The Greater Fool

Congratulations on your success. Good luck, Tek

Ugh... Every POV here is important. I do appreciate the kind thoughts, though. As I said, I don't think you intended offense or rudeness. Written stuff like this makes reading tone very tough. So, no need to apologize. Least of all to me. Keep up the good work. Good luck, Tek

Thanks for allowing me an opinion. I gotta think that you do not intend to be coming off the way you are to me. I'm finding it difficult to read what you've posted charitably. Frankly, you are wrong that I criticized anyone. Can you make the same claim? How did you get out of what I wrote that I have an issue not eating chips? Weird. I understand how restaurants work, I'm not sure why you felt the need to explain. As I have said multiple times already, what we do and eat is about what is on our plans and is completely about what works for each of us. I'm glad you seem to agree. Then you moved on to how this was about money and that "some of us paid for our surgeries with insurance." This completely confuses me. Insurance also paid for my surgery 20 years ago. You seem to be assuming money is not a concern for me. Like many people here I've gone through periods, even since surgery, where even a child's meal was an extravagance too far. Where did I even come near belittling the choice of a child's meal based on cost? Again, you seem to be reading things that simply are not there. With all this you presume we're good here? I want to believe you intend to be, what, helpful? But it feels to me like accusation. Please approach every post by every person here with the most charitable interpretation possible, which is how the vast majority of posts here are intended. I know sometimes folks take expressions of contrary life experience and choices as criticisms. Please don't. Good luck, Tek

Phase 4 is not nearly the same thing to everyone. To me, it is an OK 1974 movie about ants taking over the world, or at least Arizona. Can you describe what Phase 4 is for your plan and we will gladly share... Good luck, Tek

And I, in contrast, expressed what I do. Or am I not allowed an opinion? I never said folks should not do what they choose, I only expressed the reasons for my choices. To the contrary, as I said in my post: "As with everyone and everything, if it works for you and your plan is what matters." I don't see my post as the least bit controversial. Good luck, Tek

The only thing that is demonstrated to work is time and patience. Good luck, Tek

Different surgeons have different perspectives. What one thinks is nonsense another swears by. Generally, my surgeon agreed with your surgeon that the idea is not to push food through to enable the ability to eat more. There are often times when drinking with food is quite appropriate, such as with dry food. My surgeon didn't swear by much other than that every patient is unique thus every patient has different needs. My needs were that I required occasional drinks to help food down my gullet. Such is life for some of us. I usually have a drink at hand during meals of which I rarely make use. Generally, only when food is dry and needs help getting down my throat. Issues with reflux and other such things seem to depend on individual responses. I don't have issues with reflux or GERD. However, just because I don't have such issues doesn't indicate that what I do or believe has any effect on it. Sometimes no matter what we do we have issues, likewise sometimes no matter what we do we don't. Life just works that way. Good luck, Tek

My plan doesn't include chips. Most child's menus are not anything I would touch, nor are they designed with adult pallets in mind. I do, however, love Mexican food. How can you go wrong with protein and cheese? Flour tortillas are problematic, so I avoid those like the plague. When ordering out I'd rather just purchase a protein based menu item and go from there. I'd drop the bun or flour tortilla for two reasons. First, such bread items tend to cause problems for me. Second, they are generally not on my plan. When it comes to left-overs, I've learned not to bother, again for multiple reasons. First, chicken tends not to work in leftover form for me, though I can often manage the right meat in the right style. Second, my spouse generally eats her complete meal rarely with leftovers, so each meal is it's on it's own. Why would I do left-overs when fresh food is the order of the day? Most left-overs get discarded eventually. As with everyone and everything, if it works for you and your plan it's what matters. Good luck, Tek

For my chronic pain from DDD, arthritis, and joint degradation, I use good 'ol narcotics. Good luck, Tek

My surgeon wanted me to get all my protein from actual food. No protein drinks. Bars were out because snacks were out. Good luck, Tek

