Daydra

But! But! It tells me so much information! It tells me weight, and body fat percentage, and my resting metabolic rate, and my percentage of lean body mass.... It's sooo much more than just a scale! I'm pretty sure it even makes me breakfast in the morning!

Huh... interesting texture for a shampoo... Sometimes I wonder where the heck these women that go to great lengths in their beauty regimen find the time and energy! If my choice is 10 extra minutes in bed or putting on makeup? BED! Now if only Aveda made a combo shampoo/conditioner with a quick-dry element to speed blow drying and styling product all in one step? I'd spend... hmm, I don't even know, but I'm pretty sure it would be an obscene amount.

That sounds miserable! I'm at a complete loss for advice. (If you knew me, you'd know how alien that is for me. I'm very, very good at telling people what they should do ) But seriously, what might you do to alleviate the discomfort? Does it still hurt if you don't put your hair up? Is it bad enough that you might take Tylenol or something for it occasionally? Wish I had something more useful to you than empathy... (Where the heck is the "hug" emoticon???)

I think I'm starting to hyperventilate...

Do you mean the scalp treatment you're supposed to use morning and night? Yeah, I bet that would get expensive!!! I haven't tried any of it yet. I'm trying to wait to see if my hair actually starts to fall out before I actually do anything. I'm holding out hope! Prior to this surgery, I was the kind of patient that pretty much never experienced side effects, had an Iron stomach, didn't have negative reactions to pain meds... so I'm hoping that pattern returns to me now that I've had my little glitch. Either way, I doubt that I will have enough patience to do anything that requires 2 treatments a day. I'm lucky to spend the time to dry my hair in the morning and brush my teeth before I fall into bed at night. Doing some kind of evening hair treatment every night??? Never gonna happen...

Good luck! I'm a scale addict, too. I'm not quite as bad as I used to be, but I would weigh every morning and every night. If I didn't lose 2 pounds overnight I would know, because of the consistency with which the two situations happened together, that I didn't get enough sleep the night before. It's okay to be a scale addict if you are wired that way (Numbers! Charts! Data!!!), you just have to remember to only compare apples to apples, or when you do look at am and pm numbers, you are only looking at them to identify a pattern, not an absolute. Best wishes from one geek to another!!!

Oh, to not be so neurotic that I could actually follow that very good advice...

In my case, I tried to push Fluid at the expense of food/calories. Didn't end up working out for me real well. I didn't actually get dehydrated, but I'm still trying to come back from the weakness and fatigue from the extreme reduction in calories. But yeah, there is no reason not to put a call in to the clinic and let them know how you are feeling. Your doc may want to get you some meds and see if you're doing better next week, or your doc may want to see you earlier. I have to say, whenever I called to say I was having problems with nausea and getting enough in, they wanted me in that clinic within 24 hours. The last time I had to call about it was the time I ended up going to the ER. They had an opening, but I have to figure out a ferry schedule and even if everything works out perfectly it takes me at least 90 minutes to get there. I couldn't get there in time, so option 2 was the ER. It's a serious enough side effect/condition/whatever you want to call it that it should be investigated as soon as possible, but that's not to say it's a terrible thing. It just needs to get figured out. One last note... I'm usually inclined to wait and see if things get better, to see if I really need to call the doctor. Fortunately, I work in Public Health and have access to walk down the hall to the clinic area of our office and start picking the brains of the nurses down there. They pretty much walked me back to my desk and made me call my doc when I was experiencing what you describe. There's really nothing to be lost by making the call. You are not pestering your doc or the staff at your clinic. They would much rather have you call to ask the question than to have you either suffer or wonder. Good luck and I hope you feel better!

Aveda is offering a free trio sample pack of Invati plus free shipping with a $50 purchase. They are also offering free shipping with any Invati purchase. I red a little about the Invati line. It's designed to increase length, strength, and volume by preventing breakage, so I'm not certain how effective it would be with loss due to a large amount of hair having entered the resting phase at the same time. www.aveda.com Aveda also has a line called Pure Abundance. I've used this line quite a bit because I have fine (though plentiful so far) hair. These products are basically just a volumizing line, so the hair you have, just looks like more. I actually like this line quite a lot, particularly the clay conditioner. Aveda products are ridiculously expensive, but I just really like them. I periodically go back to cheaper products because of the price, but I always find myself coming back to Aveda products. Anyway, just an fyi on a couple options.

