tzbandtobypass

My nut says that some people can dump on the liquid tylenol, so I have completely avoided that. I just cut the regular tylenol in half (not the capsules, the hard pills). It is about the same size as my other pills and I haven't had any trouble as long as I cut them in half with a pill cutter.

How far from surgery out are you? I was exhausted all the time for the first 4 weeks post op. This is my first week of having a fairly normal level of energy. I am only eating 1 ounce every 2-3 hours, so I am not eating much. Everything I eat is protein-rich (sliced deli meat, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, ground meats) except for the few little slices of banana I have to eat to help with my potassium deficiency. My nut had me switch from plain Water to G2 mixed with water and Vitamin Water Revive (Fruit Punch) mixed with water so that I was getting some sugar and carbs. That has helped tremendously with the fatigue. I was worried about the liquid calories but the G2 is really, really low. I end up with about 10-15 calories of G2 mixed with a 20 oz bottle of water. Are you finding yourself tired every time you eat or is it specific foods?

Mine allows some carbs, but only in the form of what you might find in fruits and veggies. We are have almost, if completely none for the first six weeks and it is still supposed to be very limited after that. It is hard to have none, especially when doing soft foods, but his focus is on getting the 60 grams of Protein in per day. Apart from the three slices of banana I am supposed to eat because of a potassium deficiency, I really am not eating anything that is mostly carb (his rules). I have seen some bariatric brands are starting to carry crackers and chips that are enriched with protein so that we can get our crunchy chip fix without going back to old habits. I am not far enough out to have anything crunchy, so I haven't tried them. For me, it may be too much of a slippery slope, especially for the first several months. I had a band for three years and didn't do as well as I wanted to. Some was my own fault (chips, popcorn, and ice cream) and some was because of the tool. With RNY, a lot of people cannot handle things like chips, popcorn, or ice cream and that is why I chose this procedure. With the band I learned that I can do lots of things in moderation, but chips and carbs aren't one of em!

Wow! You look amazing!!

Upper GI is completely different. You drink stuff, they take a series of pictures and you're done. Upper endoscopy is a tube with a camera put down your throat to evaluate the inside of your esophagus and stomach. I was given propofol and never felt a thing. They did my colonoscopy at the same time and since I was asleep, I didn't feel a thing. The worst part of the colonoscopy is the prep...I've never spent so much time in the bathroom.

I also use the disposable 2 oz cups and I found some 1 oz salad dressing cups that work well too at Big Lots. They were cheap and it is helpful to have both sizes.

I have PCOS and am 4 weeks post op. I am down 29 pounds since the day of surgery. I think that is slow, but it falls well into the normal range. I have been through 3 rounds of unsuccessful fertility treatments and have a persistent (like for at least 5 years) cyst on my left ovary that is causing most of my issues. It is almost the size of my whole ovary and has been the source of so much discomfort. My periods have always been super awful, heavy, and painful. I was hoping surgery was going to resolve it all right away but my cycle is completely out of whack. I hope in the next couple of months, things settle down and I can start to have normal cycles again.

My tip of the day: stop at the hiccup/burp and just get away from the food. I made the mistake last night of eating just a bit more deli chicken and I was in so much pain that I started to cry and have a panic attack. I will never do that again. Head hunger can really cause pain if you let it take over!

My sign is a combo hiccup and burp. It's only started happening since I started on the soft foods and because I measure everything, O've only gotten there a few times. Most often I measure and stop when my 1 or 2 ounces (depends on the food consistency) is gone.

I love the Isopure as well. I mix half a bottle (10 oz) with matching flavored Water (10 oz). I've also just drank them as they are. I've tried most of the flavors and I haven't found one that I didn't like. The grape frost is the best!

Good luck! I was converted 4 weeks ago and was able to do both in one surgery. I too had the Realize band. For me, the surgeries were totally different. The band surgery was easy for me to deal with and I didn't have any issues during recovery. This time around, it has been really hard. I have been extremely tired and I just don't feel like myself. The doctor has told me that I have to keep in mind that I have essentially just had two major surgeries at one time and that I need to take it easy on myself. He told me it could take more than 6 weeks before I start to feel like my normal self. I had pretty bad pain those first couple of days and it seemed like walking the halls was the only time I wasn't in awful pain. I was off the pain killers after the first week and stayed home from work for only two full weeks. I've had to adjust my work schedule a bit and I only end up in the office about 6 hours, but it is better than nothing for my team! I have one of the docs that is very anti-white-carb, so for me that meant giving up the popcorn (so sad) I relied on heavily during my time being banded. It was one of the foods that no matter the amount of restriction I had, I could always eat it. So if I was having a really bad day (meaning throwing up a lot and not able to get anything down) I would switch to Protein shakes and popcorn. I do miss it, but there are so many people on here that can have it, that I just figure if I give myself some time maybe I will try it. The other huge difference to me was that when I was banded, I had no saline in the band when I came out of surgery. It took 3-4 weeks to get my first fill and that really didn't help any. I think I had a good few months of almost no restriction and following the diet was really, really hard for me because most days it was like I didn't have a band. From the moment I woke up from the band removal and RNY, it was like a whole new world. Gone was my ability to drink like the wind and test the limits of my tool. Also, it stopped feeling like liquids and soft foods were sitting in my esophagus like it was with my band - the noose effect I have heard people refer to when talking about the band. Oh and that damn port is gone. I hated my port. It could have been the placement of it, but it got in my way quite a bit and I had pain on and off in that area the whole time I had it. Having it taken out means I had one extra incision for the RNY surgeon. The one incision is a few inches long and it was one of the most painful areas during recovery. RNY causes a lot of left side pain because that is where all of the "work" is done on the insides, but I also had the right side pain to go with it because they have to scrape the port off the wall of your abdominal muscle. Not pleasant, but nothing that pain killers didn't fix! Good luck and I hope you are able to do both the band removal and RNY in one surgery! The best part of that is no fear of weight gain between the two (my biggest fear of all) and only needing to go through one recovery. I was terrified that I was going to wake up bandless with no RNY. I have so much respect for all the folks on this site that have had to go through two surgeries.

