Wisconsin_Gal

Go ahead and scream at me, I deserve it. Honestly, that was just stupid of me! :scared0:

Hi all! Starting my second week post op and have been with a headache for about 5 days now. Anyone had the same issue? Note that I am diabetic and have high bp.

Update on that: it does seem related to Protein (since Water intake is already good). I got my first full day of Proteins in yesterday and my head hasn't ached today.

Post Op Day 11 observations: 1) First day I tried to cheat. Ate one pot sticker (and was full off that one mind you) but the sleeve said "NO". While I am not (yet) experiencing nausea or vomiting, I had (and still am) the runs almost immediately following the food. I also feel slightly light headed. I realize after the initial few bites that I honestly would have been happy with juice or broth! Glad that it went down bad so that I don't feel compelled to cheat again! Well, ok I will feel the yen, but this mild discomfort is really enough for me to want to stick to the plan. 2)This is a repeat, but everything keeps on reminding me how much of a mental game this all is. My body is not hungry, but my mind is yanking my chain! Further observations coming soon.

Thanks everyone! Here are some Day 8 post op observation: 1) Still getting unsolicited food advice! Lol 2) I went to have my hair and nails done the day before I left D.R.. I spent like 5 hrs at the salon. Sometimes sitting in akward way for things like getting my hair washed. Pretty basic chairs, too. So anyway, the top of my butt was hurting some sitting akwardly. It has been about 3 days and I still feel it. Same thing for an ouwie(sp) that I got during the plane ride (banged my hand). So, the observation is relating to avoiding hurting yourself including banging your self against stuff because your wound are healing slower due to lack of nutrition I presume. 3) I am starting to feel very tired. I am going to start taking Protein stuff today. 4) Headaches still constant (annoying not severe), but I anticipate that once I up the protein this will resolve itself. Later!

Hey, I was sitting with family having Christmas diNner. Me with V8 splash juice and they with yummy food. I had to take some meds as well and we all went The Jetsons on my pills. Everyone was joking that my pills were steak and potatoes and other such stuff just like the jetson's pill popping meals. It was funny and really lightened me up!

Ooh, I also just thought of something, do you take anything like Maalox? It is anti-gas and anti-acid...

I am starting my second week post op and I developed a strange pain on my lower left hand side. Not sure if intestine or abdomen, but from what I read it is pretty common. Luckily, I only feel it if I move a certain way. Not sure if gas since I haven't had any real problems! I am doing liquids for 3 weeks, too. Hope I don't have any such issues when I progress to mushies! Please keep posting. Out of curiosity, have you tried baby food? See if the consistency of the baby food is smoother than what you have been eating? Could there be air trapped in the food you are making? Good luck and I hope this passes soon!

I just got sleeved on saturday and honestly, I think the surgery was easier than the pre-op diet! LOL... I also did this over the holidays (obviously) and I am actually not spending Christmas with them in order for me to have this surgery. Trust me, your family understands. they may not like it, but they understand. Sometimes we have to be a little selfish so that we can take care of ourselves. When we take care of ourselves, it puts us in a better position to help our family. Good luck!

Hey Twobluecats, I am two days out and I can pretty much walk around anywhere. Right from ICU I walked to the bathroom and used it. I have been walking around every since. I have a high pain threshold, but honestly, I am feeling pretty good. I hear that next week I am going to be VERY weak due to lack of solid food. I know that when I work out hard and haven't eaten the right food, my body hurts like crazy and I get very weak. could this be what is happening to you? I can't help you out much since i am a bit behind you, but keep posting as I may be there next week!

Ok. If you are doing the overseas thing, please make sure you don't bring crystal light LEMONADE like I did!!! LOL... I took one sip and thought uh oh. I just ruined a full bottle of Water with a citric juice I can't drink... UGH! Pick non-citric stuff... Tracy, the doc has me on water every 15m, juice/broth every 2 hours, and some various things every 4 - 6 hours. My cousin just got me some flavored unsweetened water, but they sure don't taste like they do in the US... I should have prepared better, but I guess that is a lesson learned. I plan on getting more broth for dinner and am drinking some apple juice (not lower sugar from what I can see) but considering a bottle lasts me 2 days, I think that's OK. Proper preparation is important! Don't mess it up like I did! :-)

I was sleeved on 12/19/09 and I am hungry. well, i don't know if it is hunger, but the empty feeling I see some of you write about. I just finished sipping 1 cup of broth over 1 hour and it was delicious. Now, about 15 minutes out, i feel like I didn't have anything. but, i think I am feeling that because my tongue doesn'[t feel like it had any food on it... I think a lot of it for me may be texture. since liquids have no texture, it may be fooling me into thinking I am hungry. Not sure. Anyway, with the exception of the broth, I am just sticking to the regiment my doc stuck me on. The broth may be a bit more than what I was supposed to drink in an hour, but I am just going to get one with the regiment and talk to the doc about it on Wed. I already committed to this surgery and I need/want to make it work. gotta get my head on straight....

