Anakin Jay

yoplait is the only greek yogurt I like.. the rest was very bleh.

I'll never forget waking up right after surgery:

Me: (only 20% awake, still on the table) I have to pee.

Nurses: It's ok you have a catheter you can pee.

Me: No I have pee

Nurses: It's ok go ahead

Me: NO, not here... Get this thing out of me.

They took it out and I walked to the bathoom and pee'd like a respectable male.

But not going to lie, the next 3 days were pretty awful. You just have to kind of tough it out. You'll be feeling pretty good by day 7

well I'm only two months out, but I can drink as much Water as I want.

I very often drink a 32 oz Powerade zero in one sitting, over the coarse of 20 min. or so.

As long as there's not food in there, liquids kind of just slide on through.

happened to me too, I stalled for 4 weeks immediately after surgery, then dropped 15 lbs practically over night.

Just hang on there.

Here's what you do:

Hi mom! This is a pitbull:

This pitbull ways 40 lbs.

Imagine picking this sucker up and carrying him around all day every day.

I've lost an entire pitbull in a handfull of months.

How long did it take you to lose a pitbull?.... that's what I thought.

It'll be two months for me tomorrow, and here's my experience so far:

Surgery Day:

Immediately after surgery I felt like a train hit me, but I was too drugged to really think about it. At one point in time I just sat in a chair and stared at the wall for 3 hours.

Days 1-3 post-op:

I felt miserable. Seriously regretted going through it. I felt like my stomach was going to be in pain for the rest of my life.

Days 3-7:

I felt miserable, but got to the point where I could tolerate it. I remember saying to myself.. "Ok, this sucks, and I did a dumb thing, but If this is how I'll feel the rest of my life, I can live with it.. I'll make do."

Day 7:

I woke up feeling normal for the first time. As if I hadn't had surgery at all. Stomach still get REALLY upset when I tried to eat anything, and I was barely getting in 4 table spoons of food a day.

Days 7-30:

Every day got a little better. By two weeks out, I was back to being active, and playing drums.. started walking, and playing dance games on kinect again. Went back to work. By the end of the first 30 days I felt 98% back to normal.

The majority of the latter half of the first month was spent re-learning what signals my stomach is trying to send. Training myself to throw away food when I'm full, and what being full (or empty) actually feels like... because it's different than post-op. (When I'm full, I get a little pain at the bottom of my esophagus. ) and that's my "NO MORE" notice. If I eat more than a few bites more than that, I have to throw up.

Days 30-60:

Feel 120%. More energy and freedom from the weight loss, I'm able to go out and eat at restaurants. I feel like a normal human being again. During this time, I realize that I can OVER eat my sleeve still... donuts slide through like nothing, chips, ice cream... it's incredibly easy to still eat WAY too many calories... so Month two, my mind shifted from "My sleeve won't let me eat too many calories" to "My sleeve is majorly helping me not overeat, but I still need to take the reigns and make sure we're making the right choices."

I haven't had any issues with Protein, or hair loss. I've lost 45 lbs since surgery and 70 lbs since my initial consult. And while it's frustrating at times not being able to eat everything you see, I feel like this is the best decision I've ever made.

The purpose of the 2 week liquid diet is to shrink the liver by not eating any fat.

The liver is smack dab in the way of the VSG surgery, and they have to have a little tray thing in there to lift it up and out of the way... if it's enlarged an fatty (most of ours are pre-vsg) it's easier to accidentally knick it, poke it, or tear it, which would case the doctor to have to switch to and OPEN surgery to repair the liver, then continue the vsg.

Open surgery means cracking all your ribs in half, and slicing you open from neck to waist. It means months longer recovery time, and a much higher risk of complications.

So now think about that, and ask yourself if two weeks liquid diet is really that bad.

don't get too hung up on the numbers. I was sleeved on 1/24 and I've lost 45 pounds since then, but I also weighed almost twice as much as you when I started...

So if you've lost 25 lbs, that puts you at around 11% loss, and me losing 45 puts me at about 12% loss. It gets even more complicated when you talk about % loss of EXCESS body fat (which is really the number we SHOULD be caring about.)

So the number of lbs lost you see from other people can be extremely deceiving if you're trying to compare yourself to others. It's better just to use it as a personal tool to make sure you're on the right track.

Thanks for all the support guys... going to just keep doing what I'm doing and hope it all works out.

@Andi I'm not on FULL solids yet... my nut has a plan that starts with only liquids after surgery, and slowly adds more food every so often until 6 months out, when i can eat anything. I just graduated to toast yesterday

Just a quick update, been a little over 4 weeks and I've actually gained 2 lbs since I made this topic.

calories are between 600 and 800 / day. I DEFINITELY feel restriction... we went out to eat last week, and normally I'd eat a whole sandwich, plus a side of fries and half an appetizer..

