Foxbins

I'd say something like, "I'm on a physican-supervised diet. The food was delicious but I have to abide by my doctor's orders and I am limited in the quantity I can have."

I was on clear liquids for 10 days, then thin, then full. Clears got a little boring by the end of the first week but follow your surgeon's orders. It took me about three weeks to get in about 40 oz. of liquid in a day. If it's a tossup between getting in your protein goals or your water, pick the water. Take tiny sips as often as you can. For full liquids, anything I could whizz up in the blender and thin out with water or milk to the consistency of heavy cream was fine. I had some odd combinations in the blender as I was craving anything that was not sweet or bland. Good luck!

I don't know if you're making the right decision. I can tell you that the surgery was the right decision for me.

When I came back on a Sunday in January, it was about 10 minutes, mostly due to the volume of traffic. We drove up, handed over our passports, the border guard handed them back, and off we went.

I am counting all the carbs. I think it was the Atkins Diet that let you subtract fiber and sugar alcohol to come up with net carbs. Personally, I think nutrition science is quite fuzzy and so I am sticking to a more strict interpretation of "carb."

I will be six months out in another week. My dose remained the same when my TSH was checked at 3 months--I'll have another done next week. My PCP expects the dosage to decrease as I lose, we already talked about it which is why I'm getting tested every three months.

Down to 174.5 today! I realized this morning that in 4 more pounds, I will be 75% of the way to goal. I celebrated the half-way mark, at 41 lbs gone, and the 50 lb. mark, because it was a nice round number but I missed the 2/3 to goal mark which happened between 54 and 55 lbs. It was hot here and I only have two pairs of shorts, so I pulled a pair out of the "donate" pile since they had an elasic waist. I put them on and they fell off. I can hardly believe sometimes that I was as big as I was...I sort of believed it, mostly when I couldn't see my feet anymore and had to buy wide-width shoes, but I think I was in denial for a lot of the time. Except I hated myself when I looked in the mirror. Guess I should hit up a thrift shop for some more shorts.

I am sure you are fine. A heating pad under my shoulder helped with the gas pain but it was annoying until it went away. My drain incision was sore and oozed stuff for a few days until it closed up--you are more courageous than I, I never pressed on mine. Just keep changing the gauze. If it's only red, that's fine. You don't want the red to spread out or make streaks and you don't want to run a fever over 100.5F without calling your doctor.

What food stage are you? If you are not eating solids yet you probably won't get a feeling of fullness. I suggest you measure your food--start with 2 Tablespoons for now if you are on mushies/soft. Eat about six times a day. Wait after eating to drink. You would have to grossly diverge from your surgeon's instructions to cause a leak. Your stomach will feel bigger in a few months after the swelling has gone down. It might stretch a little but not very much, certainly not anywhere near the size it used to be.

Try beef or turkey jerky or pepperoni sticks. I keep a small stash in my bag just in case.

The 8th works for me, too. Shall I tell Gold's three of us at, say, 1:00? Then if we went out afterward we would miss the lunch rush. Or would you prefer earlier?

I felt pretty good at a month out. I'd have gone to Disney then if I had the opportunity. Bring protein powder to mix with milk or water.

I was well aware of the possible side effects of PPI's before I began taking one. Both my doctor and I agreed that the benefits outweigh the risks and I had a Dexi-scan last year and will have another this year. I also agree that VSG patients should ask their doctors--not only about PPIs, but about other issues related to the surgery's effect on their bodies. This is not a surgery to be entered into lightly. Also, the risk of fracture is not confined to VSG patients but also to chronic GERD and stomach ulcer patients or anyone who uses PPIs for an extended period. I hope you are posting on forums for those individuals as well since you feel the need to alert people to possible health risks of PPIs.

