TES

LOL--"after a bowl of popcorn"--I'm rolling over here! Keep up the great work, Seanja.

My surgeon doesn't allow most of the foods that you list here for the first 4 months, because conservatively speaking, the staple line may still be healing until then and the foods can get caught. After 4 months, he has no restrictions. His guidelines are based on evidence-based medicine. However, I don't think it ever hurts if you want to be more conservative. With that said, I am comfortable following my surgeon's guidelines and chewing very well and eating anything like this in moderation. I do worry when I hear of people eating celery or popcorn a few weeks post-op. That is really tempting fate. Sure, they could do it and nothing might happen--but that doesn't mean others should do the same. No one wants to be the one with a painful, life-altering complication. (And obviously some people have complications thru no fault of their own--but I think it's good to control whatever we can.)

Way to go, Sleeve!

* fewer than 5% of people who lose weight thru lifestyle alone keep it off * you make healthful choices every day about what you choose to eat--Protein, veggies, etc. You could eat junk like chips, sweets, and sugar-laden drinks and not lose or gain, but you choose not to do it. * it's your butt out there working out, not the surgeon's, hospital's, or anyone else's. Some people aren't worth educating, but I think it's inexcusable that a healthcare professional would say things like this to you.

yay! congrats on not being obese, Laura!! That is an awesome accomplishment.

oh no...LOL. Please look at the BMI links! Or go to the NHLBI homepage (www.nhlbi.nih.gov) and click on Tools link under Physician Resources. Everyone with a BMI of 30 or above is obese. There is no room for interpretation. This is a medical fact.

Day 2 is awful!! But this too shall pass. It gets better every day.

the link does work and it's a .gov URL--it has an extension at the end bc it's a subpage of www.nhlbi.nih.gov. If you want, you could go to the home page and navigate to the BMI calculator that way--it will still get you to the same place. I am going to chalk all of this up to the fact that it looks like you had surgery about a week ago and you are probably still on full liquids. I remember that time well and it was very trying! I hope that you are doing well. Wishing you all the best.

Feb 5, 2013

Actually, the web Site with the BMI calculator is part of www.nhlbi.gov--which is the NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is an authoritative government resource and the gold standard for physicians and insurance companies to calculate BMIs. I am not trying to hurt your feelings, I just wanted you to understand that a 30 BMI or above is obese at ANY height, because the BMI calculator includes both weight and height in the calculation. I think what you may be confused about is that a specific weight may not be obese, depending on the person's height. That is why a BMI calculator is helpful. Also, I am not trying to argue with you, but I do think it's important to correct a misstatement such as a 30 BMI can be underweight depending on your height--so other people reading the thread who don't know a lot about BMIs aren't misinformed. I wasn't assuming re: the OP's BMI--I calculated it based on the weight and height and total weight loss the OP provided, using the NHLBI BMI calculator. I agree that seeing the incorrect BMI in the initial post was confusing, and I did comment on it in my first response to the OP. As for medical advice, the only thing I recommended to the OP is that she see talk to her surgeon and/or see a gastroenterologist who has specialty knowledge in bariatric surgical patients.

LOL thanks Laura!! I was starting to feel like I was in an alternate universe!!!

LOL thanks Laura!! I was starting to feel like I was in an alternate universe!!!

P.S.--the preop BMI she listed was obviously a typo, since the exact weight and weight loss were listed. It most likely was meant to be 33, not 53, a rounding of the 32.4 number.

You are confused. Not all WEIGHTS are obese at a specific height, but a BMI inherently has already considered the person's height and weight (that's why you put both into a BMI calculator). Her BMI pre-op was 32.4, and ANY BMI or 30 or above is obese according to NHLBI categories, which are universally used by physicians and insurance companies. Here you go: http://www.nhlbi.nih...BMI/bmicalc.htm http://www.nhlbi.nih...ity/bmi_tbl.htm

You definitely don't want to buy the ticket any less than 14 days out if you can help it....

Good old Quaker non-instant. Can you use almond or soy milk?

A BMI of 30 or over, no matter your height, IS obese (BMI calculations take height into consideration). We are talking pre-op weight here--not current weight. Obesity brings increased health risk at 32.4. As I mentioned, Cleveland Clinic just did its first bariatric surgery this week on someone with a BMI under 35--his BMI was 33, so it was similar to the OP's. The surgery looks like it will be ending many years of severe insulin-dependent diabetes that were perpetuated by his excess weight.

Did you ask AT&T about switching to a plan that includes US and Mexico just for the days that you are going to be there? You would just need to make sure to call and cancel once you get home. Then the per-minute rate is a lot lower. That is what I have done when I go on vacation in Mexico. I have Verizon, but my friend did it too and she had AT&T (unfortunately she forgot to cancel for a 1 year after we got back--she found out when she went in to add it before our next trip!!).

They aren't the best choice because they have little if any protein and are higher in carbs. Post-op you should focus on high protein with the little room you'll have in your swollen, smaller stomach.

When juicing, be sure to avoid spinach and rhubarb if you are prone to kidney stones--both are high in oxalates. Some people have a higher risk of kidney stones after bariatric surgery.

You're right, it's 32.4--I calculated that incorrectly for some reason, even though I was using an online calculator. But 30 BMI is still obese....

I use a VitaMix instead of an extraction method--so you get the vitamins, nutrients and fiber. You have to be cautious about what you use though and keep within your daily carbohydrate counts. I don't do it every day and I use lower-carb fruits and veggies--and protein powder.

BTW at a 38 BMI, she would be covered by any major insurance carrier that covers bariatric surgery. So I don't understand the comment about "having" to go to Mexico based on the degree of obesity. Obviously people go to Mexico if they don't have insurance, don't want to use their insurance, or don't have insurance that covers bariatric surgery. But she wouldn't have been excluded based on those stats....

oh wait, you said favorite "product"--guess I couldn't pick just one!

Totally disagree with this. At a 38 BMI, she was 8 BMI points above the Obesity range of 30. Plenty of people start there and end up morbidly obese within a matter of months or years. If it were so easy to take the weight off and keep it off without surgery, everyone would do that. Also, new medical tools are looking at things such as how much abdominal obesity someone has rather than just the BMI. Comorbidities matter too--Cleveland Clinic is now covering bariatric surgery for people who have lower than a 35 BMI but have diabetes that isn't responding well to surgery. The first patient had a BMI of 33, was on insulin several times a day, and was OFF his insulin before he even left the hospital. I agree that everyone needs to go into the surgery eyes wide open about possible complications--but it is up to the individual if he or she feels the risk of current obesity and possibly future morbid obesity is worth the trade off. The words "only" and "55 pounds overweight" really shouldn't be used together. There is a lot of risk there.