Foxbins

Both! Sleeve in 2011, developed GERD, revised to bypass this past June.

Yes, that's partly why they do them. I had esophagitis, an esophageal stricture, and gastritis. The stricture got fixed during my surgery and the esophagitis and gastritis got a medication adjustment.

We are talking a salad full of leaves of various kinds, right? Not egg or tuna or potato or taco? The leaves and all the other vegetables that aren't starchy contain negligible calories. It's the dressing, cheese, nuts, bacon, and croutons that add the calories. I bet a big bowl of fresh leafy greens might have 25 calories, max. I never counted the greens calories, only the dressing and add-ons.

I've had two surgeries--a sleeve, and then a revision to RNY because I developed GERD after my sleeve. Nine years ago, I lost 100 lbs with the sleeve from a starting BMI of 36 and kept it off, so that was a big big plus. I don't recall much pain after the first two days or so, and my recovery was uneventful. The cons were that my sleeve was very picky about the foods it would tolerate. I could not eat scrambled or hard-boiled eggs. I could not eat dense protein like tuna, salmon, or chicken breast. I could not eat pasta, bread, or bready things because they balled up inside my stomach, absorbed stomach fluid, and then hurt. I lived on seafood, steak, dairy products, and vegetables. I did not dump. I developed GERD a couple of years after my surgery but I loved my sleeve so much I did not want to consider a bypass, but after a year on 3x the regular prescribed dosage of PPIs plus OTC antacids that still did not control my reflux and regurgitating everything I swallowed multiple times I decided on RNY. I had my RNY on June 29 of this year, and maybe because I'm ten years older than when I had my sleeve my recovery was a little bit harder and more painful. I definitely felt like my insides had been rearranged. RNY is way different from the sleeve to me. I don't have that tight feeling anymore that I have eaten enough so I have to measure my food, but I am used to eating a small amount so it's not a big deal. I can eat eggs and pasta again. I don't dump, but I became lactose-intolerant. I lost 10 additional pounds following the RNY surgery when I was on a liquid/puree diet, but I haven't lost anymore and my BMI has leveled off at 20.

Yes, but the reflux doesn't have acid in it. My vagus nerve was cut and that has something to do with acid release in the stomach, so I don't have acid, but whatever is left in gastric juice after the acid is removed burns just like the acid did. I had my esophagus widened, too, because I had a stricture, and now the lower esophageal junction valve doesn't work any more, so it is easier for the reflux to come up. That was a risk I knew about going in to surgery. My surgeon swore I would not have acid reflux after surgery and technically he is correct, but I still have gastric juice reflux. I am still trying to figure out what causes my heartburn. Sometimes it's food related and I think the iron I take also might cause it. But I want to be clear, on a scale of 1-10, where I was and where I am now. Before surgery, I would have said my quality of life with GERD was about a 2. My reflux was not controlled at 3X the regular dose of omeprazole and I regurgitated everything I swallowed multiple times. I woke up numerous times a night with acid. Now I'd say I'm about a 7-8. There are many days when I don't have reflux or heartburn and I don't regurgitate anything anymore. I wake up one or two nights a week.

This surgery is way different than my sleeve. I don't really have anything I'd call restriction compared to restriction in my sleeve. On the plus side, I can eat things like pasta and rice that I couldn't with the sleeve, and I can drink a lot of water all at once without it backing up. The reflux thing is a PITA but I am so happy I'm not regurgitating every mouthful I think I'm okay with the tradeoff. Best wishes on your surgery, I know you will do fine. PM me with questions if you think I might be able to help.

I had my revision for GERD on 6/29 with a BMI of 22. I did not have much pain and resumed walking (starting at a half-mile) as soon as I got home. I walk about 3 miles a day at a quick pace and I'll go back to the gym when it's safe. I never had any problems drinking or eating while in the hospital and my surgeon said that I could have whatever I could swallow, so I did a couple of days of shakes and then moved to purees for a week, then regular food. I lost ten pounds during the liquid/puree days. I became lactose-intolerant, which was a surprise, but I can eat fat and sugar without dumping. I can eat scrambled eggs again, too, my sleeve hated them. I have not had any alcohol, I'm not much of a drinker. I think you'll be fine by Thanksgiving.

What kind of mushrooms are a great source of protein?

Appetizers and soups are my friend. I can't possibly eat an entree-sized plate of food, I can only eat half a hamburger and nothing else. So I either plan to eat leftovers the next day and the day after that or it's soup or an appetizer.

I'm a little more cheerful this week than I was last week. I am still waking up with heartburn but not eating after 8 (7 is too early, I can't sleep if I'm hungry) and more importantly, exercise, is helping a great deal. I think after having GERD all those years I am hypersensitive to any burning sensation in my stomach and anything moving up my esophagus, so I wake up easily when that happens. If I exercise I think I sleep more deeply and maybe I'm not quite so aware of those sensations. I do wake up with a slightly burning stomach most mornings, but a slug of Lactaid milk takes care of it. I kept a meal diary this past week and it also looks like chocolate may be a trigger. I had a slice of chocolate cake two days this week and both nights I woke up. The cake slices are gone now. I have my 3 month EGD on Thursday, wondering if it will show gastritis/esophagitis. Also wondering what my surgeon will say if it does.

