LosingItForMe2011

I had glue and dissolving stitches so nothing needed to be done for me.

I came home from the hospital with nausea meds. Did your surgeon send you home with some and are you taking them? You don't want to get dehydrated and that will happen with vomiting. Please call your bariatric center or surgeon's office a.s.a.p.

Hi Amanda, It's going to take a while for swelling to go down so unless there is pain associated with it I wouldn't worry too much. It's always safe to call your surgeon if you have any doubts. Always remember advice here is NON-medical and based off one's own experiences so your surgeon is best. For me I had the biggest swelling on the left side which is the site they do most of the retraction of your liver and push and pulling. Just more work in that one particular site so more bruising. I don't believe sleeping in bed would have caused this issue on you if you're worried about that. We do use more muscles to get up from bed but, we're not usually directed to sleep anywhere else. Most just sleep in a recliner because it's easier to get up. Hope this helps.

Each surgeon/bariatric group has different guidelines really. Most have you move on to mushies after 3 weeks. Then solids after 5-6 weeks post op. They didn't limit me on my Protein brands as far as Protein Shakes other than to watch the sugar content. Is that the food list they gave you?

The swelling from the surgery goes down and the healing has started so you will feel like you can eat vs when it's all swollen you feel as if a mouthful is filling. Are you on solids yet? Are waiting 30 minutes after drinking before eating and waiting 30 minutes after eating before drinking so you don't wash the food out? My nutritionist said as far as solid Protein the most I will feel comfortable getting in is about 3 ounces.

I've had hypothyroidism for a while but, my doc wouldn't give me medication for it because she claimed it was only slightly hypo. Well for years, I've been with her about 29 years, I've been fighting my weight. In 2005 while going through testing for the lapband, that hospital showed you your bloodwork online. I saw the TSH level in red. Asked my doc and she said it was hypo but, she didn't wan to over medicate. Now after the initial lapband, a lapband revision, the lapband removal and in 7/2012 RNY....it's still hypo. I have lost 70 pounds since 7/11/12 which is AWEsome for me! I've lost much slower than others but, I'm thankful the 70 is gone. At my 6 month checkup my RNY surgeon said my TSH was low and she wanted me to see an Endocrinologist. AMEN someone is finally paying attention!!!!! So she told my PCP, I emailed my PCP and I made the dang appointment myself. Unfortunately can't see the endocrinologist until April. The email to my doc worked...she finally read my bloodwork and put me on meds. I've been on them less than a week but, yahoo the scale finally moved! I'm hoping this helps me keep moving down the scale. So to answer your question it is still possible to lose weight on RNY with Hypothyroidism. If you're not taking meds for it you may want to push that prior to the surgery to see if it helps before hand. If you are taking them...I can bet RNY will still help you lose. Best to ask your doc...or attend an information night at a bariatric center and ask that question

When I had it I had to go to a sports medicine therapist. They had me do lots of stretching and exercising to loosen it up plus used a deep muscle massage. Took me a while to get rid of it and boy was it painful. Every once in a while I can feel it coming on but, I do the stretches he taught me with the straps/belts and it really helps. Hope you feel better soon!

Hi copmom, I was told by my nutritionist and doctor no caffeine. Last I looked Green Tea has caffeine.

Are you getting in enough liquids? You could be dehydrated. It will also make you tired or weak.

Hey Nancy, Congrats on your surgery and welcome to the boards!

The last thing you want is something running through your system. You definitely want to be at your healthiest for surgery.

Oh I remember the days with the metal wheels on outdoor roller skates We skated for hours and hours. Sounds like fun and you'll have a great time together.

You know I never really thought about it....just want to get off BP meds and be able to buy clothes in a regular store. I've never been smaller than size 12 other than one outfit that was a size 10. 12 would be cool but, I'm keeping things open.

How far out from surgery are you? That would help us help you more.

Papaya enzymes help with digestion if something gets stuck or if you took too big of a bite. It helps pretty quickly for me. I would definitely recommend you talk to your surgeon about it though.

Zoiks some crazy comments! I've been lucky in that so far.....SO FAR...I haven't heard too many stupid comments. I did have a comment of concern from my family in that they were afraid I'd lose too much and look anorexic because they know someone who has lost too much and doesn't take their Vitamins etc. I told them I went into this knowing full well, that the vitamins were a MUST and I had no intention of getting that thing. My intention is for a healthy BMI, my joints to not have so much stress and to hopefully go off my high blood pressure meds. I'm not looking to be skinny, just healthy.

