Daydra

Just checking in. I'm about 9? weeks out now (July 23 surgery). From weeks 5-8, I really struggled with nausea - some due to a kink, some due to swelling, so I was eating extremely few calories. I finally got that worked out last Monday and am on stronger anti-nausea meds and have been able to get much closer to Fluid goal and make my Protein goal. I've also been able to eat at the top range of what my nutritionist wants (just below 1400 cal/day). I have gained weight every day since last Monday, so I'm 8 pounds up from what my ticker says, but today was the first day that I didn't gain. Not too worried about it because I know I was an unwilling anorexic and my body is kind of freaking out. My body is increasing fluid, since I'm able to consume more, this is my pms week, so I'm retaining, and I've been eating higher carb than I have since I started my preop diet, so I'm guessing I might even be replacing glycogen stores, so the gain is pretty easily explainable without fearing that I'm having some kind of fat gain. Should start dropping again in the next few days. Ready to keep progressing! I'm pretty pleased with my results so far and am learning my new signals as time goes on. It was a bit of a struggle trying to work through the nausea, but all in all, not a big deal. The only thing that I'm really not happy about is the fatigue and weakness the starvation has left me with. Shopping wears me out and after just a couple hours at the mall, my back will hurt, my head will ache, and I'll be limping because I feel like I can barely pick up my feet to keep propelling myself forward. This one thing has been the most demoralizing of this whole process. After having completed triathlons weighing over 300 pounds, to be less than 250 and struggle to shop really sucks. I am still recovering, though. I try to keep my calories consumed as high as possible and try to keep a healthy proportion of carbohydrate so that I can keep my energy up. Every day I have just a tiny bit more energy, and it is getting better, it just feels slow. I think in the next couple weeks, I'll probably feel capable of getting in some light exercise at the gym. Right now, I'm just stopping by the mall on my way home and window shopping for a bit, just to build a little stamina. Anyway, onward and upward! (Or downward in this case!) To the rest of you that are having some struggles, just keep at it. Talk to your doc. Try to figure out the cause and how to manage whatever challenge you might be having. There is no need for you to endure or muscle it out. This is a process with an enormous learning curve, and it's different for everyone. But most of all, whatever challenge you might be experiencing, you are not the only one, I guarantee you. Best of luck to you all!

Good work on having a good attitude about it. It's going to happen. No one expects you to never eat a cookie again. We each just have to find the appropriate balance for ourselves. Keep up the good work!

I'm about 9 weeks out and have been able to transition to Bariatric Advantage's complete bariatric multi in capsule form. It has vastly improved my compliance... I have been unable to find any bariatric chewable that didn't make me want to technicolor yawn all over the place, and I've probably spent hundreds of dollars. I ended up just buying gummy vitamins that I double dosed and figured it was better than nothing when I couldn't get the bariatric vitamins down.

No worries, whatsoever! Triathlon. I did have a bit of a rough patch and needed to get some nausea dealt with, but no major problems, thanks! Best of luck to you!

Oh please, please, please do me a favor!!! The next time the checker makes a comment about your lunch, say "Yeah, I'm trying to starve the tapeworm I swallowed to lose weight. I figure I've lost enough this way, and my doctor said this would make it much easier to remove." Then report back with the reaction! Video would be awesome, but probably a logistical nightmare. I'm sure the checker will believe you at first. The expression should be pretty priceless. I'd say just play with them. It'll be way more entertaining than eventually blowing your top. People can be so unbelievably stupid... I'm in public health, and I always figured I was of pretty average intelligence... until I started my current career. Now I have come to learn that there is a whole segment of the population that really skews the idiocy quotient... Good luck!

Job 1 is to figure out the nausea. I experienced the same at about 5 weeks. Call your clinic. I had a kink and they were able to straighten it out with an upper endoscopy (just passing the scope through did the trick). I started experiencing some nausea again several days after that and was only able to feel like I was beginning to turn the corner after I got some better antinausea meds. I let the nausea go too long and was experiencing severe symptoms. I was extremely weak, nearly passed out in the shower, was vomiting regularly... While I don't want to be melodramatic, it really was fairly awful. Ultimately, what was happening was I had some nausea likely caused by the remaining swelling from surgery, which caused vomiting, which increased the nausea, which gave me an aversion to eating/drinking, which exacerbated the whole thing. It just kept cycling. Until I finally got some fairly strong antinausea meds, I couldn't get out of the cycle. So... call your clinic. Seriously. Get it figured out so you can start feeling better. Don't worry about having not lost in a couple weeks. It's very typical at this stage. Let your body heal. It will do it's job, often in fits and starts. Good luck!

