Ray92

I am far from having some of the great wins you guys have as I am only 10 days post op. But waking up in the morning with clear skin, no pimples popping up out of nowhere due to messy hormones and bad eating habits. My skin used to be oily but lo and behold 10 days out and it cleared up.

I had a food funeral before my sleeve and I have mixed feelings about that. The decision for me to get the sleeve happened very quickly in a 2 week span of time. In a way my food funeral wasnt planned, it just sort of happened. I was on vacation to my home country and was eating everything under the sun that I had missed. Then I decided to do the surgery, my bloodwork came back normal, I didn't have co-morbidities and the surgeon didn't really say anything. Prior to the surgery I did try to cut down on carbs so as to have a smooth process. I am glad I got to eat all the foods I missed but I do wish I didn't have a food funeral or a going away party before because I am really suffering from food cravings at this early stage. Based on what I ate on vacation alone, I desperately needed to do something about my eating habits.

The band is painful and does not give the same guarantee as the sleeve, at least for me! It is different for every person but I am merely reflecting on my experience. My band was very tight but I could still finish a big mac meal for example provided I ate slow enough. Eating was painful because it was tight and it would give me mad hiccups when I laughed. I am pretty sure that I cannot eat a big mac now and I no longer have to deal with having a foreign object in my body. I used to stay up some nights seriously worrying about the fact that it was inside my body. I am a very anxious person by nature and I get paranoid about everything so the band was not a good choice for me. I just wish I did the sleeve all those years ago.

10 days post sleeve also wouldn't mind some buddies! I am 23 years old. Herminia that is some amazing progress! Congratulations. 100000 I am only a few days ahead of you but the pain symptoms are slowly receding. A lot of people have mentioned that early doubt is a natural feeling that fades away with time.

My brother went to the mall today to watch a movie. I had a good cry about it because I cannot sit for too long at a movie theater since I am 10 days post op. Plus the smell of the popcorn and then watching him scarf down a burger would probably do me in. So I stayed at home, cried a bit and watched Downton Abbey, it did make me feel better. Once I am back to feeling normal, I will venture to the movie theatre.

I absolutely hate this phase. I had a lap band put in 6 years ago and had to go through this once before. It is easily the worst part. My lap band failed to help me lose weight, or maybe I failed it. Regardless, it didn't work and I am putting all my hope and tons of effort to get the sleeve to work. I am finding the taste and feeling of my tongue absolutely unbearable. What I would do right now to hear my teeth crunch on some lettuce.

definitely can get it in Canada so I assume the same in the US. Go to the international food sections at your grocery store or look for a middle eastern grocer in your area and they are guaranteed to have it. Orange blossom water is different from Rose water so be careful to get the right one. In Arabic its roughly called "Ma'a Zaher". Another tip, it is quite strong so make sure to add a drop at most at first to see how you like it! Wikipedia has a good coverage on what it's all about.

