FrankyG

I have pizza all the time. It's just not pizza from a restaurant. I do a "skillet" version, using a cast Iron skillet, a carb master tortilla, organic/low carb marinara sauce, turkey pepperoni, with pizza cheese and veggies. They are about the size of a personal pan pizza, have a thin crispy crust and are lovely when you finish them up in the oven under a broiler so the cheese gets all bubbly and gets those little bits of brown. I can eat half at a meal and it's under 300 calories and low carb to boot, with some decent Protein. You can have all the things you used to love eventually. Just better (healthy) versions, or in smaller quantities/much less often. And the big thing to realize - you may not even want most of the really bad for you foods once you relearn how to eat healthy foods, and feel and look better overall. food issues that lead to obesity usually aren't just because a person is hungry; overeating or eating crap foods to the point of serious weight gain. Most of us have other reasons to medicate with food - low self esteem, fear, depression, using food as a reward/comfort/distraction. You're focusing on food obsession and fears and worrying over changing something that has been a huge part of your life, but likely has caused you more grief than happiness. No matter what, change is hard and can be scary. But if you are a candidate for WLS, then you either have serious health issues exacerbated by the weight, or high enough weight alone where the doctor feels that this is the best path for you to regain your health and give you a fighting chance to relearn how to eat properly - it will give you the time to regain control so you can start over with your relationship with food. .

I drink diet/zero soda as well, and I don't let it go flat. I put it over ice and drink it with a straw also. No issues whatsoever. Did not start drinking it until around 7 months out tho.

You need to be constantly sipping in the first couple of weeks. Did your doctor not give you any instructions? Every hour, get a small glass of Protein drink - roughly 3 ounces - and take small sips until it's gone. Then repeat every hour. If you are feeling nauseous, you need to speak with your doctor as it might be due to stomach acids and you may need to be on a PPI. Your ability to feel hunger and thirst are gone right now, so you should eat/drink on a schedule not when you feel hunger or thirst because that won't happen. You are in danger of severe dehydration and malnourishment currently, so you need to get on a schedule ASAP.

That sounds just lovely! I hope things continue to progress for you.

None of the following is meant to sound mean or critical (please don't read it that way - just being honest and trying to hit points you may not have considered or might be in denial about). It's great that you're exercising because it's going to make you feel better overall, but weight gain/loss is 90% food and diet related. My doc said that all people will lose even eating absolute crap for the first year, but they will regain if they don't take the time to throw out all they know about food/eating and relearn how to properly eat healthy and figure out correct (small) portion sizing. Your problem seems to be that you're eating things you shouldn't (simple carbs/sugar) and possibly eating too many calories, and that is causing you to regain (simple carbs and sugar are usually high calorie, low nutrition slider foods that make it really easy to overeat). Are you tracking every bite and sip of food/drink? You probably should be measuring and tracking all of it, especially since you're regaining. You likely are overeating and eating foods low in nutrition as well. It would give you a much better idea of whether the failure is your sleeve or more likely - a disconnect with what and how much you you actually eat. I imagine even consulting another surgeon, they'd like to see how many calories you're consuming and what those calories are made up from to make a truly honest opinion about whether another surgery is a good step for you or not. Simple carbs and sugar are known to cause you to crave them all the more once you start eating them regularly, so that would explain the feelings of hunger. (you're not really hungry if you are eating good protein/complex carbs and getting enough calories - it's cravings or head hunger) I would think the answer is counseling with a therapist familiar with food addictions, and a serious mental reset regarding your relationship with food, not more surgery. I'd suggest you go back to the beginning of a sleeve diet - do a week of Protein liquids, then mushies, then onto solids. Get your Water and protein and eat good veggies and healthy complex carbs in moderation. You need to research healthy meals and throw out the crap foods and seriously dedicate yourself to resetting your whole food relationship. That's what we are supposed to do during the honeymoon phase of the sleeve (roughly the first year). If you didn't get your diet stuff down cold, then you won't do well over the long term. It's a sad fact, but most surgeons aren't really driving that point home. The weight loss effects won't last if you regularly eat crap foods. The surgeries allow you a measure of control for you to get back to basics without the gnawing hunger and drastically reduce the portion sizes in the beginning... so you can lose weight and relearn how to eat properly. Maybe once you've got that stuff down well, you can add back in some sugar treats for very special occasions, but they should never, ever be something you eat regularly again. But maybe, if you can't control yourself, it might come down to eliminating them completely if you want to stay healthy. I know it's sucky that you aren't doing so well right now, but you can get stuff figured out if you're willing to do the hard work. It might be worth it rather than going to another surgery and hoping that it does all the work; because it won't. You have to do it, the surgery(ies) are just a tool, but they won't work if you don't commit to using them properly. Good luck!!

