MinaT

I had surgery June 4th and I still remember the pain when sipping, and I remember feeling it go down. I was in the hospital 5 days and I had a hernia repair and adhesions removed. I also think I have scar tissue between my esophagus/stomach and I believe that's causing me issues. Even now when I eat something I have to be very very careful to chew it up until nothingness because it feels like it gets trapped right before the esophagus goes into the stomach. This is mostly due to complications during surgery though, but I do know it gets better. If you are attempting to drink out of a Water bottle, may I suggest using a one ounce med cup, a shot glass or a small glass. Pour the water into it. You end up with less air by taking small sips. One ounce med cups I was able to get 3 sips were one ounce. It does get better, I promise you.

Try upping your Protein and what helped me with energy is was sublingal Vitamin B12. Tiny small pill you put under your tongue. As tired as you are, you need to set some time during your day to walk around, even if it's 20 minutes. At first walking was rough outside (I had a drain 9 days) so I walked from living room to dining room to kitchen in a circle. I walked 20 minutes straight and I did it three times a day. In between I sipped, I pretty much camped out in my family room in a recliner and I would nap once a day (sometimes twice), but I made sure I did 20 minutes non-stop walking. After that I progressed to walking outside in my backyard, I have a huge patio. I made sure it was timed, I did 2 1/2 hours. After two weeks I quit the naps. Give yourself time to heal, but you have to make time to walk a bit, your lungs and legs need it. Best of luck, rest when you can, sip when you can and walk when you can.

When I woke up I was in a great mood. I went into surgery humming and I woke up with the thumbs up and smiling. The first day and night were fine. I know I hurt, but the pain wasn't overwhelming. I walked 3 times that night. The next morning, day two was rough. I had a little tiny bit of nausea, but I was worried about the upper gi leak test. Luckily they gave me an anti-nausea shot (plus I had a patch) and I went for the leak test, the gastrique was horrible. I had an allergic reaction to the stuff and I broke out in hives. They never saw that happen to someone before. I was extremely nauseated and sick the rest of the day and they gave me tons of different anti-nausea medications. I still walked a lot. The third day, wasn't too bad. I was in the hospital 5 days. I had a drain 9 days, so I went home with the drain. I made sure I walked....a lot. I brought decaff peppermint tea and truvia with me to the hospital. It made everything bearable. Go into the surgery with a positive attitude. I had to remain strong and positive for my husband, son and parents. They were all terrified. I refused to let them see me terrified. Sometimes all the world indeeds a stage and we are merely players....one of my mottos is fake it til you make it. I put on a brave face and I woke up with one. I had complications during my surgery, some very serious ones that had nothing to do with the sleeve, and my family seeing me wake up after spending 7 hours in surgery, and 2 hours in recovery was just what they needed. Best of luck to you. Smile, go into the hospital with a favorite song playing in your head and hum it to yourself into surgery. My father had surgery recently and before surgery I told him that I used the family theme song (Sanford & Son) as my theme song into surgery and I hummed it to the nurses and he laughed. He said, I just want to wake up after surgery, and he sung, "Wake me up, before you go go" and we laughed. It's hilarious cause he's 74. Edited to say* He actually sang it to his anesthesiologist before he went to surgery.... Good luck again.

I couldn't walk up the stairs. I have a quad-level. I needed help. I needed help getting my shoes on, getting off the couch, my feet swelled up so much that you would freak if you saw how big they were. I worked very hard during the pre-approval period and lost weight before surgery, but without the program that I was on, and how serious I took this surgery, getting 85% of my stomach removed, I dedicated myself to changing my habits before surgery. It was still hard after surgery, but oh my gosh, life does get better if you put the effort into following your doctor's plan.