This time, all I could eat was half of the meat on the sandwhich.

Apparently I'm immune to calorie deficits. :/

yeah I had a two week check up with him. I've lost 30 lbs since my two week pre-op diet, and he's happy with the loss so far.

I get between 400 and 700 calories a day and between 30 and 60 Protein according to my food tracker.

I actually just started walking last night, went for 20 min. Will try to do that every day... Surgeon said I can do any exercise I feel up to.

hmm ok.. maybe I developed type 2 while in the hospital :tongue2:

seriously though... guess I'll start trying to pay attention and see if I might be showing symptoms of something else going wrong.

not that I'm aware of? I don't have diabetes or thyroid problems, was tested for all that. As far as I know, sleep apnea is the worst thing I have... but even that is very very minor, it's only partial.

If you don't mind me asking, what was your friend's reason for not losing?

So I was sleeved on the 24th of january, exactly 3 weeks ago.

I weighed myself as soon as I got back from the hospital, and I was 360 lbs. Today I checked the scale, and I'm 361 lbs.

I know a lot of people START stalling at 3 weeks out after a good amount of weight loss, but did anyone else not loose weight immediately after surgery for this long? I'm kind of starting to get worried.

And honestly.. even though it's a lot to a sleever... before my sleeve, I'd have ate two of everything you listed for 1 meal... so even when you fall off the wagon, you're still doing WAY better than before I'm sure.

I felt like all the crap the first 7 days, and had issues with ingesting anything.

Half way through day 7 it was like the heavens parted and rainbows and butterflies flew down from the sky and I could drink as much as I wanted.

I wish someone had told me that if you wake up in the middle of the night with a racing heart, shortness of breath, and chest pain... that it MIGHT just be a piece of stuck food, and chugging a 32oz Powerade might instantly make you feel better.

lol... I literally spent two hours in pain, freaking out, deciding if I should call my parents at 4am to come take me to the hospital... THEN I realized maybe something is just stuck, and guzzled some liquid... I was instantly better.

The problem is going to be Protein intake. From your standard sources, meat, you won't be able to eat a lot... so you're either going to have to:

A.) Constantly be eating meat throughout the day... eat something every hour.

Or

B.) Find liquid Protein supplements and use them religiously. I'm two weeks out, and I can already tell you that if it's liquid, I can drink an infinite amount. So Liquid Protein isn't an issue.

IF it's solid though, I can eat maaaaybe half a cup to 3/4 of a cup. Not a whole lot of Protein in that amount.

Today is mashed potato day!! day 15 post-op and I'm allowed to move to soft foods.. mashed potatoes, oatmeal, eggs, and soft moist fish.

I had oatmeal this morning. I was a little worried because I hate the whole packet like it was nothing, I guess oatmeal is still a slider food. Going to try mashed potatoes at lunch.< /p>

So stoaked!!

Pro-tip:

There are some people that say wearing shape wear WHILE you lose weight helps give you less sagging skin. The theory is, as you deflate and your skin starts to sag, the weight of your hanging skin constantly pulling down is actually stretching your skin more over the course of 6 months / year, etc.. like picking up a heavy piece of dough and watching it stretch out.

I haven't found definitive proof, but the people who've tried it seem to have good results, and I'm definitely doing it. (I wear mine every day.)

So, today is my two week surgerversary. I weighed myself right before the surgery, had it done, spent 3 days in the hospital, came home, weighed myself and I had lost 21 pounds.

But since then, I haven't lose ANY weight. Is *that* normal? Getting into a stall RIGHT after surgery? I'm starting to get worried that something is wrong. I'm only eating between 400-600 calories per day. How am I not losing weight??

Has anyone heard from Atakin Jay (might not have the name right!)??

haha, close

I'm here! Just still trying to get a handle on everything. I was sleeved the 24th and I pretty much feel 100% fine now.

Eating is weird.. I have no idea how to tell if I'm full or not. (or what that even means now.)

I get gas, and burps a few times a day... but other than that, I'm good to go!

eyes on the prize. Today is my *last* day of the pre-op diet, and I only have two pieces of advice:

1.) When you're hungry, drink a Protein shake. Protein really helps you feel not hungry.

2.) Remind yourself that YOU are in control. Not your brain, not your hunger, not your stomach, YOU. No matter how hungry you get, or how much pain you're in, you ALWAYS have a choice. You've come this far, so just remind yourself every day that you chose not to cheat.

The other big motivating factor for me was my doc said that if you cheat on your pre-op diet it exponentially increases the chance of having to convert to an open surgery, which involves splitting your torso in half, and cracking open all your ribs.

^---- 2 weeks of hunger is definitely worth reducing the risk of having 3 months of cracked ribs.

my surgery is tomorrow morning!!! Never felt such a combination of nervous and excited at the same time.

Good luck time lord!! you got this!!!!