One little pearl of wisdom ...

[ChristyAZ 87]

If your surgeon's plan calls for a caffeine free diet following your surgery and advise you to wean prior ... do it!! Do it and stick with it! I didn't and I paid a HUGE price in the hospital when the caffeine withdrawal hit. I am sure things are different for everyone but I had a headache that NOTHING would touch. And trust me, they tried everything short of giving me caffeine. The headache, nausea and fogginess made my stay a trial and had I just weaned as they advised, I would have had a MUCH better outcome. So that is my pearl of wisdom .... good luck to all still awaiting their surgery!!

[mondaylady 6]

I am just beginning my journey and I've already kicked my diet pepsi to the curb and next will be caff coffee. I am probably november time frame for surgery. I am going to be ready as possible by practising now with the elimination of the bad stuff and pretty sure i'll be on diet come monday when i meet again with nutritionist lady. Am sure going to try and do the sips on shakes now. thanks for tip.

[James Marusek 5,244]

I use to drink Cokes for over 50 years. In the last decade, I switched over to diet cokes, mistakenly believing it could help to control my weight. I would consume around 6 cokes a day. I was informed that I had to give up all caffeine and carbonated beverages for my surgery. So I went cold turkey around 8 months before the operation. I was surprised that my body went through withdrawal symptoms. It was very severe and lasted for over a week. What I also found interesting is that because I stopped drinking cokes, I lost 20 pounds during the pre-op phase.

[winning_by_losing 107]

Very good advise.

Once I found out that I could no longer have caffeine, I was afraid I would have to call of the surgery as I just didn't think I could handle it. The old me used to drink 3 or 4 bottles of 5-hour energy per day, often having a Monster/RockStar/RedBull or two mixed in, some iced tea and at times a Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi.

As I was going through my classes pre-surgery, they told me I'd have to give up caffeine after the surgery, so I quit just to see if I would be able to handle it or not.

Amazingly as long as I stayed hydrated with plenty of Water I never got any of the withdrawal symptoms (only had 1 headache the entire week after quitting cold turkey).

[Butterflymomof2 4]

I was told no more sodas, I love my Mountain Dew and Coke! I have gone from several a day to 1 a day now working on 1 every other day. I am looking at early Nov. for my surgery date so I have a little bit of time still to adjust!

[mitzie46 116]

Great advice. I also quit caffeine before my 2 week preop diet. I didn't want to go through the withdrawal when I was recovering. Good luck to everyone on your journeys.

[Truckerchic 171]

All plans are different as we know, mine allows for coffee in limited amounts as long as I add that much more Water to my day so 8 oz of coffee means 64+8 water but I have always drank Decaf ...now I enjoy Click decaf Protein coffee and Starbucks skinny vanilla decaf and add a scoop of unflavored protein!! Great job on taking steps now, good luck!!!

[Mommabird 367]

I don't finish my mandated weight loss until mid November but gave up sodas in May (my easiest thing to do) and coffee in June.That wasn't as easy as I love my cup of coffee in the mid afternoon. Next up was caffeine, Towards the end of my first week with no coffee, I decided to go ahead and stop the caffeine. Had the headache irritability, etc. That Sunday, my husband and I took our son and his girlfriend out to eat, I was so proud of myself...I had made a healthy choice for dinner, had unsweetened tea with my meal. I commented on the way home that I thought I must be about detoxed from all that caffeine as my headache was gone. Then it hit me, I had two glasses of caffeinated tea with dinner!! So, I started over again.But the second round of headaches was not nearly as bad and only lasted a couple of days. Now when we go out to eat, I only drink water! And if you knew how bad the Water tasted here in Waco, you'd know what a big deal that is!

[snowblue 50]

I too am concerned about stopping caffeine--I work night shift as a nurse--I have to be mentally sharp! What do I do? I only drink half of a can of diet coke a night, but geez louise... what do I do? Any suggestions? Other than staying properly hydrated, which I am working on daily

Edited September 2, 2014 by snowblue

[terry1118 1,274]

Caffeinated sodas are the worst possible option, especially diet sodas. I personally think if you must have caffeine have coffee. Not full of sugar and cream, but plain old black coffee. This is only an option if you are past the healing stage and are allowed caffeine. My team allows caffeinated coffee after three months because caffeine has been proven to help with Constipation, a common problem for WLS patients. I've found a high Protein coffee that has the equivalent of two espresso shots in it. I find it delicious, it has 20gr of protein, gives me my morning 'boost', and I haven't been constipated since I began using it five months ago. It's called Chike High Protein Coffee. I finally have a Protein Drink that I love. :-)

[walkin'onsunshine 225]

If your surgeon's plan calls for a caffeine free diet following your surgery and advise you to wean prior ... do it!! Do it and stick with it! I didn't and I paid a HUGE price in the hospital when the caffeine withdrawal hit. I am sure things are different for everyone but I had a headache that NOTHING would touch. And trust me, they tried everything short of giving me caffeine. The headache, nausea and fogginess made my stay a trial and had I just weaned as they advised, I would have had a MUCH better outcome. So that is my pearl of wisdom .... good luck to all still awaiting their surgery!!

Thank you for this advice. I do not like coffee but love my diet sodas and sugar free Rockstars.... Well after reading this post last week I thought this is it. So I quit all caffeine... 7 days free now. Thank you. Surgery date Oct. 7th.

[terry1118 1,274]

Good advice. I quit caffeine about two months before my surgery. I also had a miserable headache for about a week and a half. Not even nsaids could ease it. If I had a headache for my post op recovery period I would probably have felt quite a bit worse than I did. There ARE reasons for everything your doctor tells you to do. If you trust him/her and want to be successful then follow them as closely as possible.