Yikes, the more important reason to be careful with caffeine use is dehydration. Dehydration is something you need to be seriously concerned about after surgery. You will be on a liquid diet at first. Liquid in = liquid out. Caffeine is a diuretic. After surgery many people have issues with dehydration. Dehydration is one of the main reasons for readmittance to the hospital after surgery, it's more common than leaks. Just be careful and keep your surgeon informed. If you have no problem with dehydration and your surgeon says go for it, then you should be okay.

coffee and de-caffeinated coffee contain acids which are irritating to the stomach lining and should be avoided for the first few weeks for healing, which is stated by several doctors. All doctors and all clinics are different, but it's up to you, it's your sleeve and I felt the same way as you but I was told to wean off coffee before surgery and it's been 8 weeks since I have had surgery, and I gave it up a month before surgery, and I survived, but I would definitely inform your doctor if you do it, just in case there are complications. No two sleeves are alike, and no two people are alike, it may not cause some people problems, but if you have a problem it's only fair you let your doctor know that you are drinking coffee, so he is aware. http://www.northwestobesitysurgery.com/pdf/sleeve-gastrectomy-diet.pdf Here is only one link, you can look on google for different bariatric clinics that will state the same thing. I would love coffee myself so I understand.

I was on five weeks of full liquid, one week of purees, one week of soft then I go to regular. There are days I go back to purees because soft is a pain Maybe call them tomorrow and point out the discrepancy and hope it goes in the favor that you want !

BCBS of Illinois here. It's the Bariatric Center that you go to that will dictate what you need per your insurance. Mine states: 6 month medically supervised diet. Usually 800-1200 calories a day - 80 grams of Protein 45-75 grams of carbs. 64 ounces of Water, they will ask you try to get in 10k steps a day. I had to write my food down daily and my water and exercise and bring it with me to each appointment. I used myfitnesspal.com and I was able to print out everything. This was mandatory for my Bariatric Clinic. I lost 10 pounds a month during the 6 month pre-approval phase. I did get days that I treated myself out to dinner, including a monster margarita from Red Lobster and Japanese Steakhouse, but I put 100% effort all other times, except every few weeks to a month I treated myself. I did this 6 month through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, St. Patricks Day, Easter and I still made it through. I lost 10 pounds during the two week pre-op shake phase. You meet once a month with the medical doctor. Don't miss any monthly appointment as it needs to be six month consecutive appointments. I had to go to one Weight Loss Surgery "Is it Right for Me" seminar. I had to go to one group meeting. I had to meet with their psychologist. Take a psychological examination. Then go over said test with the psychologist. I had to meet with their nutritionist. (I was told to quit caffeine, and no pop) no water with meals up to 1/2 hour after meal. After all this done, I met with the surgeon (I got to meet surgeon in advance because I have lupus and I had hernia, intestinal adhesions that we had to discuss, I also had a past bowel resection. I had to have an upper GI done. I had already had a sleep study in the past year, I had very current blood work, though I needed more 2 weeks before surgery. I had a colonoscopy in the past year so I didn't need that, I had an ekg and a stress test in the past year, so I didn't need that. After I met with the surgeon, everything was sent off to my insurance company. It took about a week to get the okay (they say it can take 2 weeks - 6 weeks). After the okay, I had to have two - 2 hour meetings with the nutritionist to go over each phase of the diet, given paperwork and I was to learn about the drain and how to clean and take care of the drain and they went over the surgeries (Gastric Sleeve and Gastric Bypass. They discussed the two week pre-op shake diet and they supplied me with two weeks worth of New Direction shakes. I was only allowed 3 shakes a day with sugar-free Jello or popsicles. I was sent for more blood work, along with the H-Pylori Test (blood) not breath, because it was too close to surgery to do the breath test for H-Pylori. A week before surgery I had to go in and get my blood type test done and was given a wrist band. I needed the cardiologist to sign off on my last ekg because I was hospitalized for a day during my 5th month of pre-approval for pleurisy and my ekg showed an anomoly. My surgeon signed off, my gastro signed off, my rheumotologist signed off. Two weeks before surgery I met with the nurse practitioner. We went over everything again. She gave me a sheet of what medicines I was to go off, when. She allowed me to stay on my plaquenil for Lupus up to a week before surgery. She also measured me. She gave me her personal pager number and if I needed her all I had to do was contact her, I have free nurse practitioner and nutritionist appointments for life now. I was given two bottles of Hibiclens to shower with. One was to be used the night before surgery. Wash your body (not privates or face). I was instructed to make sure I slept in freshly laundered bedding. The next morning I was to again wash with a bottle of Hibiclens. I arrived at the hospital that morning about 7:30 - got into surgery at 10:30. I was again instructed to wash my tummy with a special sponge and then put a gown on. The nurse put special ted hose on me and I had an IV put in. I was brought to the holding room. The anesthesiologist met with me, the nurses met with me, my doctor's surgical partner met with me, the surgeon came in to talk to me. Since I had a hernia he had some questions for me. I had to sign more documents stating I knew that though the surgery was to be laparascopic that they may have to convert to a full cut surgery. I was then told that since I had a hernia, what does he want me to do if the hernia is too extensive and he can't do the sleeve. Does he close up or do I give permission to convert it to Gastric Bypass. I had to think about that and I figured I went that far I would go with Gastric Bypass if I had to. Luckily I had the sleeve, but I did have some complications but that's another story. I was in the hospital 5 days, went home with a drain which was removed 9 days after surgery. This is my experience, a lot of people have different experiences. I'm grateful for the internist I worked with at the bariatric clinic, my surgeon, the nurse practitioners, the surgical assistant and the nutritionist. I may have one of the more strict doctor's, but it's worked for me.

