JamieLogical

I have. I had an excellent experience all around. There are many world-class surgeons in Tijuana. I advise you and your family member do your research, look into the history and credentials of the surgeons you are considering, and also look into the facilities where the surgeries are performed. I've actually had surgery in Mexico twice. Gastric sleeve and plastics to remove excess skin. Both times I received top-notch care with far more personal attention than I would have received in the US. Are there shady surgeons with scary records operating in Mexico? Yep! Just like there are here in the US. But there are some amazingly skilled and experienced surgeons as well. Just do your research and remember that you get what you paid for. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I spent an extra day in San Diego after my surgery, just because I had to due to the flight schedule. I stayed in my hotel room with the curtains shut, sleeping and watching TV. I was definitely NOT up to getting out and walking around and site seeing. Everyone is different though. I have heard about people having their surgery in TJ and then going all over town, shopping, and visiting markets and such before they even cross back into the US. It's tough to predict how you will be feeling.

The number of search results you get if you type in "week 3 stall" should clue you in that this happens to pretty much EVERY single person. We seriously get at least 2-3 posts per day here asking this exact same question. So you are not alone! Hang in there. Stick to the plan. And the scale will move again!

I had a LOT of gurgling and burping even when I would just take a tiny sip of water in the beginning. I would say that lasted about 2 weeks. I think it had to do with the swelling and once the swelling had gone down, it got much better.

I'm not Muslim either, but I would say, be kind to yourself. Maybe cut back on workouts the first couple of days to assess how you are feeling and then, if you feel up to it, reintroduce them slowly. I would be very concerned about dehydration and starvation mode. I don't think you should be completely inactive, but take it a lot easier. Maybe just some short walks a couple times a day. And try to time them in such a way that you will be able to eat and drink shortly before or after. Just a few thoughts. Definitely be mindful and listen to your body!

@@jane13 It will come back. I think the frustrating thing for women is that most of us wear our hair pretty long and that means it takes a LONG time for the new, baby hair to catch up to our old hair. I cut off a LOT of my hair a couple months post-op in preparation for the inevitable loss. I think it did make the loss less noticeable. But now that all my baby hairs are coming in and are about 1.5-2 inches long, it looks a little silly. If I were a guy and kept my hair short, the new hair would already be blended in with the old.

@@prbaby28 Hang in there. It will get easier day by day. I noticed huge improvements in my energy level as I moved through the different food stages. Once I got to solids, there was a lot of trial and error in accurately judging how much I could "safely" eat and pacing myself, but I did feel much better in general. Just take it day-by-day, stick to your plan, and be gentle with yourself.

There's a lot more to "hunger" than just ghrelin. Many of us didn't get to be morbidly obese by just eating when we were physically hungry. There was a HUGE psychological and emotional component as well. As people on these forums often say, they perform surgery on our stomachs, not our brains. Post-op, even if you are physically incapable of eating your favorite foods, you still WANT them. You still wish you could turn to food for comfort. You still smell something delicious and want to eat it. That doesn't just go away like some magical switch is flipped. On top of that, it's a whole learning process about the physical limitations of your new stomach as well. Even if you somehow, miraculously, aren't "hungry" anymore post-op, you still need to eat to live. You still need to get all your protein in. And sometimes it's hard to judge what and how much you can safely eat and not have physical consequences like pain, gas, vomiting, etc. You are like a baby learning to eat for the first time all over again and you will make mistakes and you WILL overeat a few times. You will eat too quickly. You will eat too much. You will eat things that your stomach just doesn't like one day, but is perfectly fine with the next. It will be a lot of trial and error until you learn all about your new stomach.

Yeah. When I first started on solids I would "joke" about going from perfectly fine to "omg, I'm going to die" with no full signal in between. I got much better at eyeballing my food and knowing how much would be safe to eat without reaching that latter stage.

That's what I do. Monday mornings, after I pee, but before I eat/drink, and naked.

@@Malagal These are the easiest to get a hold of at local stores: http://www.oldwisconsin.com/snacks/snack-sticks/turkey I have also gotten some more "exotic" meats at places like Bass Pro Shop, camping supply stores, and specialty stores. They have things like duck, alligator, buffalo, karibu....

I'm 9 months out and haven't thrown up once. Not everyone throws up when they are overfull post-sleeve. There have been several times when I have overeaten (especially in my early days on solids) and I felt incredibly uncomfortable, a lot of pain, and like I was going to explode, but never threw up.

