emmylou

Thank you guys! I’m excited to have something other than liquid, but afraid of what it will do to me, i.e. upset stomach, pain from over doing it/not knowing the limit, getting hungry 15-30 minutes later even after having a protein, getting liquids in between meals etc. Just general transition anxiety I guess. I reckon I’ll have it again in two weeks when it’s soft chews and I’ll hate to see me when it’s regular food! LOL I’m attending a band support group tomorrow night and will pose my fears. I’ve already mentioned my anxiety to the surgeon at post op and he said just to take it slow and listen to what my new stomach is trying to tell me. I’ll give it a shot!

It's funny that I do not "crash" when I'm on low carb diets. The pre op was more mentally tough for me in wanting yet more crap that I wasn't allowed to have than crashing from not having enough sugar. I did not set out to exercise on pre op liquids because I KNEW the my cal/carb restriction would make it near impossible to function AND exercise and not starve worse that I was already. If I was hungry, I drank even if it meant going over my daily cals, but I kept my carbs below 50/day and always in ketosis. My liver had shrunk well anyway! I My glucose tests from a few years ago revealed I'm insulin resistant (the PCOS thing). Before beginning my preop liquids, if I had myself a hearty McDonalds Breakfast (mcgriddle or bagle sandwich) I could guarantee you I'd crash in a few hours and have to eat something else to stop the shakes and cold sweats. It ain't fun. This would usually happen with any carb overload followed by nothing for a few hours. If I'm consistant on a low carb diet, I never crash like that. I guess the crash follows a spike?

:smile: So funny and inspirational! That's great, you keep on going!

Great job and good for you! Just remember why you kicked him out as he tries to sweet talk ya back! :smile:

The psych lady at my surgeons office mentioned that some people (usually men) find that they get enough restriction just by having the band there and never feel the need for fills. She said that women typically need fills because of all the estrogen. I'm not sure how the estrogen comes into play, but I thought it was interesting.

That's great! I hope to have the same outlook when I too reach maintain mode. :smile:

I have progressed nicely since my last post. I'm no longer having spasms (thank someone!) I've had regular BM's lol I've had great sex! lolol My incisions look good. I'm able to burp without pain. My hunger has returned. I feel almost "normal" and it's pretty interesting. Every day I feel a little better as far as my incision soreness goes. I'm able to walk at a normal speed, etc. I had my post op on Thursday. I got neat ass pictures of them placing the band and fixing the hernia. I really dig this stuff and watch all the medical shows. This is stuff you would never see otherwise in your life....I think it's pretty cool. I was told my liver had shrunk nicely and looked pretty good (even though I had cheated a couple of times). I had lost 13lbs since my preop which was only 5 days prior to surgery. My ticker is going by my pre preop liquids diet weight. I was 287 before I started liquids on June 23. I weighed 269 on 7/16. My highest weight ever was 297. I had spent the last few months prior to preop liquids having many last meals and probably gained 15lbs! I start puress next Tuesday, but did experiment today. My first puree was fries and ketchup! LMAO I had MAYBE a tablespoon. I'm still too gun shy about putting stuff in there AND I wanna wait until I'm officially released to have mushies. OMG was it delish!!!! Ahhhhhh. I'm now planning a mushie celebration for Tuesday. I'm getting the chopped steak from Fuddrucker's, loading it up with spicy mustard and mayo and puttin' that baby in for processing! I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited. Yeah, I know it'll be loaded with fat and yucky, but my tastebuds are screaming for it. I will move on to my healthier options and be happy, but for some reason, I think I need it for now. I'm not obsessed with my weight right now. I'm more focused on healing. If I lose weight, great, but I'm not gonna kill myself if I don't. I will continue on a very low carb, high protien diet and hope for the best until I'm released to start fully exercising again. I just have a feeling that I'm gonna be kickin' ass and taking names 4 weeks from now. As long as my band does what it's supposed to do (and not malfunction in ANY WAY), I'll be doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm glad I sucked it up and toughed it out with the spasms, that was the worst of it all for me so far. I'm now excited about what's to come. :thumbup:

