Lebim

As far as IMMEDIATELY post-op, the stomach pain. Your entire abdomen is unbelievably sore and something as simple as sitting up is impossible. Otherwise it just sucks having to stay in a hospital for a few days and I don't like needles so the heparin shots every 8hrs and blood work every morning sucked for me personally. All in all it really wasn't that bad though.

Honestly just sticking with the program long term. I lost 125lbs in the first 8 months and looked great but I noticed that I could cheat a bit and not gain any weight and it just got worse and worse until I was in fact seeing the results of my bad eating habits but ignoring it and have gained 50lbs back as of now. Habits are super hard to break, even if it seems easy to overcome them at first. Just try really hard not to sway and if you do, forgive yourself and get back on the horse. It's a lot easier to fix 10lbs gained than 50lbs. I just am so happy I didn't gain it all back.

Lol I'm 5'8" and was told I wasn't big enough to qualify either. I was around 10lbs too "thin" to have the BMI required for my insurance [cigna] to cover it. I then proceeded to gain 15-20lbs maxing out at 280lbs and was told I then had to lose it to prove I could control my eating. Fun stuff.

Everyone fluctuates from day to day because of water or hell maybe you need to poop but can't yet. Do not check your weight every day, it will just lead to disappointment. Just eat what you're supposed to and do your best to stay active and the scale will go down. I know it'll kill you with anticipation but you need to only check once a week.

The first time I quit I switched to the e-cigarette N-Joy for a few months before kicking the habit all together. It's the closest thing to a real cigarette that I've tried and you can get them at any drug store or 7/11 and they have a lot less nicotine. Easier than quitting cold turkey. If you live near a Costco they sell a pill literally called "acid reducer" and I think it would help prevent you from getting an ulcer for now - not justifying the smoking but y'know, it might help. Good luck with quitting

Before you have gastric bypass they warn you of a few things. 1. You can gain the weight back 2. Alcoholism is a possible side effect after surgery 3. food that used to fill you up or make you sick won't do that as much after awhile 4. Smoking cigarettes causes ulcers post-op My mom always says no matter how much I'm warned - I've always had to learn every lesson the hard way. Gastric bypass was that way too. My story is just a warning for all you newbies out there - all the stuff they warn you about is real. Hey, I'm Kaylee and I had my surgery when I was 20 years old on June 11, 2012. I was 280lbs. In less than 8 months I got down to 150 lbs, 130lbs lost. For the first 9 months I was insanely strict. If it wasn't a lean Protein or a non-starchy vegetable I wouldn't eat it. Couldn't pay me to eat a carb. While this is good health wise and I'm sure made my surgical team sing - it was the start of my inevitable failure. I was so strict that after awhile all the foods I had denied myself even a nibble of became so enticing I felt ravenous. My first screw up was picking up smoking again almost a year after I quit. Pure stupidity, I was just bored and thought I could do it socially, wrong. Got ulcers and have had them for over a year and a half. Without acid reducer pills I'm in a lot of pain. Breaking that golden rule led me to break other rules because hey, I already screwed up right? I started having those forbidden foods I had not allowed myself to even look at for such a long time. Bites turned into mouth fulls turned into plate fulls. Then came introducing wine back into my life. I suffer from depression and when you don't have to put effort into getting drunk anymore it is so appealing. I fought depression with wine and started drinking every single night - going through a box of wine every 3 days or so. I then moved from sunny south Florida, away from all my friends, to cold Missouri in the middle of January 2014. I fell into a deep depression and my drinking got worse, and since I was waiting for all my stuff to arrive in the moving truck I lived off hot pockets, bagels, pretty much anything I could toss in a microwave or toaster. I ate crap, drank daily and smoked like a chimney for pretty much the entire year of 2014, all the while pretending my scale didn't exist and convincing myself my clothes were shrinking and I wasn't getting bigger. I was too ashamed and terrified to look at the scale. I finally got up the courage to face what I had done to myself the start of January 2015 and got on the scale. 204lbs. In the span of one year I had gained 54lbs. I felt disgusted with myself and cried for days and days and beat myself up emotionally. I failed everyone, especially myself. But nothing good comes from beating yourself up over what you cannot take back. I can't take back living on bagels and wine for an entire year. What I can do is fight to get back to 150lbs though. So on January 12 I quit smoking, quit drinking every day and have reduced it to just Saturday's with my boyfriend at home versus my downtown-bad-habit-factory, and have gotten close to back to basics but allow myself some freedom - for example for lunch on days I work out I let myself have my chicken and veggies inside a wrap [carbs are my crack] instead of depriving myself of anything I want. I want very badly to get back down to 150lbs... I'm terrified I never will and have somehow ruined this "one and only chance" I've made up in my head. Like I had this wonderful gift of being thin and now that I messed it up I'll never get it back, but I know that type of thinking won't help me. So I'm going to keep going and hopefully someday get back to it. If you've actually made it this far, thank you, I really needed to get this horrible guilt off my chest. I feel like an absolute failure but getting it out helps. So advice to all you n00bs: 1. Yes you can gain it back, I'm an example. 2. Becoming an alcoholic is a real risk you need to watch out for post op. 3. You will be surprised how much food you can get into your body if you really try 4. If you quit smoking never pick it up again, I didn't even have a desire to smoke and managed to become a pack a day smoker again within a month. Not even one after you quit. And most of all - NEVER EVER stop using your scale. I ignored what I was doing for so long and that's how I ended up gaining the amount I did. If I had just looked a couple months before and saw 175lbs I would've done what I'm doing now back then. I would have never let it get this bad if I had just swallowed my pride and looked. I'm lucky that I caught myself when I did because I was headed towards being morbidly obese again. Good luck to you all - try not to make all the mistakes I did. If my story can prevent one person from making one of my many mistakes I'd be happy.

