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I tried baby oil, almond oil, alcohol, even Peanut Butter (I used that to get gum out of my kids hair when they were little). Out of desperation at week three, I got some Goo Gone from my boyfriend's workshop and used that.....perfect.

fern - I really understand whee you are coming from. I, too, used food in the wrong way to meet all sorts of emotional needs. I really think I used food like an alcoholic uses liquor or a drug addict their drug of choice. Talking to a family member that is 20+ years clean and sober - the behaviors and the feelings that drive the behaviors are the same. I am working every day to keep from using food incorrectly. Exercise does help. You are doing great witht the running! My exercises of choice are the elliptical and Zumba. Take care. Sharon

I had my first alcoholic beverage 6weeks post op. WARNING, alcohol takes affect much quicker now. Pre op I could easily have 6-8shots before getting buzzed. At 6weeks 2shots & I was walking crooked. And it was a roller coaster ride. I'd be drunk 1 minute then a few minutes later feel nothing then buzzed again with nothing more to drink. It was crazy. Enjoy yourself, but even if you feel completely sober, do not drive,

i just went to my first support group meeting last night (my surgery is June 11) and we went around the room and everyone got to ask a question. mine was "how soon can i have my whiskey and what kind of effects will i be looking at?" out of the 8 post-op people, 5 of them had tried alcohol. most said one or two drinks were fine, but the felt the effects WAY SOONER then they used to. the nurse there said once your stomach heals (3 months), you can have alcohol in moderation, but watch what you mix with it. my go to is a 7/7-i love them. but since we can't drink pop (which i cut out 3 months ago) i might have to mix it with some sour mix and have a whiskey sour. i don't want to get drunk, i just want to have a drink once in a while when i'm out with friends. so just remember, moderation is key!

When you researched and prepped for VSG what did your surgeon and NUT tell you about consuming alcohol?

Personally I wouldn't want to find out how alcohol was going to affect me while I was trying to enjoy a grad party. Some people get violently ill with very little booze post surgery. One month after is pretty soon to try getting drunk. The real risk is possibly spending the night in/on the toilet.

Diet rite is what I was drinking before surgery a well. What I'm confused about is some drs including mine say no alcohol for a year. So is that meaning no beer just liquor?

My date is 8/16 and I have been out of control. Not just eating but also drinking. I am hoping that I will be able to eat whatever I want in smaller quantities but I dont feel so optimistic. I have seen a ton of people saying that they cant eat pasta, bread, rice (all the things I love). I have also heard nothing good about alcohol consumption post surgery. I know that I am digging a bigger hole for myself to climb out of, but I will be climbing for the rest of my life since my stomach wont tolerate much food and I dont want to sabotage myself by feeling deprived. I know someone else that was recently sleeved and even though they are on the liquid only stage they are eating fried chicken, burgers and fries, and just chewing them well. She dieted to the day of surgery and said she is feeling super deprived. I dont want to be tempted to blow my new stomach out eating something crazy so Im just counting down and wishing the 16th would hurry up before I get any bigger.

I posted on this EXACT question 2 days ago: Now, with greater experience, and most than 1 year post-op, I feel I can elaborate a bit more. I would STRONGLY advise against drinking ANY alcohol so early after surgery!!!!! Alcohol dehydrates your body. At the moment, your everyday battle is staying hydrated and allowing your surgical site to heal. The lime in the margarita will likely irritate your stomach lining, causing great discomfort. The alcohol will get you drunk VERY fast in VERY small quantities, and you will not be in good control of your decision making regarding other foods, which could lead you to make dangerous decisions around what is safe to eat so early on. Feel free to go out with your friends, but take on the role of designated driver (if you don't want them to know WHY you're not drinking), or just tell them you are staying away from alcohol for a while because it conflicts with some meds or supplements you're taking. Of course that all assumes they don't know about your surgery. If they know, tell them the truth! Your surgeon and nutritionist have strongly advised....NO DRINKING for min. 6 months post-op. You surgeon may not have spelled that out to you (though hopefully it was discussed). The physical effects of alcohol are bad, but the psychological possibilities of developing a new dependency or addiction (alcohol vs food) are very real and serious and worse than the hangover and illness the booze might temporarily cause you. Even if the addiction part is not "in play" here, the possibility of your having less control of your decision regarding food at the concert is still very real if you've been drinking. You really can't afford to slip up and eat the wrong thing this early post-op. It could have serious repercussions and land you in the hospital with a leak or complication you could have easily avoided. You made a smart choice with this surgery. Keep up the good choices and stay away from alcohol until you're better healed and in a more normal eating/drinking routine.

