honk

As my surgeon has you eat the soup and then have a protein shake I have not worried about the protein content of the soup. I did purchase unflavored Unjury protein powder. I suppose I could add that to the soup to cover protein requirements if neccesary.

Did the doctor or staff weigh you at the seminar? My experience is the weight used by the insurnace is that from your first consult at the surgeons office. Also if you go in for another weight have on heavy clothes and eat before you go. I had my first post op meeting with the doctor yesterday. I wanted to compare our scales. I weighed myself and then held the protein shake I was going to have for breakfast. It added 1 pound to my weight.

Your statement that he laments the cost of your protein powder made me chuckle. My mother came to stay the week after my surgery. On day eight I could move to smooth soup. I discovered I really like Pacific Tomato and Sweet Red Pepper Soup. I like that it comes in a box and has a pouring spout and I like the flavor. My mother commented "Boy this is a very expense diet you have to be on!" Well the container is about 2 1/2 servings and costs $2.50. Yes it's more expensive than some brands but this is the only food I'm eating so I may as well enjoy it. Comparing .82 lunch to even $5.00 Grilled chicken breast at fast food place does'nt seem that bad!

I knew more about the procedure than I learned at the seminar to be truthful. The first seminar I went to the surgeon had a program fee not covered by insurance $400 worth. When asked what that was for they said well to cover this meeting and make photocopies (of the hand outs). Okay so I should cover out of pocket your marketing costs? I don't think so. So I called the second doctor on my list one that was about 10 minutes further away but at a world class hospital. I live just outside the Greater Boston area so had A LOT of really good medical choices. Some doctors have a non insurnace covered program fee that includes fills however. I would check to see if the doctor has a set Cash price. I watched a news show recently that hightlighted how differently the cost of medical procedures could be in a particular geographical area (Colonoscopy, PAP Smears, etc). It was shocking how the price was double at some hospitals. I would also ask the business office and your insurance how they would handle the billing if during the surgery they discover that you have a hietal hernia. My surgery repaired a hernia I did'nt even know I had. I've read where many cash pay people pay full price for the surgery and then the surgeon turns around and charges your insurnace for the hernia surgery as well. To me that's one surgery really for the price of Two. Not to confuse you even more just wanted to pass along what I've heard.

FYI for the first week I was on clear liquids broth (though stock tastes way better), sugar free popsicles, and sugar free jello. Second week I could add tomato soup and yogurt. So depending how many days since your surgery I would be careful about moving to a puree type soup. At three weeks I was allowed to add ricotta, cottage cheese, tofu, and thin mashed potatoes/yams. I had my post op consult today and tried to get approval to put regular food in the blender. REJECTED.:cursing: No mushies for my doctor.

My experience (did not do an insurance required supervised diet) was that they used the first weight in. My surgeon requires that you loose a percentage of body weight for me it was 30 pounds. My surgery had to be postponed and they had to resubmit to my insurance. They approved it almost immediately even though I had lost about 40 pounds by that time.

My Nut said to have at least 60 grams of protein per day. I would go online and find a database that tells how much protein the food you are eating contains. You might consider "protein shots" usually 30 g for about 150 calories if you are'nt getting enough.

I bought an industrial size bottle of unflavored benefiber and I add it to water, crystal lite, soups, protein shakes and it has helped keep me regular. I do exercise everyday. Now that I can resume swimming I'm back up to an hour of cardio.

If you both agreed to loose weight, lower cholesterol etc and he is not following through than I think that is a problem. I have to admit if I was only 50 pounds over weight I might not consider it that much of a problem. Keep in mind preband I had lost 84 pounds and post band an additional 11. I will need to loose another 70 to get to only being 50 pounds overweight. So my view is a bit jaded admittedly. I do think though that I would not agree to having a baby when I reached goal if he is not willing to live a healthier lifestyle. I lost my father when I was ten, he was only 56. My dad died having a year of sick time in the bank at work; yet he had a massive heart attack one Sunday and was dead within minutes. So I know what it's like to grow up without a dad.

Because an adult dinner is twice as much; and restaurants can make 100% profit depending on what you order. Ever order egg white omlet and they charge you $1.50 more per egg white (is'nt the cost of the eggs included on the menu)? What drives me crazy is they don't give me any more egg white to make up the volume difference. Instead they put my yolks in the container for making hollandaise sauce. Also the waiter wants you to order a regular meal becuase then their tip based on total bill will be higher. Many chain restaurants today contantly try to upsell/recommend items to you. At Chili's they ask if you want Guac and when you get the bill you realize they have charged you $2 for about 2 tablespoons worth. Crazy.

In my opinion nosy co workers are less likely to comment about odd healthy lunches then they are fattening ones (I had a boss that would announce every day how many calories her lunch had; one of her favorites was a vegan broth with 15 calories:rolleyes:). As for post surgery many people (including myself) ended up having a Hietal sp? Hernia repaired. You could tell people that and say it requires you to be on a progressive diet from liquids to solids and that would be true. My mother was kind of relived when she heard that because now she can tell my aunts that and it is not a lie.

