JamieLogical

@@pimmar It is very common to get counseling throughout the WLS process and afterward. As you often hear on these forums, you have surgery on your stomach, not your brain. So counseling is a necessary step for many people. I would strongly recommend it, at least in the beginning, if you think you will need the extra support.

@@Dawny28 As you said, everyone is different. You will definitely lose some weight by week 8. I was down about 23 pounds at two months out? Some people are down 40-50 by then. As for eating, I was allowed solid foods at 40 days post-op, but nothing crunchy until 3 months post-op. Again, every plan is different, so yo should definitely stick to your surgeon's/nutritionist's plan for you. I'm a full year out and I still can't eat raw vegetable without getting super burpy and uncomfortable. But I don't know of too many people on here who have that problem. So no salads for me ever again I don't think. Fruit I was able to do pretty early on, but nothing with the skins on until I was further out. For your time at Disney World, look for string cheese, those cups with cubed cheese and/or pepperoni, beef/turkey sticks, and yogurt. I haven't been to Disney post-op, but I have been to a couple of other amusement parks and they usually have those sorts of things available at their snack stands.

@@sashamp Sounds like your post-op experience was similar to mine and a lot of others on these boards. The first few days you are just focused on not dying. But then it becomes about adapting to your new stomach and learning to work with it. You have done amazing!

Funny I was looking at it from a - "damn, am I going to be able to buy another dress within that time period?" way when I asked the question. I'm not worried about IF weight loss is going to happen. I know it will. I really wasn't expecting to be approved, or that I would even have the surgery this year. If I had, I would have waited to buy the dress. Glad to hear it. I was worried you were going to set some impossible weight-loss goal for your wedding date (pretty common in brides, even those who don't have WLS) and set yourself up for disappointment. Luckily, wedding dresses can be altered!

I was allowed to take my really tiny pills (omeprazole and birth control) immediately post-op. I was taking all my pills of various sizes at 7 days post-op... including my big honking calcium pills.

No carbs definitely seems extreme. I don't get *many* carbs, since I am always putting protein first and aiming to reach my 100 grams/day of protein, but if my protein comes with some carbs, I will have them. Plus I do manage to fit in the occasionally treat. I was told by my NUT to never have JUST carbs, always have protein with my carbs, and always put protein first. So if I have a little toast, put peanut butter on it. Or have some tuna salad with my crackers... that sort of thing. I will say that I never eat rice or pasta because they just take up too much room and I can't get my protein in if I have them.

Oh this is a VERY dangerous road to go down. Trying to set deadlines for weight loss is never ever good. Ever person's body handles WLS differently and there is no way to predict how quickly you will lose. You will drive yourself completely insane comparing yourself to others or trying to set time-based goals. You need to work your plan and the weight loss WILL happen, but focusing on how long it takes or how much you can lose in a certain period of time is a recipe for disaster.

What?!?!?! 4 months?!!?! I was allowed to swallow pills at 7 days post-op and have been with no ill effect ever since!

I'm surprised you're still losing a lot of hair a full year post-op. What is your Protein intake like? If you aren't getting enough protein, that might also be why you aren't staying full for very long. What's your activity level like? I imagine it's pretty low right now with your back pain, but what was it like prior to your back issue? As for NSAIDs, they are very damaging to the stomach, even in healthy people with their full-sized stomachs. So they can be particularly damaging to WLS patients with our smaller stomachs. They can cause ulcers and stomach bleeds. The real risk seems to be with daily use for a chronic condition. So if you take one or two here and there, it's less likely to cause a problem, but you still really want to try to limit their use as much as possible. For example, I hurt my back last week moving stuff into storage. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even sleep that night. So at 4:00 am I broke down and took one Alieve and that at least let me sleep a little. But I didn't take any the next day, even though I was still in a lot of pain. I just stuck to tylenol and really trying to baby my back and avoid movements and positions that caused me anymore pain. If your back pain is more of the chronic variety, where you would need to be taking an NSAID for a week or more, you really really should talk to your doctor about alternative ways of relieving the pain and inflammation.

My personal situation got even more complicated a few weeks ago. My husband and I saw a house on the market and decided to go check it out. Well, once we did that, we HAD to have it. Of course, we didn't even have our house listed! We hadn't planned on moving out of our house for at least another year or two, so had done nothing in terms of prepping it to sell. PLUS, we had my sister and her four kids and ALL of their stuff in our house and garage! So it has been non-stop work these last couple of weeks to get our house in some sort of shape to list. We made my sister get a storage unit and got one of our own and moved a TON of stuff into storage. Yesterday morning my husband and I put TWENTY SEVEN 35-gallon garbage bags full of stuff, plus a ton of loose larger items out with the trash. We had our driveway sealed, our living room carpeted, our porch redone.... We have literally worked from the time we got home from work until about 1:00 in the morning every single weeknight and from 8:00am until 1:00am every weekend day to get everything done. We got the house listed on Sunday and had two showings yesterday. We have two more scheduled for tomorrow and we have an open house on Sunday. I've lost 5 pounds in the last two weeks between all the hard physical labor I've been doing and not finding the time to eat. At this point, you know how much 5 pounds in two weeks is! I was lucky to be losing a half a pound a week prior to this with just eating on plan and working out 4-5 times a week. As for the plastics... I *highly* recommend them. I definitely look great now, especially clothed. The real issue I have left is my thighs. I have a lot of loose skin on my upper thighs. Someday I'm hoping for a thigh lift, but now with trying to buy this new house, the finances for that won't work for a while!

