TipTop in TX

You look fantastic! Congratulations. I am only two weeks post op, but I forgot to take my body measurements. Going to do that now, because sometimes it's not about the weight, but the inches and how you feel and look. I have never been hung up on my weight, just how I look in my clothes and in my skin. Let me tell you, right not that's not anything pretty!

I've watched this topic for several days now. The first thing that popped into my head was being able to look and buy the "cute" dresses at our Dillards outlet. I had never heard of Modcloth and I just checked out their website and they have cute clothes. It's so funny, when you are large, you put that kind of thing out of your mind and don't think of all the places you can't shop. Just this moment a place I had forgotten about, but that should actually go to the top of my list is Desigual. They have fun, funky patterns (I love color and pattern) and cute designs. http://www.desigual.com/en_US/collections/ I love tops, skirts and dresses. I just hope my legs don't get too saggy to wear them. LOL

It's so funny you mention this. Normally I am complaining about being hot at work, not it's perfect! When I get home I tell my hubby it is freezing. He said, "The thermometer is at 72." I didn't believe him, looked and sure enough it was 72. I now walk around with a sweater AND in the evening I turn on my heating pad when I am watching TV. LOL

You might want to ask your surgeon and mention the coconut Water base. My doctor has me on probiotics for a month after surgery. I started a week after surgery and I am 2 weeks post op.

Good luck redgoddess on getting your approval. @@jane13, I was thinking the same thing. I am going to see how that part of my body works without anything and do what you suggested if needed. It probably will all change when I start eating something other than liquids. I go for my 2-week f/u appointment tomorrow.

I had my sleeve 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I had minimal gas pains, but what I had easily passed (belching) when I got up and walked around. I had a drain, but only because there was a tear during surgery. I had minimal incision pain. It wasn't bad and easily controlled with medicine. The worst pain was taking out the drain, but it only hurt for 5 minutes and was sore for about a day. I never had any nausea or vomiting. The only pain I had was when I tried to drink my clear liquid diet in the hospital. I realized that cold fluids hurt worse than warm fluids and we found a combination of anti-gas, pain and nausea med (even though I did not have nausea) that helped me with that pain. I have had previous surgeries and this is the easiest I ever had. I had surgery on Wednesday and back to work on Monday without any problem.

Sometimes doctors do the procedures they are most comfortable with based on the circumstances. I know all those procedures can be done laparoscopically, but maybe in your instance that is the best approach. Good luck.

Miralax and enema finally did the trick. Thanks everyone for your pointers and help.

Thank you MiteyMom, I will try that, even thought it takes me much longer than 30 minutes to drink my Protein drink. I like the tip on how to get the Water sips in.

I asked my doctor to do an ultrasound of my gallbladder before surgery. She did and it was okay. I was also of the mindset that if is really common just take it out. I still have mine and keeping my fingers crossed I don't have any problems later.

I was just going to post to ask for help on this very topic. I am postop for 11 days and I just started getting 60 GM Protein in since yesterday. It takes me all day because I am so full trying to sip on Water. I had been trying to do 2 Premiere Protein drinks, but I think it's too heavy. I bought a protein powder made by the company that does Muscle Milk protein drinks. It's not bad. I also decided to use less water , Like Nuala13 and that was the only thing that helped me get in my protein. I must say I like my chocolate Premiere Protein heated up. It reminds me of hot chocolate and I tolerate that pretty well. I am still not able to get in much water. The most I've gotten was today and that was 20 ounces. I have not gotten anywhere close to 64 oz of fluids (even including the protein drinks). I love water, but I feel full after about 2 ounces. I will try the Syntrax. Thanks for the tips and I hope to get better every day. My cousin suggested getting some kind of app that would beep or vibrate every 15 minutes to remind me to drink. Anybody use anything like that?

Hey Jane13, I know! I am passing gas. I called the doctor's office and I must say I am very disappointed it took 2 days for someone to get back with me. I know different doctors want their patients to used different things. I started Miralax before they called me back. No results yet. The office called back today and said I could do a Fleets enema. I know what's on my agenda for this evening. LOL

To Jane13, I’m doing okay today. I am full as a tick, but I am getting more Protein in. I tried a stage 1 baby food Peaches and added ½ scoop of Protein powder to it. Um…not too bad. No wonder I am full. I just re-read postop diet instructions and it says meals should not exceed ¾-1 cup initially. When I was on liquids I just seemed to be sipping all day. I am still on liquids, but I have added baby food stage 1 and cream Soup. I still like the wonton broth best. I just realized I haven’t done a number 2 for over a week, so I’ll have to see what my doctor wants me to do. To Long2BeFree, I never thought about an issue with protein absorption. I looked through all my papers and found something in my discharge sheets from the hospital. It says: Full liquid Foods (1/4 c. total per meal) · Protein-rich liquids (limit added protein powder to 25-30 grams per serving) I’ll have to ask the doctor or nutritionist for more details about this, but thanks for letting me know. Plus it made me look back through my discharge information. I didn’t know there was a ¼c. limit! My Premier Protein is 11 oz just to get my 30 grams of protein in.

