deedee

I'm so sorry to read of your experience. I'm glad you posted this because it reminds me I still have a lot to learn about this tool.

I was also told to stop 30 minutes before and can resume 30 minutes after. This is what I did consistently the first 3 months. I then read where others drank right up until meal time and decided to try it. It's true, if I'm having a good restriction day, it does seem to limit how much I can eat at that meal, but since I don't follow their rule of only 3 meals per day, I can eat the rest of the meal later (for a snack). BUT I do continue to follow the no drinking until at least 30 minutes after I've finished and never drinking while eating.

My memory isn't the best, but here's what I think... How long were you in surgery? between 1-2 hours Did you have a private room post op? Yes How many days did you stay? one night, two days (surgery in the morning) At the worst point, how would you rate your pain? (o-10 with 0 being the least amt of pain) 5/6 after gulping the leak test stuff-that really set me back, I puked for the only time; most of the time 2-4 What kind of pain killers did they use? Did they work? Was on IV pain meds, plus they had inserted a pain ball (morphine I think) catheter What did you do to pass the time? (I don't like to sit for long and I will walk the hospital all day long if they let me) I walked A LOT, napped, sucked on ice cubes, visited with people, called people What did you take for entertainment? Anything? I brought my Kindle ebook reader, didn't have the energy or desire to read, turned the tv on sometimes, but didn't really watch anything, mostly dozed or walked and chatted with people (my room was right outside one of the nurses station) I am trying to find out if my hospital has DVD players in our rooms. I would love to catch up on some movies and books! You could always bring a laptop or portable dvd player How did you pack and what would you leave at home if you were to do it over again? I brought slippers (yes!), a brush (yes!), toothbrush & paste (no, I used their sponge type brush), Kindle (no), comfy loose fitting dress and underwear/bra to wear home (yes!), chapstick (yes!), lotion (yes!)

I'm so glad things are going well. You're doing terrific!

So this morning I had my Jazzercise class and one of the instructors watched me to provide feedback (my audition is in 5 weeks). She told told me I need to work on the intensity--kicking it up a notch--when doing the heavy routines. One of my biggest concerns all along has been that although I can do the routines fine, I've danced off and on my entire life, my strength isn't where it should be. I really need to add more weight training into my program...so today we pulled one of our tv's from the basement to the living room (I wasn't using it there because we have tile and it's so cold) and hooked up the Wii Fit. It's been soooo long since I'd been on it. I'm committing myself to using it everyday for the next 5 weeks and 15 minutes 3 days per week with my stability ball working on my core. The most amazing thing happened though, it read my bmi as NORMAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm attaching a picture and will put it into my profile as well. I'm not counting it for really being at goal because my bathroom scale matches the one at my surgeon's office (well it's actually 2 pounds heavier) and their scale reads heavy, so I like that mine does too. It was just so cool to actually see a normal bmi :thumbup:. I know I'll be there for "real" this month if I pump it up a notch.

I hope it all works out for you.

I'm happy for you that it went well, congratulations!

Yay! You are 10 days away...it will be here before you know it.

I'm so sorry. But it is healing and from your other post, you are losing, so good job!

I'm so happy for you that you are back into your exercise routine...good job!

I had to have an EKG, upper gi series, full blood work, psych eval, and sleep study. It seemed like a lot to get done at the time. It wouldn't hurt to ask your surgeon if you'd like some other things done...he might order them as well. For me I felt good about those requirements and being self-pay, I wasn't going to push it unless I really felt something was missing.

You are one beautiful lady Shanda! Congratulations on all your weight loss success AND life successes!!!

I'm so happy for you!!!!

Congratulations on your date! Not a whole lot of advice here except to find things that keep you motivated. I found looking at before/after weight loss pictures really helped me stay on track (it didn't matter if they were sleeved people, rny, lapband, ds, or just plain dieters), but I didn't have to do liquid, I did low carb. Also know that the pre-op diet is the hardest part of most people's journey, so when it's over, it should be pretty smooth sailing. Good luck! And come on here to get all the support you need.

Congratulations, you are well on your way now!

Today I had a gyn appointment. When the nurse took me back to get my weight she moved the 50 pound weight to 0, thinking I weighed under 150 lbs. :thumbup: She did have to move the 50 pound weight over again, but I was wearing my jacket (it was so cold, I wish I had taken it off--I could have had a weight under 150 on their scale). At Jazzercise tonight I weighed in on their scale and it read 151.4 lbs. Even though it's not my scale and doesn't really count, I can't believe actually weighing in the 140's is an actual possibility for me. It completely blows my mind!!! Not everything is roses and sunshine though. Although my weight loss has slowed down (I lost 9 pounds in December-less than any prior month), my lose skin is getting worse. Maybe it's just finally catching up with me. My arms (triceps) are so flappy...I've made a decision to start using 10 lb weights when I exercise. The upper part of my tummy has a lot of lose skin as do my upper inner thighs. BUT, I'd take these issues over being unhealthy and fat any day.

The first 6 weeks I tracked my food intake (off and on) on dailyplate, but it was more to keep track of my Protein. My nutritionist never gave me a calorie guideline, but did tell me an estimated size of my meals (cups, oz, etc.). The first month I was usually between 300-600 calories per day, my surgeon explained how he used a 32 bougie (sp?) and then also oversewed the staple line, so I think I was pretty swollen. Now at 5 months out I'm guessing I get in between 600-900 calories per day. It's working for me and I don't ever feel deprived.

I can drink that in about 15-20 minutes--cold, room temperature doesn't seem to bother me, like MrNick said, if I swish it around. When I'm in the middle of exercising sometimes I can drink quite a bit really fast and it goes down smoothly and other times I have to take just a couple of tiny sips.

I'm sorry your are going through this, but glad you are on the mend somewhat.

I think you may want to talk with your gyn since it sounds like it started happening before surgery. My fibroids were said to be the cause of my extra long/weird periods before they were removed.

Yay Carolyn!!! Those numbers are terrific!

I never got a card, but do eat out quite a bit. I have gotten REALLY used to eating leftovers, my husband likes his own meal so we typically don't share. But I do wind up throwing quite a bit out (I won't eat them more than two days old) so we might have to rethink our sharing policy.

I'm glad you figured it out Lauren. My nutritionist/surgeon also said 30 grams or under and I pretty much did that until 3 months post-op and then decided to add fruit back in, which upped the carbs considerably. My weight loss started to slow quite a bit at that point, but I still lost. Good luck!

I'm very glad he is exploring further. I hope they figure something out soon.

My nutritionist/surgeon cleared me for mushy/soft food at about 2.5 weeks out. From what I remember (and it's a little fuzzy) I started with cream soups with meat and then progressed to purred meats with sauce. I was eating 3-4 baby spoonfuls at a time (this also meant I ate more than the three meals a day that my surgeon recommends). Since you cannot feel your full signal yet until it's too late and that seems to be what causes a negative reaction and not the food, maybe cut your portions in half for now. It definitely was a learning process at this point for me. Good luck!