KatieMc

I'm 6 weeks out and went to Olive Garden last week. I had soup and three bites of just lettuce with dressing and had no problems. So now between meals, I have a lettuce and English cucumber (seedless) salad. Well-chewed, of course.

I sweat immediately after eating...all over, like my back, forearms, everywhere. So weird!

I was restricted to ricotta, cream cheese, cottage cheese and BabyBels at first. I was also told not to use condiments other than light mayo...somehow I didn't know that starting out, and discovered that mustard and ketchup kinda hurt, but Cholula hot sauce didn't bother me at all. Also, no black pepper, since it can get caught in your stomach sutures and cause a problem. Yeah, somehow missed that note as well, but I stopped immediately. Apparently I can start using it at 10 weeks...I'm halfway there. Hope this helps!

For someone with "chaos" in her username, you are VERY organized! Lol.

I've been very open about it with everyone - family, extended family, TOPS diet group, friends, strangers. Most are curious and/or supportive. Sadly my sister and best friend disapproved, though my sister came around pretty quickly. I often do unconventional things before they become mainstream (eg a destination wedding years before that term was coined, living and working abroad before internet and Airbnb were invented, etc). People around me know me as smart and fairly well-grounded, so when I do something like having WLS in Tijuana, they figure it can't be as wacky as it first sounds. Strangers...are interesting. They might normally be critical of someone they know doing it, but with a stranger like me, they're just curious. I figure maybe I'm helping others indirectly by opening minds.

I too have been having a fairly easy time of it and asked for calorie guidance. Puree/soft was 400-600/day with the eventual goal of 800-1200/day depending on activity levels. Hope this helps.

So frustrated already. First a 9-day stall, now I'm 5 days into another one. Tuesday marks 4 weeks and I've lost a whopping 12lbs since surgery. My expectations weren't crazy, I really thought I'd be at the -20 mark by now....

I did the Inca Trail for 4 days. You will need carbs, even straight sugar, to deal with the altitude. You'll be offered coca leaf tea and it must have honey or real sugar in it to work. And it really does help. Every morning they boiled big pots of water to purify it for our daily drinking supply. Carbs were the focus because of the altitude (9200-14000 feet), but you'll get plenty of protein at lunch and dinner. My favorite dish was pumpkin and quinoa soup...about 2 years before quinoa got popularized here. It's a grain with a bit of protein. The soup wasn't the whole meal, lol. If I were to do this now, I'd swing a protein shake in the morning and wing it with a few protein bars or jerky just in case there was a meal or 2 you really couldn't work with at all.

Tomatoes are quite acidic, I was told by my clinic not to have that one, but the other cream soups are fine.

I chose to have my surgery done at a bariatric clinic (Pompeii Surgical), not in a hospital, for exactly this reason - hospitals are for sick people, lots of germs and viruses and no doubt MRSA. There was also not even a whisper of the super bug about any of the surgeons that work there. I believe Dr Almanza performs his procedures at Grand View Hospital. Some of these surgeons do too many procedures in a day, and cleaning the OR between patients is rushed to the point where this sort of thing happens. So awful

Just broke a 9-day stall that started just before purees kicked in. Yes I threw a hissy fit or two in that time...sooo not fair when you're eating micro portions, right?! But the week 3 stall is real and you will break it, hopefully tomorrow!

Wow, that seems wayyy low. I mean, 3 protein shakes alone are 400-450 cals, and I was also supposed to drink 1-2 glasses of skim milk, about 180 cals.

So it took me 4 days to lose the surgery weight, then 8 days to lose 9lbs, then things came to a grinding halt for the past 6 days. I started purees 4 days ago, might be related, though calorie consumption is only 600-800. This afternoon I either had a response to the move to purees or my first experience of dumping syndrome. It was 4 hours after my first egg since surgery. It had also been 4 days since my last, um, bathroom event. We'll see what tomorrow holds...

Two weeks out and no complications for me. Amongst the other patients there at the same time, the only "complication" was a woman who already knew she didn't handle general anesthesia well. Oh wait, on one lady they found and fixed a hiaital hernia while in there, not sure if that counts as a complication though.

No problems during or after my first puree today, but I'm with you on what I hope is just a mini-stall...3 days so far +/-.2

Kinda glad to hear they are of value for such a long time. I overbought supplies when I was pre-op, lol.