Vitamins I am currently taking: 1 chewable Bariatric multi-vitamin. I only need one per day and I take it in the morning. 2 1000IU Vitamin D. I try to take these in the morning, but lately they have been feeling a little stuck so I might switch to doing these in the middle of the day. sublingual B12. I take one per day and I take it in the morning. At week 6, I will be starting a liquid fish oil supplement and Calcium. My doctor requires that his patients supplement the food with Protein shakes, until we are able to get 65 grams of protein per day from food. He said that can take several months to get away from them completely. I consume anywhere from 400 to 700 calories per day. This happens to be the "normal" range my nutritionist suggested, but also reiterated that we shouldn't be tracking calories. My doc only cares about Fluid ounces and protein right now. To me, if I don't have the calorie count, I just don't feel "right" about it. I am eating a lot of different things in this stage, but this is my current list of soft foods I have on hand at my house. refried Beans (not as much as the last stage of the diet) low fat cottage cheese (not as much as the last stage of the diet) 0% Greek yogurt (not as much as the last stage of the diet) sugar free pudding (not as much as the last stage of the diet) imitation crab meat Johnsonville deli bites Spicy black bean burgers (the spice isn't actually spicy at all - the nut suggested this flavor) avocado and guacamole (I use this as a little topping to the black bean burger) IKEA Swedish meatballs ground seasoned tofu-like stuff (I got this at WalMart in the produce section. It's weird, but it is high in protein and tastes okay when you mix a little shredded cheese) shredded cheese (not very much though) fresh mozzarella pearlines (tiny, tiny little balls of fresh mozz) homemade chili with beans and ground beef very thinly sliced chicken breast deli meat (I've tried a couple different flavors and the key is having the deli person cut it as thin as possible) I also add Protein powder, Just Great Stuff powdered Peanut Butter (like PB2), and Just Great Stuff powdered chocolate peanut butter to things like yogurt and pudding.

My doc doesn't have a rule about when to stop, just that we eat 5-6 1 oz meals per day and that the first one must be within one hour of waking up. I never liked going to bed with a full stomach, but given the amount that we are able to eat, I've been okay eating right up until bed when I needed to get the protein in.

I was revised band to RNY on 1/14. I cannot believe how different this is. I did okay with the band (my band surgery was 12/09) and lost about 100 pounds before I started having complications. I still had at least 50 more pounds to lose, but instead of losing those, my band was completely unfilled and I gained about 50 pounds over the course of only two months. It was heartbreaking to watch all of that hard work get flushed down the toilet. I sought out a new surgeon and he recommended the revision. He also gave me a huge fill to help me from gaining any more weight while I went through the process. It only took about 1 month to get through all the pre-op stuff and get things submitted to my insurance. I was approved the same day! Since surgery I have lost 29 pounds (today is my 4 week mark!). If I remember correctly that is much faster than I lost with the band. The experience has been very different in that after the band surgery there was a good month before I could get any fill and even then it was very small. It was several months until I had any kind of restriction and most of what I lose with the band was because I was "dieting" and not because the band really did much for me. I never got to the sweet spot and just wavered between not being able to feel the band and having so much restriction that I would everything up all the time. After this last 4 weeks, I wish I would have just done the RNY in 2009. Good luck to you on your surgery! To Butterfly, the band caused esophageal damage via acid reflux. Besides it just not working, having this symptom helped make the insurance process fly by. I had to do an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy before my surgeon would submit everything to insurance. That was to help me get approved quickly. I also had to get medical clearance from my primary care doctor, which just stated that i was healthy enough to undergo the surgery. I had to get blood work ordered by the surgeon and I also had to do another psych evaluation. It wasn't difficult at all and since it was my second time through an almost identical process, I knew what I had to get done in order to get approved.

