Search the Community

I will be celebrating a year from my surgery next week... and I still can't really eat salad. 1) It really fills me up; 2) doesn't really digest well; 3) hard to eat after eating my Protein. It's still "protein first" for me. That being said, one of the local grocery stores has a salad bar with lots of healthy choices. I'll put in a few pieces of Romaine lettuce and then top this with grilled chicken and/or ham. Then some cheese, peas, shredded carrots, a few sunflower seeds and a little Ranch on the side. It usually costs me about $2.35. This way I'm getting in the important protein AND a little lettuce. (The extra toppings are super light in amount.. you know, like 5 peas, 10 sunflower kernels, tablespoon of shredded carrots and cheese.) I literally CRAVE a big salad with Ranch dressing.. basically all of the above, plus croutons. My eyes definitely want to be bigger than my sleeve when it comes to a salad.

Did you find out if Dr. Aceves wants you to be unfilled before you get there? You have almost a month to go. I ate like a little pig before I had my band taken out. I had hot fudge sundaes regularly for a few weeks cause I knew I'd be on liquids for almost a month after sleeve surgery. I probable gained 10 lbs in the month waiting for sleeve surgery. I had lots of last suppers!

Has anyone tryed the Bikini ready Protein shakes? The carb count is low and I just got a good look at the label so is the protein it is only 10 grams of protein.

Best wishes to all having surgery this week. My date is 23/10. I am in Brisbane Australia. Last week I was excited and wishing time away, but since Friday the nerves have kicked in. I don't react well with anaesthesia, and I've been weaning off my antidepressants, so a bit of an emotional mess. My surgeon recommends fasting for 3 days post surgery, then scan to make certain no leaks before starting clear fluids. That doesn't really bother me, but I don't cope without my antidepressants. This has been adding to my anxiety. I having been on protein shakes for a week, but have eaten carbs on weekend. Emotional eating I am also a carer for my mum, and as I'll be in hospital for 4nights, I've needed to organise care & support for her. My husband is very supportive, but just finding I am emotional and irritated by everything this past week. It's good to read others thoughts on here & I wish everyone success.

Anyone what percent chance u have to get a hernia after surgery? 10 days post op...had my post op appt and they said everything looks great...but I still have a little pain...am I just being paranoid?

Hi everyone! (Month before shakes 354, pre surgery 309, current weight is 254) So last few days I’ve been doing 400-800 calories, 60+ protein and 40 or less carbs and my full 8 glasses of water a day, I’ve lost 10 pounds in 5 days, which is awesome because I’ve been stalled for a bit, I was 309 prior to surgery and now I’m 354, I wanna get down to 199. I’m 8 months out of surgery, is it possible to lose it by June? I just feel like it’s not gonna come off how it should now because I’ve stalled and haven’t lost as much as I should. I’m just scared and worried it won’t be off before summer because that’s my goal. I’m doing chicken, fish, meat for protein, veggies (made cabbage soup too), cheese, and yogurt (no sugar and I add stevia) i just still feel discouraged. I’m 24 if that also helps. Will the weight still come off quick even though I’m 8 months out?

I feel your pain or stress as it may be. I am also scheduled for tomorrow and have been questioning everything I have done so far. I cried twice today because I am afraid I forgot something. It doesn't help that my daughter, 10 yeas old, broke her wrist on Sunday and we spent the day trying to get her into an orthopedist because I know I will be out of commission for a little bit. She us such a trooper! I have to try and model myself on her. Together we will get through this. Good luck to everyone! Will keep good thoughts for all of you!