I know a lot of people do eat it, some will say in moderation and some doctor's and nutritionists will say NO..never eat it. I am sure some day, I will have a little bit, but I don't imagine doing it for a while. I'm at 8 weeks and struggling with Protein. I just got pleurisy again (Lupus related) and it's hard to breath let alone eat or dink. I had my first real salad today, ate less than 1/2 of it (mostly picked out some of the meat). The lettuce was rough going down. I guess it depends on how far out you are. It is a slider food, you eat it and you can eat so much of it (pre-surgery for my "forespecial" day out I ate the Largest Jumbo bag of Popcorn at the movies...all by myself, yeah I put butter on it too. That equals 910-1220 calories and 71-97 grams of fat. I lucked out and didn't gain weight because I was careful for 2 weeks prior to this and was on a stall and it kicked me out of a stall. Good luck, popcorn is something I love, but I don't think it's a good idea just out from surgery because the kernels could be harmful to your stomach and there's not much of a nutritional value to them, if you are going to try some make sure you are healed.

The original thread stopped allowing me to edit and I had to add more to this list, so I had start another one. June 1, 2012 BigGirlVee -- Dr. Coirin, Modesto, CA 2thenewme -- Dr. Jose Rodriguez, Mexico AChristie -- in Juarez SouthernDonna45 -- Dr. Alvarezta ta1020 and comfortably numb - Dr. Kelly June 2, 2012 Dizzle Ready2Bthin -- Dr. Aceves Mexicali June 4, 2012 ptprincess93 DcMak72 Furby036 -- Emma Patterson Portland,Oregon 6-4-12_sleever Karenb4729 Teasha1 -- dr. Ponce de leon, Mexico Tlaff79 -- Dr. Blaine Nease Angelakay2 -- Dr. Brad Waggoner IrishSoul -- waiting on okay from insurance Dkna2 -- Dr. Garcia, Tijuanna MamaM -- Removal/Revision Mina T -- Dr. Paul Stanish labubakari Ready for the new Lay-Lay -- George Woodman, Memphis TN Sallyincincinnati -- Thegoddesszili Calicolea June 5, 2012 shereebarb Chichis77 Bubblesbgood -- Dr. Michael Nusbaum Kstalvey -- Dr. Nick Nicholson from Plano Miss scarlet Back­­~To~Amy -- Dr. Nick Nicholson from Plano ShannonK Aznoel -- Dr. Stephen Burpee New_Hope -- Dr. Stowers, Decatur, Tx. txdee -- Dr. Nick Nicholson Amom2twins -- Dr. Aviv Ben-meir raindrop Erica E Cat Scratch Fever Redbottoms82 IlyssaDel newnin - Abington, PA Dr. Fernando Bonanni June 6, 2012 SUnshine08 -- Atlanta, GA Kmaskery SylviaMom -- Dr. Aceves – lap to sleeve MadisonPA kfitch Soon2bhotmama -- Dr. Ryan Heider Pooh Krystina kiki green June 7, 2012 Giselle3264 -- Dr. David Kim, Dallas LULU TAT justsleeveme23 -- Dr. Minkin, St. Louis Lovingmeforever -- Dr. Almanza butterflylegacy -- Dr. David Kim MsYoYo -- Fl. Alp50 -- Dr. Kelly Debbiesclipper Bigzoe32 TCBunny - Atlanta GA Jennifer SoFla June 8, 2012 Mari6257 Cristal602 -- Dr. Jaime Kelly Jenz531 Crystalaine -- Dr. Kelly TinaP -- Dr Jose Rodriguez Moms3boys June 9, 2012 cissiesue June 11, 2012 PEvette Vanb0052 -- Dr. Svendsen, Methodist Hospital in Minnesota! Readytobeslimxoxox -- Dallas