Pandemonium

Today is 6 weeks post-op. I'm down 4lbs from last week, which felt good since it felt like I might have been starting a stall. Still on my doctor's fairly restrictive diet. So far for normal foods I've only done scrambled eggs and pureed chicken salad with hummus and greek yogurt instead of mayo. Both went down with no problem. This will be the second week of me mixing in regular food twice in the week. Next week I'll go to three times a week, barring any issues. Exercise has continued to be a chore due to the heat, but things are cooling down this week, so looking to increase my activity some more. Yesterday was very difficult for me. I ended up receiving some really lousy news that completely devastated me mentally and emotionally. My usual routine would have been to indulge in some comfort food. Except that isn't possible now. Which is definitely for the best, but it really didn't help my mood or mental state any. Still feeling upset today and just trying to get through it.

It looks like a minimum of 4 to 6 months, based on the guidelines for a structured weight loss program being part of the approving process (which is rather common). https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/02/14/mng-bariatricsurgery.pdf

If your pre-op diet has only been liquids so far, then I would personally stick to that in the last day before surgery. The sudden introduction of a regular meal the night before surgery after just liquids seems really odd to me. I'm not sure what surgery you're having done, but I would think regardless, the doctor isn't going to want remnants of a meal sitting there being digested.

I was on a liquid only diet for the week leading up to my surgery. No meals to be had at all. You'll find that every doctor has a different pre-op diet plan. Some want liquids only for 1 week, some want liquids only for 2 weeks, some allow for liquids all day and then a small dinner of lean protein and veggies. My suggestion would be to call your bariatric office and ask for clarification, explaining that your nurse said to have a decent meal the night before your surgery but that your paperwork conflicts with what the nurse said. They should be happy to clarify it for you. I wouldn't think that a single meal before surgery would undo the liver shrinkage to that much of a degree, but the conflicting info is something that you'll definitely want to get clarified.

With the Baritastic app, I've just input the individual ingredients of the recipe I've made and then used the "Create Meal" button to save it to the app. For a salad dressing, I'd say the easiest thing to do would be to make 10 ounces worth of it, input the ingredients and the amounts you used to make the 10 ounces of dressing, save it as a Meal, and then when you use it, just select it from the My Meals tab. If you used 1 ounce of dressing, then select ".1" as the quantity (.2 for 2 ounces, etc.). It's a bit of work up front, but once it's done it goes so much faster.

I was just noticing this morning the complete and total silence from him yesterday and how pleasant it was. This just made my friggin' day!

It can vary, but it's usually between 4-7. There will be at least one incision that's about an inch long (I had two, but my procedure also removed my lapband and port) and then several about the width of your pinkie finger.

Honestly? My suggestion would be to contact your weight loss team and ask them to delay submitting for approval with your insurance for another month. That will give you the chance to adjust to a diet that will get your weight down below where you started off and start some exercise. While I was still waiting to meet my reqs, my diet was one 30g protein shake at 9am, a 20g protein bar at noon, a cottage cheese cup/low-sugar greek yogurt/another protein shake or bar at 4pm, and then 5oz of lean protein and 5oz of veggies at 7pm. I'd generally end up between 1000-1200 calories. For exercise, I would just walk outside for about 30-45 minutes since the gym was not an option. Couple that kind of a diet and routine with delaying submitting to insurance for 4 weeks and you should get back below where you started.

I would suggest asking your surgeon for the exact reason why they feel that the sleeve is the better option for you. While it is not a guarantee that GERD will get worse with the sleeve, it happens frequently enough that it is considered a risk. As part of your current situation is trying to end the issues with GERD, you have every right to know why your doctor is advocating for VSG over RNY.

