mistysj

Sorry to post so late on such an old thread. I went into the hospital with pretty mild type 2 diabetes. I had had it for about 7 years. I was managing it extremely well with diet and metformin and my A1C (3-month average blood glucose level, which is measured by counting the number of hemoglobin in a blood sample that is damages by high blood glucose) was always between 5.7 and 6.0. My fasting blood glucose was usually around 5.5 mmol/l (99 mg/dl) which was considered very good for a diabetic. One of the things that tipped me over the sets to get surgery is that I started sometimes seeing two-hour post-meal glucose readings over 9 mmol/l (162 mg/dl). Not often and not enough to raise my A1C but enough to make me feel worried and insecure. Without surgery I did not have the self control to keep my carb load low enough to ensure this would never happen. I left the hospital the second day after my surgery. Since my surgery I have never taken metformin and never seen a fasting glucose level over 4.7. I have never seen a two-hour post-meal glucose level over 4.5. This was not a gradual thing but happened immediately after surgery. It may not be permanent. I am almost 8 months post-op now. I eat about 1000 calories a day and have about 100-120 grams of carbs a day. This is extremely common with the sleeve (which I have), the bypass, and the DS. I don't know about plication but as far as I know it doesn't happen with the band. There are some theories about why it happens and about why it stays around at least for a while. The science is not definite yet. Why it happens (maybe): 1. You are basically in a fasting state from 8 hours before surgery to two days afterward. Even when you do eat again, the calories and carbs are so low that there is virtually no load on your pancreas. 2. There are tons of hormones and chemicals that get produced in and act on your stomach and intestines. Surgery may temporarily or permanently disrupt some of them. 3. Maybe this happens because your body is in a bit of shock. Why it stays around at least for a while (maybe): (bandsters would also get this part of it) 1. Your calorie and carb intake stay very low for a significant amount of time. Your Protein intake is probably the highest it has been in your life if you are following the rules. This type of diet makes your cells more responsive to insulin and also reduces the load on your pancreas. 2. Fat produces estrogen, especially belly fat. Even in men. Estrogen and insulin are related. As your estrogen levels get lower, your cells also get more responsive to insulin (less insulin resistant). This means it takes less estrogen to do the job. Less insulin means it is harder to store fat and easier to burn it. This sets up a virtuous cycle. 3. As you lose weight, you are more likely to be physically active. Exercise also makes your cells more sensitive to estrogen! Having diabetes at all means that your pancreas is not perfect. That is why some people do re-acquire diabetes later on. But any respite is great for your health, and losing weight can also "cure" some type 2 diabetics. If you get it again later, it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. If you don't, you are fortunate. By the way, bariatric surgery won't ever cure type 1 (autoimmune) diabetes. But it can make heavy type 1s lose weight, and make their bodies less resistant to insulin too. That means they may be able to reduce the amount of insulin they need to use, which means that they may find it easier to stay slim!

I finally finished GCBC and immediately started Why We Get Fat. My husband us going to read the second one too. He has never really shared my obsession with nutrition science and diets but he did have a physical this week and the doctor wants him to lose 15 kg. He has already lost 10 kg previous to the physical by dramatically increasing his exercise over the last several months, but I think he has been surprised not to lose more. He did couch to 5k and has kept up his running ( now doing a 10k training plan 3x a week) along with cycling three days a week. I think he thought that would be all he would need and he is a bit shocked it isn't. I hope he gets some info out of the book because he would not welcome any feedback from his wife on his diet!

Also known as sliming or the slimes. It's when your body is preparing you in case you vomit because you ate too much or too quickly, and makes a ton of extra mucus. Normally that mucus would just stay in your stomach and pass out with the food, but we don't have much room now so the mucus comes back up, sometimes along with the food. It is not vomit since there is no bile acid. Since you are so full you can't just swallow the mucus and have it spit it out.

Let's not play doctor. It is always possible that psychological issues are caused by physical issues too. And a child does not exactly have any expectation of having self control. If there is an intense physical craving for food due to grehlin or insulin or other hormonal responses, the child cannot be expected to just tough it out. How do you know no psychologist or psychiatrist is involved? Don't assume the media is giving you the whole story. Their job is to get more eyeballs on the news story and thus on the advertising. Anyway we are all grown adults and we probably all have pretty good self control in most areas of our lives, yet we are on a bariatric website. Why do we expect a child to be stronger than we have been?

A "three week stall" is so normal with this surgery that it is a cliche. Just keep following your plan and wait it out.

You still need to make good choices with all bariatric procedures.

There is an Indiana group in the Local Support Groups -> USA section. I think it is fairly active.

