James Marusek

I had a RNY surgery 20 months ago. My program recommended full liquids for the first 4 weeks (2 ounces per meal and three meals per day). Full liquids are foods that have a semi-solid or pudding like consistency. Examples are: Strained baby cereals Cream of wheat Cream of rice Malt-O-Meal oatmeal Grits Cocoa wheats Farina Instant Mashed Potatoes Strained Cream Soups Unsweetened applesauce Baby food fruits/vegetables sugar free pudding Yogurt (light smooth variety - no fruits) Low fat cottage cheese Low fat cheese Beans (fat free refried, pinto, navy, kidney, lentils, great northern) Sugar free popsicles, sugar free jell-o and broth are allowed between meals. But in addition to the meals, there are Vitamin, liquid and Protein requirements. The protein requirements are the sum of the amount of protein obtained from the meals combined with the amount from protein supplements (Protein shakes, protein bars).

From your other posts, it appears that you had surgery on 31 December 2014. That is not very much time. From my own experience, it was rough in the beginning but each day got better and better and when I reached the 6 month mark, I finally reached a happy state where all the problems were resolved. Is it possible that you have a medical complication that needs to be resolved? This may be driving your underlying fears. If so it may be good to talk about it. I suspect that you can have the surgery reversed but that it will not get you back to normal. Its like a patch on top a patch.

I believe most people opt for the pain medicine. But I think that it does little good and generally speaking a muscle relaxer would help more.

It takes around 5 days to a week, so give it a little more time.

I skipped the pain medicine after surgery. Found out I really didn't need it. I was up and about walking around 2 hours after surgery. Didn't watch much TV but I walked so much that the nurses told me to scale it back. The first day I had an IV hooked up so it was difficult to walk because I was dragging that along with me. But the second day, they removed it and the hospital stay became better.

It can be a long process. Here are the steps I went through. * Initial consultation, met with surgeon and down-select on type of surgery * Assessment by psychologist * 6 months of medically supervised weight loss and exercise program * Approval by my insurance company * Extensive pre-op physical * A detailed class describing preparation for surgery and vitamin/liquid/protein/meal requirements after surgery * Several follow-on tests for problems uncovered during the pre-op physicals * Final approval for surgery and the date was set

I had a RNY about 20 months ago. One of the interesting things to me was that after surgery I completely lost my hunger. Now 20 months later, hunger does not drive me. Sometimes I think I encounter "head hunger". This is when your head tells you, you should be hungry even if you are not.

Actually I posted this about 6 months ago and kept the lists in a Word file. I just add to it from time to time and will probably repost in another 6 months.

For some reason people tend to use way too many abbreviations. This causes exclusion and confusion. So here is a list of abbreviations that are commonly used in this forum. Abbreviations ACL = Anterior cruciate ligament AMRAP = As Many Rounds As Possible (crossfit) bc = because BCBS = Blue Cross/Blue Shield BED = Binge Eating Disorder bf = best friend BM = bowel movement BMI = Body Mass Index bp = blood pressure BPD = Borderline Personality Disorder or Biliopancreatic Diversion (Scopinaro procedure) btw = by the way CBT = cognitive-behavioral therapy CC = common channel c diff = clostridium difficile cos or cuz = because CPAP = continuous positive airway pressure CRNP = certified registered nurse practitioners cw = current weight CXR = Chest X-Ray Dr. = doctor DS = Dumping Syndrome or Duodenal Switch EGD = Esophagogastroduodenoscopy EKG = Electrocardiography ff = fat free GERD = gastroesophageal reflux disease GI = gastrointestinal GNC = General Nutrition Corporation store GP = general practitioner or family doctor HBP = high blood pressure hr = heart rate hw = highest weight ICU = Intensive Care Unit Idk = I don’t know IMHO = in my humble (honest) opinion IMO = in my opinion IUI = Intrauterine insemination LAP Band = Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band lol = laughing out loud LSG = Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy med = medicine msg = message NASH = Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis nf = non fat NG = Nasogastric NP = nurse practitioner NSAIDS = Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug NSV = non-scale victory (“scale” means “weight scale”) NUT = nutritionist Onederland = a magical place or destination for those trying to lose weight. It might correspond to attaining a weight in the hundreds or losing a hundred pounds. op = operation OSA = Obstructive sleep Apnea Oz = Australia PCOS = Polycystic Ovary Syndrome PCP = Primary Care Physician PM = private message (email) PMS = premenstrual syndrome postop or post–op = post-operation or post-surgery PPI = Proton Pump Inhibitors ppl = people preop or pre-op = pre-operation or pre-surgery PTSD = Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder PVC = Premature ventricular contractions RA = Rheumatoid arthritis RN = registered nurse RNY = Roux-en-Y s/f or sf = sugar free smh = shaking my head, scratching my head sw = weight at surgery tmi = too much information TPN = total parenteral nutrition u = You VSG = Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Vit = Vitamin wks = weeks WLS = Weight Loss Surgery WOD = Workout of the Day w/o = without wt = weight or :-) = ☺ = smiley face or :-( = ☹ = sad face

I am not sure I understand the question. Are you saying that he is limiting the CC (common channel) length to 150 cm maximum? or minimum? It seems that patients with a CC length of 80-100 cm achieved the greatest weight loss. But malabsorption (of vitamins) might be a totally separate criteria. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15862492

You should walk each day before surgery. It will help your recovery process to go quickly and smoothly. Your taste buds will change after surgery, so buying foods or Protein shakes prior to surgery may be a waste of money. You may find it difficult to swallow your Vitamins after surgery, so buy a pill splitter and a pill crusher.