I bought BariSlim Complete. They are chewable and each tablet is about the size of 3 stacked nickels, and you need to take 3 a day. They are disgusting. I ate one and that's all I could choke down. Now I take 2 Kirkland Signature Daily Multivitamins, and supplement them with carbonyl iron tablets (I am anemic and need extra iron) and liquid calcium citrate, calcium citrate chews, and calcium citrate tablets. I rotate taking the types of calcium because none of them taste that good. My labs have been good. See if you can get a sample before you buy anything.

I felt like you and did everything in my power to NOT have a bypass, but in the end the GERD was just too awful to go on with. I was at goal and didn't want to lose more weight. I lost 10 lbs the first postop week on liquids but haven't lost any more. Look in the Revision forum for lots of people's stories about sleeve to RNY revisions for GERD.

I had a BRAVO test, which does the same thing but with a little capsule that is attached to the esophagus to monitor the acid level. I got approval for a revision, I don't know how much the test results had to do with it. My surgeon and I already knew I had GERD and esophagitis. The test did give them an indication how bad the GERD was.

136.2 this morning. What a massive relief not to have runny bowel movements anymore, but I think I have to go back to taking the psyllium capsules because things are getting pretty dry. This surgery is so much trial and error, the sleeve was so much easier. Reflux is back, I am waking up in the middle of the night with heartburn. I'm documenting what I eat and when, trying to find out if there are trigger foods or other behaviors that cause it. It's awful, because I had this RNY (that I didn't want) specifically to get rid of GERD. Now I don't have acid but the remaining digestive juice in my stomach burns without the acid anyway, and antacids don't help because there's no acid to neutralize. Now that my stomach is under my sternum, I have to crank the head of the bed way up to keep the reflux down. I don't eat after 8 pm and go to bed at 11 and still have reflux, so I'm adjusting "no more food" to 7 pm and hoping that helps. I am not happy. My surgeon said that I have been "surgically optimized" and that he can't do anything else for me (not that I asked him to) so if this keeps up I guess it's back to the gastroenterologist.

Appeal the decision. Talk to your doctor, they should help.

I'm 2 1/2 months post op and I burp all the time. I've just gotten used to it. Specific foods, drinks, or speed of ingestion doesn't seem to matter, I swallow air and it hurts if I leave it in the pouch, so I burp it up.

I wasn't allowed to pick up anything heavier than 15 lbs for six weeks--not groceries, pets, or kids. Just something to consider asking your surgeon.

Hi Keatsy-- Having had both a sleeve and a RNY, I get what you are saying as well as what sillykitty and ms.sss are saying. My experience with the sleeve is that yes, I could vomit everything in my sleeve up. I could also regurgitate stuff if my sleeve was too full (that's the sliding feeling of food coming from the top of the sleeve that comes into your mouth.) With the RNY pouch, I am able to vomit if the food is still in the pouch. If it has gone down the Roux limb, I can't get it to come back up even if it hurts and I want the food up and out. If there's nothing in the pouch, I can still vomit the liquid and mucus you describe, because that's what's in the stomach, but no food. If it's in the limb, drinking water and walking around seem to help move whatever is there into your intestine and that helps the pain. In my case it was popcorn and it took about 40 minutes to get down.

Weight this morning 137.0, but not real. I couldn't walk this week due to wildfire smoke and I overdid the salt. I have figured out another contributor to my bowel movement miseries--dairy. All these weeks I've been eating so much dairy (I love dairy) and finally it hit me that I might have become lactose-intolerant. So I quit dairy except for a small amount of half&half in my morning coffee. Bingo! no more loose BMs, no more frequent BMs, no more gas and bloating. I experimented with Lactaid on Friday and Saturday and it seems to help, but doesn't totally prevent gas and bloating. So I guess now I'm buying lactose-free products.

I alternate between ReViva liquid calcium citrate and those enormous calcium citrate pills that I cut in half. The ReViva is fine for a couple of months, then I get sick of the blueberry flavor and the thick consistency and go back to the pills. Then I get tired of the pills and go back to the liquid. It works for me.

I've had lighter-colored stools since my bypass on 6/29. When I had pancreatitis from gall stones, stools were clay-colored and I felt very sick. If you don't feel pain in the upper right under and just below your ribs, it's probably not your gall bladder. Your doctor can check your lipase and amylase levels too.

I had my revision on 6/29. Chicken, even with my sleeve, was always a difficult protein for me to get down. Have you tried a softer protein? Tuna with light mayo? Egg salad? Ground pork in spaghetti sauce? Maybe try something else besides chicken. I can eat most things now at nine weeks post-op.

135.4 this morning. Really I don't want to eat crap, but I keep losing weight. I can tolerate sugar and moderate amounts of fat without spending a lot of time in the bathroom, but I'd rather eat protein, vegetables, fruit, and dairy for calories than candy bars. Because I reflux stomach fluid at night, I can't eat after 8 (if I plan on going to sleep at 11) and I've never been a breakfast eater. That mean getting about 1500 calories in between 11 and 8. That's nine hours, at 166 calories an hour, complicated by the fact that I am not hungry at all. This is going to take some thought.

Yes, call the lab. Privacy is privacy, even between family members.

I take it in two doses, I figure less chance of stomach upset with only one caplet at a time, and more chance of absorption in two doses instead of one. I take one with food and one on an empty stomach, too.