Dave In Houston

Sounds like a great success.

I've been having some mild chest pain on the right side. When I called the doc's office, they told me it's probably some retained gas, and prescribed simethicone. They said it can go on for several days, and told me if it still persisted after 5 or 6 days on the simethicone, I should call back. BTW, you can buy simethicone over the counter. One brand name is Gas X.

I recommend you just ignore him. And when you're feeling down, imagine how good you'll feel three months, six months, or a year after surgery. You'll be looking and feeling better and buying smaller clothes every few months.

When I was on the puree stage after my gastric bypass, I would grind soups in a bullet blender with some extra chicken. At that stage I could stand about 4 ounces of liquid. Progreso has some canned soups that are tasty. Another thing I did is to grind entrees like chicken curry or chicken marsala, then thin the sauce down with chicken broth to the consistency of a thick soup. You'll be moving on to soft foods soon enough.

FYI, my surgery was gastric bypass, but I think the regimen is similar. Compared to Crick, I'm just getting started, but I also concentrate on the protein, and I also try to get in 80 grams per day. They told me I should give up caffeine, so my morning ritual is now a sugar free popsicle which I take with my morning meds and vitamins. Thirty minutes or so later I'm having a Pure Protein drink, good for 30 grams of protein. For lunch I usually have a fried egg, one strip of bacon or half a turkey sausage patty, and half an English muffin. My afternoon snack is usually cottage cheese and pineapple. Though my tastes changed after surgery, this is something that always tastes good. At dinner, there's usually includes a protein portion, a veggie, and a carb portion. Tonight it will be pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Pork tenderloin is a great choice for good meat at a good price. I buy them at Costco for $2.49 a pound. It's the same cut of meat as filet mignon, but it's the pork version. It doesn't have quite the amount of flavor as beef, but a side of sautéed mushrooms brings out the flavor. I like to put a small splash of soy sauce in the mushrooms for an added umami blast. BTW, everyone should have an sous vide machine to prepare meat perfectly every time. I use the Anova brand. My evening snack is another Pure Protein drink, so I'm easily making 80 grams of protein. They told me to cut out whiskey, so my evening ritual is another sugar-free popsicle. Surprisingly, cutting out coffee in the morning and a whiskey at night was easy for me. (Note: edited to fix some of the capitalization mistakes the web page inserted. I hate that. And it won't let me capitalize that well known warehouse-style retailer that sells roast chickens for $4.99.)

I had been taking proton pump meds for 20 years due to reflux, so my surgeon strongly recommended the gastric bypass.

I use this one. My surgeon's office wanted to know that I was taking bariatric vitamins, to the point that they waited while I looked them on Amazon to see which one I was taking. At $30 for a three month supply, these aren't too costly, and I can get them the next day. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HZ3YQ5X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Volume is indeed slightly more accurate. But being a chemical engineer, I know that most foods are very close to the density of water, so that one fluid ounce equals one ounce by weight. I think you'll see more variability because of your tolerance for the kind of food than from the density differences. Edit: In any case, you'll want to be very aware of when you're starting to feel full, which feels different after surgery. And when you get that feeling, stop eating. You may regret even another bite or two.

For me, a food scale is very important. I weight everything I eat, not for monitoring purposes, but to be sure I don't eat too much. At about 10 weeks from surgery, I can now eat about 8 ounces at a sitting. I would caution you not to buy too much food before your surgery date. My tastes changed quite a bit after the surgery, and I still have 60 cartons of Carbmaster yogurt and 40 boxes of Wonderslim shakes that don't appeal to me at all. During the puree phase, as Candace said, you'll want something to grind your food up. I found the my bullet blender worked well.

This is the one I use. https://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Signature-Calcium-Citrate-Tablets/dp/B007889Z1C

I drank coffee during my pre-op diet, but stopped on the day of surgery. I used to drink 4 or 5 cups a day, and I stopped cold turkey. Surprisingly, I didn't have any problems. BTW, I used to have a double whiskey every night, and I stopped that during the pre-op diet when my bottle ran dry.

