Elisabethsew

Happy Birthday! I love fiesty seniors so keep on dancing!

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Most of the bandages/tape come off in the shower by around day 10. Once they come off, there is no need to cover them. If they haven't fallen off by day 14, you can manually remove them.

Like the others, I am bery sorry that you're dealing with complications and I can understand your disappointment. Keep posting here and letting us know how you're doing.

The day I had surgery the only other patient having it with me was a young man who brought his mother (she was banded years earlier by Dr. Aceves and wanted a revision). The day after my surgery, Dr. Campos and Ernesto and *Susan* all had VSG surgery.

Congratulations on getting a date. If you read through the board, you'll get a lot of answers.

Have you all checked out the photo section of this forum? It's amazing to see how successful some of our members are in those pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the before and afters are WOW!

First of all, you're still recovering from surgery and complications and should not be stressing more than you already have been. When you're progressing to liquids and food, you'll see things much clearer and deal with solutions effectively. My opinion is that you shouldn't even bother worrying about what your evil SS's think about you. Why do you care? You had surgery for YOU. They don't suffer from obesity and you do. There is NO way they can relate to what it is like to live in your body so they will never understand why diet and exercise alone can't work for you. Would you feel this way if you had kidney disease and needed dialysis? Concentrate on you, your health, and the journey to good health. Why worry about about a holiday that is more than 6 months away? Are they going to gossip about you? Yes! They are going to gossip about how damn good you look and how jealous they are of you. Are they going to watch you eat? You'll be eating like a naturally thin person; like them. So, there's nothing for them to discuss. Screw them and concentrate on you. Take it one day at a time and don't worry about anything or anyone but you!

Have you ever noticed that your weight likes to plateau at a certain place? I've been up and down and up and down year after year trying diet after diet. Each time I end up in the 260's, my body has a hard time letting me out of it. LOL. I finally made it into the 250's and have made going below 250 my next short term goal. I LOVE when the MD balance scale heavy weight moves off the 250 spot. :-) How is everyone else doing? Any magic scale numbers or plateaus?

WasA is working on a low carb pre-op diet meal plan so I figured it would be helpful to have some low carb recipes to go with that. Here's a few for breakfast: Blueberry Almond Breakfast Pudding This easy, healthy, low carb breakfast pudding can be made with any berries or other additions as listed. Make it in the microwave in under 5 minutes. For a larger serving, increase the almond meal up to 1/2 cup, add 1 - 2 Tablespoon water, and cook a bit longer. Ingredients: 1/3 cup almond meal 2 Tablespoons water 1 egg 1/4 cup blueberries - frozen or otherwise Sweetener and flavoring to taste - see list below Preparation: Mix almond meal, egg, and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for about 45 seconds. Move the cooked part of the pudding towards the center of the bowl and add blueberries and/or any mix-ins you want. Microwave for about 45-60 more seconds, depending on mix-ins (frozen fruit will need even longer cooking, as it will cool down the pudding). Stir and eat. Possible Additions: Fresh or frozen berries Unsweetened coconut Peanut butter or other nut butters Small cubes of cream cheese (any fat level) Sugar-free maple or other syrup Chopped nuts Sugar free jams/preservatives Nutritional Information: Each serving (with blueberries) has 6 grams effective carbohydrate plus 5 grams fiber, 13 grams protein, and 273 calories. ************************************************ Flax Breakfast Pudding This "pudding" can be put together in the microwave in 3-4 minutes. You can add berries or other "mix-ins" - see suggestions below. The flax gives it lots of fiber and good fat, plus a nice nutty flavor. Ingredients: 1/4 cup flax seed meal 1/4 cup water (some of the liquid can be sugar-free syrup, if desired) 1 egg Sugar substitute to taste Mix-ins as desired (see below) Preparation: Mix flax meal, egg, and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for about 45 seconds. Move the cooked part of the pudding towards the center of the bowl and add any mix-ins you want. Microwave for about 45-60 more seconds, depending on mix-ins (frozen fruit will need even longer cooking, as it will cool down the pudding). Stir and eat. Possible Additions: Fresh or frozen berries or other fruit Unsweetened coconut Peanut butter or other nut butters Small cubes of cream cheese (any fat level) Sugar-free maple or other syrup Chopped nuts Sugar free jams/preserves Nutritional Information: Each serving has 1 gram effective carbohydrate plus 9 grams fiber, 12 grams protein, and 243 calories. ******************************************* Atkins Low Carb Omelet Recipe The omelet is about the perfect breakfast food as far as Atkins and other low carb diets are concerned. It's easy, quick, and can be done with a variety of ingredients! Ingredients: 2 eggs dash salt dash pepper 1 Tbsp butter 1/8 cup random veggies Break both eggs into a mixing bowl. Add in salt and pepper. Heat the pan over medium heat with a full pat of butter in it. Pour in the eggs. Wait about 20 seconds, and then sprinkle on whatever other ingredients you're going to add. I happen to like broccoli and tomato. You would use 1/8th cup of each. You can also add ham, turkey, mushrooms, and many other vegetables. Cook covered for 1-2 minutes, until the top is still wet but mostly firm. If you add cheese, put that on near the end because it melts quickly. At this point, fold one corner over about 2/3rds across. If it's too wet, the ingredients will just slide off. If it's too dry, the fold won't "stick" and will spring back to flat. Cook for another minute, and serve hot! Servings: 1 Carbs: base omelet: 1.2g 1/8c broccoli: .4g 1/8c mushrooms: .2g 1 slice cheese: .3g Note: Some people add a dash of heavy cream to their omelets to make them even smoother. If you're looking for variety in your omelets, give this a try! ********************************************************** PUFFED OVEN PANCAKE - 6 Servings 2 tbsp butter 3 eggs (1.8 grams of carbs) 1/2 cup high gluten flour * (12 grams of carbs) 1/4 cup cream (2.4 grams of carbs) 1/4 cup water salt Melt butter in skillet. Beat eggs. Add flour, cream water and 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well. Pour into hot skillet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Serve with blackberry syrup, maple butter or low carbohydrate maple syrup. Carb Count: Recipe Total 16.2 grams of carbs, Carbohydrates Per Serving 2.7 grams of carbs * You can purchase high gluten flour at some grocery stores, most health food stores or from a bakery. ************************************************************ EGGS BENEDICT - 4 Servings 4 eggs (2.4 grams of carbs) Canadian Bacon Sauce 1/2 cup butter 3 beaten egg yolks (0.9 grams of carbs) 1 tbsp water 1 tbsp lemon juice (1.3 grams of carbs) Lightly grease skillet. Fill skillet half way with water. Bring water to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer. Break eggs into cup and carefully slide one at a time into water. Allow space for each egg. Simmer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat Canadian Bacon in skillet. Remove poached egg and serve with Canadian Bacon and Hollandaise Sauce. For sauce, combine butter, egg yolks, water and lemon juice. Heat in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Carb Count: Recipe Total 4.6 grams of carbs, Carbohydrates Per Serving 1.15 grams of carbs</I></SPAN>

