SerendipityHappens

I prefer to drink from a straw. I never was gassy from it even right after surgery. I think some people swallow a lot of air when they're using a straw, but I guess I don't. Or maybe I'm just not a gassy person.. I can also drink carbonated beverages without issue..I can even drink carbonated beverages through a straw without issue.... My doctor told me that straws and carbonated beverages are things that SOME people have issue with but if I don't have issue then it's no problem to use/drink them... except I was told no soda while the sleeve was healing for the first six weeks.

YAY! There was a time when I had outgrown most of the clothes at Lane Bryant and I was anxious to be able to shop there again... Now I find myself in 14/16 tops and 18 bottoms there... Almost time for me to graduate to "normal size" stores.(I'm actually in an XL in most tops at regular stores, but it will be a WHILE until I can fit a non-plus-size bottom) Can't wait to say goodbye to LB... I actually liked the style of most of the clothes.. but hated the feeling of limited selection.

I had similar concerns... even in the hospital I drank 80 ounces of water in a single day... I also ate at maximum ammounts when I was on purees and only stopped because the measured amount of food I gave myself was gone.... I didn't feel my restriction until I started eating chicken.. then it was like WAMMO! THERE IT IS!!!!!! Now I do little tricks to make myself feel restriction when I want to enjoy foods that "slide"... for example.. tortilla chips and cottage cheese are both sliders for me, BUT if I eat them together it sticks and gives me satiety with a small portion. Also a small amount of cashews at the end of a meal will help me feel full as well.

the worst is from one of my customers, an old Korean lady.."oh, you lose weight, you not so fat like before.. before you was SOOOOOOOOOOO FAAAAAAAT" (complete with hand gestures to illustrate exactly how fat I was. The best was from my Aunt who is extremely weight conscious. I figured she wouldn't even say anything since I'm still 244 pounds which is unthinkable in her book.. But she absolutely gushed about how great I look and she said that if I continued to lose weight that would be great, but even if I never lost another pound I look fantastic.. then I proceeded to get phone calls from my cousins who called me because my aunt had gone straight home and called them and gushed about how "thin" I was and how great I looked.

Since being sleeved (actually since I began my preparation for the sleeve and changed my diet)I only had to take one month of acid reducer and then about two months later I did one 14 day course of omeprezole. I am happily living reflux-free now! I credit dietary changes, loser fitting clothing and weight loss.... Pre-sleeve I had very bad reflux with episodes that would wake me in the night at least four times a week. The biggest changer for me was getting rid of wheat products which were the primary culprit causing my reflux. Also, if you have gerd/reflux many doctors will use a larger bougie which seems to help. I had a small bougie though since I lost weight and changed my diet PRIOR to being sleeved, my reflux was not an issue at the time of being sleeved.

My highest weight was 360 and a BMI of 60! I began this process at 335ish and my weight at surgery was 290. I wasn't told I HAD to lose weight in order to have the surgery, but I knew that surgery would be safer for me if I could shed even a little of my excess poundage first! I am currently 244 and a bit of a slow loser.. but the weight IS coming off.

hence why I waited until people started raving about how awesome and healthy I looked before telling them about my surgery or the fact that I had it in Mexico.

Uh, pre-sleeve I could EASILY have eaten that whole thing PLUS a side of toast.

Yup, I'm a juicer. I like a juice/smoothie hybrid. I juice my kale, ginger, citrus, apples or carrots, but I blend my bananas, peaches, avocados and berries. So I'll make the smoothie with the blended ingredients and mix it with a shot of juice. Best of both worlds.

Interesting topic. I am newly out of a relationship since being sleeved and YES I had settled for this man.. I don't know that it was because of my weight or just my situation in general that allowed me to feel so beaten down that I would settle..As for dating, YES dating is different.. and I'm still fat at 244 pounds! I just started dating someone new and it's rather unnerving because I know he wouldn't have been interested in me at 360 pounds, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that he's so interested in me at 244 pounds because he's NOT a chubby chaser. He's also ridiculously good looking, financially solvent, no kids, a former elite athlete who still keeps in good shape, and he's 7 years younger than me...YES, I do feel he's way out of my league.. I posted in the powder room about how we haven't "done the deed" because I am having a hard time being comfortable enough with my body to allow that to happen. Which is TOTALLY new to me.. When I was 360 pounds, I was not shy about my body at all... and now all I can think is he's going to get one look at my flabby pannus and saggy granny titties and bolt!

Yesterday was the first day I even let him see me in my workout clothes (sans body shaper so he might have an idea now that stuff under there is jiggly and that I do indeed sport a lovely pannus) but he's actually never seen anything that's going on under my clothes.... I'm also fighting with the fact that he's 7 years younger than me, a former athlete on his countries national team AND ridiculously handsome (like imagine james franco and george clooney had a baby together)UGGGGGH.

