ssflbelle

I watch the Sean episode too and agree with what everyone has said here. I too was shocked that he was not admitted at first to the hospital and sent back home to diet on his own. I was hoping he had lost some but to gain that was unbelievable to me. I give him a lot of credit though for being mobile. Many of the show's participants weighing less than him were bed bound. I was so close to 500 pound myself once so I understand there is much more to losing weight than the diet. If I hadn't met with the Psych for over a year I would still be 497 pounds, bed bound and married to a feeder. Instead I am out enjoying life, riding a bike 5.4 miles in 53 minutes after having lost 210 pounds. I am even nominated to possibly become the new social director of my community. I only hope that Sean saw that he has lots of life left to live. After all he is only 20 compared to my 60 years of age.

Hope your doing well! Sipping and walking are the 2 main goals for the next few days. If you got pain meds to take home use them for at least a day or 2 to help through the pain if you have any. Let us all know how your doing when you can.

I am also 7 weeks out and I am still experiencing pain under my left breast area after eating too. Some times it happens and other times it doesn't. Last night I could only eat 1 1/2oz of ground turkey and 1/4 cup of refried Beans and I had pain. Tonight I had 3 ounces of Lobster and had no pain at all. Very weird. Our stomachs are still healing and are sensitive to some things especially if they aren't chewed well and we eat too fast. I don't know when things will be getting better but I know each day is a new day and hopefully less pain for us all.

Tan4sho The day has finally arrived. What your feeling is normal but I am sure all will be well. I will be thinking of you tomorrow and wishing you all the best. Keep us posted as to how you are doing when your able.

Hi Everyone I had written the above before my surgery. I received one email. I had my surgery Jan 26th and while recovering I had been doing some research about WLS support groups. If there is a true interest and people will show up I am willing to start a meetup group in April so we can all get together and support each other. Please email me and let me know your interested.

So glad to hear you were approved after all. Keeping busy was the best thing for you to do. I also am always doing some kind of craft to keep my hands busy and my mind off of eating. Of course having the sleeve since Jan 26th I am finding I am never hungry, so am not thinking much about food. Keep going strong with the program and exercise and the surgery in July should be a breeze for you.

After my EKG The Dr ordered a 2 day stress test. I am not able to run on a tread mill so they gave me some injections and then did the testing. Everything was fine. I also wanted to be sure everything was ok. I made sure I was in the best health possible before my surgery. Followed the 6 month pre-diet, exercised , did all my testing, saw the Nut once and had 7 visits with the Psych. It took me 7 months of jumping through all the hoops but I finally had my surgery on Jan 26th this year.

Yep! There are a few of us from Palm Beach County and further south. In fact There is a South Florida thread on the boards here but it is not very active. My posting was the last one and that was back in Feb. I had my surgery 7 weeks ago on Jan 26th at Jupiter Medical Center. Good Luck with your surgery on St Patrick's Day. Here is the South Florida group thread. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/345913-any-south-florida-sleevers/

Baddrabbit Glad to hear you are back on the plan of eating and exercising. I am sure those 24 pounds will be coming off very soon. Yes everyone has been telling me the 41 gram is way too low. Since the first posting I have been trying to up the grams which is difficult when you can't eat but 2 or 3 oz before the pain comes. I am still drinking one or two Protein drinks a day depending on how much food I can take in. I am not eating crap so I am doing the plan and I bike 5 days a week. Granted I can't bike more than about 4 miles due to being disabled,but overall I feel I am doing what I need to do. I guess I am just a slow loser. You keep going strong and you will be below your Holiday weight again. Thanks for posting.

