dancinglamb

Were any brands better than others (I need to get one that I can buy in a B&M store rather than online b/c I can't wait for shipping at this point)? I just figured the unflavoured ones would be the easiest, because then I could add it to the Soups post surgery... -m

K- She sounds like she's closer to 6 than 5? -m

Has anybody attempted this? The 14g of Protein per shake is just *not* cutting it for me on this pre-op diet (I'm supposed to be doing the 3 shake/day preop thing and the 'whopping' 42g/day of protein just isn't enough):thumbup: I'm considering taking a ride over to GNC tomorrow to pick up some unflavoured Protein powder so that I can add it to the Optifast stuff I have. Any input? TIA -m

I have Bariatric Advantage ones that I had to order through my surgeon. They actually taste pretty good (they gave me free samples to try first from the office. I actually still have some if you want to try 'em). I have this multivitamin: Bariatric Advantage - Bariatric Advantage VitaBand Chewable Multivitamin - Watermelon (180ct) and this calcium one: Bariatric Advantage - Bariatric Advantage 400mg calcium citrate Lozenges w/ Vitamin D - Wild Cherry (180 count) The website has a deal where you don't have to pay for shipping if you do an automatic drop ship for refills on the Vitamins. I've not started taking them yet, though considering how paltry the 'food' is on this pre-op diet, I'm thinking I should probably start... HTH -m ETA - I also just started taking the Biotin 2500 from GNC.

Laura, I have a very similar recipe for Butternut squash, pumpkin and carrot soup that absolutely rocks. I'm planning on using it post op. I don't think that I can use this now pre-op. It's too far off the path from the clears/protein only from what the surgeon has asked me to do. Thanks for the recipe, though! :frown: -m

Well, today I decided to switch it up and do the Muscle Milk shakes instead of the Optifast ones since they have 20g of Protein (Optifast has 14g). It really seemed to help a bit. I did a shake at 10:30, followed by a 1/2 liter of Crystal Lite. Then another Crystal Lite at 11:30, a second shake a 1pm with about 1/4 liter of Water, then 1/2 liter of Crystal Lite at 3:30 with 8 quarter-sized sesame crackers. I started to get the nausea thing again, so I had 1tbs. of chicken mixed with yogurt and celery (kind of a chicken salad), and another 1-1/2 liter of Crystal Lite. I feel like my teeth are floating. The Muscle Milk is definitely making a difference, as is the incredibly disturbing quantity of water/Crystal Light. I am going to do an Optifast for dinner since, well, I have a freakish quantity of it and I can't return it.:drool: I really thought I would've been able to stick it out and do the diet as instructed, but the low protein is just killing me. Has anybody tried adding unflavoured protein to the Optifast shakes? I'm thinking about swinging by GNC tomorrow to see about picking up some Isopure. Maybe that would do the trick? One other thing, I've absolutely noticed a direct correlation between my stomach not being upset and not drinking the Optifast. :frown: I did buy some cucumbers and celery in case I really feel like I need to chew something, but will try and hold off as long as I can. I also think that being out of the house today and in school certainly helped. Gonna be home tomorrow, though. Waiting for the Sears guy to come fix the washing machine, so I'll be kind of hostage till he shows up. I will *not* be a happy camper. *sigh* -m

Kammi- What are you telling your 5yo about your surgery? I've not yet figured out what to tell my kiddos. Part of me wants to tell them nothing, and another part of me wants to try and explain the whole thing in a way that's easy enough for them to understand. But then, I'm afraid that will totally freak them out about food in general, kwim? -m