Hi rhodesk. Welcomei I am very new to this site. But I would like to offer you any and all the help I can. I was banded in 2012. Feb. My story is this- I was always heavy. I exercised. Lifted weights. Always considered myself in decent shaoe, but heavy. I was always around 260, but what I considered a healthy 260. Guess i was just kidding myself. But I was strong as anything, so figured it was ok. As a teen I had my run around with an eating disorder. Lost alot of weight that way. Than somehow got over it, thank God, and put the weight on. Was still aroung that 260 mark. Than decided the time was now to fix my weight. So I did a very popular all protein diet, which to this day I swear messed my body up. i lost alot of weight on it. But than eventually went off it. And gained my weight back. 240. 250. 260. Back at that all knowing 260. But than something odd happened. 265. 270. 280. 290. 300. I couldn't believe it. 300. Not my usual 260??? So started to panic. Surely it must stop. 310. 320.330. 340. I was out of control. What went wrong? I started to try and get it under control. Best I could do was with weight watchers get back to 270. And than once off back to 340. I was upset. Hated everything. My wife decided she was going to get banded. She wanted me to also. I wasn't ready. I said I could do it on my own. So on my 40 birthday I once again said I will loseeight! If after a year I don't lose anything than I will get help. One year later The scale had me at the same exact weight. And that was it. So while taking her to an appointment I calmly looked at the receptionist and said- can I have an appointment too. My wife was floored. Ironicly, and without any planning, I got banded one year to the day later than my wife. Same exact appointment time too. LOL. So I have been on this journey since. I have seen success and failure with the band. My cousin lost alot of weight, but proceeded to put it ALL back on. Which scared the heck out of me. My friend has been pretty successful. My sis in law, not sure why she even bothered cause she never took one day of it seriously. She never lost a pound. And truthfully, didn't deserve to after the way she neglected it. My wife was doing great right off the bat. But soon we went through our share of family dilemas, mainly brought on by her sister. And were those dilemas doozies. So stress? oh yeah we had that. I went off my diet for about six months. gained back 10 pounds. Which I was more than happy about cause I figured it would have been much worse. So the day after Christmas I went back in. Since then I have dropped twenty pounds and am going strong. Well, I just wanted to wish you the best. And again, If I can help in any way please do not hesitate to ask. You can do it!!!!!

Hey Mel, I am not too far behind you...surgery is Jan 19. I don't have to start my diet until after the new year. Jitters haven't kicked in yet, but I'm sure the closer the date gets, the jitters will appear. I have lived and breathed this process since May and I finally got approval the day before Thanksgiving. Sure did make me thankful too! Good luck on your surgery. Looking forward to hearing all about your experience. Sheila

Got the call today the lady that takes care of ins for True Results in Houston sent in my file today she said it could take about 10 days I have bcbsil . A coworker just had the gastric sleeve done and didn't pay anything so we will see!

Congrats on your surgery. Whoo hoo! Only eating a couple of spoonfuls (about 1/4 cup) is very normal at this stage. Are you eating slowly (taking 10 - 20 minutes)? I used to eat from a teaspoon or a small toddler sized fork & almost just dipped them in my food - never a full spoonful. The pain sounds like your restriction. It’s a signal you’ve had enough. Mine also kicks in when I eat too quickly. But as with all things that seem odd or cause you pain speak to your medical team. There’s a lot of swelling after surgery at the top of your tummy but it shouldn’t still be causing you issues this far out. I struggled to swallow anything for a few days after surgery. Carried a sick bag for days cause I was constantly spitting up salvia. Not pleasant. You could also be holding some tension in your body because you’re sub consciously fearing you’ll have pain/discomfort when you swallowing as you did after surgery. The tension then causes the pain like a self fulfilling prophecy. Just a thought but again talk to your medical team. Generally, your tummy is pretty sensitive & cantankerous in the beginning & you may find a lot of foods don’t sit well. Food you can eat one day makes you ill the next. It does take a bit of trial & error to work out what food keeps your tummy happy in the beginning. This does all settle & you’ll find you’ll be able to eat most things in time. Personally, I still find potatoes too heavy to eat - they sit like a lump in my tummy. Multi vitamins would make me nauseous every morning. Vomited a couple of times too. I split the dose - one in the morning, one at night & always after food. Good luck.

I started my 10 day diet a week early, just to get the kinks out. My surgeon doesn't require a liquid diet prior to surgery, but a maximum of 1400 calories from a recommended "healthy" foods list. It was a drastic calorie reduction and I felt like caca the first few days. I'm feeling better this week. Hope you're feeling well soon too!

started at 350 17 months into it Im 112lbs down 8 from goal but Im thinking I might go 10 or so lower then my goal. Its been a great trip, hate to say it seeing how many have to work hard for it but its been a peice of cake for me lol would of been at goal months ago but drink to much beer. Good luck and good job to all of ya.

