I am scheduled for February 18th. I will be first in. Wow, this process takes forever.

Joining this conversation a bit late...but, I had my sleeve on Feb 1...I went back for my first post-op visit on the 9th and they actually kind of fussed at me a bit for not starting myself on "cat-food" as they call it, which is soft foods like tuna, chili, cottage cheese and so...They actually advised me at that point, to do this for a week or so, or until I felt ready to move myself up to more solid proteins, making sure to take small bites and chew, chew, chew...

The thing that I have noticed is that each doctor has their own set of instructions that they have their patients follow...at the clinic that I go to, they have 3 surgeons...each of these surgeons basically had their own recommendations, which drove their nurses nuts, and would sometimes confuse everyone involved...

I also cannot stomach the protein drinks, obviously everyone has their taste buds. The fairlife milk is fabulous with a great amount of protein. I use the chocolate flavor with sugar free chocolate pudding and it is fabulous. Tonight I will try the regular fairlife with vanilla sugar free pudding. Brooklynkay are you doing ok, been thinking about you.

It's been a few days since I've been on and MAN - so much good content here! "Cat food" - OMG! What a horrid term! haha!

I get tired, but no as bad as weeks 1-2. I walked/hiked 3+ miles on Saturday and that made me dizzy. So I'm taking shorter walks now.

I'm totally off the rails now with this program, but I feel great. I called to reschedule my 2 week follow up because I had a sick child, then they canceled the rescheduled appointment on me - now I won't be going for a follow up till over a month out. I'll be 3 weeks tomorrow and am making this up as I go.

I drink water and protein water all day, but I'm short on fluids. Can't stand all that protein crap anymore but I do focus on eating higher protein foods. I basically skipped the puree phase. I can really eat anything I want (can be dangerous!) but only maybe 4 teaspoons, max. I mean, I haven't had tacos or crunchy stuff. I haven't had anything really bad (Yoplait, Oui yogurt is my cheat, but I can only eat 1/3 of one at a time, max). I'm making educated decisions about what I'm eating, both from a texture and health perspective, but I'm making it work my way. Had a SF Jello last night, couldn't even eat 1/2. The only things that bother me so far (primarily) are the damn Vitamins - the one thing I actually NEED. They cause me great nausea and fits of dry heaving. Oh, and I CAN'T THROW UP! It's a little concerning. I get foamies, but no full blown throwing up. Hope that's "normal".

Also, I tried a teaspoon of spaghetti sauce (burned going down) and 1 SIP of red wine (also burned) so not eating/drinking that stuff, which I can live with.

I'm in a STALL here! It's been 3 days with no scale movement, so I did a little research. I'm not sure how true this is, but I wanted to share it here in case it helps one of you. It helped me! Overall I'm really happy with my sleeve. I feel like I'm losing inches, even though the scale seems to be "broken"!

Here are the tips I read online about Stalls:

Patients are often instructed to follow a "liver shrinking diet" before surgery to prepare their body and ease the job of the surgeon. This diet may be a low calorie, low carb, or liquid diet depending on the clinic. While the smaller liver is often great during surgery, it's not a size that your body wants to maintain long term as a fully functional liver helps our body with a number of different processes. Due to this need, the body will slowly start to help the liver get back to it's normal size after surgery, which can often times takes....you guessed it....about 3 weeks.

If you do weigh yourself, make sure that you are also taking note of your measurements. Fat takes up a lot more space than muscle. If you're losing inches and slowly losing pounds, this is often an indication that you are losing fat rather than muscle.

If you do notice the dreaded "3 week stall", think of it as a badge of honor, a milestone, and "just a phase". Rather than thinking of your journey being "off course", remind yourself that it is just beginning. Time to enjoy the ride!

Hi, everyone. Still a very smooth recovery for me after a difficult start, except for the dizziness. I get it every time I stand up and have actually passed out a few times. I talked to the doctor today and she suspected it was low blood pressure, which never occurred to me. Sure enough, my BP at that time was 75/50. She told me to prioritize water over protein and drink as much as I can (more than 64 per day). I'm monitoring my BP (highest reading today was 85/65), and they might bring me back to the hospital if it hasn't improved by the weekend. UGH!

