ouroborous

...another rough night, up most of the night with acid reflux and a swollen throat (that felt like it was closing up). I took more drugs than I care to mention. I finally turned the corner after I took some liquid Tylenol (I dunno, maybe it helped the swelling go down?) and forced myself to use my wedge pillow. The wedge pillow definitely helps a lot with preventing more reflux (although obviously it does nothing if I'm already raw and swollen). The problem is it's too tall; it's got a 12" rise and I feel like I'm sitting up, not lying down, and have a hard time getting comfortable. I've ordered another one from Amazon that got rave reviews from folks with reflux, and it's only got a 7" rise. Hopefully I can begin regularly sleeping on that one and "heal" my reflux. It's still a major pain trying to juggle all these meds and treatments -- omeprazole, Carafate, Mylanta, hot tea, heating pad... They all have their own limitations and restrictions, none seems to be 100% effective. I just can't wait until I'm out of this burning, choking acid phase. It's really for the birds. When I'm not troubled by acid, I feel great! And I'm losing weight fast. It's just that when the reflux flares up I'm MISERABLE and panicky and can't sleep.

I never feel hunger; sometimes my stomach growls, but that's ALWAYS acid for me. Are you on a high enough dose of the acid blocker? Trust me, you can have mild to moderate GERD and not even know it (for the longest time I thought I just had really bad allergies!)

Sorry you're in such pain. Once I was off the narcotics, liquid Tylenol was my best friend!

It didn't "fix" my reflux, but it did seem to help. At this point I'm desperate enough that I'll take anything :thumbup:

This is more of an "aha" than a question, but I think I just discovered that my leather belt (which I've had to tighten SEVERAL notches since I last wore it) may be worsening my acid reflux. I was having some more reflux today and I vaguely remembered a web page about it saying to not wear clothes that are tight around the middle, so I took my belt off and -- the reflux went away. I was all excited that I'm wearing skinnier jeans and a tightened belt, but I think I can live with things being a bit more baggy if it helps the reflux!

I'm not a doc or a nutritionist, but... 500 calories for a day sounds VERY low to me. Maybe you're feeling hungry because... you're hungry? Starving, literally. From what I understand of weight loss, sleeve or no sleeve, extreme caloric restriction tends to backfire. Some of the most successful people I've seen on here have said that sometimes they can actually lose more if they INCREASE their calories a little (or change up what the calories are composed of). Again, this is just my uninformed opinion, but still... 500 cals a day seems EXTREMELY low, especially at 7 mos. out! I suspect that you're feeling hungry because your body really needs nutrients, especially with lots of physical activity.

Congratulations, Angie! See, I told you you'd do great!

No preop diet? Yikes... Good luck! I'm sure you'll be fine!

Well, I just ran the numbers. The odds of serious complications are extremely low; leaks are 1% or less, and infections are even lower. Dr. Billing and Dr. Landerholm are both EXCELLENT surgeons. Dr. B did a sleeve and hiatal hernia repair on my girlfriend in the same operation with zero complications, and Dr. L did a straight sleeve on me with zero complications. If you're really worried, you have to budget more -- I think a 5-10 thousand dollar cushion would be sufficient. But honestly, the odds of this are so low -- especially if you comply with ALL of the doctor's orders, including the pre-op diet, to the letter -- that I just didn't worry too much about it.

I shave my head, so I think I may be the only person on here that's NOT worried about hair loss :scared0:

So far today, I've had: 1 premium Protein shake (160 cal, 30g protein, 5g carb) 1 Chobani greek yogurt (120 cal, 16g protein, 13g carb) I plan to have: 1 Jell-o sugar free chocolate pudding cup (60 cal, 2g protein, 14g carb) 1 cup Safeway Signature baked potato Soup (440 cal, 12g protein, 21g carb) -- this is my big "splurge" for the day 1 cup home made apple sauce (low sugar, don't know counts on this!) 1 more premium Protein Shake (160 cal, 30g protein, 5g carb) So, if I use Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Applesauce, canned, unsweetened, with added ascorbic acid for the apple sauce (which makes it 102 cal, 0g protein, 27g carbs), this works out to 1142 calories, 90g protein, and 85g carbs. That's a tad high on the carbs, great on the protein, and a bit high on the total calories. Omitting the baked potato soup or swapping it for something different would probably help a lot (just omitting it would get me to about 800 cals, 78g protein, and 64g carbs, which is not too bad, and swapping the apple sauce would help my carbs). Overall, I'm still losing weight like gang busters, so I'm not TOO worried, but I'll definitely talk to the nutritionist about this tomorrow.

Yeah I could definitely eat less. I'm never hungry at all, and I just eat because I feel like I SHOULD eat, you know? I'll talk to the nut. about it. Does the maintenance day help? If your ticker is up-to-date, I think we're just about on par in terms of weight lost. I've just been focusing on getting enough Protein, Water, and Vitamins. My discussion with the nutritionist should be interesting!

Congratulations! You'll be great!

