iamjohnbamber

I can't wait to try the Ricotta thing... It sounds delish.

Thanks @@Caribear!

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal app -- it's great!

Do you have a link for the ricotta thing? That sounds good

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Good job! Keep up the good work!

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Hey everyone,

Just started week 2 of my full-liquid diet today, and I'm dreading stage 3... Puréed for me starts next Tuesday, and I don't know what I'm going to do. I've been looking at some baby food, but I'm worried I won't be able to tolerate it since my attempt to have yogurt almost made me dry heave.

My one thought was to do another 2 weeks of liquids, but I really should make some kind of attempt to thicken what I'm eating so I can be following the program.

Anyone have any suggestions or recipes that got you through the purée stage? Tomato Soup is my favorite thing during this stage, so if anyone has a thicker Tomato Soup suggestion that would be great... Looking forward to hearing what you guys think.

I was thinking of getting some chicken and cooking it, then purring it inside some tomato soup...

I'll eat/drink anything in tomato Soup at this point to get through those two weeks LOL.

Thanks in advance.

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I've been told it's approximately the size of a banana...

Err.. so a big American banana or a wee Asian banana?

Is there much of a difference? :-D

I've been told it's approximately the size of a banana...

Best of luck with the surgery!

I had bad acid reflux before my surgery; turns out in addition to having my lap band removed and converted to sleeve, he also repaired a hiatal hernia which I've found is a big contributor to acid reflux. Since my surgery I can tell my reflux has gone down, but I'm still on Prilosec once each morning to control stomach acid.

Best advice; talk to your surgeon, he/she may be able to make some recommendations or alleviate your concerns.

When was your surgery?

Getting air in your stomach is a bad thing with the sleeve, since there's a lot less room in your stomach now. Don't forget your stomach has been reduced in size by 75-85% or so. I've found that getting up and walking around can help alleviate some of that pain, or try those Gas-X strips I'm told they work pretty well too.

I had a hiatal hernia repair also, and I stayed an extra day in the hospital (to stay on the IV) because I couldn't keep anything down until day 3. Drinking stuff really really slowly helped me get accustomed to keeping things down.

I think my stomach was basically in shock from all the stuff done to it (I had lap band removal, hiatal hernia repair, and sleeve done in the same procedure) so it was just refusing anything put into it initially. If things aren't staying down wait a little bit, then try drinking even less.

When I started drinking I was super methodical...I gave myself 15 minutes to drink 10mL. Once that went smoothly, I slowly upped it... 15 mL in 10 minutes, 20 mL in 5 minutes, etc... take your time and be methodical - I promise it will get better.

I'm 2 weeks post-op today and I just finished an 11oz shake which took me about 15 minutes to drink in its entirety.

Slow and steady and you'll win the race! Best of luck!

What are you drinking on a typical day? Are you tracking your Protein and other intake?

Thank goodness you don't have to do an entire month of clear liquids! Glad to hear things are looking up. You can do it!

Great job on your loss so far!

I agree - slow and steady wins the race. I'm another band -> sleeve revision, and had the exact same experiences which made me want to do the revision. I'm getting used to measuring stuff now even during the full liquid diet... it's kind of nice because it makes it easy to keep track.

You really should show your surgeon and ask him/her about that.

It sounds like it might be a hernia, but they will be able to tell you for sure.

Congratulations! You go!

All the best to you, hope everything goes smoothly. Please keep us posted.

Congratulations! Looks like you're well on your way to your goal.

Have you talked to your doctor about your stall?

We should pick a time and all meet up in the chat on here. I've popped in to the chat room every now and then and always been the only one in there.

Anyone around tonight, Thurs July 7th ? Maybe we could meet 9pm EST / 8 pm CST / 7pm MST / 6pm PST ?

So here's the thing. We all have struggled with our weight. That's why we're here.

Some of us have different predispositions that lead to obesity, but we all turned to WLS as a tool to get better.

Everyone here is about to have surgery, or has gotten surgery. We've all failed and succeeded. And we've had to talk ourselves away from eating something we shouldn't. Many of us have spent the afternoon above a toilet because we ate something we shouldn't and threw it up, or heard/experienced a leak or WLS failure.

We ALL have problems with self control, some more than others. Otherwise why would we need surgery to help us eat less?

Before surgery, how many of us looked at the reflection in the mirror and told ourselves terrible terrible things? How many of us felt shame after eating a slice of cake or a serving or two of fries?

For many of us, tough love is the thing that helped get us to WLS and where we are today. In a way, WLS IS tough love, because it's an extremely difficult process that we did TO OURSELVES because we love our life and want to make it better.

The fact is, you chose to eat bacon very soon after WLS, when you could have eaten something else much healthier (which still would have been VERY wrong btw). A piece of chicken or turkey? But bacon is greasy, fatty, and has very little nutritional value. So not only did you choose to eat when you shouldn't have been, you chose to eat something very bad for you.

Sometimes people will respond to you harshly on here. Sometimes they'll post a repetitive post that has nothing to do with what you asked.

The best thing to do is to ignore or respond with grace. What you think of me, or they think of you, or you think of them, none of that actually makes a difference in our lives.

The thing that makes a difference for you is what you put in your body, and as we are all struggling with the same choices we want to see you succeed, and everyone responds to different kinds of statements.