I have progressed nicely since my last post. I'm no longer having spasms (thank someone!) I've had regular BM's lol I've had great sex! lolol My incisions look good. I'm able to burp without pain. My hunger has returned. I feel almost "normal" and it's pretty interesting. Every day I feel a little better as far as my incision soreness goes. I'm able to walk at a normal speed, etc. I had my post op on Thursday. I got neat ass pictures of them placing the band and fixing the hernia. I really dig this stuff and watch all the medical shows. This is stuff you would never see otherwise in your life....I think it's pretty cool. I was told my liver had shrunk nicely and looked pretty good (even though I had cheated a couple of times). I had lost 13lbs since my preop which was only 5 days prior to surgery. My ticker is going by my pre preop liquids diet weight. I was 287 before I started liquids on June 23. I weighed 269 on 7/16. My highest weight ever was 297. I had spent the last few months prior to preop liquids having many last meals and probably gained 15lbs! I start puress next Tuesday, but did experiment today. My first puree was fries and ketchup! LMAO I had MAYBE a tablespoon. I'm still too gun shy about putting stuff in there AND I wanna wait until I'm officially released to have mushies. OMG was it delish!!!! Ahhhhhh. I'm now planning a mushie celebration for Tuesday. I'm getting the chopped steak from Fuddrucker's, loading it up with spicy mustard and mayo and puttin' that baby in for processing! I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited. Yeah, I know it'll be loaded with fat and yucky, but my tastebuds are screaming for it. I will move on to my healthier options and be happy, but for some reason, I think I need it for now. I'm not obsessed with my weight right now. I'm more focused on healing. If I lose weight, great, but I'm not gonna kill myself if I don't. I will continue on a very low carb, high protien diet and hope for the best until I'm released to start fully exercising again. I just have a feeling that I'm gonna be kickin' ass and taking names 4 weeks from now. As long as my band does what it's supposed to do (and not malfunction in ANY WAY), I'll be doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm glad I sucked it up and toughed it out with the spasms, that was the worst of it all for me so far. I'm now excited about what's to come.

LOL Congrats! I know EXACTLY what you mean. I actually called the surgeons office to ask when I should become "concerned". After all the lovely milk of magnesia, stool softeners, etc, etc I think I had my first honest one 7 days post op! LOLOL

I find GasX melti strips work more quickly and are more effective (for me) when dealing with intestinal gas than the chewable or pill forms. I wouldn't mind burping since I can't do that all they way on my own just yet. :scared2:

Do you know if you had a bonus hiatal hernia repair during surgery? I did and couldn't take deep breaths for almost 5 days. The surgeon told my DH (not me) that I may have trouble taking deep breaths or I may not even notice the hernia repair! I would "pant" a little if I was walking somewhere (even slowly). I too would have the unexpected body reflex of "take a quick deep breath". I also began having spasms in my esophagus because it appears that the surgeon took away my ability to burp when needed. All of this stuff has eased and I can pretty much breathe like normal now. I called the surgeons office a couple of times ANY time I felt something unexpected or weird to get their advise.

It's funny you should ask. I thought I would be able to tell where mine was by the incision, but I'm not sure. I have a general idea where it "could" be, but I'm afraid to press. All of the literature shows the port being on the left or right up around the rib cage right? My largest incision is about 4" above my bellybutton smack dab in the middle of my belly. I should find out tomorrow at my post op where the sucker is.

My hunger came back as gurgles after a few days and has progressed to knowing for certain that I can now starve again. My surgeon suggested getting on the shakes as soon as I could tolerate Water well, and that's what I did. They also said anything that begins as liquid and can be sucked through a straw could be permitted. Post op liquids hasn't been so bad (14 day pre op liquids was hell for me) though I'm trying to get as much protien in as possible. I've been having boxed Imagine Soups for lunch and dinner, they seem to help as well as the muscle milk light that I've been putting away to keep my protien up. I hate to admit it, but I think the pre op diet prepared me for now. I think about food sometimes when I allow myself to get too hungry, but if I stay on top of it, it's usually not a problem. I'm hoping to start mushies next Tuesday and I reckon I'll begin cooking again. LOL I've been planning menus in my head of stuff I'm curious to see if I can get it into a food processor and still come out tasting good. I guess we just have to hang in there?

The ones I just posted have children and adult dosages on the label.

