PorkChopExpress

Good luck! You'll do fine, just try to get up and walking as soon as you're able, to work that gas out. That's the worst part of the whole thing. Sleep when you need it, get drugs when you need them, walk, and do your best with the drinking when they start you on it. It's hard at first, but don't stress...it'll all come, in time. The walking is the biggie though, do your best.

Almost there! Won't be long and you will be waking up in the recovery room, and the surgery will be over. That's when the adventure truly begins...you will have crossed the threshold into your new future and joined us on this great transformation journey. You'll feel crappy for a few days, but it will start turning around by the end of the week. I just started on week four and I'm feeling totally normal, except that I actually feel better physically now and I can hardly eat anything

Well, as long as you follow their indications and do what you're supposed to, I'm sure it'll be no problem. It took me a year from when I started the classes, till I was able to schedule my surgery. In that time, I went through every emotion and thought you probably can have, and then I ran into the after-surgery flood of thoughts and feelings. But it was all the preparation I did that helped me through it. I feel prepared now, and I feel like I can succeed...and that's empowering.

It's part of your education process as the patient. She's basically letting you know that this only succeeds if you have your mind committed, and you're able to discipline yourself to follow a program, and modify your behavior. It's important to understand the level of change this surgery demands, because it's profound. So she's trying to prepare you for that...and of course, if you can't follow basic instructions, how are you going to succeed post-op? None of these surgeons' offices want to have failures on their stats. They want success stories. You are already limiting yourself by letting your "old mind" take control, even in your post. "We all know how that (dieting) will go..." or "I didn't get this way because I'm good at dieting!" That has to change, and yes...it takes time to get there. If you are thinking that *snip snip* and you're done, magic weight loss...you couldn't be more wrong. It takes a lot of discipline. The surgery helps by removing the insane hunger pangs and growling and mind-warp that causes for the first six months or so, it puts a limit on how much you can eat in one sitting...but you have to manage your intake to make sure you are meeting Protein goals, you have to track that and your Water intake, and long-term you need to have the skills and tools necessary to track your calorie intake, track how much you're burning, figure out how to maintain your weight, all of that. This surgery is only one component of a much larger process...and you need to be ready for it. If you're not, there's no point in getting an operation that will ultimately fail because you didn't get the mind part right. The mind part is 80% of it, because that's what will take you through the rest of your life. You gotta be ready and committed to change.

I have been liking the Genepro flavorless, it works well mixing it with stuff like chili or in my crystal light, it gives it just a slight taste and white color, but not bad at all. Much better than shakes, I can't stomach any more of those. I've tried the Isopure bottles and the flavors are pretty gross, to me...almost a medicinal taste.

My entire life, since elementary school. In adulthood, it stopped being so blatant as name-calling and started getting more subtle and passive-aggressive...but it's always been there. There is a lot of intolerance and anger toward obese people, for some reason. We have a problem, but nobody would treat someone with any other physical challenge the way people treat obese folks.

Make sure you are on top of all the recommended supplements. Multivitamin, probably Iron, Calcium, etx Sent from my SM-N920V using the BariatricPal App

It'll be over before you know it, and then the re-learning process begins...it's your chance to reboot!

Naw, I'm on week four now and I can do a 1/2 cup at mealtime too, or close to it. Your calories if you're eating the right stuff are still incredibly, ludicrously low...don't sweat it.

I dealt with that feeling of "I'm taking the easy way out" early on, or some shame about why I couldn't just do it by willpower when I perceived others could. But the fact is, when you look at the statistics...obese people almost never lose the weight and keep it off. It's exceptionally rare, because the body has adapted in so many ways that fight against a return to "normal." It makes it almost impossible and a colossal test of will. Once I started getting educated on the effects of obesity and the effects of WLS, I started to realize that even if I had the surgery, it would still be me modifying my behaviors that would create the lasting weight loss. People fail at it all the time. But the surgery would help eliminate some of the roadblocks that had made it so difficult, both biochemically and otherwise. Obesity is both a mental and physical dysfunction and you attack it on both fronts. Trying to do it on only one front won't work. Surgery helps you handle both fronts. I am so happy to have it behind me. And just FYI, I haven't thrown up once...and if you follow the rules laid out by your nutritionist and surgeon, it's unlikely you will, either...not unless you have some surgical complication. Just take it easy, follow the rules and you're going to be fine