Throw the 163.9 out. It doesn't count. It looks like the 162 was this morning. Go with that one. Everyone's weight fluctuates throughout the day and we typically weigh a couple pounds more at night than in the morning. That being said, absolutely 4 pounds can be hormonal fluid retention. That is my typical number, though I am much heavier than you. Within a couple days of my period starting, it usually comes off. No reason to panic. Good luck!

#1 - Take a breath, and don't panic. #2 - Don't worry about the loss (or lack thereof). You are right at the stage where many people's bodies hit the pause button, so that part is normal. #3 - Investigate the nausea. Call your doctor. There are some super simple and minor explanations for nausea (like, you are still experiencing swelling), but there are also more serious explanations for nausea and the only way to figure that out is to get in to the doc. I started having nausea several weeks out. We needed to do an upper endoscopy to straighten out my staple line, which immediately relieved my nausea. Except a few days later, the nausea came back. After a couple weeks of it preventing me from eating/drinking enough (sub 500 cal/day, sounds like what you describe...), I was so weak and fatigued, I'd nearly passed out in the shower. After a trip the the ER and a CT scan, which confirmed there were no problems, we determined that the nausea was simply due to remaining swelling from the surgery. This can take 8-12 weeks to completely resolve. All I needed to fuel myself properly was better anti-nausea meds. Seriously, call your doc. It totally may be nothing serious, and that is actually the likely case. Unfortunately, nausea creates problems with your nutrition that can really cause you a lot of trouble. Fortunately, nausea alone is an easy fix, so don't be afraid to call your doc. Good luck! Do everything you can to advocate for yourself, you're worth it and you deserve to feel good, but even more importantly, your well-being is dependent upon your ability to nourish yourself.

It could take up to 12 weeks to be fully healed all the way through according to my surgeon. We will be at some risk of complications for the rest of our lives. There is no endpoint to the potential for the staple line to rupture, though after several weeks, it is very significantly reduced. It really does depend on how you are feeling and if you think you can take care of yourself where you're going. Some obvious potential issues that I can think of off the top of my head are the fatigue (will you have somewhere to rest, or will you be pushed to be more physically active than you can tolerate?), nutrition (can you follow your post-op diet there?), hydration (will you be able to have access to clean Water or bottled sugar free beverages 24 hours a day? I think I read that dehydration is the #1 cause of hospital admission after bariatric surgery and is a real risk.), symptom management (can you take enough anti nausea meds, etc with you for your trip? If you aren't experiencing nausea now, what if you do? Can you take some with you just in case you do experience it and it becomes problematic?). Other than that... I don't know. If I were feeling okay and the doctor left it up to me, I think I might go. While you are at increased risk of needing medical attention, we all are at risk of needing medical attention, even if we are healthy. It's just a risk we take. You're about 3 weeks out, so I expect your incisions are closed and at least you don't really have to worry about infection. Not sure. Lots of things to consider. Good luck and I hope that whatever your emergency is, it works out as well as possible and you and your family take care of each other. Good luck.

I agree with SouthernSoul. Making the decision is a job for your friend with the guidance of a good mental health professional. Just being supportive and willing to listen are the best things a friend can do when someone is working through a major life decision. Your friend is lucky to have you. It sounds like you really want to do your best to help.

Unfortunately, no one can really give you an accurate answer to that. Everyone is so very different. As you can see, the previous response says about a week. For me, the gas bubble part was roughly the same, other than whatever air I end up swallowing, but I'm over 10 weeks now, and am still taking nausea meds. From what I've read and been told by my surgeon, it's not to far outside the norm to have nausea for up to 12 weeks, though many people don't have nausea that long. Sorry I don't have a better answer for you. It's generally going to be wait and see, but be sure to ask your surgeon about it. There are options for medications to control nausea. There is no reason for you to be miserable. Good luck!

Unfortunately, no one can really give you an accurate answer to that. Everyone is so very different. As you can see, the previous response says about a week. For me, the gas bubble part was roughly the same, other than whatever air I end up swallowing, but I'm over 10 weeks now, and am still taking nausea meds. From what I've read and been told by my surgeon, it's not to far outside the norm to have nausea for up to 12 weeks, though many people don't have nausea that long. Sorry I don't have a better answer for you. It's generally going to be wait and see, but be sure to ask your surgeon about it. There are options for medications to control nausea. There is no reason for you to be miserable. Good luck!