Down 56lbs since July 27. Lost 29lbs on two week preop diet. Had Surgery Aug 10 and lost the rest since then. Go for 1st fill on sept 21. I am walking and I am up to 35min a day.

About 7 months out and down about 95lbs. I’ve had 3 fills and 1 unfill and currently at my sweet spot. I lost weight pretty steadily at about 1-3 lbs per week right from the beginning. I didn’t exercise at all the first five months. Didn’t really feel the urge because the weight was coming off fine on it’s own. I went in for a hydrostatic dunk test about 2 months ago and was pleasantly surprised to find out that my Body Fat (this is not BMI) was about 22%, which is Average for a guy of my age. I was inspired though to get my Body Fat down to 15%, which is considered Ideal. However, to get down to 15% I would not only need to lose another 10-20 lbs, I would have to do it while gaining muscle. Well, I like a good challenge – especially one I feel I can make. I have been hitting the gym since and it is working. I went back for another dunk test a few weeks ago and I dropped down to 21%. At this point, I think I am about 10 lbs away from attaining that 15%.

Banded 1st July! Change for life! :tongue_smilie: After much research i was under the impression i'd be fine after a few days. Ha ha ha.......was i fooled. It is now July 6th - the smallest thing exhausts me! Luckily took 10 days off work following surgery, so i'm hoping by next week all will be well? I've found the mix of liquid diet and medication quite difficult.......strong painkillers on more or less empty stomach cause sickness and nausea. Luckily surgeon said i could have creamy soups to get some protein - which has helped! Cant wait to start on mushies!!!!! :thumbdown:

I was banded 7/10. I didn't have to do a pre-op diet. Just liquids the day before surgery. I've lost 27 lbs and just had my second fill. I don't feel any restriction yet and can pretty much tolerate anything. I do notice I don't get that hungry like I used to.

I am a twenty-ten gal.... What did they do in 1910...I doubt they said 19 hundred and ten or one thousand nine hundred and ten.... to me, twenty-ten, sounds better

I just saw my doc this past Wednesday for my preop and asked the same question. He told me that though he is comfortable performing either procedure, he likes scientific data. The rny has been performed for 30 or 40 years with very high success rate and the sleeve has only been performed for the past 10 years so it doesn't have the longterm data to back it as rny. So I chose rny because I feel the same way. Something interesting though while at my appt...all of us in the group that day were asked if we wanted to participate in a blind random clinical research study for a single incision gastic bypass. Being random you wouldn't know which surgery you were getting until you woke up but my doc did the first single incision rny back in 2004 and is coming to the end of his clinical trial...thought that was interesting though I opted for the normal 5 incision...he said the single is a bit more difficult and a little more post op pain involved. Good luck with your decision! I wish you the best!

1. If you think it is a magic bullet. Bariatric surgery is not a magic bullet. It will help you lose weight but the responsibility is on you to keep going and maintain that loss. Regaining all of the lost weight is very possible and not even that uncommon. People who do not commit to a healthy lifestyle after the surgery are highly vulnerable to regain. Unlike diets, regain with surgery is delayed. On a diet people usually gain weight back within a few weeks or months. With surgery, people won’t begin to regain the weight until 18 months to 2 years. People who feel like surgery is a magic bullet will not be prepared for the commitment and will end up on the road to failure. 2. If you think it will be easy. Bariatric surgery involves an extensive process of nutrition counseling, temporary liquid diets, and pre- and post-surgery meetings and preparations. Most clinics will ask that you lose some weight before the surgery, start on a special diet, and exercise. If you find a clinic that does not ask you to go through multiple steps like this you should find a new clinic. A good clinic will prepare you for success by giving you the right nutrition, behavioral, and exercise support before and after surgery. If you view these steps as a hassle, then you are not in the right mindset for surgery and will be at high risk of weight regain in the long run. 3. If it is in the back of your mind that if it doesn’t work you will just try it again. Even though people like Carnie Wilson had a second surgery, keep in mind that most people do not. Some surgeons will not want to do a second surgery for you. In fact, they may lose hope in you. Surgeons want to set you up for success. They might not want to take the risk of an additional surgery unless they are very sure you did not squander the results of the first surgery with a blatantly unhealthy lifestyle. Surgery is an intensive and invasive process, only plan to do it once. 4. You Haven’t Truly Made Committed Attempts to Lose Weight. One of the criteria to be eligible for surgery is that you have had numerous failed weight loss attempts. Nearly everyone on the planet meets this criterion, right?! Well, no. If you can’t honestly say that you put your heart and soul into previous weight loss attempts, then you aren’t really meeting this criterion. If your reason for not losing weight in previous attempts was because you were too busy or stressed out to make lifestyle changes, these problems will not go away with surgery. You will need to make the very same lifestyle changes. The difference will be that regaining the weight you lost from surgery will be 10 times more demoralizing than it is from a usual diet attempt. Once again, if you aren’t committed to making lifestyle changes, surgery will not make a long lasting difference.