I am 2.5 years out and I experience a lot more head hunger than normal hunger but I most definitely get hungry for real. I have to eat something about every 2-3 hours or else I start to get hungry.

I have bought it from whole foods and GNC. It really is great - though I really cannot taste the difference between the regular and chocolate and since the regular has 1 more gram of protein [5g per 2tbs versus 4g] that's what I go with.

Honestly I don't think I would have been successful with any surgery other than the gastric bypass. Dumping syndrome is a necessity for my success otherwise I'd eat half a carton of ice cream. I have a horrible relationship with food and if the food that made me obese in the first place didn't make me sick after surgery I would have never stopped. I personally find the band to be a complete waste of time because almost every story I've heard about it includes complications and very little weight loss and everyone in my office who had the band and came to the monthly support group meetings were still pretty much obese, maybe 50lbs down but they needed to lose 100lbs+. I think you're making the right decision, the bypass has the highest success rate of all the surgeries. Good luck :]

No regrets. My quality of life has improved drastically - people treat me more like an actual human being now. It's sad that I had to lose the weight for that to happen but it is what it is. I can move better and fit into places I couldn't dream of before like fair ride seats and airplane bathrooms. I feel normal finally. I hear the comments about how I took "the easy way out" but people who say that are completely ignorant to what the entire process of this surgery is so I try to remember that when I'm attempting not to punch them in the throat.

They're pretty cheap at whole foods - Kaylee Ann ~ Surgerversary 6/11/2012

Was wondering if anyone knew if we can have those post op without imploding? I'd generally never use them but it's an emergency situation and the only product that ever worked for me. Have any of you guys used them? - Kaylee Ann ~ Surgerversary 6/11/2012

^^^ - Kaylee Ann ~ Surgerversary 6/11/2012

Ever since I allowed some sugar in my diet during Christmas I've struggled with craving sugar again and working at whole foods has given me a lot of opportunities to sample the wrong things. Thanks for the support :] - Kaylee Ann ~ Surgerversary 6/11/2012

9 months out 154 lbs from 276 21 years old Size 10 pants Size M/S - Kaylee Ann ~ Surgerversary 6/11/2012