HuneComz

Today marks three months since I had my sleeve surgery on October 11 - Yom Kippur Day, and my personal day of atonement. I've come a long way since then, and since I began this effort in June of last year. I do not mind saying I started out with a considerable amount of trepidation, even fear of the surgery and the possible complications or side effects which could result. I am grateful to my Lord and God that none of that arose. It has been an exceptionally smooth process and recovery. As of this writing, I am down 125 lbs (I checked this morning), putting me at a svelte 356 lbs. When I lose another 9 lbs post surgery loss will equal pre surgery loss, and I am excited about that. Just last night I made my first professional presentation to a crowd since surgery, and that went extremely well. The attached picture was taken last night by a long time friend of mine (24 years) whose shop I was in for that presentation. I still have a ways to go, but I am well past the halfway point of the entire journey.

Good question for your surgeon's office or nutritionist. I was sleeved 11/29 and just advanced to semi-liquid at 15 days out which includes yogurt, cream of wheat and pureed Soup. As we all have seen - every surgeon's progression plan is different, but I don't even average 500 calories daily.
You will not fail if you are doing what you are supposed to - sometimes it just takes longer for your body to adjust to the new plan!

I was sleeved 11/29 and I hit my first stall two weeks ago at two weeks post-op. I know it's normal. I know my body is fighting what is happening. I know it is medically impossible for me not to lose more... But this stall is driving me mad. I think the fact that it is around the holidays that I began my journey and I am still struggling a little mentally definitely contributes to my current 'mad' state. I have a follow up today so I am hoping for some amazing words of wisdom!

@@kaypitre5 My surgeon's office notified me at the first appointment 3 months but it typically takes 4 from start to finish. Then at the last appointment it goes to insurance for approval which can take up to two weeks and then you get scheduled for surgery, which was about two weeks out. Again - this is all specific to my insurance and surgeon's office, but it is a general idea for you.
As others have stated, once you start the process with your surgeon, they should be able to get your more specific info. Good luck.

The head hunger is horrible at that stage. Call your surgeon as soon as you know he will be in and ask if you can progress to soft food. I had a friend that did that and he allowed it. If so, stick with things high in Protein like refried Beans, Riccotta Bake, soft eggs etc. Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes are not ideal for a post bariatric diet. I did soft/pureed diet without mashed potato one. Once you start eating more 'real' food, the cravings and head hunger should go away.
On another note, a positive attitude is everything in order to be successful with these surgeries. I suggest you do an attitude adjustment or you will struggle. Start by losing that huge chip on your shoulder. That alone should be a few pounds.

One thing I have seen in my short time here are lots of posts about eating stuff we shouldn't too early, while our sleeve is still healing. But I HAVEN'T seen posts titled, My surgeon opened me up again because I ate solid food". I suspect people are a little more circumspect about posting that kind of stuff.

@theantichick My mom is an RN. Registered Nurses are some of the smartest, in-tune medical professionals. Maybe I'm a bit biased. thank you for saying this. Yes, our incisions are tiny. we can't see what's on the inside. I think your analogy of a baby's stomach is spot-on. All us recent sleevers, let's work hard to keep this investment in ourselves intact.
And I've said this before here on the forum...my dad died after a gastric bypass in 1982. THIS IS A SERIOUS SURGERY, Y'ALL. And sure, it was a different time, the tech is much better...but the danger is still there. My daddy never left the hospital. Everyday I succeed with this, I dedicate to him and his struggle with weight.

Over the last few weeks, I've seen a number of posts about "cheating" on the diet plan in the days and weeks immediately following surgery, and I am very concerned about this trend.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on TV, and I am not dispensing medical advice.

However.

I am a registered nurse, and what I'm about to say is an informed and educated opinion.

Surgeons tend to give VERY detailed instructions about what to eat after a stomach surgery, and for VERY good reason.

Even when the surgery is arthroscopic and looks to be a very tiny surgery on the outside, it's a VERY BIG surgery on the inside. The VSG surgery leaves a staple/suture line the entire length of the stomach. That incision has to heal, and if you could see it, it would look like raw beef. If the incision were on the outside, we would be very careful with it, keeping it clean and bandaged while it healed. Of course, it's on the inside, so we can't do that. But we need to keep in mind that it needs to heal in the same way.

We have to eat, and that food will be against that raw incision. At the same time that we have to protect the healing stomach, we also have to get in plenty of fluids and nutrients, specifically Protein, in order to support healing. Protein is the primary building block for tissue, so it's critical to healing. Carbs are mainly just energy sources, so they're not as important, especially given that people having bariatric surgery have plenty of energy in their fat stores. This is why protein is stressed so heavily over carbs in the diets.

