DownInSocal

mb20mom: Your menu looks good to me! You can tell you are dedicated. Be sure to let us know when you get a date and put it on the calendar.

10/10 Breakfast: Starbucks Viviano made with non fat milk. I know I said I was getting out of the habit but I forgot my shake on the way out the door to run errands. I had no choice! Lunch: 3 oz lowfat cottage cheese. I buy the little individual go packs that are 4 oz but I only wanted 3 oz. Dinner: pureed chicken breast with one slice swiss and 1 tsp blue cheese dressing. 1 tbls leftover mac and cheese.

No gum is good advice. My surgeon told me the exact same thing about chewing gum. It increases acid production in the stomach which can lead to increased hunger and higher risks of uclers.

Chest X ray Tons of blood work Urine test for nicotine and to see if I was preggers. I got this test like 3 times before surgery. EKG Take home EKG pack that tracked my heart rate for 24 hours Echocardiogram sleep apnea test Tests on my lung function, peak flow and such. Barium swallow Psych Consult Nutrition Consult Oh almost forgot the ultrasound. They looked at everything in my abdomen. Found a cyst on my liver, no big deal but having them poke at it hurt like a.......nevermind. I also had to go to two classes, one about surgery and one about nutrition. I would have needed a pap smear but mine was 3 weeks before my consult so I was good to go. Every single test was worth it. I would do it all over again ten times if needed.

See now this would annoy me for several reasons. Again I you did not have a bypass. I am sure you have been over this with her before. Second she is going to tell you about vitamins after surgery? What? How would she know what you need when she has not had the surgery? For me it would be kind of like "I am fat not stupid."

That is a good question. It bothers me because as others have said you take the time to explain the surgery and it is still called "bypass". It is irritating that a show like Big Medicine would get it wrong. They should know better. My husband pointed out that it might irritate me because fat people are always lumped together. We are all lazy, we all smell, we all gorge everyday on 10 million calories, etc. I am tired of being lumped. :biggrin: I admit it some of it could be that I feel the VSG is superior to the bypass in many ways. I am proud I made such a good decision. I am always nice and explain the difference. I was more irritated that a family member still can't get it right.

I am sorry you had so much discomfort! The first days were bad, things only get better from here.

The first thing I and everyone else noticed was my butt went goodbye. I have had mixed feelings about this. It is not the flat weird shaped butt now. It looks like it did in my early twenties so I should be happy but I kinda wanted to keep my super curves just have a flat stomach. It is just frusterating to be able to fit in a 16 pant except for my stomach. The butt in a 16 pant is loose but the tummy is a little too tight. Ugh. It will balance out I am sure. I also lost weight in my limbs right away, my upper arms, hands, face, and neck. My girls are a little smaller but my cup size is the same. The whole thing is kind of strange when I think about it but I am happy with the way I look. I like to be able to sit on the couch and put one leg up with my foot flat if that makes sense. I can bend over and tie my shoes without having to hold my breath. I can see my hoo hoo!

10/9 Breakfast: Starbucks Vivano, made with non fat, drank all of it over 2 hours so I got all 18 grams Protein. I gotta get out of this Starbucks habit. It is expensive. lunch 1: Side of Pinto's and cheese from Taco Bell. No red sauce (had bad time with before, stomach not ready for spices) and extra cheese. 12 grams of protein if you add extra cheese! Lunch2: Hummus snack pack and deli 2 slices Swiss. Dinner: 3 costco meatballs (They are small, smaller than a ping pong ball I would say), 1.4 cup pizza sauce, 3 tabls course graded parma. Took Fiber sprinkles, effexor, Vitamins, etc. Forgot to drink my daily prune juice though.

I am glad you got a date! That is the most exciting thing I think in the pre op journey. Reading your post I felt like I was reading one of those posters you used to do in school with the candy. Where you would say I love you more than Babe Ruth but you would put the candy bar Babe Ruth in instead of the word. Anyway cute post!

Okay, new weekend, new questions: 1) Weekend plans? My house needs to be cleaned. I also need to play some Sims 3 2) Beatles: Overrated or Musical Geniuses? They were way before my time. I like some of their stuff. I remember my dad crying when Lennon was killed. Both my parents were hippes and "Imagine" was played a lot in the house. 3) Name something positive that happened to you this week. Err. Uhhh. I might have to come back to this one. I honestly can't think of anything positive. 4) Do you like your job? For the most part. Honestly I deserve to make more money for the responsibilty I have and amount of work I have. I don't want to change jobs right now though. Feels risky.

I might venture to try the crunch bars in another month. I can't think of putting a chewy bar thing in my stomach yet. Spasm city.

Can I ask where you got 51 gram Protein? Are you sprinkling powder? You are doing so much better than me. For example I buy oscar meyer ham and it takes 2 slices to get 9 grams and that would be very close to being full. 2 cup skim milk is 18 grams, 3 oz pork chop 26 grams :confused1: wow. I need to get board with the chops I guess. Wait I think you got moe than 51 grams protein. I need to eat what you eat the day after you post it!

