Shells_Almost_There

I find that I can't have the Protein Bars or shakes that I relied on before and after VSG. Now, they are too sweet and (sorry, TMI) I almost immediately get the shakes (dumping) and will probably have to run to the bathroom. And really, that's what's changed the most after my revision to RNY - I haven't had more than maybe 5 normal BMs in 19 months.

I woke up/came to as they were wheeling me from recovery to my room and every bump/jostle hurt so bad I thought I'd cry. Next, I wanted Water - they gave me ice chips - which made my new stomach do this weird very painful hiccup. Again, I thought I'd cry. Once I sipped water instead of having the chips, all was well with that. Otherwise I had a massive gas pain in my left shoulder that took about 4 days to resolve.

I seem to have relatively low tolerance for pain immediately after an injury or after waking up from surgery, but then I'm generally ready to go and walk/run within a day or so. Day 3, I was raring to go (my surgeon has a 2-night stay for bypass patients).

Probably the only other thing that hurt like mad for me was Day 2 when I went to do the swallow test and they tilted the thingie back and I wasn't prepared. Gravity made it hurt going backward, and again when they stood me back up. I got a bit dizzy from that pain, but was fine once they got me back in the wheelchair.

So true. I used my chapstick, the phone charger, my toothbrush/paste, oh - and I brought my surgery bunny to hold against my belly when standing the first day. That's it. LOL

So happy to see your name in my mentions! Glad to see an update from you -- I don't check in much here any longer, although I recently converted from sleeve to bypass. It was a good decision, but wow is the weight loss completely different than the first time around (at least for me it is)! I haven't been working out either, so I'm going to take up the gauntlet with you and get back to business.

My surgeon required 2 nights for all bypass patients (revision or not), and 1 night for sleeve.

Yes, I've done this (very recently). I actually have different insurance this time and was required to do a 6-month medically supervised weight loss diet, and do a psych eval. If I had been with my old insurance, I would have had to lose a percentage of weight, plus do the psych and sleep processes again (those were the 3 requirements I had last time). I think this type of thing is standard -- but what a pain the 6-month diet was!

Right now I'm 2.5 weeks out after my conversion, and was just saying on another thread that so far, my bypass weight loss is mirroring my initial liquid-diet phase loss with the sleeve -- 20+ pounds so far -- and that my surgeon has been adamant that people who convert from sleeve to bypass have the potential to lose a lot of weight if they will stick to the post-op diet plan. So, I'm looking forward to that -- I lost about 80 pounds after sleeve surgery (110 total from my highest weight), and have a large chunk of weight still to lose.

I'm looking forward to this next journey. Good luck to you with your new journey!

Weight loss so far is good -- I'm on a 4-week liquid diet this time, and I seem to be mirroring the weight loss with my sleeve during the liquids-only phase (20+ pounds so far). I have heard that people don't lose as much weight after a conversion surgery, so I've kept my expectations realistic, just in case things are different this time around. So far, though, it's very similar.

My surgeon is adamant that weight loss with a conversion can be just as successful as an initial surgery if people stick to the strict diet, so that's my plan!

I am 2 weeks out from converting from sleeve to bypass, and there are a couple of others who have recently done the same or are considering it---- the conversations are there if you read backwards in the topics list.

It's very strange to be post-op again, and things are different compared to the sleeve as far as recovery. I've got 2 more weeks of this hellish liquids-only phase, so I'm still too new to offer much about the whole thing, but I'm excited to be on this new path to get myself to goal! Good luck to you too!

Following up to say that I had surgery on Tuesday 1/23. Post-op was horrible, much worse than with the sleeve. It was painful, both in the stomach and I had the gas pain in my left shoulder that felt like knives. It kept reacting to the cold ice chips, so I stopped eating those once I figured out what the spasms were about. I had a 2-night hospital stay and am now at the house I'm renting for a week to recover (my surgery took place a few hours from my residence, so the surgeon required a local week-long stay). Things are going well, at this point - the gas in my shoulder is completely gone and I'm able to do my Protein and Water, with minimal prescription pain meds - I'm mostly just on the liquid Tylenol and maintaining. I'm sitting up all the time, and walking laps in the house. So, all in all, I think things are off to a decent start with this new tummy of mine!

I just had a sleeve to bypass revision on 1/23. I will be posting results as they come. Best of luck!

I converted from sleeve to bypass this past Tuesday. I also considered a resleeve, but the surgeon felt that I wouldn't get to my goal weight without switching to bypass. I am now recovering and it has gone quite well. I think having been through the entire recovery process once helps the second time (even though there were a lot of differences during post-op with this surgeon). When I woke up from surgery, it was really rough - so much tummy pain and major gas pains in my left shoulder. My new pouch kept having what I would describe as spasms and it really didn't like ice chips. I had a 2-night hospital stay this time, and I feel like that made a lot of difference in how I'm feeling today.

Best of luck to you! I'm hoping to share some excellent weight loss experiences in the coming months!

I'm glad to hear you're recovering well now, and thanks so much for sharing all this! Similar to you, I had only minor pain when waking up from the sleeve surgery and there were zero gas issues. So, I've been trying to mentally prepare for a much tougher recovery this time - and your words above tell me that it's probably a good thing that I've been planning for some bumps post-op this time. I have a 2-night hospital stay and will have a catheter (eek!), so I already know things will be more intense, but I felt like I'd barely had surgery last time. I will also have to do a swallow test before I'm discharged, which I didn't do last time either. I'm actually interested in that result, but I guess the stuff you have to drink tastes terrible.

I am negatively affected by anesthesia, which causes Constipation anytime I have surgery. I have already purchased a few products to help me out around day 5 or 6 like last time. Not fun!

