heidikat72

You can ask anything. You wont always get the answer you wanted to hear or phrased in a way you like. That's just the nature of a public forum. But you know what? Those responses that are more tough love/swift kick in the pants are often the most valuable. They aren't saying things to be mean (well some may) but rather if they see a question that is proposing dangerous behavior, they want the seriousness of the situation to be understood. and yes there are some post topics that the vets get annoyed with seeing over and over such as "i lost 10lbs my first week and haven't lost any the last 2 days, this is a failure" "I only lost 30lbs my first month, why am I losing so slow?" and "i'm one week post op and tired of liquids so I ate some tacos, clearly my surgeon must have screwed up my surgery" etc.

they may seem like they don't care and honestly, some of them might not but it is probably more a case of them not knowing what to say. Most of the general public have zero understanding of weight loss surgery and what a major life change it is - not just the surgery itself, but all the mental aspects that go along with it. So don't expect everyone to get it. Remember, they haven't been living in your body so they have no idea what your personal struggles with being overweight are and therefore don't understand how important this is for you. You are getting the surgery FOR YOU, at the end of the day - it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. You have a support system here and it sounds like your family is supporting you as well. I would suggest now before your surgery, make a list of all the reasons why are you getting the surgery and another list of all the things you are looking forward to being able to do. Whenever you have a down moment or feel alone and unsupported - look at those lists. It's the emotional support you give to yourself that is going to be most important on this journey.

the less thinking i have to do when i first wake up the better! so my lunch is already prepared to grab out of the fridge, same with breakfast. I already have dinner planned and often prepped. I also already know what i'm going to wear. So what do I do with that time that I would have been running around trying to figure those things out? I have a good long stretching session to help my body wake up.

it is quite common. if you go in the search bar and type in 3 week stall - you'll see tons of posts about it.

You are not yet fully healed and therefore shouldn't rely on feelings of fullness. Also you won't really feel your restriction until you take in dense protein like chicken. Yogurt actually counted as a liquid on my plan so it definitely won't give you the same feeling as if you had eaten dense protein. As Kristen said, right now you really need to measure your portions and stick with it and accept that the goal isn't to eat until you feel full or stuffed.

I tried three : Calcet creamy bites - texture decent , taste decent but in the end the calorie count was higher than i wanted considering i need to take 2 or 3 a day. Celebrate - not bad but texture a little gritty Bariatric Advantage - I've stuck with these, less gritty than the Celebrate but same calorie, carb level as the Celebrate ones. Several flavors to choose from. I order mine off Amazon.

you can only purchase it on their website

you are only two days post op - what you are feeling is completely normal!! Don't worry - it gets better. I couldn't hit my Fluid goals until about 5 days post op. The important thing is to keep taking tiny sips - I literally would sip all day from when i got up at 6:30am until i went to bed at midnight just trying to get enough fluids in. Suddenly day five it was a lot easier and I went from barely getting in 40oz to easily getting 56oz, then a couple days later the full 64oz. and then after another week or so, while i did still sip all day - it didn't take anywhere near midnight to get it all in! Keep sipping and each day try to get an ounce or two more than the day before. Right now, your biggest danger is dehydration from not getting enough fluids - and you do NOT want that, it will land you back in the hospital. You are in the most difficult part right now - just keep powering through it.

that is awesome! go you!

yes they are. way too high. Who told you to expect more than that? I lost nothing in the first two weeks - not even a tenth of a pound. I'm now not quite 4 months out and down 63 lbs. Chances are you came out of the hospital weight more than when you went in because of the IV fluids. You body's one job right now is to HEAL after having major surgery. Please allow it to heal without stressing about unrealistic weight loss expectations. Trust the process and follow your plan and the weight loss will happen but you have to let your body focus on healing first.

Please reassess your expectations. 9 pounds in 11 days is incredible. I lost nothing in the first two weeks - literally nothing, not even a tenth of a pound. Now I'm not quite 4 months out and 63lbs down. Chances are you weighed more coming out of the hospital than when you went in because of all the fluids they pump in your iv. Plus your body is desperately trying to heal from major surgery right now - Let.It.Heal! The weight loss will come. Also, no one loses at a linear rate - you will have stalls and even some days where you gain a pound before another chunk of weight comes off. Trust in the process and follow your plan.