Me too. One of the brands suggested by my surgeon is available at Walmart. They're OneSource Active Kids Complete (has 100% daily for iron). A bottle of 250 was $8 I think. They take me back to the days of thinking Flintstones Vitamins were candy. They're sugary, but they get the job done.

I had mine Tuesday July 7th (which included a hiatal hernia repair) and went back to work today (13th). I have a desk job but was up and down today just because it felt good to do so. By 5pm my incisions (all 5 of them) were getting a little sore I guess from just moving though nothing that I hadn't been doing already at home. I did take a teaspoon of pain meds and an anti anxiety about two hours before work, it seems to help with the spasms. It didn't make me drowsy or anything, but takes the edge off of the spasms. It would have been nice to continue hanging out at home with my cats, we had a nice cycle. I'd take meds, we'd all sleep, and then start over again. I'm still unable to burp when I'd like which is causing me to have painful spasms, but otherwise I think it went well today.

I had mine Tuesday July 7th (which included a hiatal hernia repair) and went back to work today (13th). I have a desk job but was up and down today just because it felt good to do so. By 5pm my incisions (all 5 of them) were getting a little sore I guess from just moving though nothing that I hadn't been doing already at home. I did take a teaspoon of pain meds and an anti anxiety about two hours before work, it seems to help with the spasms. It didn't make me drowsy or anything, but takes the edge off of the spasms. It would have been nice to continue hanging out at home with my cats, we had a nice cycle. I'd take meds, we'd all sleep, and then start over again. I'm still unable to burp when I'd like which is causing me to have painful spasms, but otherwise I think it went well today.

I thought I was going to be the one to lose 100 lbs in a year with hard work of course. I had these dreams of being healthy and smaller. As the days have passed since surgery, I'm beginning to wonder if I would reach these dreams with the band. For the first few days, I could not really tell I had had surgery. I was sore, but otherwise "normal". For the past three days (including now) I have developed spasms in my esophagus. They are painful and are happening frequently. Now I've graduated to a whole new problem, spasms with sudden urges to vomit. I cannot describe how painful this is or how suddenly it happens. I've had 3 episodes in the last 12 hours. Yes, I have called the surgeons office and have been told my body is adjusting. So, how can it adjust this way?!? The spasms begin in my chest, go up to my throat and cause an immense pain in my esophagus with an added bonus of a pain that radiates to my forehead and top of my head. It lasts a few seconds, takes my breath away and makes me wonder what I have done to myself with every one of them I get. The progression of these spasms took me by surprise. I was standing in the bathroom yesterday about to take a shower when I suddenly began to salivate excessively and within seconds felt like I was going to vomit (which terrified me). I would have a spasm and feel the need to vomit but could only manage small releases of air. The spasms would clamp down so hard on my esophagus and cause so much pain. It seemed to pass only to leave me breaking out into a cold sweat. I went to lay down and it happened again within 15 minutes. I called the surgeons office AGAIN and was told to stay on top of my pain with the spasms and to take the anti nausea that it doesn't sound out of the ordinary and are possibly due to the hernia repair done while being banded. I just awoke from the couch with a spasm. As I took even more pain meds, I began to have another vomiting attack. I'm having the spasms/attacks even when I have not had anything to drink in hours and have recently awoken from the drug induced sleep I put myself into. I have yet to find anything online or in the boards that sound exactly like what I'm having and it's progressively getting worse. I would be A-OK if not for these spasms. So again, I'm asking what did I do to myself? How long do I have to suffer in order to see the benefits of my decision? I'm so afraid now that the band will have to be taken out, that my body doesn't like it. I can't take these spasms/vomiting episodes. They're not worth it to keep the band. There's 17k down the drain plus another for the removal. This sucks, truly.