You mentioned trying to go back to liquids and softs. That will actually make it harder to stay satiated for any length of time. They will pass through your sleeve faster than solids. I would think that you're far enough out that you are not going to get back the restriction you had shortly after surgery. But you can still go back to good basic nutrition. High quality Protein, good produce, healthy fats, and complex carbs. Your metabolism has likely been significantly adversely impacted by consuming a restricted number of calories during your pregnancy. My advice would be to find a health professional that is experienced with treating people with eating disorders like anorexia. The goal would be to refeed your body so that your metabolism can be repaired so that your body can respond appropriately to your efforts to lose weight. Best of luck to you. You can and will still be successful, your path there might just be slightly different than the average person. I know you can do it!

I would say that if you are losing 1/2 a pound a day, that there is little risk in increasing your consumption by 100-200 cal/day. Don't forget about fat. It is a macronutrient that's required as well as Protein. I know that we're always cautioned to limit fat, but I almost think that's because our eating culture goes way overboard with it. I think many of us limit it too far after surgery, but it plays a huge role in satiety. Also, there is no need to go to bed hungry. Have an oz of chicken breast or something shortly before you go to bed (just far enough before that it's not going to back up on you). If you're hungry when you go to bed, it might interfere with your ability to get to sleep. Also, if you have any issues with hypoglycemia, that last bit of protein can help keep you even during the night. A lot of good ideas have already been posted. There could be a million different reasons for your hunger sensations and a million and one possible solutions to investigate... Good luck and congratulations!!!

Perhaps you are living with an anxiety disorder and could benefit from therapy or other medical intervention? I'm of course making suggestions knowing nothing about you, but if you haven't thought about that before, maybe it's worth a look. Even if you don't suffer from an anxiety disorder, it sounds like taking the opportunity to discuss your fears with a therapist can help you sort it all out. Truly, I wish you the best of luck as you move forward with whatever decisions you make.

I agree! You, and the shirt, look great! How does it feel when you sit? I tend to find that my shirts fit perfect when I stand, but my shape changes with sitting. It looks great standing. If its comfortable when you sit as well, I'd say you're golden!

I decided in the very beginning that I was going to be very open about what I was doing. I've always had a personal philosophy that it's usually better to be open about things (assuming you are the kind of person that can handle any negativity that decision might bring... it's definitely not the right decision for everyone) because you never know who might be struggling with the same problem and feel like some kind of freak or need someone to talk to about it and not know where to go. Being open about my surgery is already paying off in big ways, in my opinion. Benefitting myself in that I've been having some challenges, and it's much easier to miss work to deal with them since my boss and coworkers know exactly what's going on. There is no chatter in the background that I'm somehow taking advantage of our leave or FMLA policies. More importantly, though, the other day, a friend at work brought another one of our coworkers down to me to talk about what she's going through as she's trying to navigate all the decisions she needs to make as she decides to have bariatric surgery. I was really pleased that I was able to provide help and camaraderie to someone else that is going through this. I feel that being open about it was just the right decision for me, and it feels good that my being open might help someone else.

I'm very glad the surgery went well and I hope that recovery goes very well for you. Wishing you the best!

We were sending you weird pickle mojo!

Sign me up for pickle juice drinkers anonymous! I got started on dill pickle juice when I was a kid and somehow figured out that pickle juice stopped hiccups. (Now I just keep one of those fake lemons in my desk drawer and take a hit when it looks like I've got hiccups that are going to go the distance.) I actually also like green olive juice (and black olive juice...). I think I'm just gross... :-) PJDA All the way!!! I'm 8 weeks out, and I haven't really had any cravings for anything that were too far out of the norm for me, but I've had some issues with dehydration and nausea and seem to be developing an aversion to eating/drinking. Thank you MIJourney for saying that you were eventually able to drink normally! I have to keep reminding myself that it will get easier, but every day that I only hit about 20oz of Fluid, it seems more and more daunting. Somehow today, though, I managed to get 8 oz down on my 20 minute drive home. Maybe the new nausea meds are going to be my ticket back to hydration while my sleeve adjusts! One can but hope!

