Coookies

Wowzers Irene!!! You are looking hot~!!! Congrats!!!!

Hi ... First of all the pain meds... When I came out of anesthesia i was in so much pain.. i asked for pain meds and got them and they didn't work... I was in tears and grinding my teeth and finally they realized... wow maybe she does have pain... So they added a 3rd painkiller and finally it worked... I mentioned it to my doctor before I left the hospital and he asked what about my gall bladder surgery last year, and I told him that whatever they gave me knocked me out for about 3 days... Then I recommended that they use better drugs if they want more patients. Gas pain... I had it for about 2 weeks... even after week 1 i was commenting on here that it felt like the baby alien in Alien 1 was trying to rip out of my chest.... It hurts like heck, but it does go away...... Try sleeping on your side.... The wonderful ICU night nurse at the hospital wrapped a back brace like band around my stomach and then rolled me over... OMG it felt so good... for the first 2 weeks I slept with that thing on... it kept my stomach from jiggling when i turned over and reduced my pain sooooooo much!!! Buy one!!! My best advice EVER!!! If the acid reflux meds are not working try asking for a new one... I take a sublingual pill right before sleeping... with Water.... and my acid is minimal, unless I drink a lot after taking the pill... So maybe try not to drink after taking your night-time pill.. and take it minutes before sleeping... Tightness.... Im 25 days out and I'm just now able to drink a bit easier... I think my sleeve is very small or I have a lot of swelling still.... Im guessing its swelling (because of my long-term asthma steroid use, I heal much slower than the average person)... anyway... last week... week 3 i puked... a lot... this week, only once so far..... I can only get down about 2 ounces of any kind of food... and drinks... maybe 4 ounces...but I try to just sip constantly..... So, you can see....it does get better....give it another 2 weeks and you will feel so much better!!! Good luck!!!

That is very very awesome!! Keep up the good work!!!

i'm eating semi solids i guess... like a soft fish fillet, scrambled or over-easy eggs, pork patties... but it has to be soft and I have to chew really well or it kinda gets stuck and hurts really bad i'm also still doing protein shakes daily to make sure I get enough protein....

Yay~!!! Congrats!!! That is sooooo awesome~!!!! Before choosing to do my surgery I watched all of your videos and you are actually one of the reasons I decided to do it!!!! Thank you for all of you candid and honest videos!!! And woohoo!!!! You rock!!!

short term line of credit from my credit card

I'm 3 weeks post-op and i weigh myself every morning.. i love it cuz it lets me know how i'm doing.. and i chart my weight and my foods, so I can see if i am doing something wrong or if i lost more after consuming more protein or less carbs... One lesson i learned this past week... don't weigh yourself if it is your time of month.. it will just make you feel depressed cuz odds are you won't lose an ounce..... Just weigh yourself after that fun fun time is finished... Raging hormones plus a scale that wont move could equal the urge to chuck it out the nearest window!!

I don't know about others, but for me, I'm 3 weeks post-op and i try to stay under 20 grams per day... sometimes I go over, but my absolute maximum is 30... i lose better on days when I'm under 20 grams....

Yep, if you are drinking but not feeling like you have to go... that is exactly what I had... my fingers didn't swell until they gave me the meds, but then again, I was on 3 IVs at once.... Definately mention that you don't feel the need to pee to your doc.... If you are drinking plus the IV fluids you had, but don't need to pee, that is not good...

I'm so sorry to hear that!! I'm praying for you!! Stay strong!!

Don't worry... I gained 5 kgs (11 pounds) !!!! in the hospital... 2 days after leaving the hospital and drinking only G2 and Smart Water I was able to get rid of all of that excess water weight from the IVs... YOU HAVE NOT REALLY GAINED WEIGHT!! I PROMISE THAT YOU HAVE ACTUALLY LOST!!! I too was on here just 2 weeks ago freaking out about the same thing!! No worries!!! Just drink fluids and forget about Protein for the first week!!! Oh, and try not to drink any broths with salt for a couple of days, just to get you going to the bathroom... then after you do, you will need the salt, or just G2, Gatorade, Powerade, anything with electrolytes will do!!! Also, have you been able to pee well??? sorry personal question, but I couldn't for 2 days before i left the hospital, so I was all swollen.. my fingers looked like sausages and I could barely bend them... my doc gave me a diuretic or something to start my kidneys and get them to release fluids and eventually they did.... Monday when I was released from the hospital I was up to 309 lbs from my pre-op weight of 298... and by the night of the next day I had peed off 13 pounds!!!! which means I was hobbling to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so... And actually that was 6 days post-op for me!!! Tell your doctor if you are not able to go to the bathroom!!

