nranz

First off, of course I am going to defer to what the OCC tells you should do post op. Now that that is done I will tell you what worked well for me. As far as baby food is concerned, I did that pretty early, like around day 10 or so. What was really easy for me to do was just to puree any and all kinds of soups and get those in. I did not strain them either. It was much easier to get the protein in and the diversity was so much better than one more blessed protein shake. I know this will sound terrible but I would take jars of baby food that were simply ground chicken and puree that into chicken broth or a pueed chicken noodle soup. It added 12 grams of protein right off in a very easy way and wasnt at all "gross". As for the vitamins, I couldnt bear one more crushed pill as they can be SOOOO nasty. I ended up buying the OCC vitamis ENSPIRA as they can be opened and mixed into a lot of things. They were also incredibly easy to swallow as they are gel caps. I could do so very easily starting about day 7. If you decided to crush yours or break them into very small pieces that will work just fine. The emphasis just needs to be bariatiric ones.

Not sure if this will help, and I hope that by now things are getting better. One of the things that took me some time to figure out was to not let my stomach be empty. I was getting confused with the sick stomach feeling and finally realized I was just incredibly hungry. When i finally figured that out I always was sipping or spooning stuff in . I also used baby spoons as to not over do it. You can also try soy, almond or coconut milks if dairy is an issue and at this point don't worry about calories. You need to get the protein in and some electrolytes and calories. Hope this helps and good luck!

Well I feel like I am finally to the point that this new way of life seems like "normal". I have lost 40 pounds total since my journey began with the decision to proceed, and 20 since the surgery. That amount of weight loss in 7 1/2 weeks aint too shabby! I still have times where I really wish I could eat more but I think it is more from habit and psychological hunger. Lord knows, when you are full that is it. I have not yet thrown up and I truly hope not to, but from what I understand it certainly is not unheard of. I have also discovered that I am being more open about how I am losing the weight. At first I did not want to tell anyone that I was going or really that I had gone. However, now that things are going well and I have very little side effects if any right now, I feel no need to defend my choice. I have always felt that it does not matter how someone loses weight. It is far more imprtant that they did it then how they did it. If someone gives me a look, or asks feverishly why I would do such a thing to myself, I simply reply, "I was tired of doing such a thing to myself by staying fat". If they go on to criticize I follow up with, "then you should never do this for yourself". I am happy with my choice. I am comfortable with my new "comfortable". I am looking down at my belly and not seeing huge rolls and I am not as inclined to keep pulling my shirt away form my belly to try and hide it. Do I miss eating? Sure I do, but I certainly don't miss being miserably overweight. I tell myself often that "thin tastes better" and you know what? It does.

Well its finally starting to come off again. I didnt loose anything for almost 8 days and then finally three pounds came off in two days. I am starting to try and recognize what keeps the weight on and it is mostly weekends and hormones. I know it to be true that monthly hormonal changes will affect weight significantly but my goodness is it frustarting. I also find that on the weekends I have a much greater tendency to graze. Still only consuming about 1000 cals a day on sat and sunday which should still cause loss but I'm thining my metabolsim is changing. I know that if I started exercising, and I mean really exercising, it would help a lot but two things inhibit me. One is I'm simply terribly busy. I know everyone says that and thinks it but I really am. I work A LOT and when i get home in the evening or at night i have my kids and family obligations. Im thinking of trying some exercise videos with my girls as they would be more than thrilled to do that with me, I just have to do it. The other is a level of comfort. I have lost almost 33 lbs now so I am certainly more comfortable just not THAT comfortable to get out to the gym and do it. I know these are stupid reasons but they are my reasons. My goal is to lose 2 lbs a week and I think I can maintain that. It's amazing to me how I can think I am eating a bit too much when I compare that with the volume prior to my surgery. I cant help but be a bit underwhelmed when I look at loss that is slow even though I know that is the best kind. I want to wake up get on the scale and see a 5 lb loss. This may sound like Im unhappy, but I am not. Just being honest and thinking out loud. I have not had a time yet in the last three weeks where I regretted my surgery. Ill kepp you up to date in if and when I get this whole exercise thing going!