As we all know, head hunger can create havoc and it takes determination to get control over it. When I am off from work, the late afternoon is usually the time I occasionally experience this. To not give into the head hunger, I am looking for other alternatives. The ones that work include, taking a walk and doing needlework which is something I enjoy but had not done in awhile. It keeps me focused and my hands are full so I can't eat. LOL. Another thing I enjoy is going to Barnes & Noble, getting a coffee, and looking through the diet and fitness books and magazines. This is a treat that gives me some quiet "me" time away from everyone and lasts about 45 min to an hour. I learn and relax at the same time. What are other people doing?

LOL, I wasn't responding to what you wrote so I was confused at this response... had to read back on the thread. LMAO. At any rate, I agree!

I started drinking coffee on day 6! LOL. Dr. Aceves LOVES it and told me it would be OK after 5 days for me to have it back. I use the fat free non dairy creamer and a splenda. He said that was fine. I HAVE to have coffee. LOL.

My GI doctor advises 600 mg for non PPI uses a day and 1200 mg for patients who had weight loss surgery and/or who take PPIs.

I do drink right before my meals and tried both ways. I had the same dinner 2 nights in a row and drank prior to eating one night and did not drink for an hour before eating the other night. There was NO difference in the amount of food I could eat. I do wait @ 30 min after eating to drink.

Welcome and thank you for posting. You'll find a lot of information here so post away and ask whatever comes to mind. You make an excellent choice to get the sleeve.

I think the causative factor here is the use of PPIs. GI doctors are unified in their insistance that people on PPIs supplement with calcium. They need to specify that it should be calcium citrate and that vitamin D should be supplemented as well. It would be interesting to know how many people in the study were on PPIs and how many supplemented with calcium and/or vitamin D.

Taking calcium CITRATE rather than calcium CARBONATE when you're on proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as nexium will not compromise the absorption of calcium. Everyone taking PPIs should take calcium supplements. If you take calcium carbonate, it should NOT be taken with the PPI; take one in the AM and the other in the PM.

I love to see people post here who have been successful losing large amounts of weight because they are "living proof" that it's possible to get to goal with this surgery. I am down 28 pounds and can't wait to break out of the 250's. For me, mini goals of 10 pounds each allow me to work towards realistic achievements.

I'm only using the protein bars when I need a protein source. When I work a 13 hour night shift, I sleep through lunch and I can only "fit in" vitamins/medications and coffee for breakfast. I eat the protein bar while I'm driving to work.

I haven't had a desire for sweet things but that was never my problem pre-op. I have dark chocolate in the house and have a small piece if I crave it but that's not often. The way I lost weight prior to WLS was through healthy eating and that's what I am back to now. Eating small portions of healthy food is what I observe "naturally" thin people doing. Making that a habit, and my way of living, plus the effects of the VSG surgery is my recipe to get to goal and STAY there. LOL.

Welcome, Marci! Congratulations on your success and your new life. Have you found it easy to maintain your loss?

While it sucks that you did not hear about the sleeve, it wasn't a total loss. You learned what you didn't want and got to talk to a surgeon. Great!