Hi Everybody,

Quick introduction, my name is Andre, I reside in South Africa. Am I band to sleeve revision and I was sleeved 2 days ago on Monday 19th at 4pm. Tomorrow I need to go for a leak test as a safety check and then it's up to me to create my destiny.

Since discharge from hospital I have stuck with only clear liqueds (mostly sports drinks) and today tried to sip down my second cup of tee this week.

I am not aware of Isopure in South Africa and will look for a replacement to drink from next week. Only real pain I have is when ever I need to "burp" more like air escaping than burping. Has any of the more experienced sleevsters got a tip for this problem.

Other than that I am incredibly tired, sleeping approx 22 hours out of 24 but I trust this will also dissapear pretty quickly. Any advice that members might have would be appreciated.

Regards

Andre

Hi Andre,

Congratulations. As far as I can remember exercise was very important, both walking a bit and also blowing into something like a balloon to help the lungs after the anaesthetic, even if you are tired force yourself.

I had thin warm bovril type drinks too, and thin probiotic yoghurt drinks. Don't drink anything fizzy, it can be dangerous especially now. You need to keep the liquids up as much as possible when the drip comes out but before that its not an issue.

I used Atkins Protein drinks as it is advised to get protein but not carbs. I also bought some high protein low carb body building choco and strawerry flovour powders to mix when I got home. Aiming for 60-70g protein a day. Obviously this cannot really be done in the 1st couple of weeks. After two weeks soft mushy food was a big relief, lovely soft scrambled eggs.

It's all a bit of a blur now though, the anaesthetic ruins your memory. I am sure lots of the others can fill in the rest. Read the older posts, it will tell you loads of good info.

All the very best,

Jane

Dear Andre-

Its really important to do some walking everyday. Even if its just around your house. You can do some laps up and down your hall. In the hospital they had me up to walk 4 or 5 times during the day. This is to prevent blood clots from forming. The risk of blood clots is greatest during the 1st month after surgery.

My Protein drink of choice is Syntrax Nectar: Fuzzy Navel and Capuccino flavors. I buy it from vitacost.com. I don't know if it is available in South Africa. If you are not lactose intolerant Syntrax Matrix is also a good choice.

It is important to get in about 70 grams of protein every day while you are losing weight. This is because the body will draw on both muscle tissue and fat to make up your calorie deficit. In order to get it to burn more fat and less muscle is the following:

1. High protein intake - 70 grams/day

2. Weight lifting/strengthening exercises - do this to the point of muscle fatigue. Rest one day. Then repeat the next. If you do weight lifting everyday, it will actually break down your muscles. The one day rest is needed to increase/maintain your muscles.

I do lower body strengthening exercises (abs on down) one day. The next day while the lower body is resting, I do upper body. When I exercise the abs, I don't do crunches. I lift feet with knees bent, lift straight legs, put legs up on wall and lift off the wall. This way you are not compressing the area of surgery. Doing the lower body exercises is quite a challenge because I have a lot of pain in my knee. But - there are different ways to exercise each muscle and I have found ways!

I too slept about 20 hours/day the first week after surgery. I was very weak for about a month. My stamina is much better now. I will be 8 weeks out tomorrow.

Be sure to consume only Protein drinks for 2-3 weeks. You wouldn't want to risk a leak. solid food can cause the staple line to rupture.

After that, I had pureed chicken Soup, non-fat no sugar yoghurt, scrambled egg, and cottage cheese for several weeks. I could only eat 1/4C before I was full. If you eat too much (this is easy to do if you eat too quickly,) you will vomit.

So now my routine is three small meals (now I can eat about 1/3C) and 2 protein drinks per day. This gets me up to about 500 calories, 70 grams of protein. I do count my calories, protein, carbohydrates, and Water. As soon as you aren't counting (or at least estimating - which you have to do if you eat away from home) your calories, you will surely consume more than you intended.

Stay away from carbohydrates as much as possible. These break down in your stomach really fast and absort really well. They don't give you the same feeling of fullness that a protein meal does.

Be sure to take your Vitamins regularly for the rest of your life. Be sure to get at least 64 oz of water/fluid each day. (I wasn't able to drink more than about 40 oz of Fluid during the first week, but after that 64 oz was no problem.)