Blondeej Dr. Aceves, Mexicali -band to sleeve revision KamloopsMom -- Mexicali w/sister surgeries Healthy Mama Kat1 -- Dr. Garcia Pam2011 -- Dr. Orlando Icaza bogeydog blackdahlia -- Dr. Clark celticharpist -- Dr. Brock Borderlon Detroit_Tom cindyandhersleeve - Houston karrina-D cissiesue June 12, 2012 Eager12 -- Dr. Robert Wegner, Memphis Iwant2Bthatgirl need2change -- Dr. David Kim Dayo -- Dr. Robert Casillas Denalisa -- Dr. Wittgrove CRosa -- Dr. Pavlos Papasavas glsun0612 Wolfgirl1978 -- Dr. Keith Chung Joy00 Newme_38 - Dr Babak, Maryland jffjacobs kamrie37 June 13, 2012 Gene1970 JRoybal Slimwithin DuranFan1969 -- Dr. Christopher Hart, Atlanta New Orleans Lady -- Dr. James Redmann, Slidell / Covington, La SweetSusie1 -- Dr. James Davidson NJHANIBAL rherrera Kiloalphatango - Australia Wolf3749 - Dr. Patterson, Portland OR ZoobDude - Dr. Lopez seltyl June 14, 2012 Ssilian -- Dr. Anthony Terracina, VA Karma84 Finding Myself -- Dr. Kelly in Tijuana Mexico Goofycathy -- Dr. Kelly in Tijuana Mexico thinmymind -- Dr. Kelly Estrovan - Dr. Bauman in Charlotte NC Pdubbaya23 - June 15, 2012 TLC223 HolyCow1234 Territravel -- June 16, 2012 june16 -- Dr. Jorge Daes, Columbia, SA June 18, 2012 ChrissyDeex3 VeronicaH Pteri -- Dr. Srinivasan at Emory innerme Naturals -- mommieof3 Kymwalla houstonmama jerseygirl June 19, 2012 Sunshine25 -- DFW area DadTo2 -- Dr. Nicholson, Dallas, TX Littlebits Zoobdude -- Dr. Almanza Lehg520 - Dr. Kristin Noonan Katrina8l Katelynrose mz.yournotbigenough erin6573 Janelle Johnson June 20, 2012 Ready! Set! Brandy Riggen nmg4unj5 JRoybal - Dr. Garcia jonamarie2012 June 21, 2012 Angie_Musgrave Skinnytata - Dr Le at Kaiser South San Francisco MDZNCSLIM June 23, 2012 MirandaK -- Dr. Almanza, Mexico June 25, 2012 Looking Ahead Ready Rudy Artichokes -- Dr. Lautz Brigham & Women’s in Boston Jubjub07 -- Dr. Aceves anais02 -- Dr. Garcia Skane10 -- Dr. Garcia Janedeaux3 Lose4good2012 -- Dr. Billy (may use spider surgical tool) aled carolinagirlz 136HereICome- Lawerance hospital in NY ChristianMomma7 CRichard1107 SMP1126 Mariec1 Tam1965 carolinagirlz June 26, 2012 locoladi Trista1975 -- Dr. Almanza-reyes, Mexico JTmoas s.ledbetter17 -- Dr. Edwards and Lane – mcg. Nardelkn cherryseven chuckles -- Dr. Keith Gersin Misslorlor MsPerry 1920-Zeta tumblersmom glocks90 suzilouise rudekitty ShrinkingBellyKelly loulou123 dullkey20 June 27, 2012 herewegoagain Edward Mun -revision GivingItMyAll pkehrer mcsleevy - Dr. Sherman Yu in Houston, Tx Joyce Ellis-joy686 - revision MoreganK Praldous - Saranac lake NY Dr.Hill Carlashooter- Aworkinprogress - spider single incision with Dr. Robert Marema Ris26 kymwalla lsmith cajugirlbecky June 28, 2012 kkm23 -- Dallas Iwannabslim -- Dr. Jaime Ponce – sleeve revision Sleevertobe Mina05pit - Philadephia, PA Apricot111 ready4change79 June 29, 2012 EileenFrances -- Dr. Subhash Kini Robin33 -- Costa Rica tonibugg -- Dr. Rod Juarez SunnyCox - Dr. Kelly in Mexico TinaP - Dr Rodriguez June 30, 2012 lil lee -- Dr. Aceves in Mexicali Mrslittle -- Dr. Alvarez

