Cadilex

Try freezing any flavor Isopure like Alpine Punch or Grape in ice-cube trays then using a Ninja blender (that's what works best for me) to make an awesome slush. Put a few cubes in one of the single-serve cups, add a little cold Isopure drink, pulse away and you have a slush as good as anything you can get at Sonic. Never gets watered down because it's ALL Isopure. Add a little Splenda or Truvia to taste if you want, then enjoy - one sip at a time. If you pour it into a Thermos cup, it will last a very long time in the slushy state!

Try freezing any flavor Isopure like Alpine Punch or Grape in ice-cube trays then using a Ninja blender (that's what works best for me) to make an awesome slush. Put a few cubes in one of the single-serve cups, add a little cold Isopure drink, pulse away and you have a slush as good as anything you can get at Sonic. Never gets watered down because it's ALL Isopure. Add a little Splenda or Truvia to taste if you want, then enjoy - one sip at a time. If you pour it into a Thermos cup, it will last a very long time in the slushy state!

Insensitive and judgmental?? Why? Because she expressed her opinion? Those who post their concerns when they know they've mismanaged their recovery should expect honest responses. Those who feel the original posters of such messages were foolish in their choices have an equal right to post their honest thoughts as those who want to post sincere support and words of understanding and empathy. No one opinion is more or less valid than the other. If support for foolish mistakes is what any of you want or need, and you want that with no possibility naysayers can respond, may I suggest you private message the litany of posters on these boards who regularly offer that kind of sympathetic response. There is a time and place for both to coexist peacefully.

Insensitive and judgmental?? Why? Because she expressed her opinion? Those who post their concerns when they know they've mismanaged their recovery should expect honest responses. Those who feel the original posters of such messages were foolish in their choices have an equal right to post their honest thoughts as those who want to post sincere support and words of understanding and empathy. No one opinion is more or less valid than the other. If support for foolish mistakes is what any of you want or need, and you want that with no possibility naysayers can respond, may I suggest you private message the litany of posters on these boards who regularly offer that kind of sympathetic response. There is a time and place for both to coexist peacefully.

This post needs to be pinned at the top of the forum. Wish I could do more than like it.

I like visual examples.
You were out in the first snow of the year and like the Peanuts characters you decided to taste the snow as it fell. Your tongue was fully extended when a sharp piece of wing sheeting from a passing Extreme Budget airliner splits your tongue lengthwise. You rush your serpentine tongue to Ready Care and emerge later, unintelligible, in Loritab subdued pain.
Your doctor strictly forbade you to eat anything that would aggravate the stitched wound, put you on a liquid diet, and gave you instructions and a timetable for diet change.
But, wouldn't you know it, the annual Habanero Eating Contest is 2 days away and you need to defend your title!
What a dilemma!
Should you give up the trophy or risk joining the ranks of the eunuchs of old who, among other operations, were rendered tongueless to assure they wouldn't talk about their master's activities?
We were given brains that were designed to operate our bodies, not the other way around.

Okay, I will throw my 2 cents in - first I am glad you finally posted! Wonderful story!!!
Way back ... say 18 months ago, I seldom posted to this site and when I did it was the band to sleeve revision one. The reason is that this particular board has a "harsh" tone at times. In the early days, I was more fragile and i just couldn't be the target of some of the "helpful tough love" that floats freely here.
There is another online forum that has an entirely gentler social norm and in early days i found alot of support there.
I come back to this forum though because it is big and busy, and because I am at the stage where I still get support but hopefully I am also in a position to offer it. I am no longer fragile, I am strong and (mostly) very self confident. People can say whatever and I don't care because nobody REALLY knows me anyway. Mostly, I want to give hope to people who were out of hope. Especially those that failed at the lapband like I did.
So, iggy shares her story in a way that is very forceful. Please be aware that there have been horror stories on this forum since forever but but not all are such compelling writers or so strong opinions. The service that sharing these stories is that apparently some people don't realize that removing 85% of their stomachs is potentially dangerous. I don't mean to sound "harsh" myself, but the truth of it appears that some people need it in their face, repeatedly, to believe it. I was not one of those people and my doc gave me a serious dose of reality to consider before surgery (revisions have a much higher risk and excess bleeding risk). I am sensitive and the constant barrage would have put me off and maybe discouraged me from the surgery. I had already talked myself out of the rny for similiar reasons and the sleeve was indeed my last ditch hope. (To be clear my surgery was before Iggys and so of course in no way influenced me - I am talking about all the other people who were sharing at the time)
I am glad it didn't get scared off though because I have had a tremendously wonderful awesome amazing out of this world happy first year with the sleeve!!!! I thank God everyday for this, and I am also very thankful for no problems and the tremendous support and encouragement from my doc, my NUT and others too. AFter my nightmare with the band, I know good followup when I see it and that is exactly what I have gotten.

