I♡BypassedMyPhatAss♡

I sometimes luck out at Costco on the Salted Caramel. It's my favorite to mix with coffee. Omg it doesn't taste healthy at all. Premier Protein has a caramel flavor. I've never tried it tho, and I don't know if it's easy to find now.

I have iced coffee every morning. I brew the coffee a day ahead of time so it's cold for the next day... I use reusable Keurig pods. I fill it full with coffee grounds, and brew 4 oz, on the strong setting. Mix cold coffee with a cold salted caramel Fairlife protein shake & ice. Sometimes I add a splash of Jordan's sugar free salted caramel syrup. Sometimes I switch it up with vanilla/chocolate Fairlife and use the coordinating flavors of Jordan's sugar free syrups.

July 19th.

July 19th.

I've actually lost some weight after my band was removed. Which makes sense, because with my band and GERD, I was depending on slider foods. Now that my band is out, I can eat healthier foods like fruits and veggies that my band couldn't tolerate.

When I had my fill completely drained, which was about 2 weeks before my band was removed... I could eat normally again, but I never had pain when I ate. But I do remember scenarios like you mentioned in the theater. I remember being at restaurants and having to excuse myself and having to go outside and pace, or run to the restroom to vomit. Lap Bands imo, should have never been approved. They're an epic failure, and in most patients cause more harm in the sense of complications than good. If you're still having pain, I'd ask your surgeon for an EGD. Have you been scoped recently? It seems like a good idea since you're still having pain...

My original surgeon moved farther away, so with traffic it would have been a four hour round trip. So I found a new surgeon. She removed my band last year and will be doing my revision next month.

You're welcome. Hope you get to feeling better!

Now that you mention that you forgot to get your meds filled... did your surgeon prescribe an acid reducer? Most surgeons prescribe a PPI (acid reducer) for the first several months post op... the stomach is upset from the surgery, and that causes it to produce extra acid, the PPI reduces acid, which calms the stomach. If you aren't taking an acid reducer, that may be the issue. Over production of acid can often feel like a gnawing feeling or hunger. If you didn't get a PPI from your surgeon, I'd reach out to their office and let them know what your symptoms are and inquire if a PPI would help you. Best wishes!

Well... if you've never experienced cramping... it's usually in a different area than the stomach. If you're familiar with female anatomy, the stomach is higher than the ovaries and uterus. So typically the cramping is lower down in the abdoment and sometimes your lower back can cramp as well... it feels different than hunger pangs. If you're taking pain meds that your surgeon prescribed, that should eliminate the cramping. So that would indicate if it's hunger or not... If you're not taking pain meds still, try some liquid tylenol, if you can take that. It should at least take the edge off of the pain if it's due to your period. I hope you feel better soon. Best wishes!

First of all, I would meet with a bariatric surgeon, not a general surgeon. You want a bariatric surgeon because they see these issues regularly, and are at the top of their game with weight loss surgeries. Secondly, if you live in an area that has a university with medical school, find out which hospital they teach at and find a professor of bariatric surgery that is practicing and teaching. They are on the forefront of bariatric surgery. My bariatric surgeon is a professor and she told me that she does revisions that other bariatric surgeons won't touch. Don't take the general surgeons word for it. Seek second opinions with bariatric surgeons. Best wishes!

These are my thoughts, coming from a patient going through a revision from Lap Band to Bypass... If you ultimately go with Sleeve, you may encounter complications like GERD years down the road. This is due to the Sleeve being a high pressure system. The high pressure created in the pouch puts pressure on the esophageal sphincter and causes it to fail, which results in GERD. It often takes years to manifest, and when it happens, it ultimately forces your hand to revise to Bypass. That's my current situation. When I got Lap Band, I was scared of Bypass. But as I've investigated more about Bypass, I understand now why it is the Gold Standard of weight loss surgeries. It's been around longer than other weight loss surgeries, so it has been perfected over the years. I wish I would've chosen Bypass from the beginning and saved myself a lot of unnecessary complications and I never made it to goal weight either. As for being self pay, and Bypass costing more... imagine a few years down the road having untreatable GERD and having to have a second surgery. So think of the increased expense of Bypass now as an investment if you choose to go that route. If you're having doubts about your PCOS causing cravings, Bypass might help to keep your eating on track, if you're a patient that gets dumping. I'd say you should trust your instincts. Best wishes on your journey!

