Foxbins

I started drinking coffee with Spenda and half and half after 4 weeks. If you can't stand the artificial sweeteners, just use sugar or honey and budget it into your daily allotment. It worked fine for me.

Please measure! Try two tablespoons and then wait--you can always eat more if you are not satisfied. It took me a long time to be able to eat an entire soft-boiled egg, but eggs are cheap so I didn't mind throwing half of it out. You kind of have to retrain yourself that you cannot eat the way you used to. I had good luck with seafood--2 shrimp, or 2 scallops--and less luck with fish and chicken. Wendy's chili or my own chili recipe was great. I would order a small cup and get four meals out of it but when I made my own there was so much I ended up freezing almost all of it. Deli meat--ham, turkey, beef--was easy to get down and one slice was plenty.

Correctly done, your sleeve shouldn't stretch. However, it will mature and capacity will increase slightly, but never to the extent of an un-sleeved stomach.

Dr. Aceves in Mexicali, Mexico. $8750. One pre-op night in a hotel, 3 nights in a hospital. I had no nausea, no complications, and Dr. Aceves has done about 3000 sleeves. He's the guy other surgeons refer their patients to when they have a tricky case.

At the Chinese restaurant I get the beef with broccoli or shrimp stir-fry. I put hot pepper flakes in it when I get it home, or Thai garlic chili sauce. No more General Tso's for me!

My take is that you have a lot of carbs and a lot of "filler" with little nutritional value. Lettuce is a waste when it comes to nutrients and you are eating it twice in a day. You might try substituting raw spinach or shredded zucchini for more nutrients. I think Dorrie is right about the bagel half, too--not too many nutrients and a lot of carbs. Maybe oatmeal, for soluble fiber and whole grain? I don't know what a kid's Z bar is, but kid food usually has a lot of sugar to make it taste good. Have you tried Nature Valley Protein Chewy Bars? 10 gms of protein, 190 calories, and they taste good and fill you up. Have you thought of beef jerky as a snack? a hard-boiled egg or 8-10 almonds? You are barely making your protein requirement in this example and I think you should try for more. I know I would be starving if I depended on two salads a day to fill me up. I see that you have a ways to go and there is nothing wrong with the occasional salad to mix things up but think "Protein first."

Congratulations! You've done wonderfully!

I am 14 months post-op. I started at 232 and size 22-24 and now I weigh 138 and wear a size 6-8 (I am 5'8"). I'm not self-conscious anymore about how I look or what people might think when they see me buying food. When I bought anything that wasn't "diet" I used to think that people would be saying to themselves, "Look at the size of her and buying ice cream! She doesn't need to eat that!" Two weeks ago I bought four boxes of Easter candy for my nieces and nephews and the thought never entered my mind what people would think because obviously, from my outside appearance, I wasn't going to eat it all. (I could have, slowly, but I wouldn't. I like being thin too much.) It's just such a change from before--

At 14 months post-op, I have four tiny, pink lines and one pink dot on my belly. You would never notice them unless you were looking closely. I could drive when I wasn't taking anymore painkillers--I drove on day 5 post-op. Good Luck!

It's a risk that I considered and decided to take. For one thing, there's no foreign body inserted and there's no remnant or blind stomach left behind to worry about. I was willing to be part of a big experiment (and that's what any new treatment for any condition is) to see if the benefit outweighs the drawbacks. I can't donate blood anymore because I can't replenish my Iron stores fast enough and I have to take B-12 for life. There's an increased risk of osteoporosis that I'm willing to take as opposed to obesity and the associated co-morbidities. So far, so good. I have lost all my excess weight and then some and don't find the limitations VSG imposes a burden. I am delighted so far. If something crops up in the future, there is nothing I can do about it now so I feel there's no benefit to worrying about what may or may not happen. I am kind of practical that way and at peace with my decision.

Depakote is enteric-coated so is absorbed in the intestine (unlike Depakene, which can cause stomach upset). You should be fine if the pill is small--otherwise, ask for the liquid until you can swallow the pill. I took my thyroid meds the night before surgery and the day after with no problems but the pill is tiny.