Additionally, the stomach is now in a new shape, and it basically has to learn how to function as a slender tube instead of a big bag. There's a learning curve. Kinda like a newborn baby's stomach. We don't dump steak and salad into a newborn's stomach for good reason - it doesn't know how to deal with it. Similarly, we don't want to do that to our new sleeve. We start off with stuff that's easy on the suture line and easy to digest, and as the suture line heals and the sleeve learns its job, start working our way up to "real" food.

So over the years, doctors have learned what foods are best for a healing stomach, and that translates into the post-op diet progression instructions.

Typically, that looks like this: Clear liquids, then full liquids, then pureed foods, then soft foods, then slowly move into a "full" diet beginning with high moisture content foods first. When moving from one stage to the next, it's typically advised to add just one food at a time, in small amounts, and see how it's tolerated. A food that's not tolerated well can be tried later on as well. If an entire stage is not being tolerated, back up to the previous stage for a while, and then try again more slowly.

Surgeons tend to specify how long to stay in each of these stages, what types of food make up each stage, and how to transition to the next stage. Every surgeon's instructions are a little different, and it's based on their experience and sometimes changes based on the patient's specific medical case.

The general idea in the very early weeks is to eat foods that will not stress the healing suture line, and do not have particles that are known to cut into the raw tissue or get embedded into the suture line. If a cut or embedded food particle gets infected, it can become an abscess and develop into a leak. A leak can be life threatening, and at the very least cause the patient to have to be hospitalized and possibly have more surgery to correct it. Foods that are particularly known to cause issues are those that swell up like rice, have seeds like strawberries, or have rough hard edges or hard to digest fibers like wheat crackers or raw vegetables.

There are people who eat all sorts of things against their doctor's orders and have suffered no ill effects, but this should not be used as an argument that the doctor's orders are not important. Similarly, you will find some people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day and drink a pint of whiskey every day but live to 100. They are not representative of most people, and should not be used as the example other people follow.

The reality is that some people will develop abscesses and leaks because they ate things before they were cleared to by their doctors, and there is no way to predict who will have the complications and who will not. And the consequences can be as severe as death. It's not common, but that's how bad it can get. That's why the doctors give the instructions they do. They're not just testing you or trying to make your life hard. They are giving you the best information they have to keep you safe.

Violating these orders is not "cheating" on a diet. It's risking your life. I am not being overly dramatic with this statement, it is a fact that it has happened. You are risking your safety and your health if you violate these orders. It's not about "being human", it's not about "food addiction". It's about your safety and your health. It's hard to be on liquids only for 2 weeks (or more). Some people have huge cravings, or "head hunger" as we tend to call it here. Or just want desperately to chew something. No one is saying it's easy. But it's necessary. Distract yourself. Eat/drink anything that's allowed on your plan - freeze it, heat it up, try something that's opposite of what you've been having to shake it up. Walk around the house or the block. Suck on an ice cube. Count to ten or a hundred. Post about how hard it is, and ask people to help you get through it. But muscle through. It's nothing less than your health and safety.

As for why one surgeon will have his patients on Clear Liquids for 2 weeks while another only does 2 days? Or why one will skip a phase entirely? Each surgeon has different experiences that inform his practices. One is not right and the other wrong. They are each operating out of what they were taught and what they have seen in their own patient groups. They may have even modified the plan because of a specific health concern in your specific case. As a patient, you need to fully understand what your surgeon expects, and if you have a problem with the protocols get it straight with your surgeon and team BEFORE you go under the knife.

If you don't trust your surgeon and his protocols, find another surgeon. I personally would question a surgeon who doesn't allow any Protein drinks including the clear ones for 2 full weeks post op (saw that in one patient's instructions on this site) and likely wouldn't work with that surgeon, given what I know about the needs of protein for healing. But after surgery is not the time to be questioning the surgeon's protocols. Get those questions asked and answered to your satisfaction well before the surgery date.

If you are having surgery, and you have not been given your post-op instructions, at the very least for the first 2 weeks post-op, do not proceed with the surgery until you have that information. We have people posting here stating that they were sent home without clear instructions as to what they were supposed to eat or drink, just a vague statement about "full liquids". That is not sufficient information, and instructions should be given WELL BEFORE the surgery, not after. You should fully understand what will be expected in the weeks after the surgery before consenting to the surgery, or your team is not doing their job.

(This ends my sorta rant about post-op diets and "cheating")

Good luck to everyone!