Have you tried fairlife brand skim milk? It's a little pricey and while not lactose free, the ultra-filtration process it goes through greatly reduces the amount of lactose and carbs in general and the Protein content is higher than standard skim milk. Oddly - I found it easier to get down than pretty much any other liquid in those first couple weeks, even my Protein shakes made with it went down easier. Sounds like you are seeing that it does get better day by day. Keep going!

I was allowed string cheese as soon as I was past puree phase and on soft food phase. While pasta isn't a complete no-no with my practice's guidelines, it is cautioned against for the reasons people have listed above - it tends to swell in your stomach making you miserable for the rest of the day, unnecessary carbs when you should focus on protein. It was one of the first things I weaned off of during my pre-op phase - i replaced it with spaghetti squash and zoodles (zucchini noodles) then. Now that I'm post-op I don't plan to add pasta back in at any point. Once I get to the point where I have more than a tiny bite of veggie with a meal and really want something similar to pasta, i'll probably do the spaghetti squash and zoodle thing again since at least there is some nutritional value there.

Congrats on all the hard work! You are doing fantastic! I know personally how good it felt to get out of the 400's (started at 442 myself) And no - you won't be in the 300's long! You must feel amazing!

June 17

I haven't had issues with any seafood. Tuna salmon tilapia haddock shrimp even had two scallops for dinner on my birthday. Actually find that seafood sits a little easier in my sleeve than other denser proteins like beef or pork

i didn't have to do the urine test. but yeah $1400 for the blood work - had my 3 month check in september and very annoyed my insurance won't cover our post op blood work checks!

nearby and I had my surgery at HUP with Penn Medicine

That is a great NSV!!!

I read this thread yesterday and had chosen not to comment when I saw Alex had banned the OP. I was disappointed when I logged on this morning and saw the thread still going and still more disappointed when I saw Alex’s post admonishing everyone to support the OP. And yes, taking the ENTIRE thread into consideration, I do consider it an admonishment. So my post here is directed more toward Alex and not the original poster. First let me start by saying, you have created a wonderful forum where literally thousands from around the world have been able to come and do research, receive inspiration from others’ stories and get their own questions answered by those who have been there and done that. I commend you for that. This site has been a valuable resource for me and your personal success story an inspiration as well. I typically find your posts thoughtful, informative and understanding. Which is why the turn of this thread has concerned me. So often on this site (and seems to be more prevalent by the day), the idea of “support” has come to mean condoning and even so much as encouraging poor and potentially dangerous decision making. And often the ones who dole out the “tough love” that isn’t what a poster wants to hear are sadly vilified as not being supportive when in actuality they are often the ones most concerned with other’s health and understand that sometimes the harsh reality is what someone really needs to support their long term health goals. Support should never be equated with “enabling”. To recap: the OP is currently at a healthy/normal BMI for her height, wants to get a lower weight within the healthy/normal BMI range and admits she has Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and will be getting a VSG as a cure for her BED. Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy nor any other weight loss surgery is NOT an approved, safe, effective treatment let alone cure for BED. I’m including a link below where even for obese patients with BED, the author is cautioning patients to not consider VSG as a treatment for BED. The author correctly asserts that WLS is helping to treat the obesity – a SYMPTOM in this case of BED, and is NOT treating the actual eating disorder. https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/binge-eating-disorder/binge-eating-disorder-bariatric-surgery-or-the-sleeve Binge eating disorder is a legitimate and very serious psychological disorder that has a tremendous negative impact on the lives of those suffering with it. There are several approved safe and effective treatments for managing BED while the patient continues to be in appropriate psychological treatment to get to the root cause that triggered the disorder and help them discover better ways of handling those trigger rather than binging. And yes, I am familiar with those treatments because I was member on a team of scientists and others researching, developing, and testing in many clinical trials to prove safety as well as efficacy, and eventually obtaining approval for one of those treatments. I reiterate that WLS is NOT considered a treatment/cure for any eating disorder. As most of us on here realize, it is not a CURE for anything. The surgery is merely a tool to help get the obesity under control while we address the mental aspects that led to the obesity. The reason WLS surgery is an appropriate tool for this is because the further complications that the obesity leads to (sleep apnea, high blood pressure, diabetes etc) can and often will short our lives significantly thus making the need to get the obesity dealt with worth the associated risks/potential complications of a major surgery. Again, the WLS is treating the symptom – obesity – not the cause whether that cause be BED, emotional eating or any other issue that leads to a poor relationship with food. Even with WLS, for long term success and maintenance the cause ultimately has to be dealt with as well. The OP stated she has “tried everything” for her BED yet didn’t mention a single treatment specifically. Based on all of her posts, she appears to be of the thinking the surgery alone will cure her. Honestly I spent a lot of today trying to find sources or any studies of WLS in healthy BMI patients with regard to eating disorders. You know what? I couldn’t find a single one. All studies I found regarding WLS and eating disorders – were on obese patients. Because the studies recognized that the WLS really was only treating the obesity and the studies all seemed to conclude the same thing with regard to eating disorders – WLS showed temporary effect on the eating disorder itself but that long term, the eating disorder needed appropriate treatment on its own – WLS is NOT a cure for an eating disorder. Using steak as an example (since the OP mentioned that as a food she binges on), WLS will reduce the amount you can eat in one sitting but it won’t stop you from eating 3 oz of steak every hour, 24 hours a day. Now to the Original Poster. You have clearly already made up your mind to have the surgery. In fact your initial post you said you were ADAMANT about going through with the surgery – so I’m not really sure why you posted asking for others thoughts when you said up front your mind was made up. So I won’t try to talk you out of surgery. I hope you do come to realize though that surgery is not treating your actual medical disorder and that you see a reputable doctor specializing in binge eating disorder and seek appropriate treatment for the BED otherwise, I feel you will be very disappointed with your longer term results. apologies for the VERY long post above, but this has bothered me all day and I felt these things needed to be said.