I thought I was going to be the one to lose 100 lbs in a year with hard work of course. I had these dreams of being healthy and smaller. As the days have passed since surgery, I'm beginning to wonder if I would reach these dreams with the band. For the first few days, I could not really tell I had had surgery. I was sore, but otherwise "normal". For the past three days (including now) I have developed spasms in my esophagus. They are painful and are happening frequently. Now I've graduated to a whole new problem, spasms with sudden urges to vomit. I cannot describe how painful this is or how suddenly it happens. I've had 3 episodes in the last 12 hours. Yes, I have called the surgeons office and have been told my body is adjusting. So, how can it adjust this way?!? The spasms begin in my chest, go up to my throat and cause an immense pain in my esophagus with an added bonus of a pain that radiates to my forehead and top of my head. It lasts a few seconds, takes my breath away and makes me wonder what I have done to myself with every one of them I get. The progression of these spasms took me by surprise. I was standing in the bathroom yesterday about to take a shower when I suddenly began to salivate excessively and within seconds felt like I was going to vomit (which terrified me). I would have a spasm and feel the need to vomit but could only manage small releases of air. The spasms would clamp down so hard on my esophagus and cause so much pain. It seemed to pass only to leave me breaking out into a cold sweat. I went to lay down and it happened again within 15 minutes. I called the surgeons office AGAIN and was told to stay on top of my pain with the spasms and to take the anti nausea that it doesn't sound out of the ordinary and are possibly due to the hernia repair done while being banded. I just awoke from the couch with a spasm. As I took even more pain meds, I began to have another vomiting attack. I'm having the spasms/attacks even when I have not had anything to drink in hours and have recently awoken from the drug induced sleep I put myself into. I have yet to find anything online or in the boards that sound exactly like what I'm having and it's progressively getting worse. I would be A-OK if not for these spasms. So again, I'm asking what did I do to myself? How long do I have to suffer in order to see the benefits of my decision? I'm so afraid now that the band will have to be taken out, that my body doesn't like it. I can't take these spasms/vomiting episodes. They're not worth it to keep the band. There's 17k down the drain plus another for the removal. This sucks, truly.

I'm having terrible spasms. They're painful. I'm still on pain meds because the spasms are so strong that it takes my breath away. There's no rhyme or reason to them, they just happen. I keep calling the surgeons office and they say my body needs to adjust to something being there and it could be the hernia repair. I hope it adjusts quickly, this is terrible! The pain starts where I guess the band is, goes up to my throat and then a pain radiates to my forehead. Today the spasms were so bad that I began to get sick with them. I could feel fine and within seconds of the clamp down of a spasm be in the middle of almost throwing up. It's been awful. Otherwise I'm fine. I'm able to drink shakes and my hunger pangs are different, but I realized what they were.

I think I'm having spasms in the area beginning where the band is, up my esophagus to my throat and somehow the pain radiates to my brain. I thought it was gas, but now I'm beginning to wonder. I'm having to take the pain killer to get them to subside whether I have had anything to drink or not. I'm able to get and keep fluids down without pain, but then I'll have spasms that are AWFUL. I'll be calling the surgeons office again today to see if there is anyting to make it stop and if it is normal. I too wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'm now afraid that it's a perm. side effect of having the band and that I'll have to have it removed since I refuse to continue to feel this forever! :thumbup:

I was supposed to exercise while on pre op and didn't because I knew I would have to starve. :thumbup: The only way I knew I lost 8 lbs at my pre op appt was that they weigh me every time I go in. I'm not gonna focus on weight loss until I'm healed up and able to work out. I lost weight pre op and seem to have dropped some more post op just because I'm still on the liquid diet. Just within the last few days I've had a ton of crap dumped in my lap. I'm not gonna add a scale to the mix too. I wanna follow the plan and heal and then get to work. :drool: Take it easy on yourself. There are so many factors that can effect weight loss. We all wanna drop the weight, but don't let the scale seal the deal. Perhaps you swapped fat for muscle in those two days??

In the middle of not having the ability to get burps out, my belly started to gurgle. I'm starting to get hungry again! :biggrin: I had hoped to not get hungry for at least a week as they had said, but it has started. The belly soreness isn't so bad today, but I'm still placing ice packs across to reduce swelling and it seems to help. I'm upset that I'm feeling hunger though...crap!

In the middle of not having the ability to get burps out, my belly started to gurgle. I'm starting to get hungry again! I had hoped to not get hungry for at least a week as they had said, but it has started. The belly soreness isn't so bad today, but I'm still placing ice packs across to reduce swelling and it seems to help. I'm upset that I'm feeling hunger though...crap!