I tried to go to Denny's for Breakfast with some friends a couple weeks ago. They have a $2, $4, $6 menu, and I was really hoping that for breakfast they'd have something like 1 egg and 2 pieces of bacon or similar. Of course not. They had biscuits and gravy... I ended up doing a "build your own slam" because the price difference from ordering a la carte was really minor, so I decided to take home leftovers. I think I ate 1/2 an egg and a single bite of ham and loaded everything else into the box, which I of course put in the fridge, but never touched it again. It was very much a your trash or mine kind of thing. I would have so been better off just ordering a la carte. I discussed splitting meals with the hubs. He simply was not enthused. We'll see how it goes, though. Our schedules have been kind of horrifying lately, so we haven't even had the opportunity to have dinner together at all since I had surgery. I may be able to talk him into splitting something when it comes down to it. I do bring my leftovers home and he usually eats them, though. I also tend to gravitate toward restaurants that have good appetizer selections and small plates now. Thankfully, the small plate philosophy seems to be starting to catch on around here.

It's probably something other than yeast, then. You should definitely go back to the doc... Sucks, I'm sorry :-(

I am so sorry you feel this way. I can assure you, that the vast majority of the people in the gym are not paying attention to you, but some will see you and think "Good for her!" and some will see you and think something mean. However, those that have mean spirited thoughts toward others are most definitely not quality human beings and deserve no consideration from you. They are, however, a very small portion of the people in the gym, and most really won't even notice you because they are so self involved. Also, in my experience, adults aren't likely to purposely make hurtful comments out loud for you to hear like teenagers do, so even if someone is enough of an a-hole to think mean things, they are unlikely to voice them, so it's less likely that you will be made aware of it. That being said... What gym options do you have in your area? Do you have a YMCA? They tend to be more inclusive than many private gyms. (Every gym has it's own personality, but private gyms seem to have a little more freedom to be "exclusive" or "snobbish" if they choose to) I see people of literally all sizes and fitness levels at ours and the staff is really supportive. Another option might be a Curves. Curves is basically a circuit of pneumatic machines that you rotate through every (30 seconds? 60 seconds?). While Curves has a limited purpose and is not my ideal of a "gym" and I most certainly wouldn't advise you to do more than a month or two there, it is women only, and primarily older women that will be super excited to see someone younger joining their ranks and will be very friendly and supportive. (Run-on sentence anyone? My English teacher would be so ashamed! :-) In a month or so, you'll lose a few pounds and develop a little more self confidence to get you in the door of a more traditional gym. Try out all the gyms in your area with 1 day passes until you find the one you feel most comfortable in. Some will have free trials of varying lengths, some might charge you 5 or 10 bucks for a day to try it out. You could always just get a tour for free, also. This is a really difficult emotional issue to address, and a therapist is probably your best avenue to really get to the root of the old abuse and negative self talk, but you can mitigate the circumstances so that you can at least get in the door. At some point, no matter how you feel about it, you just have to figure out what you need to do, what accommodations you need to be able to get what you need (get through the front door). Overweight seems to be the last discrimination that is still fairly socially acceptable, and it is a really cruel thing and affects us in ways that haunt us for the rest of our lives. Congratulations to you in working so hard to overcome this abuse and discrimination. You will be successful. Good luck! It will be scary, but I am certain that your fears will not be realized once you do get to the point where you can get through that front door!

