James Marusek

After my RNY gastric bypass surgery, I found that softer foods such as chili and soups went down much easier than harder foods such as steak and chicken, so that is what I concentrated on. I have included some recipes at the end of the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

AZBlackhawk since you had RNY gastric bypass surgery, either walking through your neighborhood or going to the gym is fine. Realize that you will transition to the Maintenance phase much sooner than someone who was sleeved. I had gastric bypass and I transitioned for the Weight Loss phase to the Maintenance phase at around 7 months. Sleeve patient have much slower weight loss rates and sometimes transition at 2 years. So if you hold off exercising until after the 6th month, that makes no sense. All the sources that I have come in contact with advise exercise. It doesn't need to be strenuous. It should be around 30 minutes of walking each day or equivalent. For the first year after surgery, I did hill walking. My driveway is very steep and I walked each day. The next year I tried the gym but since a round trip to the gym was 1 1/2 hours, I only went around one or two times a week. I am a firm believer in manual labor. There is always work to do such as shoveling snow off my 700 foot driveway or cutting my large lawn. And I have projects. On my 2nd and 3rd year post-op, I build an underground shelter. We were struck by tornados soon after I retired. It destroyed around 200 of my large trees. In this project I moved 100,000 pounds of gravel by hand along with around 60,000 pounds of concrete blocks the second year and about the same amount in the 3rd year. This year I constructed a log cabin playhouse for the grandkids.

Welcome and good luck on your surgery. I would recommend three things. 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 really 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.

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. After I left the operating room, I did not take any pain meds. I didn't need to, my pain levels were very low. I probably set a record for walking the halls after surgery.

Good luck on your upcoming surgery.

Congratulations.

I think there must be some automated PC correctness here. The word c-h-i-n-k was automatically replaced with *****. It is possible that the word may have negative connotations. But this is the correct word for the process. It is a verb not a noun.

I am over 4 years post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. My project during my 2nd and 3rd year post-op was to build an underground shelter. This year my wife wanted me to build a playhouse for the grandkids. I wasn't too keen on the idea. But on giving the matter some thought I decided to go ahead under 2 conditions. First - that is was a log cabin playhouse. I never built a log cabin, so it would be a new experience. Second - that the grandkids get involved in the construction. Building something from scratch is very valuable experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They are rather young (11, 9, and 5) but its the process that matters. I must admit that I had to exert a lot of patients since it seem like it took them 200 strikes to drive in a nail when I could easily do it in 5. But that is the learning process. Then we started to work on the roof. My wife had a bad dream which scared her a lot. She visualize me falling to my death. I am approach age 70. It is only a playhouse and I still retain a strong sense of balance. Had to work through that. But this was the final result. I still need to ***** the logs (apply a special caulk to fill in the gap between the logs), but I have to wait 30 days for the stain on the logs to dry adequately.

I found that softer foods such as chili and soups went down much easier than harder foods such as chicken and steak. So I relied primarily on these. Sorry to hear about your blood clots. I have provided some recipes for chili and soups at the end of the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

When did you have your surgery and what type? How much weight did you lose? What do you think the problem is?

As you lose weight, the chemicals and hormones that were stored in your fat cells are being released into your body. These will pass through your kidneys and are expelled in your urine. But they can generate a flush of hormones during the weight loss phase. They should simmer down once you transition into maintenance. It is important to meet your daily fluid requirements, because it take fluids to flush these hormones from your system.

Congratulations.

Welcome and let us know if we can be of any help.

Good luck on your upcoming surgery. After I had my RNY gastric bypass surgery, I completely lost my hunger. It was not difficult for me to drop the weight when hunger was not constantly continually gnawing at my bones. It is a very different experience than dieting. Not everyone who has surgery loses their sense of hunger, but many do. Since you are at the beginning of this process, I would recommend three things. 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.

According to the internet: Walking pneumonia is a bacterial infection that affects your upper and lower respiratory tract. It’s also called atypical pneumonia, because it’s usually not as severe as other types of pneumonia. It doesn’t cause symptoms that require bed rest or hospitalization. It might just feel like a common cold and can go unnoticed as pneumonia. Most people are able to carry on with their daily lives. This type of pneumonia is considered atypical due to the fact that the cells causing the infection are resistant to penicillin, the drug that is normally used to treat pneumonia. About 2 million people in the United States get walking pneumonia due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae each year. Walking pneumonia can last anywhere from a week to a month. http://www.healthline.com/health/atypical-pneumonia#overview1 Since walking pneumonia can last anywhere from a week to a month, this might be something that you picked up after surgery.