I had my gallbladder out at 19. I wasn't overweight at that time so with the first attack, the ER gave me pain medication and sent me home. The second attack had me thinking I was going to die so I made my "death bed" confessions to my mother, asked her to give my siblings certain things of mine and wrote a letter telling everyone how much I loved them. I passed out from the pain! Fortunately, the next ER decided to do an ultra-sound sound on my abdomen and I had 3 very large rocks in my gallbladder! Surgery was scheduled for a few days later. Now, besides having to answer to my parents for some of my confessed mischief, I think that having those attacks were the best thing that happened to me. From what I hear from others, the attacks happen more frequently and are worse. Had I known that I had gallstones, I would have never waited for the pain... it's not worth it. Get the surgery.

I had my VSG surgery on October 6, 2011. Before Christmas I started having these weird pains that would start in my sternum and wrap around to between my shoulder blades. I seriously thought I was dying. I had two in December, 2 in January, a VERY bad one in February that drove me to vomiting and pretty much passing out in pain. Most of these only last about 20 minutes to an hour, so by the time I was ready to head to the ER, they were going away. I saw my doctor after that last one though. He told me what I was experiencing were gallbladder attacks. He said it was because of the drastic weight loss. Now my VSG surgeon had checked my gallbladder and said it looked good and was healthy! I was so frustrated to hear that I was now having problems with this. My doctor said that if I could handle the pain with the attacks and that if they weren't severe, I should probably wait to have it removed since I'd had VSG less than 5 months before. Well, Thursday March 29th, I had an attack that last nearly 16 hours and I ended up in the ER because I was out of my mind in pain. They found I had a stone lodged in the bile duct and it was causing problems with my liver and pancreas. I had emergency surgery to have the gallbladder removed and they swept the duct to get that stone out too. They were able to do this laproscopicly. Ends up I was filled with gallstones and several were marble size! I'm about 10 days out now and feel soooo much better! Please don't mess around with the gallstones. They can cause so much trouble with other organs that you DO need to survive!

I had the lap band done in 2007 and I maintained the 100# weight loss w/o gaining for approx. 7 years. The band slipped and was causing a lot of problems so I had it removed August, 2015. I am 11days Post-Op with the sleeve. I am down approx. 10 #'s so far from the last time I weighed the morning of my surgery. Today is my second day back at work and I'm feeling pretty good. I am looking forward to seeing the number on the scale go below 200 again... I start Phase III of my diet in 3 days. Good luck with your journey!!

I was banded on June 5th this year and i'm down 51 lbs. I've been filled twice, i'm at 5 CC in my 10 CC band. I felt huge restriction for the first 3 weeks after my 2nd fill, but now, no as much, so I may analyze it a couple more weeks, but I'm thinking i need another fill. I dont "pig out" persay, but I do eat more than I was able to a month ago. ANyway, congrats on your loss... keep it up!!

Doreen0716, I completely understand. I will be a year out on the 19th of this month and I've been at a stall for 3 months as well. I try not to let it get the better of me because praise God we've come a long way from where we were. I'm down 70 pounds trying to loose the last 10 but it's a serious challenge. I workout and I try not to consume over 1000 calories. I'm going to try to reset my sleeve/body by starting over on the liquid diet and go from there. So maybe that could be a start for you also. I see alot people are doing the keto diet that had the sleeve, so maybe try a diet plan that's fit for you. But whatever the case dont get frustrated re evaluate and keep pressing. I think the process has just slowed for us all after so many months, to me it seems like when i hit the 9 month mark it slowed big time. But keep us posted on your progress.