Tiffykins

The first 2 weeks are the toughest, and staying positive really helps. Focus on staying hydrated, and try to get in as much protein as you can. Your hormones are going to be all over the place, and just follow your post-op instructions. Leaks rarely happen, but if you've made it this far, and you're following the liquid post-op then you should be good. It's going to take a few days to maybe a couple of weeks for you to really feel good again, but you just have to stay the course, and don't let your emotions get the best of you. Stay focused on your hydration goals, get up and walk, if it's nice out, get some sun on your face, and know that the victories are going to outweigh these temporary struggles.

Yes, you need to strain the bits out. You still have a staple line that food can get stuck in so that's the reason for straining tiny bits of food when we're on the liquids. Everyone's sleeve holds a different amount, and that amount will change from what it can hold right now to what it can hold in the next couple of months, and then will change again maybe a couple of times within the first year. Our anatomy also determines just how much our stomachs will hold after healing completely. For the first couple of months when I was on soft solids/solid Protein, I could only eat 2oz of meat, 3oz if it was moist, soft like chicken salad meat. But, now I can eat 3-5oz of meat. I could only eat 1/4 cup of chili at 2 months out, but now I can eat 1 cup. I've been eating the same amounts since I was about 7-8 months post-op. I was also scoped at 8 months out, and my surgeon believes my sleeve is at max capacity for life at this point.

Nope, no PB'ing with the sleeve. . . You can some slimies if you eat too fast, or don't chew well early out, but I only did it a couple of times post-revision to the sleeve. I kind of feel like we have the "post-sleeve" eating learning curve beat because of the band we had and all the issues we dealt with when eating with that thing.

Don't get discouraged, everyone loses at a different rate. Your friend at work may have more weight to lose as us heavyweights tend to drop weight faster initially. Stay positive and keep working your tool. I'm very limited on information on this particular surgery weight loss stats so I can't comment due to not really knowing all the ins and outs like I do for the sleeve. You chose this surgery for specific reasons that were right for your life and lifestyle, needs and wants, you'll lose your weight, just stick to your post-op guideline, and stay positive.

That's awesome, don't expect the worse, sometimes we are our harshest critics, and we tend to tend ourselves differently. . . Men love a confident woman, believe in yourself, believe in your future, and don't settle for anything less than everything ! ! ! Take it one date at a time, take each compliment as a genuine compliment, enjoy your time together be it chatting, email or phone calls, Be open and positive, don't sell yourself short ! ! !

I was cleared for wine consumption at 3.5 months out. My surgeon warned me to steer clear of red wines. I didn't drink until I was at goal, I was pretty carb/calorie conscious and didn't want to waste my calories on alcohol. The first time I drank a glass of Riesling, it hit me hard and fast then I sobered up pretty quickly. I am that "party girl", and have been socially drinking for the last ummmm few months. I tie one on monthly with mixed drinks and shots, and my tolerance is the same as it was pre-op now. In my little social circle of military wives, I'm know as the "afternoon cocktail" girl, and have been known to drink a strawberry mojito, have a glass of wine, or even a rum/coke at lunch. I don't drink at home, and I typically keep my drinking to a 4-6 times a month kind of thing, and it's typically just one drink unless it's my monthly "girls night out". I'm below goal, and the only thing I do notice is that I retain Water like the hoover dam after a big night out. Other than that, I have zero ill effects from drinking with my sleeve. I refuse to give up anything forever that includes any type of food or beverage. I had surgery to be as close to normal as possible, and being a social drinker is part of my "normal".

I was told that some of the vitamins and minerals should not be taken in excess because yes, you can take too much. I'm currently just taking 1.5 times my multi, and an Omega 3 with DHA and EPA. When/if I get pregnant, I will switch over to prenatals, but I hate how those things taste, and right now I love my multi that I've been taking for over 2 years. So, until we get a BFP result, then I'm sticking to my multi and my omega 3s. Oh, and I take the sublingual b12.

