Foxbins

I was 56 when I had my surgery in 2011. It worked great! I lost 100 lbs to a low of 132 (it lasted about 1 day) gained 3 and was 135 for a long time. Gained 7 over the latter half of 2017 (too many cookies) and now back at 137, where I feel good and all my clothes fit.

Preacher, weren't you concerned about reflux? If you log everything you eat, you can find out what foods aggravate your acid production, whereas if you only log the numbers you'll lose those specifics.

It's true I lost my sweet tooth for a while and I have always been a dessert lover. Now cake, doughnuts, bread, all those sorts of things feel icky, like they're all balled up inside, so I rarely eat them. Crunchy sweets, like crisp cookies, and toast go down much better. For some reason, I have completely lost interest in ice cream, but chocolate candy, no problem.

Mine started 18 months after surgery, but my hiatal hernia redeveloped, so I think that's why.

Is your B12 absorbed sublingually? My GP will order vit/mineral levels if I ask. They're expensive, yes, but the consequences on preventable dietary deficiencies are worse. I'm cold all the time, too. I sleep on a heated mattress pad all year and wear sweaters when it's 80F.

Preacher, one of the issues my surgeon told me about before surgery was the possibility of developing GERD. He said about 20% of his patients who had no GERD symptoms prior to surgery developed them after. I was, and am, okay with it. Being obese was a much greater health risk for me than GERD.

Hi, Preacher-- I took your poll. I did not have reflux before the sleeve, I developed it about 18 months post-op. I had a hiatal hernia repaired during my surgery but it has reappeared and my gastroenterologist believes the GERD symptoms and the hernia reappearance are connected. Rather than having a great big stomach where acid can accumulate, now there's a narrow tube and the tube is higher in the chest than it should be due to the hernia, making it easy for the acid to come up. I'm taking 40mg of omeprazole twice a day and that controls the acid, but I am thinking about another hernia repair (surgical techniques have improved since mine was done.) So yes, the reflux is controlled, but I'd like it to go away completely or be managed on a much lower dose of meds.

Yes, start taking all your supplements. Viactive chews aren't the right kind of calcium, though. You need the Caltrate chews. Viactive is calcium carbonate and we need calcium citrate.

I had one yesterday. My appointment lasted 90 minutes from check-in at the front desk to walking out the door. I was in recovery about 20 minutes after I woke up, so I think you'll be fine with an appt an hour later. I was sedated with Propofol and felt a little groggy for a few hours but other than that I was fine.

7 1/2 years, between 1200-1400 a day. I'm 63 so I need fewer calories than previously to maintain at 137.

7 1/2 years out. No regrets. I was 56 when I got my sleeve after yo-yo dieting since I was a child. It is such a relief not to think about food anymore. I don't know what surgery on my stomach did to my brain, but now food is just food. Not happiness, not an anti-anxiety solution, not a reward. It's just food. I lost 100 lbs, gained 5, stayed at 137 for years, gained 7 over the last year, lost it Jan-April, 137 again today. I forgot that metabolism slows a bit as we get older. I didn't have any qualms about surgery because I had tried all the other options--diet after diet after diet, pills, a month at a "diet boot camp." If surgery didn't work I was going to be a very unhappy fat lady, but it succeeded beyond my expectations. Good luck, and have courage!

