Russ D

I'd say definitely talk to your doctor's office about the burning, and ask them what the recommend protein timescale is. I started adding protein (shake mix into water, blech) two days after my surgery. Couldn't do a lot, but I tried to do a little more each day. 40 oz of fluid doesn't sound like enough to me, the minimum I've heard is 64 oz (in fact, recommended for everyone, bariatric surgery or not), but you might have other factors at play in that number.

I made soup with Unjury Chicken Soup protein mix. 20g of protein per serving. Scoop of powder into 8 oz of hot water. Added cumin to it for flavor. Wasn't bad, and the protein definitely made me feel fuller than just plain broth. (You could even mix it into broth if you wanted to.)

You know, come to think of it, breathing was uncomfortable for me too. I didn't have a panic attack over it, but my breaths were very shallow due to the gas inflation. That was one of the reasons I wanted to get the gas out of me as soon as possible (it would be a few days before I was feeling better on that). A breathing therapist came around to me every few hours in the hospital and made me do exercises. I also had a breathing tool that she wanted me to use every 15 minutes regardless of whether I was there or not, to keep expanding my lung capacity (hurt) and fight any fluid that was wanting to build up there.

I called all parties involved constantly. Doctor's office ("Did you sent it yet?") and insurance company ("Did you get it yet?"). The hospital still screwed up and tried to charge me full price, they didn't do THEIR job right and got a false-positive on the insurance..."Well, since you don't have insurance benefits, we'll need $9000 before we can process you any further for your procedure two days from now." THAT set off a mild panic attack, as I ran through all the phone calls once again...doctor, two levels of insurance, and hospital...all within about an hour of the close of business hours. You can't do too much checking up and making sure your ducks are lined up, human error CAN happen, and when it does they will blithely let you take the damage for it if you don't watch them.

My first one was two weeks post-op (surgery was 7/18). I may still be in it, I don't know. If it helps you, here's my weight progression (composited together from the app I use to sync to my scale). You can clearly see the stalls in it. I didn't worry TOO much about them, but I did stay off the scales for a few days when I knew I was in one. I've been fighting constipation pretty badly, so if you see a big drop...you probably know what caused it...

I had moderate but tolerable pain afterwards, and I'm not very tolerant of pain (I've been known to pass out at sharp, sudden pains like sprained ankles, if the conditions are right). The worst was partly my own fault, I didn't ask how often I was allowed to use my pain pump, and assumed it would be a long time between hits...my pain built up pretty high before the nurses clarified that I could use it once every 10 minutes.

I just concentrated on the protein shakes. They filled me up enough that I didn't feel hungry most of the time. However, my doctor did allow me to have one actual meal a day in this phase, as long as it was nothing but lean protein (I don't like fish, so lots of turkey and chicken for me) and vegetables. That made it somewhat easier.

Have DVR? Pause your show before commercials. Or record them and fast-forward. Be strong. Focus on the goal. Don't put yourself in a position to make your hurdles taller than they already are.

I'd like to add my prayers to that as well. Where there are two or more gathered...

I'm interested in this too, since theme parks and roller coasters are a major goal for me. I get to go to the Disney World parks fairly regularly, and the rides there are really rather accommodating to "guests with certain body dimensions", but Universal is a different story entirely...

You too. I'm a month post-surgery now, everything is going smoothly except for a running battle with constipation and periodic blues and blahs. I was told to expect both (among other things, which I haven't had trouble with).

Mine was a phone interview. Been a while back now, most questions were along the lines of my mental well-being and outlook, about what (in my opinion) had caused me to be obese in the first place, that sort of thing. Can't remember specific questions.