I would add you all if I could. It does not grant me the authority to edit my original on this or the original thread. I'm sorry I have tried.

You still have two weeks to start breaking some of the habits that you need to change. If it's too hot to walk outside, try walking inside the house. Try putting on some music and walk in place. Perhaps if you start a Protein shake for Breakfast, try something light for lunch and lower your carbs. The Protein Shake pre-op is rough, especially for those that haven't weaned at all from carbs. The more carbs you eat, the more carbs you will want. If you haven't started charting your food, calories, protein, carbs, fat, sodium and potassium, try something like myfitnesspal.com It's very helpful. I did it for the entire six month pre-approval phase and still chart daily. If you do that, you will have to change the goals because it starts at 1200 calories and a very high amount of carbohydrates like 157. If you can lower your carbs to something like 75 a day (i did 45-75) it will help. Start charting your Water intake (try to get in 64 ounces and practice chewing your food carefully and not drinking with your dinner (wait 1/2 hour after eating to drink your water). It will help you get used to what you will have to do after surgery. My biggest suggestion is do not go out for your "last supper" the day before you start your pre-op shakes. Those that seem to carb overload the day before seem to have the hardest time with the pre-op shake. Do your best to work on things now and it will make things so much easier, is my best advice. *edited to say, if you are a carbonation (pop) drinker or a caffeine drinker, break it before the pre-op shake too. If you wait until that day....imagine going through caffeine withdrawals, pop withdrawals while being on a protein shake....and not having food. It's rough, you will end up with a serious headache for a few days. Also, remember when on the pre-op shake diet, liquid in - liquid out. Don't stray too far from a bathroom. About day 3, is where I learned you should never trust a fart. It's a lesson I learned the hard way.

The hunger pains could also be healing pains. You *cut your finger, it throbs, so does your stomach and it feels the same as hunger pains and also acid can contribute to it. The wanting to grab the sandwich is head hunger, it's an emotional thing. If you start looking at it analytically, it sometimes helps you to deal with it. Best of luck to you.

I can attest it works for colds, flu, sore throats, acid reflux and plantar warts. I got a blister on the side and bottom of my baby toe from a new pair of sandals and I made the mistake of taking the shoe off in public and I noticed it was bleeding. Well, the germs I got were bad. I ended up with plantar warts the bottom of my foot. After trying to get rid of it with freezing stuff, and over the counter medications I went and had surgery, they cut a whole lot of the bottom of my foot from under my baby toe to the middle of my foot and then they burned the warts too. I had what seemed like 1000's by that time. I used duct tape and every over the counter thing. They came back. I had to have them burned again and yet they came back. I was told why not take a make up cotton pad and put some apple cider vinegar on it and wear my flip flops and within two weeks, they were gone! This was 4 years ago in September. Hard to believe that I still have some severely bad scar tissue and it still feels like I'm walking on warts. Had I tried the apple cider vinegar int he beginning, I am sure it would have been cured on its own. I spent so much time in pain for nothing. My son just got plantar warts on his foot from being on a school trip and I did the apple cider vinegar in the shoes for him, and they are gone already.

