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I'm not calling anyone out on their morals. I could give 2 poops about someone's morals. This is not about morals, or convictions to drink. This is about the sheer medical facts and statistics of drinking soon after major surgery, and the risk of transfer addiction. I believe it's reckless and hazardous behavior not only to do this to your body early out from major surgery. And, you're right, whoever will only live ONCE, but there is NO reason to rush to the end of it. Many obese people self-medicate with food, no different than self-medicating with alcohol. If you've been around the forums long at all, done any amount of research, you take away a fat person's ability to eat, the risk for a transfer addiction is quadrupled. It's called educating someone, not judging, nor worrying about someone's moral compass. I care more about what this poster is doing to their body and that others might follow suit because of this one experience. It's detrimental to the liver to drink this early out. Bottom line, it's ridiculous and absurd.

I feel that if you know what moderation is then this will also apply to alcohol. I have indulged twice now and am a social drinker, nothing crazy(I hate headaches). I have realized that it does not take much and I make sure I am never driving. I can have 2 drinks and I nurse them, usually crystal light and vodka, I don't do soda anymore. This is also personal choice, and I make sure to make up for it in my caloric intake. Just have to make smart decisions. But I have read about how addiction can crossover.

When I was going to my classes, we talked about this..I was told, 1 oz of alcohol could have you falling down drunk (cheap date)..there is nothing in your belly...also, you could get a little depressed & you may starting like the booze alot more than ever..when I have my cocktails now, I drink "Sombreo" with milk..don't think I'll be drinking those after my surgery...way to fattening & sugar...

I wouldn't recommend drinking at all. I was told no alcohol until 3 months post-op. You might want to consult with your doctor or nutritionist if you weren't already given specific guidelines. As for eating, if you are on solids by then, it shouldn't be too bad. Pick high Protein choices from the appetizer menu or share an entree with someone. When in doubt you could always go with something like chili.

I know what you mean. I'm a bridesmaid in my sister's wedding in NOLA in June, three months post op to the day almost. I'm nervous, too. Im more so concerned about the alcohol restriction since this is a 3 day long extravaganza. I'll just have to pace myself with the shots. I already know I won't partake in any mixed drinks because of the sugar and cals. I'll just pick off the many meals that will be provided and have my high protein snacks in my purse. It sucks but I'll still have loads of fun.

I'm 3 months post op. I'm at a stall. Lately I've been socializing a lot and I've been drinking alcohol. I have like 2-3 drinks, rarely any carbonation. Is this ok? I feel fine. I don't get sick. Anyone wanna share their thoughts?

Congratulations on your recovery. I was married to an alcoholic so I know how hard it is to quit. Keep up the good work with your weight journey too hugs

If I can give you 1 piece of advice they don't talk about enough in the pre op or post op visits! I am telling you this because it will save you from misery possibly even death! DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL OR TAKE ANY OPIOIDS! Not a drop! Not a single pill! I was not a drinker at all before surgery and I went through my second divorce and moved in with my recently divorced best friend. We started going out on weekends and all of a sudden I was getting hit on by gorgeous men and weekends turned into weekends n ladies night and then we started drinking at home first because it was cheaper and then go to the bar.... long story short I became an alcoholic and I mean the for real kind! I almost died so many time in a high rise I moved into I just know an ambulance had to come get me 57 times in 1 yr and I started having seizures from drinking and from withdrawals! 3 rehabs and finally I started begging god to do what ever it would take to save me and I went to a place here in Omaha Ne called Campus for Hope. I have been sober 2 1/2 yrs now I go to meetings 5 days a week and I am still repairing the wreckage I created with my drinking. I know your thinking oh that won't happen to me... I traded my addiction for food to alcohol and attention from others! It's called co addiction. I beg you all to google the statistics on this! One of my meetings I go to are all people who had gastric bypass surgery or some kind of weight loss surgery. It's real it's your worst enemy. Opioids are just as bad I had major surgery on my mouth and then had a near fatal car wreck and before I knew it I was withdrawing from them. I guess I had been a total wreck for months from all the meds they had me on. I don't remember months of my life from the meds they were pumping in me 9 out of 10 were addictive. When you ever go to the hospital or dr be sure to tell them you had gastric bypass surgery and are highly susceptible to addiction. It will help save you from a traumatic side effect of this surgery. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I tried alcohol for the first time since surgery last week. One normal-sized vodka and lemonade, mostly vodka, and it got me FUCKED. UP. Saturday night I had some wine with dinner and that went much better. I am tolerating most things. Yesterday I had sausage, egg, and cheese on a garlic bagel and that came right up. I though that would be better than cream cheese on a bagel; guess not!

Go!! I wouldn't necessarily drink at that stage because it was empty calories but that's just me. Alcohol is a slider so just be careful.

