Foxbins

Yes, Fluid retention. I weighed ten pounds more coming home than going in. Be patient and all will be well!

I agree with what chunkarella said. I'm also a mental health professional and it's the relationship between the two of you that helps you change. You must trust them and be able to tell them anything you want without fear. Keep looking until you find the one that makes you feel comfortable.

3 hours ago, BayougirlMrsS said:

I knew i came to the right place. I talked to my husband last night about it and got his POV. He is in agreement with you all. That he is probably uncomfortable talking about it with her. I guess it's like woman and menopause.

I'm planning on telling her exactly what you all said.

I have another question..... could medical problems also contribute? She said he has had some teeth problems and has been on antibiotics and pain meds. Take Rx for high blood pressure.... and some other things i dont quite remember.... maybe ADD med.... Could all this be a contributor?

I was thinking just the mouth would be enough.... she said they normally have sex 3-4x a week and over the past month its been once a week. and everytime he has taken the purple pill.

Some meds for high blood pressure cause erectile dysfunction. It sounds like he also could have some medication interactions that might be a problem if he's taking a lot of stuff.

Well, as long as she'll write the letter so you get the surgery, sounds like you're okay. Good luck!

Have you ever been diagnosed with pancreatitis? Had abnormal liver function tests? Had esophageal varices? Gone to rehab and had insurance pay for it? It sounds like the insurance company is deducing alcohol use from something in your records.

When I had pancreatitis due to a gall stone blocking the pancreatic duct, my doctor wanted it listed as "resolved" as soon as I had my gall bladder out, she said for insurance reasons.

I'd like to chime in here about drawing conclusions from the pill-counting. If the man can't get an erection without the Viagra, what if he uses it to masturbate? Counting the pills vs the number of times he and the wife get together might lead her to be suspicious he's having an affair even if he's not. The fact that he's hiding the pills suggests he's sensitive about the subject but I'd still bring it up. After all, women go through their own changes as they age, too. Maybe frame it like that--they are both aging and changing and need to be able to talk about the changes.

I buy things that are bad for me, too, and package them in one-serving sizes. Then I eat one, and ask myself if it tastes good enough to justify the calories. Sometimes it does, and I eat the one serving, but a lot of times it doesn't, and I end up giving it away or throwing it out. I hate wasting food but I hate being fat more.

1 hour ago, Slimsoon1988 said:

Thank you. I’m 80% going to move forward with the bypass. I just have to get my courage there. I had such an easy breezy sleeve recovery. I just don’t want any issues with the bypass.

I have gained 50 pounds from my lowest sleeve weight. Another thought I have is what if I lose weight. Would that fix the GERD on its own without surgery? Or no matter what I will need RNY

My sleeve recovery was a breeze, too. RNY was a little harder. I definitely felt like my insides were rearranged the first couple of weeks. Now now so much.

My understanding, from my surgeon, is that it's the sleeve itself that makes the GERD so bad. It's a skinny tube with a valve at the bottom, and if the valve is shut, the only place for the reflux to go is up. RNY gives you a hose, open at both ends. The vagus nerve is also severed during RNY and has something to do with acid secretion. No acid+open-ended hose = no GERD. At least, that's the way it was explained to me.

10 minutes ago, Slimsoon1988 said:

Thank you all that have replied. Right now I’m debating between just living my life with GERD or doing the bypass. But what if the GERD gets worse. Right now I’ve had a sore throat for a week. This is my 3rd sore throat this year. I’m just really nervous.

Hey, Slimsoon1988--I had my sleeve in 2011, developed GERD a couple of years later. Took max dose PPIs for a few years, then started having acid even with the PPI. Took PPI plus Tums for a couple of years, but then the acid caused an esophageal stricture and I was regurgitating everything I swallowed. The last straw was one day I swallowed a bite of toast, and it came back up eight times (I counted) slimier and more disgusting each time, before it finally stayed down. All due to GERD. I saw a surgeon who said my only recourse was RNY, but I loved my sleeve, I was at goal, could eat most things, was almost 8 years older than the first surgery, didn't want malabsorption. So I got referred to the surgeon with the best reputation for challenging cases. He brainstormed a bunch of different surgeries, but after testing it turned out that RNY was really the only one that would address all my problems. So I had RNY on 6/29. OMG. I can sleep through the night again. I have not regurgitated any food at all. I have not had any acid reflux after any kind of food, spicy, coffee, fatty. It truly was a miracle. My surgeon made the bypass pretty short so I wouldn't lose much weight. I lost about ten pounds the week I was on liquids, but I'm okay with that, and my weight has leveled off since.

If you decide not to do anything, please have regular EGDs so that if you develop Barrett's esophagus from the GERD you know sooner rather than later. Barrett's is no joke.

Wishing you the best.

135.6 this morning. Cut back on fat and now bowel movements are less frequent and less liquid. However, I woke up last week 3 nights in a row with terrible reflux, but it was not acid. Antacids did not work to stop the burning, and I'm still on a PPI. I called the surgeon's office and they told me it's stomach juice (without acid, but still very irritating to the esophagus and stomach). I had been eating a snack before going to bed because my stomach growls and it's hard to fall asleep if I'm hungry, but the RN said that could be the cause and to stop eating 3 hours before bedtime. I did that and everything is fine now, no more reflux. Also I have noticed that if I am full my nose runs, so I'm trying to eat until I just start to feel it get watery.

