Glimmer120

@NPR-- here is a link to very specific instructions about Orbera that I found in one of the old threads. https://www.muhealth.org/app/files/public/2232/orbera-Surgery-Guidelines.docx
It says if you have nausea and/or vomiting, you should go back to clear liquid diet. It also has a list of questions you should ask yourself if you are feeling discomfort.

WOW!! This thread had been incredibly helpful. Thank you all for sharing your experiences. After reading this and various things elsewhere, I have come up with the following list to help me prepare for my alien insertion next week:
1. Ask for an anti-nausea patch. One person got it before they were even knocked out, others immediately after and others days later. In all cases it sounds like it helped ... a lot. (Actually, except for one, which resulted in hives ... talk about adding insult to injury!)
2. Take your meds. Even before your procedure and/or if you're feeling better, take them (at least the first few days) to prevent getting sick.
3. Follow the 20x4 rule. No liquids 20 minutes before eating or for at least 20 minutes after, chew each bite 20 times and take 20 minutes to complete a meal.
4. 20-30 minutes after a meal, drink Water to rinse the balloon and prevent bad breath. (I've heard/read mixed reviews about carbonated beverages - some people say they cleanse the balloon better, but most seem to say that they make you feel miserable.)
5. Protein and hydration are essential to being/feeling healthy.
6. Stay with liquids only for at least a week or two to help with the adjustment and to prevent getting sick.
7. Eat dinner early and, ideally, stick with a liquid dinner to prevent all sorts of discomfort.
8. Invest in barf bags (done!). :-) Hopefully you won't need them, but they are worth it for the peace of mind alone.
9. When the balloon feels uncomfortable, sleep on your left side and/or try downward dog to get it re-positioned.
10. sleep with your head elevated? I have not read much about that, but assume it might help with the reflux. Just to be safe, I ordered a wedge pillow.
11. It ain't over until it's over. Even when you start feeling better, you still may have bad days. So never take it for granted, stay on the food program and continue to take your meds.
12. And last but not least, prepare. Stock the kitchen with Protein drinks and soft foods, invest in the items mentioned above early so that you have them if you need them, make sure you have Vitamins (and tum?) on hand, etc..
Do you agree? Have I missed anything? Any feedback would be most appreciated.
BTW has anyone tried Yonanas? It's a machine that instantly makes sorbet out of just fruit. A friend of mine has it (she got it after several of her friends got it) and she loves it ... says it is delicious! She usually just uses bananas and berries, but you can also use yogurt and other ingredients. I was wondering if that might not be a good way to get in some healthy carbs that are nice and soft. :-)
One last thing - do your balloons have the blue dye in them? If so, what type of balloon do you have? Some people get it and some don't ... I'm curious about your thoughts on that, too.
Thanks again and best of luck to you all!!

I'm 8 days out too. Also lost 5-6 lbs. I don't feel like crap all the time. But I don't feel great all the time either. I feel tired but I seem to be able to get things done. I also feel bloated and have been having reflux. Each day seems different. The last couple of days, my back has been hurting, but I've been getting a lot of kayaking and hiking in anyway. My back hurts even while hiking and I'm just powering through it. I'm going to see a PA at my doc's office tomorrow and I hope that we can figure out what foods aren't agreeing with me. It definitely seems like sipping beverages slowly and following the no drinking beverages with meals rule is important to avoid reflux. I haven't felt nauseous since the 4th day. I feel the balloon --meaning I feel full almost all the time. I have to really think about getting enough Protein, calories and Water in. I'm going to try downward dog for the back ache after I write this post. It's no walk in the park.
That being said, I don't regret it. I'm looking forward to the weight loss, slow or fast. I was reading another post that recommended some books on emotional eating. One of the books' suggestions was to list 10-15 advantages of losing weight on an index card and keeping it in your pocket, look at it when you are feeling negative. I did that today and it seems to have reset my attitude. I'm also trying to take care of myself, like resting, taking baths, getting a mani/pedi, trying to slow down my schedule so I can do this right. Are you doing anything to take care of yourself besides the meds? Also, my doctor wrote me a script for more anti-nausea Patches, maybe you could get yours to call in an Rx to your pharmacy.

