James Marusek

I am 3 years post op RNY gastric bypass surgery. Generally when a waitress or waiter gives me that strange look, I just tell them that I was obsess, had an operation, lost a hundred pounds and now my stomach is smaller than my fists. That seems to make them happy.

Congratulations on your surgery and let us know if we can be of any help.

2 major ones this past year and I flatlined twice I can understand your fear. In my case it was such a battle with my health insurance company prior to surgery, that I just put blinders on. I charged ahead full steam and there was no time to self-reflect. The main reason why I had the surgery was because of health issues. I had RNY gastric bypass surgery over 3 years ago and the surgery corrected many of these health issues and it happened almost overnight.

I used muscle milk light (Vanilla Creme) protein powder mixed with water and a half a banana blended into a protein shake.

It is common to experience fear and anxiety prior to surgery. At your stage, I would recommend you do 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.

Congratulations.

Hi LisaKay. I hope you will not have to return to a third world country immediately after surgery. I could see that being rather difficult. At least if you are here for several weeks after surgery, you could make the initial transition and then you would have a good feel for what you need to concentrate on. You will need to take a Protein supplement (normally a protein shake) for several months after surgery. This can be rather bulky for transportation. I used Muscle Milk Light Protein powder. I tried mixing this with a hand mechanical blender but this didn't work well. It had the wrong consistency, too clumpy. I was able to use a Ninja blender with a single serving cup. This worked well for me but you will need to have electricity and need to tale a blender with you. Your surgeon should provide you with a list of Vitamins you will need to take daily and a list of many optional brands. Of the vitamins, Calcium can be a problem just because of the sheer volume you will need to take daily. Since you will need to space out when to take your vitamins throughout the day, I would recommend a weekly pill organizer. Also because you may lose your ability to swallow medium to large size pills during the first couple months after surgery, I would recommend a pill splitter and a pill crusher. You will need to drink plenty of fluids. In some 3rd world countries the Water may not be pure. Generally there are a couple ways to deal with this such as boiling all the water you drink (think tea and coffee) or using a pocket size ceramic filter. Katadyn makes a good one. Here is a link. http://beprepared.com/katadyn-pocket-emergency-series-water-filter.html Your taste buds may change after surgery. I found water to be almost undrinkable because it tasted overly chlorinated even though it wasn't. I was finally able to tolerate flavored water such as Crystal Light. At your stage pre-op, I would recommend you do 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.

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. So generally your weight loss comes off without very much effort after RNY gastric bypass surgery provided you following the guidelines for fluids, protein, Vitamins, exercise and meal volume. The only advise that I can give is that several individuals will commonly experience a stall every now and then. Your protein requirement is met by a combination of the protein that you obtain from meals combined with the protein the you obtain from supplements. So around month 2 or 3 as your meal volume begins to increase, you have an option. If you concentrate on consuming high protein meals, then you have the option of reducing the amount of protein supplements and the calories those supplements contain. I went from 3 protein shakes a day, down to 2, down to 1 and eventually none when I reached 1 cup per meal at a year and a half post-op. This is how I broke my stalls.

Goal weight is an artificial number. I think that my surgeon decided my goal weight would be 190 pounds. In the end I dropped down to 143. But 190 is a comfortable number to measure success by. Because if I got down to 190 I would be satisfied and it was achievable. In the end I looked at morbidity tables and determined the ideal weight would be on the high side of NORMAL BMI. It is good to have a little extra fat on your body for the times when you experience an accident or medical condition in the future. It is this fat or extra body weight that your body relies on until you recover.

The main reason why I had the surgery was because I developed a number of bad health issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The surgery was very effective at getting these issues under control. So good luck on resolving your health issues and getting back to normal.

Very normal. After surgery your body is in a major heal mode. Just keep trying to reach your goal each day. And you will find that you improve each day.

After surgery I discovered that I could no longer swallow large pills. And the calcium citrate (Citracal) were like horse pills. I crushed these into a fine powder. I put this powder into a glass of Crystal Light drink and tried to chug it down. Often this cause a paste to form at the bottom of the cup. So I added more Crystal Light, stirred it up again and chugged it down. After 3 or 4 times I was good to go. Fortunately this condition, the ability to swallow, goes away. It took me a couple months before I was able to swallow again.

Congratulations on your surgery. When did you have your surgery? According to your tickler you said November. Was it delayed?

Generally I weigh myself first thing in the morning when I am butt naked. This gives me the most accurate weight. My weight will vary a pound or two during the day. The time of day, when I go to the restroom and when I eat my meals will have an effect. When I go into the doctors office for a weigh-in, I can be an additional 5 pounds heavier. This is because my clothes, shoes, belt, wallet, eyeglasses, jacket, loose change, will all add to my body weight.

Congratulations on your extreme weight loss thus far both pre-op and post-op. I hope you can figure out how to get off the steroids so that you can successfully lose more weight in the future.

Immediately after surgery it can be a little hard to sleep. Some people sleep on recliners for the first few days. I tend to sleep on my side. But as the weight dropped off, this became uncomfortable because it was almost bone on bone rubbing. I found that sleeping with a pillow between my legs helped. Also I had one other problem that most patients do not have. I have slept on a Water bed for the last 40 years. It is comfortable but after surgery it felt like I was tearing my body apart whenever I got out of bed.