Hydration really isn't an issue after the initial swelling goes down. Taking big drinks is usually difficult immediately post-op, but after the first couple of months, drinking isn't an issue. I'm not arguing with your doctors, but really I see no difference in my hydration levels and I drink on average 20-24oz of coffee every morning. Drinking from a straw was difficult early out for me, but again, once the swelling went down, drinking with a straw actually made getting in fluids much easier some patients are even given a straw while they are still in the hospital recovering. A lot of those instructions are old RNY/Band pouch rules for the straw and carbonation, but I know plenty of RNY'ers and bandsters have zero issue drinking caffeine, carbonation and out of straws. Just given you a little different perspective, I'm all for following doctor's orders, but some of the information out there is not always the same for every procedure. As for your weight loss ticker, go to your name at the top of the forum, click it, then in the top right hand corner of your profile, there is a BUTTON that says EDIT MY PROFILE. Click that, then go to Edit Signature. Open a new tab or window, go to tickerfactory.com , make your ticker to your liking, make sure you set it up with a PIN so you can edit your weight as you lose. Once you get to the last page, you'll see a bunch of codes. Highlight, and then right click the bBcode for message boards, come back here to your Signature box, and PASTE that code in the box, hit PREVIEW SIGNATURE to make sure it's how you want it. If it looks good, hit "SAVE SIGNATURE" and it will show up on all of your posts, you can include other information as well. To edit your weight, you'll click on your ticker in any of your posts, and it'll pop open a NEW window, input your PIN, and it'll let you update your weight.

I was drinking 2oz of fluids every 15 minutes, and when I could get in more, I did it without issue. I hate tomatoes so I never even tried V8 juices. It's awfully acidic, and I doubt my sleeve would have been able to handle it early out. I stuck with broths, crystal lite, herbal teas, and Gatorade G2.

I have 18 scars on my abdomen. Had 5 from the band placement, 4 lap sites, and one big incision for the port. Gained 3 more for the revision, he used 2 of my old lap sites, and the port incision during the revision, gained 2 more from the leak repair, had 4 drains placed during my revision recovery, 2 after the leak repair, and 2 for the abscesses that developed 6 weeks out. Gained 4 more lap sites and one in my bellybutton (that is not visible) with my gallbladder removal and when he did an exploratory to remove adhesions and scar tissue from my abdomen this past February. Honestly, I could give 2 poops about the scars. Between the scars, and little white stretch marks, my stomach looks like a road map of Texas. They're all light, pale pink with the exception of the drain sites, those were open for weeks on end, and they are a bit of a rosey, mauve? color maybe? I guess they don't bother me, I don't do anything to minimize them, and I know that I'll lose some of them when I have plastics done. Overall, I really don't let scars bother me. I inherited moles from my maternal gradmother, I've had several removed by freezing and some cut out, and have those scars, plus 2 knee surgeries, a horrific c-section scar, my arm is scarred up from when I broke it in 4th grade and the lady that cut off my cast, burned with me with the cast cutter back in the late 80's before the cutters were safer and didn't hurt the skin. My daddy told me "scars are like scratches on my truck honey, they just add character, and make for a good story typically". I guess I just always lived with that mindset on scars.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww YAY and BOO ! ! ! I know that feeling all too well, and it never fails that if I buy a pregnancy test, I'll start soon thereafter ! ! !

You're concerns are truly valid, but I can tell you firsthand that the sleeve makes the decision/choice making process much easier. When you wrapped your head around eating to live instead of living to eat, things become much manageable. As for the caffeine, it's not a forever kind of thing, just immediately post-op, we have to focus on hydration, and caffeine as you know is a natural diuretic. You'll do great, and it sounds like your therapist is going to be great to work with during this process ! ! !

My port site was the most painful, but just internally, the skin on the outside stayed numb for a couple of weeks. As for your first BM, if you're on liquids, don't expect a normal BM. It's a liquids in, liquids out kind of thing, and walking will help get things moving.

There is absolutely zero scientific evidence to prove that carbonation can stretch the sleeve. There's not even scientific evidence that it can stretch RNY or Band pouches. Yes, sodas are empty calories, leech the Calcium out of bones, and will make you burp or fart, but the tissue that remains after a sleeve is not extremely stretchy tissue, and, once liquids hit the pyloric valve they dump into the intestines just like Water, tea, coffee. It isn't like soda is sitting in there hanging out all day in our stomachs. I will say that early out when there is residual swelling, the carbonation can be too much for the sleeve and it might be uncomfortable, but it's nearly impossible to stretch the remaining stomach tissue out to any major degree especially with soda. There isn't enough left to stretch unless the fundus isn't fully dissected and removed from the body. I know a lot of surgeons and nutritionists recommend laying off soda, and I'm not advocating it to anyone, but I've been drinking soda for nearly 10 months with zero change in my sleeve capacity.

