Maribelle76

Thank you for responding! I will check it out. And I'm also glad I'm not the only one who couldn't figure it out lol..

Hello! I'm sorry things are being complicated by this. However, I went to my surgery all by myself and I didn't have any problems at all. I actually drove to the hospital and checked myself in. I figured with my phone I could stay connected to anybody I want to outside of the hospital. Actually though, the first day after surgery I was so knocked out by the anesthesia and the anti nausea medications that I just wanted to sleep or veg out. The next day it was just busy with different nurse visits and educational visits, then a bunch of walking around. Then it was time to get my stuff together and wait for my ride to pick me up. I just brought a backpack with some lip stuff, the Biotene mouth spray, a brush, toothbrush, my phone, a charger, and an extra pair of underwear. I just wore the clothes I had arrived in home the next day. That was more than enough stuff. I hope everything goes okay and I'm glad your mom will be there to help you out afterwards.

I'm looking forward to meeting up with old friends and not feeling embarrassed. I was at the point where I wanted to skip get togethers with my high school and college friends, not because they are critical at all, but I was just ashamed the way I looked. Now hopefully I will be able to look forward to those events instead of wanting to avoid them.

Hello! At the luncheon I had about 2 ounces of mashed potatoes and one ounce on cooked carrots. I had a few delicious green beans, too. I moved to puree on the third day after surgery, and I moved to soft foods after 3 weeks.

I think many of us feel a sense of sadness and loss after surgery. To me, it keeps reminding me of getting out of a bad romantic relationship. There's a period of time after the breakup when I get lonely and a little frantic and I consider going back even if I know the relationship is completely toxic. But when people keep going back into a toxic relationship, they just keep getting sicker and sadder. I don't want that anymore for me with my relationship with food. When you break up and get out of a bad relationship, you have to mourn the loss of that relationship, even if it sucked. It filled a hole in your life. But just like when you break up with somebody, you have to find new things to validate you or to bring you joy. You are grieving habits that weren't good for you, but soon you'll start to find new things to help you feel better. Hopefully they will be good healthy things for your life. For me it has been exercising, spending time with friends, and probably spending a little bit too much money on new clothes lol. I'm not really sure if this is exactly the way you're feeling, but I just thought I would tell you what's been going through my mind the past month in case it is the same. I sure hope you get through the mourning process soon, and you can have peace with your choice.

Oh man, I did not think they'd start cancelling this soon. So, so sorry, and big hugs to you.

I have a harder time eating and drinking when I forget to take my PPI (Omeprazole). It is easy to forget now because the sleeve And my new diet has really reduced the amount of acid reflux that I have. But if I go too long without taking a pill, I start to have a sensation of fullness and difficulty getting food and even water down sometimes. Maybe it might be that for you?

Beautiful before and after, but you look so fit and healthy now! Great job.

I am about 3 weeks out from the surgery, and I don't have any regrets so far. It is an emotionally trying time, because I'm having to learn how to control myself in ways I've never controlled myself. I'm not a disciplined person, so it can be a struggle. But I know that this is something that I have to learn how to do or I will not be able to keep up with my children. I haven't had any complications thankfully. I was feeling good by day four and pretty much able to do most of my daily life by seven days out with the exception of lifting. I was also worried about chugging water, but I can get a whole cup of water down pretty quickly now. The only time I have problems is if I let my acid reflux flare up (sometimes I forget my omeprazole because the surgery had helped decrease my GERD so far). If I start to have a problem getting down water, I make sure to get some antacids and that fixes it up the next day. My thought is that if you've come this far in the process, it is most likely the best thing for you and something that you really want in your heart. Otherwise you never would have put in the effort and time to get this far. A life lived in fear is a life half-lived... When I got a little nervous before surgery, I started looking back through all of the monthly threads. I think I looked at the March, April, May, and June threads. It was a relief to see that all of the surgeries were safe, and the complications were fairly limited and of short duration. Maybe if you go through those threads, too, that will help give you a good feel for the risks vs. the benefits.

My surgery was on 7/13, and I had my first day back at work as a teacher today. It went really well, and I didn't run out of energy even though we went from 7:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. (open house). I think it helped that I was prepared with plenty of foods and I ate a few times. We had a staff luncheon and I was a little worried what people might say because I haven't told most of them about the surgery. I ended up putting more on my plate than I plan to eat, and I slowly ate a small portion of those things. Nobody seemed to notice. One more exciting thing for me: I went shopping for some new school clothes yesterday and I had to keep bringing back the bigger sizes for smaller ones! I got a couple of pairs of pants that were 14s and a few 16s and some shirts that were either XL or 1XL. The scale doesn't move very rapidly for me, so it was nice to see this NSV. I hope everybody else is doing well and getting back into the swing of things!

That is very interesting! I'm glad you have found things that work for you. How did you figure out that you have the lipedema?

My plan has refried beans and ground meat in the soft food stage. I also don't think eight bites total adds up to be a large amount (unless you're somehow managing to eat large bites currently). I guess I'm wondering why this is freaking you out? To me that is a good mix of fiber and protein.

How did everything go? Did you end up postponing or did you have the surgery? Just for any future reference, I read that this type of surgery is less dangerous than a C-section as far as mortality and complication rates.

