Lee

Hi Michelle, I was just talking about this at a support group meeting last night. First, congratulations on your upcoming surgery! I went back to work on day 7. In hindsight, I think if I had the option to have more time off, I would have taken it. Going back to work so soon used all of my energy. I think it would have been nice to pamper myself a little more, get my energy back up and use the time to really get a good exercise routine in place. I think that moving is an important part of this journey because it helps us feel good and vibrant. Please keep in touch and let us know how you're doing!

JudyJudy, Great to see you around here again! Heck girl, look at you... 4 months out and more than 1/2 way to your goal. That doesn't seem so slow to me. Thanks for sharing your experience. We're all going to get to goal so let's have some fun along the way.

Jen, I don't have any words of wisdom, but I have as many hugs and prayers as you want. Please take good care of yourself. I know your doctor will take good care of you and help you to heal.

Hey Samie, get some no sugar added fruit popsicles. I melted one and it was two ounces of fluids. In the first 5 days I was supposed to get in 20-32 oz of fluids and those popsicles really helped me out. I kept a glass and just tossed the sticks in so that I could add up the ounces. I also really like Sobe Lifewater 0 calorie. It has carbs but I wasn't worried about that at the time. The Fugi Apple Pear flavor was incredibly refreshing. (hated the pomegranate - too sweet). Find something that you like to sip and have at it. I found it easy to get in my 64 oz by day 5 as required by my program. Sobe Lifewater and hot herbal tea. I'd drink chicken broth for a change of pace. It all gets easier each day.

I love this site and everyone here! Thank you all for all the positive feedback. I really like this Sleeve of mine. I think I'll keep it!

Hello Team, Just a quick wave hello as I'm in the office. I just wanted to remind everyone that tonight is Kaiser Support Group night if anyone is interested. Love to see any/all of you! Doing ok. Finally figured out how to manage soft foods without taking that one bite too many. What a relief to be keeping food down. After two weeks of eating right with only 1/2 pound down each week, this week is 3 pounds so my body is ready to let go again. I love wearing 18's instead of 22's! Hope to see familiar faces at the meeting tonight!

HA Tiffy! I have good reasoning powers. PMW, I used to take potassium at night when I was doing Low Carb eating. I haven't had any potassium since VSG so that wasn't a difference for me. The Calcium however was the only difference. Ok, I'm off to take my calcium and Vit. D before bed! I'll see if it happens again tonight. Hopefully NOT!

I don't take additional Iron either. Being over 50, I need an additional 500 mg of Calcium so I take one mid-morning, mid-afternoon and after dinner. Anna, as far as the spacing of the multi's, I think it's better to take one in the morning and one in the evening. I'm trying to get in at least 1 Twin-lab multi capsule a day right now. I'll up it to two as soon as I get them 1 routine down. I've always been bad about Vitamins. Before I figured I was eating such a healthy food plan loaded with fruit and veggies, that I didn't need them. UGH UGH UGH I got calcium capsules and had a tough time with them so I ordered the BA citrate chews. I'm waiting for them to arrive. Last night I forgot to take my evening calcium and had foot cramps all night. I wonder if there's a correlation between the two. That was the only thing I could think of.

From what I've learned, we do absorb Citrate better. We can only absorb 500 mg of calcium at a time so we need to space it out into 3 portions. Also, we need to take our Multivitamin 2 hours from our calcium for best absorption. After surgery I was taking the soft calcium (carbonate) chews because I figured something was better than nothing. I just ordered the citrate chews from Bariatric Advantage. They were having a buy 3 bags, get one free sale.

Hi Diane, My surgery was 2/17. I'm like you, not a lot of room in there. I can eat 2 oz of Protein, sometimes 3 if it's fish or shrimp. After that, not much room. If I'm out I'll try to eat a bite or two of spinach but I don't bother cooking it at home yet. Sometimes I try to get in one or two strawberries after my protein but sometimes they come right back up. Last night felt like my biggest meal yet. 1.75 oz of nitrate free breakfast ham with a fried egg on top and a touch of cheese melted on it. I find that if I melt cheese it goes down more easily. That was my first whole egg. Frozen shrimp is simple to make with a little cocktail sauce it goes right down. What works best for me is to add sour cream and salsa to foods so that they're wet before they go down. I had to eat it really slowly, which is what we're supposed to do anyhow. I eat a lot of lean ground turkey (2 oz) sometimes adding a spoon of refried Beans before sour cream and salsa. Eating just feels like something I need to do right now, but I do get hungry between meals. I find that eating slower allows me to eat more which is good because I want to up my calories a little. When I started on soft food I ate too fast and a few times it came back up. What kind of things are you eating?

