BrandonKea

Hey all! About a month out from surgery I went in because I had an unusual series of events happen. Out of nowhere, I was able to eat significantly less than I had been (just yogurt and cottage cheese), and I had even vomited after a few occasions of simple drinking (Water only). So, I went in and had a swallow study done. That confirmed my new stomach was slow to empty, and my surgeon suggest a scope to go in and verify and if needed, dilate the closing connection to allow me to eat. I got called the next day, offering me a time on Monday to go in, or I could wait about two weeks. Since my symptoms had gotten better by this time, I said I didn't need to rush in and get it done, and that I could wait for two weeks. That was another big mistake. I found my symptoms would be ok in the morning and then at night, they'd flare up and I'd end up vomiting and being unable to keep anything down. This eventually morphed in to being able to consume no Protein shakes (I was put back on Clear liquids and protein by my doc regardless of when my procedure was, UNTIL I had my procedure.) I felt fine though because my body was still burning fat. But all things being the same, I put a note in my online chart for my nurses to see Monday, asking for the next available date to do the scope. Monday I was called and told to come in Tuesday. Everything seemed very routine, and the overwhelming feeling was this procedure would fix my issue and I'd be back on track. Wrong! I got up after the scope ready to walk out and feeling refreshed from what I'd just call a nap. The nurses had different plans for me. As they wheeled me back to recovery, I asked where my wife was. They told me she had gone to get something to eat and would be up soon, in the meantime, I should order some food. I was told that I could "have whatever I wanted," which I immediately questioned. I also asked why I needed a meal if I was leaving shortly. The reply was that I wasn't leaving shortly, I was being admitted overnight. I was literally shocked. Confused, and now wishing my wife was there to answer some questions, I tried to get whatever I could out of the nursing staff. They had limited information because they're all just staff in surgical recovery, they don't know all the details of every patient, and there were a lot of them. I got ahold of my wife who told me she had actually gone home because they said it would be 2 hours before I'd even get back to a room. She told me the dilation was only mildly successful, and that I was malnourished and had to stay overnight for observation. Long story short, I ended up with a PICC Line, a massive bag of TPN, and orders for home health to help me with future daily bags of TPN for about the next 4-6 weeks until they can go back in and do another scope. I'm feeling a lot of things right now, most of that is disappointment that this hasn't gone as easily as really everyone led me to believe. I understand every patient is different, but it's so hard to hear things like "you're an ideal candidate for this now because you're so healthy and your only comorbidity is hypertension, so you're mostly healthy aside from that," or, "we don't anticipate any complications in your case." The moral here is if you think you're having issues, call your surgical team ASAP and tell them. I have no clue if there was anything I could have done to avoid this, I honestly doubt it, but here I am with a 2 liter bag of Fluid I'll be toting around for the next month and a half either way.

I was off 4 weeks for recovery and now I'm off intermittently since I've had this structure.

Don't feel bad about taking the time off if you have it. I burned through 120+ hours of sick time, but I needed every hour of it, and then some.

Odd, I had an Upper GI (Swallow Study), but no EGD until post-op when I got my stricture (I've had two now.) Hopefully your surgery goes well! 8 months is a long time to wait, you don't want to know how long I was in the process...

Had my EGD yesterday, it went VERY well! My surgeon is very pleased with my outcome, and I'm definitely able to feel a difference in volume and as far as things moving more quickly. Now I'm just working on getting all that anesthesia out, I'm ridiculously sore!

It's nice to know I'm not alone, too. I've definitely gotten used to calling my surgical team, even though I feel like I'm bothering them, I'm not. That's what we all pay them for! They do great work too, at least my folks. Hopefully I can get this resolved soon, I'm damn tired of TPN already.

@@twinmomC I can't imagine being that far from my surgeon, I'm a 20 minute drive away! I have a feeling my path with EGD's won't be too much different though, they've already told me it'll take a few. Found out today I am scheduled back in for my next EGD in 12 days. That's only 12 more days (if I'm lucky) with the TPN bag, which for the moment is my biggest complaint. Apparently my stricture was so tight, they struggled to even get a pediatric scope in to do anything to it. Frankly, I hope they resolve this sooner than later.

Prior to surgery, I tried to get into weightlifting, but found that I was too heavy to even really do a bodyweight squat, let alone anything with added weight. Now that I'm post-op, I'm looking forward to eventually trying that again, but I'm worried about how my body will do with not having as much fuel to draw from since, you know, tiny stomach and what not. Anyone have any advice in this department?

