones, for me) while I needed them.
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Some of the most helpful people on this forum (it's actually a web forum that you can choose to access through an app) are participating in this thread and blowing off a little bit of steam, in between answering the same questions over and over again. It's in the "Rants and Raves" area of the forum, not on one of the main question-asking areas. I don't think they're doing anything wrong. And I say this as someone who has just gone through the surgery, last week. I remember so very well what questions, issues, and concerns someone undergoing this surgery has--I'm still going through many of them. (Like will this dang gurgling ever stop because I feel constantly hungry? The answer, by the way--because I started researching before I let someone cut me, and I've paid attention, and I've done some forum searching of my own--is that it varies by person, but by the time I get to normal foods it should have settled down, mostly. If I'm lucky, it might settle down sooner.) I'm (still) annoyed at all of the doctors who under-prepare their patients, but more and more, I'm noticing that people seem to want to have their own little thread about their issue, rather than just reading what's going on before they ask so they can participate in the existing threads about exactly the same thing, often happening at exactly the same time. (Which would, by the way, make every thread more valuable--more perspectives! more people encountering the same thing!) And when they get their answer, they don't always seem to acknowledge that the people who answer are volunteering their time, for free (or for very small incentives at the store, I guess, which is a really nice thing, btw), and on top of that maybe are also just random people who won't have all the answers. (Sorry, Very Helpful People In This Thread, but you -- we! -- really are all just randos, at the end of the day. And until someone's read multiple of our posts, they are going to have a hard time pulling apart what is our own individual bias versus what is actually probably applicable to them. All the more reason people should do a little reading before they post.)
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Updated list for folks to find others having the sleeve done on the same day. (If I missed anyone, I apologize--let me know, and I'll add you. Please don't quote this whole post, though; it's huge.) I'm trying to only re-post every couple of days so I'm not bogging down the conversation, but we've had several people with surgeries this week join us recently I figure, even if they haven't gone through all 29+ pages of posts, they still might want to know who to look for, to be surgery buddies. Oct 1: aapb79Gmail.com chicagogirl74 chuckwalsh clara1900 cw19147 irishgal21 JennieJuniper momofmjbm Red Alicia Vwlover0611 Yare_2018 Oct 2: bmatt418 cindy t Deanayeah jgirlnyc Lizzieming Marla522 nikoleroze Oct517 Oct 3: boringtessa crankymagpie LosingLbs18 mamadownsizing sekud02 Oct 4: AriesMary25 btrfly kerbear1980 mspink702 rnchaveri1 sleevemebaby7781 swisskath Oct 5: greener pastures mommytina rafc100 Suesloosinit Oct 8: Crystalmartin82 jhojho90 Oct 9: Anglkrys2 bigcurt mailchickie76 SheilahMc Oct 10: busyforever fandangle MeeAhhh oct102018 spatch2813 Oct 11: aussie Ange healthygirl05 kathy060464 UncleBeezy willowfinely Oct 12: afer0841 Tabularasa2018 zpratt Oct 14: katiemarie22 Oct 15: allyb15 annaisbananas April1965 JessLess llrn90 MegsNiko (or maybe the 17th?) recreating_courtney redaj954 Tina6769 Oct 16: 2shea beccaconaty87 br3n Thisismytime ummyasmin Wincy Oct 17: Chello219 Fawksy Grapefruit Jlh2350 JustKeepSwimming OpsMatt Oct 18: shazz73 Oct 19: Oct 20: Lucybear22 Oct 22: clb164 GizzlyKitten Kathy10/22 kimberlymi laceco marciamae3474 Oct 23: emccomis kdiddle31 llhill mimi tahoegirl96118 Oct 24: Beachladee3 GirlShrinking Lovingmyselfforever Susiern56 tuttlemomma Oct 25: AndreaK. kiwiangel23 teenyshell Oct 26: amanda-xo carebear38 shany1567 TropicalBeachDoll Oct 29: 1BigHeart JadineC jflower88 Kai91 kjallen nedawson1908 notmyname Rgiannos Oct 30: sleevegirl88 wishful.shrinking Oct 31: relaxrelaterelease
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Probably not a great idea. https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20020610/herbalife-diet-linked-to-brain-ailment# https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/6252628/herbalife-uk-reviews-weight-loss-towie-liver-damage/
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I'd encourage you to try some new things, in the hopes you will find something you enjoy, or if not that, then something you'd like to achieve. Exercising to lose weight is fine for a while, but that isn't enough to keep most of us active enough for long. Things that might be fun: A friend of mine loves Zumba. Another friend likes spinning classes (I don't see the appeal, but they make her happy!) I actually really like using the elliptical with the game Zombies, Run! running in my iPhone--it makes it a lot more interesting. The company that makes that game has some non-zombie games, too. Water aerobics are different and a surprisingly good workout (and there's Aqua Zumba, too). Possible goals to work towards: Walking/running a 5k/10k/marathon Hiking up that one mountain you like to look at Doing one of those "virtual walks," where you wear a fitness tracker and do a lot of walking to move a marker on a map Biking a quarter century/half century/century - or, alternately, getting fit for one of those bike tours through Europe or wine country or ... whatever place would be fun for you to bike through Competing in a triathlon Swimming a mile Doing one of those mud runs? or color runs?