What I am seeing is you getting upset at the harsh statements, and defending yourself. Don't defend yourself, you made a mistake. Accept it, move on, and don't repeat the mistake

I knw I don't have to defend myself from no1 but at the end of the YES I made a mistake.l but then again I could've just sugarcoated the whole thing and never mentions the damn piece of bacon that really wasn't big enough for this whole fiasco BUT it's never what u say it's how u say it. Then again I really could careless what any of u think of me cause like I said no1 knows me and I can turn around right now and stuff my face and die and not one of u would knw nor care! It's not the point. My point is that "tough love" doesn't work with every1. Besides all I can say right now is THANK YOU all. I can just skip all the negative comments and move on to folks that can point me to YouTube video or a website where I can educate myself since no1 has the curtesy to talk like human beings without putting their two cents in. My life doesn't influence yours in the slightest way. I can take some1saying something to me and I can get some insight on it but don't expect a gracious response when you're on here trying to make me feel like I'm an idiot over a HUMAN MISTAKE and no I will not ignore either because I did make a post for a reason far from having someone tell me something that I already knw ( that I was wrong) so how many times is everyone gonna tell how stupid my decision was?! I got the memo. No need to retouch again again on the subject do t u think? The mistake was done and I'm trying to move forward in the best way I knw how.

Gastric Sleeve Surgery 6/15/16 Miami,Fl

33yrs/mother of 2boys /5'6"

highest weight 300s in 2002-03

lowest weight 193 in 2014

Don't beat yourself up. You're a human being, I'm a human being, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately some may be less compassionate about it than others, and sadly it's the price we all have to pay for things like this on the internet. I will never talk down to someone or beat them up for making a mistake, so if I ever do come across that way in a post it's unintentional and I apologize in advance for it.

If you want to chat privately feel free to message me.

You're right, nobody knows you, but I'd like to think that we all do care about each other. That's why we're all here, right? I mean, that's why I'm here. I'm a single man living alone and going through this recovery by myself. I've battled with food all my life and need all the help I can get to make it through this process.

Hang in there... it will get better, I promise.

I was in the hospital for 2 days.

Lap Band -> VSG on 6/27/2016 around 4pm, got to my room 9pm that night.

Also had a hiatal hernia repaired during the same procedure. I guess my stomach was in shock, because I couldn't keep anything down the morning after. I wanted to keep from being dehydrated, so I chose to stay the 2nd night so I could remain on the IV. My doc fully supported this, and advised me not to drink anything that whole day after.

2 days after, I was able to keep small bits of Water down and it only got better from there.

Been home about a week and a half and feeling great.

@@shortydk - all the best to you and your girlfriend!

35, male, Austin TX (but New Jersey native) - got the Lap Band in 2006, lost about 112 lbs. Gained 52 back, lap band removed and converted to sleeve on June 27th 2016, feeling good so far.

Love this site and the great people on it!

So here's the thing. We all have struggled with our weight. That's why we're here.

Some of us have different predispositions that lead to obesity, but we all turned to WLS as a tool to get better.

Everyone here is about to have surgery, or has gotten surgery. We've all failed and succeeded. And we've had to talk ourselves away from eating something we shouldn't. Many of us have spent the afternoon above a toilet because we ate something we shouldn't and threw it up, or heard/experienced a leak or WLS failure.

We ALL have problems with self control, some more than others. Otherwise why would we need surgery to help us eat less?

Before surgery, how many of us looked at the reflection in the mirror and told ourselves terrible terrible things? How many of us felt shame after eating a slice of cake or a serving or two of fries?

For many of us, tough love is the thing that helped get us to WLS and where we are today. In a way, WLS IS tough love, because it's an extremely difficult process that we did TO OURSELVES because we love our life and want to make it better.

The fact is, you chose to eat bacon very soon after WLS, when you could have eaten something else much healthier (which still would have been VERY wrong btw). A piece of chicken or turkey? But bacon is greasy, fatty, and has very little nutritional value. So not only did you choose to eat when you shouldn't have been, you chose to eat something very bad for you.

Sometimes people will respond to you harshly on here. Sometimes they'll post a repetitive post that has nothing to do with what you asked.

The best thing to do is to ignore or respond with grace. What you think of me, or they think of you, or you think of them, none of that actually makes a difference in our lives.

The thing that makes a difference for you is what you put in your body, and as we are all struggling with the same choices we want to see you succeed, and everyone responds to different kinds of statements.

What I am seeing is you getting upset at the harsh statements, and defending yourself. Don't defend yourself, you made a mistake. Accept it, move on, and don't repeat the mistake

Really well said - I also wanted to add that sometimes its tough to read text on a screen because there's no emotive content there... so if someone were to write, for example "You shouldn't have done that." - it could come across harshly, whereas the person may have meant it in a tone more like "I understand what you mean, but just to be safe you really shouldn't have done that." Etc.

Like a few other posters had mentioned, we're here because we underwent (or will be undergoing) surgery as a tool to get better. It's not an easy road but we can all do it together.

I think your surgeon ripping your head off is a little extreme... he should have talked to you about alternatives or ways around dealing with the hunger pangs. Also, he should explain or clarify (in a professional tone of course) the reason behind the dietary restrictions after the surgery.

Most surgeons will have patients go through a series of stages in which the food gets thicker as you progress so your stomach can get used to how things are going to work. Also, your stomach has to heal internally, around where the stomach is stapled shut. Tissue has to grow over the staples to help make the stomach liquid tight, and thus prevent leakages.

Clear liquids are the most innocuous regarding that healing, but as the weeks progress the tissue inside the stomach grows more and thus can handle more serious foods and things with more substance. Also, liquids will pass through more quickly so it gives the stomach more time to heal on its own without anything in it.

I'm sorry you had a rough experience, but I'd say do the best you can to stick to the program outlined by your surgeon because that will ensure your recovery goes smooth and you don't run into any complications.

and...a month of Clear Liquids? YIKES indeed. I hope he's flexible on that!

Best of luck to you.

Go slow slow slow. Take your time, listen to your body and don't push yourself. Happy Birthday in advance!

Best of luck to all of you - how's everybody doing??