I have been lurking around quite a bit in the last few months....gearing up for surgery scheduled for next week.

I am confused about how much you can drink once you've had the surgery. My doctor's info said no more than 2oz of water/fluid in 15 minutes....does that ever increase? I keep reading about these large Protein shakes that people prepare and drink...sometimes like 20oz...when you guys talk about drinking one, do you mean you sip on it for a couple hours?

The further you get after surgery, the more water you will be able to drink. In the beginning, your stomach will be very swollen and will only be able to get a few sips of water or juice into the space. On youtube.com Dr alvarez has a video that educates on the vertical sleeve procedure. I highly recommend that you watch the video.

This is the best decision I have ever made was to have the sleeve. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

I sure they do sip for like 2 or 3 hours because right now i am 3 weeks post op going to be 4 on monday..n i can drink 8oz in about 20 to 30 mins, i don't rush it because then i tend to dump all the water.. which has happened before.. so once u get to know ur sleeve n how much liquid u can tolerate at a time, u will be fine.. how with solids depending on what it is i can do 2 oz -3 oz n get full.. i pause for like 10mins n finish the other oz if its high in protein other than that when i am full i stop.. n i do 5 meals a day 3 hours between ... n every 30mins sip sip... fill my pouch with liquid then wait 30 n again to get all my daily intake of 64oz or higher.. right now i am half way there lol.. ;ike 32 oz .. n just made 40 protein..which means i got to step up my game.

I can drink a 16 oz bottle of water in about 30 minutes, but I'm almost 7 months post-op! IAbout a half hour ago I rode the exercise bike for 30 minutes and drank a full bottle of water while on there...now I'm about 1/3 of the way through another bottle. Of course, right now I'm thirsty. In an hour or so, I'll have dinner and won't drink anything else for a while after that, probably an hour. But, although I've got my water in today, I'll probably drink 1 more sixteen ounce bottle before bedtime.

Oh yes, I can drink 16 oz in a hour and I am 6 weeks out. I still can only eat small amounts, especially if it is chicken or meat , only 2 oz at a time. I can eat 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, yogurt etc. Seems the denser it is the less I can eat.