moondoggie1983

Oh yeah! I’ve nixed everything other than slow cooked pulled chicken. No other meats are working for me now. I’m just sticking to very soft vegetables right now. And some milk products. So far so good. I’m in a stall, but since I lost over 30 lbs in 2 and 1/2 weeks, I’m more than good with it, even if it is a wee bit frustrating.

My NUT was great. I know everyone has different experiences though. I had to do a year of NUT visits as a pre req. I lost almost 60 lbs. She helped me really get ready for what to expect after surgery and to cut out of foods and drinks that I wouldn’t be able to have any more. Just tell your NUT about your fears right at the beginning. Mine didn’t give me much sympathy, which I actually really appreciate since this is a huge life change. I’m glad she really prepared me for what was coming.

Hi again guys! I’m able to get down some soft foods. Not meat sits well other than slow cooked shredded chicken. I’m sticking to veggies for now. And cheese and yogurt. That’s been all good! Because of my complications, I lost a little over 30 lbs between May 10 and a week ago. Now I’m stalled. Ah the good old 3 week stall! But I’m not freaking out since i lost so much initially from basically starving. As long as I stopped being stalled in the next 2 weeks, I’m ok with it. I’ve dropped from a morbidly obese BMI to obese BMI. Who would have thought I’d be so happy to just be obese 😂 I’m going to do the measuring tonight because all my clothes are falling off. I hope everyone is doing great!

Ahh the good old food funeral!!! It’s actually good that you feel a little shame. But don’t go overboard. Just be determined when you start the diet to not cheat. You’ll be good! Just don’t have 20 huge meals right before you start the diet. You won’t screw this up by having one food funeral. :)

Unfortunately, I agree with the majority of the posts. Did you have to do any psych exams pre surgery? If not, you should start. Honestly, I would call your surgeon and tell them all of this. If you watch videos of WLS you’ll see how important it is to shrink a normal sized liver, and you stated you have a very fatty liver. It’s better to be honest and have it rescheduled to when you’re ready than have them go in and close up because they couldn’t do it. I also think you might be looking for a reason to cancel. Whether intentional or not. What you described is not cheating, its binging. You don’t eat a half a pizza and then are legitimately hungry for donuts 2 hours later. That’s all in your head. I had my VSG May 10 and I’m still only able to have some soft foods. How are you going to handle a possible month or more not being to eat anything you listed in your post? You can hurt yourself if you do. It’s sad to say, but a whole bunch of people are unsuccessful after WLS. Now, I’m not a part of the “never have this ever again!” group, but there is the basic fact that there are foods with nutritional value, and those without. Will I have a burger later on? Maybe. Right now, red meat makes me sick and I’ve accepted that I might not ever be able to eat it again. Will I ever have a donut? Maybe I’ll have a small piece of my dad gets one, but not a whole one. If my family orders a pizza, I’ll probably have some cheese since it has protein. Or if I want one, I’ll make one with cauliflower crust. Just be aware, you can’t eat like this. You get full. And you do get jealous seeing people around you eating things you can’t have. The good news is that if your insurance approved you, they’ll do it again. But if I were you, I’d start seeing a psychiatrist who specializes in WLS patients NOW. Personally I saw one 5 times before surgery even though I only had to go 3 times. And that’s on top of seeing my regular psychiatrist every 45 days. Call you doctor, tell them about your binging, ask for a referral to a psychiatrist and start again. That’s the best advice I can give you. Sorry if this sounds mean, but it’s just what I’d do if I were in your situation. You don’t want to do something life changing (you’ll never get your old stomach back, even if you do stretch it) and at this rate, you’ve already set yourself up for failure in the future (IMO).

Oh! And I lost 12 lbs. VSG on 5/10 and I’m down 32 lbs. 84lbs down since I started with NUT visits

I had to do the Optifast diet. It was 800 calories. 3 shakes a day plus 2 other items (shakes, soups or bars.) And lots of water! I did mine for 13 days.

3 days after it was submitted to my insurance company.

All the pre-op requirements for my VSG took 18 months. BUT, once the paperwork was submitted, I got approved in 3 days.

Yes! I did the Optifast as well. It sucks for the first 3-5 days. Don’t cheat or it’ll be worse. If you’re on any meds for high blood sugar, check your bg levels all the time. I ended up stopping mine after 4 days cause I was bottoming out. Once I started drinking about 96oz of water a day, I felt better as well.

You’re welcome! You’re going to do great! If you get nervous, I’m always around. I’m more than happy to talk to you about anything. I know if I had met some other bipolar people before I had my surgery, I probably would have felt better. :)

My team recommended that no large pills be swallowed for the first month. Small pills, like my lunesta, are fine. But large pills like my lamictal, trileptal, trazadone ect needed to be liquid, ODT or crushed. You can talk to your team, but I’ve never personally heard of people being able to swallow large pills after WLS. Crushing them sucks. I have yet to have one that wasn’t gag inducing. My best advice is get the liquid or ODT forms for what you can. Typically those don’t taste terrible. But they are sometimes more expensive. My lamictal in tablet form was $3. For a month of ODT it was $85. Thank god I met my opm and deductible with my surgery so I didn’t have to pay for more than one month of the scripts. Don’t get overly concerned, you will still take your meds, just in a different form. :)

Me too! I’ve gone back to soft food as of yesterday, and zero vomiting! Very excited about that!

