hockeyfan7

GNC carries Quest Protein which is pretty good. I like their protein bars too.

Yes - I'm in Greensboro.

I don't say I can't drink Water because it tastes bad. I say I don't want to drink water because it tastes bad. I can say that if I choose to - it's a free country after all - but I also am still drinking it. Sometimes I will still be complaining about having to do it but I will still do it. It's just like going to work every day. I don't want to but I have no choice. I have to have money to live on so I have to go to work. I have to drink the water to lose the weight. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

Well one thing I can tell from my own personal experience is that I used to live on sweets. I would often eat multiple candy bars a day and if it had sugar in it, I ate it. Now after surgery sweets are just not appetizing. I've tried a bite of things here and there and yuck. My tastes really changed. Ice cream is the worst - now it's totally sickening.

I was also in the hospital on day 2 - my surgeon makes all his patients stay 2 nights. I was uncomfortable to say the least. I didn't have much pain but really cranky. It took about 4 weeks before I started not being totally exhausted. I'm in week 7 and still kind of cranky though. And I still don't have a whole lot of energy.

I am 7 weeks out and I have eaten more fresh veggies in the past 5 weeks than I have in 2 or 3 years prior to surgery. I have found that some of the foods I used to love taste terrible now. We were at a church picnic last Sunday and I had one Lay's potato chip. It tasted like crap and I had no desire to have another one. I had a bite of my son's ice cream and it was really nasty and over the top sweet. Prior to surgery I hated sugar free fudgesicles and now I love them. I think I have zucchini coming out my ears. I've always been a big meat eater and now a good medium rare filet mignon is way better than candy. I'm really bad - I went to the grocery store the other day and bought a small filet mignon for me and grilled it for lunch. The rest of the family was gone so they didn't get any!

If you can get him to write a letter stating what you were doing and that he was supervising it, it should. I didn't really have supervised weight loss technically. In the past I had done Weight Watchers and counted calories using MFP so my PCP just signed a letter I wrote stating that I had been following this program and she had supervised it.

For the lap band surgery it was 2 months. For the revision to the sleeve it was 2 weeks.

Several people I know use a product called Natural Calm that they swear by. Are you feeling constipated? I only go about every 3 days but I don't feel constipated and with the small amount we eat, there's not much waste produced after digestion.

Not at all - in fact I have the opposite. I've tried bites of a few sweet things and yuck! I used to eat chocolate candy for lunch. Not any longer. And it makes my stomach upset. If I get a real craving I have some of a Qwest Protein bar. The chocolate chip cookie dough or the brownie one is good for chocolate cravings. And I bought the Qwest protein chips. I put Laughing Cow cheese on those and salt them. Or what's really yummy is take some cheese slices and break into 4 pieces. Put them on parchment paper, salt them and bake in a 250 degree oven for 35 minutes. You get "cheese" crackers that are delicious. I used cheddar, colby jack, baby swiss and havarti.

Never had a C-section but I didn't really have pain with the sleeve. I had one morphine shot in the hospital and one dose of liquid Vicodan. And the liquid Vicodan was because I had a major headache and that's all they were allowed to give me. The gas problem I had was in my left shoulder and I just kept walking and massaging it out. The incisions were sore, but not really painful. My big problem was total exhaustion. The first week was awful. After a shower I had to sit on the bed for about 5 minutes before I could get dressed and I had to sit down to dry my hair and do makeup. I went back to work the 2nd week but I work from home. I started around 10:00 a.m. and by 3:00 p.m. I was back in bed. By the 3rd week it was much better.

It's funny how some things no longer taste good at all. We had a church picnic on Sunday and I had one potato chip. I used to eat a one pound bag of those things in one sitting. And it tasted TERRIBLE. I also had a bite of my son's ice cream and it was nasty - disgustingly sickeningly sweet. I grew up drinking Tang and I'm loving sugar free orange Tang right now. That's the way I've been getting in my Water. It tastes much better to me than Crystal Light or any of the others.

Was it light or fat-free ranch? I eat ranch every day but I use a full fat one and don't eat a lot of it. And I had to switch to Ken's Steakhouse brand. I used to use Kraft and now it tastes funny.

I use Flintstones Complete chewables as that's what my NUT suggested. I love the Creamy Bites Calcium chews in chocolate - they taste just like candy and there's no icky taste to them. I have a cherry flavored B12 chewable and I also take a Vitamin D pill that is tiny and easy to swallow.

I also track on My Fitness Pal. It keeps me on track with Protein, carbs and calories.

Well, I had the same problem several years ago long before I had surgery. Chronic anemia that would not respond to Iron by IV at all. My level was down to 4. I had the colonoscopy to check for bleeding and then an endoscopy to check for issues. The biopsy showed that I had Celiac disease. My ONLY symptom was anemia that would not respond to treatment. I had nothing else. Turns out that I have the gene for Celiac disease and it seems to have turned on when I had a major surgery. The gastro said that is common if you have the gene. Major surgery or pregnancy in women typically can make the gene switch itself on. You might want to get a biopsy for Celiac and see if that turns out to be the problem.

I hate, loathe and despise Water and Crystal Light or anything like that doesn't help it. So I force myself to drink it and then once I've hit my goal, I do have a diet Coke a few times a week. I don't have any pain or problems with it and I haven't exploded. It's the only way I will actually drink the water. Before surgery the only water I EVER drank was what it took to wet my toothbrush and brush my teeth.

I was supposed to do full liquids 10 days post-op and I only made it 8 days before I had scrambled egg. My NUT let me go ahead and start soft foods at day 10. They usually do day 14 for soft foods. At day 14 I was on solids.

I am a revision patient in my 7th week. I can eat 4-5 oz of Protein but if I eat it first like we're supposed to, I'm done. I won't be eating the veggies. I try to stick to 3-4 oz of protein and some veggies at each meal so I can get some veggies. I don't think it's nutritionally sound to just eat meat all the time with nothing else.

It took a full five weeks for me. I'm finishing up week six and I still get more tired than I did before surgery.

I think it depends on how your surgeon is able to do the surgery. I have a slightly larger sleeve because of scar tissue around the esophagus that my surgeon didn't feel was safe to remove. He left the sleeve a little larger so I didn't run the risk of leaking. So he said it may be slower.

I get really uncomfortable. I don't have what I'd consider to be nausea but it's more of a tight too stuffed feeling.

Another different in surgeons. Mine said that taking NSAIDS can seriously damage your stomach and will not let me take the Voltaren any longer or Advil. I now have the Voltaren gel for my knees and I also get shots every 6 months.

You are not supposed to take your calcium with your multi-vitamin as the calcium won't absorb. I have to wait until after Breakfast to take mine or they do bother me. Try taking them on a full stomach.

Again, total difference in surgeons. I was told if I had diarrhea it was a problem and to call the office.