Djmohr

For me it was sipping on good quality chicken broth. It was the only thing that satisfied me. It will get better and it is not worth cheating and possibly causing your surgery to get cancelled. Hang in there!

I would be very surprised if this is actual hunger. There are two things that actually cause this feeling early on: 1. Dehydration. You are likely not getting enough liquids. Are at or near 48 to 64 ounces yet! I am guessing not as most of us do not come close this soon after surgery. Dehydration can actually cause the same symptoms of hunger. When you get that feeling, try sipping Water. 2. Head Hunger. This is not real yet it feels very real when you are struggling with it. By the way, this never really goes away you just learns tricks to get around it. Like distracting yourself. Go for a walk, read a book, listen to music. Whatever will get your mind off thinking about it. When I get this feeling, I drink water. I keep drinking until that feeling goes away. Your actual hunger should not come back until you are around 6 months post op. I am certain you are struggling with one of the above reasons. Give my suggestions a try and see if it helps.

Myfitnesspal is a great tracker for us to help us understand Protein, Water and even monitor calories and carbs. I have been using it since I was 1 month post op to track protein mostly. Unfortunately it was not built for bariatric patients so the predictor that you will see only if you log more than 1000 calories doesn't really understand the rate at which we lose. If you eat less than 1000 calories it simply tells you how dangerous it is not to get enough calories. You just pretty much ignore these messages. Honestly, trying to predict your weight loss and timing will become very frustrating. Predictors do not consider stalls, they assume you will continue to lose based on your calorie inputs. Stalls happen. Bariatric patients should not be focused on calories but focused on grams of protein and wate/liquids.

I have always been told not to focus on calories period, especially in the beginning. The focus must be on Protein and fluids. 1 gram of protein for every inch you are tall minimum. If you focus on protein, the calories take care of themselves. Now, I have always tracked my calories and at about 7 months post op I quickly learned I had to increase my input a bit as I had a long stall. I was told to add a protein heavy snack which in fact did add calories. It broke my stall.

I also was on a 10 day liver shrink diet. High protein, low fat, low carb.

I ended up having RNY once it was determined that it was the best surgery for me given my severe Gerd. I wanted to have this surgery one time. It has been. One of the best decisions of my life. I no longer get any type of reflux, heartburn and no longer take medications for it. I would give serious thought before proceeding with the sleeve given your history. You may just end up with yet another revision. I have seen many people on this site have to revise twice before they finally get what they need, several have complications due to all the previous damage from the band, sleeve and reflux made worse. I would suggest talking to your surgeon and doing some research before deciding for sure. Good luck to you!

Can you see it now? You look fantastic and it is only going to get better from here! Congratulations on such significant progress. How do you feel? If it is anything like me, I bet you feel pretty great now too.

To answer your question about funny stares, the answer is yes. Get used to it. Keep in mind food servers mostly want to make sure you are satisfied with your meal. The best thing you can do is tell them to bring a to go box when they bring your food because you will be taking most of it home. In terms of eating out at this point, if you feel up to it and it makes you feel better go for it. You are a grown up and know what the rules are in terms of what you can or should not do. You decide whether or not you will be successful and you decide whether or not you will have complications from doing what you are not supposed to. At 3.5 weeks I was barely able to get down 2 tablespoons of puréed food. I certainly was not in a position to to drink wine nor eat and drink at the same which is one of the rules. I wish you the best of luck and hope all goes well in the future.

Here is the thing, you have to control what you put in your mouth regardless of what surgery you chose. If you have an addiction to sugar that you are worried about you need to talk to a therapist. In the end it really is the only thing that will help you. Having bypass is not guaranteed to cause dumping, I should know I have never dumped. I could eat all the sugar I want but that doesn't mean that I do. By the way, I had a sugar addiction as well. There are times when I crave it but I know that if I eat it the cravings will only get worse. I have learned that I focused on sugar when I was bored. The more sugar I ate, the more I craved it. Half the battle is with your head when it comes to this process. I am not suggesting that you don't consider bypass because there is a chance you will get dumping and it could help you but I am saying don't count on it. Also, I would be interested to hear why you think there are more complications with bypass. Bypass is the gold standard for WLS. Yes there can be complications but there is the potential for complications for both surgeries. Many times people think malabsorption is a complication, it is not. It is designed to help you lose the weight and as long as you take your supplements and have labs done on schedule, everything will be ok. Those same supplements and labs are required for both surgeries. Which complications are you worried about?

