kristykreem

i'm with kaiser so cal in los Angeles. i've completed the options program and am now jumping through myriad pre-surgery appointment hoops in order to get my surgery referral. i just wanted to give everybody with kaiser so cal a shout out to say THEY ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF THIS PROCESS. be aware that you will need to be extremely pro-active in terms of your bariatric journey or an already long and involved waiting process will be made even longer and more involved. also be aware that kaiser is farming surgeries out to ancillary facilities because they can't handle their own bariatric surgery load. this adds further complication to an already overly complicated process. i was given two choices for my surgery venue: kaiser west l.a. and an outside partner facility. i chose the outside partner facility because they have their act together and they have a considerably shorter waiting period, at least as of this moment. my experience so far with this outside partner facility is that they are much more in control of their process than kaiser is, and kaiser has no real idea about how their outside partner facilities operate, even though they try to provide this information (which is usually inaccurate). all you really need to know is what your kaiser doctor needs in order to refer you for surgery, and what the surgeon at the outside facility needs in order to schedule your surgical consultation. my outside facility is requiring me to attend a 90-minute seminar, in which i will be given instructions and paperwork to fill out. between this seminar, paperwork, and my kaiser pre-surgery tests, i should be good to go. with kaiser, you're going to have to steer your own ship, if you know what i'm sayin'.

Hey FeedYourEye, Birth control pills don't work for a lot of women post-op because the copious amount of hormone being released into your bloodstream from fast fat loss is overwhelming, so use back up. Or forget the pill and just use the back up. I'm on Ursodiol (generic for ActiGall) for 3.5 more months, and I'm not going back on the pill until I'm close to my goal weight because I don't want to introduce even more hormones (or whoremoans, as I like to call them) into my system. I'm 3.5 months post-op, down almost 80 pounds, and I'm trying to put as little in my system as possible aside from Vitamins (and I want to keep my gall bladder). I can just feel my body reacting to every little thing now, you know? I want to see where everything settles before I start adding/reintroducing more into the mix. -Kr.

Just a word of caution: You can't take ActiGall/Ursodiol and bc pills/hormones at the same time. They cancel each other out.

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I'm great! Thanks for asking! I'm 10.5 weeks out, losing an average of 4 - 5 pounds a week, pretty much have the hang of things and feel fantastic. Your surgery's in February?

I had intense and consistent vivid dreaming for about a month post-op, then they tapered off to more normal dreaming. Some of my vivid dreams were awesome and some of them were nightmares. It's gotta be all the drugs -- general anesthesia, heparin, anti-nausea medication, pain killers and whatever else -- that take time to work their way out of the system.

Generally, this is what I eat every day: Breakfast: 3 oz of ground beef w/cheese and salsa, or 2 scrambled eggs w/a little cheese Snack: one string cheese or a Starbucks Tall Soy Latte Lunch: Greek yogurt or a few chicken wings or fish or steak Snack: another string cheese, usually Dinner: Greek yogurt or a few chicken wings or fish or steak and a few grape tomatoes

Thirty pounds in eight weeks is an average of almost four pounds a week! That's GREAT! I'm eight weeks post-op tomorrow and my ticker reflects the 17 pounds I lost in the two weeks prior to surgery (I worked it!). I've lost 32 pounds since my surgery on October 13th and I'm thrilled. I had an almost three week stall from week two - week five, then I started losing again. So, this past month, I've lost almost five pounds a week, but the month before, not so much. My bod was in shock from surgery and rapid weight loss. You're doing great! An average of 15 pounds a month is nothing to sneeze at! This is what 15 pounds of fat looks like: http://llnw.image.cbslocal.com/0/2007/02/19/320x240/images_sizedimage_050112704.jpg

This is the first Thanksgiving that ISN'T going to be difficult for me because I'm no longer physically capable of binging, which would start a binge that wouldn't end until after New Year's or even my birthday in February. Every year, that binge cycle has been pure misery for me and now it's OVER! Woo! I don't miss pigging out; I'd gotten to the point of dreading the way I was eating. I was SO ready to have VSG, I was sick of eating and feeling like a hog-woman. I didn't tell my family about my VSG, but they know I'm aggressively "dieting" because I want knee replacement surgery as soon as possible. It's the truth, I've just left out the surgery element. And I haven't lost soooo much since they've seen me that they'll be shocked at my weight loss. When anybody who doesn't know I had surgery comments on how little I'm eating, I tell them every bite beyond what they've seen me eat adds one more day to my having to live with an agonizingly painful knee. That shuts them up.

I take the BA lozenges in black cherry. They're kind of like big, slightly chalky Sweet Tarts. They're very tart, but that's fine with me, and they dissolve quickly. I carry some in my purse so I can pop 'em in my mouth whenever I know I'm two hours out from my iron or Prilosec -- mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and around 10pm.

My stall finally broke, so I'm hoping now I get an idea about what my losing rate will be. I feel like things are just now starting to move. So, for me, it took until Week Five for my body to start coming out of shock.

My doc said no heavy lifting for eight weeks, so my interpretation of that is no weight lifting until eight weeks post-op. My weights are out and ready ...