Ask your doctor. I think my doctor wanted someone present in case anything happened during surgery or to give specific instructions for the rest of the day (you'll be pretty woozy for a while after coming out of anesthesia), and I believe that's standard protocol, but without confirming, you won't know what your specific doctor requires.

Spent the last two months wavering between a 1-2 pounds difference. But I did notice clothes fitting better/inches lost over that time, just the scale stayed the same. Ate really high Fiber for a little while and suddenly dropped 2 pounds in around a day. Guess I needed the fiber to help speed up things. (pooping. I'm talking about pooping) So sometimes it is your diet getting a bit out of wack (too many simple carbs or fat, not enough fiber, too high calories), and sometimes it could be that you're just changing up fat for muscle. I don't try to break stalls, I just keep an eye on what and how much I am eating and make small adjustments if things are getting too off track.

No advice... just wanted to say how sorry I am, and offer support and hugs. Words on a screen are a poor comfort, but I do hope they help some small amount. You deserve to be happy and healthy. I do hope you have lots of great, supportive people in your life, and you seek out professional help to deal with it if you need it. Don't let anything get in the way of your recovery. You are very brave to face up to this, and I wish you much strength to overcome it.

I'm just over 1.5 years out and still losing (very slowly now tho). I was told that the honeymoon period for full weight loss benefits was 12-18 months. After that it will be as hard as if you never had surgery. Seems to be holding true in my case.

I can't resist, but maybe it's because I haven't had enough newb outrage directed at me yet? Not even taking into consideration the fact that it can impact healing and might be bad to do just from an overall "you just had surgery" standpoint, to me, this is the equivalent of saying "Well, I just had a few cupcakes and only one glass of pure sugar, and I didn't get sick, so I'm fine!" Alcohol is empty, useless calories. You are not just risking your health, you are adding back in bad for you food/drink and risking your long term progress towards losing weight. Is this a habit that really needs to be reestablished so early? One of the big things that WLS allows is the time needed to kick out all of your former habits and learn to eat and drink healthier, because you can't hold nearly as much as before AND you lose the tolerances for fatty, sugary foods and experience low hunger for some time. If you're not willing to wipe the slate clean and restart during this short time this happens, well, your body may lose weight in the first 6 months to a year just due to the sleeve restriction and shock of low calorie eating in the early days, but it will eventually stall out and then regain if you eat and drink the same way you did before surgery. But I do agree: y'all doing all the drinking so early after surgery are adults, and if you're not willing to deny yourself things that you know aren't good for you even for a few months, that's your decision. Good luck with all that.

My surgeon highly encouraged yearly followups, but as I am self pay and know what I am supposed to be doing and the last few appts were frankly unproductive for me (paid, charted progress, told to keep doing exactly what I was doing), I am not returning unless I have an actual issue or serious weight gain. My regular doc knows I had the sleeve and can monitor my general health otherwise.

Refried Beans with a little cheese or unflavored greek yogurt (tastes like sour cream but higher protein). Cheese sticks (loved string cheese in the early days) chicken or tuna salad (I love doing chicken salad with a few red grapes chopped up, some mayo and a touch of curry powder)

From what I remember, they'll put you on antibiotics and depending on your surgeon, they could delay until you complete a full course of antibiotics (according to their parameters). It might be okay to proceed while still on antibiotics, but definitely check in with your doctor.

Yes, it happened to me. I stupidly ate a small bowl of full fat full sugar ice cream about 3 months out, and ended up throwing up and having diarrhea with serious intestinal cramps, laying on my bathroom floor shaking and having hot/cold flashes and feeling like total crap for around an hour after. Never ate off script again. It was just awful. I still won't eat real ice cream any more because it was a pretty miserable experience.

If your boss is seriously harassing you, I'd suggest you ask her to please stop and politely but firmly tell her that it was not planned, and that it was your surgeon's call as to when he/she could fit you onto their schedule. And that you'll make sure to leave careful instructions and get all projects and work set up for your coworkers as well as possible before you're out for surgery. Don't get angry, don't try to justify or argue or feel like you need to explain things further than that and don't feel it necessary to tell them what the surgery is for (and if asked "it's a private matter, and I don't feel comfortable discussing my health issues. Thanks for understanding.") If your boss continues to harass you, then I might consider going to HR and tell them that your boss is doing this and ask them to please calm her down. They need to step in if she is being seriously hostile. But you stay calm and keep repeating "I'm so sorry that it fell during the same time as your vacation, but I really need to get this done and this was when my surgeon could get me on their schedule. I'll do my absolute best to make sure my work and all projects are in great shape so there should be no problems while I'm out."

Might try asking your local pharmacist about a liquid acetaminophen (generic tylenol) that is suitable for diabetics (so no sugars). I've found pharmacists to be incredibly awesome at knowing the best solution to this type of thing.

There is a small chance that they might not care if you've only had a few little slips. But honestly, this is very serious if you are unable to stick to the diet at all. If you can't stick to your pre-op diet, please do discuss everything you've been eating with your doctor so they can gauge how seriously you veered off course and if they want to move it or cancel your surgery. You're risking them either canceling your surgery completely after opening you up - so you will have all the "fun" of recovering from laparoscopic surgery without any of the actual surgery performed, or them trying to perform the surgery and causing liver bleeds or damage due to the liver being too large or fragile, which can include serious complications up to and including death.

I would ask the doc to tell you why he diagnosed you with this and what symptoms he saw either in person or through the questions that indicated this type of diagnosis. They might have accidentally confused you, they might have seen subtle signs during your visit, they might have detected a pattern in your answers or yes, they might just be a quack and slapping a diagnosis on you that doesn't fit. I have this. One of the big symptoms for me anyway is the constant feeling of impending doom. Especially if things are going okay or even well. I can't really enjoy the feeling, because I'm just waiting for the something horrible that I am sure is right around the corner. I also worry constantly and obsess about small things (or large things) that are problems even when I know I can fix them (usually have insomnia sitting up the entire night until I am able to take care of the issue when people are actually awake, but that doesn't allow me to sleep because what if I can't get a hold of the person I need to fix it in the morning? Sigh.) Or worry about things that might happen and have a much higher probability that they won't. And no matter how easy things are to fix, or how logical I can be telling myself that things are always going to happen and being happy is possible even with things occasionally happening, I can't stop the worry. It's exhausting and demoralizing and depressing. So I stay in a constant low grade state of worry and depression unless I forget to worry sometimes - it is happening more frequently now (discovered exercise works for anxiety/depression for me), but if there is any chance you have anything remotely like this, it may be good to work with a doc to get out from under it before it takes over. And feeling like you have constant bad luck can be another symptom of this disorder. Just mentioning. Without knowing what exactly they saw, you can't know whether this is a possible or if they're wrong either through mistaken identity or outright misdiagnosis.

Fat stores hormones. As you lose fat, those hormones get flushed back into your body and can cause you to feel sad/weepy, angry, depressed, crazy... Just try to remember that, and to warn close friends and family that your moods might be a little off. Take a moment when you feel like things are getting crazy and remind yourself that it's just hormones and take some deep breaths and find something else to distract you from the bad stuff so you don't go off on someone (or yourself) too harshly.

I know this is men only, but do hope it is okay to post if only to follow. We just recently started shaving the husband's back because we've really gotten into swimming and it is a real pain to get sunblock into his skin due to the thick hair, so got the razor and shaving cream out and he looked fantastic... for about 12 hours. And then his back got really red and splotchy and he got lots of little bumps that I am assuming are ingrown hairs. He's naturally curly haired, and despite me exfoliating his skin and using a new razor, it seems like using a standard razor at all is going to cause this issue because of the nature of how the razor works (pulling the hair out enough to cut it so it is slightly below the skin surface level, lending it to becoming ingrown much easier). The solutions I've read so far are to just use an electric razor and deal with the stubble, or get an old fashioned safety razor that uses the real razor blades, and use bristle brush and shaving soap. Hope someone has some ideas about this because he really liked having the hair gone and it is so frustrating that his skin kind of hates it.

oh man @@trekker954 you just reminded me of my secret stash of clothes from my skinny days. I used to shop vintage clothes before it was cool, and I have a retro 1960s sheath mini dress with rhinestones and fake pearls on it (it sounds awful written out, but it's really pretty and almost looks like a mod style wedding dress but in a creamy white) and a super adorable 40s style with a nipped in waist and cut on a bias so it is sooo pretty on. The 60s one is a size 10, so probably would be considered like a size 6 today and the 40s style is a size 14, so who knows what it would be today - maybe an 8 or 10? All I know is that I've been carting them around forever, and I can finally fit in the 1940s style dress again, but about 10 pounds away from being able to wear it in public tho! Can't wait!!

I also waited to get rid of them as I lost weight and started having them look ridiculous or fell off me. I did have moments of regret just because some of those clothes cost a mint (had several fancy dress ballgowns due to black tie work functions) or I especially loved them, but once I drove off from the thrift store and got home the feeling passed. I don't think I could have done it before I'd lost the weight. But if you are literally sitting there with two giant closet's worth of clothing in a range of sizes, I'm sure doing a preemptive weeding out of clothes that you know for a fact you don't ever want to wear again (due to cut or pattern/color or other factors that just mean they're not favorites) might be a nice thing to get started on.

I am 18 months out and have noticed this as well, and what I've been doing to counter the anxiety-based need to eat is to go exercise and get a little sun (but wearing lots of sunblock). I figure if I'm still obsessing over a certain food after I've gone walking/jogging for a hour, at least I exercised, but most of the time, I'll feel a bit calmer and just better, and am able to skip the food. Yoga is a great exercise that isn't hard either - but you'll feel good after doing it. Exercise is supposed to be great for depression and anxiety issues, and I've found it does work for me. Who knew? I am constantly worrying about regaining, but I know that's not realistic because even if I fell off the wagon and ate some bad stuff and gained a few pounds, I can put the brakes on and get things back on track before it proceeds to be dozens of pounds. I have the skills and ability to police my food choices and I know what I need to be doing and how to do it. Nothing can take that away from me. So a small slip will not ever turn into a complete failure. You have to tell yourself this and keep telling yourself whenever those thoughts come up. You are still new to all of this and it's going to be harder for a while, but it will become second nature eventually. If you're really feeling depressed and anxious, please see a counselor and find ways of feeling better about yourself. Big hugs and hope things start looking up for you soon!

Are you supposed to be doing any kind of diet prep before surgery? If so, it isn't advisable to eat foods not on that diet. Most doctors want to have you on a liquid diet or very low carb diet before to shrink your liver since it partially sits across your stomach area and they need it as small as possible to make sure they can move it out of the way without injuring it. You do not want to risk a liver bleed (this is very serious) just because of a craving. Even if the doc didn't put you on a pre op diet, eat reasonably. If you really want pizza, have a slice, not a whole bunch of slices. It's all about moderation. Stay strong and just remember you can eat whatever you want after about 6 months, you just might not want that same stuff any more since you're going to relearn how to eat healthy foods.

Yes, they'd remove them from the same opening. No idea which they'd do first. Probably the gallbladder since it should be a quicker removal, but really just guessing here (maybe ask your nurse or surgeon?). Recovery should be exactly the same even tho they're working two things, since the worst part usually tends to be the gas that gets trapped in the abdomen from them inflating it for room to move the laparoscopic tools around in there. If you have a really good surgeon, they try to remove as much of that gas as possible and you'll not experience major gas pain. It felt like someone beat me up from the inside - deep aching pain when I had laparoscopic surgery about 15 years back (had my gallbladder out that time). For my VGS, I had NO pain because my surgeon was amazeballs about removing the gas. I didn't even have to take pain meds once I got home the next day because I just felt a little sore in the general abdomen area - like I'd done a whole lot of sit-up exercises. I was up and walking within an hour of getting taken to my hospital room. Moving slow, but not doing bad at all. You really want to get up and walk as soon as you can, because it helps prevent blood clots and also helps work out any gas that might be trapped