I'm also band to bypass. Bypass revision is next month. I got GERD with my band... and GERD after wls sucks. You have wls thinking you're going to improve your quality of life, only to develop GERD... then you get placed on PPI's to prevent the acid issues... and the PPI's come with side effects, and now it's recommended to not take them long term. I got a kidney stone due to overuse of PPI's... so I would say if you have wls and are dependent on the use of PPI's longer than the normal post op period, it's a crutch. How can you say your GERD that you had previous to wls is gone if you're still taking an acid reducer? It's probably just masking the GERD that's still there. Come off the PPI and see if the GERD is there or not, then you'll know if it's really gone. Why have wls if you have to stay on a PPI?

I've only tried the regular Fairlife protein drinks (150 calories, 30 gm protein). And they're so much better than powdered protein drinks imo. But I'm not very familiar with the Core Power. From what I've read, it's the same concept as the regular Fairlife, except after the filtration process, there's even more protein added back into the milk, and it's geared towards athletic recovery. So I assume it tastes the same as the regular Fairlife.

I'm not a VSG patient, but I have RA and like you, hoping for symptom improvement and remission would be absolutely amazing. There's a few others on here with RA scattered around on here. There's a few threads about RA and weight loss if you search the topic in the search tool. I did have lap band previously and I can tell you that symptoms did improve markedly as I lost weight with that surgery. I'm hoping for more improvement with revision to RNY soon. Best wishes on your journey!

It depends on if you're going through insurance. You have to meet their requirements before they approve surgery. Some insurance requires 6 months supervised weight loss before being approved for surgery. Your surgeons office has probably already ran your insurance and are aware of what the requirements are. So give them a call and ask the inurance specialist what you're required to do and ask for a timeline. They can probably help you better than we can, since it varies so much from insurance to insurance and surgeon to surgeon. Some surgeons are booked far out with their surgery dates.

I tried making protein jello with unflavored Isopure. I didn't like it and I'm still pre op, so I can't imagine liking it post op. How much protein powder do you add to a box of jello? Maybe I added too much...

I've never heard of a prescription to relieve gas pain, but there's probably one out there. After I had my band removed, I want to stress this... I had no dietary restrictions, I had no difficulty eating or drinking, so I took charcoal capsules for gas pain. Disclaimer: please do not read this if you're post op weight loss surgery and take charcoal capsules for gas pain, because charcoal can block absoprtion of nutrients, so you can end up deficient in nutrients and protein. Stick to Gas X or whatever your surgeon recommends. With that said, Holly you could try charcoal tablets since you probably won't have dietary restrictions due to a weight loss surgery being on board. They really helped me a lot. Better than Gas X imo. You can find them at any pharmacy or on Amazon. Best wishes!

Two chicken legs sounds like a lot, but actually according to Google, a chicken leg, meat only, no skin is about 1.5 ounces. So you ate approximately 3 ounces of chicken. How many ounces are you supposed to eat per meal? Dark meat chicken always went down easier for me than white meat. I had to eat it slower, and allow more time between bites, so I felt more restricted. Foods sit differently for each person.

This explains about the fluid retention and how it affects the stomach with lap band. It's plausible that it could affect the pouch of other wls's as well, perhaps? https://www.laparosurgery.com/blog/my-band-feels-tighter-in-the-morning-is-this-normal/#:~:text=That is why it may,becomes less swollen and thinner.

The itching means the incisions are healing. It sucks, there's not much you can do, maybe ask about benadryl, but one thing that can make it worse, is taking a hot shower. Heat activates the nerves to fire. Nerves firing mean big time itching. So if you are taking hot showers, maybe try to turn the AC a bit warmer before your shower and take a cooler shower and see if that helps until you're healed. Best wishes!

That's why I never post questions. 😂

I dealt with this when I had my lap band. (I can't speak to RNY because I'm still pre op for that) but this issue was notorious with lap banders. My surgeon said it was due to normal swelling. Fluid retention. Fluid settles upwards towards the stomach when we lay down to sleep. When we wake up and move around, the fluid starts shifting. Hence as the hours pass, it becomes easier to eat solid foods. Also with lap band, a lot of ladies noticed the swelling persisted all day long during the entirety of their cycles. So a lot of female banders ended up getting IUD's (Mirena) so they didn't have periods. So now even a year after having my lap band removed, I still am not able to eat in the mornings very much. I've become a natural intermittent faster due to the band. It's interesting that you bring this up as an RNY'er because I didn't think it was an issue for anyone except Banders. But the science is the same (the fluid retention). I'm curious if more RNY'ers notice this issue that you're having as well. I hope it gets easier for you! Best wishes!

You might have your own personal stalker. 😂