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Aunt Flo showed up the night before surgery, for me, so I got to wear the special underpants with a hospital-issued pad. They appeared to have been cut? at some point? when I got up to my room, at which point I changed into my own undies and pad. (My team doesn't do catheters.)
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I like carving pumpkins, but I might have to carve it after Halloween is over. No lifting for me, this month, and carving without lifting is tricky. (It's OK. It's worth it. And you bet I'll carve a pumpkin four days after Halloween. I've dyed Easter eggs in the wrong month, too.) I'm hoping my incisions heal up to the point where I feel safe wandering in the dark (aka risking a fall), so I can do a corn maze this year. But, again, if not, there's always future years. We're on a major path for trick or treaters, and I don't want candy in the house. So my plan is to hand out the glow-in-the-dark temporary tattoos I bought a couple of years ago for kids with food allergies or other medical issues. They seemed popular enough.
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Difficulty with Pre Op Diet
CrankyMagpie replied to MissTimeIsUp's topic in PRE-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
My surgeon (not my insurance) wanted me to lose 10% of my starting weight before surgery. (I negotiated him down to "what if I do my best, but we schedule at the beginning of flu season, so I don't lose my surgery spot to the case of bronchitis I catch every winter?" And then, by a single pound, I actually beat his goal, anyway, on the day of surgery.) He makes all of his higher-BMI patients do that. I'm not sure how scientifically valid that extra requirement is, but he's one of the pioneers of the sleeve procedure and has done thousands of surgeries, so I guess he gets to cherry-pick for the most compliant patients. I felt like it was kind of cruel and unnecessary, for most of the four months it took, but honestly? In the last week before the surgery and the week since? I'm grateful that I had a chance to follow the "long-term bariatric patient" diet, with its focus on lean proteins and vegetables and fruits and (if those other things aren't filling enough, which eventually they won't be) complex carbohydrates. I learned that it wasn't especially hard, and I could follow it without tracking every bite (which makes me crazy) and without spending hours in the kitchen. I learned that there was room for "cheats"--for breaks from that protocol--and as long as I kept them to a minimum, with maybe a little stricter eating before and after to help mitigate it, I could be successful at following it and not feel miserably deprived. Now, like ... part of my problem is that I am always hungry (which is wild, when you're just a couple of days post-op; the belly gurgles, but it is lying, and oh how I hope this goes away soon). And to deal with that while still following the rules of the pre-op diet, I would do the normal things--drink and see if the hunger goes away, mostly--and if those things didn't work and it wasn't time for a meal, I'd have the smallest snack I could get away with, to stave off the hunger. Maybe it'd be a cheese stick. Or an ounce of peanuts. Or a Greek yogurt. Sometimes I could get by with just a sugar-free popsicle or a half cup of sugar-free Jello. It wouldn't make me full, but it'd take care of the hunger enough that I could focus on whatever it was I was doing. If that isn't the problem you're running into -- if it is emotional, say, rather than hunger-related -- my advice won't help much. (I won't claim not to have emotional eating problems. I definitely had some cheat days that were based around the news, for instance. But other than "don't do it often; be strong," I've got nothing for you, there.) I hope it helps someone, though? -
Being completely prepared before surgery!!!
