BlackBerryJuice

Holy crap, 5000 mcg/day? My pills are only 250 mcg each! That'd be a lot of pills to get stuck in my throat, hehe. I don't watch my fat intake and with going out for meals daily, I'm sure I get enough fat when I have a curry, salmon sashimi, or a salad with avocado, etc. Low fat intake definitely isn't a problem here. I rarely measure my Protein intake because of eating out, which makes it complicated to log your meals, but when I've done it, 60-70 grams a day seems to be my normal amount. I have a Protein Bar or shake every day and go for protein-heavy food choices when I eat out (sashimi, roast chicken, grilled fish, etc). I guess if I REALLY applied myself, maybe I could add an extra 20 grams a day with another Protein Shake, but I can only handle so many disgusting supplements. For calcium/vit. D, I use Caltrate chews, the package says 1-2 chews per day for adults and I take 2, so I was hoping it'd be enough. I don't consume very much dairy, though, just skim milk in my tea and some sort of cheese when we eat out on occasion. Should I take more Caltrate?

My nails have been breaking off and splitting at the tips for a good 2 months now - only on my index and middle fingers so far, but originally I only had that problem on my right hand (my dominant hand) and now it's started on the left, as well. I get enough Protein and eat a pretty varied diet. I take a multi and Calcium + vit D almost daily, and B12 on most days. I haven't been taking much Biotin, though - the pills I have bother me because of their coating. I choked on one a few weeks ago, which was a terrifying experience, and today I took one and I can feel it sitting in my esophagus, which feels disgusting - I don't want to end up with pill esophagitis. I've tried putting nail polish on my nails, thinking maybe it'd help hold the split layers together and prevent my nails from getting traumatized further, but it hasn't helped. I live in a dry climate, so I've been making an effort to put body butter or oil on my hands, including my nails, every day, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Am I the only one with this problem? I'm really starting to think it has something to do with my VSG. It's just a minor nuisance, but if I could fix it, it'd be nice. Do you think it's just because I'm not taking enough biotin?

I definitely still like food and embark on occasional culinary adventures, as well as look forward to going out to dinner for specific things. Yesterday I was in the mood for Indian food, and tonight I'm pretty excited about going out for sashimi. The difference is that I care about sweets a lot less - on occasion I'll still want a shortbread cookie or a few dark chocolate almonds, but I never have out-of-control cravings for these things anymore - and I seem to be a bit pickier about food. E.g. my friends and I always scavenge for free food at school, and we used to load up on these hospital cafeteria sandwiches at catering events, but now as soon as I put one in my mouth, I get grossed out by that cheap deli meat, butter on the bread, and overabundance of mayo. After spitting out a couple, I learned to limit myself to the fruit and veggie trays with my scavenging, lol. I've noticed that with a lot of foods that I'd eat before even if I didn't find them to be particularly good per se - now I can't handle crappy, low quality food, it grosses me out even when other people think it's edible. But I still enjoy some raw oysters, a nice spicy beef curry, or ripe, good quality fruit! I'm definitely still a foodie post-surgery.

I wanted to make it to healthy BMI, for sure. I'm big-boned and knew that my happy weight would be on the higher end. I weighed 145 at some point as a teenager and was a bit overweight, maybe 10 lbs, but back then I had no muscle mass to speak of. I've been lifting weights for a decade now, so I knew I'd end up with a much lower bodyfat at 145 this time around. So I figure it'll be a good maintenance weight for me. I think that'd be put me at a BMI of 24. I'm looking at the range of 140-145, not really looking to drop below 140.

From Access Medicine, "Medical Oncology."

I agree, ask for an ultrasound and ask why your PCP is so confident it's a false positive - rather than a legit positive. The pregnancy test measures beta-hCG, which is a hormone produced by the placenta. However, many tumors produce hormones, and some tumors, including some cancerous ones, will produce beta-hCG. So I think that even if your PCP is 100% sure you're not pregnant, you should get a more thorough work-up. I did a quick search on lupus and beta-hCG both on Google and a medical textbook database (Access Medicine) and I didn't see anything that said lupus would ever cause your beta-hCG to be positive on its own.

Did they do a blood or urine test both times? Blood tests are more accurate. Both can show up with false positives, but 2 in a row? The odds are almost 0. Did your PCP explain why s/he thinks you are not pregnant in spite of the positive pregnancy test? I'm no expert on this, but having covered ob-gyn in school already, I don't know how you can say someone's NOT pregnant when you've got 2 positive pregnancy tests - unless you do imaging.

Nice!