Were you weighed at a different time of day than last time? Where you wearing different clothes? Stalls do happen, especially right around the time you are at. But I sincerely doubt you've gained 5 pounds of real weight. It was wither water retention or some sort of problem with the scale itself.

It really does get better every day. Time drags out so slowly in the early days, but in a few weeks, you will be feeling MUCH better and in a few months you will feel completely "normal".

I wasn't allowed solids until 40 days post-op, but my earlier phases were a little different from yours. Still, I agree that it's better to take things slow and not risk a leak or food getting caught in the staple line until everything's had a chance to fully heal up.

This is a huge first step for you and the beginning of your whole new life. My main advice would be to practice patience. You will need infinite amounts of patience through this process. You'll need to patient in jumping through all the pre-op hoops, waiting to hear back from various doctors and offices. It will feel like forever! Then you'll need to be patient through your pre-op liquid diet (if you have one), which will be very tough. Then patient with your healing post-op and patient through all the post-op food phases when you are anxious to move on to more interesting and satisfying foods. And you will have to be patient with the scale! Sometimes you will love that scale and seeing the numbers fly off of it and sometimes you will be incredibly frustrated with its refusal to budge.

It grows back. Mine fell out in months 3-5 and I'm at month 9 now. All my baby hairs are about an inch and a half long.

I had severe muscle soreness and weakness on my pre-op diet as well. I had to stop working out altogether. It got so bad that it was hard for me to just lift my arms up to wash my hair in the shower in the morning!

It's rough. The first couple of days with the headaches and the fatigue setting in, especially. Hang in there. It's only temporary!

First of all, dietary cholesterol in food has no effect on the real cholesterol levels in your body. That was disproven a while back and the FDA is considering removing cholesterol from nutrition labels, as it is misleading. So don't stress about eating eggs or shrimp or other foods that are high in dietary cholesterol. It's saturated and trans fats that effect your body's cholesterol levels. Moving on to your actual question, my go-to Protein convineince foods are: Protein Bars Protein shakes reduced fat string cheese Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt (only brand I can tolerate... doesn't taste so "Greek" to me) "beef" sticks ("beef" is in quotations there because I actual eat mostly ones made with turkey or other meat) lightly salted peanuts Edit: Here's a WebMD article explaining what I was talkign about with dietary cholesterol: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/cholesterol-food

@@heav85 If you are really worried, you could get one of those "First Response" tests that allegedly can work as early as 6 days before your period?

Yay! You'll be joining us on the losers' bench very soon!

I didn't have to wait at all for my room at the Marriott either time (I checked out when I went for surgery and checked back in and got a different room the day after surgery). I wonder if it might have something to do with what time of day you arrive. Maybe if you get there early (before check OUT time), you have to wait for someone to check out and for them to get the room cleaned and ready for you?

@lclemur @IcanMakeit In the beginning, weight loss is generally faster without exercising, but you need to factor in that a scary percentage of the weight you are losing is muscle. If you work out, the scale moves more slowly, but you can be certain that the weight you are losing is FAT, not muscle. My weight loss has been very slow by most people's standards. I've lost 60 pounds in 9 months. However, my body fat percentage has gone from almost 50% to 25.8%. My nutritionist wants me to get below 25% and I have 10 pounds to go until my weight goal of 165, so I am thinking I will hit 25% right as I'm hitting my weight goal. So I will have an ideal body composition at that point. If you don't exercise as you lose the weight, you will lose a lot of muscle and then when you stall out and realize you need to start exercising in order to reach your weight loss goal, you will get frustrated, because the scale might actually go UP a bit at first as you start to put muscle back on.

@@AnA92212 If you are working out 6 times a week, you should definitely try getting in more calories. At 300-500 calories a day, assuming you are burning 300-ish from exercise, you are getting dangerously close to a form of anorexia called anorexia athletica, which is basically where you burn as many or more calories a day through exercise than you are eating. That is VERY bad for you considering you also probably burn at least 1200 calories a day just by living. Your body will go into self preservation mode, your metabolism will slow WAY down, you body will stop expending energy for things that it considers to be "non-essential" functions..... Either cut back on the exercise or work on increasing your caloric intake. Not trying to scare you, just trying to warn you that over exerting yourself and not eating enough can have detrimental consequences. I know you want to lose weight quickly and we all know that weight loss is about "calories in vs. calories out", but our bodies are built to resist rapid weight loss and will do everything they can to "save" themselves if they think they are starving.