CrankyMagpie replied to laceco's topic in PRE-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Instead of stocking up on lots of any one item, have a little bit of multiple kinds of things on hand. What you can tolerate will change. (People tell me that what tastes good to you will change after surgery, too, and while that has not been my experience yet, I'm still in my first week, pre-op, and may yet have that surprise drop on me. ) I found Jello filling during the liquid-only pre-op phase, so I assumed I wouldn't be able to eat it, post-op. I was super wrong: Jello was the only thing that didn't either make me feel sick or hurt my sternum, in the hospital and for the first day at home. Well, that and hot decaf black tea. So it turns out, it's hard to predict. I do like the individual servings of Jello, because it's easier to know, with less effort, how much liquid to count it as. I like the premade protein drinks better for the same reason. Also, the vanilla ones are good in tea. That's how I eased myself up to drinking a protein shake straight: put more and more into the hot tea I was already tolerating well. -
How long are your food phases?
CrankyMagpie replied to mooreva0725's topic in Gastric Sleeve Surgery Forums
My program only refers to three phases--"puree" and "soft" are so close, anyway, that they just lump them together. Yogurt is considered phase II, not a liquid, so that's also a difference. They apparently let us start on phase II after the post-op appointment, 10 days after surgery. I'm planning to ask a lot of questions about what are the easiest foods to start with, then. In our booklet, phase II (puree and soft) is listed as "3-6 weeks," so I guess it varies a lot by individual. I'm not inclined to push things unnecessarily, so I am just going ahead and planning for 6 whole weeks; if at my 1-month post-op they say "you need to try phase III foods now," then I will, but I bet they don't push it, either. (But then, I can live on cottage cheese, ricotta, yogurt, refried beans, lean meats, and mashed cauliflower for a pretty long while, because I genuinely like those things, which I get that not everyone does.) -
My surgery was Wednesday, and already, on Sunday, I'm feeling mostly human. I count myself very lucky!
I have been taking the nausea pills I was prescribed ("as needed" is what the bottle says) every morning, and I think that has helped me get closer and closer to my fluid goals. A pill is only good for 8 hours, though, so it isn't doing anything for me in the evenings, when I am still drinking fluids. Maybe I'll try to go without it tomorrow and see if I can.
Anyway, I'll hit 64 ounces for the first time today, my third full day home. I'm on track for 56 grams of protein, 57 if I go for Jello instead of popsicles, which obviously I'm going to do, now that I've said that.
With more distance, I'm able to report on something I've kind of glossed over in my other statuses ... I had some really rocky time while I was in the hospital. There were at least two hours in recovery where nobody checked on me, and my IV stopped--I felt very sick and dehydrated when they finally fixed it. (I was stuck in recovery through a shift change, and they wouldn't let my spouse back with me for something like 4 hours, because people's assigned rooms weren't ready yet, and not letting spouses join inpatient people in recovery is policy. That was terrible. My spouse complained to the nursing supervisors when he found out how I'd been (not) treated, and he never does that!)
Once I was in my room and had a working IV again, everything progressed OK. They didn't let me walk as quickly as I'd expected; I woke up the first time around 4pm, was in my room by 8pm, and didn't get to walk until around noon the next day, with the exception of trips to the in-room bathroom. The pain meds wrecked me almost as much as I expected (I feel like they added to queasiness, but I can't be sure; they definitely forced me to sleep, instead of really taking care of the pain, though, as I'd thought they might ... happily, the pain has been pretty manageable without them).
Home has been better. I've been pacing the main floor of the house roughly every hour. Once it cools off this evening, Spouse and I are going for a walk part of the way around the block, to see how that goes. (80+ degrees in October, ugh.) I feel a little lightheaded sometimes when I'm walking around, and I'm not sure what that's about. It felt enough like a sugar low, yesterday, that I dropped a single sugar cube into my tea (which my plan allows). That did seem to help. I haven't had to do it again today, happily.
