catwoman7

nine years later, and I still track my food every day.

if you're on full liquids, then no. Once you're on soft foods, it depends on your surgeon. I didn't eat it the first few months. It's pretty high in calories.

strictures are pretty rare with sleeve patients, although they're not unheard of. So yes - I agree with the above poster - I'd contact your team and let them know what's going on. That doesn't sound like typical GERD, but then, I'm not a medical person.

It depends on the surgeon. Most seem to recommend 60-80 grams of protein, but as for the rest, it varies a lot. Not many have requirements for fat. As far as carbs, some surgeons have their patients on low carb (or ultra low carb) plans, others have patients on more balanced plans.

just wanted to respond to comments about being on liquids only - depends on the surgeon. Our clinic at the time had us on purees as soon as we got home from the hospital (not sure if they still do, since it's been nine years for me). To the OP - follow your surgeon's plan.

I agree with the other posters. And regarding hair loss, everyone seems to worry incessantly about that - I did, too, but in the grand scheme of things, it's such a small blip on the screen that I shouldn't have bothered wasting one brain cell on it. Some people don't lose any hair at all, and many don't lose enough for others to notice. Some do lose more significant amounts, but the hair loss is like shedding - not big clumps like you see in chemo patients. I wouldn't worry about it. It's a small price to pay for the benefit you get from the surgery, and again, you may only lose a little or none at all.

a week - and that's actually pretty common. There's not all that much in there since you've been on fluids. It's good you're taking stool softeners, though, because that first one can be a doozy..

IIRC, the constipation comes after surgery, not before - although not everyone has issues with it. Some people do have diarrhea post-surgery (especially the first week or so), but constipation is much more common, and it can become chronic. I don't remember if I had any particular BM issues during the pre-op liquid diet or not (may not have had many BM's at all given we weren't eating solid food), but I suspect your system is just whacked out by the change.

agree with Arabesque - common during menopause. Plus you said you're on prednisone - one of the side effects of that is weight gain. So there's two culprits right there... Yes - I'd have a chat with someone to see what your options are. Weight loss is going to be a struggle, so maybe they'd be willing to do something to help with that.

I found I was allergic to derma bond after having skin removal surgery. Yea - the itchiness is awful. They put me on prednisone for ten days, and it cleared it up. weight loss is always slower after a revision than it is after a "virgin" surgery. Five lbs is great, though. And actually a 20 lb loss the first week would be very unusual, even with a virgin surgery. Maybe for folks on "My 600 lb Life", but not a for an average WLS patient. I lost 16 lbs the whole first MONTH. emotions can be wild the first few weeks after surgery - and so can regrets. This will pass - just hang in there!

Nine years out, and I fight the beast every day. I know people who've worked with therapists who specialize in eating disorders who've found it helpful, so maybe looking into that if you're feeling like you're losing the struggle (?). Or does your bariatric clinic have a health psychologist on staff, or can they refer you to one? P.S. I also know a few people who are struggling and have had some significant weight gain who are on appetite suppressants like phentermine - or some of the newer drugs that people are using for weight loss, such as Ozempic. I don't know if you want to go down that route, but some have had success with those. If you're interested in that, check with either your bariatric clinic or your regular physician.

cheese sticks, beef jerky, protein bars should all work..

yes - obesity is a complex disease. Among other things, at some point it can cause biological changes that make it very difficult to lose weight. For example, I've read that research has shown that even gut bacteria is different in very obese individuals than it is in normal-weight individuals. your experience is very common. In fact, I took a course in obesity and weight loss at a local university (nutrition department) a year or two ago that addressed this. The usual pattern is that people lose about 5% of their weight in the first few months of dieting, then it levels off for a couple of months, and then it gradually comes back on. About a year later, they're back to where they started. That knowledge didn't surprise me at all - that happened to me over and over and over. Weight loss surgery is the only thing that ever worked for me. Surgery won't help prevent the behavior. What it does is. 1). takes away your hunger for the first few months - (for a lucky few this is permanent - for most of us, it comes back sometime during the first year post-surgery) and 2) keeps you from eating a ton of food at one sitting. What it doesn't prevent is "grazing" or mindless snacking, and that can be a really slippery slope. Take those first few months of no hunger and really work on changing that behavior. Nine years out, I struggle with that every day - the urge to eat mindlessly. It takes a lot of work and dedication to control that (although honestly, a lot of my never-been-obese friends struggle with that, too). I don't know if I'd ever eat my way back up to 373 lbs again, but I know if I let myself loose for more than a few days, my weight starts heading north...

