dbfn

"Bone broth" is just stock in my house ... when I make stock, I cook it for much longer than 3-4 hours: I make it the way my grandmother did, and the way she taught my dad (my mother was a terrible cook). The bones are roasted, then chucked in to brew for at least 24 hours with carrot, onion, maybe some celery, and herbs. My grandmother and father always did theirs on the coal range, so the big old stock pot would just sit at the back of the cook top, simmering away. Sometimes for a couple of days!

I make them with reduced fat cream cheese. Also, have made them sweet with artificial sweetener, or more savoury with herbs, onion powder, paprika etc (just depends on what I'm in the mood for). My hubby has taken a liking to them too, and will chuck them in the toaster. I like them for my mini burgers. It's nice to have the option.

I'm more than two years post-op and eggs and chicken are still a little hit and miss. I tend to opt for chicken thigh meat rather than breast meat because it's so much more moist, and am usually OK now with scrambled eggs, but boiled eggs tend to feel quite heavy in my pouch. Randomly, scrambled eggs still do sometimes, too, but that's happening less often. Which is great, since eggs are such good protein!

My old Crockpot slow cooker finally stopped working about two years ago after nearly 28 years of faithful service! It was my first "grown-up" purchase after moving out of my parent's house at the age of 19. I bought a 3-in-1 to replace it, and I love the thing. The slow cooker has always had a lot of use with me: through winter for making soups, but year-round also for stews, braises, casseroles etc. I tend to just make it up as I go along, so don't really have any recipes...just chuck in whatever is in the fridge and hope for the best!

I know some people love cottage cheese, and I know it's good protein, but I'm not a fan. especially cold. However, during the puree stage I found I really enjoyed baked beans pureed with cottage cheese and a bit of paprika. In fact, it's something I still have now ... although I add in a few extras like garlic and cooked onion. It's really nice not pureed, sometimes with a poached egg on top; or still pureed to work as a dip with low-carb Crispbread or low-carb wraps cut into wedges and dry fried in a pan until crispy, so they end up sort of like big tortilla chips.

It was a couple of weeks before I slept in my bed (it's very high so hard work getting in and out of it), several weeks before I could sleep on my side. As others have said, use lots and lots of pillows. Prop yourself up with them and pop one under your knees to take the tension off your tummy muscles. Also, if you're tailbone is still sore, try rolling a towel lengthways into a tube and wrap it around your lower back/hips. You might find the pillow under your knees will take the pressure off the tailbone a little, too.

My pre-op diet was a couple of weeks of 3 Protein bars or shakes a day, and a cup of fresh or steamed veg, then a week of just the Protein Shakes. The first week was tough ... was so hungry I was about ready to chew off my own arm! I was worried about how hard the final week of just liquids would be but it was actually pretty easy. I think because I knew I was on the home straight, the time flew by! Good luck with your surgery ... it'll all be worth it once you're on the other side of things.

I had my surgery at the start of May 2013, so heading in to winter here ... and yes, I froze my butt off. Actually, since my rather ample bum pretty much disappeared as soon as the weight started to drop off, I really did freeze my butt off! Anyway, I was glad it was winter because I was able to wear thermals and layers without anyone looking at me like I was some sort of freak! Even that first winter was quite tough ... I still felt the cold, something I'd never had a problem with before. I guess most of us who are fairly, um, well upholstered, generally feel the heat more than the cold. My internal thermostat seems to have reset itself now, and by the time the second winter after surgery rolled around, I was all good.

I have always has fine hair, but lots of it...but it was already starting to thin out before surgery from me being in heart failure, the diabetes and the medication I was on. A few months post-op and it went in to overdrive, I was moulting! Went and got it cut really short for the first time in more than 25 years and loved it. Now I'm growing it out again and it's just recently started to come right. It'll never be like it was, but it's much better.

Oh, and for pre-ops worried about how bad the pain might be ... I'm an absolute wimp when it comes to pain but wouldn't hesitate to have this surgery again. It's not major pain, it's a little bit sore and uncomfortable, but not anything major. I had a skin tag frozen off the back of my neck last year and that was worse!

I found it was more discomfort than pain ... I just felt a bit achy and bloated. The pain meds worked pretty well, I guess! I had a pain pump and would hit the button on it before I wanted to get up to walk, go to the loo etc ... it kept things well under control. The most important thing is to keep ahead of the pain, so once you're out of hospital make sure you take your meds regularly for at least the first few days to make sure you stop the pain before it starts: it's easier to get up and move around if you're not in pain, and if you're moving around well, you'll heal faster. It's all connected! I slept in a recliner chair for a week or two after surgery because my bed is very high and I struggled to climb on to it. Plus I tend to sleep on my side and couldn't do that in bed, so the chair worked better for me. After two or three days, I stopped taking pain meds every four hours, but instead took them before settling down to sleep at night, first thing in the morning about 10 minutes before getting up for my shower and first walk of the day, and about a week into things, I started doing a slow wander up the stairs at home each day and would take a dose of pain medication before that, too. Everyone responds differently to the med, we all have different pain thresholds and things can vary greatly from one day to the next. The most important thing is to keep ahead of the pain, don't be a martyr, and as you're healing aim for short but frequent walks (keep moving but don't overdo it).

