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Hi guys, I am asking the experts here since you all know what it is like. I got my second fill yesterday, I am now at 2.3cc in my medium band. Since the fill (done under fluoro) I was of course on liquids yesterday, in which was able to go down and not come up, but 80% of the time went down with gurgling, like air or something. It's hard to explain, it even gurgles sometimes when i swallow my spit. However I do not feel like throwing it up but it just feels like alot of trapped air in there. I am on mushies today, and I am eating yogurt for the first time, and it is going down ok without the gurgling. I guess my question is this what it feels like to be TOO FULL and i need some taken out or is this normal, i'm a little scared to start solid foods tommorrow, and find out then and not be able to get unfilled. Also, when it was gurgling after the fill about 30 min later they brought me back in and checked me under fluro to make sure it was going down even with the gurgling. Am I being paranoid. Please help....:help:

Ha Ha I am far from a pro...LOL. But sure you can ask me questions. I will say up fron that I have not been a model patient though. As for the beach this weekend. I know that we are not supposed to go swimming until he clears you after your first follow up. Now me on the other hand, did I listen to that...NO. I went to an indoor water part 8 days after surgery. I climbed all the stairs and rode all the waterslides. I did not get in a pool of water though because I did not want to push my luck too far. I also covered all my incision sites with waterproof bandaides. Well lo and behold I had a really bad reaction to the adhesives and had these HUGE red itchy welts on my stomach for about 2-3 weeks after that. I guess I got what I deserved for not following orders. I was also not very good at making my protein shakes with water. I did a lot of soup broths and then just said the heck with it and made my shakes with lactaid milk. I guess that is why I did not see a huge drop while on the liquid phase. I think all the stitches we had are internal and they should dissolve on their own. I say this because I had 2 incision sites that had stitches poking out of them. Dr Zarif said my body was rejecting them, but they just fell off with the scabs eventually. As far as fills, I have only had 2. Firts of all I have a huge needle phobia. And yes for me the first one hurt like hell and I did not get numbed first. I think it hurt because of going thru scar tissue. The second fill was much better than the first, it did not hurt much at all. I asked to be numbed before the 2nd time but he said the lidocaine hurts more than the fill and did it without it. Now for what I usually eat in a day...hmm. Since I have only had 2 fills I do not have much restriction yet. I have not come across anything that I cant eat yet. I try to eat protein the most but it does not always happen that way. Breakfast for me depends on if I am going to the gym in the morning or not. If I do go to the gym I try to eat something small before I go like turkey sausage or sometimes a little bit of cereal. Then after the gym and while I drive to work I usually eat a fruit, yogurt and granola mixed up. But if I dont go to the gym I uaually eat a bigger breakfast like scrambled eggs with turkey sausage and toast or sometimes a bowl of cereal and turkey sausage. For lunch I have been eating a turkey and mozzarella cheese sandwitch on arnold thin rounds I think the bread is called. It is a little denser and not quite as soft as regular bread. And I usually have some fruit and a yogurt with it. sometimes I have a salad or some chicken instead of the sandwitch . For dinner I usually eat chicken or some other type of meat if I have it and a veggie, usually green beans with almonds and sometimes a yogurt or some almonds. I tend to eat the same things a lot so I have been trying to find different things to eat so I dont get tired of the same old stuff. I hope this helps...I feel like I have typed a book...LOL. Have you gotten a post card yet for this months support group meeting? Oh and what type of protein shake are you using? I used to drink Nectar brand chocolate truffle and mix it with lactaid milk and a half a bannana. I absolutely loved it when I was pre and post op. but not after getting my fills I cant stand it...LOL. So for after my fills I have just been using a pre-packaged shake. I think it is adkins chocolate shake and it is not too bad.

I make a smoothie every morning and have found (thru trial and error) that the ones I like the best are made with the Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60 from GNC. I use the chocolate and the vanilla and mix with fat free milk, banana, and other fruits like peaches, mango, strawberries, etc. I also use Greek yogurt and sometimes I add almond butter. You can use peanut butter, but I prefer the almond butter. Add ice and blend well. It makes a lot and is very filling and gives me about 30+ grams of protein depending on what I add. I use 8 oz. of milk. I might try some of these other ideas too. Thanks for sharing.

