leebick

I finally accepted that the "mindful eating" I'd practiced before and immediately after surgery wasn't just to be practiced then, but a whole new lifestyle. I guess I thought that the endless chewing, the limits on drinking around meal times, the "eat the protein first" were just caveats to help you get through the shock of surgery. However it's really how I eat all the time. I have learned to pay attention when I am eating- no TV, no computer, no reading- so that I pay attention to what I am eating and how much of it. I have a 20 minute eating window; when it's been 20 mins, the plate goes back to the kitchen. If not, I'll pick at supper over the next hour or two and eat the plateful, when in reality I was already full and didn't need to graze for the evening. I don't eat much carb- rice is hell for me, it swells inside and that's painful. Same with pizza crust, and most breads, so I just avoid them. I still do a protein shake for breakfast (Syntrax nectars with either water or unsweetened almond milk). Lunch is harder- sometimes cheese and crackers, sometimes soup. I'm not usually hungry during the day, but I will sag and drag after 3pm if I haven't had something to eat. Supper is usually some form of protein and maybe some veg. I also have dessert a couple of times a week, usually about a 1/4c of ice cream. I'll also have the occasional adult beverage, but I can't hold a lot of volume, so it's not too often and not too much- but a girl's gotta live! I think mostly what has worked best for me is mindful eating, small portions, choosing what to eat instead of just eating some of everything at a meal. Tonight we are having pizza and salad for supper (daughter got married on Saturday and we have quite a few leftover pizzas). I had the cheese and toppings from two pieces and ate them carefully. Can't do salad- it fills me up quickly and makes me feel gaggy, so although I love it I limit it to about 2 bites- just enough to satisfy the urge. Who knew I'd ever say the words "I miss salad?" but I DO!

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of my sleeve surgery. I am so glad I did this, and wish I'd done it years ago! It hasn't been without struggles, and I had hiatal hernia surgery in June 2021 because my sleeve had "slipped" up into my chest cavity. Still... all is good, I am SO MUCH BETTER since having the hernia repair, and I have kept all my weight off. I am just happy, and want to say to those with doubts... YOU CAN DO THIS!!

Still doing OK, in fact, better than OK. No more vomiting, and as long as I follow mindful eating, no more pain. Having the HH repair, instead of revision, has been amazing! I lost the 7 pounds I gained (and a few more) due to covid and am right back where I was, weight-wise, following my original surgery (FIVE years ago). I cannot imagine having had revision surgery, with the loss of the pyloric valve and risk of dumping. I am good.

Hi! I just thought about checking this thread yesterday, to see how everyone's doing. I am doing GREAT! It is SO NICE to be able to eat without vomiting, lie down/sleep without being awash in stomach acid, and to basically live like a normal person again. My daughter (she's almost 28) and I took a quick trip to Disney before she started grad school and it was wonderful! I could eat and drink in all our favorite places and not be sick! I'm eating less than I had been and slowly losing weight, too. I guess the surgery was enough of a change to my insides that it was like a "reset" or something- but I have that obvious "full" feeling again and am doing better with my weight management. NOW I have to get back into the gym regularly, something that ended when Covid hit and I just haven't re-established the habit yet. Hope you all are doing well!

Hi, thanks for checking in. Yes, it is getting easier, better. I just have to be mindful when eating- chew a lot, eat slowly, pay attention. Yesterday we went with friends to celebrate my birthday (I'm 65 today) and I was able to slowly sip a beer and carefully eat some nachos- it was GREAT, and makes me feel like finally I am going to get back to life! (5 weeks post-surgery, if anyone's keeping score!)