After surgery, my face developed very fine wrinkles. I looked like I was 100 years old. That is bad because I am only 66. My wife suggested I use a product on my face called BioOil. I bought it at CVS and apply it once every morning. It took away the wrinkles. It has worked for over a year now.

Congratulations on you weight loss so far. Good luck on your efforts to keep the weight from coming back. It looks like you are taking the right steps in that direction.

It will get better. In surgery your body was pumped full of gas. It takes a while for your body to shed the gas, around 5 days. Walking significantly helps.

The objective is to slow down the way you eat. Let your stomach take its time in processing the food. I am a fast eater or at least I was before surgery. Now I eat with a baby spoon.

It is rough in the beginning but it eventually gets better. It took me 6 months to reach my Happy State.

I had RNY surgery 19 months ago. My body does not convert some foods into some Vitamins any longer and as a result I will need to supplement my Vitamin intake for the rest of my life. Also because of the surgery, the part of my stomach that processes sugars and fats was cut away. As a result foods with a high content of sugar or fat can lead to dumping syndrome. But the intestines will morph over several months and learn to absorb this type of food. My surgeon and my nutritionist have both indicated that the caloric malabsorption after surgery does not occur.

For several years I would snore so loud that it kept my wife awake at night. But after a couple weeks after surgery, that all went away. Now sometimes when I wake up at night, I find my wife hovering over me. Apparently I am sleeping so quietly that she is trying to determine if I am still alive.

Tanya S., I am sorry to hear about all the problems that you are going through. It seems like you have experienced many, many complications. I remember coming across an individual in my bariatric surgery support group meeting that was also experiencing some similar problems. Their pouch was made too small during surgery and as a result they were extremely limited in the amount of food they could take in. It cause them to loose hair and lose many of their teeth. It was abnormal. I use to take B12 injections but in the last few months I switched over to taking B12 sublingual. It is much easier and my wife hates giving me the shots. She has a tendency of looking away just as she inserts the needle in my arm. Are you able to get your Protein requirements in each day? That could go a long ways in stopping the hair loss and the teeth loss. It seems like you might want to grow your pouch a little. But that takes food which is something that you are finding difficult to do. I found that home-made high protein Soups and chili went down easier that solids, so that is what I primarily eat. I included some recipes in a short article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

It was something that I always wanted to do. After the tornados ripped through my property around 6 years ago, I figured I had a valid excuse.

meats are hard to digest after surgery but they are also very important for integrating Protein into meals. I am 19 months post op on RNY and I currently get about 60 grams of protein a day from my meals and that is because I use meats. I found that meats go down easy in chili and Soups. So I home make soups that have about twice the content of meats than normal store bought soups. chicken and turkey are difficult. They must be cooked for a long time in Water to soften them to the point that they readily break apart using a fork. Generally I place them in a pot of water and add a bouillon cube and boil for an hour.

Hang in there, things will get better. I had RNY surgery 19 months ago and it was difficult at the beginning. It took me 6 months to get to my happy state.

Before RNY surgery my snoring would keep my wife awake all night long. She has been complaining about my snoring for several years. Within a couple weeks after surgery, my snoring went away. I am 19 months post op and it has never returned. I find my wife sometimes hovering over me in the middle of night staring at me. She is trying to determine if I am still alive, because my breathing is so quite.

Do you have hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) where the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough important hormones? This can lead to a number of health problems including obesity, joint pain, infertility and heart disease. I did a quick search on the internet and came across the following link https://healthunlocked.com/thyroiduk/posts/130183514/hypothyroid-and-had-weight-loss-surgery-ie-gastric-bypass-band-gastric-sleeve-duodenal-switch-etc-read-here-then I am not an expert with this condition. From your posts, I would guess that you reside in Europe. I had RNY gastric bypass surgery 19 months ago and I am very pleased with the results. But the program here in the States is very integrated with a Vitamin regime. They test our blood periodically and ensure that we are getting the proper amount of Vitamins. This is critical because after RNY, our bodies do not produce some vitamins from food and they must be supplemented. If this is not monitored, this can quickly lead to a vitamin deficiency and a variety of health issues. Scanning through some of these posts on the linked U.K. website, it appears that perhaps in Europe, they may have ignored this.

After loosing all this weight, my grandkids commented that they miss the old me, where my soft tummy made a nice pillow.