Matt Z

Congrats and good luck! Here's to a smooth recovery!

Your first post is an link to your own web page???

I'm on the patches as well, with Vitamin D and B12 supplements weekly. 3 and 6 month labs were all normal/good, only on the D because of living in New England and not getting enough from the sun no matter what I do, and the B12 is a "just in case" as my levels at 3 and 6 months dropped slightly (still normal though). I take 1 D and 1 B12 once a week.

First and foremost, worry about healing first. 8 days out is far too soon to be worrying about how fast you may or may not lose. Also, literally everyone is different. No 2 people, even twins, is going to gain and lose the same way. My loss since revision, has been very steady and consistent.

Might depend on your BMI. If you are have a lower BMI and no co-morbidities... then the lack of a sleep study might effect it. If you are over the "line in the sand" BMI where you don't need a co-morbidity, then you could be ok. All really comes down to if your AETNA plan requires it or not, you can give a call to AETNA and ask them.

Best thing I *EVER* did WLS wise.

Yesterday seems to hopefully have been the worst... which should mean things will get better over the next week or 2. Being back at work doesn't really seem to help though. Thanks for checking in!

2 weeks might be a little close, I was able to attend a theater event 18 days after surgery with mild discomfort overall. As long as someone else is driving, you've got plenty of places to sit and rest... you might be ok.

Picked up the Cinna Crunch and it's freaking good! 110 calories, 25 grams of protein, zero sugar per scoop. But damn is it sweet! I had to up the milk content to 10-12 oz per scoop to settle down the sweetness. But, it's really tasty and hasn't caused me any discomfort yet (even with the protein concentrate being used) Looking forwards to trying their other flavors!

This is all really going to depend on you. For me, I can eat all the natural sugars I want with zero issues, it's the added / unnatural sugars that cause some mild issues for me. Fats I don't really have any issues with. Once dumping starts, it's too late, what triggered it has already occurred. Sugars generally trigger dumping within 30 mins, then fats come in around 3 hours later. Then there is the fact that the same exact food can sometimes trigger issues and not other times. And lots of foods might trigger symptoms close to surgery but not later down the road. There isn't any set in stone anything with these surgeries sadly, way too many variables.

https://www.bariatricpal.com/settings/ It should be the first option.

There were a few foods that gave me issues during the first 2 months that don't really do the same thing now. Dumping can be caused by a whole slew of different things, the 2 primary causes are fats and sugars. if dumping happens within 30 mins, that's usually from sugar, around the 3 hour mark, typically from fats. It's such a subjective thing overall!

If it gets bad, check with your nutritionist to see if they can alter your diet. Not all pre-op diets are to shrink the liver. And no pre-op diet is a set in stone situation. Do your best, but if you are having issues, reach out to your team.

What's the sugar and fat contact of that cream of chicken? Also, stay clear of anything crazy right now... I dumped hard on tomato soup early in my recovery, not pleasant. The dumping gets better as you heal, right now you've got several factors contributing to things, the surgery itself has caused some serious irritation, add in high sugars or fats and it just makes things so much worse. Pay very close attention to all sugar and fat contents, we were instructed to stay away from added sugars, if there is anything like sugar in the ingredients, make sure that the 1 serving amount of sugar and fat is less than 5 grams. This worked out well for me, and now, almost 8 months out, I can get more sugar and fat without any issues. But at first, whoa did it suck. Just stick to what doesn't make you sick for now and then once you get cleared for all foods, THEN you can start trying those foods that didn't agree with you at this point.

I would strongly advise sticking with your plans as much as possible. Do not worry about how much or how little you think you've lost, focus on healing first, THEN worry about everything else. You've got a good 2 months or so of healing to worry about... You'll get back to eating foods you want again at some point, no need to rush it! You do not want to risk a staple line leak or worse, failure. Not something you are going to want to deal with... having your stomach open and start leaking acid into your abdomen (worst case scenario, but... it does happen)... best to just stick to what the doctors have told you.

My excluded stomach growled at me after surgery. And does so every once and again, but I don't get real hunger sensations, at least at this point, I'm only 7-8 months out. But the OP is correct, a large percentage of WLS patients will lose their hunger sensations for a while, but *most* will have it return within the first year. It's only a lucky few that never have them again. And as GreeanTealael said, some never lose it at all. It's all a gamble based on how your body will react to the surgery, what nerves are cut and don't regrow, etc. The myth that the sleeve will eliminate your hunger sensations is just that, a myth, mainly because of the limited or lacking researching into what exactly controls our hunger and hunger sensations. Doctors have an idea, but hunger is a very interesting and not well understood system.

AND today's shingles pain is worse than yesterday... AND I'm still stuck between 209 and 212 (211 today) so yay on all fronts.... *head hang* Just.keep.swimming.

Thanks... and WTH is this?? it looks like dirty silly putty (or Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty) shaped to look like a flacid penis... quite unexpected at 6am LOL

I'm also an insomniac with sleep apnea, although that's so much better now, I still need a machine. Work on getting into a schedule if you can, for me I'm doing Intermittent Fasting between 6pm and 8am and it's worked out great, not only for sleep, but for the weight loss as well. It seemed harder than it was to get myself into a schedule, but once I did, it works out quite well. Not sure what state you are in, but there is some really positive results with cannabis for sleep issues, and if medical cannabis isn't legal in your state yet or if you are like me and have a federal job and can't use it because it's still not federally legal, there is Dronabinol / Marinol (and it's covered on most medical plans) it's not as effective since it's just THC and no CBD, but it does work wonders for the insomnia!

I did the same, I read everything, watched the videos, did my own research... really is an amazing "diet" method that has so much factual science behind it, I just couldn't not do it. Feels more like this is how we are supposed to eat (how are bodies are designed to work), from a purely physiological standpoint.

Seriously amazing. Like, speechless levels of amazing.

We had a member here have a reversal this year. This is something I wish more people understood, The sleeve puts 90% of your stomach into the trash, the bypass just rearranges things, but everything is still in there.

Lots of walking. Did they give you an incentive spirometer? If so, use it! It really does help get those gasses out. A trick I found that worked well for both my WLS's, is to breathe in deeply until you can't, then "press into it" slightly, almost like doing a crunch, this increases the pressure in your abdominal cavity and helps force excess gasses out of the cavity.

BMI Scales (and the handheld Fat% measuring devices) use electrical resistance and vary greatly depending on hydration levels, they are a good way to track trends, but not actual measurements. The tape measurements *could* be more accurate but they don't take into account skeletal mass variations (some folks do have larger joint formations and no one's fat is distributed the same. Here is a video comparing 4 different BF% measurement devices.

Desiring things is normal. And you WILL have them back at some point in the near future. Just stick to what you need to do now, to lay the foundation for later. Do not fall into the whole "I'm failing because I still want XYZ". Trust me, I had moments post-op when my kids were cooking pizza or even just making toast and I'd be in the living room with an oz of some pureed blah almost in tears because of how bad I wanted to eat pizza and toast again. It sucks. Just keep in mind all the reasons why you wanted the surgery and understand that, down the road, you WILL be able to have a lot of things you can't right now. Just stay strong! The journey is rough and has plenty of seemingly impassable moments... but it is doable and so very much worth it!