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Just beginning my journey



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I started looking into this 15 months ago. I'm lucky to live by Lake Norman, NC where Dr. Heider is. I went to his seminar and was convinced. I was 25 then (just turned 27 a month ago) and worried about being too young. But his staff is great and put me at ease.

From there was getting started with the Lake Norman SWL center, and then 6 months documented diet with my pcp. February '16 all the paperwork was sent in, of course insurance denied it. The center was great, and fought it for me. In July, I was finally approved after 13 months. Surgery was scheduled for 9/15.

All the pre-op went well, I managed to not cheat my diet at all, and my center is liquid only Optifast for 2 weeks. Day/night of surgery was a lot more painful than I expected. Day 2, came home late afternoon - really struggled to drink enough and get my pills in. Paced all around my house for a good while.

Yesterday was a bit better. I've learned hot liquids go down easier than cold or even room temp. Today, day 4 is going ok. Made some hot chocolate with Protein mix which went down okay. Until day 11, I'm on broth, Jello, Protein shakes, and sugar free popsicles only. It's hard to eat/drink enough calories that way.

I'm starting to feel a bit hungry - not surprising, since I have eaten maybe 200 calories in the past 3 days. Seems all the room in my pouch goes to pills I have to take. I also haven't had a bowel movement, but there's not really anything going in. Hopefully that's normal and not an issue.

Looking forward to what's to come! Any and all advice is appreciated

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Rolo- I am schedules for Oct 4 - I am also a paramedic and teach a lot. I'm kinda more concerned that you are worrying about calories when you main focus should be Protein. You need that Protein to protect your muscle. Reminder the body is goofy it likes to burn muscle. As for having a BM don't get worried about it - check with your Doc and see if you can add Fiber like Metamucil (watch for bloating - I forget the ingredient to watch for). This can help move things along - keep a food log of protein - my target is 100grams a day. Maybe take pills with Protein shake ? Sorry I am giving advise when I haven't had my surgery yet.

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All those calories come from a proteim shake :-) better yesterday with about 20g Protein

20 grams protein is extremely low. My protein target is 100 grams. What is your protein target? You need to be doing everything you can to get in all of your protein and fluids. Sip, sip, sip, and sip some more.

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All those calories come from a proteim shake :-) better yesterday with about 20g Protein

20 grams Protein is extremely low. My protein target is 100 grams. What is your protein target? You need to be doing everything you can to get in all of your protein and fluids. Sip, sip, sip, and sip some more.
Oh the milk has 9g protein. So 33 total today.

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Protein is critical for healing. See what you can do to increase your protein as soon as possible. According to my surgeon there is no physical reason someone couldn't consume three Premier Protein shakes the day after surgery. It isn't easy but it is doable.

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Congrats on your recent surgery. Don't worry too much that you might not have all the answers. I did research overload and still felt overwhelmed.

My advice would be to slow down, and listen to your body. Don't be timid about putting yourself first over the next weeks. It's a lot to get used to, pretty much a whole new way of life. Take it one day at a time and don't get lost in comparing your results to someone else. Your body will proceed at the speed that is right for you and you alone.

Best wishes!

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

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Congrats on your recent surgery. Don't worry too much that you might not have all the answers. I did research overload and still felt overwhelmed.

My advice would be to slow down, and listen to your body. Don't be timid about putting yourself first over the next weeks. It's a lot to get used to, pretty much a whole new way of life. Take it one day at a time and don't get lost in comparing your results to someone else. Your body will proceed at the speed that is right for you and you alone.

Best wishes!

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you. The Protein just worries me. I think I am going to need extra time off work. I thought I could go back a week from today.

Sent from my SM-T550 using the BariatricPal App

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Congrats on your recent surgery. Don't worry too much that you might not have all the answers. I did research overload and still felt overwhelmed.

My advice would be to slow down, and listen to your body. Don't be timid about putting yourself first over the next weeks. It's a lot to get used to, pretty much a whole new way of life. Take it one day at a time and don't get lost in comparing your results to someone else. Your body will proceed at the speed that is right for you and you alone.

Best wishes!

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you. I'm mostly worried about the Protein. I also think I'm going to need to go back to work later. Thought I'd be able to go back a week from today (desk job).

Sent from my SM-T550 using the BariatricPal App

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. LeighaTR

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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