Hi everyone!! This is my first post & I'm looking for October surgery buddies. I'm very excited about the surgery. I've gotten my psych clearance, scheduled my sleep study, nutrition classes and upper endoscopy. My date is October 14th. Btw, anyone here from Jersey? Look forward to making friends w everyone!

Edited August 21, 201411 yr by Marielbx

El, one thing that really helped me was tweaking the Protein to alleviate what was making it gross to me. Too thick? Add more Water. Smells funky? Add a fragrant ingredient like PB2 or fruit. Tastes bad? Try some sugar-free syrup. Tired of sweets? Stir some unflavored into a Soup.

So for instance, I would have a bowl of oatmeal that normally contained 7g protein and add a scoop of unflavored protein to bring it up to 17. Then I'd add a tablespoon of sugar free syrup to help mask the protein flavor in a complementary flavor to the oatmeal - caramel in banana oatmeal or maple oatmeal, vanilla in strawberry, etc. I did the same thing with greek yogurt - taking a 12g cup of yogurt (already great) to 22g!

Now that I'm on purees it's easier because I can have pureed meat, Beans, etc. The variety really helps me feel more normal, especially when my husband and I can now eat the same stuff, albeit in different form.

Hope this helps! Hang in there!

I had my 2 wk follow up on the 10th and was weighed at 219 lbs, down from 238. My surgeon said that was great, but we need to keep the weight loss slow and if I don't lose any more before my 4 wk follow up, this is still considered a great first month. He then up'd my protein goals and fluid intake. Well today I weigh 212 on my scale and am still losing about a pound a day or so. I'm trying to get cleared to go back to work part time 2 weeks earlier than planned before I get thrown back in full time. I'm somewhat worried he's going to say I'm not ready to go back yet because I'm steadily losing too much weight to quickly in his opinion. Not really sure how to feel about that...

Jen, it depends on how you feel. I went back to work half days on week 2. Then full time since then. I have had no issues. As far as the weight loss goes, I wasn't losing quickly for some reason but I never felt weak either. Do you feel weak or light headed at all?

Jen, our stats are very close. It will be interesting to watch our progress :-)

@@Jen - a work in progress I'm seriously jealous of your quick weight loss. I'm ~5 weeks out and struggling to stay at 20 lbs down. I went back to work full time a week after surgery. I worked from home the day after surgery and for the rest of that week. If it weren't for the long public transportation commute, I think I would have been fine, but the bus and train jostling really drained me.

I'm jealous too, lol. Maybe we start dropping pounds real fast soon :-)RM, you only have 60 pounds left to lose. Im sure you will be there before you know it. If we lose slowly, maybe we will not have as much loose skin. I will have the skin on the belly because ive had 4 children with twins in that mix. Also, I will be 50 this month,yikes!

I feel like I'm ready to go back. I work as a Medical Assistant in a very busy clinic. We're up and running all day. I want to start part time to slowly work myself into the usual hectic and chaotic flow of my work day. If I can't last the whole day or keep up it won't be so bad and I'll time to recover.

I'm worried about lose skin on my tummy mostly. I'm hoping it'll pull itself together pretty decently, but we'll see what happens.

Im sure you will do great. Half days are a good idea to ease yourself back in.

I started back teleworking last week and I'm back in the office this week. I'm glad I waited because I was also suffering from a bad knee and it took me a while to get my strength back. I will still sometimes hit a wall and just be really tired all of a sudden but I have so much more energy now than even a week ago. I used up all the leave I had but I think it was worth it to have enough time to really concentrate on recovery.

The biggest challenge I think is going to be not getting caught up in my work and forgetting to eat and drink when I'm supposed to. I may need to set up some alerts on my work calendar to remind me...

Agent

You may need a reminder in the beginning but it gets better. I get tired if I haven't drank or eaten enough

I was sleeved on 10/20 and weighed 281 morning of surgery today in weigh 257( I am 5' 11") I have lost 24 lbs so far. The last five days I have lost only about a pound. I was prepared to be stagnant the third week, based on the blogs so it did not stress me out. I started work last week. I was exhausted most afternoons. I plan to start the gym this week, at least a half hour a day.

My struggle has been there is food in our office daily. I did not share with anyone the type of surgery that I had. They think it wAs somewhat emergency surgery. I have fixed a plate each time, moved the food around and then put the napkin over my plate. I am going to pack my lunch this week, I just am trying to avoid bringing attention to my eating.

A few people commented on my weight loss, and I just responded with I was extremely nauseous after surgery, and minimal appetite, and I am going to try and keep the weight loss momentum going.

Has anyone started working out in the gym?

@@jmsgal I was just cleared Friday to workout. I was told to workout 30 minutes, 3x a week for the first two weeks & 4x the following two weeks. I was told twenty minutes on the treadmill or recumbent bike & 10 minutes weights. No exercises involving the stomach because I'm still healing (4 weeks post op).

I'm about to go into the basement now to get on my recumbent bike, Ugggh! Not looking forward to it but I know it's a must.

I will contact the nurse tomorrow to see what they suggest. Good luck with working out!!

@@Jen - a work in progress, your weight loss is nothing short of amazing! Great job as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm curious, why do you think your doctor will not release you to go back to work? What does your rapid weight-loss have to do with returning to work?

I'm down 17.5 lbs since October.