I've been on 40mg of omeprazole (Prilosec) for about four years now, and I took 20mg for 3 years before that. The biggest known issue with the PPIs is the development of osteoporosis due to calcium malabsorption. I am sure every bariatric surgeon makes certain that we know to take calcium citrate and not calcium carbonate. Without stomach acid calcium carbonate is very poorly absorbed, but calcium citrate does just fine in a low-acid stomach. I don't know of any studies showing long-term effects of PPIs other than osteoporosis. Also, because it's available over the counter, the drug company wants you to see a physician if you have long-term heartburn, just to make sure it's not a symptom of something terrible. Is your surgeon saying you have to stop the Prilosec, or your GP? Because my GP knows almost nothing about the management of bariatric patients post-op and sometimes gives me wrong information. I trust my gastroenterologist (my surgeon died) and my endocrinologist, though. Oh, and Pepcid is an H2 blocker (works differently to stop acid than a PPI) and tends to stop working if you take it regularly. I sometimes take a Pepcid if I'm having a breakthrough acid day and then stop eating what triggered the excess acid (sadly, it's usually chocolate). Some sleeve patients have to convert to RNY for acid issues but it sounds as though your issues aren't that bad. Have you tried keeping a food diary and noting when acid bothers you? That's how I figured out that chocolate can bother me.

Once a week. I stopped for a couple of years and recently noticed that my clothes weren't fitting comfortably. I weighed myself and I had gained seven lbs. I started food tracking again and counting calories and lost the seven. I'm back to weekly weigh-ins because it's easier to lose two than seven, and I've decided two is the upward limit for me. 139 and below, okay. More, and it's lose it time. Besides, I spent a lot of money getting new clothes that are pretty and fit and I refuse to buy bigger ones.

Seven years out and chicken is the hardest thing for me to eat (except for salmon and tuna, which I can't eat at all). I can eat dark meat chicken if it's very moist or has a sauce; white meat is way harder. The easiest proteins for me are shrimp, scallops, and crab followed by beef, ham (with applesauce, usually) other pork, lamb, eggs, and deli turkey. Eat what you can keep down, it gets boring sometimes but you can vary the spices and the prep techniques. My tolerance for foods varies from day to day and I've learned that if something feels "wrong" to my stomach to stop eating it or vomiting /slimies will follow.

It's easier. Being thin is easier than being fat. No more worries about fitting into seats or sliding through tight spaces. Moving my body is easier. Buying clothes is easier, everything fits, huge choice of styles, and even the cheapest T-shirt looks good. Mostly, though, my change has been mental. When I was fat I felt judged by other people all the time, especially when I was food shopping or eating in public. I imagined people thinking, "Why is that fat person eating (or buying) ice cream? She doesn't need ice cream." Whether or not people actually thought this I don't know, but I always felt they were. Yesterday I was eating an ice cream cone and window shopping and didn't feel like anyone noticed. Seven years out and thin is a marvelous gift.

I cut out junk food and started counting calories again. 1200 a day and in a few months the pudge was gone.

I'm eight years out and no one knows but my doctors. I took three days off and then had a long holiday weekend and was back to work on the following Tuesday. I'm a psychologist and had to have coverage for my patients as well, but I mastered the death stare long ago to shut down nosy people. If you want to be nice but firm, I like Diana-in_Phillys answer very much.

I'm seven years out and had both sleeve and gall bladder removal done laparoscopically, so about 10 stab wounds on my stomach---somewhere. I can't see them unless I hunt for them. They look like short stretch marks. I never put anything on them, either.

I had a "big" (my surgeon's word, and he was doing 4-5 surgeries a day, so I figured he'd seen a few) hernia repaired during my sleeve surgery. The only symptom I had was burping. I recovered without incident and feel fine.

I'm 7 1/2 years post-surgery. I did not have GERD before surgery. Mine developed about a year post-op. I keep a glass of water on the nightstand and 2-3 nights a week wake up with a little burning that some water takes away. I'd rate it a 1-2. I take 40mg of omeprazole a day and sometimes have to take a Zantac (maybe once every couple of months) if I have breakthrough acid. Honestly, if the choice were to be fat without GERD or thin with GERD, I would take the GERD every time. My surgeon warned me there was a possibility of developing it after surgery so I was not surprised.

7 1/2 years since surgery and I'm still a size 6. This surgery is amazing.