So I'm starting a new relationship and am soooooooooooo self conscious that we have not even "done the deed" yet because I can't bring myself to expose my naked body! I've NEVER EVER EVER had this issue, At 360 pounds, men knew what they were getting when the clothes came off.. and my body looked like what they were hoping for.. somewhat full breasts, my skin was filled out, and relatively un-cottage cheese like... but now.. my thighs are wrinkly.. my belly is hanging lower than ever.. my breasts are more like breastcicles. I am so not used to this feeling.. I've always been an uninhibited "lights-on" kind of woman but now I'm like a fish out of Water. Just the thought of anyone seeing my nekkid body makes me want to vomit.. and that's not exactly sexy. Anyone go through this? Really it's bothering me a lot.

Soft scrambled eggs were one of the first foods I ate at 3 weeks.. following one week of clears and one week of liquids.

You may have a very short stomach which gives you an exceptionally small sleeve. My doctor made my sleeve tight with a 32 bougie AND an oversew and I still have a large sleeve because my stomach is LONG... I can VERY comfortably eat six ounces... and there are some who have longer stomachs than me who can eat even MORE... AND, there are some who had larger bougies combined with larger stomachs... so I can see why PERHAPS this might be an option for some people.

Your sleeve is less inflamed now. It's normal for thin liquids to go down fast. Even in the hospital I had no issues drinking. How much you can drink is not indicative of sleeve size. It's just an indicator of how inflamed your sleeve is in the days and weeks following surgery.

I've been enjoying the occasional restaurant meal since 6 weeks out and I'm now 5 months out. I can eat more than a few bites... more like nearly a cup of food and I enjoy every bite immensely.... also as much as I do enjoy cooking I also enjoy a night off once in a while and I definitely enjoy a break from the dishes/clean up. As for sushi, I'm not a fan so I wouldn't choose to eat sushi... but I do LOVE the ginger chicken at the Vietnamese place up the street.. and I even eat a few bites of the rice noodles with my chicken. My boyfriend and I share an entree. The waiter happily brings me an extra plate and I portion off around 2/3 cup of chicken and a few tablespoons of rice noodles and we enjoy our meal and evening out.

I struggle with moderation with certain things and for me it HAS gotten easier. I can eat half a serving of doritos with my cottage cheese whereas before I would eat half of a family size bag and still want more. I can also have a small piece of chocolate on occasion.. I even had a scoop of ice cream when I was out with my sisters yesterday and I didn't spiral out of control (I actually ate about half and threw the rest out). For me it has to do with not only WHAT I eat but also the circumstances. If I'm feeling at all anxious or "binge-y" I know that giving in to some chocolate or chips will definitely act as a trigger.. BUT, if I pre-plan to have 70 calories worth of Doritos with my lunch, I am now able to eat them in moderation. I still have to be very careful as I know that certain foods can be a slippery slope but for me the sleeve is indeed helping me to learn moderation.. YMMV

The USDA food wheel and food pyramid... especially the recommendation of 6-11 servings of grains.

Five incisions including the drain site. None of the incisions were in the bellybutton. They range in size from less than half an inch to about an inch and a half. I had internal dissolvable sutures and glue on the outside. All incision sites are just little pink lines now and are fading nicely.

Tacos.. Tacos ALWAYS look good to me.

Honestly, I'd just get a new PCP. For me, my WLS is such a major aspect of my healthcare right now, I need a doctor who understands the procedure and is supportive.

I can eat a lot compared with most sleevers also. My sleeve comfortably holds six ounces of dense protein or about a cup of "mixed food" and I could fit more in there if I pushed it, but of course I'm not going to do that. I am five months out and have been eating the same amounts of food at a sitting since about two months and during the past three months I haven't felt any increase in the amount need to eat in order to get the queue that I'm full.

I tolerate everything I've tried. I have not tried bread or regular Pasta due to being sensitive to wheat but I've had rice noodles with no issue and I've had corn tortillas without issue either. Nuts make me feel full very VERY quickly.. like a half an ounce of nuts and I'm DONE. It's not a problem.. it's actually quite welcome since with most other things I can eat far more than most other sleevers.

Jay Robb is fairly natural. I use mostly Jay Robb and also sometimes Isopure. The Chocolate Jay Robb tastes like chocolate milk when mixed with milk.. the Vanilla is good mixed in coffee.. The strawberry tastes a bit weird, but is good if I make a frozen shake with half a banana some milk vanilla extract and ice. Pina colada flavor was not pleasant and I didn't love the orange dreamcicle either. www.jayrobb.com