I was diabetic prior to my RNY gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago. The operation took care of my diabetes and ever since I have avoided all forms of processed sugar. I have no problem with the various types of artificial sugars or no calorie natural sugars. I regularly use Stevia. On the other hand honey (fructose) contains a high amount of calories and according to my surgeon was to be avoided. I believe Agave which comes from cactus falls in the same boat. But I think Monk Fruit is O.K. Since I had RNY if I consume sugar it can lead to dumping syndrome. I do not believe those that undergo sleeve surgery experiences this problem.

I have not had this problem. After surgery I was told to wear compression stockings, which I did. But you are several months out. So I don't think this is the result of bariatric surgery. Anyways you might go back to wearing compression stockings. According to the internet: Being overweight: Excess body mass can decrease blood circulation, causing Fluid to build up in the feet, legs, and ankles. Standing or sitting for long periods: When the muscles are inactive, they can't pump body fluids back up toward the heart. The retention of Water and blood can cause swelling in the legs. This link talks about the various conditions that can cause this swelling: http://www.healthline.com/symptom/swollen-ankle In their listing # 3 is Kidney Failure (as you lose weight and your fat cells dissolve, they release the chemicals and hormones stored within. These pass through your system, processed by your kidneys and then expelled in your urine. Therefore you might be experiencing an overworked kidney.) So make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids. # 13 in Nutritional Deficiency. (If you are not taking your Vitamins after surgery or if your body is not absorbing the vitamins you are taking properly, you may need a blood workup to identify which vitamins are deficient.)

It is common to experience emotional problems after surgery. Some of this is due to the fact that fat cells contain chemicals and hormones that are dumped into your system as they dissolve away. This can flood your system with hormones and you can experience a hormonal dump. These hormones are flushed through your system, your kidney and eventually expelled in your urine. It take fluids to make this process work properly. Therefore remember to meet your daily Fluid requirements.

My mother was addicted to Excedrin (which contains aspirin) for pain relief. After several years of overmedicating, she developed severe internal bleeding. So severe that she required a blood transfusion. We took her off all aspirin products and the problem resolved itself after several months.

In the beginning the weight will drop off quickly, but then it will start to tapper off. There may be a few stalls along the way. Towards the end as you reach maintenance phase it will come to a slow crawl. I had RNY gastric bypass and I entered the maintenance phase around month 7.

Remembering back to my college days. That was a long time ago, a really long time ago, almost a half a century ago give or take a few years. I had a class it was called Quantum Mechanics. It was a core requirement for my major. I pulled an "F" in the class. As a matter of fact almost everyone that took the class drew an "F" except two extremely smart kids that drew "D's". That professor had a reputation for failing out students that is why so many students avoided his class and choose other professors. Anyways long story short, I retook the class. And as I would have it, by the same professor. A few days before the final, I was told that the majority of the grade would be from the final exam, that it was an open book test, and that everything on the test would be in the book. So going into the test I knew from practical experience that this was going to be the ultimate killer test. When the tests were passed out I was floored by the fact that none of the questions were even remotely in the book. I did my best, beads of sweat passing down my brow, question after question. Then with only 10 minutes left before the test needed to be turned it, I discovered that indeed one of the questions was in the book. It was hidden away in a footnote. As a matter of fact, all the questions were in the footnotes. Anyways I passed the final and passed the course. So the two words of wisdom from this is #1 Never take a course you fail, from the same professor again and if possible do some advance research on the professor prior to taking the class the first time. Part of college is a winnowing process, separating the chaff from the grain. Sometimes advanced classes or extra credit class though they may be a bit tougher produce better grades. #2 Always read the footnotes. The second thing that passes through my mind was a young girl who graduated from our local high school with all A's for her entire school life. She was constantly groomed and pushed by her parents. She received a full ride scholarship. She only lasted a semester or two in college. The stress destroyed her. She was so use to getting A's that she could not accept anything less. She became anorexic. She dropped out of that college, lost her scholarship, transferred to another college and major and slowly put her life back in order. My daughters were high achievers. When my girls went off to college, I had a motto that I gave them. It was "D" is for Diploma. It wasn't that I wanted them to get anything less than an A, but rather if they get a bad grade or two, it wasn't the end of the world. It was a way of taking the stress off them. The third thing that crosses my mind is that you seem programmed for failure. You need to turn that around. How can you change your life to succeed? Going to law school is very demanding. Going to law school while working a full time job, while commuting many hours per day, is next to impossible. If you want to succeed towards your goal of getting a law degree, you need to relieve the stress and not by eating junk food. This can be done by selling your home and getting rid of your mortgage; relocating close to the school to a dorm room or sorority house or apartment; limiting your workload to around 20 hours per week. The stress is killing you. So plan on succeeding not for failing.

I agree with @@Miss Impala assessment. In the past, some doctors generated scripts for narcotic pain medicine like they were dispensing candy. As a result of this abuse many patients became addicted. The government steps in and decides to punish the innocent as well as the guilty and now threatens doctors and drug stores with severe punishment if they write scripts for this type of medicine if it is beyond their guidelines. Therefore the people who really need this medicine to manage their pain, have to undergo extreme vetting.

Congratulations on your weight loss thus far.

My surgeon recommended using Flintstone Chewable Multivitamins. These are a little harder to find nowadays because they have been somewhat replaced with the gummy version (not recommended version), But you can still find the chewables on store shelves.