mi75

it's likely a stall, i agree. no big issue. our bodies have gone from total joy of gut fulfillment to these little amounts, our metabolism is learning to work with what it has available. it's just a 'pause for a station break' sort of thing while your body catches up. i'm going through it right now a bit too. hang in there and just keep doing your program!

I was similar to Miss Mac. I did Clear Liquids at the hosp, full liquids for about 14 days, then went to pureed/softs hybrid which i'm on now. moving to full diet mid week next week. i'm excited! i found that during my full liquids phase although i wasn't hungry, i was sad every time my family ate stuff that i wanted and couldn't have! i started cooking a lot more and that actually helped a lot! now that i'm eating 'real' foods- egg salad, meatballs, squash, canned fruit, I am feeling just fine about it and looking forward to moving on to other things. I think that puree would be ok post op. the real concern comes with the AMOUNT and also no pieces, which can get caught in your staple line internally.

Our grocery bill is actually about HALF of what it was! i'm embarrassed to write that! i ate out fast food or some sort of take away food EVERY day for lunch plus we ate out at least 4 nights a week for dinner. i also stopped for a belly buster pop every day and often got some sort of hot dog, egg roll, etc with that too. in addition, sadly, i could eat as much as my 6'2" hubs and sometimes MORE than him (nachos, hamburger helper, etc). Now 3 wks post op, I can make egg salad out of 4 hard boiled eggs and it lasts 3 days for me, or like last night i made some meatballs and had one for dinner, hubs had 3 plus some Pasta. Our kids are both incredibly selective eaters, one due to a medication side effect the other due to being very young, so I always keep their food stocked in the house but it is a very tiny portion of our grocery bill. i know in time my eating will become a bit more normal and include more than just one ingredient, but i anticipate that in the long term our grocery bill will remain fairly low until my kids get a little older!

My surgeon and nut both recommended a childrens chewable with Iron. I started out pre-op doing 2 Flintstones childrens a day and now i'm doing Centrum childrens chewable, 2 a day. I am going to order some Bariatric Advantage Vitamins at the end of the month. i've done a lot of asking around and they seem to get the most votes on this site. My nut also said i could just do a regular adult multi vit at around month 3.

as a rule, teaching hospitals do almost ALL types of medical care because they are, after all, teaching... i would do some serious research and find FIRST an awesome plastics guy who has practice privilages at a teaching facility, call his surgery coordinator and find out if some sort of deal can be had to go there. generally, docs who teach are still in the operating suite and involved with the case. certainly NOT a bad option to consider. it's good to see that people will consider this option.

I agree with Benefiber and TONS of Water. I drink a 20 oz bottle of water 3-4 times every day with Crystal Light and Benefiber stirred in. No issues. also move as much as you can.

i think its just a weird metabolism thing! congrats

well i have been the same weight for a while now and today i'm 3 wks out. i am NOT scale obsessed. i don't care what the number is, really, as long as it's moving. i have been keeping a casual eye on the scale just to see if this 3 wk thing is for real. well, for me it seems so...darn it! i have just started on softs though, and i have been adding more foods over the past 4-5 days so it could just be my body catching up. i'm NOT worried and i know that my body needs a moment to just comprehend and then start losing again. for now i will just put the scale away and focus on my new, healthy habits and i know that in a few weeks when i weigh again i will be pleasantly surprised!

Hi everyone, I have a question specific to eucharist. As a devout Catholic, it is important to me to receive eucharist at least one time a week, I generally try for more if I can. However, since surgery I have not been able to take it at all. My parish has a bread baking team and the eucharist that we prepare is an actual unleavened bread that is whole wheat and REALLY dense. It is cut into small cubes (probably 1/3" square) for the sacrament. We don't use the wafers. I am very scared of getting a plug or something. I have not talked to my priest yet about it. thinking MAYBE i could request a smaller piece or something? I know that they won't allow me to bring something of my own (like a thin rice wafer cracker or something) to be blessed as part of the sacrament. I have a friend in the parish with a wheat allergy who requested this and our diocese said no... How can I honor my commitment to my faith and my responsibility of receiving the sacrament?

I am a person if extremely strong faith and it would be an awesome comfort to me if other people could see/feel that through my interaction with them!

nobody said egg salad yet! i'm only 3 wks out but loving my egg salad. also i can start having VERY toasty low carb breads or crackers. i do this crab dip that is awesome and high Protein so having that for a snack occasionally. also cottage cheese, string cheese. everyone sounds like they are doing great!

i'm in the same boat. i was sleeved on 6/23. i have been eating some little spoonfuls of winter squash which is awesome, but pretty starchy. i saw my nut last week i am on a puree/softs hybrid sort of phase. i can't do puree, and many of the soft foods are doing great for me (cottage cheese, ground meat). she basically said that during this phase just concentrate on getting 'something' that will stay down. honestly i haven't had ANY probs with nausea or vomiting and feel really good since my surgery. i have chewed a couple of crackers as well, pulverizing them to mush. i am trying very hard to concentrate on Proteins but i'm sick of most of them also, especially eggs and refried Beans. i will go to ALL softs on wednesday of this week so i'm looking forward!

