ShrinkyDinkMe22

i would say anything that you know you have to give up post op start working on it now. for me soda was a big one. i gave it up in october and was sleeved in december. i have read posts from people who kinda forgot about soda and when they were starting their liquid diets were dying bc they wanted pop. its hard enough to give up food for weeks but to also have to focus on the soda, makes it that much harder. i also started cutting back on sweets and carbs and incorporated a Protein Drink into my day to sort of prep for surgery.

i also like the previous poster spent hours a night and week reading positive stories, negative stories, stories of complications. i wanted to be as prepared as i could be in case something happened. i wanted to know what my options were if X happened and what the signs and symptom to watch for etc. good luck to you!!!

i dont have much to add. everyone else said what i was going to offer was get back to basics. maybe do a 2 week liquid diet again. that will help with carb cravings and will probably also help shrink your tummy a little bit. are you getting enough Water in every day? i am a visual person and i would write down what your plan is to do. keep track of your water and start tracking food again using my my fitness pal or something like that.

Big sleeve is a guy so he prolly thinks its 12 inches.

Bwahhhhhhh

I can cross my legs like a girl now!

Nice!

Way to go! You look amazing!

whats sad you measured the extra. good job

Why is that sad? I eyeballed it. I didn't take out a tape measure or anything.

I posted this on a fb sleeve group but wanted to post it here too.

You guys would appreciate and understand! I do believe that is about 5.5" of extra strap.... :-)

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Ohhhh hence the reposition of the body equaling less inches. That pic hit it for me. Thx!

You're welcome!

Thank you guys for the suggestions! Sorry I've been out of town and every place I've been has had shitty Internet and AT&T coverage.

I do take Iron which I didn't think was the problem because I was on it preop but I guess it is possible!

Thank you!!!

Tmi alert.....

Ever since being sleeved in december my bm schedule has completely changed. Preop I would go 2, sometimes 3 times a day. Now I seem to go about every 5 days or so. And when I do go it's a lot. Like so much that I keep clogging potty's. Sorry this is embarrassing.....

But what can I take to help go more often.

Any advice would be great. I never had this problem before surgery so I'm not sure what to do.

Will someone explain to me the physiology of losing inches and not losing weight? I've been at a stall pound wise but losing inches steady. It's not repositioning....everything is smaller. I'm not understanding how one can get smaller but not lose weight. Help me understand!

This picture should help you understand.

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I initially started out only telling my hubby. Once I got approved I told my 3 lifelong girlfriends and also my siblings. They were all really really supportive.

Little by little and as I got more comfortable with my decision I started telling more and more people. I think i was almost ashamed and embarrassed that it came to having surgery that I wanted no one to know.

But now that I see what a change it has made in my life I wanted to share my story with others.

Last week I through it all out on fb. Letting everyone know my reasons for doing it, how I felt about it, how scared I was doing it and scared what would happen if I didn't do it.

I finally hit a point where I want my story to help others find the help that they might need to get healthy.

Not sure if that helps you at all. PM if you have questions.

IM BACK ON FOR SURGERY!! July 15th here I come!!!!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement and ideas. Down payment of 1' date='000 dollars and monthly installments for the rest!!

I love you all[/quote']

Awesome news! I just read all the replies and was really feeling bad for you and trying to find a solution. So glad you are able to get sleeved! Whoop whoop!

Totally normal to have doubts. Like others have said.

My daughter was a few months shy of turning 3 when I had surgery in december.

I was a basket case. One day I was for it thr next day I wanted to back out. I was so afraid of complications and leaving my baby girl motherless would keep me up at night. But in my gut I knew I was making the right decision.

My surgery was on a Monday so Sunday morning before I had to start my bowel prep. Hubby brought our daughter to my sisters. I was balling my eyes out thinking I was never going to see her again. Even the morning of I cried a little on the way to the hospital.

Looking back did I overact a bit? Maybe. But that's my baby and I was scared.

Luckily all turned out great and I made it through.

But it's totally normal what you are feeling.

For me this was my first surgery which added a lot of anxiety.

Private rooms at Alexian.

welcome to the group. we are all here to help each other out. there are a lot of great existing posts in the archives if you do a search on a topic! good luck to you and keep us posted on your progress!

Here ya go.

Amazing! What an inspiration you are to us all. Thanks for sharing!

I'm 5 days post op and I'm a little distressed as I am having heart palpitations (all the time) and I've been feeling really weak. My doc still has me on just flat 7-up' date=' tea & Water (no protein). And now for TMI... I have had heavy menstruation the last three days and really bad diarrhea. I can't get hold of my Doc and I'm a little concerned. Any advice?[/quote']

How are you feeling?

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Can't hurt to get checked out. A lot of this cause palpitations however if you've never experienced them preop they could mean something serious. Sometimes you can have an electrolyte imbalance and I've heard palps can be an indicator. Not saying that's what's wrong but it could be. Good luck and keep us posted.

Can't hurt to get checked out. A lot of this cause palpitations however if you've never experienced them preop they could mean something serious. Sometimes you can have an electrolyte imbalance and I've heard palps can be an indicator. Not saying that's what's wrong but it could be. Good luck and keep us posted.

May I ask' date=' why do u hafta give up caffeine? I posed this? Yestterday about giving up my coffee and all the repliers said that they still drink coffee.

Its weird how the same question asked twice gets such different answers..

Hmmmm...[/quote']

Which is why you need to follow your drs orders. Each Dr is so different and each has such different pre and post op instructions.

From my understanding caffeine can cause stomach irritation so in the healing phase they say to eliminate it. Most people are addicted to soda or coffee. Since yiu can't drink it for X amount of weeks postop most people wean themselves off of it before the liquid diet. Those that are addicted to sodas (like me, McDonald's coke) I had to cut it out early so I wasn't dealing with liquid diet and nasty headaches. Also those that drink soda need to get used get used to no carbonation. Sometimes I think i liked carbonation more than the soda itself. After the first 6 weeks post op (give or tske), once healed coffee drinkers typically go back to their one cup a day and I haven't heard of many problems postop.

But again this is just my take on it. My instructions just say no caffeine the first 6 weeks. But no carbonation ever.

No idea if this helps you at all....

Thx. I'll watch this later.

Hi crystal. Like others I too considered the band. However rumor on the street is they might be stopping using this procedure as there are many complications. Lots of people a year or two out end up revising to rny or sleeve.

For me I didn't like the idea of a foreign object tied around my tummy. I didn't like that you would have to go in for fills. You had a permanent port. And the possibility of slips and having to redo the surgery to fix it or remove it. Have a high chance of the band rubbing away stomach tissue on the outside where the band sits. None of it sounded appealing to me.

As for rny I didn't like the idea of rerouting my intestines and purposely malnurishing myself. I know in a sense we r doing that with the sleeve but it didn't seem as drastic. With that said it's still a major and drastic surgery. Each has their own list of complications.

Best I can say is read a lot on her. There are a lot of great posts. And there is a lot of great info on the Internet!

I'm 6 months out and like tess can eat. Today for Breakfast I had a hard boiled egg (egg white only) and a 5.3oz Greek yogurt. If I eat slider foods can definitely get more down. If I stick to Proteins about 5-7oz.