Well all things considered I am doing ok. I have been frustrated as of late with the lack of loss I have been seeing. While I am trying to remain positive about not gaining anything, which I have learned is more than half the battle sometimes, not losing even 1/2 a pound in the last 7 days is to say the least bothersome. I have been counting my calories aggressively and am taking in 600 to 1000 cal a day. I'm going to try and chalk it up to hormones and water weight but even with that I would expect some kind of loss. I can now eat just about whatever I want just A LOT LESS than I used to . I eat three meals a day and 2 snacks and have to admit I struggle getting in all my fluids. I can usually do at least 40 oz but up to 64 is hard for me when you eat every three hours. I am still at a total loss of 30 lbs from 2 months ago which I am so proud of. My goal is 10 lbs a month but I will take any loss at this point. I feel better and am more comfortable so I am on my way towards my goal of not being so limited physically and uncomfortable. I promised myself I would not be so number focused but when you go through so much you cant help but want to see numbers. I know this has been worth it, for nothing other than to get myself under control. I was going no where fast but I am just holding on to the fact that as long as I lose something, (whether it takes me 10 months or 10 years) thats better then staying where I was or worse....gaining more.

Well it has been 16 days post op and things have definitely started to improve from the pain standpoint. The cramping that was so bad is now gone for the most part and is really only problematic if I get too hungry. I had to move through the liquid phase much faster as I learned that, for me, my cramping was worse without something of substance in my stomach. I started to puree my food around day 13 to a watery consistency working my way up to baby food consistency over the next few days and am now eating very soft foods like scrambled eggs. For me, this has been helpful. Keep in mind I can eat only about 2-3 Tbs at a time but this seems to keep the cramping at bay as well as the gas. I don't recommend this for everyone else as their is a reason the diet is to be followed as prescribed by OCC, it was just I had to do something on my own to alleviate the cramping. My weight loss is finally starting to move in the right direction, and thank goodness for that, as eating 600 calories a day better do something!! I started out at 274 three weeks prior to surgery and was 256 the day of. 262 the day after (fluids from the IV), 256 7 days post op, right around 250 14 days out and today am 246 16 days post op. When I average the loss it is about 3 pounds a week right now. I know this will slow down as the weight loss continues and my BMR comes down due to the loss but at this point I just want to live as normal as a life as possible. It has been quite an adjustment for me to learn the feeling of fulness, To be honest, I could eat well beyond full prior to my surgery, and would do so on a regular basis. This tool (the plication) has given me great incentive to not over due things. I DO NOT want to throw up or be in total misery because of overeating, so I really try to listen to myself about when enough is enough. It is just hard to believe that 2-3 Tbs of food is enough when you are used to eating 2-3 cups of something. I've learned other tricks to not stretch my plication or make myself sick. It has been very difficult to get over the whole not eating and drinking at the same time and to wait 45 minutes after eating to drink. I found a timer app for my phone and set it for 45 minutes at my last bite so I know when it is ok for me to start drinking. It hard to get 64 oz of liquid in when you don't drink at meals! I will keep working on keeping focused. Now that I have lost close to 30 lbs people are starting to notice. (I am 6 feet tall so it took some time for it to be noticeable) when people start to notice it starts to get more fun. It's also more fun when you can breath better and tie your shoes easier!