Breakfast croissant sandwich (sausage), burger, Mexican food. Mild drinking (nothing too heavy, saying goodbye to beer and whiskey). I'd already come to grips that I was giving up a lot of things that (I THOUGHT) brought me joy (but DIDN'T, they brought me damage to my body and self-loathing). I'll never hit a Chinese buffet again, eat a pizza, eat a whole hamburger, pound a beer with the boys, eat a big steak and baked potato. I'm fine with that. I'm focused on doing a whole lot of OTHER things that I've never been able to do very well before. Hiking. Roller coasters. Dancing. Swimming without making a spectacle of myself. Cycling. Walking down an airplane aisle without everyone studiously avoiding eye contact with me ("Please don't pick my middle seat, please don't pick my middle seat"). And maybe, if I can hit my goal, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. I've had 33 years to abuse my body with junky food and bad choices. Time to do something more constructive with the rest of my life.

Low and slow. Low amount of food (one egg is plenty for me), low ambition on what you're going to start with, eat slowly, especially on something new. I've noticed that if I start burping, I'm done; that's gas in the stomach getting displaced up the pipe, and it's displaced because there's nowhere else for it to go for all of the food.

I used Unjury Chicken Soup protein mix when I was sick of shakes (used it for the liquid portion, too). Scoop of mix into a cup of hot water made a decent-tasting soup. Better than broth, in my opinion. I used a liberal amount of cumin (not spicy, smells like tacos) to give it a Tex-Mex flavor. 20 grams of protein, not bad.

Teacher here too, but I teach band so we actually started with kids on July 30, eight hours of practice a day. That was twelve days after my surgery. It was extremely tough but I did it. I found ways to take it easy...I sat down as I taught, stayed inside working with small groups of kids rather than out on the field in the hot sun...but it still wore me out and made me sore. Now, a month out from surgery, my energy and pain are fine now. I'm still not doing the physical work that I would otherwise be doing (not lifting or pushing heavy equipment, for instance) but everything else is back to normal.

My experience: I'm not sure how long after surgery I woke up, but I woke up very groggy and half-lucid (that's typical of me with general anesthesia). I didn't have any nausea. They tell me I spent two hours in the recovery room, an hour longer than they anticipated because my main room wasn't ready yet, and that I was awake for this time, but I don't recall spending that much time in recovery. For me the recovery room was mostly sleep with short, 30-second bouts of wakefulness as the nurses told me something, and then right back to sleep, so the whole thing could have been three minutes or three hours and I wouldn't have known. The grogginess continued for about five hours...I'd be awake for a short time, and then sleep for 20-30 minutes. I've had more painful surgeries, but I did a poor job of managing the pain initially on this one. I had a pain pump with morphine, but they never told me how often I would be able to hit it. My only experience with morphine in a prior surgery was that they let me have a single dose and cut me off. Here, my pump would work once every ten minutes, but they didn't tell me that, so I was expecting morphine = long time between pumps, hours even, so I was holding out after my first hit for WAY too long; the pain built up to about a 6 before the nurse told me I could use the pump every 10 minutes, and the pain worked up to an 8 or so before I got a handle on it. I'd definitely ask what the plan for pain management is after surgery, and stay on top of it. About five hours after surgery ended (I was told the timescale later) I was lucid enough to send out texts to people, carry on intelligible conversations with family and nurses, and about an hour after that I was up and walking a bit with a lot of nurse assistance.

WOW. That's not dramatic at all to me...completely justified!

My stomach did fine with bananas. My palate did not. I used to love bananas, but they taste very strange now.

I struggle with this badly. Of course I struggled with constipation even before surgery, so I knew that after surgery would be a battle. That soon after, I wouldn't be too concerned yet. The surgical gas hurt quite a bit, that's what I really wanted to get out, as there wasn't a whole lot in my system other than that. I can tell you now, a month out, that constipation has been my #1 fight. I've started taking fiber supplements several times a day (Benefiber, mixes into water fine, no change to the taste or density that I've noticed, and I'm picky about my water) but it takes a few weeks for it to start helping you, from what I've read. If I'm four days out from a bowel movement I'll start taking a dose of Miralax every other day. Once about a week and a half ago I went the magnesium citrate route, alternating sips of it (gag) and water until I'd finished half the bottle. Just be careful with that one, it robs precious fluid from your system to help you get the lead out.