This is what I don't understand: Before I was sleeved, if I ate 700 calories a day of high protein, low carb, I dropped weight like crazy, easily five pounds a week or more. Now that I've been sleeved, I'm eating 700-ish calories a day of high protein, low carb, and I'm losing MAYBE a pound a week. Why would I be a fast loser before surgery and a slow loser after surgery? Is this caused by a massive hormonal shift? I would think that at almost five weeks out my body would be coming out of shock, but maybe not. I stalled 11 days post-op (October 24th), then lost two pounds about a week ago. Now I seem to be stalled again. I get that this is part of the process -- a part I didn't know about before I decided to have surgery -- and I'm resigned to it because what's done is done, but this thread has prompted me to comment because I really am curious about how surgery changes our metabolism. Is the metabolic change only temporary? Do pre-op fast losers eventually become post-op fast losers?

In addition to keeping carbs under control, I would look at drinks like Crystal Light as a potential contributor of stalls. Aspertame can be a major blocker of bodyfat loss. I've been semi-stalled since October 24 (I was sleeved on October 13), and I'd started drinking Crystal Light because I felt like I was choking down all my water every day. When I stopped drinking Crystal Light and went back to only water, my scale started to move. I'm not dumping weight like crazy again yet, but my situation is more ... fluid. Things are moving, and there's no question in terms of how I feel and look that I'm losing. It's just not necessarily being completely reflected on the scale.

Wouldn't you think our surgeons would warn us about stalls? It looks to me like pretty much nobody's surgeon said anything about it beforehand, including mine. What the hell?

I weigh at home every day. I have to, it's how I keep it real.

I fixed it! Thanks for listening ...

Argh! Anybody know what I did wrong with my ticker display in my signature?

I was sleeved on October 13 and I've lost about 31 pounds, half of that pre-op and half-post op. On October 24, I started a wicked stall. Today I lost 2 pounds, so fingers crossed that this stall is over. Also, I have to add that Crystal Light is EVIL and if any of you are drinking it or anything like it (full of aspertame) and you are in a stall, STOP DRINKING IT and go back to only Water. Aspertame interferes with loss of bodyfat. It made me retain Fluid like crazy and the two pounds I just lost were because I stopped drinking Crystal Light.

I'm 18 days post-op and yesterday, out of nowhere, I seem to have developed two Patches of hives on my lower abdomen (on either side, below my belly button, not near incisions). This has nothing to do with surgical tape -- I had no drains, no tape, just liquid bandages directly on my portal wounds, all of which are healing nicely. I do have fair and sensitive skin, but I'm not at all prone to breaking out in rashes, so this is not usual for me. Like everybody in here, I'm taking a lot of Vitamins and drugs I never took before surgery, so I'm wondering if one of them or the combination of all of them is the culprit. Any advice? Is this a fairly common post-op development?

I did get heparin shots in the vicinity of my rash, but at almost three weeks post-op, I can't detect any of the shot marks. I'm not using triple antibiotic cream, so that's not an issue. I'm now on Day 3 of hives, I've stopped all B1 and, whatever the culprit, I'm hoping the rash will go away any minute now. Between my stall and this rash, I'm wondering what the hell I've done to myself, but I know this will all iron out eventually.

PamelaAM -- Yes! There are 6mg of B1 in the Bariatric Advantage orange-flavored multi-Vitamins I've been choking down. They make me sick, so yesterday I started taking gummies and those don't have B1 in them. How long did it take for your rash to go away once you stopped the B1? The last chewies with B1 I took were day before yesterday, and yesterday I broke out in hives. So, it's only been yesterday and today that I've been off the B1. Thanks so much for this info!!!

TankGirl, I was sleeved a little more than a week after you (October 13th) and I'm having a terrible time with my vitamins (the chewies make me sick). But, are you able to eat cottage cheese, string cheese, thinly sliced turkey, things like that? You can get your entire day of protein by eating surprisingly little turkey, cheese, etc.

Sleeve 4 Me, you're doing exactly the right thing. My tall, slender mother always wanted to know why I wasn't more like her and it was incredibly damaging. She took my weight personally, as if it were a commentary on her motherhood -- which, after awhile, it was. I wasn't an obese kid, I was just a little chubby, but she behaved as if I were Jaba the Hut and needed to be hidden from the world. Now that I'm older, I see what a shame-filled mess my mom is and realize her psychology has NOTHING to do with me. Still, she didn't do me any good with regard to food and self-image while I was growing up.

I didn't tell my family, either. It's one of the reasons I'm using the heart avatar instead of a picture of myself. My family doesn't get it, they're all thin, and they've always been mean and gossipy about my being fat. So, as far as I'm concerned, I don't want their negative stuff all over my beautiful experience. I only told friends I knew would be supportive (basically all my friends -- I don't have non-supportive friends). I told my boss I had my gall bladder removed (my boss is also negative and gossipy). This is my life and I don't owe anybody any explanations. I'm single at the moment, so that aspect hasn't been an issue, but when I'm once again in a serious relationship, I will tell him I've had surgery.