I went to Mexico for a couple of reasons. I didn't qualify for WLS through my insurance. They had a requirement that you had to have a 5-year documented history of a BMI over 40 or over 35 with comorbidities. Well, I had lost 90 pounds "on my own" back in 2010/2011 and it took me a while to gain it all back, so my BMI had been well below 40 for a big chunk of the past 5 years and had just peaked back over 40 when I started looking into WLS. I couldn't afford to pay out-of-pocket for surgery in the US. I'd been to Mexico for surgery before (cosmetic surgery after my earlier 90-pound weight loss) and it was an incredibly positive experience, so I had no concerns about returning to Mexico for surgery.

Today is my one year surgiversary and as of my weekly weigh in yesterday, I have surpassed my goal by one pound. My starting weight at the beginning of this process was 260. I was 236 on my surgery date. And I am now 164. It's been a long road. The early days/weeks/months were rough. But for a long time now, I've just felt "normal". I eat 5-6 times a day. Always Protein first, but I occasionally have some treats. Juts yesterday I shared a piece of cake with my husband. I love not feeling deprived. If I want a treat of some sort once in a while, I have a little bit of it. I don't track my food or calories. The big thing to really get my head around through this whole process is that this is not a "diet". This is the rest of my life. I don't have any deadlines to meet with my weight loss. The goal was just to eventually get down to a healthy weight and stay there. Were I on a "diet", I would have been tracking every calorie in and every calorie out. Sharing that piece of cake with my husband, I would have tracked those calories eaten and then tried to make up for it in calories burned so as not to "fall behind". I would have to "make up" those extra calories. Now... if I eat half a piece of cake, I don't sweat it. If it takes me a week to burn off those "extra" calories, what does it matter? What's a week in the grand scheme of things? It's definitely been a real change in thinking for me. As for exercise, I've been killing it in that department. I've run several 5k races over the summer and plan to continue with my running and working on improving my time. I was pretty hard-core about strength training as well until my sister and her four kids moved in with us temporarily. That makes getting time to myself to SAFELY do strength training a real challenge, but I plan to get right back to it once they move out later this month. So now, what you've all been waiting for: PHOTOS!

I'm in ur shoes..has it gotten any better since u posted last..I swear I feel like completely eating something crazy to see if I get sick..I feel like something is wrong.im hungry food goes down way to easy and now I'm scared. . My sx was 8,18 and I'm only down 9 pnds from sx 10 from liquid diet Your surgery was 9 days ago and you are "only" down 9 pounds? That's a pound a day!!!! How the heck much were you expecting to lose!?!?!?

I've been to MX twice for surgery. Once for plastics and once for my VSG. Both experiences were very positive. Post-plastics I didn't actually get out much to see or do anything because I was soooooooo incapacitated. Late in my two week stay, two of my nurses did take me to the beach one day just to walk along the boardwalk and that was really nice. After my VSG, I was much more mobile and able to get out and do a little, but I was only there for 2 days post-op. The most I did was walk around in the area of my hotel and visit a corner store for some Vitamin Water. In general though, I would say that all of the people were extraordinarily friendly and helpful. I felt very comfortable and safe the entire time. I was shocked how much it's exactly like being in the US in terms of the stores and restaurants that you see while driving around. I did try to tip well while I was there, because it was clear to me that everyone was working very hard and doing an excellent job.

I spent a lot of time in the "POST-Operation Gastric Sleeve Surgery Questions & Answers" forum in my early days post-op.

That's great news! Glad to know your tool can still work for you even after a major set-back like that.

I lost about 11 pounds on my 2-week liquid diet. I had been dieting and exercising before that, so I didn't have the big drop in "water weight" that a lot of people have right at first coming off a super high calorie/carb diet.

I'm with Babb's on this one. Grains were a LOOOOOONG way off for me. I still haven't had rice and I'm 11.5 months post-op! I've had Pasta made out of red lentils, but no regular pasta. I have had bread a few times and some tortilla chips and parts of tortillas for wraps, but never more than a tiny bit. I wasn't allowed solids until 40 days post-op and I just hung in there. I loved the Baked Ricotta recipe from this site: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html And I would make this dish with one scrambled egg, some Mexican cheese blend melted on top and a little taco sauce. That was always a nice little treat.

Everyone's experience is different, so no one can tell you how long your discomfort will last. What does your surgeon say? Barring any complications, you should feel a little bit better day-by-day. 24 hours is still pretty early out and your body has experienced a lot of trauma. I know for me, each day was significantly easier than the last in those first few days.

Everyone's post-op experience is different. Some people experience a great deal of swelling that makes even a tiny sip of water "filling". Some people have no problem chugging water straight out of the gate. Plus, there is a strong posibility of temporary nerve damage during surgery, so you should NOT be relying on any sort of "full" feeling right now. You should be measuring your food and eating on a timer.

I feel ya on the large calves, i last measured at 18" and there is almost no fat on them. I inherited them from my mother. It's one thing i actually not expecting to change much, but if they did, it would be nice to fit into normal knee-high boots for once. You think that's big?!?! You're 5'8" and 272. I'm 5'6" and 167 and my calves are 16.75" still!

Even my surgeon said he runs into this with other docs. He had someone post-op, out of town, at an emergency room and spent a great deal of time on the phone trying to educate the doc who wouldn't prescribe narcotics. I don't know what the solution is other than seeing if you can get your surgeon to advocate for you with your other docs. That is what I was going to suggest. Try putting your surgeon in touch with you other doctors so they can fight it out amongst themselves.

I loved water pre-op too and could drink it at any temperature. Post-op I found room temperature water to be too "filling". It sits heavier in my stomach somehow. So I switched to ice cold water all the time and it made it a lot easier for me. I can also do hot beverages with no issues. It's just that room temp water that doesn't work well for me anymore.