Jealous! I was there in June. We flew into Miami, stayed there for 2 or 3 days, then rented a car to drive down to Key West, with a few stops. There are some cute little family-owned motels on the islands, check them out if you haven't booked a hotel yet; many will be right on the shore, so you can bathe and kayak in peace without being bothered by other people. Some of them have lots of character, I think people just buy them out after retiring and pretty much treat the property as their home - we stayed at one that had giant cages with exotic animals in them all over the property! Oh, and to add to the above info re: Everglades - we went there, as well, and I'd recommend paying an extra $10 or whatever it is for the airboat ride. My boyfriend and I had never been on an airboat before, and he still won't shut up about it 6 months later! LOL. We also had some fried gator at one of the roadside shacks there, it's not as expensive as you'd expect, but it's very good and then you get bragging rights - not many people have had gator meat, unless they live on the Gulf Coast! And yeah, I'd definitely load up on Cuban food while you still can. Since I went to Miami before my surgery, it was all fried plantains all the time for me.

I had a couple of really weird ones in the first week. My first night at the hospital, I had some dream about how my surgeon and the rest of his staff wheeled our beds into the basement and conducted some crazy ritual where they all spun us in our beds until we passed out - I'm pretty sure having read Rosemary's Baby only a few months before the surgery played a part in that one. Then when I got home, I had a super-creepy experience where I dreamt a burglar broke into my house and was standing over my bed....then I opened my eyes and he was THERE - it was an actual hallucination that lasted a good 3-4 seconds. I was SO scared. I stopped taking my bedtime painkiller after THAT night!

I am losing a bit more than I'm used to, but it's not too dramatic. Hopefully it stays this way. From what I've seen on here, people seem to lose for 3-6 months, and if I keep losing at this rate, I don't think it'll get to a point where it'd be obvious until like a year later. I just hope it doesn't grow in funny and different from the rest of my hair - I was born with thick black hair, and then it all fell out around 1 year old and got replaced with fine blonde hair, so the potential for some weird color/texture change is definitely there.... I've never had surgery until the VSG, so I have nothing to compare it to. But I don't remember losing hair when I was severely bulimic and doing 2-3 hours of cardio a day as a teenager - when I WAS actually severely malnourished.

SN..............Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.......Lbs to Goal Avilda .................270.............196..............184............12 (12-9-10 191 down 5) Back on track!!! BlackBerryJuice...........208...........155...........155..............0 (Dec. 19th goal - reached a week early!!!!) Brendasgonnalose 335......244.............235............9 ( 12-2-10 241 down 3) Chilo1.............216...................169..............154................15 (down to 165- so set myself another goal 160) Dansha...........220..................220...............195................25;) DJackson........246.................236...............220................16 Filosophia Scandinavia...205...205.............187...............17 (Will be sleeved on the 30th November) Fit ..................290.................250.8..............235.8............15 GayleSBennett ....232.................201................189...............11 Good Luck everyone! =) Juliarh............303.6.................236.6..............225................11.6 Kgremmy........225..................221..............199................22 (being sleeved 12/14/10) Labrys............238..................208.................193...............15 Laylasmojo......242.................200.6.............185.............15.6 LilMissDiva........247...............237.............226.8..........10.2 Lisalu..............210..................137..............130.................7 livelovelaugh....236..................216................196...............20 Maddie............257.................167................147................20 merieri............240..................206...............190................16 Mini-Me...........203...................126..............125.............1.0 Mommy2Girls....275..................256.............240...............16 mp8btpc.........199...................160...............145...............15 pattimomof3NJ.....203.4..........175.3............170...............5.3 to go! (start NY on an even number!) Pumpkin97....220...................150...............143...............7 (this is my goal for Jan 1 2011) Sleeve 4 me ...204...................170..............164...............6 Stacy160.........258..................174...............148...............16 StaySea........299...................299.................275.............24 twoboysandagirl..226..........212................199..............13(being sleeved 12/6) Yay, I reached my Dec. 19th goal (155) this morning! Went shopping yesterday and bought a nice size 8 skirt - I can zip it up, but need to lose about 5 more lbs for it to fit perfectly. I think I'll be able to wear it when I'm back from my holidays on Jan 5th!

I don't know what's with this protein myth...I mean, yes, you have to get a reasonable amount in, but LOTS of people (e.g. practically every vegetarian and vegan) eat only 40-50 grams a day and their hair doesn't fall out. It has to do with the surgery trauma. When you go through a major physical or emotional stress, your hair may arrest in growth and then fall out all around the same time (telogen effluvium). No amount of protein is going to do anything because the arrest happens within days of surgery. Of course, if you are eating like 100 calories and 5 grams of protein a day for months on end, then your new replacement hair actually won't grow in, but if your original hair is gonna fall out, it's gonna fall out whether you eat 20 or 100 grams of protein a day.

