JamieLogical

Good luck! Be sure to post back here letting us know how everything is going as soon as you can. It's tough saying goodbye to loved ones. Even when you rationally know that everything will be fine, there's that little emotional part of your brain thinking crazy stuff like "this might be the last time we ever see each other". But you got through it and when you come back safe and sound, hopefully your dad will eventually come around on the whole surgery thing the way my husband did.

You will definitely have to quit smoking in order to have surgery.

At 5 weeks, it's common not to be sure if you are full. You should be measuring your food and eating on a schedule, not relying on "full" signals just yet.

It really depends on your insurance. Your best chance is to begin having your PCP document and rashes, infections, chafing, etc.

Your surgeon or nutritionist should be able to provide you with a list. Mine was: Bariatric Multivitamin Calcium +D3 liquid B12 Probiotic

5 weeks is a long one! But at least you do get real food once a day. My pre-op was 3 protein shakes a day, one green salad with calorie-free dressing, and sugar-free jello and/or popsicles. I ended up not doing the green salads very often because I found they just made me hungrier.

I didn't have that problem, but it does seem pretty common.

I don't think I could, though I haven't tried. I wouldn't waste that much room on pure carbs. I am pretty confident I could do a half a bagel, but I have noticed that "bready" things tend to fill me up fast, so a whole bagel would be pushing it. I can eat a whole donut.... I definitely think that one large meal a day defeats the whole idea of WLS. With WLS you have to eat many small meals/snacks per day in order to meet your nutritional requirements. You should be getting probably at least 80 grams of Protein a day. My target is 100 grams. My "meals" usually are something like a Protein Bar if I need quick and easy, 3-4 oz. of chicken with some sort of dipping sauce, pulled pork in BBQ sauce, sausage and mustard, shrimp, cheese & nuts.....

I love that dress and it looks fantastic on you!

I'm 19 months post-op and I am still taking omeprazole (20mg) twice a day. Once in the morning and once before bed. The few times I've tried to cut back, I was in the same situation as you... burning in the back of my throat.

Sorry you had a rough go of it. I encourage you to stick with it though. Not only will you hopefully see a big improvement over these twelve weeks, but once you are post-op and really dropping weight, this will be such a nice baseline for you to look back on to see how far you've come. There are going to be a lot of points along this journey where you are going to have to push yourself further than you expect, so it's good to get the practice in now. And you really might surprise yourself.

Welcome to the losers' bench. Feel free to post here with any questions or just for some commiseration in these early days post-op. They can be a bit rough for some.

One ounce every 15 minutes you are awake is what you should be aiming for. You may not meet that the first few days, but you should be able to get there within the first week. It becomes significantly easier to get your fluids in once the swelling goes down, which for me was right around the 2 week mark. For full liquids I was allowed to have strained cream soups, which aren't at all sweet. Just add some unflavored protein powder to them.

For me the show is good because it reminds me that I can never let myself get to that point again. I also like to see other people who were far worse than I was overcome their own struggles. As far as bad eating habits, I developed them all on my own and without any enablers like the people on the show. I cringe at just remembering what my life was like. I routinely ordered a large pizza, salad and bread sticks and consumed them all in one meal. I would then usually also eat dessert. I would binge like crazy. I would eat entire boxes of little debbie Snacks. I would order a dozen cupcakes from the bakery and consume them all in one day. Just terrible. I don't want to ever go back to that. I was a binge eater too. It was common for me to eat a whole large pizza, half a bag of Doritos, and a pint of Ben & Jerry's in one sitting. The good news for us binge eaters is that post-op, that is no longer a physical possibility. Are there ways we can gain weight with our sleeves? Sure. But binge eating isn't one of them. I was never a grazer. I kicked my soda habit years before WLS. So I think I'm not at a very high risk for regain post-op. I can't possibly return to my previous unhealthy habit of bingeing. So in order for me to gain weight I'd have to adopt all new unhealthy habits in an effort to eat around my sleeve and I just don't see myself being that self-destructive.

I agree with @@Christinamo7 that even with their regain, both patients are probably FAR better off than they would have been without the surgery. I haven't watched the episode yet (have it on my DVR), but it sounds like Melissa is still half the weight she was pre-op. Had she not had the surgery, she probably wouldn't even still be alive 10 years later. Whether or not you regain a significant portion of the weight you lose is up to you. We say it over and over and over on these forums. WLS is not a magic bullet. It still requires you to be disciplined and diligent every day of your life.

Well then, "welcome" to you too! Glad you are getting so much out of the site already. It was a HUGE help to me as I began looking into WLS and helped get me through my pre and post-op trials and tribulations. Now I like to "pay it forward" as much as possible.

Congratulations! You are in the home stretch now!

Let us know how it goes!

If I remember correctly, I was allowed to bathe or swim at something like 14 days post-op. I don't think there should be any problem at 2 months unless you develop some sort of infection or something that would prevent your incisions from healing properly.

I have a desk job and I was VERY tired still when I returned to it at 15 days post-op. I found it very hard to focus and concentrate, especially later in my day and my shifts are only 7 hours. I can't imagine trying to do a 12 hour shift at just 5 days post-op....

Welcome! It sounds like you are making this decision for all the right reasons. As you correctly guessed, many of us have been in your shoes. I even credit not fitting in amusement park rides as the "straw that broke the camel's back" for me. The long-term lifestyle changes are well worth the sacrifice. And honestly, at 19 months post-op, it really doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice at all now. I can gulp Water, for the record. Water consumption was really only an issue for me in the early days post-op when my stomach and esophagus were still swollen. I have no issues getting my water in now or even just a couple months post-op. And as for not eating a "full meal", I do eat full meals, they are just much smaller now. I choose not to eat a lot of the "fillers" that are often included in meals like Pasta, rice, bread, rolls, etc. But I technically could eat a few bites of those if I so chose. I just prefer not to waste the space. I really *can* eat everything I ate pre-op, I just make very different choices now than I did before. Which I guess is the whole point, because I clearly didn't make good choices before! Feel free to post any specific questions/concerns you have and I am sure you will get a lot of answers and support. This is an awesome community full of people at all different stages of this journey.

Is it a formal sit-down meal at this baby shower or will it just be snacks and such? If it's just snacks, you can probably get away with not eating and no one will notice. Two or three weeks post-op you might be on soft foods, depending on your plan so there *might* be something mushy enough for you to eat. Or if it's a dish-to-pass sort of thing, you could make sure whatever dish you bring is something you can eat.

Proton Pump Inhibitor. It's a type of medication that reduces the creation of stomach acid. Many people who have gastric sleeve experience problems with excess acid like reflux and heart burn.

I was told by my nutritionist to start taking probiotics 7 days post-op when I was cleared to swallow pills. Edit: The shakes my surgeon's office pushes also include probiotics and I was allowed to drink those 4 days post-op.

It looks like from my old blog posts that I was first diagnosed on February 19, 2010. Started physical therapy on February 23, 2010. I "graduated" from physical therapy on May 12, 2010. I ran a full mile straight exactly one month later on June 12, 2010. So judging by that, it seems like it must have been about 3 months total of physical therapy. Not exactly sure at what point in there I started running short intervals again. But I was up to a full mile straight 4 months after my runner's knee was diagnosed.