SerendipityHappens

Uh, no cracked ribs here but I'd take the pain from VSG surgery over a sprained ankle! That was MY experience.. Unfortunately not everyone has the same experience so you really can't compare.. I mean there are people who can barely get out of bed and are dry heaving for days.. All I had was a few waves of nausea and some stomach spasms that went away pretty quickly.

could be... also ketosis can make your pee stink... oh and vitamins.. vitamins can make pee stink... and some vitamins make it neon yellow.. that's fun too.

She did say why already. It's in the thread.

Congratulations on starting this exciting process... Your friend may come around. It's quite a shock to some people. If she's truly a good friend, once she's over the shock, she'll strive to understand why you're having the surgery and she'll support you...

The chews I found at costco were calcium carbonate. Viactive is calcium carbonate.. I have not found any other chews or gummies other than bariatric specific chews available online that were calcium citrate. (vitafusion gummies are not calcium citrate) I am taking citrical petites and puritain's pride minis... they are smaller in size.. I take six per day spread out throughout the day... ALSO, you don't have to do the chews if you don't want to , Bariatric Advantage makes wafers in many flavors that are a lot cheaper and have fewer calories than the chews.

I just shortened my straps.. WOW it was like a miracle.

If all you have is a dunkin donuts.. you can just order an egg with cheese on it. They have wakeup wraps and bagel sandwiches with egg.. so they'll sell you just the egg with cheese if you ask.

YAY! I've been fortuntate to have never had trouble getting out of the tub even at 360 pounds..... but I am eagerly awaiting the day when I'm no longer a human dam!

After you put them in your drink wait 20 minutes.. they expand get gelatinous and remind me of fish eggs or tapioca beads. They have a nice flavor.... ya know.. kind of like seeds... I buy mine from a nice Amish lady at the farmer's market... but you can get them at any health food store, most big grocery stores and of course online.

Not to mention that Mexico sleevers are SELF PAY. I don't know about other self pay people.. but parting with $5,000 was a REALLY big deal. I had to make sure I wanted the surgery pretty bad and that I thought I could make it work for me before I forked over the dough!

I'm three weeks post op and I've been blessed with a perfect recovery so far. My sleeve has agreed with everything I've given her as I've advanced my diet.. No sliming, no pain, nada.. I have very little hunger. I have almost no swelling of my sleeve I can drink big gulps if I want. I can eat 2-3 ounces of meat or half a cup of cottage cheese, or one egg with cheese and 1/4 cup Beans... and I'm satisfied with these portions.. If I was one of those who could only eat a tablespoon of food, I think I'd be struggling more than I am, but I'm really happy so far with my eating and appetite and I feel great. I did go through a period during the first week where I was like WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST DO?????? The permanence of what I had done was really sinking in but now I'm over the initial shock and am really happy with my limited capacity for food!

I've been noticing it too. Of course I expect that someone who has serious complications might regret the surgery, but I've been seeing it from those who regret it because they aren't losing fast enough, miss eating, hate that they don't enjoy food anymore, feel hungry all the time, think they can eat too much, hate chewing their food, etc... Most of the regrets I'm seeing lately seem to stem from folks not psychologically dealing with being sleeved.

YAY!!!!! I LOVE to hear about people getting that horrid thing CUT OFF!!! You've worked so hard to lose the weight, I'm so happy to hear that you'll be able to get rid of the pani and enjoy the results! Can't wait to be rid of mine!

I'm very happy to give my opinion as it is something that I've really struggled with during this process. Prior to beginning my preop way back in December, I was enjoying very little processed food and lots of whole foods.. AND lots of vegetable juices that I would press myself. Even though my diet was relatively free from processed foods, I still ate way more than I should.. especially grains.. BREAD was my big downfall. I really hate artificial sweeteners and stuff like that and try to stay away from them and I didn't really eat a lot of things that were sweetened in any way... to me I didn't need it as long as I had my glorious BREAD. When I started my preop, I knew that I'd have to go very low carb in order to stick with 800 calories a day for 3.5 months... so I used stevia as my main sweetener, and bought jay robb Protein powder because it used stevia... I did cut back on much of the veggie juice, opting instead for a few ounces of kale and ginger juice added to my Protein drinks. I didn't have any starchy vegetables or grains of any kind.. meaning NO BREAD! Also, I had just a little bit of fat.. a handful of nuts maybe and that was it.. With only 800 calories a day, you don't really have a lot of room to eat a lot of carbs OR fat! During my first week post op, I went ahead and did sugar-free everything.. I had to look for stuff without aspartame because too much gives me a headache. I figure, it's just for a short while until I can enjoy a full menu of foods again. This week I was cleared to include soft meats.. I have been enjoying a weird food called "hot bologna" which is mostly scraps and organ meats that are made into bologna sausage and pickled. Definitely not something I'd ordinarily select.. but since I'm somewhat limited, I don't mind having it for a few weeks. Once I can have stuff like chicken and beef.. Hot bologna will be off the menu. As for the main question of low fat vs low carb.. Personally, I just believe in getting in the protein and eating the rest in non-processed healthy foods and being mindful to keep the calories at a reasonable amount. There are some things that I do low fat.. for example, I do PB2 instead of Peanut Butter... and I do 2% cottage cheese instead of full-fat cottage cheese... But once I'm cleared to eat them again I'll also have no problem enjoying a nice handful of fatty nuts.... or some olive oil on my salad... as long as it's measured and accounted for... I'm also not against carbs.. I look forward to summer peaches and also to being able to enjoy my delicious vegetable juices again. Both are high in carbs, but I'm fine with that... I'm NOT fine with breads and pastas and cereals.. those are off the menu permanently as there is very little nutritive value in them.

