kimbernada

Yes, in a heartbeat.

My suggestion is to tell the truth to the doctor's office on why you are in pain. No sugar coating - just in case this can help in the symptom telling and the treatment.

My surgeon (and the other two at the Center) say that the sleeve is a better surgery if your BMI is higher than 50.

Yep, my stall started week 3 and lasted for three weeks. It happens. Just keep following your doctor's guidelines and your body will pick up again with the weight loss. Stalls are for your body to catch up with everything. (It helps to keep a positive spin on them because otherwise they will drive you insane.)

<briefly off topic> He works in the corporate office of Butler Machinery. There's another huge group down there this week and yet another group going next week. I envy his boss and the boss' wife -- staying down there for THREE weeks!! <okay, back to the topic!!!> I am amazed when I hold up a pair of pants, capris, shorts and think "I will never fit my big butt into these"... and then they fit. I tend to think of these as Harry Potter clothes. You know, they look so much smaller on the outside, but have lots of room on the inside.

Also, Apex makes a really good pill organizer for the four times a day. http://amzn.to/Y3GNdl

By the way, this is my current Vitamin list. I'm about 7-1/2 months out now. My vitamin levels test out great. I do get in a lot of calcium from milk too. Personally, I think the regime from the surgeon was what they recommend for someone who had a gastric bypass. The only thing they changed in their literature was the name of the surgery. I've always been a vitamin taker, so I don't mind taking them twice a day. Four times a day was hard to remember. Morning: Mega Multi for Women by 21st Century Vitamin D Vitamin B12 Biotin calcium citrate with D Magnesium Bedtime: Mega Multi for Women by 21st Century Iron

This is what my surgeon provided for direction. However I couldn't stand the chewable BA Vitamin at all after surgery. I switched to a gummy vitamin. (I know it didn't provide the same nutrients, but I figure it was better then not taking anything.) About six weeks after surgery, I was able to switch to regular Vitamins. After surgery for one month =========================== ONLY Bariatric Advantage Plus - three times a day One month after surgery ======================= Morning: Mega Multi for Women by 21st Century Vitamin D - 2000 IU Vitamin B12 - 500 mcg Lunch: Calcium Citrate with D - 400-600 mg calcium - 200-400 IU vitamin D Magnesium 300-500 mg Dinner: Mega Multi for Women by 21st Century Iron (Ferrous sulfate) - 325 mg = 65 mg elemental iron Bedtime: calcium citrate with D - 400-600 mg calcium - 200-400 IU vitamin D

I vote "sexy"! My hubs is almost completely bald. I guess I've never really had a thought on it - it just depends on the guy. But I'd still say "sexy"....

I haven't read through all of the responses, but you can make ice cream out of a Protein shake! Pretty tasty too. This way you are getting in your protein, which is your number 1 goal. (Well, Water is probably first on the list, protein second.) Shelley at the World According to Eggface has lots of recipes for making protein ice cream: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2008/08/protein-ice-cream.html

I've found that it helps to have pictures taken. I used to always cringe inside when someone flashed a camera in my direction. Now, however, I think it really helps my mind grasp that my body really HAS changed. It's hard to change our internal view of how we "look". When I was a teenager, I lost 115 pounds on Nutrisystem. I really never did feel a "normal" size, even though I was down to a 10/12. We just came back from a vacation in Puerto Rico. I've never felt SO GOOD wearing shorts and a tee shirt. I'm just into size 18, but wow! I know I'm not skinny, but in looking at the photos, I know I am looking healthier. And it was really odd to realize that I wasn't the largest gal in our group. (It was a work trip for the hubs and 60 other of his co-workers and their spouses.) Anyhow, photos do help. It's kind of a wake up slap to your brain that you HAVE changed!!

Oh my gosh! That had to have been so scary!!

There's another good forum out there.... thinnertimesforum dot com. They have different sections for the different surgeries: gastric bypass, sleeve, lapband, lapband revision. I'm over there some, although once I decided on the sleeve, I mostly stick to the VST site. Is your health insurance covering the surgery? Do they only cover one bariatric surgery in a person's lifetime? Just something to think about. If you do have the lapband, and it doesn't work out, is a revision surgery 100% out of your pocket? Just something to think about. I mean, there ARE people out there who have had a successful lapband, just that you won't find any of them here. Hey, but I don't mean to sound like you should go over to the other site and stay. Nope, just that there's good information there too.

Beef. Although I haven't really tried a good tender cut lately. Ground beef seems to be somewhat okay.