Centrum has a good liquid adult version that you can get right at Wal-Mart or Target. it's likely that your aversion will eventually go away and you will be able to tolerate the chewables again, but until then a liquid would do...also, at around month 2-3 post op is when you are able to swallow whole Vitamins again.

if you aren't on a gut pill- protonix, pepcid, prevacid, etc., then you may want to check with your surgeon. also, i would agree it could just be you are eating too much. i had the same thing happen when i added flaked white fish in earlier this week. i think i was just SO eager to get onto some 'food' after liquids that i overate. so far only flaked fish causing that, all other foods A-ok! going to wait another week or so and try the fish again. Sleeved 6/23

you don't HAVE to tell him WHAT you are doing, but you do have to disclose on FMLA forms that you are taking time off for 'care of my own serious medical condition'. so if you don't want to share details, you can just tell him you are needing time off for surgery, and the other poster is correct, by law they aren't supposed to be able to ask WHAT type of surgery. it's surprising though, that many people don't know that!

i was told for the first 2 wks to eat or drink just about every hour that i was awake. it was necessary too, the first few days especially when drinking was hard. now i'm on to puree and trying to have Breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner and a Protein drink before bed. waters in between. doing good.

i used progresso mushroom also, and cambells potato. also the regular bean with bacon, i added a little to my potato for that 'smokey' flavor. i used just a little of each Soup, and added skim milk to the pot. pretty good, but after eating the same thing for lunch and dinner for 8 days, i was burned out. i also did an awesome lobster bisque from a local soup place which i had many times until i hit the puree stage. funny thing, now that i'm on puree, i actually WANTED some of the bisque today!

i can have peach or blueberry at 3 wks post. however, like all things bariatric, every program is different and will depend on your surgeon.

i like "my bariatric pantry". you can get either the samples or the containers. they cost a couple dollars more on this site, but they are ALWAYS in stock and are shipped usually next day. really fast. some other sites you risk having things out of stock

i have a biopsy at EVERY EGD i've ever had- 2 a year for 10 years plus a few extras for random stuff. It has always been my impression that biopsy is looking for Barretts. if you have GERD or reflux, the lesions in your esophagus can turn to Barretts so they just want to stay on top of it. i have had multiple positive biopsies over the years for Barretts but was never lead to believe that it was ever worsening from the initial positive one. now post op, i'm hopeful my GERD will go away completely once my weight is gone and this will all be a memory!

intake of Protein is VITAL because we are intaking so little calories that our bodies will begin to breakdown our protein stores-ie MUSCLE- to provide itself with daily protein requirements. protein is vital for organ function, healing, brain function, blood production, etc...if we don't get it through what we eat/drink, we will lose muscle. remaining muscle can be built up, but burned muscle cannot be replaced. my nut has generally said that i will stay one one shake a day for at least 5-6 months until i am eating 60-80 Proteins per day. not likely, so i plan to stay on some sort of Protein Drink for a few months past that...

i was told by my nut to use it for the first couple days post op. i could only stomach ONE flavor and that was the acai berry one. it's thick, and to me pretty dang gross. it has GREAT Protein content though, and it is whey, so it was helpful immediately post op when i couldn't do shakes. i mixed mine with a little crystal light/water and tons of ice. the colder the better. i also saw grape flavor (didn't try), fruit punch (palatable, had one), watermelon (too sweet), green apple (didn't try), and blue raspberry ( couldn't find). it IS possible to drink, and since it has good protein, just chalk it up to a necessary evil and drink. good luck!

i got a lot of the same during my preop from friends and coworkers...here were my considerations: 1. this pre-op diet is basically a liquid diet, not sustainable to lose the 100 lbs i have to lose, just to shrink my liver. for MY pre op, i didn't have to lose necessarily to show commitment, (although it DID!) but to shrink the liver. yes we CAN stick to it, because we know that surgery is just around the corner! 2. i would cheat at every outing, luncheon, date night, etc that i could if it was just 'dieting'. just like before. 3. WLS was not, for ME, just to lose weight. my liver was dangerously sick (fatty liver was leading to fibrosis and then eventually to cirrhosis) and at 39 yrs old this was NOT an option for me. also, i flat out REFUSED to become diabetic. i know there are MANY MANY people in the world who are diabetics who manage well. I had enough diagnoses, i didn't want another one. 4. Pre op, i was taking 10 pills a day for my variety of ails. i knew that by 'dieting' it would take years to get off of them, if i even could. more importantly, i just sort of knew that i never really would succeed with dieting, so i knew i wouldn't get off the pills. post op 15 days, i am taking 1/2 of ONE pill a day. that's it! WHOOP!!!!!!!! Please don't get me wrong. I admire folks who have what it takes to dig their heels in and diet/exercise their way to health. I just felt like I was SO FAR away from ever seeing 'healthy' again that I felt for ME WLS was the only option.

i am the same, by 25th will be in 2018 and i feel the same way! i may actually look BETTER than i did back then~!

oh gosh...really...the DAY before pre-op i had: deep fried mushrooms McDonald's 2 cheesebuger and fry meal, mcflurry pizza spinach/artichoke dip with a few pieces of crusty bread bagel with cream cheese this was over the whole day. but truly, enough to feed about 3 grown men. the pizza/artichoke dip was at our favorite little italian place and i refused to take any home so hubs and i just kept eating and eating...i ate way to much and then had terrible hunger the first few days of my pre-op diet. but, here i am 15 days post op and doing great.