Yikes... I'm sorry. That sounds like it sucks. Thanks for explaining that to me. It didn't even occur to me that you might be working within a completely different system than what I'm accustomed to. Some of our systems are less than ideal as well. I've spent more than a decade in our military health system. You pretty much get whoever you are assigned, which appears to be similar to what you are dealing with, but they get reassigned so often that you never have an opportunity to build any kind of relationship. It's good when you get a crappy one, but sucks when you finally get one that treats you with respect. Fortunately, I have the option of getting private insurance through my employer. I had to give up $500 a month in health reimbursement account contributions to do it, but I get to make my own choices now, so I feel like it's worth every penny. Best of luck!

Yikes... I'm sorry. That sounds like it sucks. Thanks for explaining that to me. It didn't even occur to me that you might be working within a completely different system than what I'm accustomed to. Some of our systems are less than ideal as well. I've spent more than a decade in our military health system. You pretty much get whoever you are assigned, which appears to be similar to what you are dealing with, but they get reassigned so often that you never have an opportunity to build any kind of relationship. It's good when you get a crappy one, but sucks when you finally get one that treats you with respect. Fortunately, I have the option of getting private insurance through my employer. I had to give up $500 a month in health reimbursement account contributions to do it, but I get to make my own choices now, so I feel like it's worth every penny. Best of luck!

Ummm, I find myself curious as to why you would return to a doc that you know doesn't really care about the patients.. At any rate, I hope that your appointment goes well and you get what you need from it.

Ummm, I find myself curious as to why you would return to a doc that you know doesn't really care about the patients.. At any rate, I hope that your appointment goes well and you get what you need from it.

I'm in serious learning mode here. I've been struggling a bit and want to learn everything I can about exactly how the metabolism works and how different actions, macronutrients, hormones, etc. affect it. For the layman, I have pretty much only found diet books, which is not at all what I'm looking for. I thought about purchasing a textbook, but am not real excited about spending several hundred dollars on a (current, up-to-date) book that may or may not be what I'm really looking for. Then, of course, there's the option to read some random crap on the internet (because they wouldn't let them put it on the internet if it wasn't true!!!). I just came out of several weeks of forced semi-starvation between early surgery recovery and then fighting nausea (8 weeks of sub-500 cal/day. For my body, that is a real problem and was causing some really worrisome side effects). A couple weeks ago, we got it figured out and I have been able to eat in my calorie range as prescribed by my nutritionist. Now, I'm left with the aftereffects of weight gain and significant weakness/fatigue, which has felt glacially slow to improve. I immediately gained 10 pounds in about 10 days following beginning to eat "normally" (keeping in mind that "normally" is still 700-1000 cal deficit compared to what I was burning immediately prior to my semi-starvation period). My macronutrient ratios are pretty reasonable. Nothing is out of whack as far as what general guidelines would be. (For example: today I have 30% carb, 29% fat, and 41% Protein, with 78g of protein so far and I will probably have a piece of lowfat cheese or something before I go to bed) I am not eating low-carb, as I am not confident that reducing carbs any further wouldn't have an adverse affect on my already very low energy level. I wasn't too worried at first, but then I lost 3 pounds over the weekend, gained 2 pounds on Monday, gained another 1/2 pound yesterday. The last thing I read (and who knows if it's credible...) is that this can go on for about 3 weeks, but I'm real close to that 3 week mark and feel like I'm all over the place. I want to read something credible and detailed so that I can work out what's going on, how best to address it, and what I can expect going forward. I haven't managed to come up with the correct search terms to find what I'm looking for without going with some diet book (and we all know how accurate all those things are...) or going full-on $300-something textbook for medical students. I will be discussing this with my surgeon during my next followup in a couple weeks, and am thinking I'll probably make an appointment with my nutritionist as well, but either way, I still want to learn. (and let's face it... I'm a bit of a do-it-yourselfer...) Thanks for any info that can point me in the right direction!

For the record... I only have 1 of my very own!

For the record... I only have 1 of my very own!

No worries whatsoever! And no offense taken. Even on a full size computer screen, it's kind of hard to distinguish details in the photos. I often find myself trying to click on the photo to get a full size version, even though I know that doesn't work! I actually enjoyed the opportunity to joke about it, especially since I got to tie in joking about disliking wearing pink, and the ridiculousness of sports bras and tech wear.