Thanks! I realize this phase will pass too. Each day is one day closer. I am on liquids for 2 weeks- but they allow Jello-o (since at room temperature it's a liquid), chicken broth, cream of chicken powdered/puree type soup, popsicles, powdered smoothie mix, drink mixes (crystal light etc...) and Protein drinks/powders. Just feel like I have run out of new options and I am already sick of everything LOL. One more week until I can have pureed foods and I cannot wait. Can you have hummus? Falafal sounds so good right now, thanks! LOL Popsicles were not mentioned to me and I am not allowed any fruit Apparently this is so that I don't shock my stomach with fruits that have too much acidity and end up uncomfortable. I can have Jello, custard and a middle eastern type milk, orange blossom Water, mastic pudding. I know it sounds strange but it is very delicious. Also I would very highly recommend adding a drop or 2 of orange blossom water to your glass of water if you are having a hard time drinking it. It is an acquired taste so do be forewarned!! However it has also proven to be very soothing to the stomach. I have read around these forums that people do eat hummus but if I were you I would ask the doctor as well as check the packaging before buying it. Different hummus brands are made in different ways and some are healthier than others!! For example, I am on a trip to the Middle East right now and I would avoid the hummus here as much as I can because the way they make it is very fatty. However, if I was back at home in Canada, I would be more likely to buy hummus because it is made and geared as a healthy food. Same with the falafel, I would not eat falafel because it is deep fried here. I would think we are not allowed to eat falafel in the pureed food period anyway! On another note, I just realized that you and I had our surgeries in the exact same day!! Awesome- hello surgery buddy! Are on the Oct 19th Surgery thread that has been going on for a few weeks now? I don't buy hummus, I always have just made my own Yes, my surgeon said we are allowed to have sugar free popsicles in the early stages for a few reasons (1) they count as your liquid intake [each one is almost 2oz] (2) because you eat them slowly, it helps so you aren't gulping etc... (3) Eating them so far has been really soothing on my stomach, which often times gets upset when I eat different temperature foods (4) They just taste good, and are like getting a special treat. I have been using sugar free drink mixes (like Crystal Light) to flavor my water. I love water and the taste- and thankfully still love it after surgery, so that part isn't a big deal for me. Optimally, my goal is at 6 months to be completely weaned off protein drinks and the "crap" like the drink mixes, jello's and powdered protein smoothies. I really much prefer to eat more fresh vegetables than anything. So I am excited for that p.s. I am jealous you are in the middle east right now! I am in Michigan in the States, and we always joke we might as well be Canada sometimes- we have similar enough weather that's for sure! LOL sorry for the late response! I think it is so great that you make your own hummus. Personally I cannot wait to have some middle eastern garlic paste. It a white, tangy garlic paste made out of crushed garlic, lemon, vegetable oil of some sort and salt. It's obviously no carb but does have fat in the form of vegetable oil but I wouldn't mind just a little taste. My surgeon did not suggest the popsicles! If sounds pretty good. My only thing so far is that cold water makes me sick so I guess that would include popsicles. I am having a very hard time getting my daily water intake. Are you drinking Protein shakes? This is another thing my surgeon did not suggest. My diet is: 1 week clear liquids, 2 weeks thick vegetable soups, clear soups, apple juice, low fat plain yogurt, custard, milk pudding only twice a week in the place of juice. Then 10 days of two spoons of rice with soft vegetables and thin tomato sauce or yoghurt and fitness Cereal with low fat milk but have to wait for the cereal to soften along with anything mentioned before. No meat or cheeses, no fruit and I was at first a little surprised that he is allowing a small carb intake but his patients so far have been very successful so I am optimistic. Middle East has been great so far!! I know that there are some conceptions that it might be dangerous/problematic at the moment but I am currently in nice, conflict free countries so it's been a blast. I have heard a lot of things about the Michigan winter! As a fellow survivor of snow storms and really cold wind, do you ever worry that you might have to buy a new coat soon with the weight loss? Also what kind of post op diet are you on?

