You've already gotten several posts of excellent advice.

I wanted to add that, depending upon where you are located, Cleveland Clinic Bariatrics is also an option. There were/are several people in support groups there over 600 pounds.

I am just so sorry you've gone through so much.

I do not have enough knowledge to advise anything, although I am a 5 year out RNY patient with nearly all positive things to say about it.

I wish you the very best on your upcoming surgery. I truly hope that you get the results and relief you deserve.

There's that sweetheart of a personality shining through.

I've tried several kinds of sugar-free bbq sauce with varying levels of satisfaction.

I'd be more worried about the beans, depending on where I was in my weight loss. Pinto beans have 30 grams of carbs per single serving -- as much as a can of coke.

Congrats Sparkle!!

I am sorry that you've had a tough go of it -- and I sincerely hope that your recovery from the blood clot, adjustment of your meds and acid issues are resolved quickly.

I just want to reiterate what the other two posters have said: acid mimics hunger.

Getting that under control may help a great deal -- and as Kim mentioned, sometimes after VSG, the GERD is bad enough that revision to RNY is indicated.

Wow.

I guess the way to look at this is that surgery has saved your life in more than one way ... if you hadn't had it, you may never have had the biopsy, and not have found the cirrhosis.

It is incredulous that they never caught anything in your routine blood work or during physicals before this -- and I can only imagine how scary it must be to have just learned this. However, it's always better to know -- and to face things head on.

This is a lot of added stress -- and stress is a definite trigger for many of us to resort to our key coping device of food. Of course you want to eat and feel emotional upheaval!

Please find someone familiar with eating disorders and addiction to help you navigate the road ahead. You deserve a strong support base, and having someone to bounce your feelings is imperative. If the first person you find doesn't click, keep looking. It can take a while to find the right person for you.

Personally, I think you are amazing and from your posts, I think you have the strength and self-awareness to be very successful. Just don't give up. You're worth the effort.

Edited to add: since you have the added liver issue, I want to make sure that you're informing your team about your fever -- in fact, I would report any and all things to them if you feel the least bit concerned. That is their job, and more importantly, it is your life.

Yes, your tastes come back. Sometimes you will desperately wish that they didn't, but yes, they do.

I came to realize that my eating had very little to do with hunger. I like to say that when I had surgery on New Year's Eve 2013, I hadn't actually been physically hungry in approximately 30 years. LOL.

People are under the mostly incorrect impression that surgery takes away their hunger forever. For a very small minority, it does. Most of us find that sometime after the first year, it returns and for some of us, it never really goes away. When this happens, they feel like something is wrong with them, or that they are going to fail. There isn't, and they aren't -- unless they choose to.

After surgery, I felt hunger. However, it wasn't physical hunger, it was "head hunger" -- I missed chewing and eating. Everything I enjoyed was tied up with food. Celebration? Let's go out to eat! Sad or depressed? Ice cream always helps that... Happy, sad, bored, excited, tired, sick, -- all my emotions were deeply connected with food.

I have BED (binge eating disorder) -- something that really became clear to me while preparing and recovering from surgery. My relationship was food was literally killing me, yet I missed it like a teenage girl mourning the loss of her first love.

It's hard. The work is hard. I had to treat food like a heroin addict treats shooting up -- and I needed help to confront that addiction and the feelings surrounding it. Once you remove your vice and coping mechanism, you are left with a lot of **** that you haven't dealt with before.

Anyhow, in my case, I found no help from "normie" counselors or therapists. If someone hasn't been obese or dealt with eating disorders, then they have no real idea how to help. I had the best luck finding an eating disorder specialist -- yes -- the same people who work with anorexics and bulimics -- because guess what? There's not much difference in how it manifests itself in our lives.

Take heart -- right now your nerves have been cut so you don't feel full even when you are -- and you aren't on any solids yet. Those nerves come back in the first 6 to 8 weeks, and you will really begin to feel restriction. That means that soon you will enter your honeymoon period where it will be the very easiest it will ever be in your life to meet your weight loss goals -- and the very best time to work on your emotional relationship with food -- because you will be celebrating successes, finding that you can do so much more physically as you lose, and have some relief to the hunger for a while.

You are not alone. There are many of us who have been right where you are right now.

Wishing you the very best life!

Vitamins (do you set timers, just remember etc) -- for the first 2 years after surgery, I did set reminders via my phone. I also log them as part of my food via MyFitnessPal -- including the calories/carbs in my daily count.

Support Groups (do you attend multiple or just one/not at all?) -- I have attended several groups. Pre-surgery groups, Binge Eating Support and a Post-Surgery group. Unfortunately, none of them were a great fit for me long-term. My BED group has too many who are at the denial phase, and it's not helpful for me. The post-surgery group has mostly significant re-gainers who have issues with compliance.

