Peggy D

Happy Birthday! I celebrated my birthday about 6 weeks post-op. Best birthday in a long time. We were told in my pre-op class that it's normal to gain about 10 pounds in the hospital from all of the fluids. I "only" gained 6 but it took a week to get back to where I was the day before surgery.

I don't think what you're experiencing is unusual at all. I've read about & experienced almost all of the same symptoms. The runny nose can be a signal that you're getting full. The others are due to eating too much or too fast or both. The feeling of needing to vomit or actually vomiting/heaving I've only had with a couple of foods that my stomach just isn't ready for. Even a food I tolerate one day may turn on me the next time.

Don't compare weights from one scale to another. Even the same brand of scale can vary. As McButterpants does, I weigh myself in the morning, after I've used the toilet &, of course, naked. That is going to be the most consistent conditions to track changes. My scale is also fairly expensive & can track fat mass but I don't use that feature. I'm consistently 2 pounds more at my surgeon's office & 3 pounds more at my PCP's office. But those are always with clothes that can vary a lot & at different times of the day, usually after breakfast.

I have a channel, too. The link is at the bottom of my signature.

Refried Beans & cheddar cheese has always been one of my favorite foods. It was the last thing I had before I started my two-week pre-op Clear Liquids & Protein shakes & the first thing I had when I was allowed pureed foods. Now that I'm on soft foods I no longer have to puree it but it's still my favorite & "go-to" food when other things don't sit well. A couple of newer favorites are Kroger Carb-smart yogurt (I add some unflavored protein powder) & Kroger Greek whipped cream cheese spread & greek yogurt. It tastes just like cream cheese but is much higher in protein. I don't care for greek yogurt although it is tolerable with sugar-free syrups added for flavor. Sometimes I put some of the cream cheese in my refried beans instead of cheddar cheese.

I just turned 64 & am almost 7 weeks post-op & the sleeve is the best thing I've ever done for myself.

Worsening S-I joint pain was the primary factor in seeking WLS. I had had 5 injections, only one of which, the first, did anything at all. I just learned to deal with the pain. I also had increasing problems with arthritis in my knees. Now that I've lost almost 60 pounds, my knees are much, much better & my right S-I joint is improving. I can usually walk for 30-45 minutes now without having to sit & let the pain subside. It used to be 5-10 minutes max. I told the ARNP at my 6-week post-op visit today that I haven't used a scooter in a store in 6 months!

Definitely a blessing. I get very hungry but, at least, I fill up with a lot less than before surgery. I've been eating about 5 times a day & I think I'll try dividing that into 6 or 7 times a day.

My Hgb A1c was 7.5 a year ago & 7.3 in May, one month into the 3-month supervised high Protein, low carb diet. Three months later, the day after surgery, my Hgb A1c was 5.9! I'm going to get it checked next week with my annual birthday-month checkup. I'm hoping that it will be even lower. I stopped taking Metformin 10 days before surgery & haven't restarted it. And I am taking a lot less insulin now. Healing has never been an issue with me. Quite the opposite actually. I scar very easily. I just had to have a scar-release surgery on my right hand 11 days ago due to heavy scarring after a trigger finger release nearly three years ago. At least I've found a hand surgeon who believes me & lets me have the stitches out in a week rather than two weeks or more as is the norm with diabetics. Even a week was a bit much this time.

Day 3 was definitely the worst. I was only allowed clear liquids plus 4-5 protein shakes a day. I usually did 4 shakes, but day 3 was one when I had the fifth shake. It does get better. Just keep drinking fluids. I found warm fluids, especially broth, were better at "filling" me.

My surgeon does not allow pre-made shake. Post-op I can no longer tolerate the flavored powdered protein so I've gone to unflavored whey isolate powder & add it to flavored water or add sugar-free Torani, DaVinci or Walden Farms syrups. Since I moved to purée & soft foods I can add the powder to them if I need more protein.

Puree after 4 weeks, soft after 6 weeks & then start introducing regular foods at 9 weeks.

I thought my surgeon was conservative with the diet progression. I guess he is for the first 6 weeks, but yours has mine beat after that. Week 1 - clear liquids only Weeks 2-4 - clear liquids & 3 Protein shakes a day Weeks 5-6 - puree Weeks 7-8 - soft foods Week 9 - start introducing regular foods I do wonder about those who move to soft & regular foods so soon after surgery. I just started soft foods three days ago & have had some issues. I've done fine with the things I had pureed in the previous two weeks, just not "pulverizing" them any more, as well as cottage cheese. But some new foods, like fish & turkey, aren't sitting well. The first try of salmon made a return trip. Today some halibut was better, but I had to let it get cold before my stomach could handle it.