I was on full liquids for 5 full weeks. After that was pureed food and I wasn't allowed tomato Soup until I started regular food and I still haven't had it, though it's my favorite, they said it was too acidic. I ate mostly pureed tuna, pureed rotisserie chicken (it's less dry than canned chicken). 1% cottage cheese, Peanut Butter was too rough on me until I hit the soft phase. Everyone is different and everyone heals differently.

I am 8 weeks and I had a little tiny bit of lettuce today. It was rough on me, other people have no problem. Best recommendation is do what your doctor says to do.

I got that and the sweats after drinking Milk of Magnesia and I got it when eating too dry turkey meatball that I made. (I do not recommend making turkey meatballs with 99/1 Turkey, it was like a one ounce brick in my tummy.

Be careful to really puree your food at first, and make sure it's moist. Tuna was rough on me when I pureed it in the magic bullet. I pulled out the food processor after that. One of the moistest things and best thing I had was rotisserie chicken. It blended better than canned chicken or home made chicken and it was a lot more moist. I know that there are others like me that had a rough time with food. Everything seemed and sometimes does seem to get stuck from the esophagus into stomach mark. I still can only get about 2 ounces of anything in at a time and I'm 8 weeks. Sometimes I still puree food because it definitely goes in easier, with less pain afterwards. Best of luck to you.

Very cute!

2nd day post-op was my worst day. I was nauseated the entire day. I slept, I sipped decaff peppermint tea, Water hurt, and I walked and sat in the bathroom and sometimes fell asleep there. I had an allergic reaction to the gastrique for the upper gi leak test. I slept whenever anyone showed up to see me and was awake and nauseated when I was by myself. I was in the hospital 5 days and when I got home I had a drain until day 9. I made sure every day I got up and walked circles in my house living room, dining room, kitchen, and I would try to get 20 minutes in. Then I would sip, sleep, sip, walk, sip. It was my way of life for the first 10 days. Try to stay positive, even though you are feeling icky and know that every single day is better than the day before. I had a lot of complications with my surgery, and I have a brain tumor and I have lupus and I'm not young, but at 8 weeks I feel better than I have in years. It does get better every day, hold on tight to that thought, and congrats on the sleeve. I hope you feel better soon.

I am so sorry you are having such a hard time. You sound like you are doing exactly what you are suppose to be doing, don't get discouraged right now about your weight though, because your weight and bmi was lower than a lot of other's before surgery, so weight loss will be slower. Also, regarding the clothes size, that's not really important right now, because though I am in a size 18 now, I still can wear some of my 3x clothes, like the stretchy pants, they are loose, but the clothing size isn't so important right now, because your body is still adjusting. Your tummy will be the last to change. My tummy was swollen pretty big for the first 5 weeks. About 7 weeks I started to see the change in my stomach. I'm only 8 weeks on Monday. I lost my entire butt, my body is changing differently than it ever has in the past. My face is smaller, my arms are growing muscles, my butt went flat, but with lunges it's starting to perk up a little bit, my tummy still look flubby to me, my legs are losing at different rates too. I think your food intake is low, the way mine is, and I struggle to and I had surgery 14 days before you did and so believe me when I say I understand your struggle with food. I hit 400-475 calories a day. I hit 500 one day and thought I over did it though my carbs were only 20 that day! My big concern is you throwing up and having problem getting your liquids in. That at this stage makes me want to say, call your doctor. Are you drinking out of a water bottle? Maybe try switching to drinking out of a glass. I couldn't drink out of a water bottle for the first 5 weeks. It hurt so much, I still have problems once in a while with it, where my esophagus gets all tight and weird on me. I am going to speak with the surgeon about that at my appointment. I would definitely speak to your doctor, it sounds like you have the same problem with your esophagus into the stomach that I am having. I did have a complication during my surgery which, my gosh, is probably very rare, but I think I have scar tissue around my esophagus took a team of gastro's and more surgeons to try to figure out how to get it the staples out and pull out the esophageal tube. It probably narrowed my esophagus a bit. Do you think you may have picked up a bug, the flu or have you had any blood tests lately. I am so sorry you are going through this. You are doing everything right and please continue with it and it will come off you eventually. I know that I am losing slower than others too but it had to do with losing so much pre-surgery. We'll reach our goals eventually. Give yourself a little more healing time and perhaps check in with the doctor about the nausea and chest pain with sips of water. Best of luck to you.