I felt exactly the same way. In fact I didn't even get really NERVOUS about the surgery (and I'm a MEGA hypochondriac) until the morning of the surgery. And then it all happened so fast that I was sleeved before I had time to freak out. Now, post-sleeve by 13 days, I feel so... NORMAL that I have to remind myself that I had a major operation and to treat my body with care and follow all the guidelines. So I think what you're going through is very normal!

The insurance companies pretty much count on people giving up (or dying, to be honest). It's unethical, unfair, borderline illegal -- and just the way the system works. I did a self-pay. It was a guy-wrenching chunk of money to pay out of pocket, but I'm gambling that in the long term, the health benefits of weight loss and other things (cheaper food budget!) will even out.

I second Tiffykins post. It's very common to get some numbness and weakness if you get swelling around a nerve cluster. I know this from experience; I had hand surgery a while back and had to be VERY careful to avoid exacerbating my carpal tunnel syndrome when doing the required rehab exercises. I think DVT's are extremely painful, too. I don't think it's just numbness and weakness. I could be wrong -- I'm no doctor :scared0:

Interesting... I was given *no* caloric guidelines. The 1200 calories was a SWAG, I haven't been counting. It's just that I've had very little problems getting soft foods (liquids, yogurt) down. Well, I'm seeing the nutritionist on Friday, so we'll see what she says I should do. Thanks for the info!

Yes, that's EXACTLY what I'm going to do. I was really eager to move on to more solid foods and thought I was cleared to, but after this little episode... It's far more important that my sleeve heal up nicely than that I have mac 'n cheese a few days earlier!

So I've been having a problem with night time acid reflux lately. This is annoying because I didn't have this issue before, but it's now 1 am and I just woke up with a nasty apnea/reflux attack. My throat was sore and swollen plus I had all of the symptoms of an apnea attack (fast pulse, shaky, chilled, etc.) Those are fading, but now I have to figure out what to do about this. My doc has prescribed sucralate (generic Carafate), 600 mg to be used "as needed" with acid. From what I understand, this drug works a little differently than PPI's -- it's a cytoprotective and helps the tissue of the throat and stomach avoid damage from GERD. The only problem I have is that these 600 mg pills are HUGE -- even cutting one in half would still produce something that violates the "no bigger than a pencil eraser" rule I have. So I've been crushing them; the problem there is that they turn into CEMENT once you crush them and put them into your mouth. Anyone got a solution to the huge pill/cement paste issue? Also, does the "1 hour before meals" rule with Carafate apply to fluids, too? After having a pill, I really really want a drink of Water, but I don't know if I'm just washing the drug out of my system! Finally, I wonder if sleeping on my wedge pillow will be a better solution for this night time reflux. I'm hoping it doesn't last and is more of a healing/losing weight thing; the pillow is uncomfortable but I'm willing to put up with it for a while if it helps.

That's good advice, but I'm 99% convinced that it was just the lingering side effects of an acid "dump" triggered by Not Respecting the Sleeve. If smaller, slower portions and smoother food don't fix it (along with being regular with my omeprazole), I'll definitely try switching things up.

Well, the good news is that I didn't have any significant reflux last night.

Yeah, the weird thing is that I didn't really have any pain with the mashed potatoes. They just felt a little bit... heavy, and kinda got stuck. But I DO think I may have irritated my sleeve a little bit (which might explain all the acid), so I'm going back to just liquids and such for a while. Also, I just read that chamomile tea in high doses can actually cause stomach upset and cramps, so I may have been bringing some of this on myself. Maybe I'll just drink hot Water?

Thanks for the kind words. I've been having problems with acid reflux for a long time (although I only recently realized that -- I thought it was allergies because it just made me cough a lot). It's just that since the surgery it's gone up a thousand times. I know that acid reflux is really common for sleevers (you're lucky!), and since I already had it, I'm not surprised. However, I really think that I've been pushing my new sleeve too hard and it sorta pushed back. So yeah, I'm going back to slushy things for a while, partially to let any damage I may have just done heal, and partially so that I can "catch up" a little with where I'm supposed to be in terms of eating. I'm having no problems getting in my 64 oz of water and 60 g of protein a day (I've been averaging about 100 oz water and 70-80 g protein). It's just this darned acid (and today, indigestion) that's been bugging me.

I can't even imagine craving sweets. Everything tastes so unbearably sweet right now. I had a sip of apple juice (not sweetened, just the juice) last night, and it was so sweet it made me gag. I have to cut apple juice with 50% Water just to drink it! Most of the things I've been craving are salty!

I'm definitely going to have to pay attention to this. My girlfriend (who is about 6 mos out now) eats mostly slider foods -- her dinner is mashed potatoes, cheese, and chili. She's lost a lot of weight, but she's been complaining that it's slowed way down. I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I was just encouraging, but I was thinking "well sure, your dinner is a giant bowl of carbs, all of it mushy and easy to slip through the sleeve." By this point, I would assume she'd want to be eating "real" food, like a half (a quarter?) of a chicken breast and some veggies or something. The nice thing about the sleeve, however (Tiffykins, correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm only 12 days out!) is that (a) it warns you pretty quick if you overdo it, and ( your appetite (body hunger) is still way, way down. So, while it takes work, the tool of the lap sleeve makes it possible. Just doing it "au naturale" -- not so much (at least, not for me!)