JamieLogical

Good luck! It'll be rough, but remember, it's only temporary!

You should take it.

I didn't experience anything like that. Otherwise you can be sure I would have posted about it and tried to warn you!

I think it's great that you are getting all these thoughts down. This will be good to look back on when you are going through the rough times post-op to remind yourself why it will all be worth it in the end.

@@treblecutie23 Glad you made it! Congratulations! I have been practicing my race-day nutrition on all of my long runs during training. I have a piece of multi-grain bread with two tablespoons of Peanut Butter about 40 minutes before I run. I fill the four 10 oz. bottles on my hydration belt with G2. I have a GU in my pack for every 3 miles. And then I have a bottle of plain Water within reach (that will be the water stations on race day). I am doing a run/walk plan, which has me running 5 minutes and walking 1 minute at a time. So I have practiced with sipping my G2 and eating my GU gels during those 1 minute walks. I always follow the GU with plain water on the next walk interval to help wash it down. Then I do a Protein bar AFTER the run. I agree that Protein Bar before or during the run is WAY too heavy. So I think I have it all down now. I've practiced several times with that exact combination. Earlier on I'd experimented with Protein Bars, fig bars, energy gummies, and different flavors of GU. The GU, while having a disgusting texture, was the easiest for me to eat quickly and it metabolizes so fast that I almost immediately feel the effects. Drier things were terrible when already struggling with hydration. And I found the gummies took forever to chew. So I finally found two flavors of the GU gel I can tolerate and that seems to work best for me. My race is on Sunday! Had my last long run yesterday. Now it's tapering way down this week (only run Tuesday and Thursday and no other cardio) and the race itself on Sunday! Now I'm contemplating signing up for a full marathon in September, which would mean having to begin the 20 week training program for that a week after my half.

So glad you posted back and everything went well! It's a lot of adjustment in the early weeks and some doubt and regret can creep in, but just focus on the moment. Get your water, get your protein, walk as much as possible. You'll get the hang of things. Did the give you omeprazlle to take for the reflux?

I can imagine how frustrating it must be an still having so much uncertainty. All you can do is just keep plugging away and hope for things to come together in the end.

Yay! It's so exciting to get your date and know you are finaly going to reap the results of all your hard work.

I have had surgery in Mexico twice, once of r plastics and once for my sleeve, and scheduled for another round of plastics in September. They're are world class surgeons practicing in Mexico and the level of care you can receive there far surpasses any care I've received in the US. If you figure out what your criteria ar end do your research, you have nothing to worry about. The poor experiences are few and far between and almost always are because people didn't do proper research or weren't honest with their surgeons about their medical history/conditions.

Sounds like everything is going well so far. It's a long road ahead, but you are off to a great start and already have a great attitude.

The recommendation is to maintain your weight for about 12 months prior to any skin removal surgery to allow the chance for your skin to bounce back on its own as much as possible.

Yeah. I'm struggling to understand how saying I didn't "cheat" post-op for fear of dying somehow turns into "you cheated post-op so you deserve to die!"

I are opposed to the idea of plastics in Mexico? There are many excellent surgeons there with amazing post-op care available for 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the US.

@@autymn You should be okay with regular calcium pills in a couple of days if you aren't right now. That leave of swelling doesn't last much past a week or two. Some people cut their calcium pills in half to make them a little more manageable.

It doesn't sound to me from your original post that you would have any additional risk factors to be concerned about, but you could always try to follow up and get a more personalized response. I sent in a ton of questions initially before submitting my deposit, but I don't know whether they've changed their process since then. Can't hurt to ask! The worst they can do is not answer.

"Head hunger" is when you brain is telling you you are hungry instead of any real physical need for nourishment. When you see a commercial for food on TV and think "I NEED THAT RIGHT NOW", or when you smell a restaurant when you are driving by and you get a craving, or when you associate a certain food with a certain activity (like I always associate ice cream with watching Survivor)... that is "head hunger". You aren't truly, physically hungry. It's psychological. My husband's doctor used to say "if you aren't hungry enough to eat an apple, you aren't actually hungry."

You calling me judgmental and "holier-than-thou" is the only ridicule I see going on in this thread. Someone talked about "cheating" post-op. I explained how TO ME "cheating" post-op is nothing like "cheating" on a diet, because it poses immediate risk to one's life. That was all that happened. Go back and re-read my posts. Where was I judging anyone? Where was I ridiculing anyone?

You should be able to fend for yourself when you get home from the hospital. You should be able to get up and down (slowly and maybe a little painfully) on your own. You should be up and walking a little every hour that you are awake. You should be able to take care of all your personal hygiene needs yourself. If your wife wants to take time off beyond the day of your surgery, that is nice of her, but not necessary.

Where did I ridicule or mock anyone in this thread? I simply said that *I* could not understand it. I didn't call anyone names. Didn't say anyone was stupid or wrong. I just said I couldn't understand it. I explained MY way of thinking. Didn't criticize anyone else's way of thinking.

I completely agree! I see a lot of people killing themselves to get down to some ridiculously low goal weight, then freak out and consider themselves failures if they regain 20 pounds. If you lose 100 pounds and regain 20, you are still 80 pounds better off than you were pre-op, with all the health benefits that go along with an 80 pound weight loss. Health and happiness should be the goal. Not a number on a scale.

I'm a little taller than you (5'6") but my surgery weight was very close to yours. I weighed 236 the day of surgery and it took me almost 8 months to get to 170. Surgery date was Sept. 1, 2014 and I weighed 170.5 on April 27, 2015.

This all sounds normal to me. Your stomach and esophagus are very swollen in the beginning and you are healing so there are going to be a lot of weird sensations and noises. Remember that when they cut out 80% of your stomach, they also damages all the nerves in there, so things you are "feeling" will be all mixed up. What you have to do is trust in your program. Sip, sip, sip. Get your water and protein in. Move through the food stages as outlined. Eat on a timer and measure your food. Do NOT rely on signals from your stomach to tell you when or how much to eat. It will take a while for everything to heal up in there and then you will have to learn all the new signals your stomach will be sending. But for right now, eat on a schedule and measure what you are eating/drinking to make sure you get enough, but not too much.

It depends on what the food is. As a general rule, I can do about 3-4 ounces. But if it's dense protein maybe more like 2-3 ounces. If it's something "liquidy" like chili, maybe more like 6-8.

No, that was exactly my point. When you cheat on a diet or even overeat daily you are potentially SLOWLY killing yourself. There's a nebulous, future, distant chance that it will lead to your death. But eating solid foods or seeds or popcorn or things that can legitimately get stuck in your staple line is an immediate threat to your life. So there is definitely a very big difference.

So I measured my calf when I went home at lunch. It's still 16.75 inches (really pushing closer to 17") at 159 pounds. The "good" news is that my lower thigh is now smaller than my calf? I can get my hands all the way around my lower thigh now, with the tips of my middle fingers and tips of my thumbs touching, but I still can't do that with my calf.