:ohmy: Hi everyone!

My name is Steve and I am 4 1/2 weeks post-op VSG. I have lost (as of Monday) 36.5 lbs and for the most part am doing well.

Here is my story:

I have been having problems with, what I like to call, "Cappuccino foam" and acid.

I was progressing well, and had ever started exploring some soft, but more solid foods last weekend with terrible results. Nausea and vomiting. After a couple attempts, I backed off back to puree, but am still having problems with the foam issue.

Let me back up a second as well. My doctor prescribed me liquid Zantac for the acid, but my problem was that late in the day and early morning I was having huge acid explosions and was basically being burned up from the inside. My remedy for that was to start weening myself off the Zantac to allow my stomach to begin regulating its own acid production, which worked for a few days, with the exception of some late-night acid reflux. The flip side was that my foam had backed off to almost nothing. Well, the late-night acid was starting to be a drag so I started taking the Zantac at night only which helped, but (in retrospect) threw my body into a tizzy.

That was about the time I was 4 days from solids and started experimenting, because I wasn't connecting some of my problems with the Zantac to the food. In any event, my stomach has been very touchy since last Friday, and when I saw my doctor on Monday, he was irritated and assigned me two more weeks of puree and Zantac three times a day to combat the in-between acid. I am sticking to the plan, but now the Zantac is giving me copious ammounts of foam, enough to start my own Starbucks.

I am having to drink hot tea before every meal, just to get puree down.

Here are my two questions:

1) Are there any tricks other than hot tea and ice chips to knock down the foam or stop/slow production?

2) How long does the acid overproduction last, and how long is typical to stay on antacid?

You don't mention if you have tried Prilosec. For me that worked really well. Better than Nexium that cost a lot of money. Try the OTC Prilosec and see if that makes a difference. Popsicles also were my life saving thing when it came to an upset stomach.

Prilosec works wonderful for me as well. After I ran out of the Nexium Mups from Mexico, it was the only thing that saved me.

I love muscle milk light too. Not that many people like it . they say it's too sweet. I think it tastes great.

Try those tiny cans of chicken salad. They were a savior for me in the beginning. they are just the right size and extremely cheap.

I'm on my second week of liquids. I took my Pepcid and it has gone away. Dr. said that was propably the case. Have you gone to the world according to egg on my face website? She's got some amazing recipies. I'm having food envy right now...LOL.

I'll let you know how things go after a few days. I'm getting to try cream Soups etc....

Glad your feeling better for sure!:lol0:

Yeah, I have been to her site. When I was about week 3 I had such food envy, my fiance would wait till I was in the shower to eat! lol.

Hang in there!

I survived on potato-leek Soup, Protein shakes, and a chili's-style chicken enchilada soup I made.

Be careful with lentil or bean soups cause the shells can cause some real discomfort!

I had egg drop soup today...pretty good. My challenge now is some of the medicine I'm taking. One of the pills causes MAJOR heart burn...I've tried taking it first with nothing in stomach, taking it with yogurt or eating...still burns. Going to call doctor as don't like the feeling and want to make sure it's not doing damage. He told me I could continue to take, just need to make sure.

Can't wait to test some of her receipes....I laugh because she calls it "porn"....I look everyday to see and now understand her label....LOL

Just an update:

I am now 7 weeks out. Last week had some wins and losses. Everything for the most part is good. I was busy still playing catch-up at work and missed a couple nights of walking, but have managed to keep it up the rest of the time. So here are a couple highlights, one bad and one good.

Bad:

We had a lunch meeting at work last week. Luckily, it was just people here and no clients, but the boss wanted to order from Pei Wei (A Chinese "fresh", but quick bistro). Anyway, I looked through the menu and decided on an appetizer for my lunch, so I went with the "chicken lettuce wraps". It sounded perfect, and I had tried them before my surgery, some time ago and liked them. Well, it was a working lunch with lots of discussion etc., and the distraction proved perilous to my eating process, because muscle memory took over and I pretty much inhaled my first wrap out of the gate. I chewed, but not nearly enough. Well about 5 minutes later, after fighting to keep the food down, I had to excuse myself. Now, it was bad enough I was having issues, but our conference room is right next to the bathrooms. Well, if things went bad, I didn't want to be next to all my workmates making terrible noises, so I went out to the wharehouse where everyone was gone for lunch. I paced back and forth in front of the sink until an ungodly torrent of foam came up followed by slime.