The healing process is completely unique to each patient's metabolic profile and overall body composition. The internal and external healing process consumes a significantly higher number of calories than can be calculated using your formula. While it is tempting to try to fit this process into a standard formula base, it simply will not work. Each persons' body composition is unique and the formula you are using is simply a standard formula for an average body composition. The rate at which one might lose weight after a surgical procedure of this kind is impossible to calculate because the variables are, for the most part, incalculable from patient to patient. Basically, it boils down to not being able to determine how much weight you - or anyone else for that matter - might lose because you simply have no idea how many additional calories your body will burn as it works to try to heal itself over a long period of time. Hope that helps.

Hey Frank. It sounds like we had very similar starting stats. I was 401 when I started my 10 day preop diet. Almost 8 months later I'm 236. That will be you my friend. Best of luck.

I forgot to mention something important. The day after surgery my blood pressure went from 140 over 90-150 over 100 to 130s over 70s. I called my primary care doc and am off the blood pressure meds. I hope to be off the Metformin in 1-3 months.

I'm glad someone finally said what I've been thinking. I have learned to avoid any posts by the negative certain people. I agree, there isn't enough inspiration on these forums, I understand the risks and have enough fear and worry on my own without the constant postings to remind me. Thanks for posting your story its encouraging to read stories like yours!

Here's a few more good experiences.
http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/47767-anyone-have-a-relatively-easy-recovery-story/
Also if you've had a good experience, please add yourself to that thread. Never hurts to keep it growing.

Thanks guys! You're right O.T.R., I think that the people that have had good experiences just don't say enough. They are happy, so there is no reason to ask a bunch of questions on the internet. The problem is that there are a few people here that had VERY VERY bad experiences that respond to every thread and scare the heck out of everybody. Question: My toe hurts, what could it be? Answer: YOU HAVE A LEAK!!!! Run to the E.R. right now in the middle of the night! HURRY!
Holy cow, I swear to God, I had a thermometer in my hand for a week after my surgery checking my temp every hour to see if i had a fever. My wife got so mad at me that she told me to NEVER visit this site again! I talked her down, and I just checked back today. I told her that there was some useful info here.

The healing process is completely unique to each patient's metabolic profile and overall body composition. The internal and external healing process consumes a significantly higher number of calories than can be calculated using your formula. While it is tempting to try to fit this process into a standard formula base, it simply will not work. Each persons' body composition is unique and the formula you are using is simply a standard formula for an average body composition. The rate at which one might lose weight after a surgical procedure of this kind is impossible to calculate because the variables are, for the most part, incalculable from patient to patient. Basically, it boils down to not being able to determine how much weight you - or anyone else for that matter - might lose because you simply have no idea how many additional calories your body will burn as it works to try to heal itself over a long period of time. Hope that helps.

Butter bean, I wish I could "like" your post about 20 times.

Pre or post op doesn't matter in this post. I am pre-op and know it would be STUPID to cheat on a post-op diet that helps a person RECOVER from a MAJOR surgery...
That is lacking COMMON SENSE.. We understand that an addiction is just that and I know I will be crying because I cannot eat a croissant. I will be weak at times and emotional because I am like that now. You may even see me whining on a post about wanting to cheat.
However, but you will NEVER see me post on a forum asking if it is ok to RISK MY LIFE to eat something I crave. Thats STUPID and it lacks common sense.

