Leaderboard

Good Evening All! I am almost 3 years postop from my Duodenal Switch w/ Biliopancreatic Diversion. It has been a long 3 years but it has been worth all of the effort I have put into this. I recently had to have emergency surgery to fix a wall hernia/bowel obstruction and something with my mesentery. I am scheduled for my excess skin removal on July 8th 2024. I am excited and I am proud of myself for all of this hard work. Its not easy with this surgery and anyone who has gone through it or is about to, remember one day at a time and YOU CAN DO THIS!!

Hi Everyone! I’m having my VSG surgery tomorrow, april 3rd and i plan on documenting my journey here. I’ve searched and read countless threads to try and anticipate what tomorrow will be like so i thought i’d create this topic to document and be able to look back on how things went. I’ve been in the pre-op requirement journey since october 2023, my requirements were pretty flexible: 10 days of nutrition, psychological and art therapy as well as physical activity classes in a specialised facility - there were also mandatory support group meetings to attend during the past 7 months. I also did not have any pre-op diet as my surgeon doesn’t require any weightloss before performing the surgery. I’m happy with the team i have working with me, and the clinic has a great reputation. But, obviously nerves have started to kick in and for the first time i’m actually scared. What if something goes wrong during surgery ? I guess these are normal thoughts, just trying to get through the stress and get to the other side of the surgery so i can concentrate on the long road ahead :) I’ll report to the clinic at 8.30 am tomorrow, and my surgery is scheduled for 10 am. Hoping everything goes well !! Fingers crossed.

Now that I'm in maintenance mode, I'm getting a into a routine for my meals. Every day, I start out with 8-16 ounces of water, and then a proffee, which I have come to look forward to even the night before. My proffees are simply a black coffee with a protein powder added. There are three products that I cycle through: Premier Vanilla, Orgain Vanilla, and Dymatize Vanilla. For second breakfast on workdays, I will have a low-fat yogurt with two tablespoons of PBFit and two teaspoons of no sugar added dried cherries. I will have ingested 35-45 grams of protein at this point between the two breakfasts, with 250-285 calories, and about 20 carbs. For second breakfast on non-workdays, I will prepare two servings of plain, instant oatmeal with a tablespoon of an olive oil-based spread. This means I will have had 34 grams of protein, 365 calories, and 38 carbs. Non-workdays are when I am being very active with training sessions, so I allow myself more carbohydrate fuel. Snacks on any day are always mixed nuts, even when I am travelling. I will have 0.2 cups of a blend that I make myself. It consists of dry roasted peanuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and Brazil nuts. This is 5 grams of protein, 163 calories, and 7 carbs. Breakfast and snacks have been the easiest to nail down. Lunch and dinner have more variables, and I prepare enough for leftovers. I concentrate on protein first, and then add vegetables. Typically tempeh, tofu, or Field Roast products with roasted or sautéed vegetables. Today, I will be eating leftovers from last night. Two ounces of tempeh with four ounces of roasted vegetables that consist of red and yellow sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, small purple potatoes, zucchini, and carrots. I will add a tablespoon of olive oil-based spread, break up 3 walnuts to sprinkle of top, and garnish with two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. This particular meal will be 19 grams of protein, 377 calories, and 28 grams of carbs. Bear in mind that I do eat more carbs when I am not working, and I focus on ingesting healthy carbs instead of breads/crackers/chips/crisps. It's a helluva journey and I'm thankful to be on it!

so when i had my WLS, when i got home one the next afternoon, i was just under 2 lbs lighter. but when i had my plastics, 2 days later (i was in hospital longer) i was 5 lbs heavier...and i was like 115 lbs at the time so that was a lot considering my frame. like @nickelchip my hands where like inflated balloon paws...(i'll see if i can find a pic)

Thank you for the great information- I did get to consult with dr before— and got the v-shape as that was what dr preferred as well. I had 4lbs of skin removed from my stomach, and they lipo scuplted arms, waist and back to get the 2lbs of fat to use for the tiny bbl they were able to complete. I am 3 weeks out (as of Wednesday April 10) and am very pleased with the results so far. The back side is not super dramatic, which I am happy about. Surgery went well, although i did have to have an iron treatment because my hemoglobin dropped 4 points ..but after that i felt great. Instead of general they used an epidural and exparel- so I didn't need any major pain meds after. Just had a headache for a couple of days, so Tylenol was solution. Staying in a recovery house for a week was THE best decision for me to not push it and to make sure i could recover well— at home I’d have been doing things when i should have been resting. No real pain to speak of from anything- sore and tight might describe it best—but that eased up at the end of the week. I admittedly have a high pain tolerance, and after previous breast reduction and hysterectomy knew some of what to expect. Now, Im just working from home and living a fairly normal life. Driving, walking, etc with ease. In a few weeks, I will be cleared to start exercising- which I have never done— so slow and steady will be course of action. Ill post some pics when things settle and i don't look too Frankenstein like. Thank you all for the kind words and support! Plastics is a game changer!

I'm so sorry you are struggling with this still and that you aren't able to get in with a specialist. Post viral issues are both literally and figuratively exhausting. What you experienced with the walking 4 miles and not getting out of bed for 3 days afterwards is caused "post exertional malaise" and it is common in long covid as well as things like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I experience it a lot. That device I linked to earlier is supposed to help you gauge where your body's threshold is regarding this and keep you right under it so that you can still be physically active without triggering that backlash. It is a really frustrating thing to experience, especially when a few months ago you could have walked that distance without issue. I experience this still every time I try to push beyond 5,000 steps a day. This is a vast improvement over what triggered it pre-op, but it is still nowhere near where I want to be. I'm going to add in some strength training components to see if strengthening the muscle function in my body will help me be able to push the threshold up a bit, but if not I'm going to find a physiologist who can help me figure it out because I hate the physical limitations that come with these viral conditions and general deconditioning.

Thanks for uour advice. I agree with you about the fruits and veggies. I actually didn’t realize there were carbs in them until now but I have always tended to give myself leniency with them in terms of calories, even when I was dieting thinking I didn’t get overweight eating fruits and veggies but I’m not sure if my post SADI body will agree or not I did leave a message for the dietician but so far she isn’t calling me back. I honestly fear that she may be like the rest of my team and be clueless about the SADI. People have mentioned in the other surgery forums not to be surprised if I run into situations like this just because it’s far less common but I am not going through with this before I have some answers. I just figured I will post as many questions here as I can from my list. I will try the dietician again this morning. I am Even going to see if they will let me see the PA before I see the surgeon in hopes she can answer some but I have a feeling my list for him is still going to be pretty long. The support staff just doesn’t seem to have the information yet. This one is less researched, there is less info available online and the risks are alot more serious though, i would be a fool to not take this seriously.

surgeons do vary. At my clinic, both sleeve and bypass people were on the same plan. They had us on purees as soon as we left the hospital, but they changed that (I had my surgery nine years ago) and now they have to do a week (or maybe two?) of liquids before moving to purees.

Hi. I had gastric bypass Monday the 18th. I am doing well, walking a lot. Today I had a few sips of coffee and I also am having a few sips of a lobster bisque soup. Technically neither of these things are allowed but I just needed something more than broth and protein shakes. I am also having trouble getting 48+ oz a day of liquids in. I’ve been consistently getting 36-40 but after that 40 it’s so hard. i guess my question is.. am i harming myself by jumping ahead by a few days? I understand it’s best to listen to my doctor but i am just struggling to do anything and tasting something different seems to have helped HW 324 SW (before liquid diet) 324 CW 296