CrankyMagpie

Oh bother, it won't let me edit the older post, with the list of surgery buddies. But I'm updating my list and will post it again in a few days! (For those of you who just got here, scroll up, and you can see if you have surgery buddies who share a date with you. Oct 1, 2, and 4 are especially popular days!) My update: in an attempt to maybe make the liquid diet (starts Wednesday) easier on myself, I went ahead and cut out carbs, besides the ones I get from broccoli and cauliflower and the little bit of milk I put in my tea and coffee. If I can get into ketosis before I drastically cut my calories, maybe I won't be so hungry. I'm making sure to get enough salt (mmm, dill pickles, I will soon miss you) and to hydrate really well, to help ease the transition. I've also been taking walks (short ones--my arthritis is not better since I've had to be off my meds and supplements), which is supposed to help with "keto flu," too. Whether that will matter or not remains to be seen, but I feel good about doing something to try and help out future me. We've got this, friends!

No, you can't stretch a sleeve. You do develop a tolerance to eating more food, over time, but it's the receptors changing how they process fullness, not the stomach stretching. More info here (the title is deliberately misleading; the video talks about how "stretching" isn't a thing):

I posted in the other October sleever thread (the one that is labeled "2018," which will make it less confusing if we stay in touch through 2019, which is why I stopped posting over here in this thread until now) with a list of the October sleevers and their surgery dates, so people can know who their surgery buddies are.

I've started a list to help people find their surgery buddies. This is supposed to just be sleevers, but I bet some others snuck on. It's supposed to be all the October sleevers, but I'm 100% sure I missed some, and some don't have dates yet. Let me know if you aren't on the list and want to be on it, or if you're on it but want to be, and I'll edit this post! (Please please please don't quote the whole post; just type "@CrankyMagpie" to get my attention. I mean, also, I'm following this thread, so I'll see it even if you don't @ me.) Oct 1: @aapb79Gmail.com @chicagogirl74 @chuckwalsh @clara1900 @irishgal21 @JennieJuniper @momofmjbm @Red Alicia Oct 2: @cindy t @Deanayeah @Lizzieming @nikoleroze @Oct517 Oct 3: @boringtessa @crankymagpie @mamadownsizing @sekud02 Oct 4: @AriesMary25 @btrfly @kerbear1980 @rnchaveri1 @sleevemebaby7781 Oct 5: @Suesloosinit Oct 8: @Crystalmartin82 @jhojho90 Oct 9: @bigcurt @mailchickie76 Oct 10: @busyforever @fandangle @MeeAhhh @oct102018 Oct 11: @aussie Ange @healthygirl05 @kathy060464 @willowfinely Oct 12: @afer0841 @zpratt Oct 14: @katiemarie22 Oct 15: @allyb15 @annaisbananas @MegsNiko (or maybe the 17th?) @recreating_courtney Oct 16: @2shea @beccaconaty87 @br3n @Thisismytime Oct 17: @Chello219 @JustKeepSwimming @OpsMatt Oct 18: @shazz73 Oct 22: @clb164 @kdiddle31 @kimberlymi @laceco Oct 23: @tahoegirl96118 Oct 24: @Beachladee3 @GirlShrinking @tuttlemomma Oct 25: @AndreaK. @kiwiangel23 Oct 29: @kjallen Oct 31: @relaxrelaterelease

Oh, yeah, sorry, I definitely seemed to hand-wave away stalls as if they all have an explanation, there. Definitely, there are just normal stalls in weight loss, too. In my experience, they usually map to my body re-configuring where its inches are, but that may not be universal. And ketosis-while-also-taking-in-carbs is definitely a thing I know less about than I should, @sillykitty -- I mean, I know it's a thing? Long distance backpackers experience it, as do bariatric patients. But I don't know anything else besides "it's a thing." Thanks for the additional info about ketosis, too, @FluffyChix!

It depends how far out from surgery you are. You can't take NSAIDs (most over the counter pain meds) a week before surgery. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is fine. The others are hard on your stomach and interact badly with blood thinners. If you go RNY, you actually can't ever have NSAIDs again. If you go VSG (sleeve), you eventually can, but different surgeons clear you at different points in the process.

Providence Hospital is accredited, but that might be new? https://www.facs.org/search/bariatric-surgery-centers?page=1&n=25&state=AK

Hmm, so having a cookie over the holidays might be OK, but we need to really buckle down for the first quarter of 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4422859/ (In plainer English, it appears that the speed of people's weight loss in months 3-6 is a solid predictor of how much weight they'll lose total, independent of other factors.)