I should preface this by saying that I am five and half months out from surgery and I lost my hunger afterwards. Yesterday morning about 7 a.m. I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and my stomach was growling and rumbling. I realized that my stomach was saying that it was empty since I had not eaten anything in about 16 hours. I thought about what I might have for breakfast--egg, bacon, yogurt, Protein shake, chicken salad--but nothing sounded appealing, because I was not hungry. Empty, yes, but not hungry. However, I can also finish a meal, know that I am near-to-full, and have the thought, "I want ice cream (cake, Cookies, candy, chocolate, etc.) (you will notice I never want any more of what I just ate or something good for me, it's always empty calorie stuff) and I know that I cannot possibly be empty or physically hungry and that's my head hunger trying to tempt me. I have had to learn how to reinterpret my body/mind signals, because before surgery I was hungry (head or body or both) all the time, so I ate all the time. Now I interpret the stomach growling not always as "hungry" but differently depending on the circumstances. My stomach growls now a lot more than it used to and it's not always due to being empty, so I have to figure it out. It means I eat mindfully now, not just shoveling food in to quiet the noise. Sometimes a glass of Water quiets the growls, sometimes it's meal or snack time. The head hunger I can see becoming a problem during maintenance if I am not vigilant, because my head really does want dessert after every meal...

I called today and it's $29. I said I wanted sometime mid-month and they took my name and number and will call me next week to schedule. Let's coordinate a meet and get them done together!

Why don't you ask him at your follow-up appointment? Also, I'd ask how long he expects you will need to take it. My doc said "at least three months" but he prescribed it after surgery and at 3 months I stopped, got reflux again, and went back on it with no problems.

I'll call them tomorrow and find out about it.

My anniversary is the 13th, but anytime mid-month is fine. I figured I would get it done at six months and again at a year. There used to be a Bod-Pod setup at UC Davis but I don't see it listed anymore.

When I am stressed my sleeve shuts down to a fraction of what it is usually. One or two sips or bites and I can feel whatever it is in the back of my throat. I either go to the gym and workout, and things are usually better after that, or I just wait it out, get in what I can, and hope the following day is better and it usually is.

I was planning on going to the one at the Gold's Gym in Vacaville for my six month anniversary mid-month. Maybe we could meet up?

I say, do what makes you happy. If you are happy with the way you look and feel now, and "dieting" and missing your goals is getting in the way of being happy, then stop worrying about a number. if, however, there is a part of you that will always wonder , "Could I have gotten to goal if I had stuck it out a little longer?" and that part will nag at you and make you feel like a failure, then I say stick with it, no matter how slow the loss. Which way will make you happier in the end?

I hate water, always have. I asked the nutritionist why there was a requirement for so much water and she said that when we had our full-size stomachs, we could easily drink and hold a quart of water if we needed to rehydrate fast. With the sleeve, there's no storage, and a few gulps fills us up, so we have to keep drinking all day.

All right, I am really dating myself here...but when I was younger, there weren't thongs, at least not for "real" people. There were rumors that fashion models wore them....I always wore bikini panties until I got fat and started wearing granny panties because the bikini ones looked gross on me or wouldn't stay up on the fat rolls. Now, I am wondering about what size I wear in panties. Has there been downsizing in panty sizes like in pants and dresses? And what does a thong feel like and how long do they take to get used to? I'm in my mid-fifties--am I too old to wear one?

You have the rest of your life to eat whatever you wish but for now you have to recover from your surgery. That means drink water, boullion, crystal lite, isopure, sf jello this week and next, drink your protein shakes next, eat your purees after that. After your food progression, you can decide what you want to eat. Due to the band, parts of your new stomach are more at risk and need to be treated with care. It sounds as though you have had a rough two years. but your body is not crying out for some milk or something--that's your mind. Be strong and follow your surgeon's instructions, please.

I doubt it. Your stomach heals. The cases I have heard of leaks late (after a month or so), there were subtle symptoms of a leak all along that were ignored or misdiagnosed. I am five 1/2 months out and I think my new stomach has the same chance of a leak as my old one did, which is to say slim to none.