I know I was curious about what I would eat years after my surgery; would I still be eating only tiny bites of protein? I got careless and gained seven pounds last year, so starting the last week in December I started logging all my food intake. It was interesting--too many high fat/high sugar carbs and "snacks" that were essentially junk food. So I lost eight pounds over the past few months and this is what I eat now. I aim for 1200-1500 calories a day--I hike one day a week in summer and ski in winter, do a little yoga for flexibility, but I'm not terribly active otherwise. I'm post-menopausal, too, so my metabolism has slowed some. The list below is about 900-1000 calories because I like to leave a little wiggle room for Starbucks lattes or food offered at a friend's house. Breakfast: 12 oz coffee, 3 Tbsp. half & half Morning snack: 1/2 small apple. If I'm starving I might have some oatmeal too. Lunch: 4 Triscuits, 1 slice cheese, 2 oz ham, turkey, chicken, or fish, half cup of berries or pineapple or other fresh fruit Afternoon snack: A roasted red pepper or a cup of mushrooms sautéed in beef boullion or a cup of air-popped popcorn. In cherry season I'll have a cup of cherries. Dinner: I eat a lot of shrimp. Sometimes I make a stir fry with 4 oz shrimp,1 1/2 cups of Kirkland stir-fry vegetables, and a couple tablespoons of Yoshida sauce. Sometimes I have 3 oz of beef, lamb, or chicken with half a small baked sweet potato and 1/2 cup green beans. For takeout, I like a small Wendy's chili for dinner, or I get shrimp or fish tacos. When I go out to dinner I order an appetizer as the main course unless I want a doggie bag to eat at home. I like sweets but cake and bready things seem to ball up in my sleeve, so I sometimes have an ice cream bar or one Lindt chocolate truffle for dessert. Before bed: I can't sleep if my stomach is growling so I usually have a snack before bed. Maybe a slice of meat, or one or two Triscuits with peanut butter. I pretty much detest plain water so I drink Crystal Light all day long. I still don't drink with meals other than tiny sips here and there because liquid + food makes my sleeve feel funny. I can get the foamies if I eat too fast, or don't chew well enough, or if the food is just not agreeing with me on that particular day. This has worked for me for the past seven years until the snacks turned into potato chips and chocolate chip cookies. Now that I've gone back to my old ways I feel better. I am hoping this reassures some folks new to surgery that you do go back to eating like a normal person, but your sleeve and your preferences will have a lot to do with how you manage your eating when your weight stabilizes. I know you can succeed!

Your attacks sound almost identical to mine. My sleeve was in 201, my pancreatitis was in 2012 and I had my gallbladder removed a week after the pancreatitis subsided. My liver labs and pancreatic enzymes went back to normal and there was no permanent damage. Here's hoping you'll be fine, too.

I'm seven years post-op. It's true I can eat more than I could at one or two years post-op, but I still have restriction. I can eat about a cup and a half of food before becoming uncomfortable. I will say that grazing all day long will put the weight right back on. I tend to eat when I'm anxious or bored, so I had to learn how to cope with those without eating. Once your weight is stable, keep weighing yourself and for heaven's sake, take steps to lose two or three pounds rather than letting them pile on until you are looking at 50 to lose. It really is kind of an eternal vigilance sort of thing.

Weight is such a hot topic button for all of us former fatties. I was really, really good about tracking my food, measuring my portion sizes, and weighing myself weekly for about the first four years. Then, gradually, those habits fell away and I fell back into old, bad habits--eating when I'm bored or anxious, eating slider foods, drinking fancy high-calorie coffee and juices, and not getting on the scale even though I could feel my pants getting tighter. Finally I faced the fact that I was headed back to obesity unless I took action. The last week in December I started tracking my calories and measuring my portions, and slowly but surely the weight came off. I figured I had been eating about 1800 calories and I cut back to 1200--not every day, because some days I just want that cookie, but many more days than not. I lost 8 lbs and I'm back at my loose pants weight, 137-138. It was slow and boring but worth it. I'm still tracking and weighing myself each week and intend to continue. You can do it, emk101009--