My stomach was bloated 5 weeks out. Day of surgery on a Monday I was 229. I came home on Friday, I weighed myself on Saturday morning and I weighed 235~!!! I was measured about 2 weeks before surgery. 2 weeks after surgery my stomach was 2 Inches LARGER! They cut your entire stomach from one end to the top, it gets cauterized, stapled, glued. The inside of the tummy and the outside of the stomach are swollen. The amount of pulling and tugging and the gas they put inside you is a whole lot. 8 days after surgery I was just switching from Clear liquids to full liquids and I was on Full Liquids for 5 weeks straight. All doctor's are different, but one thing does remain the same, and that's you just had major surgery. 8 - 9 days after surgery what has been reported is that people start getting depressed a bit or "moody." The reality of the surgery and the finality of the surgery sets in and almost everyone has a little tiny bit of buyer's remorse. It's usually due to the anesthesia leaving the system and the hormone changes in your body. This is completely and utterly normal. Right now, focus on healing. It took over 5 weeks for the swelling in my stomach to go down. I'm 8 weeks on Monday and last week I was pulling tree limbs from my yard, and I pulled my stomach muscles again and I swelled up a little bit, and I threw a stomach brace on. The swelling went down by the next morning. If it really bothers you, a little ice pack once in a while won't hurt you. Congrats on your weight loss. It will get better as you heal.

I take Optisource 4x's a day, which you can purchase from Walgreens. Oftentimes, I buy it there is a coupon for the next month on the back of the receipt for $4.00 off, which definitely comes in handy. http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/optisource-post-bariatric-surgery-formula-chewable-vitamin-%26-mineral-supplement-tablet/ID=prod403359-product Besides this, I take a Vitamin B12 sublingual and a Biotin. Not sure whether or not the biotin will help me, but since I have Lupus I figured it couldn't hurt.

I had the exact same problem with my pure Protein Shakes that I drank during the six month pre-approval. As I am sipping the sip before wanted to come back up. I'm sorry I'm not sure when you were sleeved, but for me I had to be on Full liquids for 5 weeks. It was rough because the taste and even smell of the chocolate from the shakes were rough. Your best bet is to try something else. I was having a problem with the smell/taste of the whey Protein itself. It went down like elmer's glue. I went to Vitamin Shoppe and bought Syntrax Nectar Fuzzy Navel, which I mixed with Water. It was $33.00 a big jug of it (compared with $59.00 through Syntrax). I didn't really love it...but it was good to switch to while I was struggling with my regular protein shakes. It did finally pass for me, I still do a Protein Shake daily for Breakfast and I alternate days with the Syntrax or days with the Pure Protein Frosty Chocolate. On days I want something lighter tasting I go with the Fuzzy Navel. Best of luck to you.

Oh I'm so sorry. Yes, it can take long for some of us. Some people have Iron stomachs and some of us, have to try one new food at a time. I was on full liquids 5 weeks and it was rough going to pureed food for me. I had a hernia repair and some complications and tuna needed to be pureed really well. Even at 7 weeks I was resorting to soft more pureed food. Best bet is to incorporate only one new food at a time and see what it is that you do better with. Tuna, is something I looked forward to but I used my magic bullet to do it with low fat mayo and onion powder and celery salt and it just went down hard and heavy. The day I did the chicken (out of a can) the same way, I got sick later and was sweating from it (only had 1 ounce!!) I stopped using the magic bullet and pulled out the regular food processor. What went down the best was real rotisserie chicken (stores like Jewels/Stracks/Sams/Meier) sell them pretty cheap from $6.00 - $9.00) a chicken. I used the real food processor and added real celery (cut the strings from the celery and used mostly the middle part) and then real onion and I blended it so it was extremely pureed then I added some light Mayo and it went down easily. Best of luck to you and give your tummy time to heal. I'm 8 weeks out and still am being very very careful with what I put in it. I still think Rotisserie Chicken goes down easier than regular chicken. I hope today is a better day for you.