BlackBerryJuice

That's true...my boyfriend would always pay for both of our meals when we went out. Now I've told him to put away $20 every time I don't order anything and $10 every time I order an appetizer and put it towards our vacation in Europe next summer. I expect a free trip, lol.

OMG, *vent alert* So I had 4 episodes of major nausea and dry-heaving last night. I called Dr. Aceves and while he thought it was most likely major acid reflux, he wanted to rule out a diverticulum and asked that I get an upper GI X-ray. I went to our university health services (where I go for all my PCP needs) to ask the doctor to request the study. I saw this doc I had never seen before. I gave her the backstory, and as soon as I mentioned having my surgery in Mexico, she had this condescending sneer on her face. I felt the need to defend my choice, so I explained I wasn't about to wait 5 years here til I got to 300 lbs and developed multiple comorbidities and didn't have 20+ grand to get it done here privately. She made some comment about how "I'm not saying the procedure is a bad idea, but going abroad for it was." Well, guess what, 1) I've already done it, so no one cares if you think it was a bad decision 2) I'm not coming here to ask for your opinions on my procedure, I'm here to get a fluoro requisition. Anyway, then I mentioned my weekend trip to the ER and commented about how I got NO imaging done, while someone else I know (someone from the forum here) had fluro done when she went back to Mexicali for some complications. She made some comment about how "They overimage everything in the US." First off, it's not the US, it's Mexico; second, you don't know ANYTHING about the procedure and what the follow-up and the potential complications are, while my surgeon specializes it. So please order the damn fluoroscopy and STFU.:biggrin0: I left FUMING. Called my boyfriend, he encouraged me to file a complaint, and I did just that. SO MAD!:scared0:

Check out my thread about taking pills post-surgery: http://verticalsleevetalk.com/post-operation-vertical-sleeve-gastric-surgery-vsg-questions-answers/8167-pills-all-day-sick-already.html There really isn't any reason for you to grind your pills for 6 months, unless they are giant horsepills like those Calcium ones. You should be able to have whole pills once you can have solid foods.

Just an update, my surgeon said it's very unlikely that this is some sort of delayed reaction to anesthesia or a side effect of speedy weightloss. I did lots of sleuthing on MD Consult and Dynamed, where I proceeded to diagnose myself with eczema rather than hives. I then did some more research and discovered that the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine I received 2 weeks ago has been linked to hundreds of cases of severe eczema.:scared0: Treatment is just topical steroids (10-12 days), and I have some steroid skin cream at home, so I've just been slathering that on since last night. The itchiness is gone and I have tons of skin flaking off, but the redness is still there. When I first put the cream on, I had pus dripping out of my pores within half an hour, it was the sickest thing ever! I went to this social event today and everyone was STARING - I had to preface every conversation with "This isn't contagious, just so you know..." LOL. I hope this goes away soon...I couldn't find any info on the timeline for this stuff.

That sounds really demoralizing. I hope it's sorted out soon. I'm gonna take a 2nd Nexium right now just in case.:scared0:

Just to be fair, you never know why the doc's late. Some of my preceptors have told stories of people having heart attacks or passing out in the waiting room or smack in the middle of the appointment, and then the doctor may spend hours with the person trying to fix things until the paramedics take them away. They obviously won't share this stuff with you because of patient confidentiality, but there's usually a good reason for it, as no one wants to deal with an angry patient who's been waiting for a long time.

I'm gonna disagree with the majority and say that WW is probably not the best choice for you. WW is good for someone who doesn't know how to eat right, not for someone who has a troublesome relationship with food that's plagued by guilt and feeling out of control. I think you'd benefit much more from counselling.

One thing I've found now that I'm starting to have soft foods and am actually able to order something at a restaurant is how much waitstaff STARE at me. I had clam chowder for lunch and was, of course, unable to have more than maybe 1/4 of the bowl over the 1 hour we were there. I'm pretty sure the waitress thought I hated it - she came by 3 times to ask if it were ok! I'm planning to get into the habit of bringing small tupperware with me to any event that involves food. That way I can discreetly put some food away for later AND people don't think I'm anorexic or hate their food or something.

That should be fine. I had mine on Aug. 9 and am back to school Tuesday (31st). The only thing I can think of is that it might be harder to stick to liquids during the holidays! :lol0:

PVL Whey Gourmet is really good. I used to drink it even before the surgery, after my workouts.

I'd sure hope so...:lol0:

Hm, maybe I'll try that. I can relate to the need to set up a million custom foods with Fitday. I used to pay for CalorieKing, which has a ton of brand and restaurant foods, but it's become outrageously expensive lately.

