borg/assimilated

I find I rarely get sick anymore since surgery, maybe it's the Vitamins keeping me healthy? I have vomited twice though. I agree with the above posters; comes up much easier, less volume ,kind of foamy and not quite as vile aftertaste .

I will be watching for updates. I might try this myself.

Kathy,
How shocking for all of your family. Such a tragedy. I pray for God's peace to surround you and your family now and in the coming days.
Barbara

Runny nose, hiccups, burping are all part of my full signals, some times separately, sometimes all together !

I'm back. I'm looking to reconnect. BP looks a bit different. I am going to have to learn how to use the forum again.
Three years out and I still feel blessed for having my life back. Maintaining for me is just as hard as weight loss phase. I'm in the 140's. Trying to get 15 pounds down. Losing weight is at a snail's pace.
looking forward to meeting new patients. I also hope to see familiar veterans.

I completely forgot about this forum until I saw your posting. I was never allowed to post before. Now that I am 21 months post op I qualify as a Veteran. But hardly any Veterans are left here to chat with. Good to see you came back. Maybe others will too.

Wow I can’t believe the lack of Vet topics we have in this part of the forum. My Husband and I will be 4years VSG next weekend. When I first started researching VSG for us this was my bible. The amount of Vets that had so much good advice and were willing to share it freely. I know we all get on with our lives but I also know that we each have our own struggles and concerns.
Let’s try to be there for each other and make sure those that do pop in or comeback know that we want to help and that we appreciate them sharing their experiences.

I think what has happened that cause the loss of many veterans is conflicts on the board. There are many opinionated individuals in this world. Many of them are newbies and many times they offer unsound advice. When a veteran chides in and tries to correct the advise, they are verbally assaulted. So it is a little like a free for all.
Just remember as a veteran that one important quality to have is a thick skin.

Good luck on your sleeve surgery tomorrow. I am 69 years old and I had gastric bypass surgery 4 years ago. It was like getting a new lease on life.

It becomes about you and your habits after the magical year or so. It is hard! It can be done
But takes much work and time and commitment... I can't go back! Everyday I try

That's precisely why the doctor has returned...
He feels that some lightening up should take place..
And let's face it - the doctor is the man to facilitate such lightening...
So bring your questions common-folk...
No problem too big...
None too small...
Remember - the doctor knows stuff!!!**
**The doctor really knows nothing.
He's pretty much full of sh*t..
But you all know that...

Welcome back. A little excitement was happening on BP these last few days, but nothing that "the doctor" can't fix.

Hello world - I'm back!!!
Get your questions rolling in...
I kinda feel like there's some questions what need some answerin'...
Don't get your bits all bunched with bannings and the like..
Come see the doctor...
He'll make everything alllllllllright!!!
Ladies and gentlemen -
THE DOCTOR IS IN!!!

Good morning, BP Campers. Thought I'd stop in for a a quick visit and update. I started my preop diet 3 years ago today. I always consider this my anniversary, rather than the surgery date. Here's a recap of my journey so far.....
Year 1 - the year of losing all of my excess weight (100 pounds), dozens of NSVs, and a new wardrobe. By far, the most exciting year. Even the month of liquids, 6 weeks of diarrhea and 2 insanely painful gallbladder attacks couldn't put a dent in my enthusiasm. It was all so new and fun and easy. Life was great and I was invincible! Year 2 - the year of finding out life still sucks no matter what size you are, losing my best friend to suicide, sinking into a deep hole of depression and finding that I could no longer rely on my old friends.....food, alcohol and cigarettes. Just struggling to get through each day with really no desire to. Two more gallbladder attacks which I finally put an end to with a long overdue cholecystectomy. Despite a complete breakdown of my emotional stability, I was surprisingly able to maintain my weight loss from the 1st year. I held onto the fact that what I put in my mouth was one of the few things I could control at that point. Year 3 - the year of emotional healing (well, at least a start in that direction) with a grief therapist, testosterone replacement and an antidepressant. Finally able to crawl out the darkness into a somewhat bearable existence. My latest breakthrough is I actually said yes when asked out on a date about a month ago. Considering my introvert personality and swearing off relationships almost 20 years ago, this is an extraordinary step for me. We've been out 1/2 dozen times and I'm actually enjoying it. Who knows what Year 4 will bring. But I've definitely come to realize as time goes on, everything has become less and less about surgery and weightloss and more and more about life. I maintain my weight the same way I lost it....80+ grams of Protein, 100+ ounces of Water, low carb, balanced diet including veggies, fruit and whole grains. I pretty much eat whatever I want but I make smart choices when it comes to quantities. No tracking, no measuring, just mindful eating. I am diligent about keeping any regains in check. I've got too much invested, both financially and emotionally to let a 1-2 pound regain turn into 10-20 pounds. I have labs done annually and follow a Vitamin regimen based on the results. I don't have an exercise routine, just a very busy, active life. Bottom line is a successful WLS result is not rocket science. Whatever you had to do to lose weight is pretty much what you need to do forever. If you can't control sliders and trigger foods, they WILL lead to regain. If you don't make the psychological adjustments and permanently change your habits and behaviors, you WILL regain. It's totally up to you whether or not your surgery becomes just another failed diet. Don't be afraid to seek professional help with the mental side of it. I finally did...thank goodness. Good luck to the newbies. Congrats to the veterans.

