Yeah - the Optifast wasn't great. I developed an intolerance to milk (even soy eventually) doing the pre-diet and then the post-diet for the first few weeks. I'm still sensitive to too much milk. I was told the Optifast pre-surgery was not so much about weight loss (although that was a good thing) but about shrinking your liver so that the surgeon could get to where s/he needed to be.
I very occasionally have sugar cravings now, but had WEEKS of salty food cravings. The doc thought it might be because if have really low blood sugar and it was my body's way of compensating.
The gallbladder sucked. The best thing was that the surgeon was happy to yank it out pretty much immediately. It is apparently relatively common for people who have had this surgery and lost a lot of weight rapidly to have their gallbladder go south. So he quickly knew what we were dealing with and had no hesitations (less pain for me).
Best of luck with your post-surgery adjustments and with meeting your goals. Take care
Susie --- On Wed, 4/22/09, long2slashjd <iamdropbear@...> wrote:
From: long2slashjd <iamdropbear@...> Subject: [awls] Re: Introducing myself To: awls@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 6:34 AM
Hi Susie!
Let me just say...OMG the Optifast! I really loathed that stuff! I had it pre-operatively as well and to be honest it was making me really ill. In the end I had to switch over to the bars that are in that range and I didn't actually manage to loose very much as a result. I was worried that the doctor was going to send me off to loose more weight. He didn't bless him :)
I hear what you're saying about listening to your body. The two things I try to do every day are to get the 50gms of protein in and to drink all my water. Other than that, I tend to eat what I feel like eating. I do a lot of home cooking and I've been slowing introducing new foods. The interesting thing is I'm not craving junk or other empty foods at the moment. It's like a miracle and I hope that particular effect of the op stays with me forever LOL! I am noticing my caffeine craving is back though...
Straight after the surgery I found I really wanted
liquids most of the time and I guess that makes sense considering what I went through. I ended up drinking a fair bit of the celebrity slim drinks which were only marginally better than the Optifast *shudder*. Now I find egg flips very useful because of the things that changed for me is that I don't like any really solid food first thing in the morning (which is a big change because I was always such a breakfast girl)
I'm really sorry you've been so sick :( A gall bladder gone bad is no joke. I had mine out in 2005 after 3 years of trying to convince my GP that I was in agony. He didn't believe me until my friend managed to drive me to his surgery in the middle of a major attack. Needless to say I was on the op list pretty quickly after that.
Anyway, thanks so much for the kind words and the encouragement. You're so lucky to be half way there. Good luck!
Cheers Debbie
--- In awls@yahoogroups. com, Suzanne Carlton <suzannecarlton@ ...> wrote: > > Hi Debbie > > Great decision and good luck with it all. I had surgery in July 08. I am 43 yo and am about 5ft 7. I weighed about 127 to begin with, but lost 6-7 k on the pre-surgery diet (Optifast). I am now sitting right on 100. > > I haven't actually been trying to diet too much, just working on paying attention to my body and how and what I feed it. I had to go back into hospital to have my gall bladder out in November and have had bouts of pneumonia and chest infections, so I am just now getting into a good exercise routine and I expect the numbers to start going down again. I am aiming for 65-75, so I am about halfway there. > > I still think the surgery was a great decision and I know that I would not be where I am today without it. Best wishes to you and let us know if you have any
questions. People here are really happy to help. > > Cheers > > Susie > >
Hello all :) I am writing a quick message to introduce myself. I am a 29 yr old mother who had a baby 2 months ago. I have recently (like last week),had the...
Hi Mrs Nomes Nice to see you here! Chris _____ From: awls@yahoogroups.com [mailto:awls@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mrsnomes Sent: Thursday, 24 July 2008 1:39...
Lucky girl! My surgeon made me wait until I had finished breastfeeding *sob* What a choice to make... my health of my baby's health! I chose the bub's... ... ...
HI Mrs Nomes  It is Susie from the hospital here - welcome to the group. How are you healing now? I have been getting a bad reaction to optifast, but...
Hello everyone and thank you for your welcome wishes. For those who asked, I live in South Aust. Hey Susie, glad to hear your recovery is going well. I took my...
Hi Mrsnomes Sounds like you're healing really well - that's great. I had a similar problem with the bottom area - immodium definitely helps with that. Mine...
Thanks for that Chris, So far it has lasted since the day after surgery, sigh, its been 8 days now. Thanks too for the names of stuff to take, I have given the...
Hi N  That was my problem with the milk - I stopped drinking regular milk, switched to soy and started lopramide (from the chemist). Dr F said only take...
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I am sorry, I thought this had arrived at another list I am on, which is not band or sleeve related.. Sorry Jumped in there head first in my excitement! ... ...
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Hi Everyone, My name is Debbie and I've recently joined the group so I thought I should pop on in and introduce myself. I am 46 years old and I had a gastric...
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Hi Debbie  Great decision and good luck with it all. I had surgery in July 08. I am 43 yo and am about 5ft 7. I weighed about 127 to begin with, but...
Hi Susie! Let me just say...OMG the Optifast! I really loathed that stuff! I had it pre-operatively as well and to be honest it was making me really ill. In...
Hi Debbie  Yeah - the Optifast wasn't great. I developed an intolerance to milk (even soy eventually) doing the pre-diet and then the post-diet for the...
Hi Sue, Thanks for the lovely welcome :) Wow another person so close to the finish line! It's really encouraging to hear from you all. You know I was wondering...
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