How many protein grams for 1st 3 weeks?

I have two different sheets from 2 different dieticians. How much protein do I need during my first two weeks? Is it 30 or 55? I thought about this surgery this morning and realized that it is akin to bringing home your first baby. Remember? All excited, proud, and filled with anticipation. Thinking you know everything there is to know. Then you get home and think, shucks! What do I do now??? It's that SAME feeling. Anyone else? I know it will get easier and I will be more confident (like mothering); I just wi**** would get here faster! Thank you everyone for all your good wishes. I don't know what I would do without this lifeline. This, too, can be a very lonely experience.....no matter how much support you get from your spouse, family, and thin friends. Your responses are appreciated. Thank you again. -Rose-

I don't really know the full on answer to that. I would say strive for 75-100 and whatever you get down is great at this point. I know that is hard or so it sounds, but 100 grams of pure protein is only 400 calories, so if you really push the protein you could do it. Just don't sweat it if you can't get it down, but it creates an optimal goal to strive for. You are going to have a hard time at first which is normal. Just keep your eye on that and make sure to get the protein first. Dina

I do remember. Between my HUGE effort, the child raising books and advice from my pediatrician it seems that I re-invented parenthood. I actually cringe at the memory of how I must have seemed to my mother and mother in law. I am sure they understood, but jeeze I could barely trust them holding the baby. My mother had only raised six kids. By my third I would pretty much hand her to just about anyone willing. Being a new pre-op does remind me of that experience. You are trying to be so good, and you really lack the confidence and feel kind of scared something is going to go wrong. It didn't take too long to realize that despite such drastic rearranging my body functions and physical self were still pretty much the same. In other words you do start to feel "normal" again. You get used to the things you have to do to manage your new way of living, and once a routine sets in it doesn't seem like so much work and worry. I seem to remember my target was to get a minimum of 50 grams early on. Of course the more the better, but it I got in 50 I considered it a good day. Patty

Hi Patty! I couldn't help but notice the reply to my posting (bringing babies home for the 1st time), and got curiouser and curiouser (is that a word?). I read your entire "autobiography" and see myself in you. Your attitude is so upbeat and real, I couldn't tear myself away. First of all, your pre and post op pictures are incredible. Not only have you lost an incredible amount of weight, but no kidding, you look 20 years younger! You look great! I want to know where and when your support mtgs. are in Portland. I live in Eugene, where there is none, and need/want a mtg. to go to. I am a school bus driver with summers off, but during the school year, I get off at about 4:30. I hope I can make it there by mtg. time. I want to go! Thoughout the reading of your "autobiog", I had so many questions. Now I can't remember them. What about my pills.......when can I stop crushing them? I swear, the worst part of this ordeal is that taste. Gag, gag, gag. I worried about your long period and it made sense to me (early on) that you may have been anemic because of the length of it. You were so tired. When do I have to go on iron tablets and B12? No one has told me yet. Did iron eventually help you? Do you still have trouble with excercise? If you do, you've gotta try Curves. It is so easy and so much fun! Especially with a girlfriend. You will love it! I am now 10 days post op and feel SO GREAT. I can't believe it. Tell me again how to get that protein in? I hate it, but also have no trouble with food. I'm eating scrambled eggs and watermelon. Oh, and did your hair ever fall out? I hope not. I had to laugh at your remembrance of our mother's wigs in the 70's. My sister and I both have funny memories of that one. I guess I should start posting on my profile, huh? I got a lot from yours, so maybe someone would get something from mine. Though it is not all that different. Except for the fact that I was in first grade the year you were born. Gotta go and eat or drink something! Almost forgot! Maybe I'll meet you some day. -rose-

