justmest

Well, I'm 99% sure your restriction has not increased. My restriction varies depending upon several things.

1. The texture of what I am eating: For instance. A 3 oz piece of ground turkey is easier to eat than a 3 oz slice of turkey breast. As a matter of fact, I don't think I could eat anything else if I had a 3 oz slice of turkey breast. Point is, the ground turkey has already been a bit processed for me making it easier to chew and handle.
   
   
2. The order in which I eat: Which makes sense to me as we stack food up against the pyloric valve. If I start off with salad, and then eat a meatball, I don't feel the same restriction as if I ate the meatball first. meat is going to take a bit more time to break down before passing through the pyloric valve, so it will back everything else up giving the feeling of more restriction.
   
   
3. What I am eating: I can pack away a good amount of slider foods. popcorn, salads ... even crackers are sliders for me, which I don't quite get. Seems the grains would expand in the stomach and cause restriction, but I can eat crackers. Oye. I digress. Bottom line is eating 3 oz of cottage cheese is not the same as eating 3 oz of Pasta. You WILL feel different amounts of restriction.
   
   
4. Liquids: Whether drinking with the meal or if the dinner has liquids in it, this definately affects restriction. I have played around with this a lot to increase calories for exercise. I can eat almost double of the exact same foods when I drink with them. I can eat 8 oz of just about any Soup, no problem.
   
   
5. Rate of consumption: If I take my time and chew well, I can eat more comfortably. When I go back to my old habits of chewing 5 times and shoveling another fork-full in, I have pain. I try to put my utencil down between each bite and chew really well. Not to mush like we had to do early out, but we have to remember what happened here. The stomach is the mechanical part of digestion. Think of it as the garbage disposer mashing up the food getting it ready to send down the pipes. Removing 85% of it has changed it from a 1 horsepower unit to an eighth horsepower unit. Help it out by chewing the food a little more than we did pre-op.
   

My 2 cents on this. Experiment with what I have thrown out there and you may be able to find what works for you.

Thanks for your insight on this. I love the fact that you talked about the pyloric valve, and how we stack our food against it. I was actually having a conversation with a friend about this just the other night, and telling him how it worked. I think my problem is chewing, I have always been a very fast eater, and I know that I need to slow down, so perhaps that would help. I put about 3 ounces of food on my plate last night for dinner, and could only eat about 3/4 of it. there was about 1oz of Turkey, 1 small piece of carrot and about a tsp of mashed potatoes with some gravy on all. When I was done, I had that back pain that I always associate with over eating.

I never drink while eating, it's just painful, so I don't do it, plus I don't want to wash all the food down that I just ate. I want to make sure that I get in my max weight loss before the dreaded 6 months slow down (not entirely sure if I believe the 6 month slow down, but I want to be prepared just in case).

I will definitely experiment with your suggestions though and see what I find. I appreciate your insight. Now I am going to go read your blog

I wish I knew why, it's almost concerning me. If there's nothing actually wrong, I will make it my life mission to find out why it's happened, then I am goin to patent it and get stinking rich!!

I am 4 1/2 months out and since the beginning of the 4th month my restriction has suddenly increased. I am starting to need to supplement my diet again with liquid Protein or I am feeling weak or malnourished. i thought I should try to force myself to eat more, but that's stupid and hurts like hell. Has this happened to anyone else? And is it something I should concern myself with, or should I just ride it out?

That`s fantastic. . so walk walk walk sip sip sip and get that air moving

I am almost 3 weeks out now and feeling fantastic

I got the sleeve because of all the complications that go along with the Band. I didn't like the idea of having to go for fills or de-fills, I didn't like the idea of a foreign object left in me either.

You can still have children with the sleeve, there are many that do, and go on to have happy healthy children. Look at the number of people that are getting the band to sleeve revision and maybe ask some of them why, and how they feel after. Do a little more research, your mom is concerned about you, and is likely just afraid of risks in surgery.

There are plenty of studies done on the long term effects of obesity, so I think that out weighs the lack of long term data on VSG patients. talk to the vets here, as well as other sites. There`s one called Obesity Help were there are plenty of people that have had the sleeve for several years, and are doing just fine.

It took me until day 3 post op to fart. Felt great when it finally happened too! I burped CONSTANTLY for the first 5-6 days, now it's only when I drink or eat.

It gets better Try Gas x strips if they don't nauseate you.

my experience with Dr ponce de leon was fantastic. I was there almost 3 weeks ago. I was at the INT hospital which has fantastic staff and is very clean. Dr Ponce himself is fantastic, he doesn't speak english very well so he always has an interpreter with him. He was there before and several times after surgery to check on me and to make sure that everything was ok. I stayed at the Lucerna Hotel and it was really nice as well. The hotel staff is aware of your needs after surgery and you get broth and popsicles at no charge. Feel free to ask any questions.

You can pay extra to get your passport faster. When I booked my surgery, it was only 5 weeks in advance, so it was quite simple. If you start the process now, you would be able to get a passport before July, and have your surgery in good time.

I also went to Mexico like many of the other posters. I paid for my airfare, $600 return from Canada. You dont need a passport to get into Mexico, but you do need one to get back into the states. I had a driver who picked me up at the airport in San Diego, and drove me to Tijuana. Everything was fantastic! The hospital was great, the staff was great and my surgeon was VERY experienced.

I also went to Dr ponce de leon. He was fabulous, and I also loved INT. The staff was amazing and Trish was the best.