Sliders are empty calories that you can comsume that can bypass your stomach without getting any nutritional value back. Ice cream, because it melts, alcohol, etc are some of these items.

trust the pregnant chick to know what the fancy wine is called I only drink spiced wine at Christmas, but it's tradition and it must be drunk Ever since my first trip to Germany I've been addicted to snowy nights with a glass of mulled wine (the english name). But each calorie is accounted for...even if it's the holidays, on my fitness pal. I have made eggnog for many years. The worst part of it is the burbon, whiskey and dark rum IMO (calorie wise). At least the milk and cream have some benefit LOL But several years ago the kids at Christmas wanted the eggnog so I made a non alcoholic eggnog using the same recipe (an old betty crocker recipe). It was far too thick because the original recipe counts on about 14 cups of booze to thin it. So I used milk and then more eggs without upping the sugar and it was great. As low cal as splenda? Maybe not, but much like icecream, I'll bet ya I can't drink more than half a cup anyhoo, so that won't kill me. BTW I'd rather be prego than able to drink Best wishes for a beautiful baby in the New Year!

I will just tell you from personal experience that I drank once at almost 5 months out & I don't ever want to drink again. Whiskey neat was my drink of the night. I am no light weight drinker. I got VERY drunk VERY quickly. In the past I would have had a liter of water & 2 Tylenol before bed. With the sleeve I just couldn't get anywhere near that quantity of water in. I had one of the worst hangovers of my life the day after. The alcohol tore my whole intestinal system up. It was horrible. I can tell you that I have absolutely no interest in ever drinking again. So, I won't preach about calories or addictions, but I'll tell you that it straight up sucked. Big time. So, proceed with caution.

alcohol has affected my weight loss, I'm definitely limiting myself to 1 day at week. after the surgery I was feeling depressed and found myself drinking 3 - 4 times per week, n 9 months Ive only lost 60lbs. which makes me sad to know, i let my emotions take over. I will definitely think twice about drinking during the week n try to workout instead of thinking of drinking.

Well, I'll be honest. I drink a bottle and a half of wine a night. I told my psych and now I'm worried that I'll be refused the surgery. I've read that the doctors might consider alcoholism to be a dealbreaker. I decided to go to AA meetings to try to stop, if that's worth anything as far as surgery goes.

I'm glad to hear that you no longer want alcohol. That gives me hope. I actually haven't had a drink for three days and I don't miss it. Keeping my fingers crossed.

yes. I had my first glass at least two years out of surgery - and I have a glass maybe three or four times a year. I can feel it pretty strongly after just one glass. Alcoholism runs in my family, so I've always been very careful with alcohol - but now I'm even more so since I know that's a risk of WLS.

I would be very careful with drinking so soon after your surgery. If you are eating mushy foods, a glass of wine might be all right. I wouldn't try it on an empty stomach, though. Your system probably won't tolerate as much alcohol as before surgery and it might still be extra sensitive. As far as drinking later on, it is not prohibited, but can irritate your stomach. The one thing that I held on to as long as possible was the early committment to eat right and follow my new banding plan. I hadn't even tried eating bread or noodles until this past month. (I am 4 months out.) Keeping that initial motivation going as long as possible has been very successful for me. Now that I have given myself permission to try more foods and treat myself occassionally, I have to fight the temptation to over indulge. Take it step-by-step and you will do fine with all the new choices you will need to make in the weeks to come.

Before my first fill, and even now, I track my food on Livestrong.com's The Daily Plate function. I set a calorie goal to lose 2lbs a week, and I try hard to stick to it. I eat when I feel hungry, and stop when I'm full....definitely making smarter choices than pre-surgery. No soda, no fried foods, no alcohol...and try to walk as exercise every day. Just take care of yourself, listen to your body, and try to eat balanced, with all your Protein, sneak some veggies in, try to avoid the bad carbs, and all your Fluid.