So here I am 2 days out. I just finished taking 1 hour to finish a little under 1 cup of broth. Is this normal?

I plan on watching the DVD much later. I want to be feeling good, have all drains and stitches out and the like before I venture into seeing myself being mutilated!

darn. i hate my new mouse. just wrote up this big long thing about what to do and not to do and feeling guilty for now following my pre-op diet religiously and blah blah blah... Well, I hit the darn side button on my mouse I lost that whole rant... Well, needless to say, the last thing I left with was that should just stop typing because I was freaking myself out.... LOL... Later! Keep me in your thoughts and/or prayers! surgery is on Saturday and I am on my way to Dominican Republic as we speak...

MrNickSr, I am currently 2 days post op (my surgery was on Saturday). I am finding that I am having a more positive experience than you are, so I hope my comments are of SOME use to you. I have emptied my drainage bulb 2x per day. Not fully full, but about 1/2 full. I see some viscous stuff that looks like part blood clot part liquid which was the same as in the hospital. The doc wasn't worried and said that was normal, so I am not worried. My doc used a 36 bougie, just in case that makes a difference. I am using my blackberry timer so it goes off every 15 minutes. I have a chart that I made that tells me what to take when and when I go to the bathroom (with the exception of the AM) my pee looks fairly light. In the AM when i first go it is darker and it tells me that I am low of fluids over night. So, if it helps any, use a timer and keep sipping. My doc has be drink 1 30cc cup (like communion wine cups) of Water every 15 minutes. I may take 10 minutes to drink one, but I start the clock for the next 15 minute as soon as the alarm sounds. I find this is keeping me firm. It is not easy, but it is necessary. The sleeping thing... I cannot help you with. I am one of those people that sleeps anywhere. As for your overall attitude (positiveness), I see that from your statements you are probably prone to getting anxious. You just had major surgery, i think you can cut yourself some slack and recognize that it is normal to be anxious. Trust in your doctor, take your tempature if you get concerned (as this will let you know if you are getting an infection) and continue with the exact diet/timeline your doc prescribed. Be really anal about it like I am being. The more control I have of the times and charting things and the like, the more in control I feel of the situation. not sure if that will help you out, but you may want to try it. I hope my comments help! I am by no means an expert and am a few days behind you, but I am sure we can work together to figure this thing out. good luck and keep reaching out for help and advice. Later, Aimee

Day 2: All is going well. I am on a strict regiment of: My Regular Meds (crushed) Pain meds every 4 hours Maalox every 6 hours 30cc Juice/Clear broth every 2 hours 30cc Water every 15 minutes The nice thing is that included in my hotel stay is all the juice, water and broth I need brought to my room. This sipping thing is not as easy as I thought as apparently I am a gulper... but I will survive. My first attempt at my crushed meds was a disaster. DO NOT add liquid to them. Next time, I will simply slide them in my mouth and then follow with a bit of juice. It will be infinitely more bitter, but I believe I will have an easier time getting the full dose and not leave half of it in the glass! Minimal pain, mostly just discomfort. Maintaining a good positive attitude and I have plush comfort in this hotel room. I also have a final appointment on Wed with the sexy doc! LOL... I would recommend those of you that are pre-op to work on strengthening your ab muscles. I have fairly strong (eh!) ab muscles for a fat chick, and I whole-heartedly believe this is helping minimize the pain when I must get up. I can feel my ab muscles engage and while I try to make the trip up easier, the stronger the ab muscles the easier this is... I am going through this predominantly alone, so I have no one to help me up. Anyone have any idea approximately how long before they take all the stitches out and I can take a shower? Oh, one thing to warn you about. In Dominican Republic they don't believe in morphine. So their pain meds are much more lower strength than US ones. I must admit that I have a higher pain threshold than most, but I haven't yet found the pain to be unbearable. It was unexpected when I had just come out of surgery, but very manageable otherwise. The pain meds they have me on are children's strength (on top of being lower strength!). Later! Aimee

I am 2 days post op and I feel that once I get the drain out, i could definitely travel. In fact, I will be traveling back to the US (from Dominican Republic) - Flying to Florida for a few days and then do WI back home. The only thing I would recommend is to keep the carrying of heavy weights down to a mininum. enjoy your trip!

