James Marusek

When I was a young lad over half a century ago, I went on a long march hiking over a plateau in Baja California in Mexico for a week. After a few days a grim built up on my skin. This grim could not be washed off with water. (It took soap to remove it.) But I noticed after the grim buildup, the insects (biting flies and mosquitoes) no longer bothered me. Have you conducted any experiments with essential oils that could possibly alter our skin's microbiota/odor signature? I am currently experimenting with controlling body odor. I have had underarm odor for my whole life. Deodorants do not really mask the odor. So I am experimenting with an alternate approach. Baking Soda kills the bacteria that produce body odor. So I mixed some Baking Soda with Coconut Oil in a small jar and added a little Lavender essential oil into the mix. And I apply this lotion to my underarms each morning. It seems to kill the bacteria under my arms without any adverse reactions.

Congratulations on your weight loss thus far. I found that eating softer foods (such as chili and soups) went down much easier than harder foods such as (steak and chicken). As a result I relied on these. I have included a few recipes at the end of the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

It is common to be nervous prior to surgery. So here are a few suggestions to get your mind off the surgery. 1. Take a good before photograph of yourself, so that you have something to compare to after surgery. Many times we are blind to our obesity. We do not see ourselves. Therefore when the weight begins to drop off rather dramatically, we question if this is really happening. Photographs are a good visualization of our success. Many people carry a before and after photo with them, just to remind themselves of their success. I have included my 6 month post-op comparison photograph as an example. 2. Walk 30 minutes each day, every day until surgery (or equivalent exercise). Walking helps the recovery process go smoothly and minimized the pain levels from surgery. 3. Wean yourself from caffeine and carbonated beverages now. After I gave up my 6 diet coke a day habit, I suffered from a week of severe withdrawal syndrome consisting of severe headaches and body aches. I was miserable. You don't want to combine the effects of caffeine withdrawal with the effects of surgery.

I will make a couple observations: As the article said "Obviously it costs more to make plus-size clothing because of the amount of fabric used". But another cost is the inherent cost of producing low volume products and selling that merchandize. Generally when I was obese, I found that I could not longer buy clothes in department stores. They no longer carried my size clothing. As a result I was forced to buy clothes at specialty stores that catered to "big and tall". Although their prices were somewhat compatible with department store prices, their clothes rarely went on sale. Since I generally bargain shop and buy clothing at 60% to 75% off retail price, pricing was a major consideration. Another statement was “If smaller-sized people aren’t getting discounts, then plus-sized people shouldn’t have to pay a surplus." Does that mean children size clothing should be priced the same as adults? I think retail generally prices their merchandise by what the market will bear. What keeps prices in line is competition. There are many small towns scattered across the U.S. These small towns had mom-and-pop stores. So generally if you went to town to buy groceries or clothes you found the prices were sometimes 50% greater than the prices in small cities. Then malls came into being and people began to travel to the cities for weekly runs. The Walmarts and similar stores came into being many located in rural areas which provided competition and prices came down and many small town stores dried up and went out of business.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery and I completely lost my appetite for the first year after surgery. But generally I don't know how common this is in sleeve patients. It is critical that you meet your daily protein, vitamin and fluid requirements after surgery. Food it less important. Do you have other symptoms like nausea? unable to drink fluids without vomiting or hurting? This might be a sign of a problem such as a stricture or ulcer which is common after surgery.

Before my surgery I used this product for scars and it seemed to work well, so thanks for the tip.

The condition is called orthostatic or postural hypotension. Dizziness or light-headedness when standing up occurs as a result of abnormal blood pressure regulation. Normally, when people stand, gravity causes blood to pool in the veins of the legs and trunk. This pooling lowers the blood pressure and the amount of blood the heart pumps to the brain. Low blood flow to the brain causes the dizziness and other symptoms. To compensate, the nervous system quickly increases the heart rate and constricts blood vessels, which rapidly returns blood pressure to normal before symptoms can develop. Prior to surgery, I was taking 2 types of prescription medicine for high blood pressure. As I was losing weight pre-op, I was able to cut my dosage in half. Then a couple weeks after surgery, I noticed my blood pressure was getting much lower, so I completely went off all my meds for high blood pressure. That condition went into remission and stayed there. I am now over 5 years post-op.

No, not tested, unless it is part of by bariatric surgery blood workup each year.

I suspect that it will not. 10 days + Aug 14 = Aug 24 < Aug 28. You will probably be given antibiotics while you are in the hospital. But you might alert your surgeon's office to make sure which is what you plan to do.

I lost around 20 pounds in my pre-op diet that lasted 6 months. It added to the 100 pound weight loss after surgery for a total weight loss of 120 pounds. So any pre-op loss moves you further towards your goal.

It depends on the direction from your surgeon. Mine directed me to consume 75-90 grams of protein per day.

Right after surgery your body is in a major heal mode. Many patients find it difficult to meet their protein and fluid daily requirements during the first few weeks. Just keep trying. Many experience problems drinking protein shakes. I hated them. But in the beginning I drank them, three 16-ounce protein shakes a day, in order to meet my protein requirements. You do not have to like protein shakes only tolerate them. There are many varieties of protein shakes available today. Experiment until you can find one you can tolerate. I used Muscle Milk Light (Vanilla Creme) powder blended with water and a half a banana. That worked for me. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, you might try premixed Isopure. Without sufficient protein, your body will scavenge protein from other areas of your body, such as your muscles. Protein is extremely important after surgery as its job in the body is to build and maintain tissues including your body's major organs and skeletal muscles. Protein deficiency, when continued over a long period of time can cause a disease known as protein caloric malnutrition. Common symptoms are poor healing, fatigue, hair loss and muscle wasting. Immediate post op, protein promotes healing of the staple line and incisions. Your daily protein requirement is met by a combination of the amount of protein you obtain from food combined with the amount of protein from protein supplements (protein shakes, protein bars). Right after surgery, the volume of food you consume is minuscule. But as you get further along, the meal volume increases. Therefore you have a very important option available to you. As a result, you can begin to reduce your reliance on protein shakes if you concentrate on consuming high protein meals.