Same here but I had my VSG on 5/10. My surgeon says to hydrate over protein right now. I already had to be admitted to the ER once for dehydration. I try to get at least 40g of protein per day and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m not too stressed about it. I had a rough patch where eating anything made me vomit so I’ve been back on liquids for 10 days. Just started soft foods again yesterday and now it’s going really well. Like my NUT says, you can live 3 weeks without food, but only 3 days without water.

I woke up about 10 minutes after my VSG. 😂 I kind of freaked the surgery staff out with how quickly I woke up. I was transferred to my room within an hour and 30 minutes after that I was up walking. The gas pain was AWFUL for me. I ended up walking the floor the entire day and night because laying down sucked. And I was also bored. I never slept. I just walked. By the time I was released at 11:00 the next morning I had zero gas pain.

Hi! I’m bipolar too! I’m also on quite a few medications for it. I made sure to get the liquid or ODT versions on those that were large. I also made sure none of mine were time release because you can’t crush those. I had VSG on 5/10 and I’m now taking my normal pills (other than the trazadone which now makes me vomit, and the lamictal which I still use the ODT form of because the crushed tastes disgusting and the tablets are too large to swallow.) I’ve only changed one medication dose since surgery and that was because crushing them made me absorb them much faster. Also, I feel so much better after losing some weight that I honestly didn’t need that 3rd daily dose anymore anyway.

That’s exactly what I did, and even though the office girls don’t like me now, too bad! Sorry not sorry as the kids say! 😂

Yep! No soft foods would stay down. Especially not eggs! As much as I’d LIKE to be able to eat something more filling, at least the liquids stay down! I’m a little scared to even try anything soft again because I don’t want to start throwing up all the time AGAIN.

I’m wondering if this might be my problem as well since I was told to drink regular Gatorade for now. Of course he told me it’s not a good choice for long term, but it’s definitely going down and staying down for now. And I only have a small bottle a day. A little here and a little there.

I’m going to ask for that tomorrow! Thank you!

My dearest friend! You are going through so much! And you have already had more stuff to deal with in a lifetime than I could have handled! But you are getting there!!! July 1st will come soooo quick! You have no idea how quick it happens once everything starts! Yeah, the office staff don’t like me anymore, but I couldn’t care less at this point! I hope they get reprimanded for what they’ve done. I’m thankful because I was scared it was my surgeon ignoring me when those ladies weren’t even getting him the messages! No matter what job I’ve done, I’ve always had the opinion of if you don’t want to do it properly, find another job! As a former MA I can tell you I have NEVER treated one of my patients the way they have! I’ll be staying in contact with my surgeon ONLY from this point. I know everything is going to turn out well for you. You deserve it! I’m always here if you ever need to talk.

Hey guys. Sorry for the long gap. I ended up just going to the surgeons office and hour before they all go to lunch. I made a point of not leaving (and thus letting them get their food!) until I was seen. And seen I was! The surgeon was pissed because no one had sent along my messages of how poorly I was doing. The office staff was pissed because I called them out on their crap treatment of a patient. So the end result was that he put me back on liquids only until tonight or tomorrow, at which point I can start trying applesauce again. I’m also to drink regular Gatorade right now to make sure I’m getting calories. I’m getting in a small Optifast shake a day to get some protein, but if I overdo the powders I’ll throw up. So I’m basically getting about 20-30g of protein and then my Gatorade, some water and some teas. I didn’t get any nausea meds because the patch gives me hives. The protonix seems to finally be working and I’ve ditched the carafate because it was causing me to foam and slime. Long story short, I’ve switched everything around, gone back to liquids, am drinking some full sugar drinks to get calories (and they also give me little hunger spikes which is good!) and now have my surgeons personal email. And his office staff hates me but they can suck it. 😂 Have only thrown up 3-4 times in the last few days, and those were from drinking soup too fast (you get really hungry after starving for weeks and it’s a little hard to control when you can finally eat anything again). Or the surprise of a PB. And I’m taking 3 flintstones vitamins a day instead of my Bariatric chewies. Until I can get some serious food in, I’m avoiding them. Trying to keep things easy to process. My surgeon said to think of it like a twisted ankle. If it hurts to move or walk on it, would you keep aggravating it or give it rest and a break? Same idea with new little tummies. Thanks for all the advice and concern guys! You’re all wonderful people and hopefully good friends soon. You all touched me at a very low point in my life. Thank you for making a bad time so much better.

Thank you. I’m calling again tomorrow to tell them I want to come in ASAP and I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m actually thinking about switching Bariatric doctors (if such a thing is possible after surgery). I also plan on going to the hospital to get all my records from the EGD to the surgery to the ER visit for dehydration. This is just completely ridiculous. But thank you for responding. Just talking to people about it makes me feel better.

I love you Frustr8! You always know just how to make me feel better! 😂 I’m going to call again tomorrow and tell them this is bs! Hopefully they’ll be able to get me in sometime this week.

Ha! I’ve contacted the nurse coordinator numerous times and she just says he’ll see me at my follow up on June 5. No need to come in. As long as I can drink water I’m fine. They’re useless.