MOVE OVER ALL YOU LOSERS - I'VE JOINED THE RANKS!!!
I stayed in a bit longer than most of you - 5 days - only came home today (Saturday morning) and have been shopping and doing housework and catching up on my emails. I don't even feel like i have had an operation! My doctor was very cautious and i am very grateful to him for that and the nursing staff were excellent. They even gave me their private numbers so i wouldn't have to feel bad about phoning my doctor for day-to-day advice.
Questions now: I started on the soft liquids yesterday - like custard, soup, yogurt etc. I have to get a regime going so that i know i am getting in all my protein. I have had absolutely no problems getting it down at all. I feel totally normal except i get full and satisfied so quickly! This is LIBERATING!!!!
I'm very surprised though at how easy it is to drink liquids, water, tea etc. Is this ok? I know you all say sip sip sip and i did that for the first few days but since my first cup of tea yesterday nothing holds me back from the liquids. Is this bad?
I don't want to cause any damage or stretch my pouch..
How much liquid is enough at one time?
Sharzi 9 lbs lost pre-op
Congrats to you for coming through with flying colours!! The good news about the bougie is there really isn't a big difference between 34 and 36 - so I doubt it will matter at all.
I also got a 36 and have had no problems at all, 'cept fer the pain under my left rib cage where the drain was =) I can take more than a sip too, it's more like a "normal" swallow now. And yes it is liberating, it's like "Don't worry, Be Happy!" LMAO
My doc says no more than 2ozs/15mins if that helps =)
Good luck to you and GOD bless!
Keep us in the loop and let us know how ya' do =)
(((HUGZ)))
This is the instruement the doctor uses to guide the staple line. Almost like a ruler that you use to put a neat margin on your paper. This goes down into your stomach and the doctor uses it to put the staple line and to create your new stomach pouch. The size of the bougie dictates how big your pouch will be.
I had to ask my doctor... I told him all the Americans discuss their size bougie on the boards and I don't know what it is. He then told me what it is and how it is used.
I hope this helps.
hugs
Jackie
Starting weight 264.22lb--- surgery weight - 251.02lb --- current weight 218.68
Lost 13.2lb on pre-op diet
I should know enought to stop eating when I'm full! :)
A bougie, or "french bougie" is medical term for a flexible tube (bougie or some variation of it means candle in french). They have other medical uses, but in VSG the bougie is passed through your mouth and through most of your stomach, from the esophagus almost to the pylous (entry and exit points for the stomach). The surgeon then draws the stomach snug around the tube while stapling/cutting. It gives him/her a guide to get the size right -- and to make sure that they don't accidentally create a spot that is too narrow. From what I understand most surgeons use a 32 or 34. Some like them a little bigger but the difference is size isn't much. I was shocked when I found out how small a 34 was -- 11 millimeters -- less than 1/2 inch. That's not a banana! Even a small banana would be more like a 75.
If you like math--Bougie size/divided by pi (3.1416 etc) = diameter in millimeters. There's about 1/2 mm difference between a 32 and 34. A 40 is only about 2 mm bigger. These are all really small tubes.