I saw my surgeon 7 times before I had surgery. I had to report into him once a month for 6 months and again on the preop 4 hour day the week before surgery.He also came into my area the day of surgery about an hour before surgery to make sure I was still going through with it. During all those visits I got to ask him all kinds of questions and felt very comfortable with his surgery skills. However I am not comfortable with his nutrition knowledge after surgery. I never thought to ask him about after surgery.because the one time I saw the hospital dietitian during the first month of the 6 month preop diet she explained the after surgery diet to me. I was all set or so I thought. At the 1 month post surgery meeting the surgeon I feel has steered me down the wrong path by bring my Protein down to 41 grams and not upping it to 80 grams as the dietitian said it should be. The surgery doesn't have his own dietitian so I had to pay $250.00 to see the hospital one he uses. Everything she told me was in the blue book bible the surgeon gives everyone, so I felt it was a waste of time.

After the 3rd day I didn't have any problem drinking liquids either.My Water bottle has a pull up top and I usually squirt a big amount of water in my mouth, but it takes me about 3 to 4 swallows so I don't gulp it. However I feel I could but don't as I never gulped water.

Thanks Annek for asking. I am still trying to get in the higher amounts of Protein and more Water. Some days I can do it other days I have trouble with some foods. The Dr said I can have oatmeal and vegs. Like this morning I use 1/2 cups of oatmeal with 1 cup of protein silk and 3 teaspoons of Syntrax vanilla Protein powder. Mixed it all together and microwaved it for 2 1/2 minutes. Had 4 small bits and couldn't eat any more. There was so much left over I can have for Breakfast for 2 more days. Next time I am going to have to use just 1/4 of a cup oatmeal. Late afternoon I didn't feel I could eat anything so I had a shake. Tonight after 3 oz of Turkey I was able to get about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cauliflower. I haven't weighed myself since Tuesday but took some more MOM today to help things along. I am trying to only weigh in on Tuesdays. Been keeping myself busy with bike riding. Am up to 4.65 miles as of yesterday despite the 22 mph winds. Am also designing and assembling baby boy favors for an office baby shower. Plus have been working on my sequin art. Keeping my hands busy is something I have done for years but even more so now. I received 2 bathing suits today but will have to work on doing something for the girls as there is just not enough support despite the fact that they both have molded cups. I still have some time before I will be able to wear them as I still can't lift my legs high enough to get out of the pool. However that day will be coming soon I hope. Songsmith I do eat yogurt that has 12 grams of protein and have no problems with getting them down. Katladee The hot chocolate is protein and takes the place of coffee which I can't have yet. On the 2 days I work I do have protein food for breakfast and no hot chocolate. Stephanie I think your right the same thing kind of happened to me too. The first 2 weeks I was great and than things went down hill a bit. However I feel like things are getting better each day. Perforce Your right it did! That is why I need not to listen to the Dr and keep my protein between 60 to 80 grams daily not 41 as he said.

I use BP Protein hot chocolate and mix in a small level teaspoon of coffee. I started doing that yesterday and had no problems with drinking that for my Breakfast. It gave me 12 grams of protein and satisfied my coffee craving.

I am assuming you both are speaking of OAC with the mini regional conferences? I didn't know OAC had regional's. I would love to know in plenty of time to save and plan when the next one does take place However BP mini regional conferences would be a cool idea too. HINT! HINT! I would be willing to be on a community if your looking at West Palm Beach Fl for one of those BP mini conferences Alex.

To answer your questions Yes Yes and No. I had 3 oz of chicken Tuesday night so I know it wasn't the chicken. So I am almost sure it is the vinegar that is too acidic for my tummy at this time. Will revisit those foods items with vinegar in them at a later date.

Followup to the bad strawberry shakes. After the email I sent they called me and ask some questions which I answered. Today I received a whole new case and no shipping charges. So if anyone has bad shakes from this company email them and you too may get a replacement case too.

Applied for the scholarship but was told yesterday I didn't get it. Some what disappointed as Washington DC was a great location as I could have taken the auto train. Was looking forward to learning lots of things that would have helped with this new journey and meeting lots of people. Plus it would have been halfway to my Brother whom I haven't seen in 11 years and I am sure he would have come from Pa down to Washington DC.