It is completely up to us to maintain. You don't lose the restriction, you learn to eat around it. Your pouch begins to empty 30 minutes after eating, I guarantee you that I could graze to keep my pouch full all day long and gain every pound back. The most I should ever be able to eat is about 1 cup of food. (Think of that 1cup as already chewed up food). Of course I can eat a lot more salad than 1 cup in its original form yet dense Protein I cannot even come close to a cup. This is why it is so Important to ensure the food on your plate is protein heavy, with good carbs like fruit and veggies. If I were to fill it with Pasta bread and rice, I would become hungry faster and therefore would eat more frequently. Having this surgery takes a lot of hard work on your part. It is a tool that can help you achieve your goals if you follow the rules. If you don't and you graze you will gain your weight back. If you don't and eat garbage you will become malnourished. It is a huge commitment and requires 110 percent focus every single day. I have not entered the maintenance phase but I am close and I know that my focus will need to continue. My life has completely changed for the better and I never want to go back there. I hope that you guys continue to research until you are positive this is something you want to do. For me, it was a no brainier, I am the healthiest I have been in 28 years. My only regret is that I didn't do it 15 years ago when I was in my forties.

@@bhopeful I am so very sorry that your primary care physician is not supporting your decision. At your age and the amount of weight you need to lose should absolutely be supported. I am 52 and yes, maybe you will be successful in losing it but the issue is about keeping it off. I would not take any weight loss medications whatsoever. There are side effects that come with that as well and ultimately the minute you stop them the weight comes back. I have tried so many that I know from my experience that this is the case. If I were you (and I know I am not), I would either ask your primary care physician to support your decision or find a new primary care physician. Or have your bariatrician have a peer to peer consult with your primary. That may help as well. That being said, I don't know if there were medical reasons to not support it. Many times if you have heart issues physicians will push back. I hope you are able to get resolution and move forward.

@@Elode Woot woot! Isn't absolutely exciting to get to this point?!?! I am about 20lbs from normal and it feels good to be alive! Congratulations! I have been watching your posts for many many months now, I am so proud of you! You have such a great attitude and are such an inspiration to others.

For me the fluids definitely helped but you have to be a little careful because the more fluids you push washes the salt and potassium out. When I saw my bariatric an for the issue on July 30th he told me to stick to 64 and no more and increase my salt intake. I religiously get my 64 now and sometimes a tiny bit more. I increased my salt intake with salted nuts and beef Jerky. It has definitely improved but I still have that low heart rate when sitting so I have just learned to be very very careful when standing up. Be careful everyone, when I passed out I did it 2 weeks after my spine surgery. I had triple cervical fusion. I was terrified I screwed up my surgery but thank goodness that is not the case. I still wonder besides the hydration what has caused our pressures to go so low which of course is what is causing the dizzied. I had an echo, stress test, adrenal tests all of which were negative. It all comes back to WLS for me.

@@Elode Oh boy do I have this! Mine started in month 9 post op and it was severe. I have had every work up know to man and other than a very low resting heart rate (mine gets as low as 30) and low blood pressures (85/55) there is no explanation. I saw 2 cardiologists, and endocrinologist and my bariatric team. The good news is it has gotten better. Initially it happened every single time I stood up. The room would go black and once I actually passed out which sent me to the ER. Now 4 months later it happens once or twice a day. I have been instructed to simply get up very slowly, wiggle my feet and hands before I get up to get the blood pumping. I still really don't have answers as to why other than my heart rate runs very low and so does my blood pressure. Funny thing is, I had high blood pressure before bypass and was on meds for it. I hope you get answers and feel better soon.

@@wildGoose, My understanding is that a tummy tuck (panni only) will be covered only if it is deemed medically necessary. And it is not easy to get that deemed medically necessary. A breast augmentation and tummy tuck is considered cosmetic surgery and few insurances if any will cover these. I cannot imagine that Medicare would actually pay for this. Did your plastic surgeon tell you this? I would be curious to know where you learned this. I would hate to see you get stuck with a huge bill at the end and if your doctor has found a loop hole, I am not sure I would trust them.

Trust me, the gas they pump into your stomach cavity is not the only gas pain you will be dealing with. The hospital actually gave me gas x late at night the night of my surgery and it definitely helped. For the gas they pump into your stomach cavity there were only two three things that helped make it more comfortable. 1. Walking from the moment they allow you to. And walking a lot. For me, the moment I got back to my room from recovery I began walking because I had to go to the bathroom. I noticed right away that the pain lessened as soon as I was standing. All that pressure was much better. 2. While you are laying in bed, heating pads or heat packs really help for comfort. I slept with a heating pad on my belly for the first week. (Be careful though, I had mine too high and actually burned a spot on my tummy so bad that it blistered. Make sure you have something between you and the heating pad. 3. Sitting up for me felt so much better. After my first night which I did not sleep a wink because of gas pain, I asked to sit in the chair in my room knowing it felt better when I sat up. I literally spent the whole day when I wasn't walking, sitting in that chair with my heat packs. There is a reason they have you sitting in bed rather than laying in bed when you come out of the OR. All I know is the pain us definitely more tolerable when sitting or walking. The good news is that gas pain resolves for the most part within a few days. The bad news, pain meds do nothing for that pain, they simply make you so tired that it is hard to tolerate the pain. I took heavy pain meds that first day and after that I only took them if I was severely uncomfortable. At day 3 I stopped taking them altogether. They suggested I use liquid Tylenol if I needed it but honestly it burned my new tummy. Good luck!

When I saw the title of this post I held my breath! After all I have been reading your posts since you joined and I certainly did not want to hear that insurance denied you and you were giving up. That happens to so many people and I knew how badly you wanted to change your life. I am so very glad that you have the opportunity to do that now and trust me, you won't want to be anywhere near that Halloween candy so soon after surgery! You will likely have 6 months before you even care about Halloween candy! Just in time for Easter! LOL I am just kidding! Keep us posted on your progress! Best of luck!

Congratulations! You will likely lose somewhere between 10 and 15 lbs on the 2 week liquid diet. I should warn you though, you will likely gain most if not all of it back while in the hospital. This is from all the fluids they pump into you. Many people don't know this and get very very upset when they get home. It is normal and will come off within a week or two. In terms of losing that hundred pounds, it will happen if you follow the plan. If you have a little more to lose, that will happen too. By setting a numbers goal, so early on you may find yourself disappointed. If you can handle that without losing ground great! I have seen a lot of people freak themselves out when they don't hit those numbers goals within the timeframe they have allowed themselves. I wish you all the best on your upcoming surgery!

I have to say, flying in an airplane without having to ask for the dreaded belt extender was one of my very first NSVs and it made my whole week! I was very comfortable and super excited about it. You are going to love the feeling. It really is not a small thing at all!

I have not had plastics yet but I have had drains for both my bypass and a recent spine surgery. Yes they are gross to think about but the reality is most of what is in your head is worse than reality. They don't hurt when they are in and they don't hurt coming out. Try to focus on how fantastic you are going to look! I can hardly wait until I am ready for plastics! Good luck to you!

I have learned this lesson the hard way but I will say it took me a while and some money! I now wait until my current size is slightly lose and then I buy pants one size down. They are very tight but I know when I drop 10 pounds they will fit me great. Last week I was shocked when I went to try on a new packer sideline jacket. All the stuff I got in January I am swimming in including a brand New Jersey. Ugh! Anyway, I figured I would need a large instead of an xl. I tried on the large, too big. I tried on the medium thinking it would be too small. It fit perfect! Part of me was thinking maybe I should be thinking about a small but just could not get my head around that. Same thing with Victoria's Secret yoga pants. I bought extra large because there is no way, I also bought larges. The xl are too big and the large is even slightly baggy. I returned them both and ordered a medium. By the way, I started in a 26 for tops and a 24 for bottoms. Wow! I am now in a 12 comfortably.

I don't know but I have to say, it really doesn't bother me. I know how big I was and how big I looked. I am proud of losing 120lbs so I really don't mind saying it. I also have not had anyone ask me that question that doesn't care about me. Maybe if it was someone who I didn't trust I clearly would not say. Now, I shout it from the rooftops. I can't wait until I can say 145lbs, then I know I will finally be a healthy weight for my height. Then, I am going to do the dance of joy!

I think most of us have this worry but as you learn more you gain strength. If you believe you can do it and are willing to change I promise it will happen for you. Already you recognize the need for counseling and are taking those steps. Now it is time to take control of you. Once you decide you can do something there will be NO stopping you!

I am so very sorry to hear this! I hope you are able to lose a bit of weight so you can get this done. I hope you recover fast and the Fluid weight will come off very very fast. Try to stay positive, I know that must be hard given this set back but it will work out if you want it to. Take care!

Considering you are 4 weeks post op a bit of hamburger might be ok without the bun. You will need to take it very slow and chew well. Sometimes beef is one of the harder Proteins to get used to for some people. I did not have a problem. The bread, buns, crust thing is very uncomfortable for most of us that have had bypass. First, it does not leave much room in your pouch for Protein and they are empty calories. Most important, bread products actually feel horrible. Even now 11 months post op, it does not feel good unless it is really toasty or almost like a cracker. As far as pizza goes, I would not try it at this point. Way too soon. I would give it at least 4 months and then try a very very thin crispy crust. I eat pizza about once per month. I have my tiny little piece I get full and I am happy. I have to say, I do miss eating a regular cheeseburger with the bun, pickles, ketchup......it just doesn't sit well with me and I don't like just eating the patty. Good luck!