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When in doubt call the surgeon. So many people get this relationship backwards, and this is just how the Doctors like it. WE are CUSTOMERS, we PAID for a service. Doctors hate it when people think of the relationship in those simple terms, as it is more involved, but I could care less if I am waking up the on call surgeon at 0300 with a problem, I paid for the right to do that, and if need be I will. Your case is really simple math. If you cannot keep anything down or get anything down = you will become dehydrated. Call the Surgeon and find out what is going on.

My best friend had it 12 years ago and has been fine. He has some issues now, that may or may not be related, however this is a guy who never lifted a finger post op to lose weight, his results were predictable.

Some things to consider. Is your urine clear or very yellow? Are you actually peeing? Is your mouth dry or do you have saliva? Are you running a fever? Research dehydration. When I was in the Army I was CAS Evacuated due to dehydration, the doctors told me I was within hours of death. Once you get dehydrated, there comes a point where there is no turning back, even with IV fluids, once the body reaches a certain point, you will die. Period. I'll stay up all night if I have too, but I WILL get 64 oz of liquids in me per day. (today was crazy 130oz) I spent 20 days in the Hospital in the Army due to an infection and dehydration, I don't remember most of it, I was very very sick. I do recall, the part about how close to death I was. If you think you are dehydrated, check your pee, if it is really super yellow, or you are not peeing at all, go to the hospital. They can hook up and IV and give you a couple bags of Ringers Lactate in an hour or two and that should keep you going. Whatever you do, KEEP DRINKING, unless you are puking it up and have nausea then call your surgeon asap as that can be an indicator of other things.

Number one reason for hospital readmission in the first six weeks post op for bypass patients is dehydration, and the reason really makes sense, once you get behind with your Water you cannot get caught up by chugging a big 32 oz bottle of water. After reading that I made hydration number one on my list. Protein number two, everything else comes after that.

Nothing. I had two weeks of the pre-op diet to go through. I was weighed five days before my surgery to ensure I had lost enough additional weight to ensure compliance with the diet. After that I kinda stuck to the diet. I did not go hog wild, but I did eat on occasion. Actually just knowing that I could made things a lot better. But as for help, I cannot offer any, there were no combinations of things on that accursed diet that made it suck any less. Sorry

Not being able to take the pain meds is a big deal. You were cut open and rewired, stapled closed, no kidding your body has been through a lot. I took pain meds for about the first 10 days, I had some severe pain mid abdomen, and thank Percodan for getting me past that. If the meds make you sick, CALL YOUR SURGEON. Get different ones. Listen, I am a big guy, I am a Vet, Bouncer, blah blah, I'll gut anything out. Not this. No, Nut up or Shut up during this. If it hurts, I am listening to my body and responding. I suggest you do the same. Your bio does not mention what kind of surgery you had. You can expect very different results post op from the sleeve or the bypass.

It gets better. Sip sip sip. Just keep at it. I get well over 70 oz of liquid a day without any real effort. It took a week or so to get to that point. Also depending on your diet, try things that will keep your mouth wet for longer periods of time, like pudding or yogurt. There are a lot of thing that just plain suck at first, but they get better. Honestly Basic Training was worse than this and I survived that, so I have no doubt I can make it through this. Best of luck

Unless someone has been able to find it, Isopure has no PDCASS score, making me very leery of their product. If it was a quality product, they would put the PDCASS score in big letters on the back. Check out a bottle of unjury PDCASS of 100, clearly stated on the bottle, Isopure, no score, it bodes poorly for them.

Lovaza, get a script and see if your insurance will cover it, if not they will certainly cover the generic version. Lovaza is fish oil on steroids. Take two softgels and toss into a blender with something, mix and enjoy.

It depends on the medication and it's method of ingestion. A great number of XR type medications are absorbed in the Duodenum or Jejunum, well guess what, after a bypass we don't have those to use anymore. So those kinds of meds are out. Some will work, some will not. I think that for that reason they put a blanket "no XR meds" clause in, certain medications are okay, I take nexium in powder form, its DR 40 mg, but works fine. That being said GERD after a bypass is extremely rare, I agreed to continue taking it for 30 days post op, then I am done with it, after being on stomach acid medicine for 20 years. I also take psychotropic meds, some were XR, they had to be converted not just to IR, but liquid. Let's just say I have become a master compounder. Research Ora-Sweet, you can get in on Amazon, you will thank me later.

Today marks day 15 post op. My eating schedule is pretty standard, I imbibe about 700 calories a day > 100 grams of Protein and more than 70 oz of Water. Breakfast (two parts) Part one, coffee, with splenda and a shot of 2% milk (Cannot drink coffee with less than 2% milk, just can't) shake #1 11 oz milk, 42 oz unjury Protein powder (I mix 50% vanilla and 50% chocolate) lunch, is more of a brunch, I eat later. But is consists of shake #2. dinner = something, perhaps some pudding, or yogurt (Dannon Light and Fit Greek are fantastic). I also may have cream of chicken Soup, or broth, I try and keep dinner light as I eat is a bit late, but varied. I have a water bottle grafted to my hand, and a 32oz bottle that I fill 16oz at a time with crystal light (buy every flavor and rotate) as I finish a bottle I mark down another 16 oz of water. I log everything in Fitbit. My diet changes tomorrow (cannot wait!) I should mention I also have Isopure carb free protein powder, I was out of Unjury due to poor planning, and needed a shake in a hurry. no PDCASS score, so it's probably crap, but I sub that in place of Unjury from time to time, because, well, I spent $50 on it and I am going to use it, lol.

Hi. I have been lurking around here for about a year, afraid to post anything, not wanting to start any arguments, and just in general taking things in. I found this site after reading "The Big Book on The Gastric Bypass" Mr. Brecher sort of shamelessly plugs his website, but hey, I would too I guess. Anyways, I am a divorced 47 year old male, who resides in Nashua, NH. I have been big all my life, that is big, not fat. When I was in the Army (Desert Storm Vet here), when I was 20, I weighed 198 pounds with a 58" chest. In fact my Class A uniform had to be custom made as they do not make them off the rack in that size. I had a (I forget now, but I think) a 4 or 6% body fat which was fine, as the Army wanted my 6' frame to weigh less than 180 pounds. Anyways, big, turned into fat. I peaked about 2 years ago just shy of the 400 pound marker. So, rougly a year and a half ago, I was sitting in front of my PC monitor playing some video game and realized I was sitting here waiting to die. I am disabled and collect SSDI. After a lot of soul searching I decided to reinvent myself. And have done just that. I am now a softmore in College with a 4.0 GPA, and a member of 3 National Honor Societies, I had all my teeth replaced, as I suffer from a rare gum disease that caused my teeth to rot from the gums up. I had 26 teeth removed surgically, 21 of which had been root canaled. I got dentures (as the ability to chew food is a requirement for a RNY GB), and on October 5th, 2015 I had RNY GB surgery. I lost a great deal of weight before the surgery, and am losing quite rapidly now. I am not done, I have many more things to do to complete my reinvention. But one thing at a time. So, background out of the way, today is the two week marker. I have been in increasing pain for several days, I think due to constipation, or I may have herniated something straining. I don't know and will not know more until Wednesday when I go in for my two week checkup, and NUT visit to move to diet stage 3. My surgery went fine, the surgeon said everything inside looked great, he was actually a bit surprised, he said all my organs looked really good, especially for someone my age. I then (see who get's the quote) turned it up to 11 in the hospital, buy walking 12K steps the day after surgery and 14K the day after that. The surgeon, (who was also military, he is a retired Commander from the Navy) completely understood my marching and the bravado, and macho bullshit. But he wears a fitbit, and I outdid him in steps both days I was in the hospital, we shared a good laugh over that (that and the morphine that just makes everything better lol). I've put my name down to be a regular speaker at the monthly support group, I have no fears about crowds or public speaking, and I figure this is good emotional therapy, with a side bonus of getting to see my Surgeon more often. So that's pretty much me. I'd like to thank the hundreds of unnamed people who's threads have provided me with so much information over the last year. And I look forward to getting to 'know' some of you. I apologize for any spelling errors in advance, apparently this word processor lacks a spell checker, i'll use Word from now on and cut and paste.

Odd, Prednisone is on the list of medications I can never take again in my life.

I'll throw my hat in this ring as I know a thing or two about this. I crave certain foods, but I am not what I would call an addict. I agree it is hard to walk down the street where every other building is a resturant or fast food joint. However, a lesson can be learned from failing to deal with the reality; 10 years ago one of my best friends had a RNY at 700 lbs on his 5'4" frame. He was addicted to sugar. So much so, that he fought dumping syndrome. He would sit down with a bag of swedish fish, eat 5, go puke, wait 10 minutes and eat 5 more. This went on for weeks, until his body just gave up. He has no teeth, stomach acid destroyed them. He has severe health issues, including anemia, low Vitamin D, B, Calcium, and other health related issues. Here is the kicker. He dropped from 700 pounds to 400 pounds. And has been 400 pounds for about 8 years, never really going up or down. He is only alive today because of the surgery, but he will be dead not long from now because of the addiction. He is getting in touch with his mortality, but the damage is done. He needs double knee replacements, and badly, bone on bone grinding, it's horrible walking up a flight of stairs behind him and hearing the bones grind. Use this lesson. This is what can happen if you don't get past the addiction, a RNY is just a tool, and sadly you CAN nearly completely bypass the restrictions it places on you.

Thank you.

@@395Ron I simple came here to say I had my surgery and in spite of the lack of post, did indeed live. It was a half tongue in cheek post. Wishing you all the best, and a rapid recovery.

So, it's 0457 and I have slept all I am going to sleep, still tired but way too wound up to go back to bed. Honestly I am shocked I got as much sleep as I did. So in a scant 6 hours I will be under the knife, closing one chapter of the book of life and opening a new one. Honestly, the last chapter was so full of heartache and sorrow, I do not miss seeing it go. I am now fixated on the future. WIsh me well.

In spite of my best efforts to keep my mind occupied, I am scared shitless. Not about the surgery. I've read so much about it, honestly in a pinch I could probably do it myself. It is post op that has me terrified, because I have no idea what to expect. Toss in a pinch of mental illness (I am BiPolar) and this becomes even worse. 18 hours and 50 minutes to go. Now I just need to hold it together. Praying for everyone else in my group. I pray after you all are done, there is little pain, and your path to good health is short and painless! <3 John

I forgot one of the most important parts when comparing RNY to the sleeve. Granted you have made up your mind, and that is great. However I would be doing you a disservice if I did not mention this aspect. The sleeve is a restrictive surgery. There really is little to no malabsorbtive aspect to it. RNY has both, so we all understand this. However and this is so critical that I feel I should flog myself for failing to bring it up before. Science has figured out that there are 4 (probably more) main hormones that go along with hunger. Scientists have run test after test and found that in naturally thin people, these 4 hormones/chemicals are in the normal range. The 4 I speak of is Ghrelin, Leptin, Glucogen Like Peptide and GLP-1. In RNY patients typically within a week these 4 hormones are back at a normal level for a normally thin person. HOWEVER, the SLEEVE does not benefit from these hormonal changes. So, to say my final words on this topic. Why do Doctors tend to push people towards RNY? It's been around a long time. Any possible complication you can imagine, had been dealt with. Weight loss is predictable, and the 'hunger hormones' go back to normal. The Sleeve while promising, lacks a great deal of the advantanges RNY gets. Said another way, Doctors push people to what they know works, and works best. At least good doctors. Best of luck in your surgery mate,!!

Whatever makes YOU feel the safest is what it is all about, the rest is just noise. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!!! <3

GERD is particularly bad in the Sleeve group. As said above leaks. I'll have between 100-150 staples used during my RNY, the Sleeve gets something like 600, they make six rows of sleeves and cut off the last one., Stomach stretching back out. If a RNY patient can stretch a stomach that starts off the size of your thumb, it's not a big jump to see Sleeves being super stretched, over time. The RNY is a very safe, very well understood surgery. They have been doing them since the 1960s (they killed a lot of people working out the kinks so to say) but today, it's routine. Outcomes, very long term are predictable, as there is great data very long term. No one knows what is going to happen to a sleeve patient at 20 years as there is no group to study. I suppose it falls under the category of the evil that you know is sometimes better than the evil you don't know.

However part one of the DS it just that, part one. After a year, the DS is completed, thus not yeilding any great long term data. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to be argumentative. I've just done a great deal of reasearch, and while the sleeve is showing great results, it's going to be years before side by side studies can be done. In short, time will tell. I just remember how it seemed the whole world was RAH RAH Lap Band!!!!! OMG best thing ever.... yeah, that did not work out so well. For some people it did, and still does, however every year when more data comes out, things get worse for the lap band group, as a whole. The Lap band can at least be undone. If you have a sleeve, that's it, I mean, you can even get a RNY undone (it's extraordinarly rare, but surgically it can be done), but with a sleeve, The stomach is gone. So if in 10 years suddenly the results are getting worse over time, those people are out of luck. I guess to conclude, I say what I do out of an abundance of caution.

I am not a Sleeve canidate due to GERD. However, the sleeve is pretty new as far as surgical procedures go (RNY was first done in the 1960s), and there is not a great deal of long term data in as of yet. Remember when everyone was jumping up and down about how wonderful the Lap Band was? Now look at the actual long term data, it gets worse for the Lap band every year. I think this is where Doctors who performed a lot of Lap bands only to see problems later on, are now sort of sticking with the procedure that actually has a long term history. We will all see how the sleeve does in another ten years. Once long term, statistically significant comparative studies come out. Much like the studies you can find today on the Lap bad Vs RNY.

OMG I would KILL to be any of you. I've been plugged up since Saturday (my butt and I had a rather significant disagreement Saturday, for about 2 hours, I was laughing the whole time) I need to go, and significantly in the next 26 hours or there is a chance I will not have lost enough additional weight on the pre-operative diet and they may cancel my surgery.

October 5th at 10:30 am at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester NH. Insurance has already approved surgery. Lifestyle group was done months ago, I am on day 10 of this accused pre-operative diet, tomorrow I go for the final check. Essentially it's a 'we're going to weight you and make sure you lost more weight so we know you are following the diet" and to make sure nothing has changed. Been through pre-admission at the hospital, wish me luck, this diet sucks. Not losing any weight, in spite of drinking 120+ oz of water a day and walking 20K+ steps a day, I am plugged up tight.