I'm another one who gets hungry. I remember telling my nutritionist before surgery when I would get hungry on the high protein-low carb diet that at least after surgery I won't be so hungry. She did seem to agree. I do get as hungry, but it sure takes a lot less to stop the hunger & that little lasts a lot longer. The hunger also isn't the pains that it was pre-op. Now it's more of a empty grumble.

The unflavored protein powder has been a life-saver for me. The flavored powders I used before surgery just sat like a rock after surgery. I've mixed the unflavored powder in broth, soup, yogurt, flavored water, virtually anything fairly thin. I add sugar-free Torani, DaVinci or Walden Farms syrups to make my own flavored shakes.

No regrets here, either. It's not that I don't regret not doing it sooner, it's that it wasn't available when I first considered weight loss surgery nearly 40 years ago. I've known about gastric bypass & lap-band for years but didn't like a lot of things about either one. I had never heard of the sleeve until a year ago. If I had still been working as a medical review nurse I'm sure I would have known a bit sooner. I can't change what is past so I don't think about what could have been or what I wish had been available, I go forward from now.

What is this "medical group?" I have Aetna & my surgeon's office sent all of the information to Aetna for them to review. I had given my surgeon notes from my PCP & the rest he had from all of the tests & consults he had ordered. Aetna's medical necessity criteria can be found here. It is very similar to others I've seen, including the H-M-O I used to work for doing medical review.

My new stomach let me know very clearly that it does not like salmon. I'm going to stick to un-pureed versions of what I've been eating for the last two weeks for now.

I've had a couple of surgeries in the past, but none involving my upper abdomen. Still my surgeon found some adhesions around my stomach as well. No known cause.

I wouldn't stock up too much. What you can tolerate before surgery may be very different after surgery. I ended up returning a couple of unopened containers of Protein powder & throwing out the remains of an opened one. I still have a little of one flavored one & I tried it again yesterday - no go, it still sat like a rock in my stomach. I now use unflavored whey isolate Protein Powder & can add whatever flavor I want. Today I got to progress to soft foods & discovered that my stomach does not like salmon! The first time since surgery I have actually thrown up.

You could have anything you can run through a blender, Magic Bullet or Ninja processor. I had mostly had pureed tuna & hardboiled egg with Walden Farms calorie-free honey mustard mayo, pureed refried Beans with low fat cheddar cheese or high-Protein cream cheese & pureed Stagg chili with the cheese. Occasionally I had some greek yogurt or Kroger Carb-master yogurt. I don't care for the greek yogurt & had to add some Walden Farms syrup & unflavored Protein powder. I just discovered the high-protein cream cheese a few days ago & I like cream cheese so much, I've had some as a snack. Kroger has a whipped greek cream cheese & yogurt blend that tastes just like cream cheese, not the sour taste of plain yogurt. I didn't want to puree cottage cheese, so I'm waiting for soft foods. Tomorrow I get to move to soft foods & will still have the tuna & egg, refried beans & chili, I just won't have to "pulverize" them first. I'm also ready to have some salmon or halibut &, maybe, some "fake" crab.

I took the 3-month supervised diet time to wean myself off of caffeine & carbonated sodas. I gradually replaced regular coffee with decaf until it was all decaf. I used a "cold-brewed" Toddy coffee maker & it took about 7 scoops to make it about once a week. It took nearly two months but I never had a caffeine withdrawal headache nor problems with staying awake mid-morning as I would before if I didn't have that coffee. As for the carbonated sodas, first I replaced diet cola with caffeine-free diet cola & diet root beer & then had only one a day instead of two, then one every other day, etc.

I also had six. I don't think it was because of having my enormous gall bladder removed, though. I think it may have been because I had robotically-assisted surgery.

I turned 64 yesterday & have lost about 60 pounds since my first consult with my surgeon back on April 25. My knees & sacroiliac joint pain have improved a lot, the knees more than the S-I joint, but it's all progress. My biggest motivating factor in seeking this surgery was the worsening S-I joint pain. I could walk or stand maybe 5-10 minutes before I had to sit awhile to let the pain subside. It was a big hassle to plan shopping excursions around whether or not the store had any scooters or places to sit. Now I can walk for 30-45 minutes, sometimes longer, before having to rest.

It took the first week post-op for me to lose the 5-6 pounds I had gained in the hospital. Until the last three days, it's been slow since, especially the 12-day stall I had. But the trend line on the app for my scale definitely shows progress.