Hi Long2BFree, Today I decided to add a scoop of whey powder to my Premier Protein drink. I figured if I add the powder I can do this one drink and get most of my protein in! After I put it in my Magic Bullet and sipped it some, I returned to it and it was a foamy mess, YUCK! I poured it out and did it again with a small whisk so it wouldn't foam up. It was better but I JUST finished that one drink (It's 8:30 p.m.). :-( My husband bought me some wonton Soup and I strained all the good stuff out of it. The leftover broth was wonderful. I plan on doing that more often vs the chicken, beef or vegetable broth from the cube. I am doing my Vitamins okay, even though they make me full quicker. I haven't got the meal time thing down yet and I return to work tomorrow. Obviously, my perception of my ability to just whiz though it is overinflated! LOL. I have found out I do like orange Jello though!!!

My nutritionist and doctor's office said, "No honey. It is still a sugar." They did say sugar substitute was okay.

I have the same concerns. I was watching some YouTube videos and saw some of the people getting thinner. With the younger girls you didn't see the wrinkles and sagging in the face. I saw an older lady and when she was thinner, you could see her jowls hanging more. I must say I never thought of that. I had already prepared myself for a tummy tuck after about 18 months after my sleeve, but I have to admit I never thought of face lifts, neck lifts, butt and leg lifts. Cha Ching.

Hi Egharper. It's almost your surgery date. If you follow the liquid diet, you will lose weight. I didn't sweat it. I didn't have a calorie requirement for my preop liquid diet. I had my sleeve 3 days ago. One of the Protein drinks my doctor recommended was Premier Protein. I got it at costco. It has 30 grams of protein, comes in vanilla, s-berry and chocolate. I got a case of each. :-) It only has 160 calories though so you won't get your calories, just from that. My nutritionist said that if the Protein Drinks have too many calories, they are probably loaded with extra stuff like sugar. The premiere protein has 3 gm of fiber and 1 gm of sugar. Maybe they won't fill you up so much.