Also, trans people weren't "born" one gender and "became" another. They were always the same gender, no matter what their body might have looked like. The term you want is "assigned," as in "assigned male at birth" or "assigned female at birth." The term you want for someone who has transitioned (whether medically or by clothing choice or any other way) is "male" or "female" or whatever gender they tell you they are. And while we're here and talking about this, it's never OK to ask someone if they've had surgery as part of their transition. What's in someone's pants is not anyone else's business.

*cough* Excuse me for pointing this out, but there are more than two genders. By rights, I shouldn't post in either place, but while my gender isn't female, that's where society puts me more often than not. So that's the room where I post. I want to not have to put "female" or "male" on my profile. It's infuriating. I'm neither. If that means I eventually lose access to The Gals' Room, I can live with that. Maybe this should be its own topic?

Looks like someone maybe forgot to collect data in Alaska. (I know they have at least one surgeon there. Remember that guy who was all "Ugh, MY WIFE got surgery and now she ISN'T HEALTHY"? She got her surgery done in Anchorage.)

I did go ahead and order a heat pad based on this thread. My PA said not to bring one to the hospital, but it didn't occur to me I might want one at home. Thanks, @Oct517! Just for a sense of what an anxious, over-prepared person might do: I have my normal selection of protein powders, several pints of homemade bone broth (still in the freezer for now), four boxes of store bought no-salt-added bone broth (I bet I add salt), 20ish Powerade Zeros (I drank a few already ), some of those powdered soups you can get from here and Diet Direct (broccoli flavor), a backup box of sugar-free popsicles (I'm already eating those, because they are very good 😁), some boxes of sugar-free jello, a container of liquid protein that you add to water, and various water flavorings, some with electrolytes, some with B vitamins, some just plain. I also drink a lot of herbal tea and decaf coffee, so that'll fill in around the edges of the other stuff. The only thing in that whole list that's at risk of going to waste if I don't use it right away is the powdered soups. Those are really hit-and-miss, taste-wise, and I know that I, too, will be hit-and-miss in the taste department for a while; there's no predicting. But if I don't like those soups by themselves, I can always wait until I can have veggies and put some real broccoli in there to try to save it. That's worked for a different brand of powdered protein soup in the past.

The nutritionists have had me following some of the post-op rules (final phase, I mean) since June, but the liquid diet is only one week for me. 4 protein shakes or strained cream soups and unlimited broth, sugar free popsicles, sugar free jello, protein water, and water. The final day is clear liquids only -- broth, sf popsicles, sf jello, and protein water. My surgery is October 3rd, so I start next Wednesday.

That's really exciting, congrats!

I wouldn't change my whole way of eating based on a single documentary. I trust Scientific American, and they excerpted this article (and linked to the whole thing), talking about the things "What the Health" gets right, versus what they get wrong: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/prevention/what-the-health-documentary-a-review Time, too, is generally considered fairly reputable: http://time.com/4897133/vegan-netflix-what-the-health/

This was fascinating, and I thank you for sharing it! That said, I wanted to punch him every time he said "all you have to do," with no acknowledgment of changes in BMR or of human behavior. Physicists should really stick to physics.

It isn't irrational. There are always risks. (There are risks when we get in our car to go somewhere, too.) It's OK to be afraid, and it's OK to admit to the staff that you are afraid. I told my surgeon I was afraid. I reassured him that I didn't doubt his skill or anything, and he made it clear the reassurance wasn't necessary. (I mean, he's a highly sought after surgeon. Odds are, he's perfectly fine on the self esteem front. 😁) We'll both be OK, though. I've been knocked out for several surgeries, plus the upper endoscopy that was a required test before this. It's super weird. Waking up, it feels like no time has passed. If you're anything like me you'll be super loopy. The hospital staff are used to dealing with people coming out of anesthesia; let them take care of you. ❤️

Hey, so, I'm down to the last two weeks. I met with my surgeon, and he asked me to sign a form saying he could fix a hernia if he found one or do a liver biopsy if my liver looked funky. I did sign it, but now I find myself wondering: how likely is he to find a hernia, if I've already had the upper endoscopy? How much time does a hernia take to fix? (That is the major determinant of cost, and I am self-pay, in the US, so ... it's already a lot.) And if he does find and fix a hernia, how will that impact my recovery time? (I'm having the sleeve, so, it's theoretically a bit shorter recovery than RNY.) I know nobody can answer how likely he is to want a liver biopsy, but I wonder: how will that affect the cost of my procedure? And how will that impact my recovery time? I don't want to be cut open any extra times, so I was half tempted to say "Look, while you're in there, if my appendix looks at you funny, go ahead and take it, too," but like I said, I'm self-pay on this. I also have, you know, other life responsibilities, most of which I've said "I'll see you two weeks after surgery" on. So I'm just ... being anxious. As I do. (I'll do some searching online about this stuff, but I know there are people on here who have had one or both things done, and maybe your medical teams told you how that affected things.) Thanks!