oh good idea! Thanks for the Pinterest tip

@ Hey I do! PM me your facebook link? I will send you an add

Hello all, I would like to share my gastric sleeve story as it is a little bit of a bizarre one, at least for me it was. It feels like I have been riding a roller coaster for the past month and now I am finally getting off. So a little about myself, I am a graduate student living in Canada and my family lives very far from me. Like Middle East far. Anyway, a very close cousin of mine got married on the 1st of October and since I hadn't visited my extended family in over 2 years, I decided I would make the long trip out to Amman, Jordan and pay them a nice, long visit. Little did I know that I would leave a part of my stomach behind in Amman. Over the course of university my weight kept ballooning from eating all the fast food, junk food and drinking. About 6 months before my visit to Amman I received a message from my uncle asking to consider getting the gastric sleeve. I was furious at his suggestion "how could he?" I thought. It was none of his business in my mind and after a failed lap band I was completely turned off by the idea of WLS. I think it is important for me to establish a little background about my extended family. I have a huge family and we all have a nasty habit of being able to put on tons of weight. I guess it is a combination of genetics, environment etc. and it is very inherent in the females. While we all struggled with obesity at some point, all my cousins, aunts and mother managed to eventually control their eating and drop the weight. They now all eat very healthy. Seriously I have an aunt who probably hasn't had bread in over 5 years. My uncles were also huge players in this story. I have two uncles who happen to be doctors. The first one, the one that suggested the surgery six months ago is a pediatric cardiologist and is very famous in his field in Jordan. He has an obsession with healthy heart, exercises like crazy and eats very little red meat, hence his peaked interest in me losing weight. He was worried that at some point in my life, I would start to massively suffer from hypertension, cholesterol and god forbid, a heart attack. My second uncle is an obstetric and gynecology doctor and has helped treat my PCOS over the years. In retrospect, I should have anticipated that I was going to be bombarded as soon as I arrived with health, diet and surgery advice. Now I was very open to everything they said despite the fact that I would get annoyed from time to time but at the end of the day, I know they all love me and wanted the best for me. So I was in Jordan for my cousin's wedding. My grandma would always harass me about my weight which was NOT fun but she is old so I didn't want to offend her. In the time that I was in Jordan I ate so much food by nature of a wedding coming up and because Jordan has a lot of good food. In the mean time, my uncle the gynecologist would keep suggesting the sleeve. Now I was at first apprehensive because I was worried about long term prognosis, risks and how much it would change my life. He managed to clarify all the information for me and I was starting to think about the surgery. While still being apprehensive, he asked me to just go in for a consultation with a bariatric surgeon that he was friends with. I went to the meeting and came out feeling confused about my feelings but a little more clear about the gastric sleeve. The next thing I knew, I was going down to the hospital lab getting pre-op blood work done but I still had not made my decision. EVERYONE and I literally mean EVERYONE advised me to do it and I knew in the back of my mind I really wanted to do it. The only thing holding me back at that point was how much of a scaredy cat I was being. So finally, my uncle told me that he would watch my surgery if I wanted to. I started asking around about the surgeon and found out that he is the most famous bariatric surgeon in Jordan, if not the whole Middle East. It was common knowledge that he had performed the most procedures in the Middle East and had a stellar record. This guy was a bariatric surgery beast and would perform up to 30 procedures a day. With that knowledge in mind, I booked my surgery immediately. A week later, I was laying down in a hospital bed, sleeved and my whole family (around 15-20) of them were around me. It was like they were throwing me a party for finally taking the decision. They were cheering and singing and literally everyone was ecstatic and this made me feel even more excited and comforted by my decision. I came to Jordan to basically attend a wedding and gorge on food and ended up leaving with a life changing decision. Now a lot of are you are wondering, what about the pre op diet?!!!? Well, my pre-op blood work came back with unbelievably good results and despite my weight, I was still relatively healthy because I had been trying to control my eating habits for the past year. As such, the surgeon felt more than comfortable performing the surgery knowing I didn't have any health risks. So I just wanted to write this post and share my story as well as say Thank you. Thank you to my very large, loud family who in a way cared more about my health than I did. And also thank you to the amazing surgeon who did my surgery. He is a very kind, helpful doctor who answered all my questions and gave me all his contact info so I can ask him ANYTHING once I left Jordan.

@ I was sleeved 8 days ago so you are a little bit ahead of me but I am also looking for a friend/buddy throught my WLS journey. I would be down to chat anytime about food plans, surgery feelings, struggles, reaching milestones etc.

Thanks! I realize this phase will pass too. Each day is one day closer. I am on liquids for 2 weeks- but they allow Jello-o (since at room temperature it's a liquid), chicken broth, cream of chicken powdered/puree type soup, popsicles, powdered smoothie mix, drink mixes (crystal light etc...) and Protein drinks/powders. Just feel like I have run out of new options and I am already sick of everything LOL. One more week until I can have pureed foods and I cannot wait. Can you have hummus? Falafal sounds so good right now, thanks! LOL Popsicles were not mentioned to me and I am not allowed any fruit Apparently this is so that I don't shock my stomach with fruits that have too much acidity and end up uncomfortable. I can have Jello, custard and a middle eastern type milk, orange blossom Water, mastic pudding. I know it sounds strange but it is very delicious. Also I would very highly recommend adding a drop or 2 of orange blossom water to your glass of water if you are having a hard time drinking it. It is an acquired taste so do be forewarned!! However it has also proven to be very soothing to the stomach. I have read around these forums that people do eat hummus but if I were you I would ask the doctor as well as check the packaging before buying it. Different hummus brands are made in different ways and some are healthier than others!! For example, I am on a trip to the Middle East right now and I would avoid the hummus here as much as I can because the way they make it is very fatty. However, if I was back at home in Canada, I would be more likely to buy hummus because it is made and geared as a healthy food. Same with the falafel, I would not eat falafel because it is deep fried here. I would think we are not allowed to eat falafel in the pureed food period anyway! On another note, I just realized that you and I had our surgeries in the exact same day!!

