swishbc

Thanks for all the info Riley. It's really interesting to get an idea of what our daily meals can look like once we're back to "normal", or what I call my "new normal". :sneaky: You eat SUPER healthy! I don't know if I'll be able to be that strict with myself...no-cal, no-carb dressing, soy milk, you're a stronger woman than me! haha

That's so great, Riley! I can't wait to be where you are eating normal food while getting full on not very much. I bet that feels so good. Can you give me more examples of what your meals are like now? I'm very curious what and how much of stuff you can eat. Now go change that ticker! LOL I hope you girls are all taking pictures as you go along this journey, it was very inspiring to look at before and after pics last night!

I just realized you can click on the pics to see them bigger. Cool.

I took a new 50 lbs loss pic today and then found a before pic and wanted to post them. I think we should all post before and now pics!

Here are my before and now pics 50 lbs down!

50.5 lbs down FINALLY!!!!!!! What a great day! AND---I slept on my side for 1/2 the night and it was heaven!

Hey girl! Got your text tonight...I'm doing so good! Yesterday was one week post-op and I felt about 90%...today about 95%! I just have a little soreness on the left side of my tummy like I got punched in the gut. I'm SO sick of laying on my back to sleep (I'm a side sleeper) but I'm still a little sore to lay on my side. I've tried...it'll happen soon and then I'll get much better sleep. My energy is so much better in the last few days, I think my body is getting used to having only about 200-300 cals a day for now. I'm still totally full on 1/4-1/3 cup per meal. I have about 2 meals that are 1/4 and then one meal that's about 1/3. I'm afraid to take it up to 1/2 cup because I want to get full on the LEAST amount as possible for as long as possible. REGGIE! Call me asap when you get weighed and are at goal. I'm dying to know when your cm appt will be! I hope hope hope you're there. Are you gonna go weigh in tomorrow? Just wear the lightest thing possible and take socks with you so you don't have to weigh in shoes! My best tips for ya. Call me!

I'll be on mushies at 2 weeks 1 day, so I'm finishing up fulls between now and next Sunday, thank goodness! So sometime between MY now and next Monday is where you were having it. Maybe I'm not so naughty after all, I'll stop feeling guilty about last night now.

I'm feeling REALLY good, yesterday was my best day ever! I feel 90% back to normal so that kinda made me do more than normal and I think I might have over done it a bit cuz I'm kinda sore today. I just took some tylenol and am feeling better, I just feel like I got punched on the left side of my tummy. I'm gonna take it easier today, I want to keep feeling better and not go backwards! I'm taking Sophie to her gymnastics class today and then going to hang out at my best friend's house and let our girls play, should be pretty relaxed and I know she won't let me over do it! One week was the MAJOR turning point for me! Sunday night I cried and felt horrible and Monday morning I felt almost normal...crazy how fast our bodies can heal!

Hey Riley, real quick---when did you eat the pintos n cheese? How far out?

That sucks about not being able to have beans til Stage 5! I was SO excited about being able to have them next week in mushies, everyone talks about how yummy refried beans with melted cheese and taco sauce is on Lapbandtalk during THEIR mushy stage. Kaiser Richmond is just SO conservative, it kinda makes me nuts!

This bean conversation is cracking me up because ALL I've been craving is BEANS!!! I don't know, maybe my body is just dying for fiber and protein but I finally broke down last night and got pintos and cheese from TB but with NO CHEESE--only beans and a little of the red sauce. OMG OMG OMG it was the best thing ever. Those beans are runnier than my cream of wheat and I didn't eat any of the specks of beans (there are no whole beans in them). I used the back of the spoon and just kind of dipped it in and licked the back of it where no specks of beans would stick to it...trying to keep to the rules of FULL LIQUIDS with no chunks. I felt so full all evening, only even ate about 1/3 of it (less than 1/4 cup) but I did feel a little bit gassy last night so right before bed I took a Gas-X strip...Riley, did you use those? I emailed Dr. Baggs yesterday and asked him about stool softeners and he said that if I'm still having a constipation problem I can swallow those and just buy over the counter instead of that nasty booty suppository I had to use on Sunday. He also said that if I get heartburn I can have Pepcid chewable for relief. I was glad to hear that, Donna told me that the SSF patients are TOLD to take a Pepcid PILL twice a day for 3 MONTHS to prevent heartburn but Richmond doesn't even MENTION it!!! Pisses me off...

