NurseGrace

I don't think of it as a "dark secret" at all, because I am not ashamed in any way whatsoever, however, I have made the choice not to tell many people at all. My mother and father know, my husband knows, close friend, and my husband told one of his friends so I am just going to assume that they all know as well. As far as the rest of my family, and coworkers go, I have not told and will not be sharing so far as I can see things right now. Should I change my mind then so be it, and I don't tiptoe around trying to make it look like I eat more than I do or anything like that but I am not opening myself up to all kinds of judgement and negativity like I did when I had lap band surgery.

Well you know Robyn, not everyone is going to fit into these little perfect BMI classifications. You are off all your meds and you have lost over 100 pounds and that is really significant You might need to just take a month or two, maintain, and let that all sink in. That being said, your still 75 pounds overweight technically, and if that is bothersome to you, then by all means, please, get to working on it. I'm just not so sure that you might not just need a break from weight loss mode. If you do need a break it's really important to continue to weigh in and make sure you are not gaining. If you are motivated to get back on track, I would recommend checking out myfitnesspal.com if you are not already on there. It's an excellent way to track all activity and calories.

I am not one to ever tell people to put their scale away, because I think that obesity should be monitored like any other health condition HOWEVER, this is why I advocate for weighing in ONCE weekly, on some kind of regular schedule like right when you wake up after you use the restroom stark naked. I relate to this, I am a little over two weeks out but I am a person who experiences a lot of Fluid retention based on sodium levels. For most people they have to eat QUITE a bit of salt to notice that effect but for me it's just more extreme due to genetics or something, I don't really know. You may also be more sensitive to this than you realize. This morning I stepped on the scale, and like you, saw a two pound gain and my heart sank but I know that its fluid and I need to practice what I preach.

well, in what sense of the term "not work"? There is a small section of the population that will have this surgery, experience major complications and therefor maybe not be as successful but if you have made it so far as to join a site like this you probably know that the sleeve is one of the safer surgeries in terms of complications. It is also true that some people have a higher capacity for food, even early out than others. So regardless you have to commit yourself to being mindful of calories, carbohydrates, Protein and fat to some extent. That being said, the sleeve is not likely to stretch on you. There are different schools of thought but my surgeon is of the opinion that you would basically have to be trying really hard to actually stretch it out. Of course, there are things you can do to facilitate that, like drinking beer, soda, and other carbonated beverages but even then, some people will tell you that its not possible. I take the middle of the road stance on that. I really frown on people talking about drinking soda here because I wonder why they had surgery if they want to still do things like that, and I do regard it as detrimental to some degree, but I don't think of it as the end of the world either. So I guess to sum it up, NO, I cannot give you any type of reasurance that no matter what you do, you are guaranteed to lose weight with this surgery, because you can fail. It's comes down to the choices you make. The "It's just a tool" line is so tired and I hate hearing it, reading, it and saying it, but there is truth to it. You're choices matter more than what surgery you decide to pick. If you have this surgery, then continue to eat the way you used to eat, push yourself total maxed-out capacity every single time you eat I am certain that anyone doing that would fail.

I put mine in the offcial thread but in case anyone is looking at this one instead I am user HolyPeas on myfitnesspal but I will warn you, I clean out my friends list from time to time so if you are inactive for more than three months or so I usually delete you, nothing personal, I just like to keep things active on that account.

wow, 44 pages of usernames, I will have to work through this over the next few days. I am user HolyPeas on MFP and I will take a friend request from just about anyone!

Hmmmm is your surgeon aware that you are still having that type of pain? I'm not trying to scare you or anything but it seems unusual.

I know, its kind of a dorky thing to be excited about but I drink a lot of coffee so I have to account for anything I add to it so I watch it like a hawk. Well, my life just got a lot easier.

nope its in the bottom of the cups, I always do cream before coffee

its dangerously good. Just be careful, its easy to eat too much because the avocado just kinda slides down (for me, anyway)

Honestly, when I had my band anyway, sometimes its just best if you can just make yourself throw up. I don't know how other people feel about that but I would rather just throw up and be done with it then lay around the bathroom being sick for hours.

Can you describe your pain? I was completely pain free by about day 8 or 9 Is your pain correlated with eating, or do you have general discomfort no matter what?

I am hesitant to admit this but the other day I had some frozen yogurt with my husband, not even a large quantity really, maybe 4 OZ... it went RIGHT through me, I felt like I was going to throw up... I won't be doing that again, not to mention its bad for weight loss.

So I am a night owl. It's about 9pm here in Kansas but I just woke up. Anyway, so I was making my 'morning' coffee and measuring out my coffee creamer as usual (I know I'm weird but I get crazy with that stuff if I'm not careful) ANYWAY, I noticed something very interesting. my go to coffee cup has a mark on the inside at the two tablespoon level. Intriguing, so I pulled out some of my other to go cups and they all have a faint line at the 2 tablespoon level. Is that on purpose or some kind of weird fluke? Maybe some kind of one ounce mark is just standard for travel cups?

nope. too much sugar, its not the ideal snack. try to find low carb things to eat. Also, I tried some of that and I felt horrible. So - voice of experience. Went right through me if you know what I mean.

weelllll fish and beans might not have been the best thing to start with. fish is more of a semi solid even though I know its allowed for must of us on the pureed stage it might not have been the right thing for day one you know what I mean? I have read of several people having a hard time with beans too. I can't think of anything off the top of my head for you to try right this moment but maybe other people can chime in with some ideas.

yeah my hospital room was SO loud. the pumps were loud, the bed made noises because it was one of those fancy ones that inflated and deflated randomly to take pressure off your back and stuff, the IV pumps made noise.... I still got plenty of sleep because I was on a morphine PCA but ear plugs might have been nice.

I'm on youtube a lot so if I run across him I will let you know.

yep oral iron will also make your tongue black. I have had a problem with a coating on my tongue but its from the low carb diet. my tongue scraper and tongue brush have been my friend since the preop diet started.

Yeast

YES! I forgot to type cilantro, cant have guac without that!

here in kansas we don't have a lot of good mexican food.

what the heck! its... amazing

I made the best guac yesterday so I thought I would share the recipe - its nearly identical to chipotle guacamole 4 avocados 2 medium sized de-seeded jalapenos 3 medium roma tomatoes 1 medium sized purple onion The juice of two limes SALT, guacamole is no good without salt half a cup or so of cilantro this makes a large bowl, maybe 4, or 5 cups, so feel free to scale down but my husband and I both love it on everything and I am early out of my surgery so adding guacamole to foods makes it more smooth and easier to eat. Lovely on a scrambled egg. I even put it in tomato Soup, as weird as that sounds its good. Of course we all know there is some fat in avocados so don't eat a mountain of it.

I found that hot packs on my shoulders were extremely comforting on my shoulders for the gas pain, nothing else really helped.