Our bodies learn to cope and compensate. Good luck, Tek

The Dark Tower, Author: Stephen King, Narrated by George Guidall. Good luck, Tek

I had my Gallbladder removed during my Gastric Bypass. I've had bouts of nausea on and off since, but I never related it to being sans Gall Bladder. Something to ponder. I know it can be very frustrating. For me, as with all things stomach related, so much can depend on stress, fatigue, pain, illness, poor food choice, and a myriad of other things. Once the nausea starts a whole series of dominoes begin to fall, so if I can head off the nausea it can be a life saver. My PCP gave me Ondansetron that does help. Ginger Ale also seems to help in a pinch. Sometimes a bit of food can help. I find that during my on again periods I'm also particularly sensitive to smells so any 'cure' based on smelling something would be something I avoid. Oddly, my pain meds help. Go figure. If mine were constant like yours I would entertain talking to a Doctor that deals with stomach stuff (not a surgeon). Good luck, Tek

I'm 20 years post-op. I expect to start warming up any day now. Any day now. Good luck, Tek

Welcome to the forums, Tina. You won't find "normal" diet protocols in relation to WLS, so most things aren't considered nor counted, if at all, until much later in the process when eating begins to approximate anything close to normal. The chorus is "Protein first," which we all learn early on. As one approaches a normal weight and "maintenance" mode more normal macros come into play, though not always. It's a different ride than the ones you've been on before. Enjoy! Good luck, Tek

I would re-open discussion with your medical team. There are lists of medications flying around the internet that claim to be medications Weight Loss patients can't or shouldn't take. "Everyone" knows you should not take NSAIDs. Nonsense. Only your medical team has a say in what you may or may not take, and even that should be based on your personal situation. I am able to take NSAIDs as long as I treat them like every other medication I take: Know the negative side effects and monitor carefully. As with every other medication, there are ways of mitigating negative effects, which I also do. On the flip side, Tylenol (generally declared safe) is one of the few meds I was warned to be very careful of because of liver issues. I still have leave to take it occasionally. Often it's better a risky medication that helps than no medication that doesn't, especially with pain inducing situations. Good luck, Tek

"Facts!" We also get our own facts now! "Slippery food" is by it's very definition bad! Veggies need not apply. I would never go so far as accusing someone eating veggies as doing anything near unhealthy! That's just fanciful definitions that is. Cheese is gawd's gift, so that's cool in my world. Oh, we get our own "worlds" now too! In my book, yeah we get books too, if I can eat extra 'healthy' stuff, more's the power. I will not have anyone coming anywhere close to classifying it is bad. Jealousy is what I call that! Good luck, Tek

Back when I had surgery "slider foods" had a very specific meaning. They used to be generally high carb foods like pastas and potatoes, things that "slide" easily down your throats once chewed a little that were less than optimal in our plans. Chips were non-obvious because they started out crunchy but became slider foods. I forget what they all were because the one's I didn't care for I never worried about and the others, once I got out of the habit I didn't remember what they were, so I've long since forgotten the specific foods. This was one of my surgeon's rules that I've long since forgotten. My surgeon never classified vegetables as slider foods. More's the pity. Not unlike how "truth" used to have a specific meaning but now we get to have our own. Geez I sound like my grandmother. And while I'm here, get off my lawn! Good luck, Tek

'She' being your surgeon? While you believed you had your Gallbladder removed it turned out to be a small Gallstone? Please demand of your surgeon better communications and demand a course of action that will deal with your issue. If you don't make it important your medical team won't treat it importantly. It seems your Gallbladder is still an issue that needs resolving. Occasional nausea is one thing. Constant for years would be quite another. I would be raising a stink in my medical teams office to no end and then I would be dealing with a new medical team if I didn't get results. Me no peace, them no peace. I've been shocked recently to learn how sensitive medical folk are to bad reviews. Who knew? Make sure they feel your pain. Stay on them. Everyone keep advocating for yourselves. Good luck, Tek

This sounds like a nightmare! Hey, @Alex Brecher what can you do to raise awareness and action on this? Good luck, Tek

