Sajijoma

left is me the day before surgery and right is today hw:429 sw:386 cw:248

Charliewrt2016 You really have got the best surgeon in the world. IMO. He was so gentle and he does his best to get all the gas out so you don't have the insane pain that comes from the gas being left in. I can't say enough about him. He just really cares. Every time I have an appt he always comes out and says hello and checks up on me and how I'm doing even when I don't have an appt with him anymore at this point. I just love him to death. I honestly was freaked out about the drain too. I begged him to just not put it in, but he'll tell you why it's something he does and why he won't budge on it. It really wasn't that bad in the end. I had mine for 10 days. The worst part was that it would fill up at night while I was sleeping and leak so I started emptying it at night when I got up to use the bathroom and that handled that. Also I am a super clutz and got the hose part hung on the cabinet door knobs more than once and broke the bulb part off once [emoji15]. Get a lanyard to clip to the bulb end of the drain for when you take a shower and use a safety pin to pin it inside your shirt for extra support. It's a God send so you can use both hands to shampoo and whatever. Also as I learned... tape the hose down close to your body with waterproof tape so you don't hurt yourself on doorknobs, but don't over tape it because you have to pinch and squeeze the hose to create the suction after emptying. The nurse will show you how before you leave the hospital. It really isn't that bad, I promise. [emoji4]

It's hot or miss honestly. I use Goodwill and Savers and sometimes I'll leave with bags of clothes for $20 and other days I pick through all the racks and leave empty handed. It's kind of like hunting. If you aren't into the hunt, maybe stick to clearance racks and eBay or something

The biggest hurdle at all immediately post surgery was being tired, but do as much as you can before surgery and then rest a few days and then get back on it. You'll be fine and the fact that you are probably going to be bored to tears at that point will make you ever so grateful for something to stimulate you.

I was allowed to try eggs in the puréed food stage so I cooked basically a sunny side egg and mashed it with a fork til it was good and floppy(like I fed my babies when they were eating mushy foods). It went well for me, but some people have a really hard time with egg especially in the beginning so if it doesn't work, table it for awhile and try again later.

I had puréed foods at 10 days post op, so not too soon at all really. Life for me on the protein shakes was hard because I was lactose intolerant immediately post op and the shakes that were lactose free made me violently vomit, but once I got to start adding in soft foods like yogurt, it got easier. More choices make thing so much easier! You are doing fine. It's just the part of the recovery very few doctors explain to their patients unfortunately.

Congratulations and happy surgiversary! You look wonderful!

I'm 9 months as well, and my weightloss is reaching a slowing point. It's not done, but the days of the 4lb overnight drop are long gone and I can go weeks without losing a lb and then lose 5 and then not lose for awhile. It's all part of the process as we get closer to goal. Just make sure you are still following your guidelines and keep from sabotaging yourself with little things you wouldn't allow in the beginning.

Here's what I tell people. I'm doing a high protein low carb diet and exercising 1 to 2hrs a day(all of which are true). They don't need to know the particulars of the surgery and for all they know you could have lost weight from something like cancer even. It's your business and not theirs. You don't have to give up any information you don't want to, just because someone was nosey and asked.

It's not advised ever to drink carbonated beverages because it can do damage to your pouch, but I don't know of any surgeon anywhere who is going to tell you it is ok at 15 days post op mainly because your stomach is still healing and that fresh suture line will never be able to hold up to the acidity of that soda nor to the gas from the carbonation. It's really just a bad idea.

My biggest annoyance are the people who want an exact weight amount about how much I've lost so far. "You are life half the size! How much have you loss?" And when you refuse to give them an exact amount siting that it is very personal, then they keep needling away "so was it like 100lbs?" Seriously, it's no ones business how much I have lost! I'm not doing it for their curiosity!

I want to scream NEVER!!! But it's not never. My program offered mashed potatoes in the puréed stage and low carb tortillas in the soft food stage in the form of a roll up. Why I want to say never is because the window of opportunity to maximize your weight loss is so small, and these things tend to be really bad for most of us. A lot of us got to where we started on the backs of bread, pasta, rice, and sweets, so the more you stay away from them, the better your overall outcome. I'm almost 8 months out and although I occasionally will take a small bite of one of these things, I generally leave them alone and honestly I don't miss them anymore.

I didn't have one and didn't really need it. I did find a few pairs of bike shorts that helped support me without being too constricting that helped, but I didn't need anything as tight as a binder.