I never had any trouble getting help for bathroom trips. It was'nt until 3:00 in the morning though that I asked "so you are just unplugging this from the wall?" If I had known that I could have just done it myself. They were pumping me full of fluids so I was up like every half hour going to the bathroom. Also my IV was in the crook of my left arm so every time I moved it the alarm went off. I finally realized I could shut that off on my own as well. It was going off every five minutes and waking me up. Also my room was set up so that I needed to get up on the left side of the bed (again the IV was on the left side) and my port is on the left side. Getting up was hard for me to do. It would have been better if the IV had been on the right side it would have made getting up a lot easier for me.

Okay so I am not sure whether the nurse made a mistake or not but my BP today was 110 over 70 (She was doing a manual reading). At my PCP they have a digital version and I am usually 117 over 75. Back in 9/08 I finally broke down and went to the doctor about severe knee pain. Admittedly I was in a lot of pain at the time but my BP was like 160 over something high.

I am on full liquids after sugery and found that my favorite ready made soup is Pacific brand Sweat Red Pepper and Tomato Soup (Organic). I am not into organic but that's the only way this flavor comes. I really like it and I don't like tomato soup. Go figure.

Started 3-4 days early first cycle after surgery. Off course today was my first post op with the surgeon so I up about 1.5 pounds from water retention. Grrr.

I had my two week post op visit and asked about coffee. He said I can have either regular or decaf. In the food hand out it said I could have sweeteners. I've never mentioned that I use Splendra but pre op he told me to carry on what I was doing because I was loosing weight (about 55 pounds in 7 months.) I take that to mean I can use Splendra.

If it makes you feel better I went to a 60th birthday party yesterday and am on full liquid diet (3rd week out from surgery). So I knew I would'nt be able to eat anything there so I brought my own Soup, Protein drink, and suger free pudding cup. It was a pot luck so I thought it would be easier to buy frozen chicken tenders and just heat them up. Well I burnt my self really badly using the church's pot holders; and spent the whole party with my figer in a glass of ice Water. And I was having bad PMS. I had my post op check up today and asked the doctor if he had any food recommendations for me; since many on here mention being on mushies. He just repeted the list I already had cottage cheese, scrambled eggs (which I only do egg whites because of the Cholesterol), and Ricotta. He did say however that I can have caffinated coffee which is great for me. I am on two medications which make me groggy.

To play devil's advocate. It's 10:00 at night your hungry and you just want to eat. No you're not in the mood for a chicken sandwich or pasta with plain red sauce (I'm gonna guess it was a veggie sauce and not something with beef or sausage.). I know there are times when I am just not in the mood for a particular food. Sure there were probably better choices he could have made, like grilled chicken and veggie sandwich with no cheese. That can be a pretty healthy option at a pizza joint. I once asked for such a sandwich with lite cheese. The guy said "Well we normally put 3 slices of cheese (!!!) how many do you want?" Gasp. "Well" I said "how about one slice" (I was preband and able to eat bread). As my mother says "There's nothing worse than a reformed drinker, smoker, or fat person."

My experience with a liquid diet that low is that I was not getting enough calories. My doctor put me on a 500 liquid diet and I was miserable and perhaps allergic to the product. I do an hour of cardio a day. I was on it for like 4 days and lost nothing (doctor said I would lose a pound a day). When I went back to my own protein shake diet with one meal a day Calories about 900 a day I started loosing again. Personally I don't think you are getting enough calories.

One thing to consider is many doctor's require you to loose a percentage of body weight. Mine required 10%. So depending on how much they might require you to loose could affect how quickly you have surgery. I had to loose the weight before they would schedule the surgery. I know some doctors include the require weight loss in a presurgery liquid diet which means they set a date before the weight is lost. I would ask about these items at your sugeon consult.

I have been using unflavored Benefiber powder. You an add it to anything including water with out thickening. It has really helped to keep me regular. I find gassiness is not really a sign of a BM. The protein Powder/Ready to drink (esp. protein shots) make me uber gassy.

Mine is a couple of inches above belly button but below left breast. I did ask the surgeon which side he planned on because I am a right side sleeper.

I did'nt really have trouble sleeping the first few days. My bigger issue was having to get up to pee; being as I was on liquid diet.

I would call you doctor's office for clarification. My doctor told me to stop all vitamins 2 weeks prior to surgery.

I watched videos of actual surgery's on YouTube. Very informative but not gross becuase there is no blood. The first one I watched they were working their way through this yellow stuff. I said to myself what on earth is that? It was fat. Pretty gross. They showed how they use this special spatula to move the liver out of the way. The doctor said that there is evidence that a low fat/carb diet done for two weeks can shrink the liver by up to 25%. My doctor did not require a liquid diet (as I had lost almost 60 pounds presurgery) but I still did the Protein Shakes for Breakfast and dinner. I had a high Protein, low fat/carb lunch. Calorie wise I stayed about 1,100 per day. I would ask if you can do a greek yogurt for breakfast instead of a shake (I added additional vanilla Protein Powder, and splenda).