vincereautmori

So far so good, I like spicy foods and I seem to tolerate them well, put I also take my Pepsid religiously. The only big difference aside from the amount I can eat, is how fast, if I eat too quickly, the sleeve lets me know and I put the fork down for a while. To handle about a 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of food takes me more than 20 minutes to finish. But that's a good thing, right?

I don't know if this recipe appeals to guys more, for a non mayo chicken salad I found a recipe for Buffalo Chicken salad, mix chicken, some wing sauce, and FF blue cheese dressing and a little celery seed. Like Super Bowl Sunday in your mouth!

Only three weeks post op, but I feel great! I know a lot of other folks are having a hard time adjusting to their new stomach, fortunately for me it's all been good. I was just given the go ahead to have purees, and I can already feel the restriction, if I get near or just over that 1/4 cup, it starts to hurt a little. But after almost three weeks of liquids, it feels and tastes so good to have real food again, do I still love the flavors of food? You bet I do, but now only a couple of spoonfuls are enough to satisfy my desire. Still have to learn how to live with this and handle all of life's challenges, but now I have a new tool to help me control using food as a stress reliever. I realize I'm only at the begining of this process and the sleeve and I have a lot more work to get to know one another, but I'm confident this is really going to be a partnership I can live with and finally enjoy a truly healthy life full of energy and fullfillment.

I was sleeved on the 19th, same thing when I got home, I opened a bottle of water,didn't think, took a big gulp of it as I always had and realized I can't do that, sat in my chest for almost 5 minutes. It's probably going to be tough getting everything in, but do what you can, but especially water, don't get dehydrated. I also got some of the Isopure drinks, 40 g protein per 20 oz. bottle, try to get a half cup down and youve got 8 g protein. Since I'm 14 days out, it's a lot easier taking in the water, sick of broth and shakes, but no problem getting it down.

I squeeze some lemon juice in, cuts some of the sweetness and adds flavor.

That is so damn true! I've been the victim of that more than once in my life. If you look at boards on news sights when the issue of obesity comes up, the comments are often brutal, but you get the idea that there are a lot of people in the business world who think we are lazy and stupid because we can't control our weight. It makes our decision a little bittersweet because no matter if we're 100 lbs overweight or absolutely normal, we are still the same person.

I did my research, spoke personally with other WLS paitients, asked all kind of questions on these boards, had discussions with doctors, then made my decision. Once I made it, there was no looking back, I trusted the surgery, trusted the doctors, knew what I was in for, ready to make a big and permanent change. By the day of surgery, no regrets, no hesitation, no doubts, I just took the leap and fell into the process. I kind of liked to equate it to skydiving for the first time, you learn the science, trust your instructors, stand on the edge, then jump- there's no turning back and you either suceed or it's going to be real bad.

LOL, I know what you mean, I never realized how much we are bombarded by food advertising. But hang in there, I'm on day 9, still not hungry but getting tired of liquids. You can do it!

Chopping them into quarters, great idea! I have one med I need to take, it's a large pill and crushed in Water it's unpalatable, I just barely keep it down. My surgeon doesn't like to reintroduce whole pills until 2 months out, so this is a fantastic suggestion. Thanks!

It would be the best gift you could give your husband, and yourself.

Are you hungry or just obsessed with food, aromas, looks, etc.? One thing that struck me during pre-op and now post op, is all the adverstisement for food. I'll be willing to bet more than half the commercials we see on TV are for food. If you think about it advertisers do everything they can to make their product appealing and to tempt your every sense to get you to buy it, especially restaurants. That's not evil, it's their business, I guess I'm a penultimate capitalist. I've found that I'm not really hungry, although foods smell so good, I'm on websites for restaurants I want to go to when I am finally able to, I'm thinking about the holidays and being OK by then. So a lot of this is a mental challenge and that's the part the we're responsible for. BTW- just noticed you had Dr. Roberts, me too!

My surgeon wanted either chewable, crushable, or liquid on all meds and supplements, and as you know, some are pretty gruesome. For a multivitamin I use Centrum chewable for adults, a sublingual B-12, a chewable iron, and a liquid D3/calcium.

