BigDaddyJoe

Thanks for the advice guys. I hear what you're all saying, but it is still upsetting knowing how hard this all is. I even told my wife last night that I "miss my stomach". I'd love to be able to eat a slice of pizza. I'm sure I'll look back and probably won't even remember this, and it does seem like a normal thing that people go through, so I won't stress about it too much. Someone in the forum said that as fat cells shrink, they fill up with water. Then, all of a sudden they let go of the water. True or not, I'm accepting that explanation, eases my mind a bit.

I'm getting in 64 oz of fluid. My blood pressure medication also has a water pill, so I doubt I'm retaining water.

I'm exactly 2 weeks post op. I lost 9 lbs on the 1 week pre op diet, then 9 days post op I was down a total of 25 lbs, meaning 16 lbs lost in the 9 days post op. I didn't weigh myself for 5 days, and weighed in tonight, and I actually gained 2 lbs in those 5 days! I'm following the nutrition recommendations to the letter, so I'm not sure what that's about. Kind of disheartening. It has been a lot of work to comply with everything, and I expected to see better results.

Ok, I said I wasn't gonna weigh myself until Sunday, but I at least made it through the work week without weighing. I got on the scale, and was 2 lbs heavier than I was 5 days ago! How is that even possible, if I'm only getting in 400-500 calories a day? This is a lot of work, complying with all of the nutrition recommendations. I'm doing everything exactly as they say. Hard not to be upset or discouraged.

I had some tuna fish last night (chopped in the blender, of course). I had eaten some the night before with no problems, although it did give me a heavy feeling in my chest. Last night, I ate it, and got the heavy feeling in my chest and some bad hiccups/burps. I would get them in the past if I don't drink while eating, so figured it would be a problem after surgery because of not being able to eat and drink at the same time. I'm not sure if I'm just not ready to eat tuna yet, if I ate too much, or ate too fast. The hiccup burps got so bad that I took a couple sips of water hoping to make them go away, even though I knew I wasn't supposed to. It didn't help. A couple minutes later, I started getting a nauseous feeling, mouth started watering, etc, and I knew what was coming. So, I walked to the bathroom and vomited. I felt so much better afterwards. I guess I need to be more careful about what/how much/how fast I eat.

Starting the 4th day after surgery, I was the EXACT same weight (to the 10th of a pound) for 4 straight days. I got frustrated. Then the next morning I got on the scale and I was 5 lbs lighter! That's when I decided to stop weighing every day, because it is counterproductive. I'm going to weigh myself once a week, on Sunday mornings. Weight loss isn't a linear process, there are peaks and valleys.

Dan, I just had surgery 12 days ago, and am also hoping to get off the CPAP machine. I'll be watching this thread to see if anyone responds. I definitely would not just go stop using it without having another sleep study to make sure it would be safe. Talk to your doctor.

My doctors went to great lengths to explain all the risks involved, and also made me sign all kinds of paperwork saying that I understood those risks. They also go to great lengths to minimize any chance of complications. We all knew there was a statistical chance for complications, or even death, before agreeing to do this. Try not to focus on one person, and instead focus on the hundreds of success stories on here. Even people who have had complications say that they don't regret doing it, that its the best thing they've ever done, and that they'd do it again. Stay positive, it could help your outcome!

DVT's are a possibility in any operation. They are even possible from long car rides or airplane rides. That's why they use the compression boots (at least my hospital did), and they want us to get up and walk as often as possible.

Newgrandmother, I didn't do anything different.

Well, after 4 days of being the exact same weight, I woke up this morning 5 lbs less than yesterday. Makes no sense to me, but I'll take it. That puts me at 249 lbs, 25 less than my pre op high of 274. I've decided to start weighing myself only once a week. It won't be easy, but obsessing over the scale can be counterproductive. I just needed to see it move after being the same for 4 days. Since I weighed in this morning, I guess I'll make Sunday my day.

Carols, I'm a mouth breather also, but the pressure forces me to keep my mouth closed. I don't have to use a chin strap at all.