I have found while reading these boards over the past few weeks that there is a pretty wide range of people in terms of their mental preparedness, going into and coming out of surgery. Some people seem to have more difficulty letting go of their old lifestyle, and in my opinion they are likely the people who had less preparation time, paid out of pocket so weren't required to do the classes and such, and didn't have as much time to get their minds right before they went under the knife. Then there are people who really put in that work mentally, got their minds straightened out, and some of them can tend to be critical when they see someone doing something that is COMPLETELY nonsensical to them, but is the result of someone still struggling with giving up their old thought patterns and behaviors. In this case, it's a reasonable question to find out what someone might be able to order at a restaurant that would work with their program. What ISN'T reasonable, and in my opinion worthy of a certain amount of razzing, is when someone comes on and proudly displays a photo of the fried chicken wing they're about to eat, two months post-op. That's someone who DOES NOT GET IT. Yet, anyway. Let's remember that most of us have spent the better part of our lives having other people judge us about our eating. We're all here self-correcting and at various stages of the process. So when someone's screwing up, by all means they need to be called on it...but tact goes a long way Not trying to be a policeman, just a suggestion!

Chili has proven to be, for me. I really have to measure that out and be careful, because it goes down so quickly (not a lot of need for chewing) and the fullness sneaks up on me fast. I like it for mixing with the protein powder, but I just have to be even more aware of my speed when I eat it.

Just wait until you start putting some solids in your stomach, you're definitely going to feel it and that's why you want to go slow and chew thoroughly. The liquid diet stuff goes through pretty fast, it doesn't spend a lot of time in the stomach. The harder to digest stuff does, and you'll definitely start experiencing the full feeling when you start on that stuff.

It feels kind of hard to justify a salad, as small as our stomachs are now! Feels like a waste, without protein I know that the roughage is important too, but this surgery is really making me weigh my priorities when I eat! lol

Doing good so far, although to be honest it's SO hard for me to go slow. I have had such a bad habit all my life of wolfing my food down, taking tiny bites and thoroughly chewing them is a bit of a struggle. However, I have definitely learned that if I DON'T do that, I get too full too fast. My new stomach needs time to register what's in it and there isn't much room. It's good that I'm starting to get into things that I really need to chew a while, shredded meat and stuff, because it actually slows me down and that helps. Chili and things that go down easy are more of a challenge. Work has been fine. I go with a cup for my Crystal Light / Protein mixture, and I have one meal there. I got these little Ziplock 1/2 cup containers and they work perfectly for my meal portion. I weigh out 1.5oz of my meat, and a little over 1TBSP for my veggie (usually potato right now) and that container ends up being the perfect amount of food. It's still so small though, I feel self-conscious when people come into the kitchen with their full-size tupperware containers full of food, and I'm sitting there nursing that little bitty thing I log everything in MyFitnessPal to see where I'm at, and I guess I was thinking of my 1oz numbers when I posted...going up to 1.5 has only happened over the past few days, when I realized I was comfortable doing it and not feeling too full. I am generally getting in the neighborhood of 25-30g of protein from my meals now, I think. So it's not terrible, but I really want to work up to the point where I'm getting 50% of my protein from actual food. The Protein powder is just so darned expensive...but I know it's gonna be a while before I'm to that point. Probably at least 6 months. Can't rush this process, it's coming along and so far, no vomiting...so that's a big win, to me

Time is going to fly by, now...before you know it, it'll be over and you'll be on your way. Congratulations!

My wife worries that it'll cause her to be less attracted to me physically, she has only ever known me as a big guy and although she knows it's important to my health and she supported me all the way, she's just worried about how she'll feel about it. She doesn't want a "skinny guy." I told her not to worry, even if I get lean I don't plan to be a "skinny guy." My goal is to put on some pretty serious muscle mass after I get closer to goal. I want to be able to do all the stuff I've pretty much never been able to do. I want my kids to think I'm a superhero and for them to be proud when they point me out to their friends...and I want to set a good example for them. I've read that WLS can sometimes damage relationships though, because the party NOT doing the surgery often has reasons of their own that have nothing to do with their friend/partner/family member who is undergoing surgery, for them staying the way they are. Either they prefer you heavy, maybe they're insecure and worry about other people hitting on you, or you deciding you're too good for them...or they liked having an enabler to their own behavior, etc... There can be a lot of reasons. To me, this is something I have to do and if someone likes or loves me less as a result of it, then that was a problem on their end, not on mine.

I definitely have more energy, even after just three weeks. Feeling pretty good, definitely an improvement.

Eight total. I had to be converted from a gastric bypass to a sleeve due to a umbilical hernia repair using a mesh though, and I think they made some incisions and started placing scopes before they realized they had to work around it.

