What's on Your (photo) Friday Menu, RNYers?

What a great pic of you and kiddo!  You look happy, I bet being in your own house is WONDERFUL, it shows!

Happy bday to your hubby, hope you all have a wonderful time. 

Nothing wrong with a night snack (in my opinion), I often have protein hot chocolate, it is nice to have a warm drink before bed, and its a little sweet so it feels like dessert or a "treat".  Or I often have celery and laughing cow and that really fills me up.

I keep forgetting to speak about your struggles to eat dense protein... Sorry that's my bad.  I honestly am concerned for you and your health Melissa Sue. I am 2 + years post op and have only "thrown up" (was not a throw up per se, I had the foamies and wretched for hours) and it was from eating a baby carrot that got stuck, I was maybe 9-10 months post op.   But as soon as I could (as per my surgeon's plan) I was eating dense protein.  Its just not normal at all the amount you get the foamies/throw up.   I get people get food stuckor eat too fast but you said that is not the case at all. I know you said you do have a one year follow up soon but to me your surgeon's office is JUST NOT GETTING IT.  Really this is no way to live. You have to fight for yourself and your health and when you say something is wrong, they damn well should be listening.  I get that the clinic/hospital is not close by, I get that you are a working Mom, but I just feel like if you presented maybe a different centre/hospital that there is Bariatric doctors there you might get some more answers. If I could take you there myself I would!!!!!!!!!!!

Please don't be offended, and if I have stepped out of line, I apologize. I am coming at this with love and concern and a fellow OH friend/someone who has had WLS and I feel like I know that getting sick that much is not normal.  You really don't want for the next 30, 40, 50 years of your life be getting sick this much on a daily basis.  Please push back with your centre/clinic and get some answers.  I wish you nothing but health and happiness and want to see you feel better.

Just needed to get that off my chest and I won't speak of it again!  Sending lots of love and hugs, Daze (please don't be mad! )

I went to a post op support group last night the LOCAL bariatric program, as they welcome people who have had surgery elsewhere.  I really liked the people, and I am going to try and talk to someone there and see what they think about my dense protein / slime problem.  Even though I know they wont be able to give me much info, seeing as I am not a patient.  But maybe just a "yup totally normal"  or "yeah you should get that check out"

I am not offended at all by you saying that!  I have always had problems where I down play something that is wrong, I make jokes or laugh it off.  And I REALLY need to not shrug this one off.  I read about people who had surgery MONTHS after me being able to eat 4oz of dense protein and I'm over here like

I know there is nothing wrong with a night time snack, but as I get further out I see my calories sneaking up, and it FREAKS ME OUT!!  My surgeon's office wants me eating a minimum of 1000 cals a day, and I know I can do it, but for some reason it just really makes me scared.  I still have about 12 lbs until MY personal goal for myself, and want to reach it, and I have NO IDEA what calorie level I would maintain at, or what I should be eating to lose.  I passed my surgeon's goal long ago, so they never are helpful when I ask about my goal weight.  ugh 

I ate the burger last night, 4oz of 80/20 ground beef (precooked weight) and it went down like nothing, and you are 4 months farther along.  I can't say for sure, because obviously everyone is different, but I really think you should look into it more.  

  I ate maybe 2oz of my burger the other night, and we know how THAT turned out!  ugh   I am always second guessing myself though....like maybe I didn't chew enough....or maybe I ate too fast....ugh

The only meat I have been able to eat 4 oz of is canned tuna with mayo.  And I don't consider canned tuna to be a "dense" protein....like steak, chicken or pork.

THEN I feel weird complaining that I can't eat enough....I mean that is why I had the surgery, to give me a tool to help me eat less.  RIGHT??!??!??!???   

Eating less is one thing, but the type of food you eat is important too.  I totally understand about the second guessing yourself thing.  I've had health issues for years, pain and problems that I went to the doctor for, nothing was ever found. I used to get covered in hives for no reason, I mean big gigantic hives on my face and all over my body.  Never did figure out what was wrong, and the symptoms went away.  I always felt like a hypochondriac going in, because they could never find anything.  I'm starting to think that I may have an auto immune thing going on, but I stopped talking about my symptoms because I don't want to look like a whack job.

I decided the other night, after talking to my husband, that I'm going to ask my doc about testing for Fibromyalgia.  he will just refer me out, but I'm tired of feeling bad (even though I feel 100 times better than before, i still hurt and feel crappy a lot). And I'm tired of feeling guilty for feeling bad and holding everything in.

6 years ago I had severe abdominal pain and ended up in the ER.  I had recently had one of many early miscarriages (this was before we did in vitro for my youngest) and they kept telling me that I was constipated, or that the pain was from the miscarriage.  I kept insisting that I knew what constipation felt like and that something was wrong.  The ER doc ordered a CT scan, but in the meantime the OBGYN that worked with my doc came in to check on me.  Once again, she dismissed it as constipation and told me to take a laxative.  She left and it took a while, but they came to take me for the CT, and she passed us in the hall and literally rolled her eyes when she saw that they were taking me in for it.  Talk about making someone feel like ****  The CT scan showed that I had a pretty nasty case of colitis.  I overhead all of the nurses and docs in the ER showing shock that I actually had something wrong with me.  It made me really gunshy when it comes to my symptoms.  I feel like everything I said was dismissed and that they looked at me like I was crazy.  In the end I had the last laugh, but that incident is burned into my brain and I always feel unsure of myself when I have a symptom.

I used to HATE when I would complain about something being wrong with me....and every damn time I would get the "its because you are OBESE" lecture.    I mean seriously now doctors....I KNEW that I was obese, no need to tell me, but (insert problem here) is NOT because of that! lol

I have always been one to down play my pain, insecurities etc....it just somehow made things easier to deal with if I laughed them off.  And THIS is probably why my surgeon's office has maybe not taken me very seriously.  They just ask how many times a week I get sick.  Im like sometimes it is every day, sometimes I can go a week or weeks without getting sick.  But that only happens because I avoid the dense protein like the plague for a while.

I kept having pain and nausea from the beginning. I was told I was eating too fast, eating too much, not chewing well... fast forward to one year anniversary..Oh? You are still feeling that way? Finally did tests and I had an incisional hernia... So stick with it, and figure it out...

I don't have pain or nausea, thankfully!  I just can't eat much dense protein ...or at all...without getting horrible SLIME and then it all comes up!  ugh  Very annoying!

I know exactly how you feel.  When the doc can't see it they poo poo it off and make you feel like you're nuts.  I have lupus and have strange things happen to me often but I avoid asking for help because I don't want the rolled eyes you spoke of.  It too****il I went blind in 1 eye my kidneys shut down and I didn't even know my name before I got proper help.  I now am blessed with a great doc but still feel like a freak.  Hugs

I hope you get the dense protein issue figured out soon. You don't have a stricture, or you wouldn't get anything down. But you might have a very small stoma that's causing the problem. They can tell pretty easily with a fluoroscope and swallow test. Easy, painless, and totally non invasive.

As for goal, make it whatever you want, not the doc. Maintenance is jus****ching how much you eat until you aren't gaining or losing. It's much easier to find that spot if you are weighing and tracking your portions closely. It took me a couple of months adjusting until I settled in.

When you need to lose, dropping 500 calories a day seems the best balance between losing in a reasonable amount of time, and depriving yourself too much. 500 calories a day is only one pound a week. So catching a gain of 5 pounds is easier to deal with than a gain of 30.

You'll figure it out just fine. I have no doubts.