Berry78

Really cool video/guy.

Excellent care! Congrats on getting to the other side, and welcome to the loser's bench!

The weight gain is from IV fluids they gave you in the hospital. It'll go down over the first week or two. The "waves" are stomach spasms. Very common.

You can't sleep so much that you aren't up drinking. Keep on pushing the fluids, take a sip every 5 minutes. Measure your consumption. Set alarms to wake you up from naps. If you aren't getting at least 40oz a day, you'll likely end up at the ER or clinic for IV fluids. Toy around with the type and temperature of your drinks.

Keep trying different drinks. Plain water isn't well tolerated sometimes. Warm herbal tea (not too hot) worked well for me. Experiment to see what your tummy tolerates. You can dilute your medicine in water. If you make it thin enough, it'll be like a flavored water (like 1 serving med. to 16-20 oz water).

Pain meds around the clock for a few days will help you. Hopefully they prescribed some. If they didn't, tou may want to call and ask for some. Extra pillows on the bed really helped me. I had extra under my head, belly, and behind my back. Used them for about 10 days or so.

Your cut shouldn't be open. You need to go back in and be seen.

For a possibly more helpful description... You have a pillowcase. I want you to make the pillowcase just big enough to hold your foot and lower leg. How would you do it? Let's put your foot and leg into the case against one side, then cut off the extra case and stitch the two edges together. Voila! Custom leg accessory. Now.. the pillowcase is your stomach, and the bougie is your leg. Since stomach acid shouldn't get loose in the abdominal cavity, the cutting and stapling happen at the same time. The surgeon may also use suture material to oversew the staple line by hand, but that is done after the staples are in place, already securing the edges.

Ok, so a bougie is something (metal? Plastic?) shaped like a hot dog. They run it down into the stomach (via the esophagus) during the operation. Then they use a nifty tool that cuts, cauterizes, and staples, all at the same time, to separate the "keep" vs. "don't keep" part of the stomach. The bougie is inside the "keep part" and gives something firm to make the cut against, while also making the sleeve the correct size. The bougie is removed when the cuts are complete. 40 is a size measurement, and French is style I guess.

At first I could only swallow one mouthful at a time. At about 4 weeks I could swallow two. At 6 months I can swallow about 3 moderately-sized mouthfuls (about 3 or 4 oz) before having to wait a bit. No pounding down for me! But, I can drink a pint of water in about 15 minutes by taking a couple sips every couple minutes.

Apparently the air fryer does a good job making things crispy and flaky (like real fried food). The nuwave cooks larger quantities and makes things moist. Since I've never really gone for fried food, I don't miss it. The Nuwave works for me. But for people that want healthy fried food, the air fryer sounds like a winner!

I have a NuWave, and use it pretty much every day. Between that and the range top, I don't really even need an oven. I think it works similarly to an air fryer. The other gadget I'm thinking about is an instant pot pressure cooker.

Your plan should say what you are permitted. Is fruit on it? If not, sugar free jello or icees might help.

What I did was made a list of all the protein-containing foods. Then I worked with this list to tell me what to eat. From softest to toughest: Milk Cottage cheese/yogurt Eggs Beans Soft fish Tuna salad / tofu Rotisserie chicken thigh Nuts All other meats Until about 10 weeks postop I didn't have room for anything else. I gradually brought in veggies, fruits, and potatoes as I had room (while keeping my protein up around 70g). It takes a long time. 6 months before having room for a serving of potatoes. I was so excited 2 days ago. I got these wonderful, homegrown, red sweet peppers, and I could just eat a whole one like an apple. I have so missed fresh, crunchy veggies... So y'alls time will come. I am steering clear of grains until goal.

Oh man, lets hope doctors don't routinely lose patients. Imagine waking up in the maternity ward and nurses are trying to give you a baby! Eeekkkk!!! You're like, NOooo I'm here for a baby tummy, not one of those!!

While you are looking for a doctor, see if you can find a pool to begin swimming. Apparently that is one of the best exercises for the condition.

I did a quick search to find information. In general, calorie restriction does not cause the lipoedemic areas to shrink. The areas with normal fat will shrink however. Anyone with this condition needs special care from a doctor that understands the condition. http://www.obesityaction.org/educational-resources/resource-articles-2/obesity-related-diseases/lipedeam-and-obesity

Sounds like me when Aunt Flo comes for a visit. No worries, you're doing great, and this will happen from time to time!

Definitely a question to take up with your doctor. If they leave the choice up to you, then your stomach must have healed well and either one will be appropriate.

No, that red is not normal. Give a call to your surgeon. Mark the edges of the redness now with a pen or permanent marker so you can tell if it continues to spread. It could be an allergy to the tape, but I'm going out on a limb and say it might be cellulitis (an infection in the fat right under the skin). I don't think you need to go to the ER (unless it gets rapidly worse or you develop a fever over 101f ), but do try and see your doctor tomorrow.

I would double check your iron/ferritin level. What is considered to be an adequate level can still result in hair loss. Here's an article to check out: And I quoted the applicable part. https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hair-loss/news/20060516/hair-loss-may-be-iron-deficiency#1 All you have to do is call your doctor to ask what the result was last time. Nothing new needs to be done at the moment.

When you undergo anesthesia, the gut takes longer to wake up than the rest of you. 3 days isn't unusual. Try to make sure you have a BM by 6 or 7 days postop, and you'll be doing fine. You can ask your team about starting miralax or milk of magnesia. Suppositories and enemas are helpful too.

G'luck!

@FluffyChix "I pray you never have a chance to eat honest to goodness, orgasmic sour dough bread (if we could--given our new anatomy). It's the nectar of the gods! Made only with ground grain, Water, salt (and only the yeast made through fermentation). Holy moly. I could shout about it and write sonnets and fill booksabout it's awesome power..." ______________ Ok, so I've been thinking about this, and I think it is the "sour" part of the dough and/or yeast that make bread good. We are tasting something other than just flour. I picked up some kasha to try. Nice, roasted whole grain buckwheat. We'll see what happens... I love this website: http://whfoods.org

Hey! I just tried a new yogurt that was full of chia seeds! Lol. The gift that keeps on giving (finding a few seeds stuck in my teeth...).