After RNY gastric bypass surgery, you may experience dumping syndrome by consuming fats and sugars. This condition last for about a year and then your intestines figure out something is wrong and evolve to permit your body to consume these again. The Weight Loss phase after surgery is extremely short. I transitioned to the Maintenance phase at around 7 months post-op. So if you want to get the most weight loss after surgery it is important to comply with the program directions in the weight loss phase. My program guidelines limited me to no more than 5 grams of sugar per serving. Sugar includes sucrose (table sugar), fructose (honey), corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, cane juice, cane juice, brown sugar, molasses. Low calorie natural sweeteners such as Stevia are O.K. So are artificial sweeteners such as Splenda.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery over 4 years ago. The primary reason why I had the surgery was to correct several health conditions caused by my obesity. These included high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, severe acid reflux (GERD) to name a few. I was on 2 types of prescription medicine for my high blood pressure and two types for my diabetes. Even then they were not well controlling the conditions. The day I left the hospital, 2 days after surgery, I was off all my diabetes medicine and I haven't taken any since. My blood sugar levels were back to normal. I periodically test them still once per month just to make sure. About 2 weeks after surgery, I went off all my high blood pressure medicines. Almost all of my health conditions went into remission and I am happy. As far as diabetes, many individuals on this site report the same experience as mine. But it varies. Those that had diabetes for many, many years don't fair as well. Also those that have progressed to insulin shots also don't fair as well. But even then the amount of drugs to combat diabetes is reduced significantly.

Since you are at the beginning of this process, I would recommend three things. 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.

Chewing is a normal part of the digestive process. So many times after surgery when individuals report hunger, what they are really missing is chewing. The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily protein, fluid and vitamin requirements. Food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. Weight loss is achieved after surgery through meal volume control. You begin at 2 ounces (1/4 cup) per meal and gradually over the next year and a half increase the volume to 1 cup per meal. With this minuscule amount of food, it is next to impossible to meet your protein daily requirements by food alone, so therefore you need to rely on supplements such as protein shakes. I found that protein shakes tasted terrible. You don't have to like protein shakes only tolerate them. I found that blending in a half a banana into my protein shake made it tolerable. The weight loss phase is extremely short and then you will naturally transition into the maintenance phase. I transitioned at 7 months. So if you want to get the most out of this phase it is extremely important to follow the program guidelines.

I have found that softer foods such as chili and soups went down much easier than harder foods such as chicken and steak, so that is what I concentrate on. I have included some recipes at the end of the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf But at three weeks out, I would check with your guidelines about approved food groups. It still might be a little too soon. Anyways the transition to solids can be hard, so take your time, no need to rush.

Congratulations on losing over half your weight.

In general you may not feel the sensation until you reach the solid meal stage. So just measure everything out. Eventually you may experience dumping syndrome as you reach the solid food stage. First and foremost, dumping is a learning experience. Once you have done it, you never want to repeat the experience again. So a couple words of wisdom. Recognize the pre-triggers and stop eating the moment you encounter them in the future. The pre-triggers can be hiccups, sneezing, excessive mucous, a change in the way food taste, and others. Individuals are different and their pre-triggers vary. Dumping experience can last for several hours. In general maintain a vertical position instead of a horizontal. If you lay down on a bed or couch, it will only aggravate the experience. As a result it is important not to eat a meal close to bedtime. Generally when I experience dumping, I go to the toilet and force myself to vomit up some of the food I ate. That helps to relieve the condition.

It is common for your taste buds to change after surgery. Be willing to experiment. After surgery, my taste buds changed dramatically. Even water changed. In the hospital it tasted excessively chlorinated and I could not drink it. So I experimented. Sugar free popsicles became my best friend. Some individuals find hot or cold can help with fluids. For me, I found that I could tolerate flavored water. So I began using Crystal Light. I also found a new drink Bai which I liked cold. In the winter, I found that I tolerate hot drinks such as piping hot cocoa. But you have to use the "No Sugar Added" variety. Also fine English teas were very good. The fluid requirement is met by a combination. It is not only the water that you drink each day. But also the water you drink when you take your vitamins and medicine. It is the milk you drink. It is the fluids content of the protein shakes. It is the water component of the soups you take. It is met by flavored water such as Crystal Light. It is met by sugar free popsicles. It is met by tea and decaf coffee. It is a combination of all the fluids that you consume during the day.

Sounds like you are getting close. Good luck on your surgery. I will pray for you. Here are a few steps that you might do if you haven't already done them in preparation. 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.

Good luck on your surgery. Here are a few recommendations. 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.