I'm 12 days out, and weight isn't falling off me fast, but then I didn't expect it to. At least it's a steady downward trend [emoji5] I'm having no problems with anything, though I am tired of shakes. 2 a day is fine, but that 3rd one is not pleasant. Mashed potatoes with shaved ham tomorrow though, as I move into purees!!

I'm 11 days out, down 9lbs. Only real problem I have is bending over to pick something up. Fluids and shakes are no problem, I hope to say the same about purees soon! Walking is a bit uncomfortable, with gravity pulling down on my belly jiggle and therefore my stitches, so I'm not doing as much of that as I'd like too.

I'm 9 days post-op and it takes me 15 minutes to drink a 10oz shake and I try to take longer than that. But I also know I'm having a pretty easy time with all this compared to others.

Hey, @WendyS2BP, how did it all go for you? How are you feeling now that you're 8 days out? They made a mistake and put me with Dr Saucedo. They offered to try to do something about it but I let it slide, given how amazing the facility and all the staff were. I'm taking so well to the surgery that I don't mind at all that I got a different surgeon. Plus, he was very warm and encouraging and even checked in with my companion (mom) to make sure she was eating and taking care of herself while there.

Can you switch doctors?? If not, your mom's got it right, you do you! I'll preface my experience with: I got my gastric sleeve in Mexico, no insurance/approval hoops to jump through. My doctor was cautiously on board with me having bariatric surgery, but was wary about the Mexico part. He gave me all kinds of horror stories, personal "aftermath" ones that had shown up at his office after assorted procedures abroad. Then he thought about it...said at least Tijuana was super-close to the US, and all of the horror stories (abcesses, drain infections, etc) were from getting plastics overseas. He wished me luck, and today he took out my stitches. He was impressed with how neat, clean, and minimally invasive the work was and said he looked forward to seeing me for my post-op blood workup.

Last time I thought about it, you needed a BMI of 40 and I was "only" 38. Also, the lap band was all the rage and I didn't like the sound of that. Fast Forward about 10 years and I was struggling as a member of TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly - just accountability and support, you do your own diet), and one of the group members, who was 80lbs more than me, announced that she was getting the gastric bypass and I thought "good for her". My mother, also a member with just a 20-lb post-menopausal weight issue, asked if I'd ever considered it. I thought about my 28-year struggle, how I'd lose 15 and gain 20, lose 30 and gain 40, etc...and thought of those adages, "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you always got" and "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result". Well I didn't see the point in waiting until I was 300+ lbs, and that's where I was heading...plus my 49th birthday was just 2 weeks away...I was very clear in my choice. In the 10-week interim between the decision and the surgery, there were countless reinforcement moments that I was doing the right thing. My 5yo niece pointing at an old picture of me at 160 and saying she wanted me to look like that. A 9hr flight to London on British Airways, notorious for their narrow seats. Having a nasty drunk homelessman in England shout "Hey you, Fat C***!" to my face. Walking a whole mile out of necessity for the first time in years and wishing melodramatically for the sweet embrace of death (in my defense, the walk was very up-hilly). Getting my third round of cortisone injections in my knees and finding they weren't doing a great job anymore.

3 days clear liquids, 11 days full liquids. Though it seems there's some variation in what is considered "full liquid", like my list doesn't include the cream soups even though I am allowed pudding, yogurt, sherbet. I'm sticking to my list though since we're talking just 4-5 more days, it's just not worth quibbling about. Which I think you figured out too, lol.

I have my one-week appointment tomorrow and move to full liquids for a week. I'm a little worried that I've only lost 5 lbs and still feel a bit bloated, hopefully they can shed some light on that. Otherwise, I've taken well to the sleeve - no vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, problem with liquids, etc. If I hadn't seen the x-ray from the barium swallow showing me the tiny little sleeve between esophagus and small intestine, I would, like @Fara Jacobson, wonder if I'd had much of a reduction in stomach size. I suspect the real challenge kicks in with solids.

Slip-ons for sure. Any bending over/squatting low really irritates my stitches and especially where the drain was. I'm 5 days out and I still need to avoid bending down for anything - shoes, picking up dropped stuff, etc.