Which PPI are you on? Are your calories matching your activity level? As stupid as it sounds, GasX strips contain some sugar alcohol which triggers some funky hunger like feelings for me. It's not hunger really, it's just this funky strange feeling I get. I was able to isolate it when I was snacking on Protein bars. On the PPI, are you taking it on an empty stomach and waiting a minimum of 30-60 minutes before eating? This is on my RX of Prilosec, and I have a girlfriend down here that went on Protonix (generic) and her bottle reads the same.

It's totally individualized results... I don't consume alcohol so I can't help you there Generally you'll want to follow your post surgical plan to the letter and discuss any modifications to it with your team, but really wait until after surgery to consider the all of the details...

Thanks for the response. I don't drink alcohol anymore I've been sober for three years. That's why taking away the food (my last crutch/ addiction) has been so hard. I think I'm just having buyers remorse about the surgery because there are so many negative posts and experiences shared here ????.

Hey I'm around your age (26 tomorrow) and I went through the same tough decision on which surgery to have. I was emailing back and forth with a woman I met who is having RNY but in the same program as me at my hospital. This is a copy and paste of one of the emails I sent her. (I know some of it may not make sense, but you get the idea). I hope this helps! Copy and pasted email... I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you in a few days. The cord on my laptop was frayed and sparking a little, so now I'm using my cousin's computer while I wait for a new cord. Anyway, it was so nice to hear from you! I'm sorry to hear about the gallstones they found-- but I think it's good that they can take it out during surgery. Gallstones can develop more easily in people who lose rapid amounts of weight, so you won't have to deal with that . I'm actually planning on getting the lap band, not RNY. I went back and forth on my decision so much. There are definitley pros and cons to both. I liked the idea in RNY that you can lose a lot of weight pretty quickly and since I'm so impatient, I was thinking that that might be nice. I also kind of liked the idea of dumping syndrome because it would keep me in check, but then I thought about that say in the future if I want to have a cupcake at a birthday party on a rare occasion or something like that, I don't want to be sick from it. Another thing I considered is you have to be very careful about consuming alcohol after RNY and the chance is higher of developing alcoholism. Not that I think I would become an alcoholic or anything, but I don't know if I really want to be smashed if I have one drink. Now the malabsorptive thing was back and forth for me, too. I think it's cool that you can eat things and not absorb all the calories, but then again it scares me a little not to be getting all the nutrients I need. I know in both surgeries you have to take Vitamins, but in RNY there are more, and it's a little more vital to be on top of it. Plus, like you, I want to have kids some day. I'm only 25 (26 next month) and I'm single but it's something I need to be thinking about, too. I googled 'gastric bypass and pregnancy' and was trying to read up a little bit on it and sometimes it can be hard to get all the nutrients to the baby. I'm not trying to sway your decision at all-- I just want to share what my thought process was coming to my decision. I also liked that in RNY, that your hunger hormones are changed a bit and you may not even feel hungry a lot of the time. But then again, a lot of what I eat is not because I'm actually hungry-- it's because I'm bored and it looks good and tastes good. So I think that that's more of a behavior I need to change rather than the whole hunger hormone thing. It's funny that you mentioned about the social worker suggesting therapy, because she said the same thing to me. But she also said she's supposed to basically say it to everyone, so I'm not too worried about it, lol. Ultimately after going back and forth I decided on the lap band. A lot of people say they like it because it's reversible, but that actually doesn't play into it for me. I hopefully will never have to have it reversed. I do like the fact that it's very adjustable, though. If you feel hungry and not satisfied a lot, then you can go get a fill and have more restriction. With RNY, you don't have that adjustability. Part of that lack of adjustability and control with RNY scared me because you hear about people who have lost a certain amount of weight and then gain some back and they can't adjust what they're taking in. I know everyone is different, but I like the fact that I can just get a fill if I need to to get me back on track. And I know that with lap band it takes longer to lose weight, but I've been overweight my entire life and I can wait a little longer. Also, since everyone is different, I'm hoping if I exercise most days and eat right that I can really do it faster than the statistics. Twice in my life I've lost close to 90 lbs (which I gained back both times), so I know what it takes to actually take the weight off. And I think with a lap band it will give me the extra push i need to lose even more weight and keep it off. Another small factor for me is the recovery time. I say "small factor" because it the long run, what does the recovery time really matter in exchange for your health back? But I do like that lap band has a quicker recovery time and is a safer surgery with less risk of death and complications. Another factor, like you mentioned, is the hair as well-- people with RNY are more prone to lose their hair than from lap band. My hair is very fine too, so I was kind of scared of that. But either way, they say it's only temporary, so you can wear head scarves or hats or something until it passes, if it even happens (everyone is different). Also what helped me in coming to my decision was seeing what other people say about lap band and looking at success stories and all that. I don't know if you know about it, but there is a site called lapbandtalk.com which is pretty cool and lots of topics. Another thing I looked at was youtube. There are some people on there who update once a week or more about their surgeries. I've really only watched the lap band ones, but there are people who do the same after RNY if you're interested. Some of the lap band people I like if you want to check them out are Newtoy4kt-- she started at 308 lbs and it's been like 66 weeks so far post-op for her and she's down to around 180 I think. Also there is BandedWendy who's been at her goal weight for a while now, and there's Thebandinme who gives some good info as well. It's kind of cool to see their first few video posts and then see their recent ones to really see how much they've changed and how far they've come. But like I said, if you want to watch RNY patients they have them on there too, just gotta search a little. It's funny what you said about Dr. H trying to sell you on the band. I didn't get that feeling so much, but I do remember leaving there and knowing for sure that I wanted lap band, after being undecided. Part of it too, if you have lap band-- you can always have RNY afterward if the band isn't working for you. But you can't have the band after having RNY (I don't think). Ultimately, I think you just need to go with what you're most comfortable with. And I'm really not trying to sway your decision at all-- just wanted to give you my thought process on the whole thing.