I did feel some nausea for a long time after surgery. It wasn't too bad. Diarrhea is also very common during the first month after surgery.

Give yourself about a month. You will be feeling a lot better.

Congratulations on your surgery and hope you are feeling better soon.

Oregon Rose, Awesome Post.

Thanks

Bill

Andre - welcome to VST and congratulations on your revision surgery. You might want to check out a thread entitled "Dr. Aceves Information" - he was my surgeon and I posted his post-op diet and suggestions of what to eat/drink - it may help you in the coming weeks.

Dear Andre-

Its really important to do some walking everyday. Even if its just around your house. You can do some laps up and down your hall. In the hospital they had me up to walk 4 or 5 times during the day. This is to prevent blood clots from forming. The risk of blood clots is greatest during the 1st month after surgery.

My Protein drink of choice is Syntrax Nectar: Fuzzy Navel and Capuccino flavors. I buy it from vitacost.com. I don't know if it is available in South Africa. If you are not lactose intolerant Syntrax Matrix is also a good choice.

It is important to get in about 70 grams of protein every day while you are losing weight. This is because the body will draw on both muscle tissue and fat to make up your calorie deficit. In order to get it to burn more fat and less muscle is the following:

1. High protein intake - 70 grams/day

2. Weight lifting/strengthening exercises - do this to the point of muscle fatigue. Rest one day. Then repeat the next. If you do weight lifting everyday, it will actually break down your muscles. The one day rest is needed to increase/maintain your muscles.

I do lower body strengthening exercises (abs on down) one day. The next day while the lower body is resting, I do upper body. When I exercise the abs, I don't do crunches. I lift feet with knees bent, lift straight legs, put legs up on wall and lift off the wall. This way you are not compressing the area of surgery. Doing the lower body exercises is quite a challenge because I have a lot of pain in my knee. But - there are different ways to exercise each muscle and I have found ways!

I too slept about 20 hours/day the first week after surgery. I was very weak for about a month. My stamina is much better now. I will be 8 weeks out tomorrow.

Be sure to consume only protein drinks for 2-3 weeks. You wouldn't want to risk a leak. solid food can cause the staple line to rupture.

After that, I had pureed chicken soup, non-fat no sugar yoghurt, scrambled egg, and cottage cheese for several weeks. I could only eat 1/4C before I was full. If you eat too much (this is easy to do if you eat too quickly,) you will vomit.

So now my routine is three small meals (now I can eat about 1/3C) and 2 protein drinks per day. This gets me up to about 500 calories, 70 grams of protein. I do count my calories, protein, carbohydrates, and Water. As soon as you aren't counting (or at least estimating - which you have to do if you eat away from home) your calories, you will surely consume more than you intended.

Stay away from carbohydrates as much as possible. These break down in your stomach really fast and absort really well. They don't give you the same feeling of fullness that a protein meal does.

Be sure to take your Vitamins regularly for the rest of your life. Be sure to get at least 64 oz of water/fluid each day. (I wasn't able to drink more than about 40 oz of Fluid during the first week, but after that 64 oz was no problem.)

I did feel some nausea for a long time after surgery. It wasn't too bad. Diarrhea is also very common during the first month after surgery.

Give yourself about a month. You will be feeling a lot better.

Congratulations on your surgery and hope you are feeling better soon.

Regarding the weight lifting...don't start that until your doctor says you can...if you do it too soon you can get a hernia (or more than one). It may be several months before your incisions are healed enough to tolerate weight lifting, and even then, start slow and low.

Thank you SO much for the welcome and the brilliant advice. I have committed to start walking a lot as of today, as I was a self pay it would be a bit senseless ending with complications because I did not keep my side of the deal.

I have to admit that I have been privileged with Water in being able to sip the entire day in very small amounts.

I have to admit that I started doubting my conversion yesterday, probably because the permanence of the operation set it and because you always wish to believe that there is that one diet that you would have succeeded in but after 25 years and so many diets and the "lap-band" the truth should set in

Thank you for all the valuable replies and please keep on mailing, unline with the band I have found the sleeve info limited

Thanks again to all

Andre

Just don't be afraid to ask us anything. We are very open and try to be helpful.

I wonder how long it would take to get the Protein drinks that you can order online. There is a thread in the food section where it lists all the places you can order samples.