It didn't seem to go so well. Good GOD, I was hungry. I started off with a big honkin' mug of tea (2c. worth), thinking that would at least stave off any hunger for a while. I then moved onto my first of three permitted Optifast chocolate shakes. I was satiated for only about two and a half hours before getting really hungry again. Unfortunately, I was out running errands and didn't have my lunch shake with me, so I figured Water would have to do the trick. I drank about a half liter (didn't help that I had to do some food shopping for the kids. ). I got home, had a big mug of chicken broth (2c.), waited an hour, then had the second shake and took a nap. I went to the bariatric surgeon's support meeting (it just happened to be tonight), where I drank another 1-1/2 liters of water before finally giving into my 3rd shake. At this point, it was only about 7pm. I started driving home around 8:30 and was still utterly starving and was getting the nauseous shakes. I had a Muscle Milk Light shake with me (I showed it to the Dr. to compare to Optifast and he OK'd it as an alternative). I decided to bite the bullet and just drink the damn thing... *sigh* Once I got home, I put the kids to bed, took a shower, was STILL hungry, and gave up and had three slices of lunchmeat turkey (they told me I could have lean meat if I couldn't take it anymore). I then threw in a 1/2 liter of Crystal Light Iced Tea for good measure. Oh, and to be completely honest, I had a strawberry and a half while making the kids' lunches for tomorrow.:wub: So much for sticking to the program. I really feel like a failure, and it's only day one. My main concern, though, is that the Optifast shakes only have 14g of Protein to them. So, ostensibly, if you're having three a day (as the doctor has instructed me), that's only 42g of protein a DAY. That's pretty freaking low for two weeks, no? I'm really worried that my hair is going to fall out. (I started taking Biotin tonight, btw.) To top it all off, I'm having some major gastric upset. Complete auto-eject with some extraordinarily loud and angry noises coming from my stomach. What's up with that?! I finally had to take some prescription Lomotil because I was afraid to leave the house otherwise. I have classes tomorrow till 3pm, there's no way I can do this and sit through lectures if I have to keep running to the bathroom.:eek: -m

Just wondering if anybody has thought to try this instead of/in addition to Gas-X. I remember when both my kiddos were babies and suffered from gas, this stuff was my saving grace. It's a homeopathic combination of fennel, ginger, bicarbonate soda (baking soda), etc. Here are the ingredients from the Water Vegetable Glycerin Sodium Bicarbonate (15 mg) Organic Ginger Extract (5mg) Organic Fennel Extract (4 mg) Fructose Citrus Bioflavonoid Extract Citric Acid Grapefruit Seed Extract I used to be able to only find the stuff at Whole Foods, but it seems to have gone more generic and you can get it at drugstore.com, Walgreens, Babies R Us now. Seriously, *nothing* used to help my first daughter who had reflux as a baby and would just scream and cry with horrible gas pains as a newborn. We'd give her this, and she'd let out a burp like a truckdriver, then be happy as a swaddled clam. I thought it was a fluke, but it worked with the second kiddo, too. Though this one burped -- and continues to -- like a longshoreman.:purplebananna: I'm thinking that this might be handy to have in the cabinet post surgery.... -m

LOL. I'm 30 minutes on the *other* side of NYU (in NJ), and start my 2w pre-op diet today. Good luck and keep us posted! hugs -m

Kris- Have you tried Miralax? It's supposed to be, well, magical. It used to be by prescription only but it went OTC about a year ago. In fact, I saw it at costco today. Now, dunno if you want two gianormo industrial strength sized bottles of it in your kitchen.... but it's there 2 bottles for $30.:regular_smile: I thought about picking some up, but usually I have the, uhhhhh, opposite problem. I figured I'd hold off for now to wait and see what the end results are (sorry, no pun intended!) Feel better! -m

The Muscle Milk Lite ready to drink chocolate ones are surprisingly good. You can get them at GNC 4 in a box for $7.99 and when I went there yesterday, it was buy one pack get the second one half off. A lot of people have been saying that the

Yep. Went to NYC Chinatown to the Peking Duck House. Had some amazing Peking Duck. Nom nom nom!! Tomorrow, I'm going for my all time fave pancakes before I start the two week liquid pre-op diet. Technically I know I could probably eat duck again but without the wrapper. The pancakes, I'm not so sure about, so definitely want to get them in! -m

Another April 21st person here. In NJ, though. I've got the passing fear of something happening. But ya know, something could happen any day of our lives. When it's time, it's time, kwim? The way I look at it is, we're taking this step to make sure that we're going to be around FOR our kids. So, by the grace of God or Buddha or whatever Deity you subscribe to (or not) :thumbup:, we'll make it through. And then there will be the Bandster Hell on the other side and the *real* fun begins. Hey - at least you'll be in Mexico! hugs -m

I'm Marisa. I live in Northern NJ (about 1/2hr outside NYC) with my husband, two little girls (5 and 3yo), and three French Bulldogs. I am finishing up prerequisite classes to enter into nursing school. In my previous life I did project management work in architecture and construction. -m