Hey stranger. I was lying here, not able to sleep so thought I'd check out the latest on BP. I did post on here about a month ago. It was my three year surgiversary and I wanted to give an update..... http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/384092-three-years-and-a-lifetime-later/
Things have been going fabulous for me over the last month or so, which is a complete turnaround from the past year and a half. The date I went on in November has evolved into a pretty serious relationship. Something I never expected or was even looking for.
I gotta say, I don't miss the BP drama, But I may check back from time to time and just stay away from the craziness and stupidity. I do enjoy hearing how all the vets are doing. As well as some of the former newbies that are all "grown up" now
Hope all is well with you.

Here is a link to a related article. http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/24172/
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Today i want to take the time to say good bye to a friend that hung around my neck like anchor. I want to say we had many bad times togather and i truly will not miss you. I will not miss being scared to take a nap for fear the whole house will hear me snoring. I will not miss the pain that came from walking out my house to my car (the less then a 1 minute Walk ) I say dear friend you did not do me well at all so i bid farewell to the 400s and i say to the 300s don't get comfortable i've started the eviction paperwork on you for you must leave me soon as well!!!!

Surgery date 12/8/16
Hw 450 Sw 430 Cw 397
The Losers Bench

Firstly...I'm nearly four years post banded. Just a couple of weeks till my anniversary. I've been at goal for around three years give or take so I absolutely consider myself a vet though not necessarily one of long term duration.
So...this week has been both a bit of a challenge and also a great joy. The joy part is that I'm with my friends, family, and loved ones and I'm doing a spectacular stay-cation home in NYC. A little background is that my boyfriend owns a food tour company and is obviously very knowledgeable about food and is a huge foodie as part of his job and interests. And that is often the challenge...especially this week.
We decided to do a global food tour and in tandem, head out of Manhattan to explore the outer boroughs and eat foods from different ethnicities. So we went to Greenpoint Brooklyn which has a large Polish population and ate Polish food. We went to Staten Island and had Spanish food, we went to Arthur Avenue in The Bronx which is a well known Italian enclave. We've done Brazilian, Malaysian, Jewish delicatessen (along with movies on Christmas Day), and we're still heading to Astoria Queens for Greek food.
I got on the scale this morning and am exactly the same weight I was a week ago when we started this foray.
And what does this tell us? For me, it tells me that as long as I watch my volume, and make good choices, I can eat anything and live the life I want even when my interests still gravitate towards food. The difference now is that I don't need or want to eat to excess. A little bit goes a long way. Last night was my biggest challenge. My danger food is Pasta. I ordered the house special...Nona's meatballs and spaghetti. Suffice to say the spaghetti was perfectly al dente. Chewy deliciousness. I had about three or four small forkfuls, and let the remaining three dinner companions go to town on the rest of it. This worked so well as I got in my chance to enjoy this food and still not give in to it.
I know everyone has to approach living post WLS the best way they know how. For me, this works. My fervent hope is that I'm posting the same when I'm ten years post banded. Today I think I can make it.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all my friends on BP.

Over the last few weeks, I've seen a number of posts about "cheating" on the diet plan in the days and weeks immediately following surgery, and I am very concerned about this trend.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on TV, and I am not dispensing medical advice.

However.

I am a registered nurse, and what I'm about to say is an informed and educated opinion.

Surgeons tend to give VERY detailed instructions about what to eat after a stomach surgery, and for VERY good reason.

Even when the surgery is arthroscopic and looks to be a very tiny surgery on the outside, it's a VERY BIG surgery on the inside. The VSG surgery leaves a staple/suture line the entire length of the stomach. That incision has to heal, and if you could see it, it would look like raw beef. If the incision were on the outside, we would be very careful with it, keeping it clean and bandaged while it healed. Of course, it's on the inside, so we can't do that. But we need to keep in mind that it needs to heal in the same way.

We have to eat, and that food will be against that raw incision. At the same time that we have to protect the healing stomach, we also have to get in plenty of fluids and nutrients, specifically Protein, in order to support healing. Protein is the primary building block for tissue, so it's critical to healing. Carbs are mainly just energy sources, so they're not as important, especially given that people having bariatric surgery have plenty of energy in their fat stores. This is why protein is stressed so heavily over carbs in the diets.