@@kaypitre5 My surgeon's office notified me at the first appointment 3 months but it typically takes 4 from start to finish. Then at the last appointment it goes to insurance for approval which can take up to two weeks and then you get scheduled for surgery, which was about two weeks out. Again - this is all specific to my insurance and surgeon's office, but it is a general idea for you.
As others have stated, once you start the process with your surgeon, they should be able to get your more specific info. Good luck.

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.

Every surgeon and every insurance will have different requirements. I was also required by my insurance to do a 90 day physician supervised diet. My process began in June with my consultation with the surgeon I chose. After that I came to the office every 30 days and met with an internist who ordered my blood work, sleep apnea test, did my EKG, etc. At every appointment I met with the nutritionist to discuss my current and future eating habits. I undertook a psychological examination (test) and met with the psychologist twice. I ELECTED to attend some pre-op educational classes that they offered monthly. I just had my surgery a few weeks ago and I needed every minute of the education I received.

My first surgery was a few years ago to have my gall bladder removed and my fears were identical. I cried sitting in my bed in pre-op and the nurse and staff were all very kind in comforting me. I was clear I had never been put to sleep so I had those natural fears and even worried if I would be allergic to anesthesia. I was reassured they are prepared for all things possible, including that. I came out of anesthesia with both my gall bladder and sleeve surgery like a champ. I have faith you will be fine!

Every surgeon and every insurance will have different requirements. I was also required by my insurance to do a 90 day physician supervised diet. My process began in June with my consultation with the surgeon I chose. After that I came to the office every 30 days and met with an internist who ordered my blood work, sleep apnea test, did my EKG, etc. At every appointment I met with the nutritionist to discuss my current and future eating habits. I undertook a psychological examination (test) and met with the psychologist twice. I ELECTED to attend some pre-op educational classes that they offered monthly. I just had my surgery a few weeks ago and I needed every minute of the education I received.

Ah!! Quick update!
I am a little over a week out and I'm down 30 pounds!!! Just wanted to share and be joyous!
The weight lost has been done over three weeks so far. Loving my choice!
My stats:
HW: 360
SW: 341
CW: 330

I look at it this way. Either this person is a troll, or she is not. If she is for real, then she really needs to get some good advice here, advice which sends her to more good advice and help locally. Nobody here is diminished by offering to help.
If she IS a troll, then who loses? How pathetic does someone's life have to be to troll a weight loss forum? Maybe it is some pre-adolescent kid, or some neckbeard living in Mommy's basement, but the only person who loses is the troll.
People who do good things to help other people are never diminished when they help, even when they are taken in. And if you are the kind of person to help others in time of need, you will be taken in at some point or another. That should not harden you to the needs of those you encounter.

My first surgery was a few years ago to have my gall bladder removed and my fears were identical. I cried sitting in my bed in pre-op and the nurse and staff were all very kind in comforting me. I was clear I had never been put to sleep so I had those natural fears and even worried if I would be allergic to anesthesia. I was reassured they are prepared for all things possible, including that. I came out of anesthesia with both my gall bladder and sleeve surgery like a champ. I have faith you will be fine!

Consignment stores! They will buy your old and give you credit towards new. Love it even at my smallest.

Yes do not spend money on clothes! Since July I have gone from a size 22 to 12!!! It feels amazing but work clothes are a real problem. It seems like I drop a size a month right now. I am so grateful and happy about it but I am constantly buying new work clothes, pants especially.
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you guys for for the concern. Makes me feel like I do have a support team here on my phone. But I did go get checked at the ER and the dr and my dr looked over my CT scan and said everything looked great, but I do have some kidney stones. So I'll take that then having some serious complications in my stomach. Today was awake up call yall! I lmk gonna do this and I WILL succeed!!! Merry Christmas to yall!!!
Sent from my SM-N920P using the BariatricPal App

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.

@@cantstop87 Please...please...please stop eating. You can kill yourself, quite literally.
Imagine you cut your arm open from wrist to elbow and went to the hospital and had it all stitched up. Now imagine someone squeezing and pulling that incision back and forth tearing at the stitches. It will hurt, it will bleed, it could become infected.
Anytime we eat, our stomach compresses multiple times to digest. Each time it compresses, it is pulling at the staple line that is currently holding it together. Except this is INSIDE OF YOU so if those stitches break, whatever is in your stomach will leak into your abdomen, you will go septic and you could die.
So please stop eating. This is temporary. You will be able to eat again.
If you are drinking fluids like you are supposed to and working on your Protein, you shouldn't feel hungry at all. I think your "hunger" is head hunger, which we all experience.