I felt like I was missing something every day. I counted that I had 12 different appointments for tests and the dates and times kept changing so I feared I dropped one or asked for the wrong test. As it happenned I got every last test correct, but the surgeon decided on another at the last minute. Grrrr. Because of my surgery being 20 years ago and the fact I had a couple of huge risk factors, Doc said I had about a 1 in 20 chance of dying on the table. In fact, his last words when we talked just before surgery were "You know you can die from this surgery?" Yes. "Do you wish to continue?" Yes. I never worried about my recovery but I did research complications and visualized how I would deal with them. I had an 'open' surgery, meaning they openned me up from stem to stern and closed me up with 30+ staples and a drain. Every little movement was exruciating pain. I knew this was a short term thing and the staples would come out at 4 weeks or so. I told myself I could do anything for 4 weeks. Pain meant eating (puree) and drinking were impossible but I kept trying. Always keep trying. As I said, I prepared by knowing what could go wrong and mentally preparing for it. Knowledge, for me, is power. Just focus on doing the best you can. Don't kick yourself for what you can't do or do wrong, it's part of being human. If you have a rough time, it's just the price of admission. If it's easy take the W and keep going. Success starts and ends in the mind. Good luck, Tek

I should have noted that I still had 35 or so staples holding my insides in and the outsides out. Every movement, no matter how slight, was a new experience in pain. I was able to move more freely shortly after 4 weeks. We enjoyed going down to the strip and people watching while we walked. Good luck, Tek

Congratulations on your approval. When it comes to choosing your surgery you are the boss. Get the surgery you want and know why you want it. Your Doc is right that relatively speaking you don't have much weight to lose, but once you cross the hurdle to choose surgery, which surgery would be based on all the same in depth decission making process we all should do. Before you choose to have GB as your husband did, note that we don't all respond the same ways to any surgery, it's a very individual thing. Medications are also quite individual considerations. Baby aspirin would very likely not be an issue as it's so ridiculously low dose. My Doctor did not declare Aspirin off limits but becasue of liver issues he didn't want me taking Tylenol if I could avoid it. If we are going to take Aspirin then like virutally everyone else that takes Aspirin, heck we should do this for any medication, we need to monitor for negative side effects and report them quickly. Other medications you would have to discuss with your medical team. All of this should be part of deciding to have GB or Sleeve or DS or Band or whatever. No surgery can be counted to remove cravings. Some people claim that some foods taste differently post-op. Don't count on such idiosyncratic results. I had GB and fortunately for me I dump on sugars and fats. It takes an amazingly small number of dumping episodes before you simply choose to avoid sugars and fats. Not everyone is as enthusiastic about dumping as I am. It is absolutely no fun and it can be very embarassing if you manage it in public. Since you have relatively little weight to lose I'm not sure why you would want to put yourself through it. The Sleeve is a perfectly fine surgery. No dumping. Good restriction. Fewer medication concerns. It is a less complicated surgery. Suppmentation, though still necessary, is less critical than with GB. You can get there from here. You can be happy with the Sleeve. Good luck, Tek

Moving from the bedroom to the living room, then back... eventually. Good luck, Tek

Over the first 6 or so months we tend to be able to eat more easier as time goes by becuase our stomachs are healing and normalizing over that period. It's not that the restriction reduces, it's that things are getting less and less sensitive because of healing. After that, generally over time most folks are able to eat more. Some of it is you've learned the new mechanics of eating so you make fewer mistakes, so food goes down consistently easier. The pouch/sleeve may also relax more and in some cases expand over the next few years. Hopefully by this time we've learned to NOT eat to satiation or fullness for most meals. The restriction is intended to be a secondary back-stop that you encounter when you make a mistake, overdo, or when your stomach is just being a brat. It's not intended to be the only mechanism you use to control your volume. If you don't have a plan, then you need to find one that will work for you. It's just too easy to eat around the restriction over time. The pizza thing seems to be bothering you, so let me say this: I could probably eat the toppings off of 4 slices of medium or even large pizza if I took long enough. If I had to guess, maybe 1.5 - 2.0 hours, not having done this personally. Also if I use fluids to move things along quicker it might even be less time. I can manage 2 slices as a normal meal in my normal way if the day is a perfect storm where my pouch is happy that day and I actually want to eat that much, which is rare unless it tasted super-duper ridiculously flavorful. On all this I'm including the cheese, because even bad cheese is good It is a cause of concern to you as now know you can eat more than perhaps you should and you don't have a plan that might stop you from reaching the restriction. You should talk to your surgeon, but honestly there is nothing they can do short of another surgery. They might prescribe pills to curb your appetite if it's not something you can do without them. What happens now is up to you. Good luck, Tek