I avoid pasta, potatoes, most kinds of rice, most breads(but not all), anything breaded, fried, anything with more than 5g of sugar in it....really it's probably easier to say what I do eat than what I don't. I stick with simple unprocessed foods, beef, beans, and fish mainly. I eat a lot of cheese and jerky. My stomach doesn't handle most chicken or pork well and then after I've had my protein serving, I'll fill in with salad, carrots, green beans or other fresh veggies, peaches in natural fruit juice with no sugar, or a few strawberries especially if my meal was spicy. It cuts the burn and allows me to wait comfortably til my 1hr post meal time to drink water.

Before doing anything different, always always ALWAYS consult your NUT. Advancing your diet before your body is able is a recipe for disaster. That being said, I was advanced to puréed foods at 10 days post op. Things on that list included sugar free yogurt, sugar free pudding, mash potatoes mixed with unflavored protein powder, ricotta cheese, refried beans, cottage cheese and even runny eggs smashed. This is the part of the program where your brain and your body are not on the same page. You have to learn to follow your steps and ignore what you think is hunger, because it isn't. It's just your head talking a pretty game, but the longer you follow your rules and stick to the steps, the easier it gets. I'm almost 9 months out and I do get hungry sometimes and sometimes I don't. It matters what you put in your body to make it not be hungry. The rules are a must. At about 4 to 6 months that's when hunger starts making it's comeback so it's important to have the rules down to heart before that happens otherwise you will likely go off the rails easier.

@@charliewrt2016 do you know who your surgeon at Kaiser will be? My surgeon Dr Chae, also does surgeries for Kaiser and he is amazing!

I haven't had any problem eating raw carrots, but I do make sure to eat them slowly and chew them very well. I've been eating them probably since I was 4 or 5 months out with no problems

The biggest lie I told myself was that my weight wasn't having a negative impact on my life. That all I needed was more willpower and I could pull it together. That my joints really weren't being damaged because some of us just were born to carry a heavier load(saying this as I battle my dislocated knee caused by carrying that heavy load for so long). How bad could it be if I can still jump up and down? This one candy, ice cream, piece of cake won't send me railing over the edge into a binge. I could go on and on. In hindsight, I think we all do these things. Mainly it's a coping mechanism to get us through this unbearable place we are in. It's easier to say "it's out of my control" or "it doesn't apply to me" because then we don't have to take responsibility for where we arenas how hopeless we feel to change it.

I'm in Colorado just south of Denver but oops I see you are in the sleeve forum and I did RNY.

My advice is to just go in calm and relaxed and don't lie about anything and don't get upset or stress about it. The whole process made me a nervous wreck, but the test is basically just like 100 questions about things like depression, feeling inadequate, do you think you can manipulate people into doing what you want, have you ever used drugs or alcohol and the like and then the questions are restated about 4-5 times in different ways. The worst part of all was talking to the psych himself and that's because mine was a smug jerk who didn't even listen to me or what I was saying and then tried to pounce on things he thought I said wrong like he asked my age and I said 38 and he thought I said 28, so when I listed my kids name and ages he said there's no way you had a kid at that age, and I was confused. I said lots of people have kids at 24 yrs old(my age when my 1st was born) so it took awhile of trying to explain to him I was 38 and he still kept saying 28 and by the end of it I was almost in tears thinking it would be wrecked because he wasn't even listening to me. I still passed though. The office manager pointed a couple of things out to me after the fact that calmed me down. One, he is an a-hole and they all know it. Two, it's his job to get people qualified. If he doesn't get people qualified, he won't have a job so he will get as many people qualified as possible so unless there was a serious reason not to(like obvious mental illness or drug addiction), he should pass pretty much everyone.

I just started shopping on Zulilly, first time I ordered 2 items just because I wasn't sure about sizing. Those were fine, so I just ordered several maxi dresses for the summer. This just might be a little addicting! Sent from my XT1565 using the BariatricPal App it's easy to get addicted to them! I buy a lot of my jean shorts there because at $14.99 or so I don't feel as bad when I blow through a size a month. They fit so well and when things don't fit so well, they make it right by you and I like that! Also love the reborn collection. I have several of their tunics in various colors, styles, and prints but they take like 4wks to get and sometimes I'm out of them before they arrive.

Also zulily! It's online and the options are often hot or miss, but I have gotten a lot of cute pieces cheap there.

I posted further up the thread, but I want to post a new update Hw:429 sw:386 current weight:260 at 7 months out.

No aeronautics with a huge global company. But the liaison is really helpful.

I had one assigned through my husband's work. They have their own plan but it's administered through Aetna . She was helpful! We went over history and stuff and then she talked to me about possible medications, side effects to watch out for, gave me a number to call if I needed extended stay in the hospital beyond the 1 day insurance allotted-which I did use, and ahe called after my surgery to check to see if my needs were being met and my pain managed and reminded me not to shave while on blood thinners because it could be disastrous....but it was good to know! I never thought of that one!