Orchids&Dragons

Congrats! Best wishes for a speedy recovery! Sounds like you're doing great!

Well, I think when I get to maintenance, I will probably have to go back to drinking when I eat meats. But then I will have to be really careful to not overeat. I just can't believe I never noticed this before!

Thanks, Pearldrop! I'll start preparing my bariatric-friendly appetizers!

You definitely make sense. But, I can say that the therapist I'm seeing (who specializes in eating disorders) used to do a lot of evaluations for bariatric surgery. The surgeons dropped her from their list because she didn't approve people fast enough. They wanted a one-off, good-to-go assessment just to get the patient into surgery. (My surgeon requires a minimum of 3 therapy meetings, and more if the therapist doesn't sign off.) But everyone has to understand, the doctor can make all the requirements he/she wants before surgery; after surgery, they're just suggestions. What's the doc gonna do? Give you back your stomach? The doctor has absolutely no leverage after the surgery.

A lot of the commercially available Tilapia is now farm-raised in the US.

White bean chili made with ground chicken - YUM! Oatmeal with cinnamon & a bit of applesauce & Splenda. Stir in some Fairlife milk and unflavored protein powder.

Many people on this site never told anyone except their spouse. It's entirely up to you. Since you've got several weeks before your surgery, if you don't want to tell anyone, start laying the groundwork for your story now. Let them see you planning your meals and doing smaller portions, talk about increasing your exercise, etc. You can even say you're doing this to be supportive of your husband if they know about his surgery. Anyway, if you've already got the story started, they won't be surprised when the weight starts to really fall off. They'll just think your diet/exercise plan is going really well. They won't remember details about when you started to lose. Telling, or not, is your call. Personally, I only told people that I knew would be supportive. I wasn't interested in any Negative Nellies! Good luck to you and your husband on your journeys! Oh, and if you don't tell people and someone asks, you can say you're watching your portions and exercising more. Which is technically correct.

They can also be used as creamers in coffee or chai tea! (Let the hot drinks cool a little so that the shake doesn't curdle!

Creekimp recommends sugar-free CoolWhip

It really does explain why I drank so much with every meal. And never, never, never ate lying down.

Thanks, Bryn. I've been on mushy for about 10 weeks, it has definitely gotten old.

Do you realize that you're already nearly 21% of your goal?

Double check with your surgeon. Unless the pills are huge, you might be able to swallow them by now. I was able to swallow fairly large pills 2 days after surgery.

Take heart! It's still early in the process. You may still have a lot of swelling. That's different for everyone and some people just heal faster. It can take weeks for all the swelling to go down. Also, you're starting at a much lower weight than most of us, so you're not going to lose as quickly. Believe me, you did not want to start at 272 just so you could lose faster. Now that I'm closer to 200, my losses have slowed down a lot. It will work for you, but you're in the hardest phase right now. It gets easier when you move on to soft foods, I promise.

I found the protein waters to be too sweet, but not as bad as the shakes. I dilute with about equal parts ice water and I'm ok.

Sounds totally doable then! Good luck!

I'll call the office after I get all my questions organized. Probably have to relay them through his nurse.

You were such a cute little pup when you got married! Congrats on your upcoming 20th!

He gave me odd instructions. Come back in 2 1/2 months. That made me think there's some kind of insurance requirement that he needs to meet. I wish I were a quick thinker. I came up with all sorts of questions this morning, but was a total blank in his office. UGH! It didn't sound like there was anyway to give my esophogus dance lessons. But, my gosh, it has been darned efficient up to now! Who'd have thought you could get to 272 lbs without a superb intake system!

Thanks! It'll be more fun if you're there

I know, I really only wanted to do this once! Thanks!

I absolutely do think this can be done. But if you do, tell no-one else except the one person you plan on for support afterwards. You can cover your pre-op dieting with "I'm just eating healthy" since he seems to be on board with that. No one called my husband with any questions, but I'd be really up-front with the doctor, dietician, etc. to make sure they understand. Do not give them any number except your cell. Does your husband go into your phone for anything?

You were hot stuff!

I dreamed the other night that I was married to a werewolf. Then I woke up to my hubby's energetic snores and it all made sense! LOL! But, really, if you are still on any pain meds, that could be it.

I am in the mood for a grade-A pity party and you're all invited! Some of you know that I'm 3.5 months post-op and got cleared for solid foods at 6 weeks. My formerly cast-iron stomach is now made of blown glass (thanks for the visual, @Frustr8) and can't tolerate much of anything, especially anything that looks or feels like solid food. I decided a couple of weeks ago to give up on solids for now and stick with mushy foods, like soups and yogurt. I thought I'd try solids again in July. About 3 weeks ago my surgeon sent me to get an upper GI done to see if he could figure out why I was having so much trouble with solids. I had a follow-up with him yesterday to discuss the results. My esophogus doesn't work! I've never even heard of that! Apparently, the muscles in your esophogus are supposed to contract in a coordinated, rhythmic pattern to push and guide food down to your stomach. Instead of getting coordinated ballroom dancers, my muscles are more like the lanky guy that looks like a spider on a hot plate. The muscles just randomly contract all over the place and do nothing to help the food get to the stomach. So, when I've felt like the food was backed up to the back of my throat, it really was. That was why I was miserable for 2 hours after eating anything solid. My esophogus "tube" literally got stuffed and didn't empty. I've also got severe acid reflux which he thinks can make the esophogus even worse, besides the possibility of acid erosion and increased chances of esophogeal cancer. So for now, he told me to stick with mushy foods until I see him again in September. At that point, he'll run some more tests and decide if I need a sleeve-to-bypass conversion. It wouldn't help the esophogus muscle contractions per se, but by lessening the chances of acid erosion it would keep the esophogus from getting any worse. He doesn't know when or if I will ever be able to handle real, solid foods like beef or chicken. Fortunately, I can eat ground meats if they are in a liquid, but absolutely nothing without liquid. Fish is fine since it was always on the mushy-food list, but 1 oz. max. And, absolutely no breads, rice, etc. as they would be easily stuck. I guess I never noticed the problem because I always drank so much with meals that I would just wash the food down. The doc doesn't want me doing that though, probably because that makes it so much easier to overeat. Anyway, he says he's never seen anything like this in the thousands of surgeries that he's performed. Lucky me! WAAAAAAH! OK, rant over. Feeling better now Thanks for "listening"!