Orchids&Dragons

Try a TUMS, if it helps with the hunger, you have acid issues. I pop several TUMs a day to stave off "hunger". I usually find that I'm not really hungry.

If some anonymous person on this site said, "Sure, go ahead!", would you really act on that? Don't be ridiculous. Call your doctor's office.

Just took my lunch-time walk with Pandora - Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Whitesnake! The first dance at our wedding was to Whitesnake - "Is this Love?" Gotta admit, I love a good power ballad!

Is that for plain or flavored?

@Matt ZBargain at twice the price!

I have a Blues Traveler station on my Pandora! Love 'em! Have fun! '80s was definitely my concert-going decade! Although, one of the best ever was Alice Cooper in '75. My mom thought we were going to see a female folk singer! (I was 16) I still have the tee-shirt!

What Matt said! You're just not quite ready. Everyone progresses at their own speed. Give it a few days and try again. Good luck!

An upper GI following surgery to see if there are any leaks. If your surgeon orders one, you can't drink anything after surgery until the test is done.

You're a lucky man. Congrats on being healthy and getting healthier!

You gradually increase your calories until you stop losing.

Just burst my melanin-challenged bubble, why don't ya! I might just have to go to the spray-tan place and buy one just to show you!

Vitamins cannot make up for protein. They satisfy different body needs.

Yes. Now that you put it that way, I am going to force myself to drink those 3 shakes a day. I do force myself. But drinking 8 oz takes me 2 hours because I drink small sips not to overload my stomach or cause pain. So I guess I’ll just be drinking the shakes all day long. Very soon your swelling should go down enough that you can drink much more "efficiently". So long as it doesn't cause pain, you can start drinking in larger sips. Some of us could drink almost normally after a week. You won't stretch your pouch with liquids.

You don't need to drink the shakes, but you do need to meet your protein goals. Until you can eat enough "regular" food, if you don't like the shakes, try protein water (I like Protein2O, myself). Or add unflavored protein powder to broth or soup, etc. If you don't hit your protein targets, your body will cannibalize your muscles to get the protein it needs. This really isn't negotiable. You can do yourself serious, long-term damage. (Your heart is one of the muscles than can be damaged) /Mom-mode OFF/ Good luck!

Wow, awesome transformation! I hope I get a tan when I lose enought weight, too! Seriously, thanks for sharing. Very inspirational!

Love the Bruce Willis pic! I never noticed that his head is pointy before Congrats on your long-term success! Thanks for sharing. It's so inspirational to us newbies! Signed, A fellow Celtic Texan

Prepare so that you won't get tongue-tied. Have a list of all the issues you currently have that are tied to your weight and have some information on the odds of successful outcomes with surgery. Good luck!

Wow, great pics! They grew, you shrank!

Best wishes for an uneventful surgery and a speedy recovery!

Hubby and I are going to see the Scorpions in September! Flashback to my wasted youth!

You don't need to go to the gym to work up a sweat! Look for chair exercises on youtube. You can do a lot of core, upper-body and even some leg exercises without putting any weight on your knee. Good luck!

Congrats! I hope you feel as good as you look!

I drink anything from Lipton to chai. When I have cravings, I find a chai tea latte (made with Premier Protein vanilla shake) really satisfies the cravings. In the winter, I stock up on eggnog and salted caramel teas, too. YUM. I was able to drink tea immediately upon returning from the hospital.

You can also look at Youtube for "chair exercises". You would be amazed how much sweat you can produce sitting in a chair! Sorry to hear you've been laid off, do you still get up at the same time? I get up at 5:45 and walk a mile around my neighborhood before the sun comes up. Then I get ready for work. I live in Texas, so I get the heat issue.

Well, it's certainly not ideal, but you pay your money, you take your chances! I chose the sleeve because I didn't want to deal with the malabsorption issues. In general, I have always eaten pretty healthy, just too much. So, it seemed like the sleeve was my ideal choice. I didn't realize until after my surgery that I may have had acid issues all along. (Not reflux, but too much acid). I realized that (pre-surgery) I wasn't eating when I was hungry, I was eating to handle the acid in my stomach. Since we don't know what anyone else's hunger feels like, we just assume we're feeling what everyone else feels. But since we're told after surgery that acid mimics hunger, when I'd feel hungry I'd take a TUMS to see if it fixed it, and it did. I wish I had tried that experiment before the surgery! I don't regret going with the sleeve first. It's less invasive and has a good track record. It just has been a problem for me. Remember, on boards like this, most of the people who don't have acid reflux don't respond to threads about it, so you're getting a skewed sample that may make it look like it's a bigger problem than it is.