Soooo...anyone out there have experience with the Celebrate 4-in-1 powder? My surgeon insists pretty heavily on it, especially immediately post-op because 2 servings (shakes) provides all of the vitamins & minerals that one needs after bariatric surgery, so you don't have to deal with taking a bariatric vitamin to get all of that good stuff. In theory, that's great. In practice...the stuff tastes SO bad. There are two flavors: Vanilla Cake Batter and Chocolate. I tried both flavors in the first 4 weeks post op. The first day I had to drink them, I immediately ran to Amazon and ordered two bottle of Sugar Free Flavored Syrups (raspberry and cherry) because the taste was so bad. I had to give up on the Vanilla Cake Batter because it just tasted "wrong" and was sickeningly sweet. The Chocolate is tolerable, but definitely one of the worst chocolate shakes I've had. So now I am looking for insight or help on how to proceed from here because at my appointment on Monday, my doctor changed my shakes from being made with 1% milk to using almond milk. I have no problems with almond milk and used it to mix my Premier Protein Vanilla powder and it was delicious. Mixed with the Celebrate and it's like drinking 8 ounces of death. I can't even taste the flavored syrup in it. Just to test it out, I picked up some soy milk yesterday to try today and see if it makes the experience more palatable. And it does. It doesn't taste as awful as the almond milk. The only problem is that the shake come out far thicker with the soy milk than I want and it was a bit of a chore to drink it. In the end, I'd probably opt for the soy milk (which throws my calorie count slightly higher, but still lower than the 1% milk), but was curious if anyone had experience with Celebrate and any tips or tricks they learned and could pass along. Given how unpalatable it is, I am expecting that when I hit the 3 month mark, I'll be telling my doctor that I'm going to switch to taking a daily bariatric vitamin and then use Premier Protein powders which I actually do like.

Last night I ate my first "real food" since the pre-op diet over 6 weeks ago. Creamy scrambled eggs! They definitely needed salt, but I avoided it just to be on the safe side. Even still, they were very good. 2 eggs, which I was worried might have been pushing it, but I never had any overfull feelings, so I guess it was fine! After a couple of hours, my stomach did feel a little odd and was extra noisy, but I suspect that was partly from having something other than protein shakes to digest. Saturday is when I'll try something else and I'm looking to do some pureed chicken salad made with hummus instead of light mayo. I always used to make my tuna salad with hummus, so I figure it'll be just as tasty with chicken.

I’ve 5.5 weeks out now and my incisions have healed up, but I also had two larger incisions (mine were above the belly button) and four small ones around my belly. photo is from 2 days post op.

The only reason I can't bring myself to use the ignore function on him is because of the harmful things he says to other users, along side the misinformation he spreads. It galls me to think of new users coming in looking for genuine help and support and then having him there as one of the first people they encounter.

That will largely be dependent on what your surgeon says. It seems like every doctor has their own pre-op diet plan. Some require 2 weeks of pre-op diet...some only 1 week...some not even at all. Your surgeon will have their own and hopefully it'll be one of the more generous ones! I had 1 week of nothing but protein shakes and water. It was quite the task!

There isn’t really anything special about this, but the fact that it’s my first real food that isn’t a protein shake or protein bar in over 6 weeks, I was excited and wanted to share. One more step in the path! 2 creamy scrambled eggs

I wish I knew of a resource that I could point you towards. Hopefully some of the links that others provided will yield some assistance! I am very sorry that you went through so much of what you did. While you can say that the surgery failed for you, the truth of the matter is that your surgeon failed you in a horrible egregious manner. To refuse to provide you with any follow-up is beyond the pale and boggles my mind. I would suggest possibly seeking out a hospital based weight management program in your area that is NOT affiliated with your prior surgeon. They should be able to provide you with the guidance that your previous surgeon apparently couldn't be bothered to provide. I'm also sorry that you ran afoul of this forum's resident *******. No one deserves having to listen to him.

Folks, do the site and this thread a favor and click the "Report Post" link in the upper right hand corner of New&Improved post.

I am 5 weeks post-op as of today and I am down a total of 27.2 lbs. My first week was the most dramatic drop at 11.4 lbs. Then it leveled off and has ranged from 2.8 to 4.8 lbs a week. I only weigh myself once a week (used to be Fridays, now it's Tuesdays since that's the day my surgery was). I may switch to every other week once I hit the 3 month mark, but we'll see. Do not weigh yourself every day. That way lies only madness.

Thanks so much! Back in February when I was asked what weight I wanted to get to, I said 225 as that was what I weighed in my mid 20s and while it's still overweight, it was a weight that fit my body type. Being at 341lbs, I felt like 225 was probably going to be difficult to achieve, but still possible. Suffice to say, I'm kind of in shock at the fact that I'm now 10.6lbs away from that (2.8lbs lost this week as of this morning's weigh in!). I never fathomed that I would have lost as much weight pre-op as I managed to do, which obviously helped a lot to get closer to that goal. I briefly toyed with updating my goal to something lower than what I have it at now, but I think it's best that I leave my 225 goal in place for now so that when I reach it, I have something big to celebrate. THEN, I can update my goal to the next level (which my doctor put out the number "190" at my visit yesterday) and start working on hitting that goal.

