ssflbelle

Tan4sho The day has finally arrived. What your feeling is normal but I am sure all will be well. I will be thinking of you tomorrow and wishing you all the best. Keep us posted as to how you are doing when your able.

Hi Everyone I had written the above before my surgery. I received one email. I had my surgery Jan 26th and while recovering I had been doing some research about WLS support groups. If there is a true interest and people will show up I am willing to start a meetup group in April so we can all get together and support each other. Please email me and let me know your interested.

So glad to hear you were approved after all. Keeping busy was the best thing for you to do. I also am always doing some kind of craft to keep my hands busy and my mind off of eating. Of course having the sleeve since Jan 26th I am finding I am never hungry, so am not thinking much about food. Keep going strong with the program and exercise and the surgery in July should be a breeze for you.

After my EKG The Dr ordered a 2 day stress test. I am not able to run on a tread mill so they gave me some injections and then did the testing. Everything was fine. I also wanted to be sure everything was ok. I made sure I was in the best health possible before my surgery. Followed the 6 month pre-diet, exercised , did all my testing, saw the Nut once and had 7 visits with the Psych. It took me 7 months of jumping through all the hoops but I finally had my surgery on Jan 26th this year.

Yep! There are a few of us from Palm Beach County and further south. In fact There is a South Florida thread on the boards here but it is not very active. My posting was the last one and that was back in Feb. I had my surgery 7 weeks ago on Jan 26th at Jupiter Medical Center. Good Luck with your surgery on St Patrick's Day. Here is the South Florida group thread. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/345913-any-south-florida-sleevers/

Baddrabbit Glad to hear you are back on the plan of eating and exercising. I am sure those 24 pounds will be coming off very soon. Yes everyone has been telling me the 41 gram is way too low. Since the first posting I have been trying to up the grams which is difficult when you can't eat but 2 or 3 oz before the pain comes. I am still drinking one or two Protein drinks a day depending on how much food I can take in. I am not eating crap so I am doing the plan and I bike 5 days a week. Granted I can't bike more than about 4 miles due to being disabled,but overall I feel I am doing what I need to do. I guess I am just a slow loser. You keep going strong and you will be below your Holiday weight again. Thanks for posting.

Tuesday will be 6 weeks post op and I am GAINING! Please explain how this is possible and don't suggest that this is a stall. I was on a stall from 2/5 to 2/21 when I didn't even lose a pound. But at least I didn't gain. Now I am gaining. To give you some additional insight here are my statistics. DAY Weight Calories Protein Last Sunday 289 495 54 Monday 289 638 84 Tuesday 287 491 56 Wednesday 289 472 60 Thursday 289 466 59 Friday 289 457 55 Saturday 293 411 43 Sunday 293 haven't eaten yet For my friends reading this remember I am the one whose Dr told me to reduce my protein from 60 down to 41. As you can see I didn't really do that. Is that why I am gaining?

I saw my surgeon 7 times before I had surgery. I had to report into him once a month for 6 months and again on the preop 4 hour day the week before surgery.He also came into my area the day of surgery about an hour before surgery to make sure I was still going through with it. During all those visits I got to ask him all kinds of questions and felt very comfortable with his surgery skills. However I am not comfortable with his nutrition knowledge after surgery. I never thought to ask him about after surgery.because the one time I saw the hospital dietitian during the first month of the 6 month preop diet she explained the after surgery diet to me. I was all set or so I thought. At the 1 month post surgery meeting the surgeon I feel has steered me down the wrong path by bring my Protein down to 41 grams and not upping it to 80 grams as the dietitian said it should be. The surgery doesn't have his own dietitian so I had to pay $250.00 to see the hospital one he uses. Everything she told me was in the blue book bible the surgeon gives everyone, so I felt it was a waste of time.

After the 3rd day I didn't have any problem drinking liquids either.My Water bottle has a pull up top and I usually squirt a big amount of water in my mouth, but it takes me about 3 to 4 swallows so I don't gulp it. However I feel I could but don't as I never gulped water.

