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Hey Bud, Don't get discouraged! You are less than two weeks post-op. I lost 10 lbs on my pre-surgery diet and gained back every ounce thanks to the intravenous fluids I had in the hospital. My husband said my tummy was the biggest he had ever seen it in the first days following surgery. You have had your entire abdomen traumatized, and your body is rushing resources to it to aid in healing. It no different from the swelling you have with a sprained ankle or busted lip. I don't know if you would do better with a scale or not. I personally know that I need one. I have done very well, but I don't lose every week, much less every day--even at the first. This is not a 50 yard dash, it is a marathon. And unless you are planning a vacation to Maui in a couple of weeks, there are no deadlines or "use by" dates for losing after surgery. You will get to eat real food before you know it. I remember being hungry while on the liquid stage and my Protein shakes were nauseating. I'm so glad to have that behind me. But I have been amazed that hunger is not really an issue for me. But, the caveat is that I didn't get to 280 lbs by eating because I was hungry. So even the lessening and hunger, while a great gift, does not solve all of my eating problems. Concentrate now on healing, resting, moving, drinking, and you will lose! But even better than the scale moving, you will begin to feel so much better. If you are like me, it takes a while for your clothes to show the loss because they were pretty tight to begin with. And those lumps and bumps didn't come on us overnight and they won't disappear overnight. I will pray for you and wish you well! You have taken the first big step in a long and wonderful journey, as have I.

I am from the Minneapolis area. I will be having my surgery done at Park Nicollet. Thus far, I highly recommend their program. They are very efficient and on top of things. The do RNY, VSG and bands and they can give you good information on all three. Here is their website: http://www.parknicollet.com/bariatrics/. You start the program by going to an info session which is given by a nurse clinician and a surgeon. Most of the nurses their have had bariatric surgery so they know what you are going through. Hopefully that helps you a little bit.

@RJ's/beginning First of all congratulations on your three year anniversary!!You are such an inspiration to so many of us. I am happy that your new life has brought you so much fulfillment and happiness. You are one of the people that I remember reading your posts when I first joined this site. Your posts always gave me encouragement and hope. I actually was wondering about you the other day because I hadn't seen any recent posts. So I am extra glad you are doing so well. Good luck on your skin removal surgery. I know it is something you have been planning for awhile. Keep us posted!!

I was in the hospital three days, came home on the morning of the 4th. Although I didn't have a revision, I had a complicated hernia repair as well as the sleeve. I was tired but fine to fly on the 4th day. I had no nausea and little pain post-op. My suitcase had wheels and I did not pack too much so I could lift it into the overhead bin. From what I hear, Dr. Aceves is an experienced band to sleeve revision surgeon. I had my surgery three weeks after I decided it was what I wanted.

It is amazing how great you start to feel after the surgery. I was skeptical too at first but it was the best decision i have ever made. I am 6 weeks post op and have lost 40 lbs. I feel better than i have in years. My kids are proud and my boyfriend is too. But to him it doesnt matter cause like you he has been with me from the start. Good luck to you and keep up the good work.

Everything above is correct re: exercise and maintenance. That said, it is extremely useful, and perhaps ultimately required, to break out of stalls. I have had three since surgery, and liquid Protein and exercise has done the trick for a good month each time. Your body finds a way to stay at a certain weight without burning fat and that's what causes a stall. With exercise, it can't maintain all its functions and fuel exercise without spending the fat. This continues for a little while if you stop exercising, because it takes time for your body to bring your metabolism back down to maintenance level. You will eventually want to vary up your exercise and definitely include some resistance to avoid muscle loss. Eventually, even with exercise, your body will attempt to enter premature maintenance by learning how to be efficient at the same exercise over and over again. I have gotten down from 286 to about 200 with pretty sporadic exercise, but I am having hard time breaking into Onederland on the same basis, so I am not intensifying my exercise schedule in hopes of continuing past this point.

I’d guess you’ll likely need a my least a month off. I work a desk job and was out for two weeks. However, I wasn’t allowed to life anything over 15lbs for like a month to 6 weeks. It will also depend on your age/overall health. Best thing would be to ask your team when they think you’ll be cleared for regular duty!