Ok all, I am giong POST op!!!! Hi all, I am through with the surgery and in the hotel. Sweet hotel and excellent room! I will take pics. I am doing excellent. The hospital staff said I was their best patient all year long (LOL); The doctor said that everything went off without a hitch AND they are even going to give me a DVD of my surgery... Ugh and cool at the same time. I have a checkup on Wednesday to get the drain out and to double check the stiches. Overall, I think it was a relatively easy recovery for me, so far. I don't have international cell phone access just yet, but am working with my cousin to get a cell phone with international calls available. For now, if anyone wants to get in touch with me, I am at: The Domnican Fiesta Hotel $ Casino Tel: 809-562-8222 (just dial 1-#) Hotel Room: #438 Otherwise, I will keep up with email. Later everyone! E. Aimee Bauer P.s. OMG My doc was gorgeous and had this deep sexy voice!!! lol...made it worthwhile!

So, what I was looking for was to see what others were eating so I could get ideas of what was Kosher, but it seems like everyone's diet is different... so I determined that my best bet to help someone else is to log what I ate. So the next person looking for this info can hopefully benefit from my struggles... So this is what I did/am doing.... I started 2 week diet 1 week early. I figured the first week I could see what I liked, get my cheating out of the way and be able to get into a rhythm.... I am done with my first week... I didn't log what I ate: but here is a breakdown... Tuesday - Day 1: 8am: Carnation Instant Breakfast with low fat milk 10am: Trim Advantage fruit shake (Amway thing I had) - UGH 12pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) 3pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) ~6pm: Brococoli, shredded cheese and "Deep Fried" turkey (Sam's Club) I was HUNGRY ALL DAY.. Deep Fried turkey was kinda salty and ughy! Wednesday: HUGE CHEAT DAY 8am: 3 breakfast burritos (Yeah, I know!) nursed a SF vanilla NF Latte until around 1pm 1pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) 6pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) ~8pm: Brococoli, shredded cheese and "Deep Fried" turkey (Sam's Club) OMG, I was full that day but I felt SOOOO guilty... Amazing how much mental satisfaction i felt from being full... Thursday- Day 2: 8am: Carnation Instant Breakfast with low fat milk & 2 boiled eggs - This helped me keep full until around noon... 12pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) 3pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) ~6pm: Brococoli, shredded cheese and "Oven Baked" turkey (Sam's Club) - Now this was WAYYY better... Yummy Friday; Another freaking cheat day! 8am: Carnation Instant Breakfast with low fat milk & 2 boiled eggs 12pm: Trim Advantage chocolate shake (w/water) & 2 boiled eggs 3pm: pizza (Darn bowling party at work... gave in when 2nd rounds of pizza were served! Can't believe I still ate dinner!) ~8pm: Brococoli, shredded cheese and "Oven Baked" turkey (Sam's Club) Saturday: 10pm: Soy Chocolate mix (Sam's Club), milk, Secure coffee mix, frozen strawberries - They soy thing was kinda nasty 3pm: Packet of chicken ramen noodle seasonings packet, whole bunch of spices, threw in like 2 pieces of ramen noodles (so I felt like I was getting away with something!) - This was yummy and just seeing those 2 strings of noodles floating satisfied something mentally.. kinda weird. ~8pm: Brococoli, shredded cheese, tomato, spinach and "Oven Baked" turkey (Sam's Club) - I covered each piece of sliced turkey with spinach, tomato and topped with cheese and baked it. broccoli on the side. 10pm: Ensure Sunday morning... so far lost 5 lbs - mini cheat day 12pm: Special K Chocolate premixed shake, 4 egg omelet with tomato and cheese. 3pm: Hit sam's club and it was samplesday... had some samples, enough to feel guilty but not enough to do major damage 7pm: Sausage, onions, broccoli and some velvetta cheese. I am sure the velvetta cheese wasn't a great idea... this felt like a very fatty meal and I didn't finish my portion. I had a shake later instead... 8:30pm: special K strawberry pre-mix shake... So, i am done with all this cheating, even when i think it won't do harm. I am not doing the best with the carbs, but I need to do something that I will stick to, so I am going a bit higher on carbs that what the doc probably wanted.... Next week I will stick to a rhythm: 3-4 shakes in the day (~720 cals worst case) Atkins like dinner and will go easy on the cheese and choose leaner meats... I will report my intake daily. Hopefully it will keep me accountable, keep me from cheating and maybe y'all can give me some pointers on making my liquid meals less carby. Thanks y'all!

Here I am!!! I have been lurking and posting all over the place! Thank you for tonight's talk. It helped me get my head on straight and renewed my focus! OMG :w00t: , 11 more days to go!!!!! Aimee

Darn, forgot to mention that I order a whole bunch of unjury and chikes samples recommended on another thread.

