suzcomptime

Pre-surgery I have to start a liquid diet for two weeks, only Protein drinks for the 3 meals, and clear liquids otherwise. Day before surgery, clear liquids only. Post-surgery I believe it is clear liquids until I go home from hospital, from then until first 2 weeks after surgery Protein shakes and clear liquids. At 2 week post op with Dr. then you get cleared for pureed and then mushy/soft but I can't remember how long for that, I think it was until 8 weeks after surgery. Soft includes tuna, fish, eggs, cheese, legumes, tofu, low fat turkey breast or ham, canned chicken. After 8 weeks introduce new foods, doesn't have to be mushy. There does seem to be a lot of differences. I believe the liquid diet is to help shrink your liver to keep it out of the way during surgery.

I haven't had my surgery yet but this does concern me. If this side effect is real, I am concerned that I will not be able to continue in my career field. Of course, the other health issues I am hoping to avoid like diabetes, high blood pressure wouldn't be too good for my career either so I will hope that it is a minor side effect that I can live with.

I am pre-op and it was good to read that I might be able to eat spicy one day again. I do like spicy food and thought it was one of the things I had to give up with the sleeve so glad to hear that it might be in my future.

I read your blog. Thank you for posting useful information for those of us that are going on the same journey. I am curious what you used for Glucosamine right after surgery. I am pre-surgery and take it for arthritis in my knee but the tablets are large and I can't imagine that I will be able to take them after. Did you crush them or did you find a liquid form?

My nutritionist & Dr. said no straws and no gum. It is a small price to pay. There are other ways to freshen your breath and I have a water bottle with a small opening that I use for my water. For after surgery I bought some sippy cups, yes, the baby kind to help me take small sips. I think the big thing is to not use them like a straw so I'll take out the little plug. Until I am fully healed I am not going to experiment with straws but I'm sure after a few months I could use a straw as long as I was careful to not get in too much air.

Jeans, definitely jeans.

My husband doesn't agree with it but I believe will be there for me (even though he thinks I should just go back to the methods I have tried countless times that only helped temporarily and had limited success....WW, atkins, nutrisystem, TOPS, South Beach). My office people know because another lady at work has just had surgery and another lady at work was a support person for a good friend who had bypass a couple years ago. Some people at work kind of cringe about it, it sounds scary to them I'm sure. I guess I might have felt the same way a few years ago. My adult children had a fit when I was considering lapbad so I don't talk to them about it anymore. I've since decide to go with the sleeve so I am sure they would not be happy. Usually they are very supportive but I had an aunt have complications 6 years ago and so they remember that and their reaction is based on fear and not wanting anything to happen to me. I have told my aunt who has had gastric surgery but I have not told my other relatives although I will after the fact. ~Sue

I used to be a diet coke addict as well, had one going pretty much all day. When I read about some of the studies that said that diet soda actually can hurt your weight loss efforts I gave it up. It wasn't easy. I switched over to club soda which is much more pure without all the chemicals etc. Like someone else mentioned I would add a little lemon/lime or fruit juice to change it up once and a while but I no longer drank it daily. After about 6 months I tried a sip of Diet Code.....it did not even taste good to me anymore. Now that I am on the road to a gastric sleeve I have also stopped drinking club soda. I feel it's a small price to pay for a heathier me. My Dr. & nutritionist said no carbonated drinks. As far as the person who thought it could be used as hydration, if she is drinking regular diet coke (not caffeine free) than it is actually a diuretic and that is not good when you have to fight to get all of our liquids in to not get dehydrated. ~Sue