Wheetsin

There's a freezer pop brand called "Soda Pops." They make a 7-Up freezer pop. I have no idea how Sprite and 7-Up compare (not sure I'e ever had 7-Up, and have probably only had Sprite 2 or 3 times in my life) but they look similar. They're about 35 calories each IIRC. Not sugar free, but I'd take a little sugar over a diet soda any day of the week. Our Walgreens sells them for about $1.90 a box, but you can also get them on Amazon.

I finally tried eggs and do just fine with them. I've been eating them for Breakfast most morning. I find that cooking them in the microwave makes them moist & fluffy - perfect for my sleeve. It's easy to not chew an egg well enough, though - they tend to slide down a bit. The soft foods I found the easiest were cottage cheese, deli chicken and Babybel light cheese. And sashimi. I can do 4oz of sashimi. I can't come close to 4oz of anything else. Typical soft foods lunch for me is a light cheesestick (cut in half lengthwise) with a mixture of mayo & mustard on it, and a very thin slice of deli chicken wrapped around each half. Soft foods are probably going to feel heavier than mushies. Chewed food and purees are different consistencies, and there's a lot more bulk per bite with a soft food. And some soft foods will probably be more uncomfortable than others, though this varies widely by person. I can't yet comfortably eat anything with a cream cheese base: spreads, dips, etc. -- baked, melted or otherwise. It just sits heavy and gives my me cue that I'm getting close to overdoing it.

Unfortunately that's not a quick answer. Some Midol products contain NSAIDs, some do not. Midol Complete - acetaminophen, caffeins, pyrilamine maleate <- no NSAIDS Midol Extended Relief - naproxen sodium <- NSAID Midol Teen - acetaminophen, pamabrom <-no NSAIDs Midol liquid Gels - ibuprofen <- NSAID Midol PM - acetaminophen, diphenhydramine citrate <- no NSAIDs With that being said, I never received anything specific to NSAIDs and have been taking them (I had a sinus infection last week, maxillary sinuses - so it was causing tooth pain too... NSAIDs are routinely the only thing that helps with that pain... I was cleared for 800mg 4 - 6 hours). With some WLS there's a "real" reason why you can't have them, e.g. when you have a stoma. I didn't take them at all when I had my band. But when we don't have stomas, and we have normal digestion function, the only reason I can think of why we wouldn' be allowed NSAIDs is because if it did cause ulcertaion, our stomachs are so small that any injury or scar tissue might cause some problems. So it would be purely "just in case" rather than "because of this and this." But that's just my rationale. I'm not a surgeon, and I don't even play one on TV - so if you have a no NSAIDs rule, then I'd just say clear it with your doctor first. (I'm pretty sure VSG is the recommended weightloss for people who have to take NSAIDs, like arthritis sufferers, because we don't have the pouch/stoma/etc. issues)

BTW we actually absorb (we as adults, not sleevers) about 2% of the B12 we take as a supplement. might be a little less or more. Sine it's a water-soluble vitamin, we just pee the rest out. That's why it comes in megadoses that are so many times over the RDV.

I use a bariaric multi. I take three a day, so that would be 420mcg B12 (which is 6999% RDV) and 900mg calcium (90% RDV).

I don't have a sensation like that now, but I used to. For me, the difference was scar tissues. I had a LOT of scar tissue removed when I was sleeved. It has made all the difference in the world. I use to feel a lot of weird things before it was removed. Sometimes if I turned, or sat at an angle, I'd feel something sort of jump out place inside, then (maybe immediately, maybe after a few minutes) "snap back" into place. Sometimes I'd feel a weird something almost as described above - reminded me of when I was preggo and DD would kick. (I always assumed it was scar tissue somehow causing a reponse in a muscle). I could feel the scar tissue from the outside. Sometimes if I accidentally pushed on it (like the pressure from a book when I would read in bed and propr the book on my stomach), it would hurt surprisingly bad. Sometimes when I bent over, it felt almost like my stomach or something was folding in half. Fairly painful, and I'd try to stand up rq because it just seemed like a really unpleasant trip down sensation road that I wanted to avoid (defnitely seemed like it had the potential to get worse if I didn't stop). I can't say for sure all of those were the result of something from the scar tissue/adhesions, but they're now 100% gone.

My surgeon allows his patients to take pills the day you go home from the hospital (day after surgery). I was afraid to for the first two days (coming out of a lapband and pills were almost impossible for me), but when I tried I had no problems at all. At first the only problem was that I had to take such tiny sips, and the pills I had (surgical complications) were large, so they would stick in my throat a bit. I'm dealing with a sinus infection now and can take my Rx antibiotic, 4 ibuprofen and a tylenol all at once. Of course, I'm then full for 3 hours.