I started the puree stage today and it's not nearly as much of an improvement as I had hoped. I experimented with shrimp today, and by the time it was pureed it was just a vaguely salty pile of sludge. And I'm supposed to do this for three weeks! I think my main goal in that time will be to wean myself off of protein drinks and get more of my protein through food.

I tried the fair life with pudding. It didn’t set up. But I you their elite chocolate for a shake plus a scoop of protein powder. I use isopure. Not bad. Just don’t smell it.

38 minutes ago, Recidivist said:

I started the puree stage today and it's not nearly as much of an improvement as I had hoped. I experimented with shrimp today, and by the time it was pureed it was just a vaguely salty pile of sludge. And I'm supposed to do this for three weeks! I think my main goal in that time will be to wean myself off of Protein Drinks and get more of my Protein through food.

I started yesterday and made the ricotta bake. It tasted awesome and then I was up all night with an upset pouch! I think I need to ease into this purée thing. I will try cottage cheese tomorrow. Today is is a protein soup with a protein scoop added in. Good luck

52 minutes ago, Recidivist said:

I started the puree stage today and it's not nearly as much of an improvement as I had hoped. I experimented with shrimp today, and by the time it was pureed it was just a vaguely salty pile of sludge. And I'm supposed to do this for three weeks! I think my main goal in that time will be to wean myself off of Protein Drinks and get more of my Protein through food.

Sorry for all these difficulties! Try only cooking the shrimp till just pink and chewing them to death. It was the first solid food I ate/enjoyed.

15 minutes ago, Goody222 said:

I started yesterday and made the ricotta bake. It tasted awesome and then I was up all night with an upset pouch! I think I need to ease into this purée thing. I will try cottage cheese tomorrow. Today is is a Protein Soup with a protein scoop added in. Good luck

It could be the tomato sauce.

I started the puree stage today and it's not nearly as much of an improvement as I had hoped. I experimented with shrimp today, and by the time it was pureed it was just a vaguely salty pile of sludge. And I'm supposed to do this for three weeks! I think my main goal in that time will be to wean myself off of protein drinks and get more of my protein through food.

I don't have a pureed stage. My stage after 2 weeks of full liquids is soft proteins. Plant protiens, tender meats, eggs and dairy. Good luck.

54 minutes ago, Everythinganna said:

It could be the Tomato sauce.

I think you are correct!

On 03/12/2019 at 16:58, Recidivist said:

I started the puree stage today and it's not nearly as much of an improvement as I had hoped. I experimented with shrimp today, and by the time it was pureed it was just a vaguely salty pile of sludge. And I'm supposed to do this for three weeks! I think my main goal in that time will be to wean myself off of Protein Drinks and get more of my Protein through food.

Not sure how you feel about cottage cheese, but that’s my primary go-to when I know I need to eat, but don’t feel like messing around with food. It always goes down easy and I know I’m getting good nutrition.

Also, if you chew something enough times, it becomes purée. Plus, there is such great satisfaction from actually being able to chew something for the first time in weeks. What my doc told me is it was fine to eat solid proteins on the purée stage as long as I didn’t put in a bite bigger than my pinkie finger nail and as long as I chewed at least 20 times before trying to swallow.

Who all has used Bloosum Bariactrics in Las Vegas ?

On 03/12/2019 at 08:25, Dubchild said:

Yep it’s always that last bite and then it feels stuck so instinctively I take a small sip of Water and then it’s a foam party in my mouth for about an hour

Wow I have to admit that I’ve never had the foamies.
I’m extremely lucky, I think.
I’m the person who never threw up once during 2 pregnancies, never threw up once while on a year of chemo ( and I even held down a full-time job during) and has never once thrown up due to drinking too much alcohol.

Much to nobodies surprise, I’ve not thrown up ( or even come close to it) during this procedure.
I’ve got stomach cramps a few times, and that’s been when I’ve tried to push food and water too close, or when I’ve tried to eat something within 3 hours of awaking.

For some reason my sleeve just doesn’t want food in it until at least 10am and preferably later.
I’ve all but given up on breakfast because I can only get down 1/4 of the amt of food I can have at dinner and even something like a couple spoons of cottage cheese get stuck and I start to have spasms and light nausea.
And if I’m feeling light nausea, I know it’s serious because I almost never feel nausea.

I notice the same thing, I can put down 3x as much during dinner than I can in the AM