Russell, I'm so happy to read that you and your wife are doing so well. I too had difficulty sleeping at first. It gets better!

Miss B~ you are looking just fabulous!

Ali, have fun with Liz today! Be sure to come back and wow us with your surgery date! :smile2:

Hello, I'm six weeks out. I had the runs from day 5 to 10 but realized it was from a whey Protein shake that I added on Day 5. When I stopped that, everything was better. By around day 14 I could tolerate it again and now I'm just fine. Hunger for me ... I felt it return on Day 10. When I moved to pureed foods on Day 14 it really stopped. Now at 6 weeks, I eat 3x a day and I do get hungry right about the time I should eat again. Lighter Proteins like fish and I tend to get hungry a little sooner. That said, it's nothing like pre-op hunger, just a little nagging feeling that it's time to eat. Nothing wrong with that!

Darn you girl, not a single picture! I'm so glad to hear that you all had a great time. Linda, hope your little one is feeling better this morning.

Hello, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter or Happy Passover, depending on what you celebrate. Doing ok here except that I've been home with a cough for three days. This is the same ailment I had the week before surgery. It sucks that nobody wants to play with me while I'm sick! Upped my Protein and calories and got the scale to move again. Eating has been fairly easy. Three meal w/no Snacks. My challenge is to not eat that One bite too many. Even measuring 1/4 to 1/3 cup doesn't guaranteed that it's not too much. Wishing you all a happy week! Kaiser Richmond is this Wednesday.

Hey, so we want to know how it all went? How fun was it? Inquiring minds want to know.

Welcome Moka! I don't need veggies, but I definitely need all of the wonderful people here for success with my new Sleeve. Congratulations on getting your Sleeve next week. Please be sure to let us know how you're doing!

Citygal, Oh my goodness. Thank you for reminding me about Dress for Success. I have a lot of business type clothing. I'll remember to donate to them! Thank you again and good luck with your revision!

I do a few things with my clothes. 1. Donate to the Aids Thrift Store. I love knowing that people can go get free Aids testing. 2. Take things to a monthly OH luncheon that I go to. 3. Sell them at a Large Size Consignment shop that my friends own. 4. I send them to a friend back east. I did a lot of closet cleaning pre-op of things that I hadn't worn for awhile that I hoped I wouldn't fit into for long. Now that the 22's are too big and I can fit into 16 or 18 pants, it's time to do it again.

Thanks for the link!

Good luck with your surgery. You'll be waking up in recovery before you know it. How smart of you to plan a spa day to help you relax. I had to remove all nail polish pre-op and couldn't wait to get back for a pedicure and manicure! I'm thinking it's about time for a good massage.

Hi Scorch, Welcome to VST! I work a desk job too. I had surgery on a Wednesday and started back to work at my home office the following Tuesday. I work around 6 hours a day that week, then returned to my office the following Monday. We all heal at a different rate. I'm 59 and I think that as we get older it takes a little longer to heal. I don't have any answers to the credit as I had mine done at my Kaiser. Do you have health insurance at your job? Might they cover it? You may want to explore that option and see what you come up with. hair loss? I'm only 6 weeks out. I bet others will come and throw in their opinions but you've already gotten good advice from QueenDiva, go find a wig! You may want to find a wig now and start wearing it so that it will be familiar to you once you have the surgery. Good luck and please let us know how you're doing! :blushing:

I was able to get my 64 oz of fluids in by Day 5 as recommended by my program. I took it as mandatory so I sipped all day and ate no sugar added fruit popsicles (2 oz each). I also drank a lot of Sobe Lifewater 0 no cal Fugi Apple Pear flavor which tasted like pear juice to me. The 20 ounce bottle has 15 carbs but I was more concerned with getting in my fluids than the carbs. On day 5 I moved to full liquids and used greek yogurt to get in Protein. At that point I had lactose intolerance and couldn't do whey shakes. On day 10 I moved to Muscle Milk Light and could tolerate them. By around day 14 my body had adjusted and I could start back on the Whey Protein Shakes. I really didn't worry about the protein much until I got to the pureed food stage. My Kaiser program doesn't believe in protein supplements but I'm using some shakes now at 6 weeks or I wouldn't be getting in the protein that other programs advise. Anna, while I tracked everything in myfitnesspal dot com, I didn't worry about the calories or carbs until I was several weeks out. At your stage I was getting under 200 calories a day. Maximize your weight loss in these first weeks as it's the easiest time to lose. Keep hydrating and you'll be just fine.

LOL, great post. I loved reading this. :blushing: