James Marusek

At this point in time it has probably gone through your stomach and into your small intestines. So there is no way that they will be able to retrieve it without doing surgery. Which they wouldn't do surgery unless there were symptoms. If you have severe stomach pain or bloody stool, nausea or vomiting then go to the E.R. Call your doctor's office this morning and appraise them of the problem. I am not a doctor.

After my RNY surgery 3 years ago, I completely lost my hunger. It was not difficult to drop the weight when hunger was not constantly continually gnawing at my bones. After surgery many times I had to force myself to eat. This loss of hunger does not affect everyone with RNY but it does for many. About a year after surgery, my hunger returned but it was not as strong as pre-surgery.

Congratulations on your surgery.

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

After RNY gastric bypass surgery, your meal volume size is so small that you will not need very much food. 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 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. Your taste buds may change after surgery. Food, Water, fluids and protein shakes that you had no problem consuming prior to surgery may taste different, even revulsive. So be willing to experiment until you find those that you can tolerate. Experimentation is the key. As you work through the various stages, each stage has its series of changes. Have a pill crusher/pill splitter on hand because you may find it difficult to swallow in the beginning.

Congratulations.

Since you asked for advice, I recommend you do three things prior to 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. 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. Prior to RNY gastric bypass surgery, I lost 20 pounds just by giving up diet coke.

This is my approach during the Maintenance phase. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

What should I expect for my first weeks??? When in the hospital they pump your body with fluids. Therefore it is common that when you leave the hospital you might weigh one or two pounds more than when you entered. You have to lose this added weight first. So at the end of the first week, your weight loss may be slightly retarded.

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

My program said that 4 months after RNY surgery, shrimp and lobster is acceptable. Canned lump crab meat is O.K. at 5 weeks post op provided it is pureed and at 9 weeks post op as solid.

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 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. Your protein requirement is met by a combination of the protein from your meals combined with the protein from your supplements (protein shakes, protein bars). As the amount of protein from meals increases, especially if you concentrate on consuming high protein meals, you will have an option to reduce your reliance on supplements. I went from 3 protein shakes a day, down to 2, then 1 and finally zero when my meal volume increased to 1 cup per meal at a year and a half.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Good luck on your surgery.

It might be Clostridium difficile (c diff) as others have stated. Here is a link. http://peggyfoundation.org/c-diff-101/cdiff-101/ After my RNY surgery 3 years ago, I immediately became lactose intolerant. Dairy products gave me instant diarrhea. Some Protein shakes include lactose. Anyways I stopped the dairy and my diarrhea cleared right up. About two months later my lactose intolerance went away. But I tend to think this form of diarrhea problem is associated with RNY gastric bypass and not sleeve patients. Another thing you might try if you haven't already is to take Probiotics. In surgery, they will often administer antibiotics. This kills not only the bad bacteria, but also the good bacteria in your gut. It is important to reestablish this good bacteria by taking probiotics. On a side note, years ago I suffered from bouts of diarrhea. I found that eating bananas helped immensely with this condition.

Try to do as much walking as possible. It will help with the pain.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago. One thing to do now at this stage is to assess your Protein intake. Your protein requirement is met by a combination of the protein from your meals combined with the protein from your supplements (Protein shakes, protein bars). Since your meal volume is beginning to increase, that also means that the amount of protein from meals is increasing, especially if you concentrate on consuming high protein meals. Therefore you could be able to reduce your reliance on supplements and the calories they contain. I went from 3 protein shakes a day, down to 2, then 1 and finally zero when my meal volume increased to 1 cup per meal at a year and a half. This helped to break my stalls.

It is important to put a 2 hour separation between the Vitamins that contain Iron and those that contain Calcium. So in my case I found that what works best for me is to take the iron supplements just before bedtime. I put my vitamins in a weekly pill container. I have one container for the morning and one for the night. And I use a very small glass bowel for my calcium supplements. I put my calciums in the bowl in the morning and take them throughout the day. If I am up and about I put my calciums in a ziplock bag and carry them with me. After surgery I discovered that I could no longer swallow medium to large pills. So I used pill splitters and pill crushers. This condition lasted for about 2 months and then things returned back to normal. Vitamin chemistry is important for absorption. Calcium supplements should be calcium citrate. B12 supplements should be sublingual methylcobalamin. Iron supplements should be ferrous sulfate (if you need to take them). Gummy vitamins are not absorbed properly and should be avoided. I was taking medicine for my diabetes and high blood pressure prior to surgery. When I left the hospital I was off all my diabetes medicine and then a couple weeks later I was off all my high blood pressure meds. So essentially, I did not have a problem with taking meds because I was no longer taking meds.

Congratulations.

Congratulations on your weight loss thus far.

From a past post it appeared that you had surgery on September 26, almost a week ago. The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. In part not meeting these requirements can cause you to be tired. Tiredness can also be a side effect of some medication. It might also be due to low blood sugar. If you were diabetic prior to surgery and took prescription medicine for the condition, it might be time to reduce your medication. Also some people who had no signs of diabetes prior to surgery also developed reactive hypoglycemia after surgery. But all in all, you are only one week out and your body may need a little extra time to mend.

Generally I recommend three things for those that are preparing for 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. In my case I was the photographer of the family, so I rarely appeared in photographs. Also the only time I saw myself in the mirror was a straight on shot which doesn't really show the extent of my obesity prior to surgery. So I am attaching my before and [6 month] after photo as an example. I tried to create the same pose, so it was a good one-to-one comparison. 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.

My wife is a seamstress and this is an interesting problem because normally when she alters wedding dresses she has to deal with the opposite effect. Many young brides gain several pounds after they order their wedding dress and so by the time of the wedding, the dresses no longer fit and wedding dresses are very unforgiving. It is very difficult to impossible to make them larger. [My wife says it is probably best to get a corset style dress where it can be pulled in, in the back.] I had RNY gastric bypass surgery 3 years ago. I lost weight very quickly and then it slowed down. I slide into the maintenance phase at 7 months and my weight loss essential stopped at this point. Since you are nearing your 5th month, I suspect that your weight loss will begin to slow down soon. So this may not be a major problem in planning your wedding dress.

I suspect that this is a side effect of ketosis. A high-Protein, low-carb diet can put your body into ketosis -- a state where your body is burning fat instead of glucose for energy. When you limit your carb intake, your body has to use stored fat for energy, which can be a way to lose a pounds. When your body burns fat, by-products called ketones are released. You'll expel most of them in urine and perspiration, but some will be expelled in your breath -- and ketones don't smell good. There are two phases after surgery. These are called the "Weight Loss" phase and the "Maintenance" phase. As your weight loss comes to an end and you slide into the "Maintenance" phase, I suspect that this problem will ease up significantly. I had RNY gastric bypass over 3 years ago. I transitioned into the "Maintenance" phase at around the 7th month. I could never smell my bad breath during this stage, but my wife did. She said I smelled like death itself. So maybe your inability to smell, might actually be a good thing.