Yeah, I plan to take it SLOW at introducing new stuff. I am pretty cautious about how I eat, I take it slow and I chew till it's totally unrecognizable before I swallow it. They said "chew until you could suck it through a straw," so I think that's part of why things sit pretty well with me, easy for my stomach to deal with. To me, I could go three months on what I'm doing now, no problem. But it'll be nice to try a few things and see how they go down. I'm like you though, I REALLY don't want to get sick

Starting week four! One more week and I will be one month post-op. Incisions have shed most of their scabs and are healing up nicely now and the fur's growing back When I received the instructions for weeks 3-5 I was told to gradually advance from ground meat consistency Protein, to shredded, and finally to whole pieces. This week, it's shredded meat! I bought some very good pulled chicken in the refrigerator case at Trader Joe's, and I've had it several times. Chews to paste consistency easily, and I've had no ill effects. Stomach seems like it's healing up pretty well, the ache of eating is decreasing gradually every day. I still find that it aches a bit more first thing in the morning, with Breakfast...but every meal thereafter is okay. I am up to 1.5oz of meat at a meal, so it's going well. That only works out to 5 grams of protein though, which is so frustrating. I do wish I could meet more of my protein goals with actual meat, but for quite some time I expect I'll be relying on supplements. The GENEPRO works well though, mixed it in with some chili and didn't even notice it. Having trouble reaching 64oz of Water every day, which was my target...but eating 3x a day takes away about 4 1/2 hours from drinking, since I have to stop 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after. The window the nutritionist said was 48oz to 64oz, and I'm getting in that window...but to get 64oz would require drinking just about every other minute, it's really hard to achieve. I'm not hitting 90 grams of protein either, I'm settling in there somewhere between 70 and 90 which is again the window they wanted me to shoot for, but I wanted to do the maximum. I'll get there, it'll just take time. My stomach has to heal up and be able to handle a little more meat. They say after three months I should be able to do 2oz of meat or more per meal. So we'll see how it goes. Interesting how much my priorities in eating have already changed. I am very protein-centric. Not to say that I don't still like having a little bit of carbs in there, but my focus in eating is protein and that's what I enjoy. I don't crave the breads anymore, pastas and things of that nature. Sugar is also not a craving, I think I pretty much detoxed from that after the month long liquid diet. So far, so good...but man, have I grown to hate the Vitamins I bought. The Bariatric Advantage chewable Multivitamin now tastes heinous to me, I cringe and almost gag when I have to chew that thing up and swallow it. Then I have to chase that with the also awful "chocolate raspberry" Iron chew. It's a brutal way to start the day. I can't wait until I can just swallow normal Multivitamins and not taste them, again.

Yeah, my program has me in "try anything" mode at week 6. That's when I can try salads and pretty much anything. They just encourage me to try one new thing at a time, to see how it works out. I expect that if I make sure to chew everything thoroughly, I'll be okay with most things. Everything I've tried so far has worked out.

I went through a six month program with Facey Medical Group, which was the "supervised diet" portion of the requirement. They notified Blue Shield when I completed it. I stayed in their program and went to their surgeon, Dr. Quilici in Burbank. So all of my steps were basically handled via Facey's program.

I ended up going alone to mine. My wife and kids moved ahead of me out of state, but I had gone through this almost year-long process preparing to have this surgery and all the requirements were met, and I have a job here, so I've stayed. But my wife wasn't able to get out here until the evening, and my procedure was in the morning. I'm a bit of an old hand at at abdominal surgery though, this was my third. So I was comfortable with the process. The thing is, there's nothing your friend can really do to help, except talk to you before you go in...and after that, the focus will very much be on getting fluids in and walking as much as you are able, to get the gas to move out and speed your healing...and sleep. You'll do a fair amount of that. A couple days later, they'll probably discharge you and you'll head back home. You'll be walking under your own power, but you'll want to use a cart for your bag. Don't carry anything heavy. You can do it! It's not ideal, of course...but the situation hasn't changed that much. You're still the one being operated on, you're still the one who has to undertake the recovery, and the battles that you'll fight will be in your own head. So don't be discouraged or scared, most of it isn't any different without company...and you'll be even stronger having done it on your own. You can take pride in that.

Don't forget that part of the puree and soft food stages involves training your stomach, to some extent. It is recovering and it has to start functioning in a much smaller form than it has in the past. Your system has to sort of "recalibrate" through this process. So going in stages helps with that. If you jump right into soft foods, it may be a little harder on your stomach to process stuff. These stages are relatively fast though, one or two weeks...you can do it. Yes, it's sort of joyless, but you'll get through it. There's a time limit on it. Gettting that GENEPRO flavorless Protein has been a real help. I don't even do shakes anymore, I mix it in with Crystal Light, or with chili. After four weeks of shakes, I couldn't imagine buying another bag of that stuff.