SerendipityHappens

I don't know the answer to this question, but I can tell you that you can have IV fluids outside of a hospital. When I was in Lebanon I contracted Ecoli and the village doctor sent me home with an IV bag to rehydrate me. He gave me an extra bag and showed me how to change it... My uncle in the US needed IV antibiotics and he was hooked up in his home as well..

OK Ladies, Is this more your speed??? I'm actually going to be getting something similar.. Basically a long swim shirt and swim tights.. No hood for me though.. I'm so risque!

I am almost 8 weeks out and I'd say it's about 85% easier...I do have some hunger which is easily satisfied when I consume my small meal. I mean SOME hunger is good... the "want to gnaw my own arm off hunger" that I used to experience pre-sleeve is not so good. Mentally I've had some cravings and I've given in a few times but NOTHING as serious as pre-sleeve.. Pre-sleeve, giving into a craving ran the risk of setting off a full on binge, but now If I eat a few bites it is enough to satisfy even without feeling that "sick overstuffed" feeling that I USED to need to feel before I felt satisfied. Don't get me wrong, I still WANT junk.. I want it often.. but saying "no" is SO MUCH EASIER now!

Why is it that this always seems to happen at the milestone weights.. When I was struggling to get under 300 I stalled at 301 FOR EVER!!! Like THREE WEEKS! Then one day I was magically 297. I think the scale is a very sadistic instrument!

I had a problem with my IV blowing through my veins and I only received a small portion of the fluids they wanted to give me and I still managed to gain 10 pounds in the hospital! Took me a week to lose it too! I don't count those ten pounds.. I consider my post surgery loss to be from my weigh in on the day of surgery.

Awwwe, I totally feel your pain, there were times on my preop diet that I had to go have a cry in the bathroom because I NEEDED Doritos.. I work in a convenience store and I am confronted with them.. but a customer opened up her pack right in the store and I swear I could smell the radioactive cheesy goodness... so there I am a 40 year old grown woman crying over a bag of chips. I felt so stupid and crazy.

Aussie, I recognize your experience as valid. Some people do have perhaps too much restriction after the surgery.. that does not mean that this is everyone's experience. I am only 7 weeks out and I still enjoy food immensely. I progressed through all my phases of the post op diet easily and was eating at near the "maximum" ammounts suggested by my doctor. I had a longer than average stomach.. so even with a sleeve that is done properly.. and mine was done properly with a 32 bougie triple line staple AND an oversew.. entire fundus removed, my sleeve is still going to be bigger than many other people becuase my stomach is LONGER so it can hold more volume! I eat around 3/4 of a cup of food and feel "satified" If I wanted I could eat more until I'm "full" but I try to avoid that. I was told that I can expect to eat around 6-8 and at times up to 12 ounces of food once my sleeve has matured completely... that's TWICE what you can eat. Now if I threw in some Snacks like say a handful of my beloved cashews.. some ice cream while watching tv at night, a bag of chips on my way home from work... well you can see where I'm going with this.. I HAVE to log everything carefully and pay attention to what I'm eating or I will not lose this weight. I recognize that your experience is different... but please recognize that your experience is YOUR experience, and there are many MANY of us out here who have to work really hard to realize our weight loss goals.

I spend my first week losing my Water weight. At the start of week 2 I was back down to my surgery weight. I lost a crazy amount of weight during week 2.. something like 12 pounds making my total for the month of march 24 pounds... which included what I lost for the two weeks of preop. WOO HOOO... Then the next week.. nothing.. the week after that NOTHING.. and after that STILL NOTHING... For the entire month of april I lost a whopping THREE POUNDS!!!! Now in in the first week of may, I've already lost three pounds-the same amount that I lost during the entire month of April and I expect this to be a good month for me. I also expect other "bad" months in my future. Stalls are normal! Even stalls of several weeks are normal... so sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!

BROTHS saved my life during liquid phase. Unflavored Protein powder in some chicken broth was such a nice break from all the sweet stuff I was drinking. just don't add too much powder.. unflavored does not mean tasteless... it HAS a taste so go easy with it. For puree... my favorite meal was curried lentils (lentils cooked in tomoes, garlic, ginger, indian spices) topped with cheese and greek yogurt.... don't knock it till you try it. Also eggs were on my puree list. scrambled eggs with a bit of refried Beans and Frank's red hot sauce.. yummm Oh and hummus is yummus all by itself! Cottage cheese(use 1% or at least try to drain some of the whey off) topped with spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese and a few shreds of mozzarella. microwave.. enjoy For me meats were not allowed on my puree phase, even if they were pureed so I didn't have any, but if you are allowed pureed meats during this time, people have been raving about puree'd chili

Me too... but I love the whole egg.... Eat the whole egg!

I like to think in terms of good, better, best... it's GOOD to take your vitamins all at once.. but it's better to try to divide them if you can.... if you can't, then settle for the good, at least you know you're getting them in.. but do remember about the not combining iron and calcium... I take my iron just before bed that way I know there's no conflict.

Myfitness pal allows you to do that.. click on goals and then choose the manual entry.. you can adjust your percentages until it's giving you the appropriate number of protein grams.