Short and sweet - your risk of developing a stricture. Leaks and stricture are our two most common complications. A stricture is when the opening from the stomach to the pylorus closes/narrows due to growth of scar tissue. Your stomach basically developes a clogged pipe and you aren't able to get anything through, and it backs up on you. Resolved by dialating the structure. Strictures are about half as common as leaks, if that much.

This week I averaged 530 calories a day.

Really depends on what I'm eating. On average, looking at volume, I'm probably around 1/4 C average. 1/2 C is still a stretch, but I've probably done it a few times.

It kicked in for me after the first 5 or 6 days, and lasted -- well, it started getting better in my 3rd week post-op, but took until my 4th to really be gone.

Wasabi yes, but I don't care for the ginger. Not because of the sleeve though, I've never cared for it. I melt my wasabi into the soy so it's less concentrated, but I've also had hot & sour (to which I add vinegar and sriracha) and no problems. If it ends up being irritating, you can always use wasabi sauce. Has the flavor, but a lot less kick. Tuna sashimi has about 7g Protein per ounce. I top out at 4oz but if I go slow I can finish it. If I eat it twice a day that's 56gm protein.

Sushi will be a while out (rice) - I think most plans have it at 8 weeks or later. On the flip side, I've been eating sashimi every day since I was able to add it at about 5 weeks. Sometimes I eat it for 2 or 3 meals a day, because it's better than Protein drinks. I just finished my last bite of sashimi for dinner, actually. It goes down well, and volume-wise, so far, it's what I can eat the most of. Sashimi & poke. Mmmm!

Being fresh post-op was awesome. Those squeezie hose, and the foot compressor things for 2 days... I had the teeniest, least swollen feet & ankles of my entire life. I was walking out of my shoes then and had to wear flipflops, mostly. Of course, within a week of sitting at my desk I was back to puffy toes and cankles, and shoes fitting just right. What're you guys doing with your big shoes? Donating them? I now wear an 11 down from a 12W (I'm a little taller than 5'10 so my feet aren't as ginormous as they sound, at least not proportionately) and I have probably 75 pairs of 12/12W shoes taking up space I could use to justify buying more shoes...

Bah, the only thing good at Sonic anyway are the strawberry limeades and cheddar bites. Esp since they did away with the cheddar peppers. You didn't miss anything, and now your superego can give itself two big thumbs up.

Yeouch. Have you called your surgeon's office? I was scheduled during the same call when they told me I was approved (which I already knew b/c I had been hounding my insurance co).

Yes - as above. Most often because it's cheaper than self-pay in the US. Secondly because some people just prefer a MX surgeon. I don't know what MX rates are. My surgeon in the US charges $11,999.00 for everything start to finish. I was thinking about doing it self pay (was getting tired of waiting on insurance) and would have paid my surgeon's rates. For one, he's the surgeon I wanted to use. For two, the hospital's about 45 mins from home. The price difference for me was worth it to be so close to home, not have to worry about travel, have instant access if something went wrong, know that I had a surgeon who would handle any needed aftercare, etc. Some things are just worth paying for.

That is a load of horse puckey, he's full of crap. They should know to expect weight regain. I had a slipped band that was removed. I went from about 280 (at removal, up from a low of about 215) to just under 350 in 7 months. It is not realistic to expect no weightloss to occur when you're waiting on a revision. For one, your body is wired to want to gain weight, especially if your complication resulted in extreme restriction. For two, no matter how hard you try, it's going to be really easy to slip back into bad behaviors eventually -- just because you can. I started eating a Breakfast sandwich every morning even though I wasn't hungry, because the novelty of being able to eat breakfast was just so awesome... and then it became a behavior. Here's my take. Maybe you can use some of these points to reason with your surgeon. regardless of weight, being banded has given you some tools that should help with success with the sleeve: core behavioral changes, and understanding of what the whole WLS process is like; an idea of the mental road coming; an ability to find balance rather than short-term deprivation, etc. with nothing in place to restrict intake, how are you supposed to maintain weight? It is proven that when you stop losing, your body makes it much harder than normal not to gain. So you're in a more volatile gain period, and have nothing to help you (mechanically speaking). You lost weight because you had a band, so what's his rationale for it not being OK to gain when the band is gone? When my band came out, I gained almost 20 lbs in a week. But I still felt restriction, and I was not eating much more than before surgery. What I gained was not fat. It was weight. I'd been so fricking dehydrated that the Water weight just packed on. Most people who have their bands removed are fairly dehydrated because of it. You're going to gain some weight, and it's a healthy gain (not fat gain, weight gain - hydration in this case) Instead of seeing it "if you can't do it on your own, you can't do it with the sleeve" (which, if that ws true, no one here would be anywhere near goal because I can pretty much guarantee that everyone here tried to do it on their own, yet here we are...) he should be seeing it as "you're that much ahead of someone doing this for the first time, so let's get you some help and get you healthy."

