PamelaAM

That cracked me up!!! What a great story! Funny how things happen in life to get us moving on certain things, huh? Congratulations on the new *you* - it's nice when our brains finally meet up with our bodies!

You look absolutely fabulous! What an inspiration to the rest of us! Keep up the great job!

You ROCK! That's all I have to say. . you totally ROCK!

I had to chuckle a little bit. . .even though I totally FEEL your pain! It just hit me how funny it was to hear someone say that at 130 they felt "fat" :-) You know it will come off - because it always does with the sleeve. Water weight can be a killer and that's all that is happening. Don't fret over it! You are doing so amazing and below goal at that! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK - YOU ARE A MAJOR INSPIRATION FOR THE REST OF US!

I am SO excited for you! I am just more amazed every day at what a great tool our sleeves are! I hope to join you sometime soon (in a few months!) in the "normal" range! Can't wait!

Thanks Tiff! I knew you would know the answer :-) Someone had said that you couldn't take any of that so I was trying to be cautious. I'm 11 weeks out now so I guess I should be fine. Thanks again for always having the answers!

Prior to my VSG, when I got a cold, my doctor would always have me dose up on Vitamin C and Echinacia. Kind of afraid to do that without checking in here to see if anyone has gotten any guidance from their docs about what you can take for a cold. I can't afford to have it get any worse and normally if I don't head it off at the pass it turns into a full fledged "can't get out of bed" cold. It hits me every year in December - UGH! I have too much travel coming up and can't afford to be sick right now. Any guidance?

AquaMama: I am shocked that Kaiser refused your surgery because you didn't lose your 10%. I didn't lose anything from the time I started Options until the time it ended. I would lose and then gain and then lose and then gain - you know the drill. I mean REALLY, if I could have done it on my own would I have needed the surgery? My surgeon was fine with it. What Kaiser did you go to???

I am totally pleased with my sleeve. I understand what the plication surgery is but can't for the life of me understand why anyone would ever want to keep their stomach around in case they want to reverse the procedure??? Why would someone want to reverse it? I will be 11 weeks out on Monday and am eating just about anything that I want, just very small quantities. The key for me is that I get just as full as when I was eating huge amounts so there is virtually nothing that I am missing out on. I am just amazed at how the sleeve has changed my life! I can't even imagine ever wanting to reverse any of it.

Wanted to join you all over here! Never seemed to get past the Post Surgery section so happy to see this section here as well! The weight is coming off slower now but that is fine with me. I am able to eat most anything now but very small amounts so it feels pretty much back to normal as far as food selection. So happy I got my sleeve. . .:-)

Maybe you can have your wonderful hubby peel the grapes for you. . . As far as oatmeal, I was able to have that when I first went home from the hospital.

I am so sorry that you are having to deal with an insensitive husband. I was in a relationship like that for 15 years until I came to my senses and now am married to a wonderful man who is always there for me and ALWAYS make sure that he takes care of me. What a difference! I am so glad that I didn't spend the rest of my life tolerating bad behavior from my former husband. My life is wonderful now. I agree with the others that you should focus only on YOU right now. If he doesn't come around, then show him the door. Sounds like he has some major growing up to do,. I don't know about you, but I needed to be someone's partner, not their mother. Take care of yourself!

You look amazing! Thanks for the inspiration!

So excited for you! February will come in no time at all and pretty soon you will be on the other side of this! You have been so patient! Congratulations!

I was told only Tylenol. The reality is that even the day of my surgery my pain wasn't bad. In fact, they were trying to give me morphine and after the first dose or so I asked them to stop giving it to me. I take Tylenol now for my spinal stenosis but not for anything having to do with the surgery. Never needed pain meds for that.

I agree with everything Alish sais above. It is definitely esophogeal spasms. My doctor warned me about them and said it would feel like a heart attack. Try eating less at each sitting. I, too, couldn't eat 3 oz until much later in the game when the swelling had gone down.

I lost 21 lbs in the first 11 days and then nothing for a couple of weeks after that. Then I started losing again. Your body is going through major trauma right now and needs to adjust. Six weeks is a long time to be on full liquids - I was only on them for 11 days - but each surgeon is different. At only 400 calories your body is in starvation mode and it will be hard to lose. But just keep doing what the doc tells you - the weight WILL come off!!! The sleeve works for sure, I can tell you that!

My surgeon also does it while you are under, as far as checking the staple line AND he also overstitches it as well. Nothing post surgery.

I had a really really tough first couple of weeks as well. I am now almost 10 weeks out and feel amazing. It does get better, I promise. I can really relate to how you are feeling. Just take it one day at a time.

Tiff: Just saw your post above with your recommendations! Thanks!

I had actually read that in your previous post after I posted that. Do you know if there are any other chews that have the right kind of calcium? It's weird that my doctor didn't mention that when I told them what I was taking. Too bad because I really like the Viactiv :-(

When I just had my 8 week check up last week I was told to up my caloric intake (I was doing 800-900 a day and was constantly stalling) to 1000-1200. I started doing that and I have lost 2.5 lbs this week by eating more - it's crazy. I am getting around 60 grams of protein a day but eating way too many carbs (sometimes 80-100) but with the increase in calories started losing again. Right now I have not started exercising so I would imagine with your swimming you might need to get in more than 1000 calories because you are burning so much of it up. You might want to just try it for a day or two to see if you start to lose. I have been amazed all week watching the scale.

Count me in this club as well! I was so weak and could hardly walk up until the morning of Day 14 when I woke up and felt somewhat (and I use that term loosely) human again. I had a very difficult time getting through the recovery from this surgery - more so than any other surgeries that I have had. This one was totally grueling. But it does get better and you will be so happy that you did this. Tomorrow is 9 weeks for me and I am in a whole different place than I was during the first 4 weeks!

Brought a huge smile to my face. . .thank you for sharing and congrats on your successes!