Hello! I actually just stumbled upon this page tonight looking for general information, and I'm happy I did. I can already tell this is a wealth of information. I'm 28 years old, married with a 2 year old daughter. I've been overweight for most of my adult life, but only within the last few years has it really gotten out of control. I had been successful with many efforts to lose weight, such as basic calorie counting and portion control, exercise, and (especially) the Atkins Diet. I say successful but with that caveat, it was only at losing weight. Eventually, the pounds came back, and they usually brought friends. Almost 2 years ago, I went to the doctor for a routine check-up. Not news to me was that I was overweight, what was news is that I was in a range of "morbid obesity" that also came with high blood pressure (likely the cause of my ongoing, near-daily headaches.) I immediately started lisinopril to manage the HBP, and basically didn't change much. A few months later, I noticed simple tasks were getting more and more difficult to accomplish. Trying my shoes, zipping up my pants, getting in and out of bed. It was time for me to jump on the scale and see how bad I really had it. That was the second alarm; 390 pounds. As recently as 2008, I was only 300 pounds, relatively in shape, and considering a career as a Police Officer or serving on the Border Patrol. Now, I was carrying around an entire extra person. One of my bosses at work had recently had success in meeting with a dietician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Bariatrics Center. Seeing how much weight he had lost, I immediately made an appointment. Rather than see a dietician, however, I went right for the medically supervised weight loss program. After a brief assessment, I was prescribed Qsymia, a relatively new (and thus, expensive) drug that combines phentermine and topiramate. Starting with the low dose, I progressed to gradually more potent combinations of the same drugs, but eventually quit because the side effects were very challenging to cope with on top of a lot of work stress at the time. Did I mention work stress? I'm a 911 Dispatcher, a job not noted for its low levels of stress. I do suffer from PTSD due to some calls that I wish no human being would ever have to listen to again. You name it, I've heard it. The worst part about this job is that you aren't there to witness anything, so your brain has a tendency to fill in the blanks with the most graphic visualizations you can imagine. So, after the stress of work and some very drastic side effects from my medications became too much for me to handle, I slipped back into my old routine of eating bad food and lots of it. Working the afternoon shift means no time for a nice sit-down dinner, it means a cold dinner at your desk scarfing down take-out between phone calls and radio traffic. Fast forward to the summer of 2015, and I noticed my weight was creeping back to unhealthy ranges. I had actually lost almost 40 pounds fairly quickly, but by now had put all but 9 pounds back on. I went back to my doctor and asked what it would take to be a candidate for gastric bypass. Surprisingly, I didn't have much left to do. I had completed a new sleep study, quickly got back into eating well and losing weight, and was on a semi-regular workout routine (just walking, nothing crazy like P90X which I was doing before.) My doctor told me at the end of August that surgery before the end of the year was completely possible. I wouldn't have believed it, but as I'm writing this, it's the 28th of November, and I had surgery a few days ago. Opting for the Gastric Bypass over a sleeve or Lap Band, I knew that if I was going to resort to surgery, I wanted the tried and true method that would offer me the most results. Despite some mild complications during surgery, I survived, spent a few days in the hospital, and am now home recovering. I'm looking forward to learning from others on here as I go, and can't wait to see how much healthier I will be post-surgery.

Hi all, Wanted to drop an update on here. I've run in to some more complications post-op than I'd like. I'm that low percentage of patients who apparently have issues. When I actually had my operation, my stomach pouch leaked, so they did a revision on the spot, which basically just means they stapled more off. This resulted in an even smaller pouch than the standard RnY patient. It also meant some very deep stitches to keep everything from moving around. So, post-op, the stitches (which were sealed in place on the surface with staples) were the source of tremendous amounts of pain. I have a high pain tolerance, and hydrocodone wasn't even touching my pain. I ended up going back in, they ran some labs, gave me IV fluids, took the staples out, and told me to continue to lie low, it should heal on its own. After a few more days of my pain being at a 12 on a 10 scale, it did finally get better. Then, earlier this week, I started having an issue with the pureed food I was eating just sitting in my stomach. The only way I could move it was to throw it up. This was happening with food and liquid/water. So I went back in again, and after an upper GI, they determined my stomach was very, very slow to empty. Now I'm waiting for 2 weeks to have them go in with a scope and balloon open my connection from my pouch to my intestine. In the meantime, I'm back on a liquid diet. So, I guess my update isn't really that positive, but there it is. My weight continues to fall off. I'm down 36 pounds from surgery just over 4 weeks ago, and soooo close to being below 300 for the first time in I don't know how long. Those are positive. But I'd really like to be semi-normal now...