That is so cool Congrats!!! .....and for the pic... on the bottom of the box, when you are typing in a message, it says Attachments, click that then choose the file and attach it

Fear... SO MUCH FEAR!!... oh, that's normal... even as I was flying to the city where I had my surgery, I was thinking, "what if I just get to the airport and get the first plane home"... then i talked myself out of it and went to my hotel... then I was thinking again about not doing the surgery... i took a shower and took a good long look at myself in the mirror... and what I saw disgusted me, and that gave me the will to go to the hospital the next morning and to do the surgery!!! try it... it may help you... or make a list of all of the reasons you have thought of doing this surgery!! good luck!! oh, and I'm 2 1/2 weeks post-op and even though its hard, I would do it again!!!!

Great story!!! I've recently done the same thing... to the point where I had about 15 nice shirts for work in my closet.. to me that was just shocking...since I'm a clothes horse like you.... I called my best friend and told her, and she told me to come over and get all of the smaller size clothes I had lent her about 3 years ago... i did, and some of them fit!! The rest are freshly washed and waiting on a new clothing rack for me to shrink out of the larger shirts I had kept... Since there is no Goodwill here and no hope for finding things bigger than a size 10 in the shops... and pants...forget about it..at 5'8" I'm much taller than women here and my arms are longer... So I decided to order new t-shirts and knit shirts from the US and to take all of my huge clothes and cut them down and make them into smaller shirts and lots and LOTS of skirts... so when I get to a 14 that is where my pant supply ends, from then on, I will be wearing skirts, and lots of them!!! Thank goodness for the online creative geniuses who post videos of things they've sewn from larger clothes!!!

Thanks for the recipe!!! I'm a big fan of smittenkitchen on facebook!!! She rocks!!

wow!! great to know!!! I love them!!!

I made a similar decision... I'm from a family of skinny and judgmental people... I know that if I had told them about the surgery beforehand, then they would have tried to talk me out of it.... Now that I've done it, I plan on telling my sister only... in a couple of months when the risk of complications has passed.... I know she will support me no matter what i do, but this way she wont have anything to worry about with my health... The rest of my family... well.. I will probably never tell them cuz they have big mouths!!

I want to try to make greek yogurt, i cant buy it here... i found a recipe online, and it says how much protein, but not how many carbs... Can anyone tell me how many carbs are in the kind you buy? thanks!!

Yay!! Congrats!! I love reading all of your advice on here!! Thanks!!!!

Wow!! That sucks!!! It was a terrible lesson to learn, but necessary too I guess!! At least you didn't puke in the restaurant!!! My doc says I can eat anything I want after the first month... I think I will be avoiding pastas though...

Wow!! Congrats!! Good luck with your kidney stone!! I hope you feel better soon!!!

Wow!! That is so amazing!! Thanks for the inspiration!!! Congrats!!!

3 times in the last 2 days!!! Thursday at work, I drank my 2 oz of Fiber a little too fast... i felt like I was going to die.. grabbed my fiber cup and puked slime and bubbles into it right there at my desk... thank god my co-worker was out of the office!!! The good thing is, its not really like puking... instead its kinda like LEAN OVER A BIT AND LET THE Water AND BUBBLE SLIME POUR FORTH It happened again that same night... 2 tiny bites of chicken salad mush, and it felt like it got stuck somewhere along the way.... yep, ended up puking into a cup... again!!! The funny thing is that the food itself doesn't come up... some clear bubbly slime does... WHAT'S UP WITH THAT???? I guess my thing is that I've haven't been over-consuming... i've been consuming tooooooo fast.... lesson learned!!!