Well I'll tell you, I was strict about my diet after my 1st surgery, my second one, then the 2 months of liquids that I was on, then I may have stumbled after my 3rd surgery but it was ok'd by my dr. first (as some of my friendly nazis would remind me not to do x, y, or z according to their dr's) and now I am trying to be as good as possible after my 4th surgery. But I finally closed my food journals on MFP because I got tired of anyone asking me why I was eating what I was eating. I am doing what my dr. has said I can do. I am limited in so much due to the stage of foods that I am in and trying to keep my calories up to STOP losing weight due to a persistent leak that I had contracted through no fault of my own. My carb rate stinks and I hate it, but I'm struggling with where I'm at in my 4 surgeries of my journey and trying to battle it out amongst my own food addict demons. But after 9 months of dealing with this, jeeeshus, anyone cracks. I especially understand whomever posted about the effect of a freaking McDonald's commercial after being on liquids since 9/4/12. Try being on liquids since then and see how you respond. I can totally empathize; however, I'm doing it. So when I stumble... does that mean I lack "common sense"? I don't think so, and I defer to my physician who has to remind me how strong I have been in the 9 months of holy hell that I've had in what should have been an "easy surgery"... but pls note that question is a rhetorical one and I don't need you to answer me
The most I can say is I've seen it all here on this site and one thing I feel like I have to say is this: don't let anyone run you off from being here. I've seen people who jump on others, people who support others, some who are dependent on many things and seemingly have changed it from food to other means, those that are enablers, those that are co-dependent, you name it, the flavor is here. And it can get ugly here. But please don't let that run you off, which slowly throughout time, it's been doing to me. However, I still venture out to read some threads and this one, IDK why I'm responding to but I am.
The point to remember here is this:
It's the net ppl, anyone can be anyone and do you trust anyone to tell you what to do instead of the surgeon that you PAID good money for (or your insurance did) to cut out 80-85% of your internal organ that helps you sustain your life? If you have questions, proceed with caution on the advices you receive here please. Serious questions, defer to your physician or nutritionist. Remember every person's journey IS different as are their chances for different things to happen (like my body rejecting a staple which caused my leak; once a leak starts, it can be a bear to repair depending on the aggression of the tactics taken, the time in which it is found and the damage thus done to your body and other internal organs and how they react... albeit why you need to refer to your surgeon who has gone to school to understand how the body functions, knows which tests to do to determine the damage and then can determine the response).
But this site should be a place anyone can come and pose a question to. On the flip side, to the newer persons here... once you have been here a while, you get pretty irritated with questions like "Can I eat a hamburger a week out from surgery?" It's best to be kind when possible, but the world isn't kind is it? I saw someone last week eating a hamburger 10 days out from their surgery. The way I responded whenever they complained of being "stalled"... is how far out are you again? And you are eating hamburgers? (as well as where's your Water intake and exercise, but I digress)
We all have our moments and we all remain to lurk the boards in our different places in our journey to learn. We all want to be a part of the 80% that are success rate sleevers.... All I can say is stick around, ignore some of the posts (I mean are they really worth it?), defer to your doctor or nutritionist on more important health/nutrition questions ... and I wish the best of luck for you in your journey to success.

Not insensitive and judgemental...we all have to accept some personal responsibility for what we put in our mouths, and I have several personal friends who have had wls and they do great until they start eating wrong. I'm not saying it's not a struggle, it totally is! But it seems to me that all too often I see people in my personal life and other places that gain weight back and just can't understand how it happened...I'm all for supporting someone through their struggles, but geez accept some personal responsibility!

Insensitive and judgmental?? Why? Because she expressed her opinion? Those who post their concerns when they know they've mismanaged their recovery should expect honest responses. Those who feel the original posters of such messages were foolish in their choices have an equal right to post their honest thoughts as those who want to post sincere support and words of understanding and empathy. No one opinion is more or less valid than the other. If support for foolish mistakes is what any of you want or need, and you want that with no possibility naysayers can respond, may I suggest you private message the litany of posters on these boards who regularly offer that kind of sympathetic response. There is a time and place for both to coexist peacefully.

Insensitive and judgmental?? Why? Because she expressed her opinion? Those who post their concerns when they know they've mismanaged their recovery should expect honest responses. Those who feel the original posters of such messages were foolish in their choices have an equal right to post their honest thoughts as those who want to post sincere support and words of understanding and empathy. No one opinion is more or less valid than the other. If support for foolish mistakes is what any of you want or need, and you want that with no possibility naysayers can respond, may I suggest you private message the litany of posters on these boards who regularly offer that kind of sympathetic response. There is a time and place for both to coexist peacefully.