LOL, how are you posting this? You crack me up!

YAY!!!! I'm so glad it all went well. We're all so excited to hear all about it when you're feeling up to it! Rest up and feel better soon. I'm a week out today and feel about 90% normal! It WILL get better.

That's a bummer Riley, but I'm glad that you cleared the ham quickly and it didn't last for hours. I've read in lots of other threads that pork/ham is one of the hardest meats to get down so don't feel too bad. Also, even though you may have eaten more than a cup of food you didn't many calories AT ALL. A 3 oz slice of ham is only 140 calories and 10 pieces of asparagus is only about 35 calories! That was an Easter dinner that was only 175 calories! Asparagus is another thing that listed as a really difficult thing to get down and that usually we can only eat the tips, so you did good only getting a tiny bit stuck once! LOL

Good luck Tina! Can't wait to hear all about it and hope you recover quickly. :thumbdown:

OMG OMG OMG Donna you are a lifesaver! Thanks so much for talking to me tonight. I totally had a meltdown and bawled my head off after talking to you. On the way home from my parents we stopped at Rite Aid and I got the chewable tylenol ( I can't DRINK another sip of medicine...GAG!) and Gas-X strips. I took them in the car and when I got home I had the HUGEST burp like all the way from the bottom of my poor empty little stomach and I feel SO SO SO much better! I also bought the pepcid so I'm gonna call tomorrow and see if I can take that for the heartburn if it doesn't go a way soon. And OMG!! I had the most horrible constipation problem today, had to use a suppository and everything. I don't know WHY they don't give us stool softeners...so stupid. My insides are SO sore like I got kicked in the gut from all the work. My poor body. I'm gonna ask them tomorrow about stool softeners too. The whole huge differences between SSF/Richmond really piss me off, honestly. Social scenarios in early post-op really SUCK. Tonight was so hard and because I was feeling so uncomfortable already, but watching everyone eat that yummy holiday food was pretty close to torture! I can't wait to be "normal" and eat what everyone else does, just a lot less of it. Anyway, I'm feeling so much better now thank God for Gas-X. I would recommend everyone keep some on hand!!!

Recovery room time flies by cuz you're totally out of it and in and out of sleep. You won't even have a concept of time...at least I didn't! That included the time I went down to do the barium swallow. Basically I woke up from surgery around 9am and was between recovery and barium until I left at 2pm.

No kidding! All my pre-ops were either $5 or NO co-pays and surgery was $15. All my first year after care visits/fills are free. Good think hubby loves his job because I love the benefits! I don't know if I could've done this without our awesome insurance.

I paid my copay ($15!!! Crazy) when I checked into the surgery dept the morning of surgery.

Tina it's almost time!!! I didn't get nauseous at ALL, still haven't. Did they give you the anti-nausea pills to take tonight and tomorrow? They'll also put some anti-nausea stuff in your IV. Did you take your milk of mag this morning? That stuff is NASTY!!! I did almost puke taking that. I was in recover from when I woke up to almost about when I left. Probably about 3-4 hours.

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!! As of today I weigh 249.4!!! I haven't weighed under 250 in YEARS. My total loss since surgery is 8 lbs in 6 days and since 12/1 I've lost 48 lbs!!! I'm so excited. It makes all this pain and frustration worth it! My next big goal is to have lost 50 lbs...at this rate I could be there by Tuesday! LOL. Beware of constipation, pre-op girls. It SUCKS. I think it's finally gonna happen for me today but it's hard work because your tummy is sore and you don't want to work too hard, if you know what I mean...

Dude, just tell 'em you have a hernia and have to have surgery. It's 4-5 lap incisions and 6-8 weeks of recovery. (my sis JUST had a hernia surgery in Feb.) If I was keeping it from someone it would've been the perfect cover, lol.

Geez, Nicole! I'm so sorry this keeps happening. Good to hear that you can go to a local Kaiser though if need be. All they will probably do is put a bit more dermabond on it to close it back up. As long as they're not putting a needle in the port (which they'd have no reason to do since you're not having restriction issues). I hope it stops ASAP. Now go lay down and don't get back up!!!

Also, food is a drug for ALL of us! That's why we're here, that's why we are having/had surgery, that's why we go to our support group. We will always be fighting this addiction, and we'll always be recovering. But we WILL fight and we WILL recover because we're worth it and we deserve it. Every single one of us.