Congrats! I just made it myself. I was out of town for two weeks. Upon returning, my weight was down 5 pounds, and my BMI is 29.8.

I used to drink at least 4 cups of coffee per day, and I stopped the day of surgery. I haven't had any problems, though I don't get migraines. (BTW, I also used to have a double whiskey every night, and I stopped that, too.) I'm planning a hip replacement later this year. I was hoping to get some relief from the weight loss. So far, with over 40 pounds lost, I still need the replacement hip.

Rice hasn't caused me any problems. I've had it with chicken curry and with red beans and sausage. I'm about two months from surgery.

For me it was a 3 hour zoom meeting. I already knew most of what was discussed from researching the surgery.

I'm about two months out, and doing pretty well by now. I had a few tough days after about a week to ten days, and I still can't stand the thought of some of those foods. You can expect a turnaround. What worked for me early on was soups ground in the blender. (A bullet blender works well for this.) I would put in extra meat to add extra protein. I can eat 8 ounces now, but at that stage, it was more like 3 or 4. I like it spicy, so I bought some commercial curry sauce at Kroger, then ground it up with some chicken and thinned it with chicken broth to make a soup. I had that a lot. Sugar-free popsicles were (and are) still a go-to for me. No nutrition, but they're pleasant in the mouth. And you're not alone when you're on this board. Everyone here knows what you've been going through, because they've been through it, too. Or they plan to go through it.

If you have a history of GERD, I would think the surgeon would suggest the gastric bypass. You might want to ask him about that. I first started thinking about weight loss surgery when my voice doc suggested it after I told him I wanted to get off the proton pump meds he had been prescribing for me for 20 years.

Red beans and sausage with rice. Camellia Beans has a recipe for Instant Pot on their web page. The sausage is a delicious chicken and apple smoked sausage I get at Sam's Club. Each link 4-ounce link has only 4.5 grams of fat. You can't tell from this photo, but this is my tiny little bowl with 4.5 ounces of beans and 2 ounces of rice. I ate it all.

I needed the bypass because of reflux. If I had asked for anything else, the surgeon wouldn't have done it.

My insurance is traditional Medicare. Approval is automatic. I had started the process with a different surgeon a year earlier. I found his office unresponsive, so I changed to a different surgeon. I had my first appointment with him on 4/27 and my surgery was 5/28.

I can handle the protein shakes, fortunately. I get 60 grams of my prescribed 60 to 80 from to of the Pure Protein brand shakes. Eight or so more from 3 ounces of cottage cheese. I may still try the GENEPRO to see whether it's palatable mixed in oatmeal. For me, water doesn't taste bad, I just can't drink very much at once.

Congrats on your success! I'm about 7 weeks from surgery. I bought a bunch of foods I thought I wood want, and I just don't enjoy them. Maybe they will still be good when my taste for them returns. My favorite thing to eat now is cottage cheese with canned pineapple. I eat it every day. Is the Genepro unflavored really tasteless? I tried adding a vanilla flavored one (another brand) to my Cream of Wheat, and I couldn't stomach that either.

Hi, Grace... I'm six weeks from surgery. Including the pre-surgery diet, I have lost 40 pounds. More importantly, I'm wearing jeans 2 sizes smaller and shirts one size smaller. I wouldn't change my decision. Still, I should tell you that I didn't realize what a change my new body would be. If I eat one or two bites too much, I might feel bad for half an hour. If I eat three or four bites too much, I might feel bad for an hour and a half. If I eat more than that, it might come back up. It's also hard for me to stay properly hydrated. I used to get most of my water by drinking almost a quart at every meal. Now I'm not supposed to drink within half an hour of eating. I'm not quite used to keeping a water bottle with me and sipping constantly throughout the day. If you need the surgery to be healthy, you should definitely do it. But you also need to appreciate how your lifw will change.

Tonight's dinner: Tenderloin steak, sautéed baby bellas, mashed potatoes with Blue cheese, green salad. I ate it all, and one extra bite of potatoes while I was putting them away.

Doc prescribed 14 days of enoxaprin injections for me. The pharmacy accidentally gave me 18, so he said, "well, go ahead and take them."