Tarain

I have heard that when you first start eating solid foods you should take just a few bites at first to see how your tummy reacts to the food. Everyone reacts differently to the solid stage and I have read where some had to prolong their mushie stage 1 or more weeks because they couldn't tolerate solids yet. Also, I know for me, I get sick if I eat too fast or more than I should. Are you eating slowly and are you measuring your food? I hope you are able to tolerate solids soon! Good luck to you!

I hope you are recovering well! I went to Dr. Kelly on 3/1/11. You are in good hands! My sleeve is working wonderfully for me. I was the first surgery he did on my day and I have to admit I was so grateful for that! I would have drove myself crazy waiting for my turn! I can't wait to hear how you are doing! These first few days can be rough but you will feel much better soon! Take care!

If I remember correctly, the VSG takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour. When I had my surgery I also had my gallbladder removed and my surgery lasted 90 minutes.

I went alone and was fine. I didn't take any checked baggage, everything I needed fit in my carry-on's and I stayed for 10 days. You really will not need to take much with you and you wont want to pack around a bunch of luggage so I would recommend you pack very lightly. My coordinator took care of everything I needed while I was there. Not sure who your doctor or coordinator is. Maybe you could contact others who went to the same doctor to get a better idea of how their experience was. Good luck on your surgery!

Hey Groove, I bought the giant pills accidently and have put off taking them until now. I know I need to be more vigilant in taking my vitamins because I have not taken them since surgery, which was on 3/1/11. I took them today by breaking them in half. They did go down, but not as easy as I would like. So I plan on crushing them and adding them to my drink or some yogurt or maybe breaking them into more than 2 pieces. Give it a try, I think it would be better than taking the carbonate.

Looks like you're doing great. Your start weight was 100 pounds less than me and you have lost more than me! My start weight was 353, I am at 7 weeks PostOp and have lost 35 pounds so far. I'm a little jealous! Really, you are doing quite well considering you aren't even weighing or measuring your food. Congrats! The only thing I would be concerned about is your Protein intake. From looking at your food, it does look like it is lower than it should be, unless you are adding Protein powder to your drinks. You should probably have at least 60g protein per day and from the daily intake you provided, I think it is less than 40 (just an estimate). Like Kelly mentioned, you might want to enter your food into one of the nutritional trackers periodically to make sure you are meeting your requirements. Protein is a very important part of your diet now.

I was a self pay and honestly, spending the money for the surgery never bothered me. I have struggled for so long and failed at weight loss so many times, I felt like this was my lost hope. I knew that I would be dead within 10 more years at my weight. To me it was spend the money and gain a life or keep the money, continue to live a miserable life, and die at an early age. I decided to give life a shot and that to me is worth any amount of money. Stop worrying about the money for now. Whatever you can spend that money on now, you can spend it on later. Put your life and your health first. If you have been waiting for 4 years, you have waited long enough!

I just passed the 7 week mark. I am much heavier than you and a little taller, but i will share my info so you can compare with a variety. I think it's going to be hard predicting the size you will be in 6 more weeks, but good luck! I agree with Becca, be prepared for some alterations just in case. My PreOp weight was 353 I am 5'6" At 7 weeks I have lost 35 pounds.

There are many others on here that know much more about this than me, but I remember reading in a different post that after surgery your tummy is quite swollen. As it heals the swelling reduces, therefore you may feel less restriction than early on.

Looks really good! Thanks for sharing!

I think a lot of people have problems with their gallbladder afterwards. One reason is due to the quick weight loss, as others have mentioned. Another possible reason is because many are on very low fat diets after surgery. I have read where some are told to stay below 5g fat per day. When I was on a diet program before my surgery, I was told by a dietitian that you should consume a minimum of 20g of healthy fat each day for healthy gallbladder function, otherwise you may experience gallbladder problems. Still, from what I have read, it seems the quick weight loss is the main culprit. I already knew my gallbladder was bad and had it removed during the VSG surgery. So glad I did to! Evidently my gallstones were quite impressive. When I woke up from surgery so many people asked me if I was told about my gallbladder. The stones were HUGE; all of them were larger than avocado seeds. My doctor had to crush most of the stones and cut my incision wider because they were too large to pull out.

Once I am healed up how much Protein do you think I will need each day to keep muscle and not lose too much weight? I like to work out and will the rest of my life and don't want to get frail looking. I was told to get a minimum of 60g of protein and to shoot for 70g. It took me 5 weeks post op to be able to get in more than 60g. Second question: My daughter works for a company who makes protein drinks. Looks like pretty good stuff. Only 1 gram of sugar but 21 grams of carbs. Does that sound right? That sounds pretty high in carbs to me. I would look for something lower in carbs because many of us are told to keep the carbs low during weight loss. Last question, for today, I have read a lot of stories about bad gas pain right after surgery lasting for quite awhile. From my research it looks like that type of bad situation is rare and most people walk off mild gas shortly after surgery. Is this true for most of you? Gas pain was horrible for me right after surgery. Walking did seem to help it but the pain was pretty strong for a few days. After that, I still had some gas pains off and on, but it was manageable. Good luck to you!

That has to be one of the most scary things about being self pay. I worried about this before my surgery as well. In reality, it is a surgery and you could have a complication with even the most skilled doctor. The bright side is that the chances of complications with a VSG is relatively low compared to other surgeries, which really helped me cope with the worries. Also, if your doctor has a good amount of experience with this surgery, your risk of complications will be greatly reduced. I also agree with the other replies when it comes to your insurance coverage. Question your carrier until you understand everything clearly. Good luck!

I have read that many people end up having their gall bladders removed after they get the VSG. I knew mine was already in bad shape so I had my Dr remove it when I had my VSG surgery. That really sucks that you have to start over like this. I hope all goes well for you. Good luck!

The fruit punch is the only one I tried. What I liked about it was that it didn't have a "powdery" taste to it like some of the dry brands. What I didn't like is that the fruit punch tasted kind of flat and I had to use a lot to get a good flavor, and really, I don;t need a lot of flavor; 1 stick of the powdered kind is plenty for a liter bottle for my taste. I wonder if it is just this flavor that is like this since the other poster didn't care for the fruit punch either. It is worth a try if you're having a hard time with plain Water.