Lissa

Bread and pasta both make me hurt. They also stay in my sleeve for a long time and make it tough for me to drink water. I avoid both.

Drink more water, but you can also use Biotin Gel (sold at walmart) to help with dry mouth from mouth breathing. I use a bipap machine nightly and, even with the humidifier on it, I often wake up with dry mouth. The Biotin gel helps me not wake up with dry mouth as often. I don't know if there are any other brands of this, but it's found where the toothpaste is sold.

So, I'm in Walmart this morning, doing a little shopping, when I look up and see this really handsome black man. He looks REALLY familiar, too. At first I thought he was someone else, but when I asked, he said no, but he's a Dr Domkowski patient, too. That's when I realized I was talking to Mr. J!!! I've been following his journey here and on You Tube, and I knew he lived here in Vero, but I was stunned to actually see him in person! BTW, Mr. J seriously needs to update his pic on here! If he hadn't been smiling, I might not have recognized him! It was nice to meet him in person. He's very charming and kind, even when accosted by strange women in Walmart! I imagine he's got his own NSV for today "Some crazy lady came up and talked to me out of the blue!"

Libra, Thank you! I'll look for them when I go in again. I was in walmart this morning and I have a post about that coming up in a few. Dorrie, Yes, I'm still eating cheetos. I've found that a small indulgence in them once a month keeps me from obsessing about them all the time. Now I can tell myself, "Okay, self, you want cheetos. You had cheetos last week and you get to have cheetos again next week. Get over it and eat your Protein bar." So far, it's working.

Oh, that NSV was made twice as nice because you left him SPEECHLESS!! You go girl!

You need to call the nurse and ask her that question. It just occurred to you today that something might be wrong with the options you were given? The pre-op diet is usually intended to shrink your liver and detox you from things like caffeine and sugar. Call the nurse. It will ease your mind.

Hopefully this will just be a delay of a couple of days, not weeks. There IS a reason for this delay. Something just wasn't perfect for you to have this done today! Good luck!!

Call that nurse back and ask for some more input from her. Those "options" are drastically different from one another, so I'd be confused as well.

Good luck to both of you!! Can't wait to see you on the loser's bench! Um, Tibbie, you might want to just have hubby post for you. I went looking for my after surgery post last night for some reason and I'm quite certain EVERYONE knew I was posting under the influence! LOL

Strange, (we're friends so I can call you that, right?) I recently gave away my cane that I had used several times when my knees were really bad. You talking about the walker reminded me of it! I paid big money for that cane because I had to have something super strong to support me! I gave it away to the community yard sale here and just saw someone walking with it a few days ago. How did I know it was mine? I spray painted it hot pink! LOL

That's pretty much how I feel about them, though!

LongerLife, A whole new way? I've always admitted that cheetos beat me every time!

If you must snack, make it something that's good for you. However, chips and the like are sliders for many of us. We have to learn to control those Snacks. They aren't bad in and of themselves, but we have to be able to say No or at least limit the portion. Cheetos are my nemesis. If I really REALLY want them, I buy a single serving bag and I enjoy every last chee in the bag. Then I don't allow myself to have any more for at least a month. This keeps me from going off the deep end and sitting in a corner like a heroin addict eating cheetos and screaming "Mine, all mine!!!"

The scale WAS invented by the devil! Just calm down, use your patience and let it happen. You aren't going to lose weight every day, or even every week, but the overall trend will be downward. Keep working your plan: drink your water, get in your protein and add in exercise as you're allowed to do so. In a couple of months you will be posting an amazing amount of weight lost!

I originally picked the weight I was when I graduated high school, but my surgeon bumped it up because I'll have a bunch of skin left when I'm done.

I think mine looks pretty good. I've been walking since day 1, started hitting the treadmill at week 2, and now I do at least 30 minutes on the recumbent bike twice a day and just started adding in helliptical as someone else named it. I really like the way my tush looks right now.

Welcome, Becky!! Congrats on making this decision to make your life better!!

No, Dooter! Tibbie is getting pink. I'm getting green!

Yes, they can and will give you a bigger bougie. Of course, you may want to read some research about success rates vs bougie size. It seems that many surgeons are going to a slightly larger bougie as a matter of course. I guess the standard size used to be about 32, but I've heard of people having a bougie as large as 40. Those measurements are in millimeters so the difference isn't as long as the word difference on your screen.

Welcome, Sandy!! Good luck on your journey!

BTW, You look fantastic, even with that skin!

I'll take your "loose skin" issues!

(((Raven))) It does stink to have a complication, but yours sounds like it will be an easy fix, if there is such a thing. I've always found that I need to stay OFF the medical sites when anything goes wrong because I'm the one who always assumes I'll have the worst-case scenario. You're playing "what if". Well, WHAT IF they fix the stricture and there's never another problem? That's the WHAT IF I would be looking to get. Talk to your doctor about the chances of YOU having another stricture after this one is fixed. I'm betting they will be fairly low.

My advice? Stay off that stupid, lying, cheating, icky, nasty, retarded scale!!! It does nothing for us except make us obsess about a number.

I'm sorry to hear that, PeaceQueen! I know what MG is since an extended family member has it. I didn't know that there was a treatment for it besides treating the individual symptoms, though. Have you called a doctor yet? It sounds (to me) like it's more likely to be related to the synthetic blood treatment than to your sleeve. Perhaps the wine interacted with the plasma and caused a color change that is showing up in those scarred areas more than anywhere else? I still hope it's nothing serious!