My wife is scheduled to be sleeved in April, so she is a month behind me. She seems convinced that our marriage is going to be affected by our weight loss. We've seen people's personalities change as a result of weight loss surgery, and we've even seen it destroy a couple marriages. In each of those cases, it was only one person who had the surgery, and their newfound confidence from their new bodies led to them going out with friends more often, and tore the marriages apart. My wife and I have been married for almost 13 years now, and together for 17. We have three amazing children. We've endured some crap in those 17 years, and nothing has torn us apart to this point. I don't see it being an issue, and was surprised when she would keep bringing it up. But I'm afraid that she is so convinced of it, and is looking for any tiny change in my personality as proof, that it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. We were both skinny when we met, right around our goal weights we'd like to achieve now. She was always insecure back then, even though she is a gorgeous woman and I'm the one who had reasons to be insecure. In a way, I was relieved to be heavy, because no one would want me, so her insecurity and jealousy basically went away. She has already pointed to a couple of things since surgery (just 8 days ago!) that she says are evidence of me 'changing'. The first is that she said that she "didn't feel the love" when she was there for me in the hospital. I'm not sure what she was expecting - the first day I felt like I was going to die, and wanted nothing but to sleep. The second thing is that I've said (apparently too many times) that she'll "understand soon". It is just that it is hard for me to verbalize all the things I'm going through, and I meant that she will understand it when she has her surgery. I meant it as a positive thing, that we would have shared experiences and be able to discuss them. I guess I didn't articulate it how it sounded in my head, and it just ended up annoying her and pissing her off. So I've been careful to avoid saying anything like that again. Also compounding things is the fact that I was more comfortable sleeping sitting up on the couch with my feet up on the ottoman. I have yet to make it a full night in our bed. I tell her it's not her, I just find it easier to sleep that way for now. Also compounding things is my lack of energy and irritability from the extremely low caloric intake. I hope that her negativity doesn't doom us. If I'm only 8 days out and we're having issues like this already, are we in trouble? Only time will tell, I suppose. But I sure hope not. I love her more than anything, and wouldn't ever want our children to suffer.

Thanks crossfit. I have several different brands of protein powder. I don't want to replace the milk with water, as that will lessen the amount of protein. I have been 'watering' them down by adding extra milk, and that does help some.

They had me on Prevacid IV during my 2 days at the hospital. They gave me a prescription for something called Dexilant, but said that I could continue taking my Prilosec prescription if I preferred. The Prilosec capsules are larger than what they say we should be swallowing, and the bottle specifically says not to crush them. So my wife went to fill the Dexilant prescription, and when I open it, guess what they were? Capsules! I cut open the capsule and emptied out the little balls inside into a tiny bit of liquid. I would drink the liquid and the little balls were all still stuck to the bottom of the medicine cup. I had to scoop them out and swallow them with a sip of Water. I decided this was stupid, and haven't taken it since. I haven't had any issues with reflux since the surgery.

I used to 'rice' cauliflower in a food processor when I was on Atkins. A great substitute for rice, and you can use it in any dish you would normally use rice for.

After dropping 20 lbs in total from the pre op diet and first few days after surgery, I've weighed exactly 254.7 for the past 3 days. A stall during the first week post op? A bit discouraging. I spent a couple hours last night reading these forums about people's stalls. I guess I need to not obsess about the scale, and let things happen in their own time. I believe it's physically impossible not to lose weight with the small amount of calories I've been taking in. I am very moody and irritable today, even getting annoyed if my kids try to talk to me. I'm not sure what that's about, that's not my normal. I guess I'll attribute it to the diet. I've progressed to the stage 2 of the the post op diet, mushy or puréed foods. I went to the grocery store to pick up some things that sounded good from the list - low fat cream soups, instant grits. I also went to GNC and picked up a case of the Isopure bottles. Expensive, but I like them better than the powdered shakes which seem too sickeningly sweet to me now. 40 g of Protein and 20 oz of liquid simultaneously? Win-win. I got the Alpine Punch flavor, really only because it was the only one there was a full case of, and it's not bad. There are some other flavors I'd like to try also. My first mushy food was the instant grits. I only was able to eat 4 spoonfuls, and I put the rest into a container for another time. I will probably try a soup at dinner time. I'm finding it very difficult to eat and drink enough, especially since I can't drink for 15 minutes before, or 45 minutes after eating something. That takes 3 hours out of the day where I can't drink anything. I was more thirsty than hungry at lunchtime, even after taking a couple hours to drink the 20 oz Isopure. So I drank instead of eating.