I was sleeved on the 19th, so at a similar point, I hear you about the shakes, I'm getting sick of them too in fact after the pre-op diet, I was already sick of them, too sweet and I was craving more saltieness. So I started doing broths, better but kind of flavorless. So I took a container of chicken broth, cut some celery, carrots, and onions and simmered, getting all the flavor I could out of those vegetables, strained it, dumped in a scoop of unflavored Protein (careful to stay under 130 deg.), and man, you would have thought you died and went to heaven. Today I bought some wonton soup, gave my wife the wontons (only part we ate in the past) and it was delish, a lot of salt, but delish. Hope some of those ideas help, I just have one week to go on liquids, how about you?

I had some pain and tightness just below the breastbone, like one of the doctors said to me, that's where most of the work was done. Walk alot and hang in there, I'm doing pretty good and I had it the same day.

So, I got home from hospital last week, and I didn't feel like like dealing with making shakes so we had a bottle of Ensure in the fridge (was for an other family member), so I used it. After a couple of "meals" of 2-3 oz., I got diarrhea, did another "meal" before it clicked, was milk or protein causing it? I thought it might be milk, so got some non- milk shakes which seemed to agree OK. Then I thought to look at the Ensure label, it has over 20 grams of sugar per serving, do you think this is an example of dumping with the sleeve?

I'm only a week out from surgery but it has been a learning curve to just sip. I've just naturally taken my "mouthful" a couple of times and paid for it. Right now I'm taking the first couple of weeks off from work, but I can't imagine staying hydrated and trying to work, this sip, sip, sipping is almost a full time job. Minor inconvienience though, looks like you losing well, good luck to you.

Sleeved a week ago, came home Thursday and I've been on liquids only and another week to go. Right now I can't handle more than 2-3 oz protein in one sitting and trying to get all of my water in. So I've been doing protein shakes 2-3 times a day and fortified soup broth 2 times a day. I can't seem to get in more than 250- 300 calories a day so I feel a little drained if I do long walks or some yard work. Any ideas to get in more or if this is normal?

Really? Unless you can't tolerate them, they are two of the densest and leanest proteins you could eat.

Are you getting any B-12? That's a problem for RNY and VGS patients anyway, look for B-12 in drugstore but get sublingual. Just put a tiny tablet under your tongue and you'll absorb it. Also get some extra Iron, you could also be suffering from anemia. There are liquid and chewable options.

I hear ya newrose, I was sleeved the 19th, feel pretty good and so far no hunger issues but those shakes are horrible. I seemed to tolerate a couple before surgery, but now it makes me ill just thinking I have to swallow those things. I do like broths, so I'm loading them with unflavored protein.

The hospital told me to bring either the machine or my mask. I had a bad night the first night after surgery and didn't wear it and was wiped out another day, I used my CPAP the next night and woke up feeling human again.

I'm day 4 post-op and realized as I take in more of the Protein shakes, I'm immediately getting diarrhea from them. With so little nutrition going in, I don't want to immediately be spilling it out. Any ideas?

Hence, the old saying, we see what we want to see.

I respect your opinion, buy I have to disagree, I think patients are pretty well informed on what to expect of WLS, between insurance requirements and bariatric centers of excellence, they want you to have all the infromation to make this serious committment to alter your body. I think the failure rate comes from the complexities of human lives from stress, genetics, mood, lack of support, failure of the patient to identify their root problem, crazy schedules, focus on ourselves, probably many more I can't think of. That's why WLS isn't 100% effective, nor any other weight loss technique. They are all chained to the same equation of calories in and calories out, how each one helps us is what makes it work for you.

I was sleeved this past Tuesday, I'm 61, and only a few years from retirement and I don't want to be semi invalid when I get there. I've been heavy most of my life, and I carried the weight OK, so I paid no immediate price for it. But, obesity works it's damage slowly and the past couple of years my knees and back have been giving me more problems, this past year I was almost unable to walk from hip pain and was diagnosed with moderate arthritus of the hip. I asked the orthopedic doctor, what do we do? He said, it's too late the damage is done, getting some weight off it will hold off replacement surgery for a while. That's when it really clicked, I'm crushing my joints and I've been damaging my body for years. So this is it, I had to do something drastic, hopefully I'll buy myself some healthy time in the years I have left.