terry1118

My friend did this. Every female in her family had breast cancer so she was at high risk for it also. If I remember right, her insurance paid for it due to her high risk. Talk to your doctor...

All my doctors (surgeon, pcp, and endocrinologist) and my nut say to stay away from anything white - potato, rice, pasta, bread, and anything made with white flour. I can't tolerate any foods made w/rice flour, either. I can eat wheat pasta but I eat it rarely - when I do, it's maybe a quarter cup. I can tolerate small amounts of brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, or sweet potato. I love spaghetti squash topped with ground chicken, vegetables, and sauce.

If cold doesn't help try drinking it warm or lukewarm. For the first few months following my surgery (5/30/13) I could only drink warm water. You know when you leave a water bottle in your locked car in the summer and it gets really warm? THAT'S how I liked it! Lol

The five day pouch test takes you through an abbreviated version of each post op food stage. My WLS team says there's no harm in it and it can help people get back on track or break a stall.

I buy mine from nutrition stores in MA. When I visited my son in California a couple months ago I found them at his favorite nutrition store, too, so they seem widely available. You can also buy them online. :-)

Shared a room w/another RNY patient. She was a real drama queen and a pain in the a**. Lots of screaming, crying, moaning, complaining about the nurses (who were wonderful but not coddling her). I think most of the drama was to get attention and her husband catered to every whiney need and/or want. She was a great motivator for my frequent walks around the halls because I couldn't stand to stay in the room with her. When her doctor told her she would have to stay in the hospital few more days because she was doing so poorly she suddenly made a quick and miraculous recovery! :-p

Every surgeon is different. Mine used to say none ever again but caffeine has been found to help with constipation, a common problem for WLS patients, so they changed it to none for the first three months (while healing). Follow your own surgeon's advice.

You're welcome! It helped me understand the how and why of it, and it was reassuring to know for certain it would get better. :-)

My favorites are apple pie, chocolate chip, and Oreo cookie. :-)

Here is one of the explanations I found. Much of the info I found when researching this was pretty much the same. www.drdkim.net/ask-the-dietician/understanding-hair-loss-after-bariatric-surgery/

Yes!

I beg to differ. If you research it, hair loss can be caused by many things - pregnancy, physical and/or emotional stress, severe weight loss, and yes, surgery.

This has got to be hard to top! :-)

I don't know if this helps but when I was researching WLS I was deliberately trying to find people who had complications or otherwise bad experiences. I was impressed by the fact that ALL of those that I managed to find said they would still do it again. I hope everything turns out okay for you and it was all worth it in the end.

It WILL grow back! It's only hair. :-)

With the peanut butter. I also saw it in the peanut butter section at Target today.

Yes, I would do it again. I had RNY and never regretted it, not for a second. It was way more successful than I expected. I went from a 2X/22-24W to a sz6/small! I never dared to dream I could get that small! At best I was hoping for a size 14. :-)

For 4-6 weeks following my surgery nothing tasted 'right'. Almost everything tasted blah or bad. This actually was a GOOD thing. I was worried that I'd want to eat the old foods from pre op but I found the thought of them nauseating. I really had no appetite at all but gradually the bad taste went away, though I continued to be disinterested in food. I'm 14 months post-op now and food still doesn't have the same power over me that it used to. I eat for fuel, and just enough. I don't eat for pleasure and I don't overeat. Sometimes I forget to eat - that still surprises me! You sound like you're on track. Hang in there! Things will gradually improve as you recover and heal. Take this time to learn all you can about your new life with WLS - find recipes, read of others experiences (but always take your own team's advice first - they know you), and stay away from your scale. Soon you'll be celebrating your own successes and NSV's (non scale victories). :-)

I understand your frustration and sometimes 'bowing out' of a thread is all you can do if it heads in a direction that you find disturbing or uncomfortable. But I've always found your input thought-provoking and considerate. It is very hard to communicate with the written word because there is no tone of voice or facial expressions to soften or accentuate what we are trying to say. Things are easily misunderstood or taken out of context... and sometimes they unintentionally hit a sensitive spot in someone's life causing an unexpected reaction. We don't actually know each other and we all have these sensitive spots that trigger defensive responses. We need to keep things in perspective. :-)

I noticed only yesterday that my posture is better - without all the weight pulling you down you can stand and sit straighter, effortlessly, without consciously trying to. :-)

I think it's just appearances. I'm actually an inch shorter but I have mild scoliosis (curved spine) and carrying all that weight around for years made the curvature a little worse. My back was in constant pain while overweight but now I'm pain-free. :-)

PB2 is real peanut butter minus the oil. You can use the powder to add real peanut butter flavor to lots of things. My husband adds it to his vanilla protein shake w/banana; or to his chocolate shake for a Reeses peanut butter cup flavor (he's a body builder, not a WLS patient). My nut says you can reconstitute it by adding a little water for a nonfat version of peanut butter (I haven't tried doing it). You can buy PB2 pretty cheap at Walmart. :-)

Healthy choice Greek frozen yogurt is good - creamy and low sugar. I have one whenever my husband has his ice cream.

I'm 14 months post op so I know what I can and can't do, but every once in a while I forget or get lazy and then I get that 'friendly reminder' you mentioned. :-)

I can't do bread. But I have the soup or a salad. I'm 14 months out. :-)