Take a break and slowly reintroduce after a few days with one item and see how it goes. I developed serious lactose intolerance post op. For me, dairy is an absolute no-no, so I had to turn elsewhere for Protein. I cannot tolerate any animal milk, not even Lactaid or goat milk. Sour cream, cream (heavy, light or whipped), yogurt, cottage cheese and most soft cheeses cause me immense discomfort. Ice cream is an absolute forbidden food for me - even the tiniest amount has me sick for the entire day. Whipped cream does the same. Now, some of those foods I'm happy to avoid, but others were very tough to give up. I do okay with hard cheeses like parmesan or aged cheddars, in small doses - but those are hard to find where I'm currently living, so I just do without for the most part. I relied heavily on cottage cheese and yogurt for protein in the beginning so I was lost without them. I finally had to switch my Protein shake to a lactose free one and start mixing with coffee, almond milk or soy milk. I make my own soy milk and from it, yogurt and tofu. I eat these or make seitan when I'm not in the mood for a meat-based meal but I still need protein. I'm not in America, but in the states this isn't as hard to overcome as you might think. There are SO many options to keep you able to eat these foods that you love, provided you don't have an allergy to soy, too! Stateside I can sub out coffee creamer with coconut milk, eat coconut ice cream, enjoy non-dairy sour cream and cream cheese replacements and even order non-dairy cheeses online or find them at my local store. Many of these options are nutritionally similar and will also boost your protein intake a little. The hardest part for me was finding a lactose free protein shake that I enjoyed but I've since found several that I can tolerate. Order samples online if it turns out you do need to change things up. I can tell you that as much as I miss dairy my life is improved very much now that I'm not suffering from discomfort. Good luck. Hopefully you won't have an issue, but even if you do it's not the end of the world. ~Cheri

i am about 25 days out and consume tons of dary ( haha not tons but you know what i mean) i have 2 big 10 oz protein shakes with skim every day, cheeses, yogurt etc.... no issues so far, i hope that i don't have issues.

Ok, I am 6 days post op and starting soft foods tomorrow. I have had a ton of protein today! Carnation Instant Breakfast, addred a scoop of Designer Whey Vanilla. Then some 3 parts water apple juice. Then blended up some fat free blueberry yogurt with skim milk and another half scoop of the whey. I still feel so hungry. Any tips?

I was also banded on 9/11- I have a hard time getting in the three protein shakes the doctor wants me to have. The doctor told me to do a half a cup of cream of wheat or grits for breakfast. 1 cup of protein shake mid morning. A half of cup of any cream soup for lunch (strained). A protein shake for the afternoon. And 4 oz of Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of protein shake mix and a teaspoon of sugar free jelly and then another protein shake in the evening. I feel like I'm constantly eating. Is this pretty similar to everybody else's menu?

My favorite breakfast foods so far are cottage cheese, greek yogurt, scrambled egg and cream of wheat. I try to get as much protein in, as early as I can, to start my day off right!!

The issue is that space in my tummy is valuable real estate now and it seems to be an all Protein neighborhood! I picked up some vegan Protein shakes today which ima try to sandwich my day with so I can at least fill one meal with veggies. I'm a vegetarian and the whey protein, cheese, yogurt, eggs and tofu diet is starting to make me sick! I'm only 2.5 months out.

My nut had me on a new directions protein shake plain . I get to eat a small lunch and yogurt . We are not put on a liquid diet . The evening before I do a colon clean, was with a antibacterial soap and use a antibacterial mouthwash . We stay 2-3 nights . I'm surprised by the different ways to prepare for this. I'm so dearly gonna miss my buttered biscuits and po boy bread ... But I will be skinny when I'm crying about it! Lol

I did go to my dr today. After he checked me and I told him again all the pains I was having, he was very supportive of me! I was so worried. He called in his nurse that does the fills for his office to talk to me. She said its rare but she has heard of this happenning before (with all the gas pains I have had) and she wanted to try something. Even though I just had surgery on the 11th maybe I had AIR that was left! She had me lay down and did what she called an unfill! She took out 3 1/2 cc of air out my port!OMG it was like the biggest present anyone could ever give me. My eyes starting tearing up and she thought she had hurt me but god what a relief! She said when they do the surgery they test your port and everything and some air had gotten left behind. Yes, it sucks it happened on my case (especially since I work in the medical field) but at least all this pain was not in my head! I have to tell u I feel so much better right now. So for anybody that feels like something just isn't right please go get checked. Because if it had not been for my fellow bandsters I would not have even known that was I was going through wasn't normal and that I should call my doctor. So to you guys that gave me hope and your experiences I am truly grateful. When people started saying go to the dr its exactly what I did. Just wanted to let you guys know you are truly an inspiration. I could not have gone through this without you! So, now I am ready to work this band, I even ate yogurt today. Finally! So wish me luck I have not thrown up or anything. And the gas pains are bearable! Yeah! Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

I had bypass surgery on July 20th. It was nearly impossible to eat or drink when I transitioned to the purées stage. I have an appointment scheduled on August 24th for an X-ray with contrast die to see if there are any issues. I’m supposed to be transitioning to soft food in two weeks, which I’m excited about. I’ve been eating yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, protein shakes, low fat cream of mushroom soup, and retried beans. I was able to swallow scrambled eggs this morning. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. How are you or have you been making it through the early stages after surgery? Any food ideas?