BlondeBanshee, I have days where I'm just so damned tired! Don't know why. I'm 49 and I'm menopausal. Why do things that cause women so much aggravation start with "men"? I take all my supplements, exercise, eat what I'm supposed to and yet no huge burst of energy, What the heck? I remember about 2 weeks after surgery I felt so good and had so much energy and then all of a sudden--BOOM! The absolute tiredness settled in. Working full time and running a household has been really kicking my rear end lately. Kathleen

Thats great that you jumped right in. I think thats what i need to do. Just make the damn appointment. I think I will on Monday. If I do, I will be banded in just two short weeks. Scary but good. Thanks for your advise. :shades_smile:

I think many of us have been in your shoes. I am 38 and had this conversation with my grandma recently. She said, "Honey, you know if you just ate less and worked out more, you'd be fine." Okay, after 30 years of that speech, and attempting and failing and constantly disappointing myself, I decided I needed a tool to help me. The band isn't a "quick fix," it is simply a tool to help you and me and others in a fight against obesity and health related complications. I have been so angry at myself for not being able to lose weight for long periods of time. It seems so easy. Eat less, exercise more...but it isn't. If it were easy, you and I would have done it by now. Think about this, we live in a society where everything is centered around food. After I had the band last week, I was watching TV during my recovery and realized that every second commercial was food related. We can go out at any time of the day or night and get food, we are encouraged to "supersize" it and then condemned for the results. We go to dinner where the portions are 3-4 times what is normal and we eat. And food is good, it makes us feel good. After I got the band one of my first realizations was, "OH CRAP! what am I going to do when my first crisis arises and I can't eat an entire pizza?":scared2: And then I resort to my support group, here, my family and my friends. I have had to learn different techinques to solving my own issues. And lemme tell you, the desire to wander into the kitchen and grab something when I am bored, tired and/or lonely still exists. The thought of wondering if I could puree cheese sticks or could I just try to stuff down a little bit of a Snickers McFlurry still exists. And being afraid I will screw this up and fail at even this still exists. But from what I have read here in the past week, I am optimistic. The folks here are good, they have all gone through the same thing and they get it. For 30 years I tried this on my own. I am smart, well educated, professionally employed. I have a Master's degree in social work, I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, you'd if it were about smarts and will power I'd have done it by now. Food is the one addiction that you can't give up. You don't get to throw away the pizza and say, "I'm never going to eat again." Not only is food in your face constantly, but you need it to live. I know in my case, I needed help. And this is the tool I need. I need that measure to tell me to STOP! Because honestly, if given most anything, I won't stop. Don't you remember growing up when your parents made you finish your plate because some there were some poor starving children somewhere that would kill or die for your moose flank and borsht...ugh. Okay...off my soap box now. I just wanted you to know, it's really okay to get help. I did and although it has only been a 5 month commitment and a week post band, I would never look back. Good luck, Chris:redface:

WOW...you sound like me....I am getting ready for surgery this week on Friday.... I am scared. I am on my clear liquid diet right now. It is hard.!!!!!!! I am going to do it though..... I am 37 years old...!!!! No major health problems....but getting there....

Thank y'all! I went for my 6 week nutrition appt. tues and my NUT didn't give me any direction!!! Just wondering!!

I am just coming off of three weeks where I lost no weight and in fact went up three pounds. It was really frustrating because I was eating 100% on plan. I weigh or measure everything -- every gram of salad dressing is assessed and accounted for on MFP. How can you gain weight on under 800 calories per day? But I figure it must have been hormonal weirdness and water weight. Those three weeks where I was stalled/gaining were the same three weeks that my period was late. So maybe my body just bloated up like it usually does pre-period, and then when no period arrived, it kept on going in pre-period mode? I finally got my period on Friday night and when I weighed in Saturday morning I was down 2 lbs from the week before. Hopefully things keep going in this direction. This is the only time I've gained weight since being sleeved 11 months ago. I don't know if you'll find this helpful . . . I hope so!

To actually gain a whole pound it takes eating 3500 calories more than you burn, which is basically impossible in my body right now... But that doesn't mean I don't have Water gain!! When I flex "up", it's because of carbs and hormones. Your body has to retain more water to balance out carbs, so eating a lot of carbs means retaining more water. I am also breastfeeding (STILL...) - so some days I have more milk than others. I usually retain some weight right after my cycle ends (and my chest measures a little bigger), and then lose like crazy for a week or 2 right after I ovulate, then stabilize or flex up a little for a week, then lose again..... It's very very hard to actually put fat back onto your frame. You'll have to eat too many calories over the course of a week or more to add up to a pound "gained". But you "flex" a little throughout the day/week based on hormones and water intake and carbs and such. Go back to basics and take a half-hour walk.

That is such a good example to give! It's so simple and almost common sense but saying in those terms really just made my mind click and think about it differently! I'm only 1 week post op but I'm going to remember this when I hit foreseeable stalls!

So I have heard about this wonderful surge of energy that happens after wls. I am @12 weeks out and down @50 lbs, I am exhausted! Protein, fluids, vitamins and B12 daily, still drained and lethargic. All I want to do is sleep. According to traditional medicine my thyroid levels are normal, I am menopausal. I am 52. Any ideas on what direction I should look for help?

