CeeBelize

What other experienced plicaters have said in this post is very true. PATIENCE. Forget the rapid weight loss, it's not gonna happen. Once you make peace with that, you can move on. (: Afterall, remember we did not opt to have gastric bypass. This is gonna be slow going. I had my surgery in February and I'm down about 40 lbs. I sometimes complain to myself it's the slowest weight loss ever and then I remember that before the surgery I never lost any weight at all. I'm down about 2 dress sizes and wearing clothes in the back of the closet I never thought I'd wear again. Just got back from a trip to Europe where I walked, yes walked up the stairs to the Eiffel tower. (One of the elevators was broken so our option was to wait in a 3 hour line for the elevator or take the stairs which was no wait) My friend and workout partner reminded me this is what we've been training for all these months of working out together and we were able to do it. Cant say that I could have accomplished that being 40 lbs heavier. So the minute I start whining about my slow weight loss, I put it in perspective. Be happy with just a couple lbs a month because losing is losing and we will all end up smaller than we were before the surgery!

I'm not sure what you guys are eating and drinking but may I recommend staying away from all dairy, and protein shakes in order to avoid getting diareaha. I was lactose intolerant before the surgery but I could stomach a little milk now and then and ice cream without any problems. After the plication, I was craving something sweet and decided to have a couple sips of a vanilla shake (it was only week 2). I had the worst explosive diareaha ever! Even ice cream makes me queasy now. I wont touch milk or ice cream anymore...cheese has been fine and I havent had any problems with my bowels since. I take gummi calcium pills instead.

Can someone tell me when it was safe or comfortable enough to eat bread or potato chips after plication? Food is starting to go down pretty easily but after my doc told me about a patient to ate potato chips a week after surgery and ended up in the hospital for several days, those are the two foods I'm scared to try.

Thanks for your encouragement Meeshv21. I reached 2 weeks yesterday and only a 3 lbs weightloss for the week. That is a little discouraging but it's good to know I should just keep pushing. I will start working out this week to keep the weightloss going no matter how little it is. By the way, what is TRX?

I've been reading posts on this site for months now and now I'm one of the plicated. Yea!! So this is a summary of my experience: I was plicated on Feb 17th in Dalton, GA so now it's been one week. I never experienced any nausea. They go through great lenghts to make sure you dont with a patch behind my ear, a bracelet that sends pulses to my fingers and anti-nausea pills. I was able to stop the pills and take everything off by day 4 since I never experienced any nausea. What you need to know is about the painful gas that builds up in your body from them blowing air into your body to expand the stomach so the doctor can see and work around in that area. When I woke up the pain wasn't in my stomach but in my chest and shoulders like an elephant was sitting on it. No one told me about that beforehand and it was the most painful thing! You have to get up and walk around every couple hours to break up the gases trapped in your body and get it moving around even though you won't feel like it but it actually works. Also a very sore throat for several days because of the tube down my throat. Wasn't able to get much liquid down though, only about 24 oz for the first 5 days but surprisingly never hungry. I had surgery on Friday and was able to fly home and walk through a big airport by Sunday. Monday was a holiday and I was at work on Tuesday with no problem...desk job. I didn't tell anyone at work and they were none the wiser. I even flew back on Thursday for my 1 week followup. The only difficulty I had was stabbing pain in my left side by day 5. When I saw the Doc I was told since I hadn't moved my bowels since the day before surgery that was probably the problem and yep...it sure was. After I took care of that, the pain went away. I'm off all my meds, I don't even need any priolsec or heartburn stuff -at least not yet. I started creamy yesterday and boy you can really feel the liquid as it passes through your stomach...very strange. You really have to take it slow otherwise if you take too big a swallow or too many swallows back to back, it wont feel good, but it's a good way to slow down and really take your time when you eat. I'm one of those people that never loses weight no matter what. I didnt lose a thing even during the 2 week pre-op diet which I see most people lose like 10-20 lbs. Well I finally lost 7 freaking pounds in the first week so I'm more than happy! I just hope it doesnt stop....maybe I'll stay on Clear liquids a little while longer. (:

You are not a dork...liquid vitamins were hard to find! I found a bottle at Walgreens...I couldnt find any at Walmart or Target.

I'm having my surgery in a week and my doctor put me on a 2 week liver diet that only consists of protein shakes, broth and jello. Since I know I'm going to be deficient in vitamins for weeks before and after the surgery, I'm taking as many as possible. A Multivitamin, calcium and B vitamins (for extra protein). I also purchased vitamins in liquid form to take during those few weeks post-surgery since you can only consume clear or creamy foods.

Hi Lap, I am getting the surgery in a week and I am also going to try and go back to work on day 4. I have a pretty sedentary job. Can you tell me why you were having problems staying at work the whole day? I'm worried about that too...not to mention I have to turn around and fly back for my one week check up. I have a feeling this will be tough.