Did you have esophageal manometry done? It specifically looks at the upper and lower esophageal sphincters. Plus a BRAVO test would give you an idea of the severity of your reflux disorder. I guess in your shoes I'd ask for a little more testing before opting for band removal if it's otherwise not giving you problems.

You are doing very well! Congratulations on getting your Protein and Water in. 32 French is a small sleeve (depending on how closely the surgeon stapled to it), mine was a 36. I did fine and I'm sure you will too!

I took my thyroid meds the day after surgery, that pill is tiny. I could also take my PPI capsule five days after surgery. Ask your doc, some things you may need to cut in half or sprinkle in applesauce, but others may be just fine to take as they are. Extended release meds are problematic for bypassers.

2 hours ago, perfektlynrml said:

I don’t want to wear any shabby clothes either. I’m tossing them out. I don’t want to save any big clothes. I know how big I got. I have pictures that cause me great pain to look at. No need to keep the outfits.

You are doing so well! I donated all my wearable fat clothes to Goodwill except one pair of jeans. Every once in a while I pull them out and put them on. I can't believe I was so big, or that I lost so much weight. I refused to be photographed when I was fat so I have nothing but the jeans to go by.

Like Matt said, chicken, beef, or shrimp with vegetables is good, or egg foo young sauteed instead of deep fried and with very little sauce. I eat dim sum quite a lot, too, the steamed options. I can manage about 4 and I'm done.

I only saw the dietician for about 10 minutes while I was in the hospital. I was a revision from sleeve to RNY for GERD, and my BMI was 21. I had discussed my hope I would not lose too much more weight with my surgeon, who said that with proper diet I shouldn't lose much, so I was looking forward to talking with her. It turns out that she had really nothing to say. Her caseload is obese people, like I used to be, and so I'm saying things like "So I could add Peanut Butter to my shakes? " and she is nodding yes. Well, it turns out that too much fat in one meal (like peanut butter added to a shake) makes for watery poop the next day. I mean, she meant well, but had no experience with someone in my position. I ended up Googling "Bilroth II diet" which is the closest non-bariatric surgery to RNY and is done for stomach cancer. I figured diet advice for cancer patients would be closer to my circumstances, but really it's trial and error for me right now. When I see my surgeon in October I'm going to ask for another dietician appointment with somebody else if I'm still struggling.

4 hours ago, wakeupmaggie said:

Hi there - I'm having bypass on 9/28 and my doctor's office won't tell me how long I should expect to stay in the hospital. They said I could be discharged the same day or maybe 1 night. I'm not sure if they are trying to discharge patients same day to get them out of the hospital quicker because of Covid or if no overnight stay is a reasonable expectation?

My surgery was on a Monday and my surgeon said I would stay in the hospital one or two nights, but I'm 65, have had two previous abdominal surgeries, and was also having a hernia repair and a repair of an esophageal stricture, all of which can complicate things. I ended up staying 4 nights.

The liquid phase scares me more than the others as far as variety, any suggestions would be helpful, however, I just read a thread about someone eating the wrong things in the pureed stage and having to start over. Are bland foods best until solid foods are acceptable to avoid upset?

Transitions between food phases can be tricky; a food might be listed as acceptable in your surgeon's list, but your new stomach just says "No" so there is an element of trial and error. If your stomach gets irritated by something you ate the previous day, often it's best to step back to the previous food phase until things quiet down. It's not necessarily bland food that you need to eat, and there is no guarantee that solid food won't upset your stomach. I haven't eaten a scrambled egg in nine years because my sleeve did NOT like them, but I ate steak all the time. You'll learn what and how much you can tolerate over time, but it's an experiment every time you try a new food.

I've had both a sleeve and now a bypass. I am struggling with not overeating because there is no full feeling with my RNY. With my sleeve it was very clear when I should stop eating, but not with RNY. I am back to measuring portions.

135.8 this morning. My strategy to keep weight on by using full-fat dairy products won't work. Fat is what is giving me loose and frequent bowel movements, so I've changed my strategy and have upped the carbs, going with more fruit and veg and more whole grains like barley. I'm eating five or six times a day. I'm trying to understand the "full" feeling with this surgery because I won't always be able to measure my food. It's so different from the sleeve. The sleeve had a definite feeling of pressure inside, this is more subtle. It's a little more apparent if I eat Protein by itself, but I can't just eat protein.

You're beautiful! Congratulations on your weight loss!

I had a sleeve for nine years and my Vitamin and mineral levels were perfect. I just took my Vitamins and Calcium every day.

Every day gets a little bit better. If you have pain meds, take them. If you don't and are okay to take Tylenol, take that. Mostly for the first three days I sat in a recliner and sipped all the Water I could. The fourth day was better, and then each day after that. It gets easier, and you feel better, when you are hydrated and taking in some calories from the shakes, too.

I take Synthroid, too, and they gave it to me in the hospital. No problems taking it.

I had my bypass alone on 6/29. I was fine, my nurses took terrific care of me, and I could manage alone at home after I was discharged.