My doctor told me that for the first two weeks he wanted me taking short frequent walks but beyond that he wanted me on the couch resting.. no long shopping trips, no brisk walks for exercise.. After two weeks he said I can walk as much as I want and briskly if I feel comfortable but no jogging (yeah, like THAT'S going to happen anyway) and no gym. He said after 6 weeks I can do equipment/classes at the gym and at 8 weeks I can go in the pool.

I just graduated to being able to eat fish and soft meats.. and this is the first time I've felt restriction.. When I was eating purees, I didn't feel it and I DEFINITELY didn't feel it with fluids. All these people who could only eat a Tablespoon of purees.. and I could down half a cup... I felt like my sleeve was defective or something... but now with "real foods" I can finally feel the restriction.

I had heard the same about Mi but in the case of Mi it is NOT true, I did not see any place where they could treat "all kinds of patients" right now it is strictly bariatric and they have a one bed ICU just in case it's needed. I was actually a bit relieved when I didn't see all kinds of patients at Mi... I mean.. the LAST thing I wanted to be exposed to when I'm having surgery is SICK people!

This is how we roll in Harrisburg..

I'd totally be chowing down on beans! YUM. Also canned chicken is really soft and delish.. The walmart brand is good. There are also little cans of ham spread that you can get. I've been really enjoying hot pickled bologna.. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but it is convenient and tasty and makes me feel like I'm having a normal snack.. and 90 calories worth has 10 grams of Protein. Bring some shelf stable cheese wedges too.. also what about pickled eggs? Also, if you want to heat stuff up, you can just set up a little pocket stove over some sterno.. Sterno is cheap at the dollar store and you can get the pocket stove for a couple of bucks at any outdoor supply store.. or just rig something up yourself to keep your can above your sterno flame... if you go this route, you'll also be opening yourself up to the possibilities of things like powdered eggs or instant oatmeal.

At Mi I could communicate just fine with the nurses. A few didn't speak much English but most could. I'd say 75% of the nurses there could speak a decent amount of English. I agree that the bed was not very comfortable though.. it wasn't absolute torture, but definitely not a great bed IMHO. ... Traffic noises weren't an issue, I knew Mi was near a noisy street so I brought earplugs. Also, it was very clean and we all had private rooms with private bathrooms with huge showers.

So since being sleeved three weeks ago today, I have not felt restriction. I could drink fluids freely even in the hospital and can pretty much gulp Water now about half a cup at a time if I want.. When I added yogurts and cottage cheese, I'd measure a half cup and I could just eat the whole thing. On my first day of pureeds I ate a soft scrambled egg and 1/4 cup of refried Beans and yeah, it left me satisfied, but that's way more than most people say they eat at this stage. I started thinking there's something wrong with me!. Today I graduated to soft meats and fish.... I ate a 1.5 ounce piece of hot bologna (it's a weird spicy canned meat) and as I was chewing the last bite, I actually spit it out because I felt FULL. For dinner at had 2 ounces of salmon and again opted to spit out that last carefully chewed bite in order to avoid overstuffing myself. YAY! FINALLY after 21 days I feel like I finally know what it FEELS like to be SLEEVED.. and it feels AWESOME!

I booked an extra day in the hotel just to be on the safe side. I was two nights in the hospital and then three nights in the hotel. I had absolutely no problems with my San Deigo-Boston flight. I just made sure my carry on was very light and I checked my bag with my clothes in it. Walking around the airport was no problem at all and I didn't have to rush at all since my driver got me there about two hours before my flight. I bought three bottles of Vitamin Water zero's once I was through security and I drank one while waiting for the plane and the other two while I was in flight (yeah, I never had a problem drinking) Really I was DREADING flying both before and after surgery but ESPECIALLY after... it really wasn't bad at all. I was quite comfortable on the plane. The seatbelt goes around the lower abdomen and you don't have any incisions lower than your belly button so the seatbelt was not uncomfortable in the slightest. I got an aisle seat so I could get up and walk a LOT during the flight since I am petrified of developing DVT

I LOVE chia seeds and used them faithfully during the 16 weeks leading up to my surgery. I can't have seeds until 7 weeks post op but look forward to including them again in my diet. The health benefits are TOTALLY worth the calories.. and they taste great in my vegetable juice!

TJ Marriott is VERY nice. It is comparable to what you would find at the Marriott in any major US city. Extremely safe place.. great staff... I paid extra for an extra night at the Marriott because I didn't know how recovery would be and I was flying all the way to Boston. Turns out I didn't "need" the extra night.. But I sure didn't mind it either! As for the MiDoctor hospital, I think you hit it right on the head. I have no complaints about the care I received there... but definitely not a "high end" hospital!

My journey was different. I knew I wasn't covered so I jumped right in to finding the best self-pay option for me.. The Bariatric program here would have cost $20,000... not an option.. I researched and researched and decided on a doctor in Mexico.. $4,500 including everything but airfare. (I had two nights in the hospital plus three hotel nights for recovery) If you hit a wall with insurance, don't give up. There are low cost options in the USA (Las vegas, Lousiana, texas) for around 10K... and even lower cost options in Mexico.. for under 5K. Where there is a will there is a way!