Now I have had the foam thing (obviously) but never the slime thing. It was like nickelodeon slime and truly horrible. So after I stabilized a bit, I wandered back into the conference room, and packed up my leftovers to put in the fridge and went back to my desk. Not 10 minutes later it happened again, and I looked like a junkie with my arms wrapped around my little trash can. So anyway, THAT was a bad day. Ce la vie.

Good - Last weekend, I had what I consider to be my first true meal. I took my fiance to Outback, cause we were both craving steak, and I said "relax, cause we're going to be here a while. I ordered the 7oz Filet, medium rare with a baked potato and green Beans. I took my time, ate small bites, chewed them up like a machine, and had a fantastic dinner. I probably ate about 1/3 of the steak, about 2 bites of the potato and about 4 green beans - but it was FANTASTIC. I felt so good the rest of the night.

Anyway, that's all the news I'm fit to print. I have 3 more weeks till I see my doctor for a checkup. Stay tuned!

I had never had acid reflux problems before surgery. I started my nexium right after surgery like a good girl, but I still had terrible reflux and then I started to get really weird side effects from the nexium (dizziness, double vision, nausea, etc...). I went to the store and just grabbed some Pepcid AC (the chewable ones) and talked with the pharmacist about my situation and she said to take them 2x a day instead of once. I know it's not the exact same type of acid blocker, but I tried it anyway (I was so sick of melting and drinking yucky pills). Anyway, my point is, 2 months later I am down to 1x a day, I have not had one problem with acid since I switched, all the funny side effects are gone, and the chewables taste much better!

You shouldn't have had to melt your Nexum once you moved to solid food.

I'm now doing Pepcid AC but only because my heartburn is occasional. The PPIs really have to be taken regularly to work and I don't want to take a pill every day if I only need on once a week.

Photo Steve said: "Be careful with lentil or bean soups cause the shells can cause some real discomfort"

Darn. I love bean soup. Sometimes I take a can of beans and blend them with a little milk, and that is a meal. Do a lot of you have trouble with beans, even blended? There are tiny pieces of the skin in the soup.

I have not been sleeved yet but will be before long! Just getting all my ducks (and beans) in a row!

Wow about the beans Steve! I love beans. I was planning on them being a big part of my protein after I am cleared for soft foods. I will have to make sure they are well cooked and pureed. Did you have a bad time with beans?

I have slimed a few times now. Feels like a burp, and this load of slick stuff comes up. It is not acidic, but kind of jelly like. Yuck. I have figured my main culprits are as follows:

• Eating too fast
  
• Beans (regular, have not tried refried)
  
• Crystal Light on occasion
  
• Chicken breast (unless made into a salad type with MW)
  
• Egg yolks (I am fine with whites or egg substitutes)
  
  
• Too fatty of cheese (i.e. cheese curds)
  

I am learning more and more about what I can handle and how to eat each day. I have been blessed not to have acid reflux, and even turkey jerky went down fine, as did homemade ground bologna. Go figure. I guess we are all slightly different with big time similarities.

Photo Steve said: "Be careful with lentil or bean soups cause the shells can cause some real discomfort"

Darn. I love bean soup. Sometimes I take a can of Beans and blend them with a little milk, and that is a meal. Do a lot of you have trouble with beans, even blended? There are tiny pieces of the skin in the soup.

I have not been sleeved yet but will be before long! Just getting all my ducks (and beans) in a row!

Wow about the beans Steve! I love beans. I was planning on them being a big part of my Protein after I am cleared for soft foods. I will have to make sure they are well cooked and pureed. Did you have a bad time with beans?

Cajun & DownInSocal-

I can do beans now just fine (8 weeks now as of Monday, Yay me!). I had REAL problems with them even into the mushie stage. Refried beans CAN be ok, but not always. Things will shells and hulls caused me real problems in the beginning, but I was warned ahead of time as this is a problem that Bypass people can have. Beans, Lentils and Corn were the biggest culprits - but to date I have managed to do all 3 without too much issue, but I do go easy on them.

ok, I'll forget about the beans until I am back on solids. thanks for the info...saves me possibly having to go through what you did. I know we are all different and maybe some people do fine with blended beans, but I would rather learn from others' "mistakes" and not take the chance. There's a lot of alternatives for getting good protein.