heidikat72

there are Patches available for Multivitamin - I think they may even have them in the shop on this site. I personally haven't tried them but have seen posts from others who have. Hopefully one of them will comment here. I take the Centrum adult chewable complete multi. Orange flavored - not the greatest taste but it's medicine so it isn't supposed to taste good. Sometimes the morning one will make me a little nauseaus but not for long and if i have a spoonful of yogurt before I take it so i'm not taking it on a completely empty stomach, it does better.

as someone who waited until i was over 400lbs and had decreased mobility, i WISH I had had the courage to do this much sooner when my primary doc first suggested it and long before I was 400lbs. But I didn't. However, recovery would have been much easier and I wouldn't have lost out on really living 10-20 years of my life. It seems like you already have some sense that in order to take care of your family, you need to take care of YOU first and be the healthiest you can be for both you and them. However, if you really feel like you are being forced into the surgery and it isn't your decision, it may not be the right time for you. This really needs to be something you want in order to be successful. One thing that helped me finally make the decision was actually putting down on paper all the things I want to be able to do that my obesity was making difficult or even impossible. And being honest with myself about how quickly my health was starting to deteriorate after years of being overweight/obese.

awesome awesome awesome awesome!!!!

I had my first consult this time last year at 442lbs (BMI of 76). Had sleeve surgery in June at a weight of 364lbs BMI~66). Today I'm 282lbs. It takes work but it has been amazing! My overall health is better than it has been in decades!

You can definitely still go out to eat. I went out with friends last night with no problem! You'd be surprised at how willing most restaurants are to accomodate changes to dishes as well - especially the independent restaurants. We went to a mediterranean restaurant and I ordered one of the specials - fish with a fennel ragout but asked them to leave off the rice that it came with, they offered to substitute some sauteed zucchini instead of the rice without me even asking for a substitute. I ate half the dish and brought the rest with me to work today. My friends ate like they normally would. It was no big deal and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening. I get that your husband is concerned that your (yours and his) whole life will change. But guess what? It is going to change for the better - when you are feeling healthier and happy you want to do more things and you enjoy even the simplest of things so much more. Go ahead with your surgery and your husband will likely come around when he sees how much happier and healthier you are and that you two can still enjoy life - probably even more than you have been!

Sounds like you are having the right things. Post op you really want to focus on meeting Protein and Fluid goals given to you by your bariatric team. For most of us that was 60-80g protein and at least 64oz fluids (protein amounts vary somewhat but that seems to be a typical range). As for the "hunger" you are feeling - it most likely isn't actual hunger. Most of the nerves were cut. So at this point it could be excess stomach acid - are you taking a PPI for acid? If so, you might want to check with the surgeon and see if you need a higher dose (some people do) and if you aren't, talk to your surgeon about what PPI to take. Most of us are able to taper off them after a few months. Or it could be just plain old "head hunger" - you think you are hungry because you are mentally used to eating and your brain hasn't caught on to the fact that you had surgery. This head hunger was intense for me started the end of week 1. You really do just kinda have to power through it. Drink more Water. Do something to distract yourself and "reset" your brain onto another thought. For me, this meant go for a short walk or do something with my hands - I taught myself to knit during this time and adult coloring books were great too. Just some activity so you aren't sitting there focused on the fact that you aren't eating. If you do still have some bloating from the gas buildup, the only way to get rid of it is to move - get up and walk as much as you can. Hang in there! It does get better day by day!

it really depends on your insurance requirements. If your insurance doesn't require a medically supervised diet period of 3-6 months, then yes the process from start to surgery can be significantly less than 6 months.

I used a minichopper - looks like a tiny food processor and only costs about $10. Pureed either canned tuna, chicken or salmon with about a tablespoon of plain nonfat greek yogurt. I really liked the flavored pouches of tuna and salmon for this. I lived on that during pureed stage. The ricotta bake is good also. And cottage cheese - no need to puree that just chew it well.

i had a pain pump for about 36 hours. hardly used it but was glad it was there when needed. as Babbs said - don't be a hero. It is much better to keep the pain manageable than to let it get bad and try to recover.

I would suggest you call your surgeon back and let him know that you are now having issues.

Try finding something with potassium - even if it is eating a banana. Not sure if you'll be able to find vitamin water zero there but there is a potassium/b vitamin one in a purple fruit punch flavor.

I have huge wrists and the fitbit bands don't fit me either. I bought a fit bit zip - attaches to clothing. It works great and seems to be more accurate than my phone's tracker.

does your plan allow for greek yogurt at this point? mine considered it a "full liquid" so you could have that to boost your Protein. or incoporate a cup of fairlife skim milk a day - 13grams of protein. instead of the ready to drink shakes, have you tried any of the Syntrax nectar flavors that you just mix with Water? they're fruity and not as thick. I mixed mine with crystal light lemondae to cut down on the "proteiny" taste.

fantastic progress!!! you must feel amazing!