Hello All, I'm new here and I think I may have posted my story on the wrong forum. I have found this site very beneficial and I wanted to give back. MY BACKGROUND: 55 and have been overweight starting in my late 20's after divorce. It was harder to get the weight off after my hysterectomy in my 40's. Best wt. loss was with WW of 45 pounds, but so discouraging when you work hard week-after-week and they'd say "Congratulations! You've lost 0.2 lbs." My BMI was 39 before approval. My highest weight was 222 lbs and my goal weight is 145 lbs. I had been thinking about the sleeve for a while, even though I saw a lot of people fail with it, but others were successful. I had great insurance and it covered 35 to 40 BMI with comorbidities and no required nutrition counseling. From my approval to my surgery date was about 45 days. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and sleep apnea. Even though there was no required nutrition counseling, I felt it was important so I did do 2 sessions. Psych Eval was no stress and I learned about a program they have that is 12 weeks and helps you with making the transition emotionally, nutritionally and with tools to help with the changes the surgery brings to your life. THE INITIAL PLAN: Surgery on Wednesday with a 36 bougie and I would have an ON-Q pain relief system. I would be home on Thursday. The 36 bougie is just what I wanted. I did not want to lose weight too fast and I felt it would put me more at risk for some of the side effects that happen after really quick weight loss, i.e. hair loss, sagging skin, nausea/vomiting, swallowing pain, etc. Bougie size range for a sleeve procedure is generally 30 to 42, but can go up to 50 and helps the surgeon get the staple line correct for the size of the pouch selected during surgery. It is a tube that is removed after the pouch is stapled.The larger the number, the bigger the pouch. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED: When I woke up in my hospital room, I had a JP drain! WTH? I wasn't supposed to have a drain, I specifically asked prior to surgery. I had my IV's, my incisions and my ON-Q pain med delivery bulb. I also had a Dilaudid PCA IV pump. I felt pretty good but I had a dry mouth. Be sure to ask for mouth swabs, they help. An hour later, up to use the bathroom and a couple of hours after that, I was walking in the hallway. Pain was not bad,, but I had moderate gas aches in abdomen and chest area. It was all manageable with my PCA pump. I would not be doing my leak test until the next day. For some reason, they brought me ice chips. I didn't know if they should have, but I didn't complain! LOL Anyway, I would take only a teaspoon about every 1.5 -2 hours. I would let it melt in my mouth and swish it around before swallowing. I did not want any problems with my pouch, but I WAS thirsty. The Physician's Assistant came in and I asked about the drain. She really didn't know why, but said it would come out before I went home. I had my leak test the next day and everything was okay. I was started on a clear liquid diet. I was so excited I ordered chicken broth and TWO popsicles. OMG! I WISH I HAD KNOWN! This is the part I did not expect. Whenever I swallowed any liquid, I had pain. It was awful! I felt this SEVERE burning, acid reflux, heartburn type pain. It was so bad, I did not want to swallow. I was wondering what the heck I had done to myself. I told myself I wasn’t even THAT big yet, maybe I should have tried harder before doing this surgery. My thought was if I had known I would have this kind of pain anytime I drank, I would not have done it. I was in agony. We tried simethicone (Gas-X), very little help. We tried simethicone with Zofran (nausea) that helped a little more. I realized that for me, warm fluids worked better than cold. I still was not getting much in. By this time the surgeon had come in and I asked her about the drain. What I learned is that there had been a misfire with the staple gun that caused a tear that had to be hand sutured. This narrowed the space and size of the bougie. I now had a 32 Bougie. What can I say, “STUFF HAPPENS.” But now I knew what had happened and I feel like that is why I was having so many unexpected problems with swallowing. That might not be totally true, but that was my mindset and thought process. I have to say I was pretty bummed out. I could not believe I had all these symptoms and pain. I wanted to cry. All I could think was that I really messed myself up. I was so down. My poor husband knew I wasn’t okay, but what could he say? My sisters were feeling bad for me. After feeling sorry for myself for about an hour I figured I just had to do what I needed to and take the lumps I’d brought on myself. Because I still wasn’t drinking much and my blood pressure was high, I decided to stay another day. I felt they needed to get my blood pressure under control and get me drinking better or I would go home, become dehydrated and have to come right back. I AM SO GLAD I STAYED!!! The evening nurse decided to try a combo of simethicone, Zofran and HyCet (pain med). I had stopped using the PCA pump because it really didn’t help. That combo cocktail saved me. From that point on I could swallow without pain. I did a lot of soft burping, but no pain when swallowing. Warm fluids were still better than cold ones, but I could drink slowly. I did well during the night and went home on Friday. I knew I could keep up with the liquids enough to not be readmitted. HOME NOW: When I got home I overdid it a bit. I shouldn’t have been bending down or trying to straighten up or wash clothes or.... After a couple of hours, I took a nap. I woke up, took my cocktail med mixture and felt fine in about 20 minutes. Drinking is fine, but I have to remember to take small swallows. I guess I don’t know what a sip is…LOL. I just put a swallow of liquid in my mouth and then, actually swallow the liquids in 3 swallows. I know it’s weird, but that is what works for me. Friday I went to bed about 10 pm. and took my cocktail before. I slept until 4 am, used the bathroom, walked around which helped to loosen me up some. I decided not to take any meds and see what the morning was like. I slept okay. I was in a little pain when I got up, but moved around, did incentive spirometry breathing and coughing techniques. Trying to organize how I was going to take the meds, the Protein drinks, the Water is crazy. I thought I had it down before I went to the hospital, but the hospital gave me information after the surgery, more info from the doctor’s office, more discharge instructions and additional info from the nutritionist. It’ll probably take me a couple of days to figure it out. Right now I am on the computer. I have to remind myself to get up and walk around every two hours. My dog wants to play, but I know she’ll get too active for me, so I just look at her and briefly pet her so as not to encourage her too much. I am off to take start my regimen of meds and fluids. Thank you all so much for what you have contributed to me.

Thanks Inner Surfer Girl. It has definitely been a challenge getting my fluids in. I thought I would whiz through it, but here it is 7:45 p.m. and I still only have in half my Protein and 2/3 of my fluids for the day. The clear liquid diet is a challenge. I hope when I get to full liquids I can just add the Protein powder to what I eat and not end of sipping and full all day. I'll look around on the profile and account page. I will also have to check out the phone app. I appreciate the tips.

How do I change the side panel so it shows my weight? Also, how do I get those cute little graphs on the bottom? Thank you.