Yep, this seems to be pretty standard with a lot of insurance companies. It really does fly by, though. I was surprised. Between all the other tests and appointments you have to go through (apnea, psych, nutritionist, pulmonary, cardio, gallbladder ultrasound, etc.) it doesn't seem that long. I was worried that I would fall below threshold, too (I have Aetna POS), but my surgeon told me that if you have enough co-morbidities and a high enough BMI, losing even 20lbs won't make a dent . As it stands, I lost 18lbs (without honestly trying hard), and the scheduler said I was one of the fastest approvals they ever got back from Aetna. Go figure... One thing you MUST make sure of, though, be CERTAIN that they mark down in your chart that you're there for OBESITY CHECKS (not blood pressure, not back pain, not sinus infections - ** OBESITY**). And have them put in big honking numbers your current weight and blood pressure. I had problems with the nurses aides not doing that. They'd put in the chart that I was there for follow up appts or whatever, and then not put in my weights, and I didn't find out until the following month. Thankfully, I was doing double appts and seeing both my PCP *and* my surgeon. The surgeon was keeping really diligent notes about weight, bp, what I was doing to try and lose weight, etc. And that was what Aetna went by. NOT what the PCP did. I can't say that I necessarily blame the PCP since this isn't his thing and his office staff has no clue about the tricks they need to do to get the insurance companies to pay for the surgery, kwim? In retrospect, I am just glad that the surgeon really was good about keeping on top of stuff. So... now you know what to keep an eye out for! Good luck! -m ETA- If you can provide any sort of documentation from your PCP referencing your weight being discussed on a regular basis that can be used to bolster the six month thing. My surgeon had me send over 9m worth of records for them to go through, but no dice on my part. He was also worried that I'd get to the six month mark and then have to wait another couple months for approval then surgery. So, what you might be able to do is try and get the ball rolling around the 5month mark. Is there any reason why you have your PCP doing all this and not the surgeon? The surgeon schedulers seem to have the ins/outs on this stuff down pat. Maybe give them a call and pick their brain?

My surgeon doesn't require an endoscopy (one of the few hoops I didn't have to jump through!). I did have to do an H.Pylori blood panel, though. -m

Holy COW! 23 DAYS on Optifast Stuff? The guy must have stock in it! I start the Optifast Fest on Monday for two weeks (of course I'm going out with a bang and went out for dinner tonight for Peking Duck in Chinatown with my husband - no kids! :tongue: ). I tried one of the powdered chocolate Optifast shakes and was pretty, uh, unimpressed. I have the ready to drink chocolate ones sitting in my kitchen but haven't gotten brave enough yet. I'll be allowed only 3 a day starting Monday, and can have 64oz of clears to go with. I was told that if I am utterly STARVING I can have a *small* salad, or tiny piece of chicken, or hardboiled egg, but they said that I should really try and stick with just the liquids. I did get some of the sugarfree DaVinci chocolate syrup to doctor up the shakes. Gonna try that over the weekend. *sigh* Good luck and keep us posted! hugs -m

Nikki- I was given the choice, too, and I think I'm going to go with the Realise one. I've not been given the 'secret code' to get onto the larger part of the website, but so far, it looks promising. If you do a search for it here (as well as "Swedish Band") you'll find lots of threads about it. Denise- First, the biggest thing is that my surgeon seemed to be happy about was Johnson and Johnson's reputation about standing behind their products (they're the ones distributing Realise). The band is entirely 'low pressure' versus the Inamed that becomes high pressure after 4cc (?? -- I think that was the number he gave me). Meaning, if you go in to do a fill at a certain point with the Inamed, the pressure load of the saline will be high enough that it would push back the plunger on the syringe ... or shoot out if there was a leak. With the Realise one, it's low pressure throughout. And I was told that would be beneficial in terms of keeping food from getting stuck. Because the band is wider (and somewhat softer by extension), it can kind of mold to a larger chunk of food to help it move through the stoma rather than having it lodged there for however long it would take to either get displaced or digested. My surgeon also told me that the interior of the band gets inflated all the way around (as opposed to the sections that Nikki described, leaving less of a chance of erosion/rubbing in one spot. Also, all Realise bands come with a low profile port (Inameds don't - or didn't until recently come with that option). There's also that whole online support thing that comes with the band where you can track exercise, food, calories, etc. You can also have it set up so your doctor can link in to your personal page and follow your progress. There was, however, a pretty big issue with it only being offered to US patients (Patients in Canada and those who had the surgery done in Mexico apparently weren't eligible for the web program. Dunno if they revised that or not). That's all I'm remembering off the top of my head for now. I'm sure there's probably more. I have the little book the doctor gave me floating around here somewhere...If I think of anymore, I'll come back and edit. -m