I was heavy but not fat through college, and then I gained more, and then I dropped to 180 which for my body, is pretty good looking (i really am big boned and kinda tall, but I'm still heavily muscled from middle school & high school sports, and university lifeguarding).... i gained that back, thus the sleeve, but i think these answers still hold true.... Will my peronality change? Possibly... it depends how outgoing you are... If you are afraid to go out now because of your weight, once you feel normal again you will probably be more active/outgoing in social surroundings... Will I become a weakling? At first ....right now I'm 2 weeks/2 days post-op and I have energy, but it fades quickly....but I just had 80% of my stomach cut out, so hey, its not too bad.... Plus when I was 80 pounds heavier, I probably had this much energy on a daily basis... which is so sad!!! After you start losing, you will have so much more energy!! the feeling is awesome!! Will I recognize myself when I look in the mirror? Yes, when you see the daily changes, when you are constantly throwing out clothes they look like tents on you ... this all makes you realize how slim you are becoming... this is my biggest recommendation, everyday look in the mirror when you are naked, and then try on something from your closet.. tell yourself that it is huge and chuck it i love this.. and then I try on things that haven't fit me in years and I see how they fit again or that I'm 10 or so pounds away from them fitting and it is a huge mental hi-5!!! Will I become an ego-maniac? LOL only if you want to be... and if you do, go with it!!! you are earning it!!! Having that kind of mental confidence (cuz lets face it, thats what being an ego-maniac is all about) in yourself can ONLY HELP YOU!!! Live it up... let that energy feed you!! Will I still be a people pleaser? It depends on your personality type... I am and I always will be... Being thin doesn't really change it... except to say that once you have more self confidence you might grow a pair and be more willing to stand up for yourself... What will change besides my size? YOUR WHOLE LIFE!! seriously, when you feel good about yourself, your whole outlook on life changes... Where there any suprises for you when you lost the weight? the only thing surprising was how HOT i felt i cant wait for that feeling again!!! Are things different than you thought they'd be? not yet If there was one thing you wish ppl would have told you about ahead of time, what would it be? That this is one of the hardest things you will ever do... but that the rewards were worth it!! (ok so maybe i read that a couple million times... but the pre-surgery adrenaline made it go in one ear and out the other )

Hi Penpen I'm only 2 weeks & 2 days post-op, but I've learned that the sleeve is not a magic tool... Is it wonderful?? YES.. Am I glad I did it??? YES, EVERY DAY!!! ... Would I do it again??? IN A HEARTBEAT!! You may read on here and hear on youtube about people losing their desire for food... Well, I don't know if it is really the desire for food that is lost or more like a certain motivation not to eat that is gained... For me I love food... mainly, I love cooking new and exciting foods for friends and family... even now I will find a recipe and be like, wow, that sounds great... And then I save it for when I'm able to actually eat again.. So yes, I still have the desire to eat..... BUT..... i also know how much my sleeve can handle right now... about 1/4 cup of mushy Soup or 1/8 of mushy food like chicken salad.... if i go over this, or don't focus on when I feel full, or if i drink too fast, i vomit.... In the last 2 days I've puked 3 TIMES.....that is a lot of motivation not to overeat... From what I've heard, that doesn't really go away.... So, I look at the sleeve as a learning device.... it teaches us to eat in moderation, and that if we don't there will be consequences..... Where before I would over eat or go back for seconds, now I know what my limits are and what will work for me.... I'm doing low carb... I aim for 20 or less grams of carbs per day, but sometimes it's under 30.... that is fine.... I was a carb loving girl... still am I'm afraid... and i have a huge butt to show for it .... now that i'm trying to lose my butt, I'm low-carbing it... But i'm not going to forever.. Like Tiffykins, I plan on eating a couple of bites of carbs once I've lost the majority of my weight... But seriously, you can't really eat badly, so YES, you will have to watch what you eat... Because you will have to focus on Protein FIRST and after getting in your protein, honestly there wont be much room for anything else!!! What you ask about being tortured.... It might seem like torture, but if you use your post-op time to learn about healthier eating and then you do it and you see how your body and mind improve, you are more likely to adopt that lifestyle for the rest of your life.... If you don't, then you will probably be one of the people we hear about who has regained their weight...... But if you use it correctly, you will still be able to enjoy some of your favorite foods, but maybe only a bite or two and then you will be satisfied.....