My doctor told me that after 10 days the chance of a leak is less than 1% and after 2 weeks it 0%. He said if I had a leak after 2 weeks, he wouldn't even treat it surgically. It's very important to follow the liquids after surgery. I had to do 10 days of clear liquids. My doctor is very conservative, which is fine with me. He also uses a drain. The purpose of a drain is to alert you to a leak even before you get symptoms. The drain stayed in for the first 10 days then was removed in the office.

I'm barley eating but I deff feel like I eat way more than alot of people on here for 7 weeks out... Also in a stall so am I eating to much? Will I eventually lose weight again?

Ok, I was just getting ready to post about gas. I have been having a lot of problems with my eating due to the gas. I've posted before regarding this and more or less was told that its not gas that is causing my problems. My last dr apointment was right before thanksgiving, and the dr took out .5 cc. I was doing really good and amost no pb'ing for about a month. Then all of a suddent I was pb'ing almost daily. It got soo bad. This last Saturday I couldn't even get down Water. I was scard that the band had slipped. During this week, I lost 1 pound each day. Almost all of my symptoms were similar to a band slip. So Monday, I went to the Dr. They looked at my band under flouro and it was fine, then she moved the flouro down a bit and you could see the HUGE gas bubble filling up my entire lower stomach. This is the 2nd time we've see this under flouro (last time was 2 months ago). I do burp a lot when I eat, but I can't tell when gasy. I have been taking extra strength gas-x about 6 pills a day and it would help for a couple hours and then I would start having the same problems again. The doctor took some of my fill out. I was at 7cc in a 10cc band, which I think is pretty close to my sweet spot. But since I have had soo much problems with the gas, we took out .5 so I have time to recover and get rid of teh gas. Now I can eat almost like I did before being banded. My doctor says when I have that much gas, the gas is pushing up on the band and the food has no place to go, that's why I can't eat or even get water down. So now I have to figure out how to control the gas. I have been reading what types of food causes gas and I really don't eat any of thoes foods. I did find a dietary supplement that is to help stop gas before it starts that I have started taking daily. Also I switched from gas x to mylanta to see if that helps.

At my 3 month I lost 60 pounds,or 70 including the 2 week pro op. SW pre op diet 260.

Honestly? I've been big for so long, I don't have a lot of smaller clothes (a few size 18s that a friend gave me after she had WLS a few years ago, but I was never able to wear them anyway), so I don't have a lot to shrink down into. I did get a pair of denim shorts on yesterday that I've never fit into before, so I was really happy for that...but they were a size 20. I did clear out four huge boxes of 2x, 3x and 22s that I can no longer wear (or won't be able to wear come winter), and one of the local charities is coming next week to pick them up. Hopefully they'll go to a good home (the charity gives clothes away to people in need. I know from experience that they rarely have nice clothes in larger sizes, so now they're getting a ton) I have seen some utterly adorable clothes at Old Navy that I can't wait to be able to fit into. Or hell, even some of the Zumba workout clothes. I'm saving my money for a small shopping splurge before winter so I have enough pants to get me through. I don't mind so much if shirts are too big, but pants that are too big fall off my butt.

I had to go and speak to the psychiatrist and he asked me about my weight loss journey and why I thought that this would work for me. He asked me about doing the liquid pre diet and some other questions. Then I had to go back in a week and see him again and he asked me more about how things were going and such. I had this done when I had my lapband but not my sleeve since I went to Mexico for that one. You will do fine. I have never heard of anyone that has not passed the psych test.

@BorntoDive Thanks! Going to try, hopefully all the rain we've been having here clears up soon. @@InfiniteButterfly Yeah it's a pain in the butt to have to order from them online, if you don't like it you can't just return it to the store.. It's been hit or miss but I've found a few nice pieces through trial and error. See you all in a few weeks!

Not sure if pureed food is included in full liquids, I know it was not in my program. In my mind full liquids are just that, liquids. Broth, protein shakes, popsicles, a little plain greek yogurt and water was all I had for the first 2 weeks. You need to be really careful since you sleeve is healing.

For my post-op diet, I'll be on clear liquids until I leave the hospital, then full liquid / pureed foods for four weeks. I was told the thinner, the better. It should fall through the tines of a fork without any trouble. I do not see any issue with what you ate, except for the rice. My diet does not allow starchy foods until after week 8. Also, you may have just eaten too much. I have been told that for most of the pureed stage, I will only be able to eat two to three tablespoons of food at each meal. Each tablespoon of food is about 0.5 ounces, so four ounces of food would be about eight tablespoons. I'm glad you feel better.