Wheetsin

Lortab contains a combination of hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen (aka Tylenol). So you're already getting a good amount of acetaminophen from the Lortab. Lortab elixir 7.5 mg-500 mg/15 mL Oral Soln is giving you 500mg acetaminophen per 15ml. A single Tylenol extra strength has the same 500mg in it. A daily amount over 4,000 mg is considered toxic. So just please be very careful to keep track of your doses, and also make sure your surgeon or surgeon's nurse know you plan to add the Tylenol. I understand you're probably talking about stopping the Lortab and switching to Tylenol, but just make sure count your doses in any 24 hour period (e.g. Lortab you took yesterday might still count toward additional mg you take today). Hmm, all those pharmacology classes paid off after all...

Yes, I lived that frustration for over two months, I understand! But it's 100% normal. It would be weirder if you didn't stall around 3 weeks out, than if you did. It's your body finding equilibrium. About half of what you've lotss o far weight-wise is Fluid. Your body's #1 priority is to get those fluids back. Your liver regulates a fluid sugar, and those sugars were depleted and it wants them back. Etc. Even just pure dehydration from having fluid intakes so greatly reduced. Your body's doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Now, if in 5 more weeks you're still stalled, THEN you can start looking at switching some things up. But until then, just wait for it to pass.

Carbs are OK. Our bodies need carbs. You just don't want most of your calories coming from carbs, you want them coning from Protein. But rememer that carbs come from other places than grains/bread. Here's how different the advice is. I'm 3 mos post op and about 3 weeks ago my NUT got on my case (nicely) for not eating enough grains or carbs. She told me specifically - instead of just an egg, have half an egg and a piece of bread. Or don't take the meat off the sandwich. Or crumble some oat crackers into my yogurt. I started doing Wasa crackers. I love them, and they feel OK when I eat them. Regular bread doesn't feel great. I tried a piece of a croissant last weekend and felt it for a few hours.

3 weeks post-op I started a stall that lasted... about 10 weeks. It sucked! It finally broke about a week ago. My best suggestion would be to do a search for "three week stall". It's something most people go through. Generally lasts 1 - 3 weeks, occasionally 4. Virtually everyone goes through it. So the best advice is to be patient and not freak out, don't try to change everything you're doing because you think it's your fault... don't let it get you down. Just remember it will pass.

My surgery was in the US. I took my phone and my Nook. I used my Nook pre-op, but that was it. Didn't touch my phone. More thoughts below in blue.

I know a handful of people who have developed Barrets after their WLS, due to the GERD that was caused. Several banded people I know developed Barrets (presumably) from living with their slips/severe GERD for years. I do not know anyone who was diagnosed with Barrets, and then had WLS. I'm not entirely sure how the sleeve would impact treatments for Barrets. Were they discussing surgical or non-surgical treatments? Surely the surgical treatments would be fine, but that's usually for more advanced cases. I don't know the full range of non-surgical treatments, but the ones I do know about - I can't imagine the sleeve would make them harder or impossible. But that's not something I was ever trained in, so his is just my best guess based on what little I do know. I can tell you that I had pretty bad reflux with my slipped band, but not too frequently. When it happened it was major, and might recur for a few nights, but these "spells" were several weeks/months apart. Until the very end, anyway. I've had some nighttime reflux with the sleeve, but not the MAJOR reflux I would have. E,g, reflux with my band woke me up, bolt upright in bed coughing and trying to ge the taste out of my mouth. It'd feel like I'd vomited in my sleep. And sometimes things I ate hours & hours ago would be in my mouth. I kept mints on my nightstand so that I could suck one to get rid of the taste, but there was no way I could go back to bed. if I so much as dozed off, even while sitting up, I would continue to reflux. All night long. With the sleeve it's more like I wake up with a little cough and know I've refluxed, but it didn't make it to my mouth and I can go back to sleep. I've had two bouts (out of maybe 3 or 4 total) that were a little worse, but still a cake walk compared to my band days. Does that help? I don't know. Part of the Barrets is to stop the reflux if you can, and I guess the point I'm making is that the sleeve might not help much with that. I think that of the two, RNY is supposed to have the better track record of reducing or eliminating GERD post-op. That may be why you're being told it's the only option. Have you been tested for dysplasia?

