catwoman7

my hunger came roaring back at five months out. After it does, things do get a lot harder...

you won't start gaining as long as you follow your program's guidelines. there's a chance your stomach may not be ready to move on (most of us can - but some can't progress to the next stage quite as fast as others). So if your stomach rebels, just back up to the liquid stage for a few more days and then try again.

btw - you may not need to go top notch if you're just planning on getting a panni. On those, they just remove the skin - there's usually not an effort to make everything look "normal", like there is when you have a full lower-body lift. Some (maybe most? Not sure) people are even left without a belly button after a panni - so there's that to consider, too.

strictures get progressively worse pretty quickly, to the point you can't even keep fluids down. At that point, it's an emergecy. I had two of them (at weeks 4 and ? eight (not sure why that emoji is there). It only took a few days before I couldn't keep water down.

I didn't have mine weighed, but I know skin doesn't weigh very much. Most people say 5 lbs or less was removed. Although if you have a ton of lipo done, it could be more than that. I had one of those commercial DEXA scans done (at one of those places like DEXAFit) so I knew how much of my weight was fat, muscle, bone, etc. I thought at 146 lbs that I could have lost another 15 or 20 lbs, but I was told no - I was only 22% muscle, which is pretty lean for a woman - so I needed to wind up my weight loss efforts and just try to maintain.

many surgeons recommend you wait a year after hitting your goal weight to be sure your weight is stable. A 10 to 20 lb gain after you hit your lowest weight is unfortunately VERY common - it usually occurs during year 3. And a gain of more than 10 or 15 lbs can affect your surgery results. some insurance companies don't cover plastic surgery at all (mine did not). Some will cover it if you have some medical issue with it that doesn't respond to traditional treatment - like a chronic rash. So if you have those kinds of issues, see a doctor because you'll need the documentation to submit to the insurance company. I had my surgery with Lawrence Zachary, who's on the faculty at the Univ of Chicago - but he does his self-pay surgeries at Weiss on the north side. He specializes in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients and is nationally known, so he is pricey. Dave Shifrin (in the Loop) doesn't specialize in it, but he's done a TON of PS for massive weight loss patients and is also nationally known (and also pretty pricey). I had a consult with him as well. I also had a consult with Daniel Krochmal. Not well-known nationally although he had some pretty impressive fellowships (he's younger with not as many years under his belt) - I liked him as well but decided to go with Zachary due to his reputation and many years of experience. there are lots of surgeons in Chicago - so set up 3-5 consults as you may get different ideas from different surgeons. I definitely wanted someone who either specialized in it or has done a boatload of them. realself.com is a good resource for creating your list of people to consult with...

I had one of those companies that did not cover WLS regardless of the circumstances. Luckily, we had a choice of insurance companies with my former employer, so I switched to one that covered it. But like Greater Fool said, if yours claims they cover it but is just making things difficult for people to get it, then follow his suggestions../

it's very common for hunger to be suppressed for anywhere from a couple of months to up to a year after surgery (for a small minority, the suppression is permanent, but for most of us, hunger comes back sometime during the first year). Be glad for it as it makes sticking to your plan much easier if you're never hungry. But that said, you DO need to stick to your plan. You need the calories and nutrients to maintain your health.

I had my husband take photos of all three sides of me once a month on my surgery date until I hit maintenance 20 months later. I'm SO glad I have those photos! GooseyGirl is correct - you don't always see the difference month to month, but you can by comparing photos to ones that were taken three or four months earlier. Plus I love having the photo documentation of my journey!

those are pretty rare after the first three months post-op, but I suppose .. The numbing part is weird, though - unless it's from malnutrition? Anyway, yes, you're right - not normal or healthy. I'm hoping the surgeon checked all this out.

it's pretty standard for surgeons to prescribe PPI's for awhile after surgery. I had them for a year - but three-six months seems more common now (probably because of the bad rap long-term PPI use has gotten the last few years). so you just now got a lapband? Or did you have one before and this was a revision surgery? I was just a little surprised because that very few surgeons place lapbands any more - it's been largely replaced by the sleeve (as the non-RNY option)

interesting. I had peroneal nerve damage three or four years ago, and the whole lower half of my left leg was numb for about eight months. I attributed it to a sprained ankle - but maybe it was coincidence?? At any rate, the feeling eventually came back, but it took about eight months.

I don't dump (only about 30% of us do), but I'm not sure I'd push the envelope like that to find out. It's evidently pretty awful. If you're a dumper, you'll find out eventually - but I wouldn't want to purposely try to set it off.

^^^^ agree 100% with what the above posters said.

that's constipation, then. Might be the low fiber/high protein. Just so you know, chronic constipation keeps up for most of us even after surgery. Even YEARS after surgery. I think it's mostly due to the high protein diet and some of the supplements (iron and calcium, for sure!)

I noticed after losing over 200 lbs that I actually SANK instead of floated! I've gained about 20 lbs back since then so I'm not a sinker anymore, but on the other hand, it takes a lot more effort to tread water than it did when I weighed almost 400 lbs! I think swimming is the only exercise where it's actually easier to do when you're carrying around extra fat!

yes - you just had major surgery, esp since you had hernia repair done at the same time. I remember feeling tired for the first couple of months - although it was the worst the first two or three weeks. After that, it gradually got better.

on the liquid diet, no. But I think I ate them occasionally starting a few weeks after surgery.

the pre-op diet is DEFINITELY the worst part of it! I was actually relieved the morning I checked into the hospital for surgery! weird that you're not allowed to have protein shakes, though. Even the strictest ones (like the one I was on) seem to allow protein shakes. I was allowed to drink 4-5 of them a day.

I haven't tried that particular one, but the unflavored ones I've tried do have a taste to them - they just don't have any flavor added. But they do have a slight taste. I can't taste it when I bake with them, but drinking them, yes.

your butt shape will change after all the weight loss. Mine was pretty saggy - but I had a lower body lift which tightened it up. Usually lower body exercises like squats and lunges will help with glutes - but again, your shape will change pretty fast, and there's not a lot you can do to help the sagginess with the amount of weight we typically lose. immediately after surgery, all I was cleared for was walking. After four weeks, I was allowed to do everything except for weights. At eight weeks out, I was cleared for weights. The first few months I did mostly water fitness classes - and walking. I also did the stationary bikes at my gym. Now I do dance cardio (like Zumba) and biking, but I was too heavy to do those when I first started on my journey.

it's not very common. I think it might have been more common back in the days when they did open surgeries, but now that most are done laproscopically, it's not commonly done. I did have them for my plastic surgeries, though.

it's very common to have a 10-20 lb regain in year 3 without much effort. I was convinced it would never happen to me - BUT...it did. That said, since you're dealing with too much muscle loss, then yes -it'd be good to stop the weight loss since you need to maintain your health. I started gradually adding calories when I got down into the 130s (too low for me) ("gradually adding" since it would have been too hard to suddenly add 500 or so calories a day to my diet - it took a few weeks to get up there).

^^ agree with summerseeker. Most of us don't feel restriction until we move on to solid food. In the meantime, keep measuring out however much you're supposed to eat and just eat that...

pain is all across the board, but the majority of us seem to experience very little (or none - just discomfort). Sorry to hear that you are one of the unfortunate minority - although I wonder if some of the pain is coming from the hernia repair (??). Did they send you home with pain meds? If so, take those to stay on top of it. It shouldn't last more than a few days.