Looking forward from here, I'm not forcing myself to go to class (3 hours, a half hour drive away) tomorrow or Tuesday night. The professor was nice, saying "you're the sort of person who would try, even if you feel bad and even though you're ahead on the material, so I am telling you to stay home." I feel like, if I keep on recovering at this pace, going to class the following week should be no problem for me, plus I should be able to work that Thursday and/or Friday. (I might ease in and try just Friday. Nothing I do at work is time-sensitive. I have a very unimportant job.)
I know from reading these forums, though, not to get too overconfident. So I'm still taking it pretty easy and focusing all of my energy on healing.
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I'm sorry to hear how badly you were treated in the hospital - I was so lucky, the hospital I was at was obviously trying hard to provide amazing service.
How are you able to get that much protein during clear liquids?! Are you able to drink protein drinks already? Are you just drinking a lot of broth? I have just been drinking water and diet clear juice and trying to choke down a little broth. Tell me all your secrets!
I am glad to hear that you are doing so well, hope that walk is refreshing!
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CrankyMagpie reacted to this
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They told me I don't have to stick with clear liquids this week. They were like "maybe for your first day home, full liquids might be too much, but you should start them before too long; please get protein this week." At the nutritionist appointment before the surgery, the nutritionist went out of her way to say "the nurses might tell you you're on clear-liquids-only until your post-op, but that is NOT TRUE, PLEASE DRINK PROTEIN." And then she told us how miserable the people who don't get any protein between the surgery and the 10-day post-op appointment look when they drag themselves in, so that stuck with me. The nurses didn't tell me that, but I was glad that I was ready for it, in case they had disagreed with my nutritionist and my paperwork.
But if your nutritionist and all were like "just clear liquids," I mean, obviously, take their word over mine!
15 grams of today's protein were from a protein water, if you're looking to add protein without breaking the "clear liquids" rule. I'm doing OK with those.
I admit: I'm not drinking plain broth like I had intended to. I know it's good for me, but I hate it. I got myself some of the Unjury chicken flavored protein, and that tastes like chicken noodle soup, not like plain broth, so I like that OK. (It might? count? as a clear liquid.) And I'll probably split another can of chicken noodle soup with my spouse before the week is out--I get the liquids, and he gets the solids--because that tasted so good, pre-op. (It does temporarily drive my weight up, because of the carbohydrates, but that's bound to happen eventually--either it happens due to soup this week or it'll be refried beans and ricotta when I graduate to phase II.
Anyway! I'm really glad your hospital experience was better than mine!
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The pre-op diet is hard, but it builds discipline that you will need, post-op. It also shrinks your liver, which makes for a safer and easier/less expensive procedure. The past is the past. You've got 7 days, now. Do yourself a favor, and don't cheat in the next 7 days. Not even a little. Follow the rules, so you can have the best possible outcome.
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Mary Jane is Legal Where I Live
CrankyMagpie replied to JessLess's topic in Gastric Sleeve Surgery Forums
I just read this article (from the "Magazine" part of this website) today. It suggests, maybe, don't use it. https://www.bariatricpal.com/magazine/614-marijuana-after-weight-loss-surgery/ -
Yeah, I made it to 4 ounces in an hour on day 3 (with surgery day as day 0), but not before that. My team's goals for me are 64 ounces of fluid and 60-80 grams of protein--but they note that a more realistic protein goal for now is 30-40 grams/day. They also say no drinks with more than 15 grams of sugar per 8 ounce serving, which I guess means some fruit juices might be OK... but they definitely don't list them in their list of drinks to have. I also feel like I"m "cheating," because I'm taking one of the anti-nausea pills every morning, to help me get to my goals. I mean, they prescribed them? So it's probably fine? But it will be nice when I don't feel like I'm risking making myself sick with every beverage.
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I definitely saw warnings in the forums about this before surgery, but now that I'm going through it, I find it really weird and uncomfortable to feel hungry gurgling in my stomach and not be able to stop it with the amount of liquid it will accept. I made it past 50 ounces of liquid today(!), a good 61 grams of protein(!), and there is so. much. gurgling. I'll get more protein and fluid in tomorrow, too. Maybe that will quiet the angry beast.