Aside from the usual watching television and surfing the web, I knit, paint (not great at it and don't do it often these days but I do find it incredibly relaxing), walking, watching some sport (mainly rugby union and some motorsport), cooking, and reading. I do a LOT of reading! (usually a book a week)

Quest make my favourite protein bars but I find their protein crisps have a weird aftertaste. The plain ready salted flavour was probably the best of a bad bunch. If I fancy something with a bit of crunch and/or savoury for a nibble, I go for a slice of cheese or low-carb mini corn tortillas (sprinkle with a little seasoning of choice and maybe a tiny bit of cheese, herbs etc, cut into quarters and bake till crisp). I usually do half a dozen of them with the aim of popping the extras into an airtight container for later but my husband usually gets his paws on them so there aren't any spare!

It's awful that the people you should have been able to trust for your healthcare were so dismissive, so your rant is fully understandable. Unfortunate, so often doctors see one problem or illness in a patient and every other issue they have is blamed on that ... my mother was a type 1 diabetic and her main doctor was always quick to blame any and every heath problem she had on that, often things that had nothing to do with the diabetes. I guess they get complacent and see us as an illness a lot of the time, rather than as a person. And of course the other issue with "fat shaming" is that those who indulge in it (whether it's because they are an a**hole or because they think they are helping open our eyes to our problems) aren't telling us something we don't already know. When you're obese, you know you are obese and you know it's not healthy. Obviously. We might be overweight but our brains still work! We don't need some sanctimonious prat telling us how fat we are. I guess the upside is that we can lose weight through surgery ... but there's not a surgeon out there who can fix the ugly nature of the judgmental idiots out there!

There could be any number of reason NOT to have weight-loss surgery ... cost (not everyone has insurance cover), health issues (once I made the decision that I wanted to have the surgery, things were delayed by a year because of another health problem), or even just the fact that they aren't yet ready for the surgery. Personally, I think someone is bettter to wait until they are in the right headspace before going ahead, because it is a big step. Who know why someone hasn't made that step? I waited until I was well into my 40s before I talked to my doctor about it, many people wait longer. It's such an incredibly personal journey (ugh, sorry for using that cliched term "journey"! I hate that phrase but in this case it just seems to fit).

Ah, the old disappearing butt ... that was the first thing that went for me, too! Just all of a sudden, it was gone! My boobs were next: they never were particularly big but once the weight started falling off they went south. I'm nearly 50, and have been overweight since I was around 11, so I knew things were never likely to bounce back. I just figured I'd worry about that later. And now that it's "later", I'm not sure if I want to go through surgery to deal with the loose skin: I'm an absolute wimp when it comes to pain! I haven't complained about it after any surgeries I've had in the past so I'm sure people think I'm fine, but I'm really not. And then there's my heart problem ... it's well under control now, much more than my cardiologist ever expected, and the damage has partially reversed. But while I was prepared to take a calculated risk to have gastric bypass, I'm not sure about plastics. I know that it's less of a risk now because of my much improved heart health, but like I said, I'm a wimp!

Loose skin depends on age, how long you've been overweight, your skin type/genetics, a good dollop of good or bad luck, and of course for women, skin becomes even less forgiving after menopause. And contrary to what so many people will try to tell you, loose skin is NOT a problem tied only to the rapid weight loss that happens after bariatric surgery. I lost 26kg (about 58 lb) a few years back the "old fashioned" way over a longer time frame and definitely got a bit droopy! It's all really just the luck of the draw, but I'd rather be a few sizes smaller than my skin, than unhealthy.

I see you posted this in the "men only" section but it popped up when I searched for new content since my last visit. I'm not a sweatpants kinda person and wanted something a bit tidier to wear in those initial weeks and found some soft cotton cargo pants. My surgery was mid-winter so I found them both comfy and warm.

Yes, I do the cauliflower rice thing...very tasty. And works well with the healthy Indian and Thai food I now cook. Spaghetti squash is ok but I'm not a huge fan of the flavour. If I'm making something with a slightly Italian flavour, I prefer the zucchini spirals.

The clexane injections ... hated them!

My surgeon normally keeps patients in hospital for one day but made me stay for two because of my dodgy heart. He also recommends three weeks off work, which I took because I had plenty of sick leave owing and also masses of holiday time. I probably could have gone back to work after two weeks but it was good to have that extra week to get myself into a good routine.

My exercise of choice is walking (don't do gyms ... am totally unco-ordinated). I have a dodgy heart and my cardiologist is happy for me to walk, but not run ... says that after all the effort involved in getting my heart rate slowed and regulated, we don't want to raise it too much. I walk between 3 and 5km, but not every day (all depends on work etc). I used to work more standardised hours, 7am to 3pm every day, and would head off to one of the many walking tracks that we have nearby but now I'm working different shifts, and it's the middle of winter so often dark by the time I finish work, so I have invested in a decent treadmill. My resting heart rate is now 79 bps, instead of the 158 it was when I first got sick, and at lunchtime today I covered 4km at a fairly brisk speed of 6km/h and my heart rate peaked at 90. The best form of exercise is whatever you will do ... whether it's weights, running, walking, pilates, swimming or just a gentle stroll around your neighbourhood. Everyone is different and you'll find the activity (and frequency) that's right for you.

Same as above ... tried konjac noodles and they were nasty: very slimy and they were in a liquid that had a nasty, fishy smell. The packaging said to rinse them and the smell would disappear but I rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed some more. And they still stunk to high heaven! I don't eat fish of any description, so it was really horrible. Add to that the slimy texture and I have to say it was probably one of the worst foods I've ever eaten!

I think we all go through that stage of worrying about whether our liver has shrunk enough, how fast we'll lose weight, stalls, and all the other stuff. And those first few weeks do tend to drag on, but trust me ... six months from now, you'll look back on this time and wonder how it went by so fast!

@@loo loo @@Brandon Long @@Karlnjax ... hope all went well and you're all feeling great. And @@lachellove, best of luck for Wednesday!