well. the good news is tomorrow is a new day and you can choose to eat good Proteins, lay off the alcohol for a while and see what you can do. All depends on how much you want to loose that 50 pounds. I wouldn't rate this as a failure, but a choice you've made. and your sleeve is right there waiting for you if you decide to make a change.

I think many people have to go through the "MENTAL TEST" before anything else is decided. I had a 10 page questionaire to fill out before my initial intake visit. They emailed it to me and when I went to print OMG 10 pages. It was all about my family history, my history, when i became over weight, diets I have tried, suppliments I used, reason for being overweight, my religious views, my work status, maritial status, if my spouse is alright with my choice of WLS... Then to have to be evaluated by the psychologist!!!! I am diagnosed already with anxiety and depression...I don't need them to tell me that! Anyways, They really have to do that because some people are SERIOUSLY addicted to food. I had a friend of mine, her brother had the band done, and has completely lost his mind (because he couldn't turn to food). He turned to alcohol and drugs...lost his license and (WAS) a local fire fighter...Needless to say not anymore...but these surgeries are LIFE CHANGING!!!! Remember that! If you are not mentally stable enough then honestly, you shouldn't have surgery! Good luck on your journey!!!

I definitely know all about the "sorbie squirts"! I can't do any sugar alcohol. I get severe abdominal pain, severe intestinal pain, and spend the better part of day or night in the bathroom. It's horrible. I avoid it like the plague!

This is from LAP-BAND.com: The LAP-BAND® System creates a small stomach pouch that can hold about one-quarter cup (approx. 2 oz) of food. Eating more can stretch the stomach, canceling the effect of your procedure. Dietary Guidelines After LAP-BAND Surgery Portion size is a major factor in your success with the LAP-BAND System. However, the types of foods you eat can affect your weight loss as well. A healthy diet will have items from each of the following food groups. Quantities and suggested foods are listed in each group. Always talk to your doctor or dietician about your particular dietary needs. Good Choices Fruit and vegetables: 1 to 2 servings of fresh fruit daily 2 to 3 servings of fresh vegetables daily Whole grains: 1 small portion of cornflakes for breakfast, or 1 to 2 slices of toasted whole wheat or rye bread each day. If you find you have trouble with bread blocking your stomach opening, substitute other whole grains such as refined, cooked or ready-to-eat Cereal, oatmeal, cream of wheat, or grits. Protein: 2 to 4 oz of meat, fish or poultry, or one egg for additional Protein Remove all visible fat from the meat. Remove skin from poultry/fish. And cook with little/no fat — grill, steam, microwave, or boil. Dairy: 2 cups of low-fat milk or yogurt, or 1 oz low-fat cheese (max.) Since milk and yogurt are calories in liquid form, you might think they should be avoided. However, the Calcium and protein they have makes them an important part of a healthy daily diet. Fats: 3 to 4 teaspoons of margarine, butter or oil per day (max) Low-fat salad dressings and mayonnaise (in moderation) Drinks: Unlimited zero- or low-calorie liquids per day, including: Non-carbonated beverages Tea or coffee (black) with low-calorie sweetener Clear soup and broths Water Not-so-good choices Proceed with caution: Some foods may cause problems as they may block or have difficulty passing your stomach opening. Introduce these types of foods to your diet slowly, one at a time, to see if they are tolerated. Remember: always be careful and chew these foods well before swallowing. Dry meat Peanut Butter Shrimp Untoasted or doughy bread Pasta or rice Fibrous vegetables (e.g., corn, celery and asparagus) Dried fruit Coconut Popcorn Citrus fruits Nuts Steer clear: Some foods contain too many calories and too little nutritional value to be of any use to you with the LAP-BAND System. Avoid foods high in sugar or fat, including: Syrups, jams, honey Candy, pies, cakes, biscuits chips, dips High-calorie soft drinks Some doctors suggest patients avoid carbonated drinks, as they may contribute to enlargement of the stomach pouch. Alcohol should also be consumed in moderation (one glass of wine or less per day).