If you are tracking your food pay attention to the breakdown between Protein and carbs. Try increasing protein and decreasing carbs. When my loss slowed down a bit my surgeon said make sure you are chewing your calories. I hadn't realized that alot of my calories were coming from things like yogurt, cottage cheese, laughing cow cheese. These are not foods you are chewing and can be less filling. Instead eat/chew at each meal like dense proteing, chicken, beef, pork fish etc. Also get back to tracking your food religously if you have strayed from this. Good luck to you.

I finished my 6 month insurance program the end of July but the first appointment I could get with my surgeon is Next Weds... I've been experimenting with protein and I really enjoy the banana cream and chocolate muscle milk light. I'm going to try the cookies and cream this weekend. I got the powder so I'm also going to experiment adding it to plain Greek yogurt and see if that helps to change things up! Good luck! The visits flew by once I was on month 3!

hi Tex, in the evening i feel like Pavlof's dog when bell rings, he runs and eats his dog food when the tv goes on I "sometimes" run to the kitchen don't keep bad foods around usually i'll grab my Lite and Fit Greek Yogurt luv, luv the blueberry healthy food is great but not if you go overboard on example Protein bars i can eat 2 slowly without much of a problem @@Sai - maybe you and i should talk on the phone while we're watching my 600 lb life LOL knowing the problem is half the solution good luck to us both kathy

For Protein Shakes I used a mini blender buy hamilton beach. Only 15 dollars at walmart has a travel cup which is used to make the ingredients. Works really well on crushing ice in Protein shakes. I use a stick blender to make fruit in Greek yogurt during mushy. Other than that I didn't use a blender or food processor for mushies.

Hi Sally, we have very similar stats -- Onederland is in sight! Sliders are a slippery slope, that's for sure. I rarely do protein shakes these days because of that, though it's a nice treat once in a while. Also I realized my beloved yogurt was a bit of a slider so now I chunk it up some. I add collagen, which I'm taking for arthritis, and that adds six grams of protein at the same time. Then a few walnuts or sunflower seeds, a tablespoon of gluten free granola or oats. Chia seeds. That makes the yogurt into something thick and chewy for me, plus a great protein hit. Also I think cheese is a slider food for me, and it's an old trigger food. So I have to watch out for that. I always want to be sure I can have salmon and very tender meat -- filet mignon, why not if I eat so little otherwise these days? Some veggies work really well, others not so much. I'm getting so I can tell right away. Best wishes to you! Glad you're here.

I'm 13 weeks out and most times I can't get much more than maybe 2 ounces of anything solid...yogurts I can get up to about 3.5 ounces. I used to measure...then the numbness wore off and I could easily tell when I was full. Turns out it doesn't take much...I call my sleeve Gloria and she's temperamental. Some days she hates food...other days like today, she feels like a garbage disposal.

Diet has another 4 days of 2 oz, clear liquids X 3 daily, and , then some small bits solid added,same 2 oz. X3 daily, which is my stage 2 it has no puree, but cut up 2 0z. meals of egg, yogurt and cottage cheese, week 2 add fish, week 3 add chicken, week 4 add beef and cheeses. On 1/22/13 work out higher number for protein working the same method.But no carbs, bread, cereal, or fruits, least or no sugars or fats all the way throuigh.

I am finishing up day one of my preop diet and I have to say it is MUCH better than I thought it was going to be. As part of my fee, I get a one month's supply of shakes and Vitamins. I am drinking Bariatric Advantage chocolate and it is pretty good. I get to add fruit, today I chose strawberries, and so that makes it even better. I have a shake for Breakfast and lunch and then I get a cup of Soup for dinner and one yogurt that I can gave any time of day. I just decided to make my own soup so I made green chili (I love New Mexico) soup with chicken and Beans. It came out great. I bought a bunch of one cup size containers on a whim last year and they are paying off helping me portion all my dinners. I am happy that with a few bumps in the road behind me on my journey, this diet is helping me to stay positive for the weeks to come.