Oh and ask your surgeon about the revision if you haven't already. One of my questions for my surgeon was is the flap used on my stomach to hold the lapband in going to be undone or do you leave it there and work around it. Well it's actually released and if the scaring is bad the pouch has to be slightly bigger than for someone who never had the lapband. Because they can't cut where the scaring is. My pouch is slightly bigger than some because of that but, she was able to take down that flap so that was good news. My next question for her was.....is there more of a chance of complications for me because of the previous lapband. Her answer...just slightly so intead of a 1/2 % risk it was moved up to 1% for me. My surgery did take a bit longer than normal...I was under for I think 4 hours because she had to take the time to remove that flap. I also had to go home with a drain to make sure there was no internal bleeding...not everyone goes home with a drain.

Hi Tim, I had the lapband as well. It was put in place in 2006, revision due to a slip in 2008 and then had to have it removed in 2010 due to a really bad prolaps. I waited until 2011 to start the RNY process. mainly because I was so dang afraid of all the re-arranging that would have to happen. That's why I got the lapband in the first place. But....I knew I had to do something because I've been heavy most of my life. I had my RNY 7/2012 and I ran into a complication with the main incision. It got infected so had to be reopened. The antibiotics caused me to have an imbalance in my bowel so that the good bacteria and bad bacteria got all wacked - called CDiff. Yet another antibiotic for that...had to do a few boughts with that but, I'm feeling great. Once in a while, I feel a bit off but, it doesn't last long. I'm thankful I didn't have any major complications but, as mentioned above...the rate of complications has gone down drastically from when we had our lapbands. I was told Less than 1% of RNY patient's have complications with their surgeries. Great odds to me!

Ask all the questions you have, not one is too silly and all are important for you to understand and feel comfortable. You can ask here but, every question should be run by your own surgeon and follow the surgeons recommendations over any advice here. We all try to help but can only offer you the information we've gone through or experienced. It's helpful for sure especially when you can't get to your surgeon's office right away. YOu'll hear many of us mention you should call your own doc while we offer what we've experienced.

Congratulations on your journey with RNY and welcome to the boards. Keep us posted!

Have you asked the surgeon's office or others in a support group from the same office if this provider has ever cancelled a surgery because they didn't lose 15 pounds? My doctors office wanted me to lose 10% of my weight about 24 pounds or so. I lost about 15. My surgeon said as long as I was losing then my liver was in the best shape because the liver loses the weight first but, also gains it first. So I did what they told me to do.

If you start too early, I can tell you, you'll get really tired of the shakes and you'll need to have those after surgery. The shakes you have before, you may not like after the surgery. I got so tired of shakes and I didn't have to do a liquid diet before my surgery. I had to lose weight but, wasn't given a diet to follow. Also, shakes don't supply all the Vitamins you'll need so if you switch to shakes only in order to lose weight you're going to want to make sure you're taking in Vitamins so you're not deficient in any nutrients you'll need to heal up. Did they put you on vitamins already? I had to go on them early so I'd build up a supply in my body/blood before surgery because my surgeon's office didn't advise taking vitamins right after the surgery. They wanted me to heal up for 3 weeks then start taking them.

all offices are different though so follow the recommendations of the surgeon you're trusting to do your surgery. Good luck!

I only told a few people and the rest at work I just said I was having abdominal surgery. It's not lying....it was done in my abdomin. They of course now know for the most part because I've lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time. I'm not worried about it and I've been fortunate not to hear any negative comments so far.

As far as flab under your arms...well yup that doesn't go away and yup it can get worse looking because there isn't anything filling them up anymore but, I'll take that over the health issues that can cause issues because of the added weight. When I'm done losing weight...I'll make the decision then whether or not to have the lose skin removed. Can't even begin to think of it now...I have quite a bit more to go.

Welcome to the boards!

Congrats on the start of your journey. You're in the right place. Welcome to the boards!

I lose slowly about 1-2 pounds a week...more often 1 pounds per week but, you know what.....it's still coming off. I'm still doing better than I did before I started and this time of year I would normally be gaining weight. If you're following your surgeon's/nutritionist's recommendations then you're doing the right thing and it will come off. You're body is going through lots of changes and it will have times it will stall or be slower...just keep on keeping on and it will come off.

Congratulations...you're going to do great! Best wishes on your surgery and a speedy recovery.

Head hunger is one of the toughest "habits" to break and to learn if it's true hunger or not. You're already doing a good thing in that when you have this feeling you drink some Water. I was told that after drinking water and allowing 20-30 minutes to pass after drinking it that if I still felt I was hungry to ask myself this question. Will and apple help kill the feeling of hunger. If the answer is yes...then eat the apple. If the answer is no...then it's head hunger. It's a weird question but, it does make you stop and think. If it's truly hunger than something healthy wil appease it but, if you're craving is more on something we shouldn't have then it's head hunger or emotional hunger. Hope this helps a bit

Congrats on the 100 pounds gone!

I've used it quite a bit and it doesn't matter what type of food is stuck or sitting like a brick in your pouch. It really helps with digestion of Proteins too. I got the Spring Valley brand found in department stores in the Vitamin section. You can also get them at GNC.< /p>