I made pureed lentil soup today. Red lentils, onions, garlic (you need to sweat out the onions and garlic. I did so by adding water and the teeniest amount of olive oil I could fathom). Make sure to pre soak the red lentils for a bit before starting. Add the red lentils, onions, garlic and water to a Large pot and enough water tocover all the lentils plus more. Lentils get thick as they stew so keep adding water and keep stirring. For seasoning I used salt, pepper, cumin, tumeric to taste. Once the lentils are quite soft, add water and blend it into a pureed soup. Sort of the consistency of pea puree soup or carrot soup. This is a middle eastern recipe and a huge fave of mine.

I am 7 days post op sleeve. So far I went to the grocery store with mum, bought my veggies to make soups for the next 17 days. Then we mega stocked up on candy for all the kiddos coming by to trick or treat. After that there will be a Halloween party for the adults in the neighborhood!! I am very much looking forward to seeing all the kids in their costumes. I don't really care about the candy but I was apprehensive at first about going to the party considering I can't eat. But then I thought that it would be ridiculous to hold myself back from social events over some silly food so I am going for the fun! Not the the food

Dreamable, good luck!! I am literally in the same boat as you in terms of cravings. I have been thinking about everything under the sun. They have become less frequent though. Today my cravings were falafel smothered in hot sauce and a big ole bowl of Greek salad. 2 week liquid only is very tough but you can do it!!! I got bored of the chicken broth quite fast and I think it was part of the reason my mood gets sour here and there. I should clarify, the first week for me was clear liquids only. For the next 17 days I can only have pureed vegetable soups, the yoghurt drink and apple juice, no solids yet.

Hello all, thank you for the encouraging responses. I know feel much better about the whole thing and I am starting to get excited! The weight loss progress that you guys have mentioned here is truly inspiring!! As of today, I woke up 16 pounds down. It seems like my weight is dropping like crazy. I am now also allowed to have pureed foods! Today I had a low fat, savoury yoghurt drink that we call laban ayran. It's very soothing, chock full of Protein and low cal. I also had a small amount of lentil Soup. I have absolutely no appetite whatsoever so I could not motivate myself to have anymore than that.

6 days out now. The gas is starting to get better now. I am forcing myself to walk everyday and taking the gas chewing tablets. TMI: my poop looks weird and I am not sure if I should be concerned.

Thank you for the response, it makes me feel more assured. I desperately want this surgery to work so I am hoping that helps me overcome my food addiction. The good thing is that the thoughts have reduced in the past 24 hrs and have been replaced by planning out my wardrobe in 6 months.

Hello all, I really would like to share my feelings about my experience so far with the gastric sleeve! Just to introduce myself, I am a 23 yr old female, 6 days since my operation. 6 years ago I did the lap band but I did not manage to lose the weight, mainly because even with the band I could still eat whatever I want with practice and eating slow. As such, after long consideration, I decided to do the gastric sleeve. I am also a very health paranoid person and go through multiple mini anxiety episodes for just about anything and everything. As such, a lot of my experience does derive from that place. So as I mentioned, I was sleeved 6 days ago. The surgery went smoothly, I passed the swallow test and after 1 day at the hospital, I was released. The first couple of days were quite painful. Even now, it is difficult for me to sit in certain positions, sleep on my side and I feel like I have done 100000 crunches. In other words, I have random aches and pains around the trunk and stomach, I feel gassy here and there but that is it. Other than the pain and discomfort, as of day 2 I started having major mind (not stomach) food cravings. I would imagine myself eating all the junk food I ate before and still desperately think about stuffing my face. However, with that being said in no way does my stomach feel hungry. In a way, I know that I am going through a weird mental food addiction phase and it is honestly bringing me down. It is making me so scared as well that it could cause me to fail the surgery once I can go back to eating solids. I am so worried that I will let myself slip and indulge on fatty foods because my mind keeps spinning the same tale of food addiction. About 4 days after I was having buyer's remorse. Today that feeling is fading away and is being replaced with anxiety about failing the surgery in the future. I don't want to go back to my old habits ever again but I am worried that my mindset is not in the right place. Did anyone go through episodes of food cravings at first? I find myself thinking about what Soups I am going to eat while knowing that I will only manage to have 2 bites. So far I have lost 13 pounds and I want to keep going. Other than massive food cravings I am going through a weird depression. I feel tired, lazy, sad, pointless etc. I am hoping those feelings pass. EDIT: I would also like to add a shoutout to my surgeon. I did it in Jordan in the Middle East. I went there for a short vacation to attend my cousin's wedding, next thing I know I was being sleeved. This guy does about 30 surgeries a day.