This wasn't my first surgery... I had my tonsils taken out when I was 17 or 18. In all honesty, getting my tonsils out was way worse than recovering from the sleeve surgery. (Or maybe the pain meds were just that much better for the sleeve surgery!!) LOL If it weren't for the horrible heartburn that I had the day after surgery, I don't think I'd have much to complain about. Once the Prevacid started working, the heartburn was gone. We boarded the dogs for two weeks and we don't have any kids, so I had two weeks to focus on what to eat, etc. The hubs worked from home for a couple of days and then I made him go back to the office. I slept a lot, read some, watched some television (The Dead Files, Ghost Adventures, Haunted Collector). The one thing that I found similar between the two surgeries is that I can't stand certain smells that I used to like. When I washed my hair the first time after getting my tonsils out, I used a shampoo with a green apple scent. (I can't stand that now.) When I showered the first few times after my sleeve surgery, I used a Bath and Body Works scent called Country Chic. Yuck. I can't stand that now at all. Now I use a Dial antibacterial body wash that seems to keep any odd body odors at bay. (Body smells really bother me now. Mine and my husband's.)

I do try to wait. My doctor did tell me that I can have sips of Water with my meals, just not big gulps. For me, that "food stuck in the throat" feeling means I ate too much. Trust me, I ran into that a couple of times while in Puerto Rico this past week. The food was good and I didn't always stop at "satisfied". (Well, I only did this twice and then realized that I have to pay attention to how much I am eating - when we go out, I always ask for a "to go" container and only leave what I should eat at that sitting.) Water really fills me up fast, so I try not to drink anything before eating. Sips seem to be okay, provided they are really small ones. Sometimes a person just NEEDS to be able to drink something with a meal.

I'm still this way.... about 7-1/2 months out. I eat a little at a meal until I am satisfied (not full) and then about two hours later, my sleeve is EMPTY. I have a little fridge under my desk at work and keep Atkins protein shakes and greek yogurt in it. I also have protein bars in a desk drawer. I have breakfast around 6:30 am, a snack around 9-9:30 am, lunch around 11 am, snack around 2 pm and supper around 6 pm. (And a sugar free 40 calories fudgesicle at 8 pm.)

My hands-down all time favorite is the Syntrax nectar chocolate Truffle. I'm sure you've read this already, but you might find that what you like pre-surgery changes after the surgery. I really liked to use a blender for the shakes during the pre-op diet. Afterwards, it was just too much foam. Now, however, (finally) I can drink a shake that was made in a blender. The Syntrax Matrix shakes seem kind of gritty to me if I make them in a Blender Bottle. The Syntrax Nectar shakes taste great either way. Using a Blender Bottle for the Nectar shakes is good because there's WAY less foam. (I really like all of the "creamy" Nectar flavors. I had been hoping that their fruity drinks were more like well, fruity drinks. However some people REALLY like the fruity ones over the creamy, so that's great that you got some sample packs to try.) I just bought a box of 12 chocolate truffle shake packets to take on our trip to Puerto Rico. I figured that would be better than packing a whole bunch of snack-size baggies filled with a mysterious powder. Kimberly PS. That sure would be hard to have to do so much detective work to find out how items are processed. I'm allergic to shellfish, but not as severely as you. That's great that you've found some shakes that are safe.

Great job!!

This may have already been mentioned, but Red Lobster has an awesome broiled Canadian Walleye! The lunch size is a meal plus two more with the leftovers. I'm allergic to shellfish but my friends like to go there.

I was never on full liquids. Well, I take that back. I was on full liquids the afternoon of the day after my surgery - which was tomato soup and pudding, in the hospital. I was discharged about an hour after that. They had me start on soft foods the NEXT DAY, which happened to be at home. (Seemed kind of scary to me, but that's what my doctor's binder said - and I confirmed it with them a few times.) So what someone should or shouldn't be doing depends on what their doctor's plan is.

That includes any liquids used to make foods.... like soup, pudding, etc. I had expressed a concern to my doctor about not being able to "drink" 64 ounces of water. She added up what was in the foods plus what I was drinking and I was pretty darn close.

Yep, you can count any liquid as part of your water consumption. You should really make the shakes with milk (skim or light soy) to make sure you are getting in more nutrients, especially during the pre-op diet. It makes the shakes taste better too. Kind of weird, but I switched to light soy milk for my pre-op diet and now, almost 7 months later, I really only like my protein shakes made with it. I can use skim milk, but the shakes taste "off" to me now. (I have a protein shake every morning for breakfast.) Also, I had my "meal" at noon at work because it was so much easier to be able to eat with my team. I'd have a shake for breakfast at 6, a frozen dinner under 300 calories for lunch at 11, a shake at 2 pm, and a shake for supper. I was able to have unlimited veggies too. I suppose it also helped that my hubby went to visit his parents for a week during that first week of the pre-op diet. It made it SO much easier for ME because I didn't have to be around his food. I never did feel deprived. The shakes I drank were Bariatric Advantage. Very filling and they kept me satisfied 3-4 hours.

I honestly never had any gas pain from surgery. I know others HAVE had gas pain like you've described. I was thinking that Gas-X strips worked for that, but maybe I'm wrong. (That's been known to happen before.) Walking is the best thing for getting the surgery gas out of the system.

Also, I really don't remember much about pain with the surgery. The morphine in the hospital kept it at bay and then I made a point of taking the pain medication every four or five hours (or whatever it said on the bottle). I only used the pain meds for a few days. I was able to sleep in my own bed on my side from the first night home. I only stayed at the hospital one night.