Cervidae

hi, and welcome you'll find a lot of really awesome people here. Feel free to ask any questions you may have, and there will almost always be people able to share their own knowledge and experiences. See you around!

Cool, sales are great. Though I am very saddened to see that you guys no longer carry the non-spinach quest pasta... I'm allergic to spinach. :'(

you'll do just fine! All you need is an open mind and a willingness to learn and change, and you obviously have those things. It's mostly going to be a short little class telling you to lay off soda and bread and eat more Protein, drink more Water, etc.

You're a big girl and can make your own decisions, but keep in mind that the stages are there for a reason. At four days post op, your sutures on your stomach are extremely new and delicate. Most likely the pain you are feeling is inflammation of these sutures. It's only "dull" because most of the nerves are still numb from being severed, so most likely you aren't feeling nearly as much damage as you may be doing. You could be seriously harming your new stomach! Not to mention, a progresso can contains 18.5 ounces of soup. So over a cup of non-strained soup... most people can't do that for a few months post-op. You didn't go through all this pain and effort to sabotage yourself now. You could damage your new stomach beyond repair or worse... much worse. I don't mean to sound alarmist, but you've just undergone huge abdominal surgery and you are putting your life at risk for a can of soup. You are better and stronger than that! Please take care of yourself and remember why you went through all of this and worked so hard in the first place. Good health is yours if you are willing and able to work for it. Everything leading up to the surgery was just the tip of the iceberg, and now the real work of healing and maintaining is ahead of you. But you won't ever get there if you never heal. I wish you the best! You are strong, and you've made it very far. You can do this. Don't give in to your head hunger.

you may have PCOS! Sounds exactly like what I go through. I'm almost 8 months post op and my periods are nowhere near regular yet, but I have hope. The fact that I've been getting them at all is a big improvement. I have truly never had a normal cycle, even when I first got it at age 10. Following! I would like to read others' experiences. I really want to believe I will someday have relief from these cramps and a somewhat normal cycle.

I think we can sometimes take for granted what a huge, mind-blowing gift we are given by having the means and opportunity to have wls. I think we sometimes forget, when all is said and done, that not only are we losing weight and becoming healthy, but most of us avoided death that had been lurking just around the corner. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of this woman, and it grieves me to consider the enormous amount of people who never had the chance that I've been given, or never will. It's humbling. I'm going to cherish this gift and live my life remembering every day just how incredibly lucky and grateful I am.

stalls are completely necessary while our bodies are healing. Also, you've gone through a huge trauma, and now your body thinks you are starving and dying, so it's going to occasionally fight to retain what storage it has. It's completely normal and you should be more worried about never stalling. Yes, losing a lot very quickly is the norm for wls patients, but it is in no way normal for our bodies to lose this much this quickly. I'll give you the same advice the wonderful people here gave me when I was here worrying about stalls in the beginning: - stalls are necessary and normal - worrying about it is completely futile, because you can't control it. - worrying about it is actually harmful to you because your state of mind affects the state of your bodily health. - this journey is not about how fast you lose weight. It's about regaining your health. You must focus on your health, and the weight loss follows naturally. - it's normal to obsess about this, but the best advice for your health and long-term success is JUST DON'T! - also 24 pounds in two weeks?! Actually less than a week and a half?! You've lost more than two pounds a day. And you're really worried about a stall? That's just silly! I did the same thing in the beginning, and I lost less than half what you did in the same amount of time. Yet here I am, less than 8 months later and down 137 pounds. It all adds up and evens out in the end. This is about you and only you, and your health. Losing weight is a wonderful side effect of getting healthy, in our cases. Make your main goal self-care and health and everything else you want (like the weight loss) will come too!

Caffeine is on the list of "we should not ever be drinking this again because it dehydrates us and causes stomach ulcers" but people still drink it all the time. I personally feel I have worked too hard and undergone a life-threatening surgery and come too far to risk stomach ulcers or to sabotage my hydration/health. But that's a decision you're going to have to make for yourself. my favorite protein drink is premier protein (chocolate only) but I understand a lot of people don't like it and need to search for alternatives.

Good to hear.

Man, I looked at these and was really excited to try them, but then I saw that they are almost $4 a bottle! That's insane! I too am curious how they taste, though. Following.

er, what?

I also drank Premier Protein for my preop diet. I had two of those a day, which gave me 320 calories and 60 grams of protein, and then for dinner a small healthy meal like 3 ounces of chicken or turkey and a cup of veggies. I also doubled my Water intake that entire week because the more hydrated you are for surgery, the better! I lost ten pounds that week.