HCTZ is a diuretic. Same thing happened when I stopped my main BP med which contained HCTZ. Your body just needs to adjust to not having the HCTZ and you should stop holding onto fluid. Took a couple weeks for me. In the meantime, drink lots of fluids to help flush out your system - seems counterintuitive a bit but the more fluid you take in, the less your body will hold onto fluid. Please make sure to talk with your bariatric team before taking any other diuretic - even an over the counter one.

sounds similar to my 3 month post op appointment. Only in my case it was the nutritionist who wasn't impressed with my 48lbs lost since surgery. She told me that was the very bottom end of where I should be. Now I will say, this was a new nutritionist as the one I had up to that point (who I loved and dearly miss) went to another hospital. So I asked this new nutritionist to go through my food diary with me - i had printed the last month's worth of entries from MFP. She refused and simply said I mustn't be logging everything - which wasn't true. I asked her for advice on where I should be calorie wise, carb-wise and fat-wise since I was meeting my Protein and Fluid goals. She said there weren't any guaranteed levels for carbs or fat regarding weightloss and that I had to figure it out myself. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with her - don't tell me I'm not meeting expectations and then refuse to help guide me! Then my actual surgeon came in and was thrilled with my weight loss. And the fact is I was happy with that 48lb loss because I FELT soooo much better! However I'm not looking forward to the 6 month post op appointment in 2 weeks. I've lost 34lbs in the last 3 months. And I'm 160lbs down from this time last year when I had my first appointment with the bariatric team. I just don't feel like dealing with her! At the end of the day, I'm not trying to impress a nutritionist but rather my focus is regaining my health. And that I am definitely doing - my overall health hasn't been this good in decades. I am doing things that I couldn't even dream of doing this time last year. And that is success to me!

yep I had massive salt cravings for several weeks. To the point I would catch myself grabbing a salt shaker and about to pour some on my hand to lick - stopped myself and just had some broth instead. It did subside but I do still crave salty from time to time. Definitely a big switch from my pre-op days where my cravings were always for sweet.

I enjoy both occasionally. But not until I was about 3 months out and approved by my bariatric center. I just have to watch the sodium intake for the day though because I do retain fluid like crazy after a sodium heavy day.

While imitrex is an NSAID, it is probably because you take the injection that the nurse said it was ok. The concern with NSAIDs post-sleeve or bypass is because oral NSAIDs are known to put you at ulcer risk and compound that with the surgery putting you at higher risk for ulcers, and you have a bad combination. For the OP - call you surgeon's office and see what they can suggest. Fortunately, in the 5 months since my surgery I have only had 1 migraine (I used to get them frequently and excedrin was my best friend) and it was mild enough that just plain tylenol and a dark room for a while took care of it.

Is your surgery already scheduled? Does the sleep apnea need to be treated (mine was mild and the pulmonologist said since I was having the surgery, the weight loss alone should take care of it and it wasn't severe enough to be an immediate threat so I didn't need to go on a CPAP)? If it does need to be treated, you'll have to go in for fitting on a CPAP and monitoring again to make sure you have the correct settings on the CPAP for you. That shouldn't take long but if your surgery is scheduled in the next week or two, it could delay things a couple of weeks.You'll need to work that scheduling out between your surgeon and pulmonologist.

for the drinking - you absorb faster because there isn't as much volume of stomach fluid diluting it and also you typically aren't eating while drinking anymore. The alcohol is already a liquid so there isn't any wait for it to dissolve to become available for absorption.

Like another poster, I took my 6 month pre-op period to start making changes. I gradually adjusted my diet and calorie reduction over those months while slowly increasing activity - managed to lose 78lbs in that time and increased my mobility and core strength which were vital for my post op recovery. I also researched everything I could about the surgery and life post-op even years down the road. And believe me - that time went by much faster than I thought it would!

Sounds like you aren't doing anything wrong. You lost a massive amount in the first two weeks - seriously, then looks like you hit the dreaded 3rd week stall - do a search on here and you'll see just how common that first stall is. Stick with the plan you were given, stop stressing about the scale, and the weight will come off again. Weightloss is definitely not linear. You will not lose every week, some weeks you might even gain a pound or so but the overall trend over time will be downward.

Since I work in pharma - specifically on extended release medications, this is a question I asked my surgeon about when deciding between the sleeve and bypass. He indicated that one of the advantages of the sleeve is that since the intestinal tract remains completely intact, there is no impact on absorption of extended release medicines. Immediate release medications all release in the stomach and he indicated even with the reduced stomach volume, even poorly soluble immediate release drugs won't be impacted. From the science aspect - some SR/XR (and MR) medications have a mechanism that just slowly releases over time (often due to a matrix in the formulation that swells when you ingest it and slows down the escape of the active ingredient out of the tablet/capsule. For others, they have a coating on them that will only dissolve when it hits a certain pH - so they won't dissolve in stomach acid but wait until higher pH levels. They can be targeted to release at different points in the intestines based on what pH the coating will dissolve. Hope this helps.