Depends what extent of vegetarianism. Eggs, cheese, milk, yogurt if you are using dairy. Beans, nuts, lentils, soy, tofu, tempeh, quinoa, textured vegetable protein, sprouted wheat are all vegan. Some vegetables have some protein. You need to use a lot of sources because vegetable proteins are not "complete" like vegetable proteins (they don't contain all the amino acids). They are missing different ones so you can get all the amino acids with variety.

You will find lots of people who have had successful pregnancies after RNY. If you have GERD pre-op, there is a possibility that VSG could make it worse. If that happens, you may need to revise to RNY later. However, it could be that you never have GERD post-op. There is a good chance you won't dump with RNY. There is a very small percentage of people who do dump with VSG. Only you can make your choice, after doing research and talking to your surgeon. You are smart to be asking these questions. Good luck!

Just FYI I am in my fourth day diarrhea-free. Taking a Questran sachet in either orange juice or tomato juice (watered down) about 15 minutes before each of my three main meals. So far no constipation either. I will be seeing my GP Monday and will make sure that he is ok with me using it 3x a day instead of the 2x he prescribed. But I am feeling great and so relieved! It is raising my carbs a bit but I may just need to compensate elsewhere in my diet. A funny thing about getting this relief after 7 months? I had not realized how low my volume of urine had gotten due to the dehydration. I feel like I am just going and going now!

If you use endomondo you can have it tell you when you have gone a certain distance. You can do the couch to 5k that way yourself but I haven't seen any apps that specifically track it. It would only work outside and if you use a smartphone or other device with a GPS to track your distance. Or if you trust your treadmill's distance read-out.

For a very few people with the sleeve, eating foods very high in sugar, like fruit juices or desserts. It feels like a stomach flu with dizziness, sweating, chills, the whole 9 yards. It's different from diarrhea, which some people also get especially early post-op.

added!

In Australia this surgery is almost always done by private surgeons in private hospitals using private insurance. There is no reason to assume the OP was coerced or convinced into surgery. To the OP, please check out nedc.com.au and thebutterflyfoundation.org,au.

Put it this way. I left my type 2 diabetes in the hospital. Eating this way has never caused a spike and my average blood sugar is astoundingly good, judging from the 3-monthly hemoglobin A1C. And I get 100 to 150 grams of carbs a day.

Please do read the wiki on dumping. Lots of people use the term to refer to diarrhea but that is not accurate. They are not the same thing.

If you want to know what effect any food has on your blood sugar, you can find out! Go get a blood glucose tester and some test strips. If you have a wal-mart around you in the US, they have their own brand that is cheap. Test yourself one hour and two hours after starting to eat. At one hour, your glucose will be as high as it is likely to get from the food, and at two hours it should have cleared your blood and you will be back at a baseline. Assuming you are not diabetic, a good baseline reading is anything below 85 mg/dl. Do the test with a piece of white bread so you can compare that with whatever food you want to test.

Do you guys mind if we merge this thread with the "official" one that is in the sticky posts?

That's a bit harsh. Let's try to be supportive when people ask for it.

Thanks it was a blast! All, I am cutting back the amount of time that I spend on this site. One of my goals for 2014 is to find balance in my life and that means spending less time in front of the computer. I am not quitting completely as i don't want to lose touch with you. If anyone wants to add me on Facebook please send me a PM with your name or email and I will add you. People say they have trouble finding me on Facebook.

Of course it is. It is extremely possible with every kind of bariatric surgery.

Why not just take Metamucil for your fiber or ask if you can add some dextrin (Benefiber) to your shakes? It goes clear. But you don't need to worry about 80 calories when you are probably having less than 400 total, I guess.

If you have already posted in a post and it gets moved, it is still in your list and you don't need to find it again. Just go to yiur "subscribed" content and it will be there. But I'm not moving this one because the OP didn't want me to.

I did 800 or less calories and at least 40 grams of Protein for the first 6 months. Now I am on 1200 or less and 60+ grams if protein. I usually get more like 80 grams now that I have added one Protein shake a day back in and usually have under 1000 calories and 200-500 calories exercise a day which I may eat some of or may not. I am considering starting to only track protein and just make sure I have some every meal. Tracking all my food actually makes it easier for me to choose carb-y Snacks because it is easier to look at it day by day rather than meal by meal. That means I will choose to gave some low-protein snacks because it all works out at the end of the day, but I'm not sure I'm doing myself any favors.

At 2.5 months out you don't need to worry about 4 ounces at a time. Drink as much as you can. If you drink too much you won't stretch your sleeve. It will just come back up. And you will remember the feeling for next time.