I was in and out of my surgeon's office a LOT during the first 3 months post-op, but I still weighed every single day, and sometimes multiple times a day. It's what worked for me, and my mindset. It kept me motivated, it kept me happy, and while others have a love/hate relationship with their scale, I love/loved mine. My scale at home weighed me the exact same as my surgeon's scale. It's just a cheap $20.00 scale from WalMart, nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, just a digital scale. I currently weigh once or twice a week. I can tell when I'm retaining water, or have put on a couple of pounds, and yes it happens to me too even in maintenance, I can gain 2-4lbs in one week, part of it's water weight, other part of it is me eating junk food, and my cycle affects my weight loss tremendously. My jeans get a bit snug around the belly, and I can tell when I've gained a pound or 3. I don't let the scale worry me too much these days because I know I can go all protein for 2-3 days and drop major pounds. It's just how my body works now. Just do what works best for you emotionally and mentally.

My stomach doesn't growl, or rumble. I had the same issue with the band, but have not experienced it with the sleeve.

Lost half of my hair in volume, and it grows back. I started losing at 3.5 months post-op and it lasted a solid 3 months. I never took biotin as I am not one for taking pills, and really it isn't going to slow down the loss. All is does is help with regrowth. I used Folicure extra care shampoo every other day, and Nexxus dualiste anti-breakage shampoo and conditioner on the other days. I have tons of new growth, and my hair is coming back. I also avoided heat styling, and coloring/highlighting during those shedding months. It's perfectly normal, and just know that your hair will grow back in. Funny thing for my hair, is that pre-op, I had super wavy, almost curly hair, now the new growth is stick straight, and I have to use volumizing products to get my hair to look really great.

I started with the band at 270, the day of my revision I was 263, my initial goal weight was 150lbs, and I hit goal in 6.5 months weighing 148lbs. I continued to lose for another 4 months and my body has settled at around 125lbs. My total loss with the sleeve alone is 138lbs in 10.5 months.

It's not horrible to feel that way. I still felt huge after I had dropped 80lbs, so you aren't alone. Thank you for your kind words, you'll get there, just keep doing what you're doing, and don't give up on yourself.

When I plug it into my Firefox, it tells me it has to be in IE. You might be able to visit http://www.lapsf.com/ and see if they have the presentation on that site. I googled it, and looked on youtube.com with no luck in finding another venue to view the presentation. I'm sorry ;(

All of my labs had to be redone. It had been over 30 days, and due to a weird clotting issue that I told my revision surgeon about, he sent me to an oncologist/hematologist for a slew of tests. So, yeppers, I had to have my labs redrawn at the initial consult, then it took me 3 months to get my revision, and had to have pre-op labs and another eKg done before my surgery was actually scheduled.

Fingers crossed ! ! ! Keep us updated on the results. . .

I get gas if I eat a bunch of white carbs, and yep, tooting is stinky business but it isn't different than it was pre-op. Gas is gas, broccoli is definitely a culprit for me, but really that happened pre-op as well. Gas X strips are a good remedy. Immediately, post-op, you'll have a different type of gas from them blowing up your abdomen with CO2 gas. Early out, I learned very quickly to "never trust a fart" because of the liquids in, liquids out rule. Gross, but it's true ! ! !

Anything you care to stick in the blender or food processor was okay for my puree/soft diet. I love taco meat with plain, nonfat greek yogurt, refried beans with cheese, egg and tuna salad, crock pot chicken was always tender enough during that stage.

Congrats on getting your sleeve, hopefully they'll your labs squared away, and you'll be on your way soon ! ! ! The sleeve is really a fabulous tool, and I sure don't miss the band b.s. that I dealt with for those 8 months of my life ! ! ! Best Wishes ! ! !