I just wanted to update this question as I can see that many people read the posts but have no answer or comments. For those of you who are considering the surgery and read these forums, I want you to know that the worst of what I was experiencing has passed. I spoke with Dr Ortiz on day 7 post op and he confirmed that I was ok and was just experiencing post op cramping which apparently plication patients experience more of post op. I am now 10 days post op and the cramps still happen but no where near as bad as previously. Sometimes they still wake me up and a couple make me catch my breath during the day but I have learned to not let my stomach get too empty for too long. I have also started to lose weight (thank goodness). I have lost 5 lbs since surgery and a total of 25 since I started to get ready for the surgery (started 3 weeks prior with very strict carb control). I have carefully advanced my diet a bit faster than recommended because I felt that my stomach needed just a bit of substance. I have taken thicker soups and just pureed the heck out of them. That really seemed to help. At this point I am probably eating about 500-600 calories a day and thats all I really want. Before surgery I liked to eat A LOT of volume. I find that I need to eat something about every 2-3 hours but its a fraction of what I could eat before, and I mean a fraction. I'm back to work but I would not say I feel 100% just yet. I'll keep things posted as best I can to give the best idea of how things go. At this point (10 days post op) I have not regretted my decision. I did regret it my first two days post op as I was SOOOOO miserable, but now I am getting excited about being more comfortable in my own skin. My personal goal was not so much a number but more of an ability. I want to crouch down and play with my kids. I want to go places with them and participate in activities without fear of spoiling them because of my size. I want to live longer than my mother did. I want to like my body as much as I like my self. Don't know if that resonates with any of you, but that was how I knew I was ready for this. I was more tired and afraid of being fat and becoming ill, than I was fearful of not being able to eat what I wanted or the side effects of the surgery. I was just "over it". Good luck to all of you out there trying to find your answer and your way. Hopefully, I now have a tool powerful enough to help me get to where I know I want to be.

I just wanted to update this question as I can see that many people read the posts but have no answer or comments. For those of you who are considering the surgery and read these forums, I want you to know that the worst of what I was experiencing has passed. I spoke with Dr Ortiz on day 7 post op and he confirmed that I was ok and was just experiencing post op cramping which apparently plication patients experience more of post op. I am now 10 days post op and the cramps still happen but no where near as bad as previously. Sometimes they still wake me up and a couple make me catch my breath during the day but I have learned to not let my stomach get too empty for too long. I have also started to lose weight (thank goodness). I have lost 5 lbs since surgery and a total of 25 since I started to get ready for the surgery (started 3 weeks prior with very strict carb control). I have carefully advanced my diet a bit faster than recommended because I felt that my stomach needed just a bit of substance. I have taken thicker soups and just pureed the heck out of them. That really seemed to help. At this point I am probably eating about 500-600 calories a day and thats all I really want. Before surgery I liked to eat A LOT of volume. I find that I need to eat something about every 2-3 hours but its a fraction of what I could eat before, and I mean a fraction. I'm back to work but I would not say I feel 100% just yet. I'll keep things posted as best I can to give the best idea of how things go. At this point (10 days post op) I have not regretted my decision. I did regret it my first two days post op as I was SOOOOO miserable, but now I am getting excited about being more comfortable in my own skin. My personal goal was not so much a number but more of an ability. I want to crouch down and play with my kids. I want to go places with them and participate in activities without fear of spoiling them because of my size. I want to live longer than my mother did. I want to like my body as much as I like my self. Don't know if that resonates with any of you, but that was how I knew I was ready for this. I was more tired and afraid of being fat and becoming ill, than I was fearful of not being able to eat what I wanted or the side effects of the surgery. I was just "over it". Good luck to all of you out there trying to find your answer and your way. Hopefully, I now have a tool powerful enough to help me get to where I know I want to be.

Hello, I am reaching out to the more "experienced" plication patients out there on some issues I am having post surgical. I had my surgery July 22 and so far it has been rockier than I thought it would be. The first 24 hours after surgery were miserable for me with the amount of stomach cramping and vomiting. Every subsequent day has gotten better but almost 7 days out I am still having serious bouts of cramping right where my stomach is. From what I understand plication patients have more issues with recovery due to the stomach being intact. I am assuming my stomach is trying to "right itself" and thus the cramping comes. Has anyone else had this problem and if so when does it subside? I have noticed that if I eat something a bit heavier like very thin cream of wheat or cream soup it seems to get a bit better so I started to think they are hunger pains, but in my life I have never had hunger pains like that. They usually come back about 60 minutes after I eat. In addition to this I just want to check in with others about the weight loss expectation. I have not lost even a half a pound since surgery. All of my surgical water weight is gone and I am eating less than 600 calories a day and nothing is coming off. I swear I could tolerate the cramping better if I saw the scale moving even just a little bit. How long does it take to start seeing weight come off after surgery?