Carnation w/Milk 250 cal, 28g carb, 5g Protein 2 boiled eggs 150 cal, 0g carb, 12g protein 4c Egg Drop Soup 244 cal, 40g carb, 4g protein Trim Adv. Choc shake 200 cal, 31g carb, 15g protein Low Sodium V8 juice 70 cal, 15g carb, 3g protein Turkey, cheese, Tomato, Spinach, Veg 200 cal, 3g carb, 20g protein ------------------------------------------------------ Total 1114 cal, 117 carb, 49.2g protein So I called my surgery rep because I think I am having WAYYYY too many carbs and he told me "Don't worry, my patients normally don't even bother to do the diet, so just do your best!" This is NOT what I was looking for! ARGH... I had a lot talk with my VSG mentor (from this site) Tiffykins and decided to do a low fat (south beach like) atkins so that I can keep the high protein, low carb and low fat. But I will still try to incorporate the muscle milk light I boutght so that I can get rid of that! This is what I am planning for tomorrow: B: 2 egg, cheese, onion omelet (265 cal, 1 carb, 18 protein) S: Muscle Milk Light (100 cal, 5 carbs, 15g protein) L: Some sort of meat and salad ( ~ 10g protein) S: Muscle Milk Light (100 cal, 5 carbs, 15g protein) D: Turkey, Cheese, Tomato, Spinach, Veg (200 cal, 3g carb, 20g protein) This should get me to at least 60g of protein and keep my carbs low and I might be able to keep the calories low, too. I just need to watch lunch. If anyone has additional ideas, let me know.. Might try cottage cheese since I see Tracey is eating that at it looks like it only has around 3g carbs and 14g of protein... holy moly that rocks!

Hi all, I have oodles and oodles of questions and thought to myself that I could share my story and all the things I learned here... Start Weight: 275 Height: 5'8" BMI:40 Current Size: 24 W/XXL - XXXL (US) Goal: 170 or less Age: 34 Marital Status: Married, 3 stepchildren Procedure: Gastric Sleeve VSG Surgery Date: 12/18/2009 Pre-Op Diet Start Date: 12/4/09 (2 wks) Location: Dominican Republic Insurance: None - Self Pay Surgeon: Dr. Edgar Leino Through: Global Surgery Center (www.globalsurgerycenter.com) Cost: $8995 for all procedures with 2 ngts in the Hospital & 5 ngts in a Resort (NOTE: Only ~$500 is resort) Transportation: Airfare from Wisconsin to Dom. Rep. (Not included in cost above) What does the cost cover? <Here is a snip from my invoice> Global Medical Service offers a full service "All Inclusive" package including: ?All Consultations ?Pre-Lab Work and Testing ?Hospital Stay ? Private Room ?3 Meals Daily ?Diet and Nutritional Plan ?Support Garments (specific to surgery) ?Medical & Staff Support Service ?Blood Test & Screening ?EKG / Cardiologist ?Surgeon Fee?s ?Anesthesiologist ?Medications/Medicines ?24 hour Nurse Care ?Daily visits from Surgeon ?Complete Hospital Stay after Surgery ?Follow-up Appointments ?Transportation to and from Airport & Resort ?VIP treatment My history: I have had PCOS, diabetes, high BP and High CHOL for the past 4 years. I have been over 250 lbs since before I graduated high school and have been overweight my entire life. I have been unable to go under 250 no matter how hard I try! My highest has been 299. I made a promise to myself to try my hardest until I was 35. If I had not reached my goal weight, then I was going to get surgical help. Well, I am 34 approaching 35 and still over 100 lbs away from goal. I determined it was time to do something about it. This is the beginning of my story... the beginning of a new life, I believe... I will share what I learn, what I found easy, what I had a hard time with and everything. I already can tell that my surgery costs are more than others, and it is interesting to find out what others pay and identify what ends up being a viable financial solution when you are self-pay. I hope to share a bit more about what I plan for and have successes with when I start my pre-op diet. Until then, I will be trolling and learning... FIRST STEP: The first step, now that I have selected my surgery, doctor and transportation, is to get my local medical team in the loop. Get my endocrinologist and family physician in the loop so that they can advise me on any adjustments to dosage and so that when I come back, i can keep the apprised of my status and have a medical expert located locally who knows my situation. SECOND STEP: The second step is to join a support group. I am doing this site and I also plan on going to the local hospital and joining a weight management group with focus on those that have had bariatric surgery. THIRD STEP: Get a mentor. I have done that (Tiffykins), plus have a surgery date buddy (3636millie), so I am set! FOURTH STEP: Start investigating what other people had successes with in regards to a pre-op diet and try some. <<<I AM ON THIS STEP>>>> FIFTH STEP and beyond: Not sure yet... any have any advice on what to do next? Umm, can y'all tell I am an engineer? Everything is either a list or organized as such... sort of makes me feel like I have control over it! Look forward to continuing to post and to get advice from all of you. Thanks everyone! Aimee

That's Great!!! I stared my liquid diet and I must admit it is not as easy as I thought it would be!