Additionally, the stomach is now in a new shape, and it basically has to learn how to function as a slender tube instead of a big bag. There's a learning curve. Kinda like a newborn baby's stomach. We don't dump steak and salad into a newborn's stomach for good reason - it doesn't know how to deal with it. Similarly, we don't want to do that to our new sleeve. We start off with stuff that's easy on the suture line and easy to digest, and as the suture line heals and the sleeve learns its job, start working our way up to "real" food.

So over the years, doctors have learned what foods are best for a healing stomach, and that translates into the post-op diet progression instructions.

Typically, that looks like this: Clear liquids, then full liquids, then pureed foods, then soft foods, then slowly move into a "full" diet beginning with high moisture content foods first. When moving from one stage to the next, it's typically advised to add just one food at a time, in small amounts, and see how it's tolerated. A food that's not tolerated well can be tried later on as well. If an entire stage is not being tolerated, back up to the previous stage for a while, and then try again more slowly.

Surgeons tend to specify how long to stay in each of these stages, what types of food make up each stage, and how to transition to the next stage. Every surgeon's instructions are a little different, and it's based on their experience and sometimes changes based on the patient's specific medical case.

The general idea in the very early weeks is to eat foods that will not stress the healing suture line, and do not have particles that are known to cut into the raw tissue or get embedded into the suture line. If a cut or embedded food particle gets infected, it can become an abscess and develop into a leak. A leak can be life threatening, and at the very least cause the patient to have to be hospitalized and possibly have more surgery to correct it. Foods that are particularly known to cause issues are those that swell up like rice, have seeds like strawberries, or have rough hard edges or hard to digest fibers like wheat crackers or raw vegetables.

There are people who eat all sorts of things against their doctor's orders and have suffered no ill effects, but this should not be used as an argument that the doctor's orders are not important. Similarly, you will find some people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day and drink a pint of whiskey every day but live to 100. They are not representative of most people, and should not be used as the example other people follow.

The reality is that some people will develop abscesses and leaks because they ate things before they were cleared to by their doctors, and there is no way to predict who will have the complications and who will not. And the consequences can be as severe as death. It's not common, but that's how bad it can get. That's why the doctors give the instructions they do. They're not just testing you or trying to make your life hard. They are giving you the best information they have to keep you safe.

Violating these orders is not "cheating" on a diet. It's risking your life. I am not being overly dramatic with this statement, it is a fact that it has happened. You are risking your safety and your health if you violate these orders. It's not about "being human", it's not about "food addiction". It's about your safety and your health. It's hard to be on liquids only for 2 weeks (or more). Some people have huge cravings, or "head hunger" as we tend to call it here. Or just want desperately to chew something. No one is saying it's easy. But it's necessary. Distract yourself. Eat/drink anything that's allowed on your plan - freeze it, heat it up, try something that's opposite of what you've been having to shake it up. Walk around the house or the block. Suck on an ice cube. Count to ten or a hundred. Post about how hard it is, and ask people to help you get through it. But muscle through. It's nothing less than your health and safety.

As for why one surgeon will have his patients on Clear Liquids for 2 weeks while another only does 2 days? Or why one will skip a phase entirely? Each surgeon has different experiences that inform his practices. One is not right and the other wrong. They are each operating out of what they were taught and what they have seen in their own patient groups. They may have even modified the plan because of a specific health concern in your specific case. As a patient, you need to fully understand what your surgeon expects, and if you have a problem with the protocols get it straight with your surgeon and team BEFORE you go under the knife.

If you don't trust your surgeon and his protocols, find another surgeon. I personally would question a surgeon who doesn't allow any Protein drinks including the clear ones for 2 full weeks post op (saw that in one patient's instructions on this site) and likely wouldn't work with that surgeon, given what I know about the needs of protein for healing. But after surgery is not the time to be questioning the surgeon's protocols. Get those questions asked and answered to your satisfaction well before the surgery date.

If you are having surgery, and you have not been given your post-op instructions, at the very least for the first 2 weeks post-op, do not proceed with the surgery until you have that information. We have people posting here stating that they were sent home without clear instructions as to what they were supposed to eat or drink, just a vague statement about "full liquids". That is not sufficient information, and instructions should be given WELL BEFORE the surgery, not after. You should fully understand what will be expected in the weeks after the surgery before consenting to the surgery, or your team is not doing their job.

(This ends my sorta rant about post-op diets and "cheating")

Good luck to everyone!

In case any of these tips are new to you. #10 doesn't apply.
http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-10-ways-to-control-eating

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/26/the-humble-heroes-of-weight-loss-surgery-stomach-acids-and-gut-microbes/
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@@4MRB4PHOTO,
Agreed!

@@4MRB4PHOTO,
Agreed!

Unfortunately, lately there has been a lot less "PAL" in BariatricPal.

Congratulations, you have done well!