Sleeved 7/23. Recovery was totally fine, no complications, etc. However, I knew I wasn't getting enough fluids. Prior to surgery, I typically ran at some level of chronic dehydration, it would show up in my labs. So after surgery, I wasn't having any problems that I was aware of, and just kept chugging along, trying to sip fluids, but not tracking them meticulously. I figure I wasn't ever getting more than 40oz/day, likely less more often than not. Over about the last 10 days, I started feeling pretty tired, but didn't really think much of it. Then, this weekend, I slept waaay in, feeling too tired to get out of bed and get moving (despite being on 2 different stimulants for a sleeping disorder, and I had taken my meds), so it was probably 12 or 1 by the time I got showered and got something to drink/eat. By then, I was feeling mildly nauseous and had even less appetite than normal since surgery. Tried to get in some fluids, but I'm not sure how much I managed. Certainly not enough at any rate. Sunday same story except add orthostatic hypotension (bp went from 124/77 to 109/71 upon standing (Normally my bp runs around 135/84) and I got dizzy and felt like I had to hold onto something), rapid heart rate (went from 69 to 109), and fast breathing. Again, tried to push fluids. Managed to get about 26oz. That's it. Figured I would have a chat with our clinic nurses at work before deciding when it was time to throw in the towel and ask for iv fluids. This morning, I was feeling a little better, the dizziness didn't seem to be an issue, but I knew that fluids were still a big issue. Talked to the nurses and they thought that it was probably better to get some iv fluids in because it's hard to get on top of dehydration once it hits, particularly with surgery, so they told me to call the surgeon. My surgeon had me go get some labwork done and wants to do a swallow test tomorrow and have me evaluated. Kinda feeling like this is a bit overkill. (Especially since getting there and back takes an entire day off work) I have no sense that there is really anything seriously wrong. No pain, no problem with foods, nausea only started over the weekend after a prolonged period of no fluids, etc. I just haven't been able to get much in. I don't like the way it feels when food or liquid hits the sleeve, but it's not painful or uncomfortable exactly. I feel like I can only get about an ounce in at a time. It was taking me hours to eat any reasonable amount of food. 2-3 hours for an 11oz Protein shake, or meats, or really anything. About an hour or so for a yogurt cup or some cottage cheese, or Soup or something. I did a calorie check on a dinner a few days ago. I figured I was full after I'd eaten about 40 calories... That struggle led me to either eat for a long time, taking whatever time I needed to finish my meal, or to drink with my meals, which of course flushed the food through a little quicker. Anyway... way too much information. I'm not really worried about it. I'm seeing the surgeon tomorrow, so we'll get it worked out, but I was just wondering if anyone else was still struggling with dehydration over a month out. Here's a thought... does anyone else have food/fluids get blocked if they slouch while eating drinking? I find that if I'm not sitting up straight, pressure starts to build until I straighten up so things can continue on down. Also, any more than a bite or two (maybe 3) and food or thick liquids start to push back into my esophagus, particularly if anything goes in on top of an air bubble. This amount of food would be maybe 1/8 cup or a couple tablespoons. No pain, no nausea when that happens. I don't get a full or pressure sensation before this happens. Is this consistent with others? Thanks for taking the time to read this ridiculously long post containing more information than you ever wanted to know about me and any responses provided! Hope everyone is having a good evening!

I agree. I know that we're told that the risk with straws is too big of drinks or too much air to swallow, but this really hasn't been my experience. I think we have to decide which "rules" are appropriate for us (individually) to follow, and cautiously asses which ones we can safely adjust or ignore.

You are more than welcome! I'm just really glad that any experience or advice I can provide can be helpful to others (even if it takes me a novel to get it all out...) I decided immediately in this process that I would be extremely open about my surgery and my experience with anyone that I deem appropriate (friends, coworkers, anyone that asks about it, people here, obviously). Really anyone that would benefit from the knowledge of my experiences, or just knowing why I might be a little "off". I feel like it's already paid off, and not only the support that I've been able to offer here, but one of our clerical staff at the office brought down one of our accounting clerks to talk to me about it because she is also thinking about having the surgery and I was so glad to be able to discuss it with her - tell her about my experiences so far, my thoughts on the different options, direct her to information, and really just provide someone to talk to so she doesn't have to feel like she's going through it alone. Anyway, I wish you the best and I know you'll get it worked out. And just as a reassurance, you are doing far better on fluids than I am. I would be thrilled to consistently get 60oz in, so keep up the good work!

VSGKirk and Gmanbat are right... but I'm still pissed off for you. I agree that you should give an appeal a shot, but they are totally right. It's just 6 more months to get prepared. (I'm just glad no one told me that when I decided to pay out of pocket instead of jumping through my insurance hoops because I was unwilling to deal with their bs... I might have blown a gasket :-)

Haven't noticed the yellowing, but other than that, I'm totally with you. I've been referring to it as cesspool mouth. Just gross! I totally hate it! And no gum, even!