I was 22 when I started looking into surgery, 23 when I had it, and now I'm almost 8 months out and I'm 24. Feel free to ask any questions or send me a message or whatever you'd like.

edit: my previous post doubled for some reason. Ignore. XD

I've had depression and generalized anxiety disorder most of my life. For the first six months after surgery, both were up and down and I had pretty quick and severe swings. Now I'm 7.5 months out and I feel great. I'm not even taking my anxiety meds anymore, and while that's a little shaky sometimes, I'm a firm believer that my general improvement in overall health has had a great impact on my psychological health.

hold your nose while you drink it, that actually does help because it greatly reduces your ability to taste if you can't smell it. Also I don't know if you're supposed to drink it cold or room temp but cold almost always goes down smoother and has a less noticeable texture. I didn't have to do the prep, thankfully, but I totally feel your pain with the super responsive gag reflex! Hang in there and chug that sh*t!

congratulations! so exciting! Take good care of yourself.

Man, I really can relate to so much of this. I do a "chew and spit" thing all the time, too. Not only do I not enjoy food but the process of planning what to eat or forcing myself to eat is extremely anxiety-inducing for me, too. I didn't have all of these complications you had to deal with, but from day 1 I've had a really (irrational) intense worry that my new stomach isn't strong or that if I get something stuck it will just tear or explode... things that don't even really make sense or have any chance of actually happening. I feel much, much better when I restrict my calories. Maybe not physically. But mentally, on the days I have some reason (whether real or invented) to greatly restrict my calories, I feel like I'm doing well. The days I actually eat 1000-1200 calories - I've only had two of these days - I feel absolutely horrible and the urge to drink nothing but a Protein shake or two the next day is almost unbearable. The fact that I do lose more when I starve and stall or gain when I eat enough, coupled with how good my bloodwork still looks, just reaffirms my positive reaction to not eating enough and my anxiety and self-criticizing just pushes me further away from actual physical health. I'm in therapy too. Let's hope we both kick these problems in the ass in the end.

wooooooooo!

I was 9. I wasn't super overweight yet, but puberty starts very young in my family (my mom was 9 when she got her first period, and I had just turned 10 when I got mine), and that's around the time I started gaining. I remember my friend and I were weighing each other with my mom's scale in the bathroom before we went out to play and I was over 100 pounds. I was very tall for my age, at least 6 inches taller than her, but we both were kind of confused by it. I didn't think a whole lot of it until I showed my mom and she said "I'm going to need to put you on a diet!" It was then that I realized something was "wrong" with me. Funny enough, my diet wasn't my problem. I ate pretty healthy and didn't struggle with BED until my early teens. I honestly believe the nutritionists my mother frantically took me to, who all just accused me of lying and sneaking food, directly contributed to my unhealthy relationship with food and my self-image. I learned some hard, hard truths about our culture and my own place in it as an overweight person at that young age. I'm STILL trying to pull myself out of the pit of self-hatred I've been hiding in since that time.

It seems your belly button is far too low for it to be stuck food in your pouch. Could it perhaps be constipation? Have you had any diet changes recently that would be causing you a lot of gas? I get random abdominal pains that last for days sometimes too, and it's usually gas and constipation for me. A day or two of smooth move tea and collace and a LOT of Water clears it right up. Hope you get this figured out and that all is well.

Also, I was 23 when I joined my bariatric program and had surgery. I am now 24. Even as young as I am, I wish I had done this sooner. I can't tell you how often I read here or hear at my support group the same regret: "I wish I had done this when I was young, before I destroyed my joints/knees/heart/etc". Now is the time.

I was pretty worried myself, in the beginning. But then again, the tiiiiiiny risk of serious complications from surgery is a small fraction of 1%, whereas the risk of serious complications/death from obesity is enormous. When you look at it like that, it becomes not only downright safe compared to staying obese but also lifesaving, which it is! You could die from a random aneurysm in 30 seconds, or get hit by a car, or eat something that gets caught in your trachea and chokes you to death. In fact, the chances of these things happening are actually significantly higher than the chance of you having complications you can't heal from during the RNY. In the end, you've got to compare the tiny risk of something bad happening vs. the huge probability that something bad will happen if you do nothing due to the toll obesity takes on our bodies. Good luck with whatever you choose. We're all here to help.

Just make sure it's caffeine-free! That does sound lovely though, with or without gas pain.

Unfortunately, gas pain like that can only be reduced with time and moving around. Some of it may be relieved with Gas-X Strips, but generally this gas that was pumped into your abdomen during surgery is going to have to just be reabsorbed into your body. Hang in there, it gets better soon!