I took about a month.

Best of luck on the recovery. I hope you get healed up quickly. We started in a very similar place. Hopefully you will have a fairly easy go of it through the different food phases. It helps a lot once you can start eating scrambled eggs and stuff. You may already be there, if not, you are probably looking forward to it. Thursday I (hopefully) get cleared to pureed foods. I've been on liquids since November 10th. I might enjoy that first bite of "food" a little too much haha.

@@dlappjr Thanks for that information. (It's also nice to read the stuff under your name and see we've got similar starting points and goals.) I have a feeling I won't get the clear for a little bit just because I had some minor complications and I'm still rocking some pretty healthy abdominal pain from some deep stitches they put in, but as soon as I'm able, I'm ready to get in there and start accelerating my weight loss.

I'll definitely ask my surgeon what his guidelines are. I don't plan on packing on Schwarzenegger levels of muscle and lifting small cars, but I'd like to do some small level of resistance training.

Oh definitely. I'm not in a hurry by any means.

This is excellent advice.

Congrats on your surgery date! Make sure you follow all your program's guidelines leading up to surgery. Each one is different, but yours should lay out what you need to do. Now's a good time to try to start losing some extra weight if you haven't already. As they've probably explained, the lighter you are going in, the easier surgery is. Also, taking steps to shrink your liver makes the procedure much more successful, since they have to move it out of the way. My program put me on Clear liquids for two weeks before surgery, the exception being I got to drink Protein shakes to get all the protein I needed (for me it was 90 grams a day.) Again, your mileage may vary. Keep reading up on what to expect for surgery, it will help you put your mind at ease. Prepare your home for when you get back, too. And get active! They'll make you move and walk around non stop after your surgery, so you might as well invest in yourself and get it going now. I had my bypass not long ago at all, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

nieuwevis, that's some very good advice. I used to tell people "I've lost xx pounds, but I don't know where because I still look fat," but I always seem to forget about how well my shirts/pants were fitting. It's very motivating to have outgrown (in the good way) some shorts that I bought at the beginning of summer that barely fit me. Hopefully, I'll keep having those non-scale victories.

I think you already know the answer here. He cheated, you more or less caught him, and while he may have wanted that, he's making you feel like garbage until you give him what he wants, which is likely a divorce. You're getting zero support from this man, and he's treating you like a non-partner. At least, that's what I'm getting from this side.

I had some nerves too, but, the things that reassured me were knowing that this procedure is, for the vast majority, low risk. Your surgeon is likely well trained and has probably performed this surgery hundreds, if not thousands, of times. You'll be surrounded by nurses and other doctors who are focused 100% on making YOUR surgery a success. Post-op, having a support system helps. This site is great, if your center has a group that meets, maybe go check them out before your surgery to hear some stories about how it went. Ask a lot of questions! The more informed you are, the more comfortable you will feel.

I couldn't agree more, I've learned so much just reading the other posts, it's nice to see such a supportive group and to have so many resources. Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Hey all, my surgery was last week on 11/24. I was on a liquid diet for 14 days pre-op. Liquid diet for MY program was Water, calorie free beverages, broth, sugar free Jello, and sugar free popsicles. Also, I was expected to get 80 grams of Protein a day, and I had no problem drinking 3 of the pre-made "Premier Protein" shakes a day (found them at Sam's Club, relatively inexpensive too.) My surgery lasted 8 hours; I was scheduled for 3, but shortly after being anesthetized, they found they couldn't get a catheter in because apparently I had a narrow urethra (cue Hank Hill jokes). After urology came in and fixed that, my surgery progressed normally, but they found leaks in a few of my sites and had to redo all of my connections. After that, I spent the next 4 days in the hospital, and I'm now recovering at home. I'm now in the "High Protein Liquids" phase of my post-op diet, which is still Protein Shakes, the same liquids from my pre-op diet, and I can drink milk now. I had two drains installed during surgery, one came out shorty before I was released, the other will come out at my post op visit on this Thursday. My biggest complaint is residual pain from the drain site. Hopefully after my visit, I'll be upgraded to puréed foods. My surgery was at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, my surgeon was Dr. Vishal Kothari, and I can't speak highly enough of either. The process has had its ups and downs, but I'm very happy I've made this decision and looking forward to continuing my journey.

I'm 6 days post op, and planning on being off until December 19th, a total of 27 days. I work 8 hours a day as a desk jockey, err, 911 dispatcher. I feel like I could probably go back to work now, honestly. I'll update as I get a little further into my leave though.