Thanks Annek for asking. I am still trying to get in the higher amounts of Protein and more Water. Some days I can do it other days I have trouble with some foods. The Dr said I can have oatmeal and vegs. Like this morning I use 1/2 cups of oatmeal with 1 cup of protein silk and 3 teaspoons of Syntrax vanilla Protein powder. Mixed it all together and microwaved it for 2 1/2 minutes. Had 4 small bits and couldn't eat any more. There was so much left over I can have for Breakfast for 2 more days. Next time I am going to have to use just 1/4 of a cup oatmeal. Late afternoon I didn't feel I could eat anything so I had a shake. Tonight after 3 oz of Turkey I was able to get about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cauliflower. I haven't weighed myself since Tuesday but took some more MOM today to help things along. I am trying to only weigh in on Tuesdays. Been keeping myself busy with bike riding. Am up to 4.65 miles as of yesterday despite the 22 mph winds. Am also designing and assembling baby boy favors for an office baby shower. Plus have been working on my sequin art. Keeping my hands busy is something I have done for years but even more so now. I received 2 bathing suits today but will have to work on doing something for the girls as there is just not enough support despite the fact that they both have molded cups. I still have some time before I will be able to wear them as I still can't lift my legs high enough to get out of the pool. However that day will be coming soon I hope. Songsmith I do eat yogurt that has 12 grams of protein and have no problems with getting them down. Katladee The hot chocolate is protein and takes the place of coffee which I can't have yet. On the 2 days I work I do have protein food for breakfast and no hot chocolate. Stephanie I think your right the same thing kind of happened to me too. The first 2 weeks I was great and than things went down hill a bit. However I feel like things are getting better each day. Perforce Your right it did! That is why I need not to listen to the Dr and keep my protein between 60 to 80 grams daily not 41 as he said.

I got 4 boxes of 18 shakes in Sept of 2015 with an expiration date of May 2016. two boxes of chocolate and two of the strawberry and cream. I was drinking them before my surgery. I am not having any problems with the chocolate shakes The first box of strawberry and cream I really liked and had no problems with the consistency of the shakes. This second box of shakes I seem to be having problems with them. The first 1/2 of the bottle is fine and then the second half I get thick grainy yucky mouthfuls of I am assuming Protein. It doesn't matter whether I shake up the container or don't, refrigerator it or don't it still happens. I still have about 15 bottles left of the strawberry and cream and really do not want to throw them out. Drinking only half of them does give me some protein but I paid for the whole bottles not half. This Tuesday I will be 4 week post op and still have at least 2 to 4 more weeks before I was told by my Dr to stop drinking the shakes. Has anyone had this kind of problem with their ready made Premier strawberry cream shakes? If so, what did you do to make it more drinkable? If anyone else has some suggestions I am open to trying them as being on disability I do not want to throw the shakes away. Thanks for reading this posting and for any help you can provide.

I am 6 1/2 weeks post op. In the past 2 weeks I had tuna fish with light mayo twice and didn't feel well afterwards. Now I am allowed to eat vegetables so I tried 3 bean salad tonight. I had 2 small bites and feel the same as I did with the tuna. I realized the light mayo and the bean salad both have vinegar in them. I am thinking the vinegar is giving me problems. Is this possible? Why would vinegar cause me pain? When were you able to use vinegar?

I use BP Protein hot chocolate and mix in a small level teaspoon of coffee. I started doing that yesterday and had no problems with drinking that for my Breakfast. It gave me 12 grams of protein and satisfied my coffee craving.

I am assuming you both are speaking of OAC with the mini regional conferences? I didn't know OAC had regional's. I would love to know in plenty of time to save and plan when the next one does take place However BP mini regional conferences would be a cool idea too. HINT! HINT! I would be willing to be on a community if your looking at West Palm Beach Fl for one of those BP mini conferences Alex.

To answer your questions Yes Yes and No. I had 3 oz of chicken Tuesday night so I know it wasn't the chicken. So I am almost sure it is the vinegar that is too acidic for my tummy at this time. Will revisit those foods items with vinegar in them at a later date.