I didn't have any pain when I woke up from surgery, I was doped to the gills. It hurt to stand up the 2nd day but if I was bent over a little I wasn't in pain. The nurses will have meds to give you if you are hurting.

When you say "low" how low? If you can post the numbers of your results we can help you better. If you don't have the actual numbers, call the lab and ask for a copy. HIPPA says that the records are yours. Get them!

You can count your shake as liquid--you need 64 ounces of liquid daily, it doesn't all have to be water. What you don't want is to get dehydrated so the shakes count. Good job!

I only had flakes in the vanilla but drank them anyway. I agree, post-op they seemed thicker. Pour them over ice and let it melt a bit, that seemed to help, and sometimes I used to thin them with a little skim milk.

I take a multi, calcium citrate, B-12 (twice a week), and Iron. I took the multi and calcium before surgery anyway and need the iron because I gave blood twice after surgery and got anemic. Once my iron is up, I shouldn't need to supplement anymore. B-12 is the only one sleevers must take because we won't make intrinisic factor now that most of the stomach is gone. Debvzq--you don't need iron if you're not anemic, you don't need Biotin, and you don't need B-50 unless you have been diagnosed with deficiencies. You could be down to 3 pills a da (one multi and two calcium), and if you get a 2500 mcg sublingual B-12, you'd only need to take it twice a week.

I can't speak to whey isolate being a 'better" protein, but I can say I've been drinking Premier since day 5 and 14 months later my labs are perfect and have been since 2 weeks post-op.

After four weeks of mostly sweet liquids, as soon as I could have soft food I started adding Thai garlic chili paste. I craved flavor. It didn't bother me at all at that point.

What Is Your : weight before sleeve? 232 lbs weight After Sleeve ? 138 lbs How many weeks is your sleeve? 1 year, 5 months did you start to gaine weight already ?( hope not) No! I am vigilant and keep to my program.

I weighed food that wouldn't fit in a measuring cup--like steak--so I knew how much a portion looked like on a plate. For food that will fit in a measuring cup, I used cups, again so I'd know what a portion size looked like when I'm not at home. But like Mini-Me said, it doesn't really matter for you right now. It will become important for you to eyeball food and know how much you can eat in the future.

I lost an additional 12 lbs after my gallbladder surgery. I had no complications, it was done laparascopically as well. I don't dump, but if I eat a really high-fat meal I might have some diarrhea the following day. I don't know what "gain weight in my stomach" means--our remaining stomach is tough and fibrous and fat cells aren't found there; if you mean in the abdomen area that hasn't happened to me. Some people need a hook on which to hang all of their problems, and I think Globetrotter's friend is doing that with her gallbladder surgery. Just keep to your plan and you'll be fine. Gallbladder and bile have little to do with overall fat loss--fat digestion, yes, but not weight loss.

This board has only been around since 2009, I think, so people who were sleeved before that may not show up here. I believe the sleeve as stand-alone WLS surgery (not as part of the DS) has been done since about 2006. There are nay-sayers about any procedure and of course, those who have had a particular procedure and done well tend to defend it. I always take what I read on forums, and the Internet in general, with a healthy dose of skepticism.

In order to eat under 40 carbs a day I had to eat only protein when I was losing. My calcium had carbs, my half and half had carbs (can't drink my coffee black) and even my vitamin had carbs. I ate loads of shrimp, fish, steak, and ground turkey with almost nothing else. At about 7 months I started to add in small amounts of green veg, fruit, and more dairy. It was hard but it worked for me.

I made frozen pops with the Isopure clear flavors, it was the only way I could choke the stuff down. Thankfully, I was only on clears a week post-op.

I felt okay walking around the airport and a gentleman helped me fit my bag into the overhead bin. I took it down myself when we landed and had no problems, it didn't weigh much and gravity helped on the way down. I'm sure you will do fine if you choose the non-wheelchair option.