Thursday 10/8 Breakfast: Viviano Choc banana 14 oz only, made with nonfat milk, threw away last 2 oz. lunch 1: 2 oz tuna fish with mustard and 1/8 tbls olive oil mayo, 2 slices gouda cheese Lunch 2: Snack cup size of unsweetened applesauce (this didn’t sit well, I don’t know why) Dinner: ? cup mac and cheese with unjury unflavored Protein sprinkled on it 4 oz Light Prune juice Yeah yesterday was not very good with protein.Oh and I was till hungery when my stomach informed me we were not having anymore tuna fish. Maybe it was the mustard.

How are you doing Claire? Don't give up. Give us an update. We are here for you.

I don't know what fancy jello is but make sure you puree that cantalope unless it is super ripe. When I started full liquids my stomach was NOT impressed with anything it had to digest too much.

I think the sleeve is going to work out great for the busy lifestyle you have! Keep us updated and don't forget to tell us your surgery date when you get it!

That is great. Don't forget to put your date on the calendar. That way we can all think of you that day and said good thoughts your way.

Ok public listen up: I did not have the ?bypass?. Not every person who has bariatric surgery has a ?bypass? or band. K? I don?t know why it irritates me so much when people assume I have had a bypass when they find out I had surgery. Even after I say ?No I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy, or VSG for short.? they still say bypass later. Nothing is bypassed in my body. Why is this so hard to understand? I understand that the average Joe is not educated like us on different weight loss surgeries but after a person says no I did NOT have a bypass why would you still use that term? I was watching a rerun of Big Medicine the other night and the patient was having a VSG. When interviewing her after her procedure it said ?Bypass Patient? under her name. I almost flipped a lid. I was yelling at the T.V. My husband thinks I was funny to watch but he gets mad too. No my wife had a VSG. It is a different kind of surgery. Someone had the gall to say ?Oh she should have waited for that new balloon thing.? Excuse me? It was not the latest gadget I was picking out. Sometimes I feel like saying: ?Saying VSG is a bypass is like saying someone who had a lumpectomy had a radical mastectomy. NOT the same surgery.? What got me into this rant is a close member of my family (not DH) said ?bypass?. They got an earful. The whole world knows I had surgery so I suspect there will be many more bypass comments. I will educate them one at a time and I reserve the right to rant more later. :confused1:

Ugh steph. After surgery I put a change of clothes in my trunk. Things were so unpredictable I didn't know if I might throw up on myself and the thought had crossed my mind when I started trying to get things moving what if it moved too fast?? So they are still there just in case. I feel so bad for you. Even if just you know it is still humiliating. Your right about Ducolax. It will make things move. I am feeling that today. The good news though? Seems things are heading in the right direction still. I think the fiber suppliments are helping. We shall see.

I get the same spasms still. Cold doesn't set it off for me. It is just random. If it is really bad I have to take a valium so I can get fluids and eat. I just hate to see you suffer.

God I feel your pain about the bowling ball and never trusting a fart! It is so odd how so many of suffer in silence and don't talk about bathroom issues but I have a feeling many have issues and think they are alone because no one talks about them! Hey you are not running a fever are you? I am just a little worried that you are suddenly getting pain right after you eat. Where is it? Is it in your abdomen? High like right under your breast bone? Any pain in your shoulders?

So my homework was to talk about hunger mosnter. Here it is in all the glory. I can't believe I am posting this. Hunger Monster Originally I blamed hunger monster for overeating. He was more of an enabler than a monster. I realized after he was taken out during surgery that there was a real monster in the room that has not been removed by surgery. My own self destructive behavior. Hunger monster was really the scapegoat and did the bidding for destructive monster. Unfortunately destructive monster is not dead. He is stubborn and hides. He pops up at bad times and causes my thought patterns to be destructive, like not sticking to my diet plan after surgery and starving myself. He does not want me to abuse others. Only myself. He tells me how I don?t matter so it is ok. If I was just skinnier, or just prettier, or just smarter, or just not such a screw up, or?? Rarely in my life have I felt loved. I think this is why destructive monster lives with me. My father committed suicide when I was 9. I have always felt he did not love me enough to stay and be a father. I often think of the desperation he felt in his final hours and minutes. What a terrible place to be. My mother while a wonderful person has mental issues. She is a fantastic, caring, good, on top of her game nurse but her personal life is a disaster. She wandered in and out of my life as a child. I always felt abandoned by both parents. She didn?t even take me after my dad died because of her issues. The person who did take me in after he died was mentally and physically abusive. The man I met as a teenager and later married was mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive. I guess I stayed because I didn?t realize it was abuse and did not value myself enough to stand up for myself. I left one day with a restraining order and what I could fit in my car. At 28 my entire life could be summed up to what fit into a compact car. How said is that? I felt like a total failure and many times still do. Destructive monster was in full control the first year I left my ex in so many ways. All of my romantic relationships, except my current wonderful loving marriage, have been abusive. The only reason my current relationship is not a mess is because my wonderful husband won?t let it be. He never gives up on me. He always stands by me. He really loves me. Sometimes I feel like he is the only one in my life that has really loved me. While surgery removed hunger monster I need to deal with destructive monster on my own. No surgery will fix him. I just have to learn to love myself so there is no room for him anymore. I tell other women to love themselves. I tell them they are worth not being abused. I encourage them to get help and leave. Now if I could just stop abusing myself maybe I could break the full cycle, not just a small part of it. See all those years I took abuse there were two people abusing me: my spouse and myself.

Yup, but I have not got much past that an I am in week 7 (I think).