In my work, I find that one of the most common explanations people give for their struggle with diets and with obesity is “I’m a food addict.” When asked what this means, most people explain that their inability to maintain the weight lost from diets and the fact that most or all of the weight eventually returns is proof of their “food addiction.” Additional evidence they cite is that their eating is “all or nothing,” that they can completely avoid so-called “forbidden foods” or binge on them with regularity, but nothing in between.
This kind of reasoning is called reasoning from the converse. This is where you have a conclusion or an end state and you then go backwards to explain the cause and use the existence of the end state as proof of the cause. This invariably leads to circular logic that goes nowhere. Here’s how it works: “I am a food addict which explains why I cannot moderate my intake of certain foods, and my inability to moderate my intake of certain foods proves that I am addicted to them and am therefore an addict.” But does it? There is actually another, more accurate explanation.
There are three facts that must be considered:
1) 95% of people will regain most or all of the weight they have lost on a diet within five years.
2) Many, if not most diets teach avoidance of “forbidden foods,” not moderate consumption of them.
3) Very few diets or weight loss regimens are successfully maintained indefinitely.
These facts are very important to our discussion because they are true for almost EVERYONE who has tried to lose a significant amount of weight. Therefore, either everyone who has failed to keep their weight off following a diet or eventually resorts to eating “forbidden foods” is a “food addict” or there are other explanations for this phenomenon.
But why is it that so many of the people I meet are eager to call themselves “food addicts?” Most people are uncomfortable acknowledging that they are addicted to alcohol or illicit substances such as cocaine or heroin, so why is being a so-called “food addict” easier to acknowledge? I believe it is because the label “food addict” removes the feelings of guilt and shame that so many people experience when they regain weight after all of the work they expended in losing it. It is absolutely heartbreaking to lose the weight, have people notice that you’re thinner and then a year later you’ve regained the weight and everyone knows it. It would be very tempting to blame this on a disease called “addiction.” “It’s not my fault that I regained the weight and am obese again…I’m a food addict.” I can certainly understand the desire to be free from responsibility from your obesity or weight regain; however, it’s not necessary to fall back on the explanation that you are a “food addict.” Perhaps if we looked at the facts about weight loss, there would be no need for all of the guilt and shame and the resulting need to explain it away by calling it an addiction.
Review the facts that I mentioned earlier. The overwhelming majority of people regain the weight they have lost from a diet, very few diets teach moderate eating of “forbidden foods” (so you’re left with only knowing how to eat them or not eat them), and most people find it very difficult if not impossible to stay on a regimen of controlled eating for extended periods of time. These are the problems faced by almost all human beings who try to lose weight, not just those who are “food addicts!” So what is the explanation when someone actually succeeds in losing weight and keeping it off? Great question…and the answer is not that these rare souls are not “food addicts” or that they are “recovered food addicts.”
The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is an organization that keeps tracks of “successful weight losers” who have lost 30 pounds or more and have kept it off for at least one year. What should immediately catch your eye is that “success” is defined as losing 30 pounds and keeping it off for one year. So if losing 30 pounds and keeping it off for one year is considered “successful,” if you’re morbidly obese and manage to lose 100 pounds and keep that off for several years that would be incredibly successful! Extensive research has been done on these folks over the years and the most recent study has discovered 7 common habits which most of the 6,000 people studied have in common. 6,000 participants in a study is a strong number of people and one where the conclusions drawn are likely very robust.
Interestingly, the researchers noted that 90% of the folks in this study who finally lost the weight and kept if off had a previous history of losing weight and putting it back on. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of people were not successful on their first try. The seven habits of successful “losers” were: 1. Engaging in 200+ minutes of exercise of moderate intensity per week, 2. Limiting TV watching to less than 10 hours per week, 3. Eating a low-calorie, low-fat diet with less than 30% of calories from fat, 4. Consistency – relatively little food variety and the same daily pattern of eating, 5. Eating Breakfast, 6. Avoiding emotional eating and binging and limiting consumption of fast food to less than once weekly and, 7. Monitoring yourself such as documenting calories and/or fat. Notice that every one of the seven habits is just that…a pattern of behavior. There is no mention of the characteristics of the 6000 people. It’s not about who they are, but rather what they did and continue to do.
So what do we make of this “food addiction?” Neuroscience is recognizing the difficulty human beings have in resisting certain foods that we can call “engineered foods” that are high in sugar, salt and other additives. These foods are designed by fast-food companies and food manufacturers to be irresistible because they cause certain reactions in the brain that make it hard for us to say no. But these are challenges for us all. In fact, mass consumption of these “engineered foods” is likely one of the great contributors to the obesity epidemic. They explain why we, as a society, are getting fatter. Perhaps we will discover that some individuals (for neurological or other reasons) have a more difficult time resisting these “engineered foods” enriched with sugar, salt and other additives, and that these individuals are the true “food addicts.” But what would knowing that you are one of these individuals change? What would a “food addict” do differently to lose weight and keep it off?
The addiction model says that the addict should completely abstain from using the substance or drug. Should “food addicts” avoid all food (impossible) or just the ones they are “addicted” to? And how would we know which ones those would be? The most commonly cited addictive “substance” in food is sugar, but we’re not at all certain. There is also another problem. Much of the research on binge eating indicates that designating certain foods as completely “forbidden” and avoiding them results in feelings of deprivation and their becoming even more desirable which often results in binging on them when you finally give into temptation.
Perhaps someday there will be treatments for true “food addicts” if “food addiction” actually exists. What is more likely however; is that these folks will simply have to work even harder than most of us to stick to the seven habits that are detailed above. In the meantime, consider giving up the label of “food addict” and instead, recognize that losing weight and keeping it off is a tremendous challenge, but an achievable one. If you’re thinking of beginning to address your own personal “battle of the bulge” either for the first time or the twentieth time, or if you’re feeling hopeless and thinking there is no point in even trying, fear not…most successful losers apparently made several unsuccessful attempts before they finally got it right. And if you are thinking of starting yet again…the seven habits detailed above are a great blueprint to follow.