Right you are! If you make your own yogurt, you actually get less lactose than store bought because you control how long the yogurt processes and the yogurt cultures eat up a good portion of lactose.. Store bought yogurt processes for less time and also frequently has added starches for thickness so more sugars. Straining the whey off of yogurt to make greek style yogurt will also reduce the lactose in your yogurt because the whey has a higher proportion of lactose in it than the rest of the yogurt... Oh my gosh, I'm such a nerd.. why do I know this stuff?

I was required to take an acid blocker for the first month following surgery and then play it by ear from there.. I haven't had any acid problems since I stopped taking it three weeks ago. If I do have any issues, I just need to take a 14 day course of omeprezole (sp?) from walgreens and go from there. There ARE certain foods that for me do trigger reflux.. or at least they did in the pre-sleeve world, fortunately it was all food that I'm avoiding now anyway so no problems for me!

I'm 7 weeks out and I log all my food and yes, I stick to a set amount of calories/protein grams etc.. but OMG it's SO MUCH EASIER than in the pre-sleeve world..

Being constipated was quite a shock to me.. I've never EVER in my entire adult life been constipated until after my sleeve surgery..I went from being a 3 a day girl to not moving for nearly a week... it was quite the rude awakening! I'm now 7 weeks out and fortunate enough to be tolerating all foods. My movements are MUCH more regular now that I'm eating veggies and including 2 Tablespoons of chia seeds in my afternoon lemon Water. I don't go three times a day anymore, but I go almost every day without discomfort.

OMG GRINDERS.. not girders! and Drinking fountains are properly called Bubblers..... And clam chowder must never EVER EVER have tomatoes in it... Are you writing this down?

I did three and a half months of an 800 calorie 80 grams of Protein VLCD and lost 45 pounds before surgery. I also ate a very anti-inflammatory diet. The effectiveness of this is controversial but I believed it helped me. I did not eat any grain products. I ate a lot of leafy greens and on most days I enjoyed a kale/ginger/lemon juice which is SUPER anti-inflammatory... I did this for more than three months leading up to my surgery. The day after my surgery I had a problem with my IV and the nurses could not get a decent vein. I had just passed my leak test so I asked my doctor if I could just try drinking all my fluids and maybe we could skip the IV.. he didn't think it was possible since I had already started to become dehydrated due to my IV drip stopping during the night, but he agreed to let me try and he was SHOCKED that I drank 80 ounces of Water that first day and I swallowed my pills easily too. On the day of my discharge from the hospital, the doctor checked my incisions and was surprised that they were healed enough to not require covering. My discharge instructions said to keep them covered with clean bandages for a few more days.. but he crossed that out and said since they're already healed that I only needed to cover the one where he had just removed the drain. Like I said, maybe it was just luck and I'm just a fast healer, but I like to believe that my preop preparation had something to do with it. Then again, there are people who do no preop diet at all and heal super fast too so what do I know!

Unless you're from New England and over the age of 40, then it's called "tonic"

I'm only seven weeks out and I could definitely eat enough of the wrong foods even this early on to gain weight if I wasn't careful to use my sleeve in the way it was intended.

For many people the preop is the hardest part.. I didn't cheat on my preop BUT I was fortunate to have had a LOT of experience with liquid diets, juice fasting, etc so this kind of diet was nothing new to me.. for many people, this is a completely new experience and it takes PRACTICE.. nobody gets sleeved because they have perfect mastery over their diets. My favorite quote is by Samuel Beckett "ever tried. ever failed. try again. fail again. fail better. " I think this is really how most of us deal with this journey in reality. We WILL fail at some point.. either in the preop or at sometime later.. but we need to keep trying and keep planning how we will fail better next time.. as long as you do that, in the end you WILL succeed.

I was bordering on euphoric after surgery... but at certain times during my preop... I was soooo hangry that chubby babies and fluffy kittens annoyed me. I guess it hits us at different times!

Nah... I still eat the black widow infested grapes.. I'm just not dedicated enough to give them up yet.

I'm talking about the ones who preach that NONE of us must ever drink soda ever again and if you do, you're somehow not dedicated to the process or you are somehow automatically backsliding into emotional eating or binging. I think it's fantastic if an individual chooses to avoid certain foods that are a problem for him/her... but what I'm saying is that these foods are not the same for all people and you should not be measuring others by your own yard stick. Soda is legitimately a big problem for some people and they can't have "just a little" so YAY for them for giving it up completely! If you don't want to drink it anymore because of chemicals then great. We should all give up soda, artificial sweeteners, natural sweeteners, wheat, commercial meat, deli meats with nitrates, excess sodium, imported grapes with black widow spiders in them, all refined grains, brominated bread etc.. But the truth is that 99.99% of us are not going to do that.. I've given up a lot of these things but I'm choosing my battles and for me, soda consumed in moderation (which for ME moderation means about two sodas a month) is something that I will choose to do if I want it... while other things are definitely on the "no go" list for me!

I've posted at two different weights there and will post my pic again in another 10 pounds. I love to try to get an idea of what I'll look like at the different weights!