I could tell my husband that i want to shave my eyebrows into little dinosaurs and he'd support me, so I'm not sure I can say that it has affected my marriage, at least not in that way. The effect I have seen was in his attraction to me, physically. Love me or not, a fit body is usually more attractive than a 400lb body. We're still a fairly amorous couple and there were sexual positions & things we could try that I just couldn't physically do, or that were too uncomfortable, because of the extra bulk my body took up. So that was another change -- just more sexual freedom and liberties. Things we hadn't really been able to since I'd gained weight (I was not fat when we met). And I felt better about myself, so my confidence/esteem changed completely. That changed our relationship as well. For the better. But I'm not sure if these are the types of experiences you're looking for...? DH is all for me losing weight, for various reasons. I do know that in my experience (99.999999% of my friends are guys and most of them are married or in long-term relationships) that when a guy doesn't want a woman to lose weight, it's usually his own insecurities. Or a fettish. I'm not sure I understand how he could support the journey but not the outcome. Surely he understands you're not going through sleeve surgery so you can maintain your current weight? So I'd have to say - if you don't know already, find out why he doesn't want you to lose weight. Then you'll know what you can address. Is he insecure? Jealous? Does he truly just like a fatter figure? Is he worried about what it will do to you? Etc. Couples grow. You can grow together, like || or you can grow apart like \ / but the growth is a guarantee.

It took about 14 hours for the magnesium citrate to really kick in for me. Unfortunately this meant that the first "uh oh" was as I was registering at the hospital. The last (that I was conscious for) was just as they came to get me to take me back to the OR. My entire prep time was spent running between the prep room and the toilet. I felt a little weird, but more of a queasy feeling. That stuff tasted like someone shoved boiled eggs, salt, and sour into old @ss and let it sit for a few weeks. And I was burping it, which meant I was tasting it all over again. Just having to re-live that taste made me feel off for about an hour. Oh, I took mine around 3. Around 10 I had one moment in the bathroom, but what came out was more like pure magnesium citrate. No... waste material. The stuff in the morning was ALL waste material. So to speak. The best I could do was tell my surgteon that if I pooped on the OR table, it was his fault for making me drink that crap. Then the nurse promised me that if I pooped on them, they wouldn't tell me about it, and that I wouldn't be the only one (which I already knew).

Dumping can occur with the sleeve, it just doesn't come with the "guarantee" that the RNY comes with. Dumping also isn't restricted to people who have had WLS. I know two people who dump with the sleeve - I've seen one of them go through it. I've seen posts or gotten messages from (I think) 3 others. So it's not a terribly common side effect, but it can happen. I've seen people "think" they're dumping, when they're just having diarrhea. Dumping isn't just diarrhea, and probably if you ever experience it, whether or not you poop your pants is probably going to be pretty far from your mind. Everyone I know personally who dumps, who didn't know what was going on at the time, went to the ER. It was that bad. Dumping syndrome is really just when your stomach empties too fast. The things your body does to cope with that unprepared food entering the small intestine is what causes the pain/discomfort/sensations/etc. Considering that, there really aren't many predictors of whether or not you will develop it after sleeve surgery, unless you have a known issue with your pyloric valve function or something. There are also different "stages" of dumping. Most people think it's just a single event, but it's not. Here's a long post I wrote up a while ago that explains what's happening when someone "dumps", at a non-technical level.

You could sustain some tooth damage during surgery (technically during anesthesia), which might make a dental exam pretty uncomfortable. But you probably won't. IIRC rates are about 1 in 800. Just tell the dentst you've just had surgery, and if there is any damage, let him/her know. They'll know what to do.

You will probably feel ok short term. Eventually in a Protein deficit, you'll feel it. If you aren't liking the scoop Proteins, try some of the RTDs. A lot of people who can't stomach scoops, do just fine with those.

