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My surgery was June 18...



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I should have started this earlier. I have a lot to say!

My surgery was performed by Jose Rodriguez through Belite, in Tiajuana. It was really a bizzarre adventure, crossing the border, language barrier, not so state of the art facilities. I was checked into an ok hotel. Taken later for EKG and bloodwork, not at a hospital, but a one floor infimary staffed with nurses. The 'Belite team' was not based there, they traveled back and forth to Juarez..

Anyhow, I won't go into much more detail, surgery was normal, everything worked out fine. I would do it all over again and even after telling the whole story, my best friend is scheduled for July 16.

The first few days my incisions were painful enough that I leaned on the pain releivers they provided... toridol I believe. Non narcotic. I was able to tolerate all the Clear Liquids I tried, Water, Soup broth, juice, my favorite thing was Passion tea from Starbucks. I was able to eat (after chewing a long while) gummy vitamins and swallow pills with a little dragging feeling but not much pain. Getting up and moving always seemed to be the best medicine.

SO I'll skip through to now, about 3 weeks later.

I'll start with the biggest pay-off of course, I have lost 30 pounds since my starting weight of 236. I lost 10 pounds pre-op and 20 more since. I m losing about a pound a day.

I honestly can't really tell, but other people have noticed. I'm still squeezing into my pants.

My struggles change daily. I sip water all day but it never seems to be enough. I am working on getting at least one Protein Shake in daily. I stop by the fridge and take a sip whenever I think of it. I am starting to incorporate the soft foods that have been recommended. So far I have tolerated pretty well about a half of a scrambled egg, cottage cheese, small amounts of yogurt, noodles are great... not very nutritious. I went out for sushi. Toro was fantastic though I ate too much. I think the thing that pushed me over the edge was drinking a little plum wine.

Speaking of alcohol... I used to love vodka. I really still do but it hurts to drink it and makes me feel like crap. It 's a funny thing, all of the things I turned to for comfort have disappeared. Thank God for anti-depressants!

Some mornings it takes me an hour or so to work through some kind of morning sickness I've developed. I took some advice from a member of having some juice before I get out of bed and that seems to help a bit. I am thinking of switching from Prevacid to something else. I have only thrown up twice, once when I took a pill and it stuck in my throat, and another time when I ate cottage cheese too fast.

It is getting better every day, though I am always worried about nutrition. I am figuring things out... sometimes the hard way which is just really being over full.

I'll be much more excite when I am under 200 and can slide into some 14's!

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Welcome and i'm so glad all well good with you . . . your doing great! Keep up the good work and in no time flat you'll be wearing those 14s you want to slide into!

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Welcome! It sounds like to me you are doing just fine! It seems to be a slow process at first. If I had any suggestions...which I don't know if I'm technically allowed to give yet. I haven't had surgery yet. Maybe try to drink some G2 (gator-aid) to help balance out your Vitamins and minerals. That said...I don't know what vitamins or minerals you are already taken. Just my personal fear of getting low potassium. Everyone seems to have to overeat at least once or twice to learn their lesson. I'm sure I will be right in there with everyone else. You are doing great with your weightloss. Keep up the good work! Each day will get better!

:)

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I've been stuck at 205 for 3 or 4 days. Frusterating. It seems like if I eat any carbs I stall out. (yesterday we were at an event at the fairgrounds and I ate some kettle corn) Maybe it's just normal but after losing almost daily, It is a little disappointing,

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I've been stuck at 205 for 3 or 4 days. Frusterating. It seems like if I eat any carbs I stall out. (yesterday we were at an event at the fairgrounds and I ate some kettle corn) Maybe it's just normal but after losing almost daily, It is a little disappointing,

Don't worry-stairstep loss is so normal.

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I have experienced the same thing. My surgery was 6/22 I dropped quite a bit the first 2 weeks (29#) and then when I started incorporating similar items, things have stalled out. I even gained 3# and all I'm doing is eating a scrambled egg, a little cottage cheese, apple sauce, and such. I'm hoping my body is just adjusting and things will start moving again. I can't see how I can gain on what little I am eating, much less what I am eating- but from reading other people's posts it seems to be normal.

I've been stuck at 205 for 3 or 4 days. Frusterating. It seems like if I eat any carbs I stall out. (yesterday we were at an event at the fairgrounds and I ate some kettle corn) Maybe it's just normal but after losing almost daily, It is a little disappointing,

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    • BeanitoDiego

      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
      Surgery was in August of 2023. A bill shows up for over $7,000 in January. WTF? I asks myself. I know that I jumped through all of the insurance hoops and verified this and triple checked that, as did the surgeon's office. All was set, and I paid all of the known costs before surgery.
      A looong story short, is that an assistant surgeon that was in the process of accepting money from my insurance company touched me while I was under anesthesia. That is what the bill was for. But hey, guess what? Some federal legislation was enacted last year to help patients out when they cannot consent to being touched by someone out of their insurance network. These types of bills fall under something called, "surprise billing," and you don't have to put up with it.
      https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises
      I had to make a lot of phone calls to both the surgeon's office and the insurance company and explain my rights and what the maximum out of pocket costs were that I could be liable for. Also had to remind them that it isn't my place to be taking care of all of this and that I was going to escalate things if they could not play nice with one another.
      Quick ending is that I don't have to pay that $7,000+. Advocate, advocate, advocate for yourself no matter how long it takes and learn more about this law if you are ever hit with a surprise bill.
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    • BeanitoDiego

      Some days I feel like an infiltrator... I'm participating in society as a "thin" person. They have no idea that I haven't always been one of them! 🤣
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    • ChunkCat

      Thank you everyone for your well wishes! I totally forgot I wrote an update here... I'm one week post op today. I gained 15 lbs in water weight overnight because they had to give me tons of fluids to bring my BP up after surgery! I stayed one night in the hospital. Everything has been fine except I seem to have picked up a bug while I was there and I've been running a low grade fever, coughing, and a sore throat. So I've been hydrating well and sleeping a ton. So far the Covid tests are negative.
      I haven't been able to advance my diet past purees. Everything I eat other than tofu makes me choke and feels like trying to swallow rocks. They warned me it would get worse before it gets better, so lets hope this is all normal. I have my follow up on Monday so we'll see. Living on shakes and soup again is not fun. I had enough of them the first time!! LOL 
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    • BeanitoDiego

      Still purging all of the larger clothing. This morning, a shirt that I ADORED wearing ended up on top. Hard to let it go, but it was also hard to let go of those habits that also no longer serve my highest good. Onward and upward!
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