catwoman7

it was definitely a thing in 2017. I had bypass in 2015 and specifically chose that because I was told there was a risk that VSG could make my reflux worse. I'm very surprised the OP's surgeon wasn't aware of that.

you said it! Prior to surgery, I would have eaten a bowlful of it. Now I have to limit it to a couple of tablespoons on top of Greek yogurt. This far out, eating it doesn't bother my stomach - but the calories - YIKES!

acid reflux is the most common complication of sleeve. It happens to about 30% of people. And yes - it can definitely happen that far out from surgery. Usually it can be controlled through medication (like PPI's), but for some people, revision to bypass is the best way to improve or resolve it. And yes - there are some people on here who have done this - hopefully some will chime in...

yep - those are all pretty standard with this.

I went with bypass because I had acid reflux issues before surgery. My surgeon said he'd do either, but he recommended bypass given my reflux issues - so I went with that. No issues. And yes - I'd make the same decision if I had to make it again today. I've been very happy with my bypass (had it almost seven years ago)

honestly, I wished mine had never come back. It was so much easier to stay on track when I was never hungry and really didn't give a flip about food! Things got a lot harder once my hunger came back at five months out.

there are a fair number of people who seem to become lactose intolerant after surgery. Sometimes it's temporary, sometimes not. That might be what's going on. Can you handle plant-based protein shakes? If so, that would be the answer. I personally haven't tried any, so I can't comment on the taste - but maybe someone else can..

there are a ton of great cardio walking/dance videos on youtube. I"ve been particularly hooked on "Reps to the Rhythm" videos for the last year or so. His are kind of a combo of walking and dance videos. He has videos of several different lengths (from 10 minutes up to 1.5 hours) and different levels of intensity. I do his intense ones (they're color-coded red, but a couple of his blue ones are also pretty intense)

my stalls seemed to be more frequent and lasted longer the farther out I got from surgery. After the first year, there were MANY times I thought "well, this is it", and then the weight loss would start up again. It finally stopped at 20 months out.

losing one's hunger is pretty common. Doesn't happen to everyone, but it seems to happen to the majority of us. It usually comes back sometime during the first year. Mine came back at five months out.

I had to laugh because I had the opposite fear - that I'd go in for my bypass and end up with the sleeve (because they couldn't do the bypass for some reason). I think most people are totally "into" whichever decision they make, once they've made it, and would be really freaked out if they unexpectedly ended up with the other surgery!

we were allowed to go off protein shakes at the point we were getting most (if not all) our protein from our food, but some of us stayed on them (I STILL have one every day at almost seven years out), and they were fine with that. I know some surgeons want their patients off them pretty quickly - so I guess that's not that unusual BUT....as others have said, the rest of what he told you is nuts. Is there a dietitian in that clinic that you could work with?

I got that at about two years out. I went in for a work up (they checked EVERYTHING), and everything came back normal. Then I noticed it again about an hour or two after I'd eaten a piece of cake at a retirement party. I mentioned it to my PCP, and she said it was probably reactive hypoglycemia - my glucose may have just happened to be normal when they did the work up. But then you said your glucose was normal during or right after that event, so that's probably not it. I'd let your doctor know...

at that far out I'd switched over to mostly calorie counting (although I know it isn't for everyone). I had to experiment a bit to figure out at what range I maintained my weight (for me, it was 1500-1700 calories, but that's going to differ for everyone). If I went under that most days of the week, I'd lose - if I went over it consistently, I'd gain.

I agree with everyone else. You're not likely to feel full until you eat solid food. Plus dumping syndrome is very uncommon with sleeve.

I've read it's because sleeve surgery can cause high-volume pressure on your remaining stomach, whatever that means. and OP - yes, from what I've heard, the revision can resolve type 2 diabetes and you can lose another 20 lbs or so (most people do lose 20-30 lbs after revision - although some have lost more than that)

yep - fluids. It can take up to a week for it to work its way out of your system.

we were told to stick to whey protein isolate shakes until we were able to get all/most of our protein from food. At that point, those who wanted to continue with shakes could have blends if they wanted. Reason being is whey protein isolate is better absorbed than other forms of protein.

it was in my plan - might not be in yours. I think it was in mine because of the sodium, because calorie-wise, it would have been fine. But check with your clinic - they might not limit it in yours.

I do exercise - I'm not a gym rat, but I always tried to exercise 5-6 days a week. At first it was mostly walking and water aerobics, since I was too heavy to do much of anything else. I still do those - but I also now do Zumba and bicycling as well. I've also strength-trained off and on (twice a week) - but unfortunately not consistently because I don't really like it. But I recently started using resistance bands, which I like a lot more than the weight machines at my gym - so hopefully I'll keep up with it this time! as for calories, by the end of the first year, I was up around 1000 per day. Second year I was eating around 1200 until I hit maintenance at 20 months out. I then experimented with different ranges to determine my "maintenance range", which is 1500-1700 per day. As long as I stay within that range, I can maintain my weight. But of course that's going to vary for everyone depending on how much muscle you have, how active you are, etc. I know some women who have to eat around 1200 to maintain, and others who can eat 2000....

I lost 100% of my excess weight, over 200 lbs. And yes - I had a lot of excess skin. Plastic surgery is the only thing that could helped with it, so I went with that. I had a lower body lift, arm lift, face lift, and breast lift. I didn't want a breast augmentation - I was "well-endowed" most of my life, and I was tired of it. I wanted to be a B or C cup, which I am now. I was already post-menopause when I had surgery, so birth control wasn't an issue for me.

find a place that does the PCR test (the one you can get at pharmacies and doctor's offices - where they send your sample off to a lab and it takes 2-3 days to get it back). The antigen tests (the ones you do at home or the 15-minute ones you can have done at some places) aren't as accurate with the omicron variant as it was with the earlier variants - but the PCR is still very accurate with omicron.

mine has never been that high, so I'm not sure. But if they feel it's too high, they'll have you cut back on the iron supplements (ferritin is just iron stores in your body that it draws on when the iron in your blood gets too low) if you're not taking iron supplements, then...not sure (not all sleevers take iron). They may have you find a multi that doesn't have iron in it (the ones for seniors often don't have iron). Or again, they may be fine with your current level - I'm just not sure.

yes - sugar free popsicles and sugar free Jello can be a life saver on those all liquid diets. I made a pack of Jello every day and ate the whole frickin bowl of it every night (as in all four servings - or however many there are that a package makes), since it was the only thing I could have that somewhat resembled real food. We were also allowed to have a limited amount of broth and tomato juice/V8 (I think a cup of each), so I had some of those every day as well. The salt in them made me retain water, so that made me feel a little fuller.

how high is it? Mine is almost always above the normal range, and the surgeon just shrugs. I guess it depends on HOW high it is. I'll check my chart and update this in a minute well, the last three years it's been 69, 111, and 205. I'm pretty sure it's been over 200 in earlier years - I'll check. OK. For some reason, only the last three years were on the graph - but I manually looked back on my chart for earlier years. It was always over 200 until I hit that 69 in 2019 - which was surprising because it'd always been in the 200s. But it started going up again in 2020 (to that 111 reading) - and now back in the 200s. High end of the range for women is 200 - so mine usually runs a little above normal. They never said anything about it, so.. if they feel yours is too high, they'll probably have you cut back on your iron supplementation