I haven't, but lots of bariatric patients on the east coast have used him and have been very happy with his work.

you'll lose bone mass. You lose everything when you lose that much weight - fat, muscle, and bone! But then again, you need a lot of infrastructure to hold up 300+ lbs. It just isn't needed once you lose a ton of weight. Exercise and protein will keep you from losing too much protein. Exercise (especially weight-bearing exercise like walking, dancing, strength-training) will keep you from losing too much bone mass. But losing SOME of both isn't necessarily bad, since it's not needed. hair - not everyone loses it, but most do - but it's temporary. I didn't lose enough for others to notice. In the grand scheme of things, it's a small price to pay, and at this point it's just a blip on the screen for me.

like Arabesque said, it may delay it (even if that..), but it shouldn't disqualify you. I was very low on vitamin D (as are many people, actually..), and they just had me take prescription vitamin D until my level came back up to normal.

I didn't have any pain after my bariatric surgery, but I DID after my first plastic surgery (lower body lift). I also felt like my body was on fire when I woke up. They put fentanyl in my IV line, and it knocked me out. I'm guessing that's what they did to you - that, or morphine.

I did forget to mention that even though I had to wait 30 minutes before and after eating, once I moved on to solid foods, I only had to wait 30 minutes AFTER eating. I could drink up to the point I started eating something. Not sure what the rationale was there - maybe there's more of a risk of nutrients being washed out of your stomach when you're on liquids and/or purees when you drink BEFORE eating, too (which makes sense since those don't stay in your stomach for very long).

it's pretty rare to wake up during a surgery - that's one of the things the anesthesiologist (or nurse anesthetist) watches out for, and gives you more anesthesia if they notice anything like that. Also, I had virtually no pain after my surgery, and that's actually fairly common. Pain is definitely all across the board with this, but it seems like most of us have little to no pain after this surgery. And like you said, if you're one of the ones who DO experience pain, they'll manage it in the hospital as well as send you home with pain killers.

the no drinking rule applies to snacks, too, unfortunately. P.S. one thing I started doing early out which seemed to help (and I still do it, nine years later) is drink 16 oz of water as soon as I get out of bed in the morning - before eating breakfast, even before drinking my morning coffee. That way I'm 1/4 of the way there (i.e., to my water goal) before eating breakfast and getting dressed!

I would imagine 90% of us felt the same way before our surgeries! Actually, I still do before surgeries even though I've had several. But that first one, especially, since you haven't been through one before. I'm sure it'll go fine for you, though!

I had GERD before surgery (which is why I went with bypass). I was a slow loser, but I never attributed that to GERD. Plus my GERD disappeared after my surgery, so it wouldn't have been a factor in my rate of weight loss regardless. How fast or slow you use usually depends on age, gender, starting weight, how muscular you are, whether or not you lost a lot of weight prior to surgery, how active you are, how closely you stick to your plan, and your metabolism rate (I may be leaving a couple of things out).

^^ I stand corrected. But that's a well above average rate of loss - you usually just see that in people who start off at 300+ lbs (I didn't even lose 100 lbs in six months, and I started at almost 400 lbs!. It was closer to a year for me)

also, I've never heard that people with GERD lose weight slower than people who don't. You're probably losing it slower because you didn't start off at a very high BMI to begin with.

I agree with others have said. But about people starting at 240 lbs and weighing 120 after six months, that would be VERY unusual. People starting off at 400+ lbs might be able to lose that much in six months, but 240 isn't all that high of a BMI when compared to other WLS patients. That's on the lower end of the range. Starting BMI is a big factor in how quickly the weight drops off, at least in the early months...so I would be very surprised to see anyone starting at that weight lose 100 lbs that quickly.