I have diet pop a few times a week. Doesn't bother me at all.

Man, my bootcamp pass expired today, so this morning was the last time my boyfriend and I could go....Friday night, I asked him to wake me up in case I wasn't up in time, and of course, I wake up today and realize it's already 30 mins past start time! The bastard didn't wake me up! Claimed he "forgot the time." Considering how many times he stated that he didn't wanna go the day before, I strongly suspect it was NOT a coincidence. I guess we're gonna head to the community gym tomorrow. I couldn't push myself as hard on my own as I do in bootcamp, but I guess I can do some jogging/sprinting and heavy weightlifting, which is different from what I've been doing for the past 5 weeks or so. ARGH!

I agree with this. I think it's also important to make sure you're 100% mentally ready and it's YOUR decision because the surgery may not work out as well as you hope it will. I doubt you'll regret this surgery assuming everything goes well. But imagine that you have bad luck and end up with a leak or infection and have to endure several months at the hospital. You have to make sure you are ready for this risk and if someone else made the decision for you, as a negative post-op experience could mean the demise of your relationship with that person, as you would undoubtedly feel a lot of resentment towards them.

Shows you how shallow people are. You are trying to get sleeved because of health and quality of life issues, and they already have everything you want, but are convinced they won't be happy until they look like these sacks of bones you see in fashion magazines.

Same here. Re: reversibility, I read that in 6 months, the newly folded stomach will fuse onto itself, so you can't really reverse it at that point. I think that if you are seriously expecting to regret your surgery in the first 6 months, you probably aren't ready to have the surgery, period. The only real upside to it I can think of is that since there is no cutting out and sewing things back together, there probably isn't such a thing as a leak with plication. That said, so few people get leaks if they go to a reputable surgeon and follow post-op instructions, I don't know if this is a major issue. I've seen people bring up the issue of stomach cancer with plication and how it could go undiagnosed for a while if it were in the part that was plicated. I understand the concern, but I don't think it's an actual problem. Stomach cancer is not very common in North America - hence why our doctors don't screen everyone for it - and the biggest risk factor is long-standing H. pylori infection (not very common in North America, either). It's easy to test for H. pylori, so I imagine this testing would be done right before the operation, and infection of the plicated part post-op doesn't seem like a real possibility. All that said, I'm open-minded about plication - I definitely don't think it's more dangerous than the sleeve - but I just don't know if there's any real benefit to it compared to the sleeve, and given how new and poorly researched it is, I'd rather go with the tried and tested.

I love your husband's (then-boyfriend's) reaction to your uncle!

The lowermost incision will be at your bellybutton, so any underwear should be fine...unless you like to pull yours up all the way to your bra, haha.

I was eating grapes like 6 weeks out, no problem....seedless, of course. I think they are fine, but try to clarify with your surgeon first.

Same here. I was a huge emotional eater pre-surgery, but now it's almost non-existent. Yesterday I was extremely stressed out, to the point where I punched a wall out frustration and now my hand's all bruised, and MAN did I suddenly get the old pre-op urge to binge....but while it was there, it was nowhere near as strong as it was before the surgery. I made a point of not eating anything until that went away, because I didn't want my brain to conclude that I was giving into that urge and revive the old patterns. Got through it fine. A Xanax would've been awesome, but I didn't have any, so I just played some computer games instead, lol.

I think the sleep issues you're referring to are due to the anesthesia. They are over in a week or so after surgery.

I only had problems with milk (not other dairy) and only right after the surgery. I don't remember when they went away, but I'd say after a month/month and a half? That said, I'm not a huge milk drinker, I just have milk in my Protein shakes (1-2 x a week, I prefer bars) and a small amount in my tea, which probably isn't enough to cause discomfort, anyway. ETA: in regards to your other question, my boyfriend and I go out to eat almost every day. I save the leftovers for Breakfast and lunch the next day - sometimes for as long as 5-6 days, depending on what it is. In fact, I'm currently eating some ravioli in meat sauce that I took home from a restaurant on Tuesday!

Haha! Yeah, it's a fine balance between eating too much and too little pre-workout....I've been on both ends, from almost vomiting to collapsing because of low blood sugar (all pre-sleeve, actually!). As far as protein shakes, if you are doing whey, they are best right after your workout, anyway - it's a fast-digesting protein and your muscles need protein most right after a workout.