I am almost 4 weeks out and my doc has us eat soft foods 5-6 times per day with the meals about 2 hours apart. It has been difficult to get in all the fluids and Protein shakes, but this is what my normal day looks like: 7-8 am 10 oz Water 8-9 am 10 oz Protein shake 9 am meal 9:45ish to 11 10 oz water 11 am meal 11:45ish to 1 10 oz protein shake 1 pm meal 1:45ish to 3 10 oz water 3 pm meal 3:35ish to 5 10 oz protein shake 5 pm meal 5:45ish to 7 10 oz protein shake 7 pm meal (usually sugar free pudding) I sip some water until it is time for bed

My doc has us eating 5-6 times per day and only 1 oz. I am only in week 4 post-op and supposed to focus on eating foods that don't crunch and don't need to be cut with a knife and fork. Today my menu is planned as follows: 1 oz Chobani 0% yogurt with Just Great Stuff (like PB2) chocolate Peanut Butter and a few slices of banana mixed in 6 Johnsonville Deli Bites 3/4 oz super thinly sliced buffalo chicken deli meat 1/8 of a spicy black bean patty (about 1/2 oz) and a 1/2 oz of Wholly Guacamole 1 oz shredded imitation crab meat 1 IKEA Swedish Meatball and 6 mini fresh mozzarella pearlines. I am also still using some Protein supplements to get to 60g: 20 oz: 1/2 Isopure, 1/2 flavored Water 20 oz: 1 cup Pure Almond Unsweetened Almond and Coconut Milk mixed with 1 sample pack of vanilla Bean Torte nectar protein, 1 packet of Orange Crystal Light, and 1 cup of cold water I've been diagnosed with a potassium deficiency (hence the banana appearing in my diet) and I am required to drink one 20 oz Revive Vitamin Water. I have to mix it one part Vitamin Water to 3 parts water, so I will end up drinking about 80 oz of water on top of my Protein drinks today if I do exactly what I was told to do. As much as I want to stop the light headedness and numb face and fingers, I don't think I can drink that much and still get my food in. I will likely only end up with 40 oz of the water mixture by the end of the day. I was surprised to get a recommendation to drink something that had calories and sugar, but if I can only do half in a day, that's an added 60 calories.

Denver, Colorado. My surgery was at Rose Hospital in Denver.

I have had my period for every surgery I've ever had. I've gotten used to the rules so I go in with a pad (no tampons the morning of surgery) and when I arrive I tell my first nurse the deal. They have always let me wait until the last minute to take my undies off and then shortly after i leave recovery they let me put them back on. It's no big deal, although I was mortified the first time!

Call. I called once weekly while I was doing all the pre-surgery requirements and then twice a day once the doc's office said they submitted everything. It took a few days for BCBS of IL to get everything from my doc's office in CO but once they received it my stuff went to the top of the medical review pile because I was calling so much I did the same thing for my Lapband surgery 3 years ago. You are your only advocate. You shouldn't be afraid to call the insurance company.

I was told it may take a few weeks to get approval but I called the insurance company twice a day once the office sent everything in. Because I called so much they did the medical review the same day they received everything. You are your only advocate so don't be afraid to push them for what you want. I had also called my insurance company to know what my policy allowed and didn't allow, what the requirements were, and how much they would cover if and when I was approved. It helped a lot to be over prepared and over communicative with the insurance company. When are you expecting to get the final info?

I have the same thing. Push around the place where it is hurting. If you feel something hard under your skin it is probably a seroma. Do you have an incision right there (I do)? I had a drain there in the hospital and since then my knot has gotten bigger and bigger and it causes pain on and off. I asked if there was anything I could do about it and the nurse suggested a hot shower, heating pad, and massaging it to try and break it up. She said it may end up draining on its own and if it wasn't gone by the next time they saw me, they would just put a needle in and drain it (yuck!). I was told that the small incision on the outside is deceiving because there is a very big incision underneath and that is where the seroma is. The pain goes from nonexistent to hurting so bad I can't stand up straight. It sounds like it could be the same thing you're experiencing.

I had soft food class yesterday and I was told we could use pickle juice to add flavor to stuff but no actual pickles until 6 weeks. Every doc is different though, so you should ask your office just to make sure!

1 - I saw another recent post by you about pounds lost. I am only down 25 from the day of surgery and, while that is amazing, I also don't think it is enough. I saw the doc yesterday and was told it is a completely normal amount. I just have to trust that he knows more than me! 2 - we had nut class yesterday and I asked about the calories. She said anything between 300 and 800 is normal but that we shouldn't really worry about it. She reiterated that all we need to be tracking right now is our 65 grams of protein and our 64-80 ounces of water/fluid. My highest day so far has been around 600 calories and it only has happened on days that I use 2c unsweetened almond/coconut milk in one protein shake. I can't help but count calories because that is just what I have done my whole life. What are you allowed to eat these days? They moved my surgery date peeps from pre-selects (refried beans, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, sugar free pudding, and egg whites) to soft foods yesterday. We are allowed things like thinly sliced deli meat, meatballs, black bean burgers, avocado, bananas... Pretty much we are only supposed to avoid stuff that have to be cut with a fork and knife and foods that crunch.

Thanks!