A weight loss plateau or stall is a temporary cessation of weight loss that can happen at any point in your weight loss surgery journey and can last days, weeks, or months. Plateaus happen to almost everybody sooner or later (no matter what means they're using to lose weight), no matter how hard they work at weight loss.


Why do plateaus happen even when we’re doing all the right things? The human body wants to preserve itself. It fights weight loss by adapting the metabolism to accommodate decreased calorie intake and/or increased calorie output. The body's new plan of attack is multi-pronged: increase calorie intake by making you hungrier (so you eat more), use less energy to accomplish physical activity (so you burn fewer calories) and hold on to stored fat (so it can use it for energy).
I think plateaus often happen because we're in a rut. So even if you believe you're doing all the right things in terms of diet, exercise, and mental or emotional effort - try changing them. If nothing else, it will prevent boredom and help you feel that you're taking positive action instead of being a victim of fate.
Here are some things you can try to shake up your routine.

Change the intensity, duration, frequency and type of exercise you're doing, so your body doesn't become too efficient at burning calories when you work out.
Don't neglect strength training - muscle burns far more calories than fat does.
Don't over-train - take one day off exercise a week.
Plan all your meals (the "how much" as well as the "what").
Weigh and measure your food before you put it on your plate.
Log your food intake - you might be surprised to see what and how much you're really eating.
Try calorie shifting: vary your calories - eat 1200 one day, 900 the next, and so on, to keep your body guessing.
Eat 3 small meals and 3 healthy Snacks a day instead of 3 meals a day.
Increase your Water intake.
Decrease your sodium intake.
Don't weigh yourself every day - switch to once a week.
Don't skip Breakfast.< br>
By the way, if you weigh yourself every day and think that no weight loss for three days running is a plateau, you're going to have a long journey ahead of you. Get off that scale, now!
I have one more suggestion that you probably won't want to hear: CULTIVATE PATIENCE. No, it's not one of my virtues, either. Give it a try anyway.

My bariatric dr, surgeon, and NUT are all about empowering patients considering WLS. These books are a few from the list that they recommended.
Here is what I've read over the last year:
"The Sleeved Life; A patient to patient guide to VSG weight loss surgery" by Pennie Nicola "Through Thick and Thin; The Emotional Journey of Weight Loss Surgery" by Warren L. Huberman, Ph.D "Because I was Fat" by Andy Butler (didn't like this one as much) "The Ultimate Gastric Sleeve Success" by Dr. Duc C. Vuong "Protein First; The First Rule of Weight Loss Surgery" by Kaye Bailey "Okay, I've Gone Through Weight Loss Surgery, Now What Do I Do?" by Joanne M Moff "Skinny Jeans at Last! Secrets to Long Term Weight Loss Success" by Clifton Thomas, MD "The Beck Diet Solution" by Judith S Beck, Ph.D What have you read that helped you better understand the process and your journey?

Thank you everyone! As soon as I got my replies, I took off the patch and everything is almost back to normal--vision wise.
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I know this is an old post, but I've gotten such great info from these forums that I thought I'd share. We just started using Wallaby unsweetened fruit Greek yogurt. It's good. I like Noosa better but this one is better for you.
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