I know how difficult it is to come to this type of decision since I have been through it myself. I don't claim to have any real words of wisdom, but I just wanted to share my story with you and hope it helps. I'm going to try to abreviate it, but I come from a highly disfunctional family so there is a lot to my story. The basic foundation is my father was an alcoholic, he was just down right mean. He was so mean, that when I was a little girl I thought he was the devil. My mother is one of these people who is very mean and cold, but presents herself to people like "poor me". She and my father used to fight, very violent fights. To the point where when I was little several times in the middle of the night I had to run to the neighbors so they could call the police, and the next day we would pick up my dad from jail .It became pretty routine. My brother was 10 years older than me, and my sister 5 yrs older. My dad and my brother used to fight constantly as well. Needless to say growing up I had much resentment pain and anger. Both my parents were mentally abusive. I don't know how many times I was told by my mother "If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have kids." My dad was always very insulting and he had an annoying way of saying something mean with a smirk on his face then when I'd get mad he'd be like "oh I'm just kidding don't be so sensitive." That was always my mom's favorite saying too " don't be so sensitive" Well that gives you an idea of what I endured growing up. It really didn't get any better when I became an adult either. To top it off, after I got married they started to treat my husband badly too. My mom really didn't like him, mostly because he wasn't a rich man, but also because he isn't the type to put up with much. I tried moving to another state for awhile, it still wasn't good enough for me. They still haunted me. Even thier messages on my anwering machine would get me upset. They aren't the type you can talk to, they do not listen at all. When my mom would call me it was all about her, she didn't want to hear anything about me, she always depended on me emotionally, but was never there for me. I wrote them a very long letter telling them all that bothered me. Broke it off for two years, then broke down and contacted them. It was slightly better for awhile, but they quickly went back to their old ways. I couldn't take it any longer, I wrote them another letter saying good bye, and why. It's been a little over a year now. I don't have anything to do with my sister, she became very involved with drugs, I tried to help her but couldn't. My brother commited suicide almost a year ago now. It's not easy, I always think of things like how weird it will be if I don't even know whether or not they've passed away. But they are just too harmful to me. I too as someone mentioned consider people toxic if their bad for me. In fact there is a book called Toxic Parents. It helped me quite a bit. Of course therapy has helped. I wish you the best, I know how painful this is. But even if you don't cut it off with your mom, at least cut off form her finacially ASAP. It sounds difficult since you live so close to her. I'm here if you want to discuss this. I'm open to any quetions as well. Take care

It's so easy to shift the blame of a surgical complication on something else, so the stats will never be accurate. For example, if you have a hip replacement, and then develop an infection, the infection could spread, and you could become septic, resulting in organ damage or shut down. Your COD would be kidney failure, heart failure, septicemia, etc. not "hip replacement surgery". Or for us, say you become dehydrated because of severe diarrhea and you can't drink enough because your sleeve is so small. You decide not to go to the ER for fluids and you die from kidney failure. Your COD would not be "WLS". Or you do actually have a direct complication like a leak and you chose to go to another doctor for treatment. Your original surgeon would not include your complication in his stats because he never treated you for a leak. And again, what do they consider a complication when collecting their stats? Only leaks and strictures? How about depression, GERD, constipation, diarrhea, alcoholism, gall stones, etc?

What, if anything, is too serious to joke about? Nothing, in itself. Depends on the audience. Joking about anything too close to the listeners' hearts is unacceptable. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one quality or one ability, what would it be? To be able to have more fun, enjoy life more. To lighten up. Whom, if anyone, do you envy enough to want to trade lives with them? No one, now. If I'm ever reincarnated, I'd like to have a life like Jimmy Buffett. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what woud it be? Take alcohol out of the equation. Period. If there were a public execution on tv, would you watch it? Absolutely, positively not. Would you rather arrive at a party underdressed or overdressed? Underdressed. I'm sort of used to that. What's more important: actual experiences, or the memories that remain from those experiences? The quick answer is the experiences, but without the memories did the experiences really happen? In real conversations, do you tend to talk more or listen more?If you had to chose one, would you rather be blind or deaf? I definitely listen more, but it wasn't always that way. And if I had to choose one, I'd rather be blind... deaf... blind... deaf... hmmmm.... ummmm.... wow. Deaf, I guess.

I was terrified right before my first fill and almost cancelled and rescheduled since I had worked myslef up into such a state of panic... Then after the Dr. Swabbed the area with an alcohol pad, I actually reached down and put my hand on the spot and said "wait... I'm not ready" and he was peeved and had to swab me again... After that he made me put my hands under the back of my head... LOL... Turns out it wasn't that bad after all.... He does not numb since that would require two shots and I'm glad of it... Once is enough... He also does not do Floro... It takes about 30 seconds and I'm outta there... Very easy with minimal discomfort... Afterwards, the nurse makes us drink a 4 oz cup of water to make sure we can swallow... This gives us about 15-30 minutes to sit and chat with Prospective and current LB patients in the waiting room and answer questions and just share our story or advice.... It's like an unofficial therapy group, which I like since I have only told 4 people whom I don't even see often... It's my opportunity to talk talk talk about it....

I was so satisfied with scrambled eggs for breakfast and tuna at lunch. If the junk isn't around, then I can't eat it. (Maybe this is how my hubby has lost 30 lbs since my sleeve?? Ha!) So if an alcoholic avoids alcohol, a druggie avoids drugs, former fatties must avoid Rice Krispie Treats!!! It's sure true for me! Moderation and occasional indulgences are great and I do that - but having the temptation sitting on the counter while snowbound at home all weekend is a recipe for disaster!

I am certainly not recommending that any cocktails are lap band friendly:lol:but I recently posted about how I get through vacations successfully with my band and ENJOY myself so you may find a few hints at: Lap Band Success – How To Enjoy Vacation With Your Lap Band If you have not had any alcohol in a while I suggest you REALLY LIMIT yourself. One glass of wine took me for quite a ride after not having any for 9 months after I was banded. Getting your Master's is certainly something to Celebrate. Good luck!