summerset

I needed surgery because of adhesions last week and I decided to attend the education class for the immediately post-op patients again. I wanted to know if there was something "new" or "different". I'm still surprised how different the advice is from country to country, from hospital to hospital. The hospital I had surgery at are very against strict rules with the exceptions of a few general ones, some applying only to the first 4 weeks after surgery. The only "long-term rules" still seem to be: eat enough protein, take your supplements, drink your water, no high calorie beverages, don't drink 30 min before/after your meals. Otherwise it's about this "balanced diet" that you can read about in every health magazine. No calorie-limits, no carb-limits, no low-fat this or skim milk that. No calorie or point or whatever counting. What surprises me a bit is that quite a few patients seem to long for more guidance, for exact meal plans to follow, for calorie limits, for strict rules to follow, for exact advice what supplements to buy and take. I remember I felt free and so did others, however, there were also patients who felt more intimidated and/or overwhelmed by this "freedom". "Follow your program?" I think you should and IMO exactly that makes discussion about "the program" so very difficult because there simply is no "standard program" to follow as it seems. I sometimes think some patient's/user's interpretation of that sentence is more like "I'm following my program until it doesn't fit my view of the world anymore and if you're following your program but it doesn't fit my view of the world I'm going to lash out at you." I think if you really can follow your program without much problems and making it a full-time job, everything's fine and dandy. However, if you're struggling or being not successful or your new job is being a bariatric patient who had surgery - it might be time for a change.

Things are handled very differently. The anesthesiologist told me it's ok to eat until midnight and to drink until 6 am (means being allowed to have clear liquids like water or tea for up to 2 h before surgery). A sip of water to take the pre-op meds immediately before surgery is also common if you're prescribed some.

This. Makes me sad to see the OP beat herself up because she's not at a normal BMI yet.

Cronometer is best. Tracks your micronutrients as well.

To be honest I kind of wonder why your surgeon didn't revise you to bypass in the first place.

We do because almost everyone on a diet falls off the wagon - that's why diets usually don't work in the long run. And that is why I think it's sad that so many WLS patients don't stop the restrictive dieting after surgery. On the contrary, some even top their former dieting by adopting even stricter rules, believing that "this time it will surely work".

Any soy protein isolate should fit your criteria. There are plenty of them out there. Try several to find your favorite. I use Powerstar. VEGA is a great choice, too, when it comes to the ingredients. (However, it's very pricy and I think it's very sweet).

People hear the term "intuitive eating" and have that reflex gut reaction of "oh, that means stuffing my face with all the crap I can find" (and that's simply not true). Restricted eating doesn't work long term for that many people. We see it all the time on the boards as well: "HELP! I started eating "crap" again"!!!!!! (on this board that usually means eating something containing carbohydrates). People make the same mistakes they made before WLS: going on a restrictive diet, wanting to be 110% perfect, having great success and then finally burning out, not being able to follow the diet anymore. All that "educated eating" got you in the place of needing WLS in the end. At least I don't think that the pre- and post-WLS diet was your first shot at "educated eating". If so, you had WLS way too early when it comes to the opinion of the so-called experts. However, I know that I'm quite (luckily not entirely) alone with this opinion.

You go!

When I got my band in 2001, nobody talked much about bypasses in Germany, especially not in young women, so the band was the way to go. Some years later I wouldn't have chosen the band again and I'm glad I was converted to MGB after the band started to erode into my stomach.

It depends on what you eat. And lets face it: poop usually doesn't smell good anyway.

Reflux can happen at any time. I had my band removed because of reflux and esophagus issues. Still having some problems, but it's a 1000% better than with the band (that was completely unfilled for a year, btw).

It sounds like reflux which can cause esophagitis. Have it checked out.

Good ones do that. The bad ones could be replaced by a little high-gloss booklet without missing any information. Could save a lot of money.

When you experience dumping. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about "carbs". IMO using some basic common sense is enough, e. g. not gorging yourself on isolated sugars but getting the majority of carbs out of whole foods.

Yes, but I'm saying this is the easy way out - so I'm one of these people as well. The difference is: I don't think it's wrong to go this way, on the contrary I think it's perfectly fine to arrive at a point where one considers WLS the next logical step.

Ok, so I'm full of crap and I am going to f**k myself and someone loves this. I took the easy way out and I don't care if someone has a problem with that.

Jokes aside. I guess one really can't win in this "moral battle" when it comes to losing weight with WLS. My own impression is that people think we're not "deserving" of a weight loss method that makes things actually easier than conventional weight loss and this is not necessarily about vanity. "Fat" has become a moral issue long ago. We must suffer to make up for the sin of becoming obese, therefore we don't deserve WLS.

Well, I'm not really sure what to tell you. I absolutely can understand your worries about failing. A 100 lbs loss is definitely not "failing" though I can absolutely understand that it feels like failure if you're still very overweight after having lost these 100 lbs. Revisions can be successful but there is no guarantee for it. Many banders seems to do better with the bypass (maybe because of the GI-altering method?) but then there is the fact that revision patients often don't lose that much weight and they lose a lot slower to begin with. I fear that nobody will be able to tell if you will lose another substantial amount of weight or not.

This is a sensitive subject, isn't it? At least I try to be sensitive about it as much as possible but I have to admit I'm obviously not that successful at it. I have to admit that I think (e. g. when I look at before/after pictures at this site) that the thinner person looks better than the fatter version of the same person. I also think of myself as better looking now. Maybe this is why I hate these before/after comparisons and maybe this is why I hate comments about my weight. It throws me into a kind of inner conflict.

I couldn't agree more. Maybe we can convince insurance companies as well?

Me, too - want to know why? 1) I didn't want people to be on my back for "doing this about looks", even though this weight was killing my soul because I felt like the "fat freak". 2) It was about health after all, so it wasn't technically a lie. and last but not least (in fact maybe most important): 3) You simply have to pretend that this is "about health only" because of the insurance companies. And "health" means physical health only in that case, not psychological health which is a shame. Same with plastics: Will I have plastics? Of course I will once my weight has been stable for a while again. There is the prevention of regain, that's a very important point. So is it because of physical health? Hell, yes - it's about regain prevention, but it's also about psychological health! This is about looks and feeling good within my body without getting skin in the way while exercising or sitting down or whatever and being able to wear a skirt or dress without having to wear pants underneath so the skin between my thighs won't rub itself to death. Of course when it comes to insurance my one and only point will be the prevention of regain and the occasional rash (which most likely means that I'll be a self-payer abroad).

Depends. There are carbs that provide "volume" in the pouch, e. g. non-watery fruit like bananas, bread, pasta, pizza etc. - you should feel the restriction with these. When it comes to "low-volume" or more or less liquid carbs, e. g. chocolate, ice cream, cookies etc. - you can eat quite a lot of calories and you won't feel that full.

Lower right abdomen? Do you still have your appendix by any chance?

1800 cals a day is not much for a guy your height and weight. Do you exercise?