Regarding my one week delay - I'm sad to share that my family experienced a very sudden loss of a young family member last Friday night, and I needed to take a bit of time to wrap my head around that, plus find out about funeral/celebration of life, etc. I was told that there wouldn't be a funeral with invitees, just a private internment, so I rescheduled for Tuesday 1/23. Then yesterday afternoon I learned that there was a change of plans and there will be a graveside service for immediate family only next Friday -- but now I can't attend. I spent some time being angry yesterday, but since there's nothing I can do at this point, I let go of it. I'll be able to attend the big celebration of life about 6 weeks from now, so that's good.

In the meantime, I'm on the all liquids / liver shrink pre-op diet and I have a continual headache and am dying for a piece of cake!!! Isn't that just how it goes? I can't even remember the last time I had a piece of cake, but now it's all I want. The pre-op diet (which I wasn't required to do for the sleeve) has been good practice for the 1-month liquid diet post-op. With my sleeve it was only 2 weeks and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I don't know if I'm more excited or scared for surgery right now, but it's going to happen no matter what!

Take care, I hope things continue on the positive for you!

My surgery was delayed a week, so I'm up next Tuesday. Getting nervous!

How is your recovery going? Much different from your sleeve recovery?

@Slubbinhussy I'm doing the same thing on the 16th!

I recently bought the 1-month multipack (multivitamin [looks like it's not "bariatric" though], D3, Iron, & B12) from Bariatric Pal, and I'm hoping to have a positive outcome on my next labs.

Chiming in, I have my sleeve to bypass revision surgery that day!

Excellent!

Yup. I'm definitely moving forward with the bypass in about 10 days! @MonkeyNurse you still on?

I'm scheduled to convert (sleeve to bypass) in just over 2 weeks and I'm currently questioning EVERYTHING -- I have 80 pounds still to lose, and if converting to a bypass will only be a minimal help (with potentially higher complication risk), I am just not sure it's worth it.

Thanks for posting that video, @JohnnyCakes it was really interesting and informative.

Shell

Good luck to you -- and I am also wondering what you ended up doing.

I am preparing for a sleeve to bypass conversion. I had decent success with the sleeve, but had a high starting weight so I got what I could (I believe) and still needed more weight loss. I was a gym rat for about 2 years post op, which actually was pretty fun. Then life intervened and I started to struggle with small gains that I couldn't recover from. So, I'm going back a 2nd time, to get a bypass and then get to goal --- and be smarter about how to manage my stress and the fact that getting older is never going to "help" with a diet plan!

I have heard a number of times that the weight loss is smaller and slower after a conversion, and I'm ok with that. TBH, if I could just redo my sleeve, I would. It was a decent surgery that didn't have a ton of bad effects for me. I expect a lot of trouble with the bypass, because my recovery from the sleeve surgery was just so free and easy, other than almost losing my mind from the boredom of a 2-week liquid diet post-op. This time it will be a 4-week liquid diet, and I expect to be full on Cuckoo's Nest by week 4, LOL.

I'm catching up on reading (because I'll be converting from sleeve to bypass next month) and I just downloaded that cookbook. Thanks!

Best of success to both of you! I'm heading toward a conversion from sleeve to bypass next month, and my nerves are finally starting to set in. I've got my first "holy smokes, this is really going to happen" pre-op appointment on January 3rd, so I'm trying to stay calm and focused. I get super nervous regarding surgeries, needles, blood, anesthesia, and hospitals. LOL!

I've been wondering how my weight loss will play out after the conversion - I've heard it's much less weight and also slower than an initial surgery. I was a very slow loser with the sleeve, but it still went decently, and I don't regret that surgery at all. I just had/have such a mountain of weight to lose, that this next step is required for me to reach goal. This time, I will be on a 1-month liquid diet post-op. With my sleeve surgery it was a 2-week liquid diet post op, and I lost 22 pounds right out of the gate. I'm working to keep expectations low, but I will say that I'm hoping for a nice bit of weight to come off in that first month. I am definitely am not looking forward to a full 30 days of liquids only - it's such hell. But once I move to soft foods, it's back to the hard work of reaching my goal! That's the exciting part, for sure.

I have been struggling and have experienced a gain - that for the first time since surgery, I'm unable to shake off in a decent amount of months. I'm 3.5 years out and it's astounding how much has changed. So, my answer has been to enroll in a medically-supervised diet program so that I can have accountability and a very specific nutrition plan. My insurance happens to cover it (all but the cost of food), and I'm committing to giving it a number of months - both to reset my habits and to continue on my weight loss journey. I don't know if this type of thing might be of interest, but I thought I'd mention it.

Otherwise, I agree with posters above about Keto, or other specific plans like that - where it keeps us in check and closer to a pre-op diet. I know some people who've had a lot of success with Whole 30 or Paleo as well. Adding exercise might be an option for you, and definitely keep the snacking in check (one of my biggest issues). Best of luck!

I also continue to monitor this thread, to see others' stories about this challenging weight loss lifestyle!

In fact, over the long weekend, I made the decision to start a medically-supervised weight loss program so that I can get back on track. While I totally "know" what I'm supposed to do to continue to lose weight, it seems my motivation is outweighed by my desire for delicious carbs! So, I'm going to go back on a lower calorie, more regimented plan with structure. Hoping this gets me back on track and working toward my goal! It will be painful (I hate the "food" on those plans and they tend to be super expensive), but I need a push in the right direction.

I can see that they are available via Amazon.com. BTW I was very diligent about buying these pre-op but then I never needed them at all. Finally threw them out when they expired. Best of luck for your surgery!