JamieLogical

Allegedly, Mexico now requires a passport or passport card to ENTER Mexico. However, after jumping through a ton of hoops and going to the actual passport office for a rush passport card prior to my VSG, none of the Mexican border agents asked me for my passport. I already had an enhanced NYS driver's license, so I wouldn't have had any trouble getting back into the US over land with that. Oh well! I wasted $150.

You are definitely a long way off from crunch. Along with not being allowed to try raw veggies until 3 months post-op, I was also told no crunchies until 3 months (crackers, chips, nuts, etc.).

I stayed in TJ two full weeks post-op and my drains were still draining a fair amount, but she pulled them anyway. If you leave TJ any sooner, keep in mind that you may be traveling with your drains still in.

I'm over a year out and still can't eat salad. I was supposed to be able to start raw veggies at 3 months post-op, but when I tried, it made me VERY burpy and uncomfortable. I have tried many times since then and the same thing happens every time. I can only eat cooked veggies.

That's actually pretty smart!

So far the only "problem" I've been having with maintenance is that I'm still losing weight. I hit goal the day before my one year surgiversary back on Sept. 1, so it's only been two weeks, but I've lost about another pound and a half since then. I carry ALL my weight in my hips and legs (see my gallery pics) so I am still in size 12 pants. I'm a medium (maybe even a small) in tops. In dresses I'm still wearing a 10, but they are getting a little on the loose side now.

You really shouldn't eat and drink at the same time. I am allowed to drink right up until the time I start eating and allowed to start again 20 minutes after eating (I usually wait more like 40, because I just feel too full). So if you absolutely MUST drink wine at dinner, order it and drink it before your dinner comes, then ask for Water instead of a refill on your wine. Most people won't notice if you don't even touch the water after it arrives. As for the food itself, order something small and only eat as much of it as you reasonably can. Don't stuff yourself or make yourself sick. Ask for a to-go box for the rest. If your date asks why you ate so little, just say you had a late lunch or "it was very filling" or something.

I was told 60 days, but you should ask your surgeon.

I second what @@BLERDgirl said about getting a prescription strength PPI. Your issues with "hunger" while sleeping definitely sound like GERD to me. As for your weight, don't worry about that AT ALL right now. Focus on getting your fluids, walking as much as possible, and getting in as much Protein as possible. They pump you full of fluids during your time in the hospital. Also, dehydration can cause you to retain Water. So it's very likely that what you are seeing as "weight" on the scale is just Fluid retention. Once you get your water in, your body should release those extra fluids.

@@Margie122 Welcome! Sounds like you are doing fantastic!

No no. That was post tummy-tuck. I had lost 90 pounds "on my own" and had plastics back in 2011. Then I eventually regained 80 of the pounds I'd lost before having VSG. So the "before" photos from before my VSG are post tummy-tuck, which is why my stomach was really flat still. My tummy tuck held up AMAZINGLY well through the weight re-gain and re-loss. Here are the before pics from before I lost the 90 pounds "on my own" and had the tummy tuck and breast lift/implants. In these pics I weighed about 270:

How did they possibly think their posts on these forums would be private and confidential. You don't even have to create a BariatricPal account or be logged in to read the posts here and even if you did ANYONE on the planet could create a BariatricPal account. There's no screening of account creation. Just provide an email address in you're in!

I've been away from the site for a few days as I've been handling more house stuff. My sister and her four kids move out tomorrow! Yay!!!!!! Thanks for all of the replies and kind words!

Looks like you grandma has developed quite the six-pack in 6 months. Congrats on your amazing progress so far. Onederland, here you come!

I did the same thing. Just uncontrollable moaning. I think I had the nurses and techs worried.

You aren't even hitting 60 grams of protein? That's a real problem. I was easily at 100 grams at 3 months out. You should definitely work on protein and water and worry about everything else after you are on track with those two.

I had my tummy tuck, breast lift with augmentation, and lipo all over with Dra. Laura Carmina Cardenas in Tijuana, Mexico. I actually had my tummy tuck four years ago, after losing 90 pounds "on my own". I then proceeded to regain 80 of those pounds over the next three years and then had VSG last September. I've now re-lost all the weight I've gained and then some. I am 17 pounds lighter than I was when I had my TT. I am THRILLED with how well it held up through my weight re-gain and re-loss. If you look at my gallery photos, you can see that in my pre-VSG photos, despite weighing 240+ pounds, my stomach was still flat.

Well, I'm 4 years post-plastics, so I've had lots of time to heal and for my scars to fade. Definitely well worth all the pain and suffering now, since it's all such a distant memory!