You might discuss that with your surgeon's office.

It is common to be afraid just prior to major surgery. To get your mind off things, I recommend the following unless you have already done these. 1. Take a good before photograph of yourself, so that you have something to compare to after surgery. Many times we are blind to our obesity. We do not see ourselves. Therefore when the weight begins to drop off rather dramatically, we question if this is really happening. Photographs are a good visualization of our success. Many people carry a before and after photo with them, just to remind themselves of their success. 2. Walk 30 minutes each day, every day until surgery (or equivalent exercise). Walking helps the recovery process go smoothly and minimized the pain levels from surgery. 3. Wean yourself from caffeine and carbonated beverages now. After I gave up my 6 diet coke a day habit, I suffered from a week of severe withdrawal syndrome consisting of severe headaches and body aches. I was miserable. You don't want to combine the effects of caffeine withdrawal with the effects of surgery.

Which is exactly the point. Healthy skepticism is not bad. But look at both sides of the picture. Do not automatically dismiss a study because of where some of the funds came from. Just keep an open mind. And science is generally not based on one study alone but the replication of research findings by other independent research groups. So the authors of the original article that I cited came to the following conclusions: However, the one thing that the authors cannot overcome is the fact that food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are notoriously unreliable. People regularly underreport how much alcohol they consume, for instance. I barely remember what I ate for lunch, and that was just a few hours ago. There's simply no good way to get around this shortcoming, though the fact that the authors detected something of a dose-response (i.e., the more artificial sweeteners a person consumed, the less likely he or she was to develop cancer) strengthens their case. Additionally, there is the nagging issue of confounding. People who drink artificially sweetened beverages may have other health habits that are responsible for lowering the recurrence of cancer. Perhaps people who drink more Diet Coke also eat more celery. The authors did their best to adjust for such confounding, but there's always the possibility that something goes undetected. Overall, I find the result interesting but unconvincing. If artificial sweeteners really do decrease the recurrence of cancer by more than 20%, then they should begin a clinical trial pronto. That is why I thought the authors of the article presented a well balanced article. And also their conclusion was to target more research to prove whether these findings were real or due to other confound issues.

But it should cut both ways. If you are leery of any research published by those who receive funding from pharmaceutical companies then one should also be leary of any research published by those who receive money from environmental groups. It cuts both ways. Environmental groups receive large amounts of money based on the fear that they generate about the impact of chemicals and also by their ability to bring those fears into the courtroom to support large jury awards to plaintiffs. It is the research that they pay for that underpins their claims of harm. Although in this particular case the real companies that have a financial interest are those companies that produce artificial sweeteners not the pharmaceutical company. So do any of the researchers have stocks in artificial sweetener companies?

Right after my surgery I became lactose intolerant. Within minutes of consuming milk or other diary products, my stomach became upset and then there was a quick trip to the bathroom with diarrhea. Some protein shakes contain lactose. Anyways this condition went away in around 2 months time.

A few years after surgery, my blood workup showed that I needed more iron. My nutritionist directed me to take it in the form of ferrous sulfate for the best absorption. A year later, my next blood work showed that I had too much iron, so they said I could cut back on the iron. I took my iron supplement just before bedtime because I wanted to make very sure I was giving it a 2 hour separation between when I took in any form of calcium, not just the supplements (such as calcium from milk, butter, yogurt or other dairy).

Deemar007 I was not trying to be accusatory but more like I was passing on my observation. It came out wrong, so I apologize. That was not my intent.

The hard knot can take sometime to disappear. It is the main area where the surgery took place. Mine finally disappeared after a year.

If you read the article, it is fairly well balanced.

It is very common. There are many incisions (wounds) on your body and they are healing.

Many experience problems drinking protein shakes. I hated them. But in the beginning I drank them, three 16-ounce protein shakes a day, in order to meet my protein requirements. You do not have to like protein shakes only tolerate them. There are many varieties of protein shakes available today. Experiment until you can find one you can tolerate. I used Muscle Milk Light (Vanilla Creme) powder blended with water and a half a banana. That worked for me. Without sufficient protein, your body will scavenge protein from other areas of your body, such as your muscles. Protein is extremely important after surgery as its job in the body is to build and maintain tissues including your body's major organs and skeletal muscles. Protein deficiency, when continued over a long period of time can cause a disease known as protein caloric malnutrition. Common symptoms are poor healing, fatigue, hair loss and muscle wasting. Immediate post op, protein promotes healing of the staple line and incisions. It might be a little too soon to transition to protein bars. It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th month that my nutritionist recommended them. Your stomach may still need a little extra time. A protein bar is probably too dense at this point. I used Quest protein bars. These bars were good in that they had high protein, minimal sugar and also contained fiber. They also came in a lot of different flavors. Protein bars are good when you are on the go and can't drag along a blender in order to mix a protein shake. A Quest protein bar contains 220 calories and provides 21 grams of protein. A Muscle Milk Light protein shake [2 scoops of powder in a 16 ounce glass] contains 210 calories and provides 25 grams of protein. So they are comparable.

Nuclear physics and engineering

Generally I would refer to the hospital discharge instructions that you were given when you left the hospital. These instructions generally provide a list of symptoms that should trigger you calling your surgeon's office. The third item on my list reads "uncontrolled or increased abdomen pain." So if your symptoms match that condition, then I would contact the surgeon's office and let them know what is going on.