I'm too afraid to stray from my doctor's orders. So if he says 2 weeks of Clear Liquids, I'm doing it. I learned that applesauce is a clear liquid. What if you have some of that. I'll tell you, I can only eat half of the little motts container, and I have to save the rest for another time. Last night I ate a little too much, and I felt uncomfortable, just overfull.. didn't like it. I think the object is we don't want to make our stomachs have to work too hard to digest. Right now it's healing. Maybe I'm just overly cautious, but I'm not even going to THINK about a yogurt or mashed potato until Sunday!! I am looking forward to my stage 2 for the variety! Also.. I found Crystal Light popsicles at walmart. sugar free, cold, like a treat, I eat 2 a day usually. If your'e doing popsicles, make sure they are sugar free. and watch the ones in the grocery store that say no sugar added, cause even they have sugar alcohols in them, and you don't want that. Good luck!

Anyone aware of any good Protein bars? I checked over 20 at my local grocery store and all of them had a ton of sugar or sugar alcohols! HW 283. SW265. SD 3/22/13! CW 244.

okay, here's the gross thing. If you happen to pb after drinking, its like the alcohol hits your system twice. Even a little makes you totally drunk.

Wheezy is correct. RNY surgery is restrictive and malabsorptive whereas the band is only restrictive. So alcohol does not have an effect with metabolism. Although... you're also right where if you do eat less, it tends to absorb quicker in your system... but its nothing different than what you did before the surgery with an empty stomach. -Jason

Hi everyone. I am young and social and so a lot of going out means times spent at bars. I know alcohol is full of empty calories and all that. I know carbonation is out of the picture and I'd like some cocktail ideas to be able to drink if I go out other than alcohol on the rocks, wine or cranberry vodka. Hopefully nothing too fancy because a lot of these places are more like sports bars than fancy places so something reasonable. Any ideas?

Hi... I had trouble with getting a couple of my stitches out too. I used ice and rubbing alcohol then dug it out with tweezers. I'd be worried about the blister you've got though. If it's not infected it just might get that way. If I were you I'd go see your doctor to evaluate it. Good luck, Jessy

I choose the sleeve for three reasons: 1. My surgeon okayed drinking alcohol (down the road) with the sleeve and recommend lifelong abstinence with bypass. 2. My surgeon said the same about NSAID'S. I have quite a bit of arthritis and even down 80 lbs, I still need my ibuprofen. 3. I like the idea of just cutting off some of my stomach as opposed to all the plumbing rerouting and the whole dead stomach thing. I'm not sure about the whole hunger thing. If I avoid simple carbs, I'm not hungry, but if I eat them, I still want more (I'm in month 4).

Thank you all so much for your responses I agree I need to actively try and get my highs from a new productive habit. I'll have a good think about it. It's so weird how similar the over eating and over spend cycling is.... the delicious anticipation and planning or the pure joy of a suprise temptation... the shutting out of the thoughts that tell you you will regret this.. the raised heart rate and excitement of the purchase or eating... the warm glow that follows and the brief high.... then the guilt sets in.....after a few cycles of that you face major weight gain or debt issues which add to the stress and of course you need to feel good again.... I guess I should be grateful I hate cigarettes and alcohol!