I am 6 1/2 weeks post op. In the past 2 weeks I had tuna fish with light mayo twice and didn't feel well afterwards. Now I am allowed to eat vegetables so I tried 3 bean salad tonight. I had 2 small bites and feel the same as I did with the tuna. I realized the light mayo and the bean salad both have vinegar in them. I am thinking the vinegar is giving me problems. Is this possible? Why would vinegar cause me pain? When were you able to use vinegar?

I am 6 weeks post op and have yet to touch any kind of vegetables or fruit, I didn't have a puree stage, so I can't answer your question. Just curious how many weeks are you post op? Did you puree the cauliflower?

RJ I am so sorry to hear you were rejected for plastic surgery. I know you worked so hard to get off the 211 pounds and you deserve to be able to finish the journey and get the body shape you worked so hard for. It will take you some time to get over these feeling of being rejected, but it sounds like your Dr is looking out for your best interest. Please don't ever think you are a monster because from what I see you are a very beautiful woman. I too will have a lot of excess skin when I am done with my journey and will not be able to afford to have plastic surgery. Plus being over 60 by the time I am at goal will probably disqualify me for skin removal as well. I too will have to be happy with the fact that I will be thinner and hopefully finally able to walk and do physical things I couldn't do before. Kealot The contourmd garments look to be something that I might be able to benefit from when I lose about another 20 pounds as I don't tink they would fit me at this weight I am now. However, after losing over 200 pounds I already see terrible bat wings all the way down to my wrists. I was looking for some nude colored sleeve covers, hope these will work out. Thanks for providing us the link, I have bookmarked it. Ausmith I like the sound of those swimsuits. Do you have a link to them? I just bought 2 from swimsuits for all. The lower body fits good but there is not enough support in the bra area. I can't go in the pool looking like I do. I have to come up with some kind of solution to keep the girls where they belong.

Hi There I am 6 weeks post op and just this week was able to begin to eat more than 1 1/2 to 2 ounces at a time without pain. Your tummy is still healing internally and the opening that the food has to travel through is still swollen. I never thought the pain would go away and have 2 1/2 weeks of it I was really wondering "What did I do to myself" Follow the suggestions given about continuing to drink the Protein shakes and Soups and Water along with whatever little bites you can get down. I unfortunately listened to my Dr who told me to cut back my protein and I wound up gaining weight. So please don't do what I did. I have since lost the gain and am heading down again because I put back in the Protein Shakes and soups. Keep going strong it will get better.