Yep the cold thing is completely normal! I actually got a little worried at one point a few weeks post op - middle of summer, actual temperature over 100F, walking outside for 2.5hrs and didn't even break a sweat. Whereas I used to sweat all the time - so I don't miss the constantly sweating thing AT ALL. And now I do still sweat if my workout is good. Buy yeah, that day I was worried there was something wrong with my body's natural cooling mechanism and I couldn't sweat but nope...we just conserve energy differently now. I prefer not to use the pre-packaged meals like that because they do tend to still be carb heavy and not really enough Protein for us, plus the sodium. As a worker though, I get the convenience factor. So to combat that, I use a couple hours on sunday afternoon to do food prep so I have lunches that I can just grab out of the refrigerator on my way to work. I also try to get a lot of dinner prep done so I don't have to do a lot of prepping and cooking when I get home from work - not feeling like prepping food, cooking and cleaning a whole bunch of pans and stuff is how I got into the very bad habit of frequent take out/fast food pre-op. THe good thing is we eat such small portions, that a recipe covers a lot of meals for us. If I don't want to have the same thing for dinner 5 nights in a row - I freeze a couple portions. A convenience thing that I do take advantage of is frozen cooked shrimp. Put a serving in a ziploc baggie and they are thawed by lunch time.

do a search for the 3 week stall - you'll see lots of posts about people hitting their first stall the 3rd week out from surgery! You might also want to start checking your measurements. Many people find that the weeks where the scale isn't moving are the weeks where they actually lose the inches as their body adjusts to the new weight,

You've lost 30lbs in less than a month. You are doing beyond great. You will have stalls during this process - lots of them. Weightloss even with surgery is not typically linear but rather more step like - you'll drop a bit, stay steady maybe even go up a pound or so, then drop some more, and on and on.

steroids are ok...it's the NSAIDs that are usually prohibited or at least cautioned against (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) things like ibuprofen (advil, motrin) and naproxen (alleve) mainly because of the ulcer risk.