I knew my band was slipping, but I had no insurance coverage to remove it, so I had to wait until I had a major slip and was admitted to the emergency room (I was vomiting small amounts of blood). I had kind of alerted my doctor to this money problem in the first place, and they said if I did go to an emergency room, they told me which hospital they practiced at so they could be the ones to remove it. My surgery was quick, I think less than an hour. I actually drove myself to the hospital on a Thursday after school, had the surgery on Friday, and was back at work on Monday. I stayed overnight one night and actually drove my self home the next day. I did not have any insurance coverage for gastric weight loss procedures at that time, but because it was an emergency situation, there were parts of my bill that were paid by insurance. I think I ended up still paying about $6,000 out of pocket, but it would have been considerably more if I had scheduled the surgery through my original surgeons. Also I would have had to pay an advance, which I was unable to do at the time. Obviously when it was an emergency surgery, I was able to do a payment plan and pay it off over a few years. I felt immediately better after surgery, and I didn't have any pain. It took a few months before my stomach seemed to have less swelling. It was such a relief.

I think there is another secret reason they require it: The pre-op weight loss requirements in general were the only diet I have ever stuck to in the past because I knew that surgery could be canceled if I didn't follow it. That is a great way to basically force you to start losing weight earlier, and to get you to your goal more quickly. They can hold that over your head in order to jumpstart your weight loss before, along with all of the other benefits like the shrunken liver etc.

Just a note, you will be saving so much money after surgery because one small container of Panera soup will last for 3 days lol. That money alone will pay for your vitamins.

My doctor has never mentioned a goal weight at all. And I appreciate that. I probably wouldn't listen to him anyway, because I know where I like my body to be. My guess is they are kind of just eyeballing it based on the hundreds or thousands of other patients they've had in the past. You definitely know your own body the best, though, so make your own goal your primary focus.

I had a screw up today! I have pretty severe ADHD and I haven't had my prescription for about 2 months now since my old primary care physician retired. My new PCP says I will have to go to a psychiatrist every 3 months if I still want the meds. I've just been trying to live without them, but I'm pretty absent-minded. Anyway, as I was talking to my mother about some bad family news, I was cleaning up my children's lunch plates, and without thinking I ate about four bites of their Totino's cheese pizza that was left over. As soon as I realized what I was doing, I freaked out! I was worried this would happen, because about 3 days ago I almost ate a grape without thinking until my daughter stopped me. Thankfully, I chew foods really well out of habit after having the gastric band for 8 years, so it went down okay, but it was kind of sitting in my stomach for a few hours and it made me nervous. I cannot wait until I'm on to regular foods, because this has been a big worry of mine I literally had bad dreams about accidentally eating the wrong foods ever since I was approved for surgery. Is anyone else like this? Or am I a freak like usual lol?

No, there are only special restrictions for the first 6 weeks or so. After that it seems like most people eat a variety of regular foods, just smaller amounts. Just like it was with the band, they want you to focus on protein first and limit carbs.

Yes, it definitely sounds like it is time for the doctor to investigate what's going on. Hopefully it is an easy fix!

Hello! I had a band for 8 years and then it was removed when it slipped after my pregnancy 7 years ago. Even though I gained my weight back after the removal, it was such a relief after years of fighting stuck food. I only weighed about 160 lb then (5'8") so I was not eligible to convert to a sleeve. I would have definitely done that though if it was an option. I did recently have sleeve surgery, and it was a smooth transition. The doctor said there wasn't very much scarring from the band when I had it. So far this is easier than the band. I don't get stuck on foods. However I had a pretty dysfunctional relationship with my band, and trying to avoid getting food stuck was part of the reason why I reached a low weight lol. I never really maintained healthy habits with the band, so I'm hoping I will have the discipline to do that with the sleeve since it works in a different way. Would your BMI be high enough to convert right now when they remove the band? Would your insurance cover it?

That sounds like an awful experience you had before! No wonder you have lingering anxiety. The good news is that your surgery is coming up very quickly, and I don't think that even the most strict states are going to be ready to do shutdowns again that soon. Of course I don't really know anything, it just doesn't seem like it happened that fast before. That day will be here before you know it!

I was allowed to have refried beans and cheese from Day 3 on, and I never had any problems with them.

Hi! I had surgery on the 13th and a few days ago I made a post called "I hate the scale" lol. I have sort of been all over the place, too. Actually in the past few days since I upped my calories, I am having a more consistent downward weight trend. I think mine was a mixture of body fluids and constipation for the first 10 days after surgery. Today I had my two week appointment and I was down a total of 9 lbs, which doesn't seem like a lot especially compared to those people who lose like 22 or 25 lb in 2 weeks, but I'm following the plan, so there's not much else I can do. I was happy to find out that that loss finally put me under a 35 BMI, so little losses are adding up. I know that people usually talk about the three-week stall on here, but the second week was really chaotic for me weight-wise. Hopefully we will both be slow but steady to meet our goals. Ps I just realized this is the bypass forum, and I had sleeve, but I don't think it makes that much difference in the first few weeks.

I get lightheaded and dizzy when I don't have a lot of calories. Also are you on any blood pressure medications?