I'm not really a big fan of steak, yet have frequently found myself eating at nice steakhouses and I have yet to eat at a steakhouse that did not have a couple of seafood options that I always end up going for. Usually it's scallops, but depending on what they might have as a market catch for that day, I might spring for that. Especially if it's sea bass! I almost always see a chicken dish as well, but gave up on that since I rarely find it prepared in a way that blows my mind and taste buds. On the rare occasion I'll want red meat, I'll usually spring for their filet mignon since it's one of the leanest cuts you can get and generally offered in a smaller portion in the 5-6oz range.

Appointment well pretty well, though apparently it was supposed to be an over-the-phone appointment, though this was not communicated to me. So I showed up at the office, Fortunately, my doctor was able to see me in-person, which I was more comfortable with since the last visit was 4 weeks ago and 6 days post-op. Felt better to have someone look at my incisions and assure me they'd healed up perfectly. Their scale said 2 pounds lost since last week, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow which is my official weigh in day to record it on my scale. My diet plan is now 2 diet plans now to give me the option of using normal food. Still doing 2 Celebrate shakes, only switching from 1% milk to almond milk. And then I have the choice between doing 2 20g protein bars or doing 1 20g protein bar and 4 "forkfuls" of a protein source (approximately 2 ounces). Recommendations are scrambled eggs or yogurt first and then try chicken and fish if no issues with the eggs or yogurt. This makes me much happier. My goal is to try 5 days on the all protein shakes/bars plan and then 2 days where I mix in regular food.

His reasoning behind it is that his experience has shown that the reintroduction of regular food into the diet is when he sees the weight loss begin to slow. So apparently he likes to do a very slow progression and keep to liquids for as long as possible so as to maximize the immediate post-op weight loss. I'm not sure if I buy into that entirely. The protein bars surprised the hell out of me too. I was like "ummm...that's not pureed and I'd barely qualify it as a soft food". Of course, the way he has me eating them is that I cut the 1.5 bars into 4-6 pieces and then I spend 20-30 minutes eating a single piece until they are gone. So I'm only really consuming about half an ounce each time. My bites are small and well chewed so I've avoided any discomfort or vomiting so far. But it still seems weird to me that I get to have protein bars before I can have eggs, yogurt, or cottage cheese. I've been eating Think bars, which are one of my favorites. I also love the One bars, but I am out of those at the moment. I also LOVE Built bars, but the majority of their flavors are only 15g of protein and my doctor wants me doing 20g bars. I'm gonna be curious about my weigh in today (and tomorrow at home) since it doesn't feel like I've lost much this week and thought I might be looking at the first stall, but I go out of my way to only weigh myself once a week. Otherwise I'd probably drive myself crazy.

100 minutes to my next follow up appointment with my surgeon. Tomorrow will be the 5 week mark. I'm still weighing whether to ask to begin integrating pureed foods into my diet or not. He wanted me on protein shakes only for 8 weeks, but said it was up to me when to start integrating other foods. I decided the 5 week mark was where I'd draw the line. Then he threw me a curveball on Friday by adjusting my diet so that I do two protein shakes and 1.5 protein bars. I've tolerated the protein bars with no issues (other than the fact that my tastebuds are a wreck and my favorite bars taste kinda horrible now). So now I'm debating whether I can do this shake and bar only combo for a couple more weeks or if I should stick to my guns and ask to start on normal foods on the proper consistency.

You can absolutely find positive support here and I am sorry that you have had an encounter with New&Improved. His toxicity is a serious detriment to these forums and I urge you to ignore him. I've very sorry that you're not getting the support from your husband and that it's making things difficult. It's definitely not too late to turn things around, even with the chaotic state of the world. The fact that you've acknowledged that you need to make changes and have begun to make them is an amazing step in the right direction! I've been in the same boat with the exercise portion of my post-op routine. Between some persistent light-headedness and the stream of 90+ degree days, my efforts to walk 30 minutes a day generally have only been for 10 minutes. That might be a good place to start for you as well. It may not be 30 minutes, but it's still exercise and gets the body moving and burns some calories. Food logging is definitely going to help. I've been using the Baritastic app since I started in my weight loss program in February. It's been a definite boon and I highly recommend it. I wish I had some advice on what you can do to get your husband to be part of the process again. Maybe leading by example might get him back on track? You've got my support on this, as well as the support of many others on this site! You can do this and you're going to kick butt doing it!