I keep telling myself that my body just needs time to adjust to the shock and trauma of surgery. I actually came home from the hospital 5 lbs heavier than when I went in. I'm sure the weight will start coming off, it's impossible for it not to with the amount we're able to take in. I may have actually been taking in too FEW calories, causing the body to try to hold on to what it has. I'm starting on mushy foods today, so hopefully I can get in some more calories.

I figured I'd be a fast loser, as I've always tended to lose (and gain it back) quickly. However, the last 3 mornings I've woken up the EXACT same weight, right down to the tenth of a pound. I spent a couple hours last night reading posts on here about stalls. Most people seem to get them around the third week, I haven't seen anyone say they stalled in the first week, and it is disheartening.

Kind of an amusing question, but I really want to know where weight goes when you lose it? I learned in high school science class that matter can't be created or destroyed. If I go to bed, then wake up 4 lbs lighter, where did those 4 lbs go? I didn't pee them out. Do they get converted to energy? Sometimes I feel like they're being passed out of my mouth in the form of bad breath.

I can honestly say today that I feel almost like I never even had surgery. The tightness in my belly is basically gone. Still a tiny bit in the first step out of bed or off the couch, or when I twist a certain way. But other than that, I feel back to normal. I was actually able to sleep on my side for a bit last night. This is a huge milestone for me! I hate being confined to my back. I might normally end up on my back at times throughout the night, but not being able to change positions was hard, and made sleeping for any length of time hard. Wow, has the bad breath returned with a vengeance. I had it appear around day 4 or 5 of he pre-op diet, and now it is back. My wife can smell it from halfway across the room as I talk. I asked the doctor about it yesterday afternoon, and he seemed surprised by my question and asked if I was having reflux. I told him that I thought it was from ketosis, and he said it would probably go away once I am able to expand my diet some. We'll see. Returning to work on Monday will be embarrassing if people can smell it just by coming into my office. I had a nurse come to my house yesterday afternoon with a new CPAP machine. I think this is going to be much easier than the last one I had. I gave it a shot last night, and it started out well. The mask I picked is just a nasal pillow mask with one strap, as opposed to the torture device I used to have, that covered my mouth and nose and had multiple straps and always left a red line on my forehead. I lasted 4.5-5 hours with it, which is longer than I ever lasted with the old one. I woke around 2:30 am and felt like someone punched me in the nose, so not sure what that's about. The nurse said not to try overdoing it at first, do it as long as you can then try again the next night. She said not to get discouraged and give up on it like a lot of people do. Hopefully I will lose weight and not need it anymore.

To chime in on the hungry vs full thing, I'm not sure I've felt actual hunger yet. And because I have yet to eat any real food, I'm not sure we will get a full feeling yet either.

Lorac, it did feel good, therapeutic almost, to put it all down into words. It took me 2 hours to get it to where I was happy with it. I wrestled with whether I would actually post it or not. It was agonizing awaiting for the responses to start coming in. I'm a bit disappointed that most of the responses so far have been from my 'extended' Facebook friends (people I knew in high school, people who friended me because I played on 2 songs on a cd by their favorite band, etc.). Most of the people I care about from my 'real' life have been silent. Maybe they haven't seen it yet, I don't know. My brother did make a comment that he was proud of me for making a difficult decision that would positively impact my life. Pantala, I don't mind at all! Feel free to steal as much as you like. While I may have put things down in words, these experiences or feelings are not unique to me at all. We are all on this site to help each other. I would even say that coming here and reading the forums and talking to people has helped me sort through my feelings and get to the point where I could put them all down on 'paper'.