This is really brazen, but might as well set high expectations. BOOTY SHORTS :lol0: http://cdn3.ioffer.com/img/item/518/182/61/o_Shorts20a.jpg

Just an update - I'm taking everything whole now. I have liquid calcium, chewable multi, and sublingual B12, but I take my biotin, BCP, and iron whole. Seems to be fine.

Yeah, I was cleared for it either right away or after day 10, I don't recall.

I won't see my mother until end of December. That's almost 5 months out, so I'll probably be at my lowest weight since age 13 by then - and definitely my lowest adult weight. I can already predict that I'll have a lot of the same problems outlined here. In fact, I'm dreading the trip already. I've already heard enough negative comments. The other day, I told her I've lost 18 lbs and she was like "You need to stop losing weight immediately for your health's sake." Uh, I'm 5'5" and 190 lbs. Then, during the same phone call, she tells me to bring my old clothes for her when I come back. I told her she won't fit into them (she's size 18, my highest was 16), she's like "I'll lose weight! I'm starting to get a belly overhang, can you imagine!" Yes, yes, I can, and the visual of having a giant gut hanging over my pubes is one of the many reasons I went for the VSG.:w00t: Looking forward to having EVERYTHING I eat being dissected and fought over when I'm there. I plan to book a flexible flight so I can get out of there early if they really get under my skin.:w00t:

I'm drinking a lot of fluids, so I don't think it's a problem. Plus it's not just dry skin, it's more like hives or eczema.

OK, my skin's been out of control since about 1 week post-op - my face is constantly covered in red, itchy, dry blotches and no cream/scrub seems to make it better. I keep waking up at night scratching my face. :bored0:There doesn't seem to be any link to what I'm eating, so I wonder if this has something to do with quick weightloss. Anyone else having skin problems post-surgery?

I don't think it's gallstones, as the pain is very much in the epigastric area.

We went on a short walk and while I wasn't feeling 100% and was ready to get back in the car after 20 mins, I didn't feel nausea or epigastric discomfort the way I did yesterday. I hope that with the twice-a-day Nexium, that will go away. I'm just glad I didn't have an actual leak, because I would've probably ended up with peritonitis and sepsis after waiting for 5 hours to see the doctor yesterday.:thumbup: Next time I'll just pretend to be drunk and make lots of racist and sexist comments to the staff, that seems to get you in within an hour.:thumbup:

So we went to the emergency, which was filled with drunks and homeless people, so it took me 5 hours to see the doctor (at 2 am) even though I was triaged level 2. I didn't eat or drink because I was paranoid that I had a leak and was gonna be operated on, so I was fasting for like 8 hours straight and NOT feeling good because of that. The doctor palpated my abdomen and said he didn't think it was a leak, but rather major reflux, but he wanted to run bloodwork for pancreatitis, just in case. We waited for an hour (til 3 am) for the tech to come by, and when she still hadn't, I asked the nurses what was up and they said they hadn't even received the orders yet, and once the tech took the blood, it'd be at least 1.5 hours before the lab returned the results. So I did the math and figured we were gonna be stuck there til at least 6 am. We were both exhausted and couldn't sleep because there were drunks yelling and trying to get into fights with the security, and there was someone shitting themselves next to our pod, so it reeked of diarrhea, which, of course, made me more nauseous and sick. So we packed up and left - I told them I'd just wait til Monday to see my family doc and get the bloodwork done, but they freaking wouldn't let me know what kind of bloodwork they wanted to do. I'm feeling better now, though still not 100%, so I'll see how things are on Monday. I was just praying I didn't have a leak while I was lying there, because if I did have one, the 5-hr wait could've been critical. So frustrating! I'm doubling my Nexium now hoping it's just major reflux or something. URGGGGH. This was my first and LAST (unless I'm unconscious and bleeding in the future) trip to the emergency as a patient.

Update: just went to this concert and by the time I walked one block, I was feeling weak and my stomach was extremely uncomfortable. I toughed it out and got on the train, but once I got to my destination, I began to feel nauseous and light-headed, and my stomach was bothering me A LOT. I bailed on the $100 concert and headed home. Currently waiting for my boyfriend to pick me up and take me to the emergency room. I hope to god it's just really bad reflux or spasms. I feel slightly better now that I'm sitting down, but there's definitely something going on with me.

Have you been there before? I personally can't stand it (then again, I'm not a fan of classic American foodfare, period). That said, I've gone out with friends to restaurants I like since the surgery and was able to eat broth without too much mourning on my part.

3 nights. Seemed pretty good.

Next thing you know, it will be (I suck at this whole syllable thing) Sip-sip-sip Walk-walk-walk Drain bag dangling