I've had no nausea, and no vomiting. I've not developed any intolerances, tho milk tastes a little weird (but I wasn't a milk drinker before, so this isn't necessarily a sleeve thing). There are some foods I feel more than others, but I eat them just fine. My capacity remains around 2 - 3 oz. Some foods I can go with 4 (like sashimi) and some I can go with 1. My NUT gave me 100 "play" calories in effort to break a stall that I couldn't get rid of, and just to up my overall calorie intake (on a good day I hit in the range of 700, I'm usually around 600, and she wants me 800 - 1000). I have tried fried foods - fried pickles - which is fine. I actually don't like fried foods, so they're not a temptation. I don't really like potatoes so things like french fries, potato chips... I can take or leave. I've also had fried shrimp, no problems. My NUT gave me specific instructions to include breads/grains, so bread is not a no-no for me. I just - again - don't really care for it all that much. I've gone with a much healther cracker type product.

Im gonna say it depends. Your surgery was early Feb so I'm guessing you're able to get your daily Protein in through food. If you can get it in through your meals, then you don't need shakes. The shakes themselves aren't the requirement, it's the protein they contain. So the below assumes you're not getting it through food... If you're burnt out on your shakes, maybe try a different flavor or a different way to incorporate the protein poweder, like through baking (I used to bake it into muffins when I had my band). If you just can't do the shakes, incorporate some higher protein foods/snacks. Cheeses, fish, Jerky, etc. are all good & healthy sources of protein.

You don't really (usually) need to have a record per year, or anything like that. Back when I was submitting for my lapband my insurance co wanted 5 years of weight history alsos howing obesity. I have them 3 office visit records, all showing an obese weight (I rarely went to the doctor then). That worked just fine for my ins. co. Do you have something from 6/2007 or earlier with an obese weight? If so, put it in and see if you can find an alternate for the ones where your weight was not classified as obese. ALso, think of every possible place where your weight might have been recorded. It's not just PCP. ER visits? OBGYN? Acute care clinic? Etc.

Below in blue.

I had lapband surgery at about 385, give or take a few. Dropped down to around 215. I was back to about 350 when I had my sleeve (3 mos ago) and am now around 270-something. I've lost a lot of weight, but I still have a lot left to lose - about 100 lbs. So I'm progress, in the same way your first lap is progress toward a few miles.

I don't know what kind of diet you're on, but try the induction phase of the Atkins diet. Just dropping your initial glycogen reserves usually takes off 6+ pounds. Low carb diets are awesome for quick scale drops. They're just hard lifestyles to maintain long term.

Get ready for night and day, that strangely enough have a lot of similarities. With about 54 lbs to lose, you should hit goal in like 2 weeks. I think you're really going to love the sleeve, compared to the lapband. Best of luck!

Below in blue (it's just more coherent that way)

See below in blue.

I'd call that brave if you looked like me (visual: a sock full of quarters) When you look like you were never fat, it's not bravery, it's well-placed confidence. Go you.

Your best bet will be to go to a gastric bypass forum and ask. I don't think anyone here will have an RNY since sleeve isn't a revision option from RNY (meaning if you've had RNY to be able to give advice, you won't be able to have a sleeve). You might be able to find topics like Why I chose sleeve over bypass or Which WLS is better but even those are going to give advice/feedback that implies a choice. If you are RNY or nothing, then go to the source. (I'm pretty sure this board will have an RNY counterpart... yep, I checked for you and it does. http://www.rnytalk.com/

See? tupos. That's what you get for such great info.

I edited 7 tupos and then decided it's just not worth it. Typos are the asking price of my advice.

Soup - do you live near a Granite City? They have a beer & cheese soup that's killer. As for what you can get anywhere - all soups kinda taste the same to me. But you can whiz it all up into a full liquid. Lots of people enjoy bean & bacon. I did some cream of onion. I made a fish chowder with cod, whizzed it up (not hard because the fish pretty much boils into non-existence) and froze it out into portions. Whatever soup you like, you can make fit into a full liquid. I've said this before, but here's what you don't do: go buy a Chipotle bol and whiz it up because your logic tells you that it will taste the same as chewing it! shakes are really a personal thing. MOst people, over time, find "their" shake. I can tell you what I think is the best, and the next person can tell you it's nasty. So probably if you haven't foind one you like at this point, I'd suggest going to the generic store like Target or Walmart and buying whatever in on their shelf, because whatever it is - it has enough mass market/generac appeal to be stockable. If nothing else, that's a starting point. ^ of those generic market appeal ones, I think the EAS Carb Advantedge ones in "Strawberry" or "strawberry cream" or whatever it is are the best, but they blow if they get room temperature. Get them really, really cold.