I've had a lot of people ask me for pics of my scars from my extended tummy tuck. I finally got around to having my husband take some at the same time he was taking my "after" pictures for my one year WLS surgiversary. So here you go... sorry for having some pubic area showing in the front shot and some butt crack showing in the back shot... my incision is VERY low and there was no way to avoid it. But if it's a violation of any forum rules, mods, please feel free to delete it! The last pic is just to show that my incision is so low that bikini-cut underwear easily hide it.

I am 4 years post-plastics and have VERY little numbness now. It definitely took well over a year for me to get sensation back in my abdomen and upper pubic region. Probably more like over two years really. But, now, at 4 years, very little numbness and no more phantom itching.

My nutritionist wanted me to aim for 100g a day right away, but I didn't realistically get there probably until I was on solid foods. It's pretty easy to get 100 grams if you do a couple bars or shakes a day and make sure you are doing protein first with every snack or meal. I would say, once I was on solids, my day looked something like this: Breakfast: Bar or shake (~20 grams) Morning Snack: String cheese (8 grams) Lunch: about 3 oz. of meat, usually leftover from a previous dinner (16-20 grams) Afternoon Snack: Greek Yogurt (12 grams) Dinner: about 3 oz. of meat (16-20 grams) Evening Snack: Bar or Shake (~20 grams) Now I can usually get closer to 4-5 ounces of meat in at once and I can get some carbs in, like I put kashi Cereal or granola into my yogurt. I also haven't been doing the string cheese in the morning lately and just get another Protein Bar in somewhere during the day.

@@saflo438 I was pretty lucky with my hair loss. It started around 3.5 months post-op and only lasted until about 5 months. It wasn't falling out "in clumps" but there was a lot of it all over the bathroom. I joked with my husband that hair were blood, our bathroom would look like a horror scene. Fortunately, I started with very thick hair so the visible loss was really only noticeable to me. I think everyone else was distracted by the haircut, which was the plan. It started growing back right away, as soon as it finished falling out. Now I'm a year out and my new growth is a few inches long.

@ I've actually worked really hard through all of this to retain as much muscle as possible. I get 100 grams of protein per day at least, do cardio 4-6 days per week (mostly running, but some biking), and do strength training. I think that's why my loss was pretty "slow" compared to a lot of people. It took me a full year to lose the 71 pounds. According to my bathroom scale (which obviously isn't SUPER accurate) I went from 48.2% body fat to 23%. That means on my surgery date, I had almost 114 pounds of fat and now I have 37.5 pounds of fat. So theoretically I lost 76.5 pounds of fat, but only 73 pounds of weight. Which means I might have actually put ON a little muscle so far.

@@saflo438 I cut it off about 2 months post-op as a preemptive strike for when I started losing my hair. But I really liked it that length, so I think I want to maintain it there.

At my weekly weigh-in on Monday, I officially beat my goal weight by one pound and Tuesday was my 1 year surgiversary. Great news, right? Well, the reason I was able to make/beat goal on Monday was that I had lost over 5 pounds in the past two weeks. My husband and I were scrambling to get our house ready to list for sale after we stumbled upon another house that we want to buy. We hadn't been planning to sell our house for another year or two at least, but then when we found this new house, it became this crazy whirlwind to get our house fixed/cleaned up and ready to list. It's been an insane amount of work. From the time this all started back around the 15th of August until now, we have literally spent every single waking moment at work or working on the house. From the time we get home from work until about 1:00 am every night. And every minute of every weekend. It's been a massive amount of physical labor. Monday morning we put TWENTY SEVEN 35-gallon garbage bags full out with the trash, plus some smaller kitchen bags and a bunch of loose items. We've moved over half of our non-furniture possessions into storage. We've done a massive amount of DIY projects to fix up the house. It's been crazy and exhausting. I will admit to forgetting to eat, especially on the weekends and days I've taken off work. I'll eat Breakfast before I get started at around 8:00 am and next thing I know, it's 3:30! So between all the physical work and the reduced food intake, I lost over 5 pounds in two weeks, where I'd been lucky to lose half a pound a week lately with just eating on plan and exercising 4-5 times a week. And now I'm unofficially down another pound since my Monday weigh-in. That means I'm now two pounds below goal, which is no big deal. I had planned to have a 3-5 pound cushion anyway. But I'm worried that I won't be able to stop this train and I'll get way below my goal weight. I don't want to do that! I know I need to make sure I am at least eating on a schedule and not let myself forget to eat. But any other suggestions about how to slow down my loss without resorting to eating really unhealthy stuff?