Meal Plan -- eating plan has these major components: Weighing and measuring every thing that goes in my mouth, logging everything that goes into my mouth, greater than 80 grams of protein with less than 40 grams of carbs per day in maintenance.

Mental Health/Therapy -- I saw an eating disorder counselor for the first 18 months after surgery to deal with my BED.

Attend National Conferences -- N/A

Online support system -- I truly believe remaining active in OH is integral to my success. I try to log in every day to maintain accountability, and to give back. I think so many people ditch OH once they are a year or two in -- and this is a mistake. Not only does it keep the focus on what brought us to surgery in the first place, but it's also right to give back to those who are just starting.

Individual Support outside of a support group -- I am my own best support.

Exercise on a regular basis - other than making sure I have 10,000 steps a day, I do nothing in addition. I once did the couch to 5K, but I have no desire to continue it, and do not feel that exercise did anything (less than 5% of my effort) towards losing 220 pounds.

Your bariatric surgeon was ON THE MONEY!

I did more than two weeks on the liquid pre-op diet (Cleveland Clinic -- specialized bariatric endocrinology diet) -- and was required to have less that 180 calories per shake, less than 10 carbs, and at least 19 grams of protein. I was allowed 4 to 5 shakes per day.

I used Syntax Nectar shakes for most of the time -- some mixed with water with a fruity Crystal Light flavor that coordinated with the flavor (i.e. Syntax Nectar Fuzzy Navel + 1 cup water with half packet of classic orange Crystal Light = 105 calories, 0 carbs, 23 protein); and others with unsweetened almond milk (30 calories per cup) for the milkshake type flavors (i.e. Syntrax Chocolate Truffle + 1 cup almond milk = 130 calories, 1 g. carb, 24 protein). For convenience, I also used ready-made Premier Protein shakes sometimes (160 calories, 5 carbs, 30 protein).

Every pre-op diet is different. You will find huge variations in what surgeons require. It does seem like that's a lot of carbs to take in via shakes, but that's probably just because it's different than what I did. That doesn't make it right or wrong. If you trust your surgeon, then I'd trust that he/she knows what is best for his/her patients pre-op. I have seen people here who had food funerals up until surgery because they had no pre-op diet requirement -- who've done okay, too.

I personally believe the pre-op diet was a huge benefit to me -- for my own personal reasons -- beyond just the liver shrinking aspect -- but that is just my personal experience. I don't know if it helps, but after surgery, I have lost 220 lbs and maintained that loss by staying under 30 grams of carbs during the loss stage, and under 45-50 in maintenance.

I had trouble laying down the first couple of weeks after surgery -- probably because I was super morbidly obese with a BMI of 57 -- so the weight of my stomach pulling against my incision holes was painful when laying down. I did use my husband's recliner for about 1.5 weeks -- but I could have used a our bed with a wedge or propped up on pillows.

However, I also want to add that the pain wasn't unbearable. I only used Tylenol and was back to work walking a large campus dragging about 30 pounds of books/papers in less than 2 weeks.

I didn't need most of those things that you have listed to lose 220 lbs and maintain for nearly four years now. Like the above poster stated, if it helps you to nest, then that's fine, but really, you need very little...

Sugar-free flavoring -- I never needed this. I do have a couple coffee flavorings, but I rarely use them.

Protein shakes -- not all are created equally. Whey protein isolate is the most absorbable -- avoid collagen protein as it's pretty much unusable. Your tastes can vary wildly after surgery. I strongly recommend waiting to stock up on anything due to this. Many people really like Syntrax Nectar brand shakes.

Vitamins -- good quality ADULT multi that is NOT a gummy. Should meet 100% of your needs -- then you take 2X that amount. Vitamin D should be D3 and DRY (especially if you're getting an RNY or DS), Calcium should be CITRATE, B12 should preferably be the methyl bonded and sublingual.

Pill cutter -- never needed.

Pill organizer -- never needed.

Blender/food processor -- I already had these things because I cook for my family. If I didn't already need them for my every day cooking, I would not have needed these things for surgery.

Small dishes -- I used saucers, and often still do.

Food scale -- this is the one thing I did need and still use every. single. day.

Broth -- I used this for my pre-op time, and somewhat in the first week after surgery only.

Sugar-free jello and pudding -- I used sugar-free jello during pre-op, but never pudding as there were too many calories/carbs making it with milk and I didn't want to waste calories on it.

Sugar free popsicles -- used only the week after surgery to help get in fluids in my sore pouch.

Cream soup -- never used. Wasted calories with no real nutritional benefit.

Yogurt -- I used greek yogurt that was under 80 calories --

Small containers -- I just bought those semi-disposable rubbermaid containers in the tiny snack sized. I prepped a bunch of little pureed meals. I didn't even eat them all. It's hard to imagine how little you will be eating after surgery, and how little effort you need to make to eat enough.