HI! My surgeon is a GREAT bariatric surgeon, as far as doing the surgery, but she isn't on top of much regarding the nutritional aspects of the program. I finally called one of the nutritionists associated with the bariatric program. She said it's not uncommon for people to have more issues eating after the HH surgery than after the initial VGS surgery. She said that she thinks it's because when having VGS, there is that long internal suture line from forming the sleeve, but it's not connected or stitched to anything. With the HH repair, I've had my sleeve "tacked" to something internally, as well as mesh stitched into my diaphragm. Every time I breathe or swallow something, that all gets "pulled on" and that's what she thinks the pain is from, and also that the mesh repair narrows the opening in the diaphragm through which the esophagus passes. I don't know... I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV, hahaha, but it seems kind-of a reasonable explanation! It's still a guessing game regarding eating. I eat soup for dinner at least half the time; not so much fun in the middle of summer, but it's food. I make sure the veggies in it are really soft and I can mash them up. Sometimes I can tolerate crackers in the soup, also. No pasta unless it's well mashed in sauce, but even then it's questionable. I mash up the macaroni in macaroni and cheese and it's OK, but when we had stuffed shells I only ate the filling and the cheese from the topping. No rice, no breads, even with a lot of butter. I had cereal recently (Lucky Charms) but had to wait for it to get soft in the milk. Eggs are OK, as is tuna salad and egg salad, but chicken salad today was disastrous. It's a different kind of pain than from the HH, more like a line of pain across the top of my chest. Salad is a no-no, has been all along, but right now I still struggle with ground meats (burger, turkey burger, etc). I do OK with corn on the cob, though, which is a gift as it's one of my favorite summer treats! I honestly never know what's going to sit well, although anything that is smooshed up in a gravy or sauce is usually OK, or meat that is fatty. I still have to take small bites and chew, chew, chew, but once it goes down, it STAYS down, which is a plus, and still NO GERD! Also no PPI, no tums, etc. I'm still not sure how any of this is supposed to go, but I am glad I had the HH repaired. I was tired of drowning in acid every evening and of vomiting up food daily.

I totally agree, it's the shape/size of the sleeve that allows it to slip up through the opening in the diaphragm. My surgeon said more than half of my sleeve had slipped up into the thoracic cavity. No wonder I could hardly eat, had pain when I did, and would vomit more times than not! I had my HH repaired a month ago, and it's been slow going since then. I am still trying to find foods that are comfortable when I eat. Mostly I'm still on full soft foods, as it just plain hurts when I try to eat meats, fresh fruit/veggies, etc. I saw the surgeon last week and she said to keep working at it, keep up with the mindful eating, and to add a 2nd protein shake to my daily intake. I was surprised to find that recovery from the HH surgery is VERY much like it was post-sleeve, eating-wise, and maybe even more challenging. I've lost 8 pounds in the month since the HH surgery. I am pleased about that, but it's due to not being able to eat much at once. I really don't care about eating, going out to dinner, etc., at all anymore. Probably good, maybe I'll hit that VGS goal weight after all!

Hi- My doctor did use mesh to repair the hernia opening, but didn't say how many stitches. I am not taking any PPIs, only took Tums once since the surgery (so almost 3 weeks). There is nothing in the surgical note about her having done any kind of touch-up on the sleeve. It's like the first few weeks when the sleeve was new in that I was on full liquids, finally worked up to a soft diet, but I can only eat a little bit before I get the "too much" signal from the sleeve. I have no GERD, no vomiting, no acid fumes, no block-like feeling in my chest, nothing. It's amazing. I have to pay close attention when I eat, take tiny bites, chew a LOT, and eat slowly. I can eat 3 bites of something and then on the 4th bite I am TOO FULL and it hurts; I definitely can feel the restriction from my sleeve again, which was something I was worried about. I was just out of town for a week at a family gathering (wedding and a memorial service, both postponed from originally scheduled due to covid) and I was able to eat much of the food being served. We were in New Orleans, so that is saying something! I just followed the rules for the soft diet and for mindful eating and it was OK, most of the time. Biggest challenge right now is staying hydrated, but that's always been an issue for me (even before having the sleeve surgery). I'm kind-of in awe how easy and life-changing this has been. All week I'd eat something and think WOW, I'm not throwing this up, it's staying down where it belongs!

I'm getting there. I'm a little over 2 weeks post-op, no GERD or vomiting at all. I am back to eating tiny portions, most all soft foods. I need to monitor my liquid closely- I know I'm not getting enough fluid- but I get full so easily! It's kinda like the first few weeks after the sleeve surgery.

Thanks for the support!! I'm not eating a whole lot- pudding, soup, protein shakes, cottage cheese, but not much else. Today I made chicken salad and pureed it. Gross... but it helps to have something different to eat, and so far I've had no acid issues. The weather isn't my friend right now. I live in north-central Maine, about a 4+ hour drive north of Boston, and we are having a heat wave! It's 92F outside with a heat index of 102F. The thermometer on my family room wall says 88F. Of course we don't have a/c in our home- hardly anyone does up here. I'm sitting with the fan blowing directly on me but it's so freaking hot!! I'm making my protein shakes with water and pouring them over ice so I get my fluids in. It's so hot I don't really want to eat much anyhow- although popsicles or fudgsicles sound pretty good right about now!