Followup to the bad strawberry shakes. After the email I sent they called me and ask some questions which I answered. Today I received a whole new case and no shipping charges. So if anyone has bad shakes from this company email them and you too may get a replacement case too.

Applied for the scholarship but was told yesterday I didn't get it. Some what disappointed as Washington DC was a great location as I could have taken the auto train. Was looking forward to learning lots of things that would have helped with this new journey and meeting lots of people. Plus it would have been halfway to my Brother whom I haven't seen in 11 years and I am sure he would have come from Pa down to Washington DC.

I am 6 weeks post op and have yet to touch any kind of vegetables or fruit, I didn't have a puree stage, so I can't answer your question. Just curious how many weeks are you post op? Did you puree the cauliflower?

RJ I am so sorry to hear you were rejected for plastic surgery. I know you worked so hard to get off the 211 pounds and you deserve to be able to finish the journey and get the body shape you worked so hard for. It will take you some time to get over these feeling of being rejected, but it sounds like your Dr is looking out for your best interest. Please don't ever think you are a monster because from what I see you are a very beautiful woman. I too will have a lot of excess skin when I am done with my journey and will not be able to afford to have plastic surgery. Plus being over 60 by the time I am at goal will probably disqualify me for skin removal as well. I too will have to be happy with the fact that I will be thinner and hopefully finally able to walk and do physical things I couldn't do before. Kealot The contourmd garments look to be something that I might be able to benefit from when I lose about another 20 pounds as I don't tink they would fit me at this weight I am now. However, after losing over 200 pounds I already see terrible bat wings all the way down to my wrists. I was looking for some nude colored sleeve covers, hope these will work out. Thanks for providing us the link, I have bookmarked it. Ausmith I like the sound of those swimsuits. Do you have a link to them? I just bought 2 from swimsuits for all. The lower body fits good but there is not enough support in the bra area. I can't go in the pool looking like I do. I have to come up with some kind of solution to keep the girls where they belong.

Hi There I am 6 weeks post op and just this week was able to begin to eat more than 1 1/2 to 2 ounces at a time without pain. Your tummy is still healing internally and the opening that the food has to travel through is still swollen. I never thought the pain would go away and have 2 1/2 weeks of it I was really wondering "What did I do to myself" Follow the suggestions given about continuing to drink the Protein shakes and Soups and Water along with whatever little bites you can get down. I unfortunately listened to my Dr who told me to cut back my protein and I wound up gaining weight. So please don't do what I did. I have since lost the gain and am heading down again because I put back in the Protein Shakes and soups. Keep going strong it will get better.

Yesterday was the first day in over 3 weeks I was able to eat food and not get that terrible under the left breast pain. It felt good to eat and not have pain within 3 to 4 bites. I had my first piece of chicken in over 6 weeks and I enjoyed every tiny bite of the 3 oz piece I had. I just hope my ability to eat and drink more Water keeps improving. The last 3 weeks were really getting to me and making me wonder "What did I do to myself" Now I feel more normal emotional and look forward to the road ahead. Thanks everyone for your support through this difficult patch this past weekend.

What a great way to pay it forward! Have you thought about being a motivational speaker? I know you would be a great one based on your writings I read. Good move in using the company gym too. Just curious was anyone else working out there too?

I am in West Palm Beach area. Since Sunday I have been trying to eat a bit more and get more Water in. Plus MOM finally worked I am now back down to 287. Today is exactly 6 weeks since surgery and I am down 27 pounds.

HappyBuddy I can't offer any knowledge to the puzzle. However I wanted you to know you are not alone. The same amount of weight loss happened to me in the first 10 days of my Jan 26th surgery. I had the three week stall. After the stall I lost 8 more pounds only this week to gain 6 of them back, I am 6 weeks out and even eating less than you as every time I eat food I get a terrible pain under the left breast area. Eating is like 1 1/2 to 2 ounces or maybe 1/2 cup depending on the food. I am too old for the puzzle of the period. Some great suggestions were given and I hope you solve this puzzle real soon as I know the emotional feeling your expressing. I am right there with you.