Hmm, not sure. But unless you're howing signs of infection or rejection, the standard advice is to give it a week or so. The incisions can definitely feel fine for a while, then just start hurting out of nowhere. That's happened to me with both my band and sleeve surgeries. With my sleeve I felt great for about 3 weeks, then my right side incision literally out of the blue starting almost twitching. Weird, and painful. Unless it shows signs of something being wrong I just assume it's part of whatever it's doing to heal. Of course if the pain is severe or intolerable, call. But if it's just noticeable or annoying, it's probably not a big deal.

I take my bandages off the 2nd or 3rd day. They start coming off around day 3 for me, if I've showered every day. I'm allergic to adhesives and can usually only tolerate them for a day at most, usually I'm well into a reaction by the time I give up and take them off. If I leave them on for the whole week I will be blistery, hivey, and my skin will have sort of melted into the bandage (so it's pulled off as the bandage comes off). This time around they just used gauze pads and tape strips. Normally I get the (can't think of the name) stuff that looks like thin clear contact paper. When I left the hospital (day after surgery - sleeve) the nurse gave me a bunch of gauze and the sheets, sissors, tweezers, etc. and told me to take them off or replace them as I wanted, that really their main purpose was to keep a staple from getting pulled... so as long as I promised not to compromise my staples, I didn't have to wear any. Big YIPEE! Normally when you have your post-op (about a week after surgery) they'll take the bandages off and do butterfly strips. Those stay on forever. I took them off after 2 days.

How far are you post op? There are internal sutures, one of them could be doing something. You could also be getting tender as scar itssue forms. I know both of these were issues for me when I had my last surgery (before sleeve). I had an infected incision once, but it was definitely not a stabbing pain, and had heat/discooration (not redness really - more brownish gray, like a really deep old bruise).

It depends. It used to be that they just talked with you and got a sense for factors likely to contribute to difficulty (e.g. non-compliance) or success (e.g. support system and mental outlook). Nowadays most of them are using paper-based assessments that really identify the same things, but using standardized tests. When I had my band we just talked. When I had my sleeve I had to take 3 tests, then come back to discuss the results. Anything that sort of pops up a red flag on your results, especially consistently, will prbably come up so that the psych can determine how well you will be able to deal with it, etc. As for specific questions, I really don't remember any specifics. Lots of things about your behavior, your feelings, whether or not your expectations are realistic, etc. I think Isaw this already mentioned, but what's typically required is medically supervised weightloss for 6 months. That means you're going to the doctor for the sole purpose of being weighed, discussing diet, etc. I think it's even billed differently than a regular office visit might be. So having been to the doctor a few times during the last 6 months, and having had your weight recorded, is generally not accepted for this requirement. HTH

Yes, your feet get smaller. With my band I lost 1 - 1.5 shoe sizes, and went from wides to regulars.

Here's how I think of it. The weight you've lost so far is going to be fluids - the vast majority of it anyway. Once those initial Fluid losses are gone, you can actually start seeing numbers that reflect fat loss (well, kind of, but that's another post). So which would you enjoy more: knowing post-op that the dropping numbers are increasingly reflecting fat loss, or knowing that post-op, the dropping numbers are losing the same fluids for the 2nd time? Whatever fast food it is you're wanting, you can have it as soon as you're at a "as tolerated" state. Nothing is a never again.

You can definitely lose weight on fewer than 40 or 50 gm Protein a day, or else no one would ever starve to death. It's about the weight you're losing. The protein intake goals are about supporting healthy fat loss, not just weight loss, which would otherwise include loss of lean muscle mass. The guidelines per my nurtitionist are 60gm - 70gm. Call yours & see what their requirements are, they vary. The most I've been able to do is 60s, and just a few times. It's much easier for me to actually eat the protein than drink eat - Protein drinks sit very heavy for me, but I try. I'm only 7 weeks out & still trying to dance around capacity issues. If you do things that require more protein, you will need to increase. And yes, the 50s, 60s, 70s you're hearing are lifelong daily minimums. Type of protein matters too. They are not created equal. whey isolate is one of the better ones, plan whey works. Bunches & bunches of types out there. I just typed this earlier: generally if protein comes in packaging that looks like a test tube or a vibrator, you don't want it.