Hi Everyone It has been awhile since I wrote the last posting in my blog. The day after surgery Wednesday was the day I was suppose to go home but it turns out I didn't leave until the following day. I was still way to weak, in the morning to even get myself off the toilet without the PT lift belt and three people pulling me up. By about 1 pm the PT finally got me up on my feet with the walker to do a little bit of walking. That afternoon I was able to eat some of the Jello. Later that night they changed my IV meds to Tylenol. Come Thursday morning I was anxious to get out of the hospital and was home by noontime. The 35 minute ride home was ok only because I had my little bucket with me in case I got sick. Thank goodness it never happened. Once I got home I change into my nice warm Mumu and went to my recliner chair and got on the computer. I hardly had anything that day to eat but I was drinking water and by Friday I was finally able to drink a protein shake. It took me over 4 hours to drink it but once I got that first bit of protein down I really started to feel a lot better. Each day was getting better and better and by my 1 week followup I felt great. Everyone at the surgeon's office said I looked great for just 1 week post op. My surgeon was very happy with the way my incisions were healing so nicely. I had no bruising, redness or itching like I had read a lot of people had. In one week I had lost 13 pounds. I was hoping for 15 so I would have been below 300. However 2 days later I did drop down 6 more pounds and was finally seeing a 2 for the first time in over 35 years. There I sat at 295 for over 17 days not losing another pound. I had come to the dreaded stall and I wasn't even 3 weeks out of surgery. But I stayed positive and kept telling myself I am still healing and my tummy is in shock and trying to adjust. I tried my best to "Embrace the Stall" as I had read that thread over and over again that a follow Bariatric Pal had written. Finally by the first month's post op followup I had lost another 3 more pounds.The surgeon was pleased with my 22 pounds loss since surgery. We discussed how I started riding my trike again and how I did in the one egg a day stage and liquid protein. I told him I had terrible pain under my left breast area when ever I ate the egg. He told me that was my signal that I either ate too fast or I was full. I tried to tell him I ate very small amounts and very slowly, but he didn't seem to think it was a problem. With drinking the protein shakes and soups I was able to get to the 60 grams of protein. So he just told me to slow down my eating even more. He said I could move on to the next stage and introduce a variety of foods. I was so happy to finally be able to eat more than an egg. I asked him how many calories should I be eating now and he said don't count calories just protein. So I asked where should my protein be at now. I was expecting him to say to increase it to 80 grams. I got the shock of my life when he told me 41 grams of protein. I said what? I thought I had heard him incorrectly as everything I had read for the past 8 months said to increase not decrease the protein. He said since I had lost 38 pounds with the 6 months preop and 22 with the surgery that now I should be getting in less protein and to stop drinking the shakes and soup. This surgeon's office has no NUT. He has been doing this WLS for the past 16 years. I don't know if his NUT left the practice or what happened but during the 6 months pre-op diet I saw the Hospital NUT once and that was during the first month. All the nutrition info was coming directly from the surgeon. Since Feb 17th they hired a NUT and they are still working out her schedule and the insurance plans so our insurances will cover her visits. I tried to see her during the one month followup but she was not even there that day. I left the office on Feb 26th weighing 292 pounds. I tried for a week to follow what the surgeon said and I lost another 5 pounds and got down to 287. However I saw a decrease in my energy level and felt so tired that in the past week I went trike riding 1 time compared to 8 times during the egg and 60 gram protein stage. I tried for the second week at that protein level and within 5 days I GAINED back up to 292. I immediately got online to BP and posted what the surgeon had told me to do and what my results were. I also told everyone I still had that terrible left under the breast pain. I got over 20 replies telling me they had never heard of decreasing protein and maybe I was also constipated. They suggested I up my protein and my water. The day I wrote that thread I was so discouraged and wondered What did I do to myself. Up until that time I was very positive and encouraged. However the 2 1/2 to 3 weeks of this pain when eating was really getting to me. After reading all the postings I came to the conclusion that my surgeon is an excellent surgeon but I think he is off his rocker about nutrition. So since this past Sunday I upped my protein back to 60 grams and started to drink more water and took something for the constipation and within 2 days I was back down to 287. I am so grateful to all who replied to my post and helped me through this difficult time. I am going to keep my protein up and even try to get past 60 grams. I am still drinking at least 1 shake a day and have been back on my trike and managed to go 3.81 miles on Monday. Oh the best thing is yesterday when I ate my 3 small meals and a snack I had no under the breast pain. I think I may have finally turned this around and am heading down the right path and am looking forward to what the future will bring. I see the surgeon again on April 20th and we shall see how much more weight I lose my then. I am kind of interested in seeing if he will reduce my protein again. However if he does I think it will be falling on deaf ears as now I know better thanks to all my friends on BP. Hugs Everyone Till I write again stay Healthy and Happy! I know I will thanks to all of you, my friends!

Yesterday was the first day in over 3 weeks I was able to eat food and not get that terrible under the left breast pain. It felt good to eat and not have pain within 3 to 4 bites. I had my first piece of chicken in over 6 weeks and I enjoyed every tiny bite of the 3 oz piece I had. I just hope my ability to eat and drink more Water keeps improving. The last 3 weeks were really getting to me and making me wonder "What did I do to myself" Now I feel more normal emotional and look forward to the road ahead. Thanks everyone for your support through this difficult patch this past weekend.

What a great way to pay it forward! Have you thought about being a motivational speaker? I know you would be a great one based on your writings I read. Good move in using the company gym too. Just curious was anyone else working out there too?

I am in West Palm Beach area. Since Sunday I have been trying to eat a bit more and get more Water in. Plus MOM finally worked I am now back down to 287. Today is exactly 6 weeks since surgery and I am down 27 pounds.