Ky.hen

My pain was not bad at all. I was afraid of what it was going to be like because of the left shoulder. I have problems with that shoulder and have had to get cortizone(sp) injections in it. I was very suprised at the small amount of pain that I had. The worse thing for me was the nausea on the second day and I recieved IV meds for that. It was gone the third day.

Thank you so much Mountain for your kind words of encouragement. I'm feeling great and ready to go back to work on Tuesday. I have lost a total of 19 lbs. now and I'm working on a scrapbook/weightloss journal with all the pictures from Mexico. This is helping me to see my journey in a very positive way. Maybe someday it might help someone else. I'm enjoying the cleaning. I feel like it is helping me declutter my house and myself to start a new and positive life. I want to be able to invite friends over more often and focus more on that than sitting around wondering what I'm gonna eat next. LOL Good luck on your journey too.

All I have wanted to do since surgery is clean. I have cleaned 4 rooms from top to bottom and taken 7 boxes of odds and ends of stuff to the donation center. My husband wants to know what I am going to do after I get all the rooms cleaned? LOL

Alex, Hope you have a great birthday today. Do you have anything special planned? Do something fun!:001_smile:

Cajun, you are right. I got my papers back out and I don't see anywhere about when we can have fruit. I will e-mail Gabby tomorrow.

Hi Jade and welcome to the VST family forum. You are gonna love it here. Congrats on your date and please keep us informed of your progress.

Good luck tomorrow Ivy. Just go slow and easy. I have a watermelon just calling my name. I think I might just make a smoothie first. I am a little afraid of something getting stuck.

Thank you for that info. I was wondering about that this morning.

It is so good to hear from you. Glad you are doing better. I am 8 days out and the 2nd and 3rd days were the worst for me. I am doing great now and you will too. I'm down 18 lbs. and off my BP meds already. I promise things will get easier everyday.

Congrats, on your dates Jo and Jenn. Now you will be sleeve sisters for sure. Looking forward to hearing all about your journey.

Alex, Thank you so much for the new ipod. I just love it. When I got home from getting my sleeve surgery, it was waiting for me. :thumbup: Again, thank you. I will post a picture of me and my new pink ipod sometime this week. Judy

Hey Susan, Sorry about your tummy. It may of been a little to early to start the full liquids for your new tummy. You are right though about the latose int. Maybe you can wait a few days and just try a bite and see how that works for you. Also try the gasX strips that melt for bloating. They helped me. I have had diarhea off and on ever since we had to drink that nasty blue apple juice. My new tummy does not like apple juice. Hope you feel better soon. Judy

Tiffany, I"m so happy for you guys. Love the pictures and your son is so cute.

Hi Ivy, Good to hear from you. I'm better today. I do know my headache was from the spinal. The pressure from the plane only made it worse. I don't have any allergies. How are you doing now Ivy? I have been feeling a little head hunger. Was even dreaming I licked all the flavoring from a whole bag of Doritos. LOL

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes. My headache is getting better everyday. Looking forward to having some sugar free pudding and cream Soup this weekend. JudyJudy I had my surgery done in Mexico at the Almater Hospital by Dr Aceves and his team. It does not take long to get a date. They e-mailed me some available dates to choose from. I had checked out a local Dr. and it takes months to get a date for surgery. Cost was going to be over $18000. So, I did more research and decided to have Dr. Aceves do my surgery. The cost to me was $9000. This included everything. Plus one night at the Lucerna Resort and 3 nights in the hospital. The hospital is right over the border from California. I was very pleased with my decision. Hope this helps.

Ferocious--means savage, fierce, wild

Thanks for the info. That was really helpful. I finally heard back from Gabby. She said my headache was not normal and must be stress related or I must be getting a cold. I don't have a cold and this is not a stress headache. I do feel a little better tonight and hopefully it will be gone soon.

This is a great idea Vegas. I will be needing lg. tops soon instead of 1X. I'm only 5'1'' and have to wear short pants or capris. I'm going into size 20 or below. I am down 14lbs already. I would be happy to pay postage. Thanks.

No, Dr Aceves said to enjoy whatever you like within reason. My husband and I had grilled burgers and fresh cut fries. So good. I had a banana later for a snack. I didn't want to push anything very spicy before surgery. Then you shouldn't eat or drink anything for about 8 hours before surgery.

Nancy, I stayed the first night in a hotel, surgery the next day and stayed 3 nights in the hospital. I will try to edit and make it a little more clear. My husband stayed in the hospital with me. There was a large soft leather sofa in the room. Thin, You are right, we always blame our husbands. LOL You know they are the ones that made us fat in the first place right?

Hello friends, I was just wondering how many of you all had headaches after your surgery? Mine was terrible the last 3 days. But, it would only hurt if I would bend my head forward or try to lean forward. I went and had my blood pressure and sugar checked yesterday. They were normal. No more BP meds. for me. Yeah! My headache is easing up this afternoon. I called my Dr. back and was told it was probably from the spinal anesthesia. And also from the pressure on the long flight. I am also waiting to hear back from Gabby. Thanks everyone for you concerns.

