JennyBeth

I was only on clear liquids while in the hospital. My surgeon wanted me on full liquids for 1 week and progress to soft/purée foods for another 1-2 weeks and slowly transition to regular food as tolerated. I'm 6 weeks out tomorrow and still stick to a lot of soft foods. I have so much restriction that I can't wait until I can get more than 2-3 bites in before I'm full! My surgeon says it will get a little bit easier within the next month or two.

Take as long as your Dr. recommends and based on what you can afford! My surgeon says 3-4 weeks, but me being incredibly stubborn and not wanting to inconvenience others took a week and a half off of work! It was very stupid and I feel it has dragged out my recovery.

Now that I'm finally starting to lose weight I am very happy. I'll be 6 weeks on Wednesday. I know everyone goes through a mourning process and everyone that's much further out says they can eat anything just in smaller quantities. I never thought I would grieve my changing relationships with food, but recently I find (especially when out to eat with my family) that I'm frustrated. It's as if my brain wants to continue to eat more, but my body knows it's reached it's limit and I immediately stop (because I've made the mistake a few times of taking one bite too many!) At what point does your brain catch up to your stomach? I can get in 3 or 4 bites of something and have to stop. My 5 year old can eat more than me! I struggle with what to eat and what my sleeve can handle. I'm supposed to transition to regular food as soon as I feel ready, but I continue to stick with softer foods. Sometimes I eat something and my sleeve does fine and the next time I try it my sleeve doesn't tolerate it as well. My sleeve has been extremely temperamental and I'm jealous of those that can tolerate anything and seem to have a sleeve of "steel". I should've known this would be the case as I have IBS and am lactose intolerant so my stomach has always been on the sensitive side. I guess my question is to those of you that had temperamental sleeves exactly how far out were you when you felt things start to become easier?

I take small bites and chew as much as I can. I try to slow down (this is the hardest change for me-I never realized how fast I must have eaten Pre-surgery! Part of my issue of being uncomfortable is acid reflux. I'm on Protonix, but it's not cutting it anymore even after doubling it to twice a day. I see my surgeon tomorrow and will ask him to give me a prescription for something else.

My advice is to not even step on the scale at least for a week or two. The same thing happened to me and I also hardly lost anything for the first 3 weeks so then I became really upset that the sleeve wasn't going to work on me. Then finally I started losing and I've lost 30 pounds and I'm 6 weeks out on Wednesday. Stay off the scale until you start noticing your clothes starting to get loose!

I take Protonix since I had surgery and just recently had to increase it to twice a day. It's not working as well anymore. I see my surgeon on Tuesday and will ask him to prescribe something else.

The nurse also recommended drinking Gatorade G2 because it has potassium and electrolytes in it but is still low in calories.

It could very well be low potassium levels. I would ask your Dr. to do some bloodwork. I was worried about this and spoke to the nurse at my surgeon's office and she said the main symptoms of low potassium is weakness and leg cramps (especially at night). I would check it out ASAP.

I'm actually 5 weeks out and have thought about trying a straw. I always drank from a straw Pre-surgery. I think I swallow more air drinking without a straw. I'm going to try one. My body will let me know if it is a problem.

Consider yourself lucky! At 72 hours out I couldn't even get 6 oz. in during 24 hours and was still hooked up to the IV. Now that some of the inflammation has gone down I can get in more. I'm 5 weeks out and just want to chug some water!!

I am 5 weeks out and for the last week or so I've been getting really bad throbbing headaches. I get a lot of fluids in, but as far as calories I can get 500/day if I'm lucky! I always took Excedrin Migraine in the past, but since surgery the Tylenol is just not cutting it! My 1 month post-op appt. is next week, but I wasn't sure if anyone else has experienced this. I think it's from too low calories, but being on a soft diet still it's hard to get more in!

The nurse at my surgeon's office said you typically average .5-1 pound a day in the very beginning, but remember we are not always "typical" so don't sweat it!

I agree that it sucks the surgeon is making you do the supervised diet if your insurance doesn't require one. My insurance didn't require one either. My surgeon did have a bunch of medical tests that you had to clear and I did have to meet twice with his nutritionist. My surgeon also required one week of pre-op diet (2 week Pre-op diet for a high BMI). I would tell the surgeon that you shouldn't have to do the 3 month diet if it is not required by your insurance and if he is going to make you do it then I'd tell him you will find a new surgeon!

I can't guzzle! I'm 4 weeks out (almost 5) and I often forget and take a big gulp into my mouth then I remember and try to swallow a tiny bit at a time, but that doesn't work and it's painful! I also had a hiatal hernia repaired so I'm not sure which is the reason for the pain! I have also gulped water and it came right back up (luckily I was standing in front of the kitchen sink!)

My surgeon told me unless a patient is adamant on getting the band he doesn't recommend them anymore and tries to educate patients to go with bypass or sleeve. He said in another few years it won't be a procedure that will be offered any more due to the high risk of complications that are associated with it.

I've only had a c-section and VSG but the sleeve was way worse to me. The fact that I couldn't swallow anything made it even worse, but the pain was much higher than a c-section and hurt worse.

My surgeon told me there was a good possibility I would never be able to tolerate red meat or pork again!

I ate a scrambled egg for the first food I tried. Just chew it really well and take your time. I still struggle with this and I've been eating soft foods for almost 3 weeks now. I was used to eating really fast Pre-surgery! I got horrible "slimes" from eating eggs too fast in my first week. The slimes were miserable and luckily I've never experienced it since!

I did the same thing. I wore a t-shirt and elastic waist pants to the hospital and wore the same thing home. In the hospital I wore the hospital gown and when I walked the halls I wore another gown backwards so my backend was covered! I'll wear pajama pants in my house, but not in public, however I only have 2 pairs of yoga pants so I had to wash one pair every night so I could alternate them! I should've probably planned that a little better! I'm 4 weeks out and finally wore jeans for the first time yesterday!

I also didn't tell anyone other than my boss, my mom and my husband. I told everyone at work I was having a "procedure" done and then would just change the subject every time one of the nosy ones would ask, "for what?" But the day before my surgery I decided to let people know, but started with, "This is an extremely personal decision that I've spent a long time researching so I am well aware of the risks involved" because I also didn't want to get stuck in a web of lies. Also, you tend to drop weight at a much faster rate than you can with just diet and exercise and I didn't want others to feel like failures when they couldn't achieve the same results.

I am a little over 2 weeks out from surgery and starting yesterday I have had burning pain at my largest incision. It's not the incision itself because that has healed up well. My surgeon prescribed a medication for nerve pain called Gabapentin. Anyone else experience this?

I also suffered issues in the hospital and had to stay longer. I was finally discharged on my 4th day. I felt like something was wrong with me because I read everyone's posts about had they had no pain, no need for pain meds, and were out shopping 2 days later. I have always bounced back pretty quick with all of my other surgeries so my expectations were this surgery would be easy. WRONG! All I could think was "what the hell is wrong with me?!" I am a little over 3 weeks out and although it's hard to realize it now it does get easier everyday that passes. Don't beat yourself up about not feeling as good as you think you should by now. It WILL get better!

I was one of the ones following surgery that struggled to get even a tiny sip down so you are very lucky. The more fluids you can drink the better! I'm 3 weeks out now and can only get probably 30-35 oz. down.

Ah yes, I also suffer from big head syndrome so I totally understand! If I get too thin I'm afraid it'll look like an orange on a toothpick!

Sometimes when someone has been overweight for a long time the lower the goal sometimes seems unattainable, but so many people actually surpass their initial goals once they start losing large numbers. I do agree though that you have to decide where you feel most comfortable!