You are so nice! I can't imagine anyone reading my profile, but I read so many during my journey (I still read them) that I am glad someone got something from mine! I hope I look 20 years younger. I doubt that would hold up during close scrutiny though! At 43 it's not that I look 23, but more that I look my actual age. At a low point a very sweet man thought my infant daughter was my granddaughter. Of course I could have just been jumping to the mortified response based on how bad I felt I looked, because he was from a small village in Mexico and at 43 his wife WAS a grandmother. I can't imagine that there isn't a least a small group of people in Eugene that have had WLS. The meeting I go to is put on by the Oregon Clinic at Good Samaritan in Portland. They meet once a month. The next meeting is actually this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. It is held in the main hospital in a conference room (I think it's the Lorenzo Conf. room or maybe it's Windstar-they know at the front desk). You don't have to be a patient of Dr. Hong or Patterson to attend. I attended the ones at Kaiser. They were similar, although I have liked these ones better. Having a facilitator know how to run a meeting is always most helpful. Hope to see you there. I don't have the schedule with me right now, but ask if you are interested in the dates for future meetings. I didn't have to crush pills after my third week post-op visit. I seem to remember finding out that I didn't actually need to crush them that long, but I was really trying to play it all safe. After crushing them into applesauce and other such tricks, I found crushing all my pills at once and mixing them in the smallest amount of water possible and swallowing it down in one swallow followed by lots of water was the "least bad" method. The disguising it in foods was still yucky and I didn't really want to tamper with the small bit of food I was ingesting at that time. I couldn't believe how bad a tiny and pretty little purple pill (my thyroid med) could taste so bad. It's so temporary and in no time I was able to take all pills horse size and small the regular way. I also remember that getting my medication in liquid form was a bust. Swallowing that thick stuff that still didn't taste good was much worse than the little bitter swig of the crushed pills. The only iron I take is in my multivitamin. I have grilled my surgeon and regular doctor and they are not of the opinion that B-12 supplementation in addition to the multivitamin is necessary unless my labs indicate. After hearing so many people swear that they feel so tired right before getting a B-12 shot and better after it, I was all for setting up a plan to get shots. I know at Kaiser they give B-12 shots to all WLS patients. Both doctors said that despite the stomach rearranging, that I should still be able to absorb B-12, and that not being able to absorb would be in the case of the entire stomach being removed, which is not the case in WLS. I bought the under the tongue ones at Trader Joes, but I don't take them. I don't tend to do things I have been told I don't have to do. My labs have all been perfect and I feel great. I never have been anemic post-op despite the heavy periods. I am now a member of the White Pants Club (in other words I got a hysterectomy) so that is making for an even greater summer! I'm sure if I posted the above about B-12 on the main board I would get all kinds of lectures about it, but I find vitamin info plagued by a variety of opinions. I would go with your doctor's advice. I never lost my hair. I definitely experienced maybe 10-12 strands in my hands when I washed my hair during the 4-8 month zone, but nothing that showed. I don't have great hair (fine and not lots of it) so I would have been a sorry site if it had come out any more than it did. I lucked out on that one, but I am realizing that whatever things I did experience were so TEMPORARY and were teeny compared to the huge positive changes that were occurring alongside those. Exercise you ask?!? I am so incredibly active when I compare to before surgery that I refuse to say that I don't exercise, but I don't do as much "formal" exercise as I would like to say I do. I broke down and joined 24 hour fitness about ten days ago (mostly to be able to swim laps) but I haven't gotten to go yet. My daughter got some horrible virus called hand-foot-mouth disease and we were glued at the hip for a week. She is all good now, but she was a sick puppy. I have started swimming laps in the last few months, walk my dog, but most of my exercise comes from just being so much more active now. Today and yesterday I worked for 3 hours in the yard, power washed everything that doesn't move, did tons of laundry, washed baseboards. These last few years I was only able to do the bare minimum. Things looked decent from the outside, but I just wasn't able to do so many things I needed to do. I didn't even realize how little I was able to do until now that I'm doing them. It's like I am a woman driven to tackle all areas of the household that I really had neglected. It feels great! I have so much energy. Call it lifestyle changes but I am spending my time much better now. I used to watch so much more T.V. I bet you do feel better ten days out! I felt it after the first week. I think we "detox" from the sugar and high fat diet, plus they hydrate the heck out of us. It had an immediate effect on the way I felt. Then continuing to not tax my body with the bad stuff it started to respond right away. I'm sure my pancreas was doing a happy dance. Increased mobility was the next win, and after that the increase in energy. It has been a great process for me. Glad to hear your off to such a good start. I hope to meet you one day soon. Patty