Hello Friends, I had my surgery on Oct. 1, 09 with Dr Aceves and his team. My hubby and I arrived in San Deigo on the day before surgery. Ernesto (driver) was waiting with a sign with my name on it. We then met some other surgery pts. that had arrived. We started our 2 hour drive to the hospital with Ernesto telling some history of the area and pointing out some interesting sights. The ride didn't seem that long as we all got to know each other. We arrived at the hospital and were greeted by some fellow sleevers that were ready to go home. It was a thrill to get to meet some friends from VST. We were taken into a waiting room and called out to different rooms to have tests done and talk to Dr. Aceves and his staff. They were very friendly and thorough about explaining everything that would be going on during our stay and the surgery itself. We didn't have to wait very long to get everything done. They were very prepared. Had our names already on the specimen cups and blood tubes. Everything was very clean and the nurses all wore a mask and gloves when doing any procedures. We then left for the hotel about 10 minutes away. It was super nice and very comfortable. We ate a delicious dinner there walked around awhile to see the sights and went to bed early. I also took the medicine Dr. Aceves gave me to take before going to bed. (antibiotic and sleeping pill) Ernesto picked us up at 7am the next morning and took us back to the hospital. We were greeted by the friendly staff and taken to our rooms. The hospital rooms were more like a guest room in a home than a hospital room. There was even a large soft leather sofa for my husband to sleep on. Very, very clean room. I had a little time to meet some other friends from VST that were already there. Lucy came in and gave me two medicines to take and said my turn was next. Another nurse came in and gave me an injection of blood thinner in the stomach. I didn't even feel it. Then off to surgery I went. I got my IV put in after I was asleep. I woke up a little while later and was taken to my room. I did not have any pain. I napped off and on for a while. I am glad I took my own pillow from home. The hospital pillows were like hard plastic rocks. When I was more fully awake I went to the bathroom. The nurses kept checking on me quiet often and offering meds. if needed. Later that afternoon I still felt great. Still no pain. I got up and walked all around the hospital, visited and talked with new friends. Dr Aceves met me in the hall and said, "I thought you had surgery today." LOL The doctors were great. They came in the room several times a day to check on me. The first night I woke up being sick at my stomach and having dry heaves. Not fun. I was feeling a little pain when I would turn over in bed. I felt really bad the 2nd day with nausea. I was given meds. through the IV for this and it helped. But, I kept thinking to myself, what have you done? Why did my husband let me do this? I must have been crazy to do this. My emotions were a mess. I was wondering how I was ever going to stand the trip home. Then Lucy came in and brought this big glass of blue apple juice and said, "you have two hours to sip this all down for your leak test". Yeah, right. It took me two hours to force myself to get down about half. I passed that leak test though. I will never drink apple juice again. That same day, I was brought lunch. Orange Crystal Light, warm tea and you guessed it, apple juice. I used a teaspoon and sipped on the Crystal Lite. It was really good. I took a nice warm shower that helped me to feel better. Later that night I was brought the best chicken broth I had ever tasted, tea, Crystal Lite and more apple juice. I asked for pain meds., nausea meds. and sleeping meds. at bedtime. I wanted to be out of it for a few hours. No doubt, I slept well. The third day, things were better. No pain. I was ready for more chicken broth. My husband would always do me the favor of grabbing the apple juice off the tray and drinking it before I could smell it. Dr. Campos came and got me for another leak test. It was not bad. I passed with flying colors. It was interesting to watch the computer screen. You could see the liquid going through your tiny stomach after you took a drink. Lucy was nice enough to take pictures of this procedure for me. Hubby had went for coffee. Later, I went to the cafereria looking for him. He was sitting in there with this huge square plate of pancakes dripping in butter and syrup and a stack of bacon. I had to get out of there quick. The wonderful smells were more than I could handle. I went back to the room for more broth. I took a nap that afternoon and when I woke up I had beautiful balloons tied to my bed from my new sleeve sister, Sue. Dr Aceves came in again to check on me and said, "I was doing great." He said, "he wanted me to fart as much as possible." LOL, Well let me tell you, all my new white underwear look like they have been blue tye dyed now. (from that darn blue apple juice) Takes me back to the 70's. You will also be pooping blue for a week. I took another shower, packed and went to bed early. This was my third night in the hospital. I slept great with the help of a little sleeping pill. Ernesto was picking us up at 7am the next morning and I wanted to be well rested for the long trip home. I slept like a baby and was ready to go back to the blue hills of Kentucky. The doctors came and visited again and wanted us to keep in touch. They really care about thier patients. We loaded the van again and off to San Deigo we went. Ernesto shared more history with us. He also shared that he had sleeve surgery done 6-7 months ago and had lost 80lbs. He is also does massage therapy. We went through the border without any problems. The officer on duty said that Dr Aceves had done his lap band surgery last year. LOL When Ernesto found out that I had never seen the Ocean, he drove down to the habor so we could do a little sight seeing. It was beautiful. He also showed us the street where the movie Top Gun was made. We made it to the airport in plenty of time. Hubby ate Mac Donalds and I made some chicken broth from the powder packet in Ramen Noodles. Said, goodbye to our new friends and boarded the plane to Alanta. Had an hour layover in Alanta before boarding another plane to KY. After boarding the plane, we were told the plane had problems and couldn't take off. We had to wait another 2 hours for another plane to arrive. The flight was only 50 minutes, thankgoodness. The restrooms were out of order and we were told to cross our legs and hold it. We finally made it back to Louisville, KY about 1:30am. Then a hour and half drive home. I fell asleep in the car. I am home now and feel ok except for a slight headache. I am feeling some head hunger and would love to have a grill cheese sandwich. But that is ok, I will have a small one when I am allowed. Would I do it again? Yes! Hugs, Judy

Thanks Vegas, I guess I knew that. Just not thinking clearly yet. The spinal has not helped. I keep having headaches. Everytime I bend my head forward or try to lean forward, cough or sneeze, terrible pain shoots through my head. I had my blood pressure and sugar checked yesterday and they were normal. I guess I just need to take it easy for a few days until it wears off. Thanks!

This sounds so good. Can we have this on clears or full liquids?