Both my kids are high functioning ASD - I know what you mean! We mostly avoid artificial/processed food, but the pre-op diet was tough. I'd already picked up a few Sucralose products during the insurance mandated diet, but went full chemical sugar free for the last few weeks of super low carb. Man, it was *nasty*. But I've seen the pictures from my surgery and my liver looked FABULOUS, so I'm pretending it helped my liver shrink and am moving on. Like elisa5150, I did use sugar free stuff the first month or so - especially the sugar free popsicles - but also Gelatin, Protein powder, and some protein hot chocolate. Now, I use flavored stevia drops for kefir or yogurt (yay live cultures!) and a little xylitol (a sugar alcohol) in my tea. Some of Protein shakes (Orgain) have stevia and erythritol (another sugar alcohol) or monkfruit and inulin (Jamie Eason Lean Body for Her). Personally, I do really well with xylitol and okay with erythritol (though their "naturalness" is highly debatable). And while current research increasingly makes it look like sucralose and other traditional artificial sweeteners are really messing with gut health, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that stevia, monkfruit, xylitol, or erythritol have much effect one way or the other. There are natural(-ish) protein powders out there - as long as you can keep the carbs and protein where they're supposed to be. (My NUT recommended youbars - they make custom Protein Bars with options for natural sweeteners.) We love grass fed butter and cheese, though I'm sticking with olive oil and coconut oil for now. I do have a tub of natural coconut oil based vegan butter spread I use every once in a while, but I wouldn't give up grass fed dairy for margarine if I had a choice. Mostly, though, my new stomach prefers savory moderate to low fat food, so I try to work with that as much as I can. When I was still eating dairy, I discovered I could mix herbs (Penzey's Fox Point seasoning) into low fat Greek yogurt and use it as a dip. Still got my protein, but didn't have to sweeten it. Which is probably for the best. I don't think living on artificially sweet or fatty things is necessarily better than living on real sweet or fatty things. So, good fats when we eat them - grass fed beef; pastured eggs; olive & coconut oil - and all in reasonable amount. If a dish is too fatty, I can't eat enough to meet my protein goal. Sort of a self limiting problem, so I don't see the need to drag margarine into it. As for sweets... research just keeps making it look like artificial sweeteners wreck your gut and make you crave more sweets. Which kind of makes sense since some "bad" gut bacteria has been tied to increased sugar consumption/desire for sugar. And sweets have gotten me into a lot of trouble in general, so I feel like this is the time to develop better habits. Thank heavens I did full on high fat/low carb Keto before surgery - I rarely had sweet things anyway and it still kicked my butt! But it really did kick the sugar cravings and I am so glad I didn't have to deal with that post surgery! It's made it way easier to explore healthy options that don't involve so many chemicals. Now to try and get back on my gut health protocol and try and get my kids onboard. Wow - sorry this is so meandering - it's the middle of the night and we have a small herd of cousins over for the first Christmas break sleepover. Brain. Fried. Let me know if you need product ideas - I feel like I've researched them all . Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

Greek yogurt is a little different from regular. It is more thicker and creamy. stir it up really good. I just switched from Yoplait light to chobani also. U can always try a different one... I'm weird with food, If I think it's bad, it drives me nuts and I won't eat it! LOL

At what point in time is this ok to try and eat?

I had to be treated for Hpylori. Had no symptoms either. I had 3 meds one a PPI. Made me horribly nauseated. Had to use an anti nausea patch. Could only eat carbs, starches and some yogurt, cheese. Then after 4 wks had the breath test to make sure bacteria gone. I was praying I wouldn't have to have another round of antibiotics.

You would have to check your surgeon's food guidelines. I was still on full liquids at 2 weeks out. Make sure to bring a cooler with you. You will want to have plenty of bottled Water, some Protein packets and milk or soymilk to mix them with. I was drinking a lot of liquid yogurt at that stage. You may want to pre-portion some cream Soup into microwaveable tupperware that you can take to a mini-mart on the road and heat up. If you are not on solids, you will not be able to eat anything at the drive-through. I am 2 months out and I still have a hard time eating a whole hamburger patty without the bun. My first foray into fast food consisted of the meat and cheese from the inside of one taco at about 4 weeks. Also, bring tylenol as that is the only approved pain killer. Gas-x strips and tums will handle any gas or acid that might crop up. As far as discomfort, that varies from person to person. I was exhausted and felt pretty bad for almost 4 weeks. Other people on this board have surgery Monday and are in fighting shape the following Monday. You should be fine for the drive, but you won't really know how food treats you until you get to that point. Good luck! lara