I've been spying this stuff, too. They even sell individual sized bottles (as well as Muscle Milk bars) at 7-11! I figured if it's that mainstreamed, it can't be *that* disgusting:wink_smile:. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I've seen the 4pks at Target near the diet stuff, and GNC has it at their stores and on their website. At least you don't have to go making special trips to get the stuff, kwim? Just make sure you're picking up the Muscle Milk LIGHT and not the regular stuff. There's a pretty signficant difference in the calories and fat. Figures, huh? *sigh* ETA, well, crap. According to their website (www.musclemilk.com): MM Light version has 160cal, 5g fat, 20g Fiber Reg MM has 220cal, 11g fat, 21g Protein MM CytoCarb II version has 330 cal, 16g fat, 32g protein -m

I bought a sample of this and a sample of their lemon tea, but then I read that it can give you an evil case of 'auto-eject' (a/k/a diarrhea). How's your stomach on the Nectar stuff? I was really excited to see that it comes in those little individual serve packs. Maybe the trick is to mix it in with the Crystal Light? I have to sheepishly admit I've never had the Crystal Light stuff, either, since I'm not a huge fan of all the chemical sweeteners. But it seems like there's no way to avoid them at this point (I do know about stevia, but that comes with its own issues)... -m

Topamax (brandname for Topirimate - it's still patented and can't be bought in the US under generic yet) is a prescription med that's used for migraines. Definitely not the end all, be all 'cure' for migraines for everybody, but one that works for a lot of people. It does tend to have quite a few side effects. Some of them may include curbed hunger (which may cause subsequent weight loss), but it also can slow cognitive abilities, have neurological impacts (pins/needles), balance issues, make you wicked tired, etc. It can also cause altered tastes in some foods - esp. diet sodas. You absolutely need to tritate up to a standard dose of the meds (take it over a period of weeks to get to the therapeutic amount needed) and CAN NOT suddenly stop taking the stuff cold turkey. I've had great luck with it (e.g., have gone from completely couch-ridden 4-5 day long headaches several times a month to maybe 3 simple headaches/month), but I've also definitely come to realise why the nickname for it is 'Dopamax'. My memory isn't as sharp, names/appts don't come to me as quickly (thank God for the Treo!). But I gladly trade that for the lack of headaches. But on the other side of the coin, two girlfriends of mine have had horrible luck with Topamax and it doesn't do a damn thing for them. Another thing you need to bear in mind - it's extremely cost prohibitive if you don't have prescription coverage. Without insurance, it runs about $300/month. I have Aetna POS, and I pay about $45 for it at Target (I take 100mg/day). Anyway... Talk to your neurologist (if you don't have one, find one - GPs really aren't skilled enough to be dealing with this kind of medication). Oh, and it comes in both tablets and granule form so you don't even have to go through the trouble of crushing it post surgery. As far as Over The Counter stuff goes, I take 1 tablet of 800mg of Ibuprofen (same as 4 OTC Advil) at the slightest hint of a headache. If that doesn't kick it, then I move onto a prescription medication called Maxalt-MLT, which is like a super melty Altoid (the only way I can really describe it). It melts the second it goes onto your tongue, and usually within about 10-20 minutes at most, my headache is gone. So far, this protocol has been working for me for the past 8 months or so. PM me if you have any other questions. :smile: Good luck! -m

Moonshadow- I start the Optifast Fest next week. I tried the chocolate one today. Let's just say somebody was telling a pretty major white lie when they said it tastes like Yoohoo. I just ordered a few of the DaVinci s/f syrups to see if I could spiff them up since I have to drink the stuff for two weeks straight (three shakes a day with only clear liquids to supplement). I have both the powder and RTD versions of the Optifast. How did you stick it out? Did you drink any of your leftover stuff post surgery? My surgeon said that I can use whatever I have left during my 2w full liquid phase (immediately post surgical). Thanks! -m

Immediately post op, no capsules (you just take them apart and sprinkle the contents into whatever - pudding, applesauce, etc.). But eventually yes they're fine. According to my surgeon, capsules aren't an issue. -m

Oh, Girlie. I'm not about to try and find THAT out. AF is here right now. I think my husband and kids would put me out on the side of the road if I did a follow up trial of no Happy Cats! :ohmy: I think being off of it for six weeks would be a baaaaad thing. I'm just going to switch over to the non-extended release version. This is the third variety of antidepressants I've been on (did Prozac and Zoloft). I really am liking the Wellbutrin the best so far. It's really not the end of the world if I have to take it twice a day.:crying: As far as taking small pieces of it instead of crushing, I'll have to ask him. -m