Day 5 Post-op... I am still doing OK. I overdid it a bit yesterday (I did NOT move furniture, my husband did, but I helped by supporting on occasion and it was too much) so took 5mg oxy before bed and I'm so glad I did. I could feel my body relax and the pain dissipate. Today I am feeling better. I spent a good part of the day sorting out papers and such from our bookcase and desk. I am frustrated with eating. I am on a soft diet but am struggling to eat much more than pudding without chest pain (diaphragm pain, actually). It's too hot for soup. I'm sip, sip, sipping my drinks so I don't have to worry about dehydration. I guess I hadn't realized what my post-surgical diet would be like, so I didn't stock up on anything. Tomorrow I'll go to the grocery store and see what I can find. Who knew I'd wish for cottage cheese! I am doing my breathing exercises but progress is slow. I can inhale 1500mL without coughing, but when I do to 1750mL it makes me cough. Tonight my chest/diaphragm is sore... not sure if it's from "working" today (seriously, all I did was sort papers out of the desk drawers) or just post-surgical pain. It's hot and I want to eat something and my chest hurts and it doesn't help watching my husband have a sliced chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato on a lovely roll, with chips, for his supper. Grrr... I must be getting better as I'm getting cranky! I'm going to give it another hour to see if I feel any better and can relax, and if not I might take another 2.5mg oxy to help me sleep. I seem to be OK during the day but start to really run down around 8pm. Oh well... I still feel like I am making progress and am SO GLAD my surgeon did this hernia repair instead of revision to a full bypass.

I am almost 5 years post-sleeve surgery, and last fall, in a Covid-Cleaning frenzy, I threw out all my old, post-surgery information. As usual, as soon as one pitches something, they need it. I have just had hiatal hernia surgery and am on a full liquid diet, but on Wednesday I can move up to the post-surgery soft diet- except I don't have my food lists anymore! Can someone list what's on a soft food diet, or describe what types of foods I can or cannot have (probably easier)? I've looked this up online but didn't find any soft-food diet that seems to be specific to bariatric weight loss patients, and I'm not sure our soft food diet would be the same as what is prescribed for the general public. TIA!

I know what else I'd do; I'd talk to the office manager or whomever is in charge and let them know that this nut is not attentive and has recommended you do things that could have serious consequences for your health. You're lactose intolerant and she's recommending you eat things with lactose in them? What's her problem? I mean, I know that eating lactose won't kill you, but what if you had a nut allergy and, because she's inattentive, she recommended swapping to almond milk? OR what if you had a milk allergy, actually allergic to milk protein and not lactose? Her recommendations could make you pretty sick. Sure... if someone has a food allergy you'd hope they'd know better than to follow poor suggestions, but it's easy to assume a medical "expert" knows what they are talking about and therefore choose to take their advice, KWIM? Also, I know you mentioned that cheese can be constipating for you, but cheeses such as cheddar, Edam, Swiss, mozzarella, brie and feta contain no lactose. Due to the way they are fermented and aged, the lactose is in the whey, not the curd- and these cheeses are low in whey content.

So many things: The towel fits. I can fit into chairs, airplane seats, folding seats at different venues (concerts, sports, etc). I can cross my legs. I can stand on tip-toe. I can reach down and lift the lever that opens the gas tank door. I used to have to get out and reach in, or at least put my left foot out on the ground. Now I just reach down and voila! The door opens and DH can pump the gas!

I don't really think the surgeons/doctors know what it's like- they aren't there. The ones who know what it's like are the floor nurses, the ones who were at my bedside, administering my meds, taking my vitals. I saw my surgeon for 10 mins on the morning of surgery and then for 10 mins on the day she discharged me. Her basic question was, "do you think your pain is managed well enough for you to go home?" I did... just didn't realize that I was being given more pain support meds in the hospital that would be prescribed for me to take at home. As I was leaving my hospital room, the CNA who'd been taking care of me said "Don't hesitate to call the floor nurses' station if you need anything." I wonder if she knew more about my pain management at the time than I did!