Sure! It isn't mine-as-in-I-created-it, but it's mine-as-in-I-made-a-copy-of-it (so I get to keep it even if they take the website down): https://www.bariatricfoodie.com/niks-protein-pumpkin-custard/ My recipe notes, which you are welcome to ignore 😁: I made it with sweet potato instead of pumpkin (because I was halfway through making it when I realized my can of pumpkin was dented), and it was still pretty good. (Taste: great. Texture: a little dry. But that's always how sweet potato pies seem to me.) I'm not doing that again, though; I want pumpkin! I do add more powdered ginger and freshly-grated nutmeg .. and probably cinnamon, too, on top of the pumpkin spice it calls for. They have a brand of protein powder they prefer, I think, for this, but I used vanilla Quest and came out fine. I also know some folks on here can't deal with sugar alcohols, but right now I can. So I did half xylitol, half Splenda, and that was very good. (I have to mix fake sugars. They all taste gross, alone, in the quantity you'd use for a recipe. I don't think there's any amount of stevia I can use and not have it come out tasting like aluminum to me, which is a bummer. Taste-wise, I could do all-xylitol, but at some point xylitol punishes you for over-consumption, so I didn't want to risk it.) Anyway, enjoy! Also, that site has several pumpkin-themed recipes, so browse around and see what looks good to you!

I really like magpies, and I'm a bit of one, myself -- a collector with a sense of mischief. I only tend a little bit toward crankiness, in general. But it made it into the username because I know there'll be at least two weeks of this journey when I'll be super cranky -- the one-week pre-op liquid-only diet and the first week after surgery when things hurt and getting in enough liquid and protein is hard.

Yeah, folks who do RNY have an average of 1 extra night's hospital stay. I don't think my team will let me out, day of. Which is almost too bad, because I'm afraid of hospitals. Even if I have no pain, no nausea (yeah right), I will be really uncomfortable the whole time I'm there. But having medical professionals keep an eye on me for 18-24 hours after surgery feels like a good idea.

The folks in this thread are mostly the week before me (Oct 3!), so I'll be doing my (one week) liquid diet while you're getting your surgeries, BUT, @CRD1981, we're the same age and getting the same procedure! (My BMI is a bit higher, though. 57ish.) Different kind of surgery buddies. I'll be rooting for you!

Surgery buddies! Hi-5!

I was just talking about this--the pain, not the chance I'll let it deter me from the surgery--with my spouse today. I'm ready to have 3-4 very bad weeks after surgery. I don't want it to go down that way, and I'll follow every direction I can to prevent it, but the first few days could be nearly unbearable: I don't honestly know that any pain meds work on me (I recall continuing to feel the pain, but just, falling asleep despite it ... and they won't let you sleep that long while you're in the hospital, I've been told). I hate hate hate vomiting. I hate being in pain. So I am aware that I might be in agony, at first, and in hard-to-deal-with pain and stomach discomfort, for a while, and I'm still set on going through with it. But then, I have autoimmune arthritis pain to deal with if I don't go through this. My already painful joints will likely continue to deteriorate slowly but inexorably. I already can't walk much distance, due to plantar fasciitis, knee and hip pain, and pain in my lower back. I could lose even that distance and end up in a powered wheelchair when I have to leave the house. My hand and shoulder joints could get enough worse that I can't do the crafting I do for fun, or the typing on a keyboard I do for a living. (This could happen even with the surgery, but it has good odds of preventing it.) Aside from the arthritis and asthma (which I've had my whole life, at every weight), I'm healthy. Yeah, even at 300+ pounds. It really pisses off some doctors. But the arthritis has decreased the exercise I can do and the amount of time I can spend preparing healthy foods for myself, which means I can't look forward to staying healthy, if I don't go through with this. Without the arthritis, or another equally bad comorbidity, I wouldn't go through with it. That's real talk about me, not advice for you. You should weigh the pros and cons for yourself and decide if you're willing to endure one really bad month (could be more, could be a lot less, but that's kind of what I'm building myself up to deal with) or not.