justhere4theshow

So, I have had a bit of trouble with stomach acid over the last couple of weeks. My surgeon increased my pantoprazole to twice a day about a week ago. Twice since then, I have woken up with acid coming up and choking me. I cough and sputter, and it feels like it goes up into my nose and into my lungs. This concerns me greatly because it is painful and now I am afraid to lie down, and I cannot sleep in my recliner (I'm a lifelong side sleeper) I have been suffering with bad hunger pangs and I know acid causes that too. Has this happened to anyone else? I think it may be related to my eating half a banana, but that is the only thing I can think of that was different. I also gained back three pounds in just a week, so I am very upset and discouraged at this point. I feel like my body is fighting against me a bit and I am letting it get to me. I plan to call my surgeon tomorrow. I have an appointment 8/22. If I can't get this under control, I am going to be miserable! Now I wish I had gone with RNY.

I am finally free...I finally said goodbye to the use of food for coping. I had so much head hunger while I was on liquids. That was hard. I never cheated on any of my diet phases, I just felt a lot grief over the loss of the coping mechanism. I was slow to feel confident in my ability to change my relationship with food for the rest of my life. I was a sugar/carb addict. But, slowly I developed a healthier approach to food. I need fuel, not entertainment or comfort. I slowly but surely found the will to disconnect my entire life from food. I made peace with it. I now eat to survive and enjoy other things. I am no longer obsessed with what I can eat next. I just think about efficient ways to get my nutrition now. I can go grocery shopping without anxiety. I had full-on panic attacks at first; I just couldn't imagine my life without most of what is in that store. Now I am able to go in for what I need, and I ignore the other stuff. It's a good feeling. I am so glad I had the surgery. It has truly saved me. I now love myself more than I love food.

Thanks for giving me that insight. Best wishes to you all!

I'm going to be very unpopular after this post, but that's fine...Could someone please shed some light on why it's such a secret if you had WLS or not? I don't care who knows, because at least they know I am taking action to correct a major health issue. How will we ever reduce the stigma if we make it such a dirty secret? Who cares if they judge you or don't "understand"? I understand keeping certain things to yourself, but for the life of me I can't imagine worrying about what other people think of my decision to have weight loss surgery. If they don't like it, that is their problem, not mine.

I would just have a candid conversation about your surgery and explain only as much as you feel comfortable explaining. If it's a serious or potentially serious relationship, I would think he/she would be very interested in your surgery and your reasons for having it. Anybody worth staying with will be glad to hear more about it. My husband was very supportive and helps me so much with exercise and my food, so it's good to have a support person in your life. Best wishes to you all!

I do enjoy salads so very much! Oh how I've missed them and now that I'm on a regular diet, I have been eating cucumber salads, fattoush, tabouli, kale salads and I'm loving it. I eat them in between meals currently.

I eat a lot of salads, mostly the prepared leafy salads from Trader Joe's, as a low-calorie, healthy lunch. I enjoy them. Most of them have some skinless chicken breast or soybeans in them for Protein, but I also really like their curried cauliflower and kale salad.
I also eat a fair number of the prepared legume salads - black bean, chickpea, and edamame, from Cedar's for lunch - good low cal Protein and oodles of soluble Fiber.

Before WLS, foood (sic) had a firm grip on my time, my thinking and my wallet. WWs and yo-yo dieting taught me to research and track everything I ate and I took that to the extreme (and not in a good way). I knew menus by heart, I planned my day so my lunnch (sic) stop could be somewhere new and interesting. I loved the feeling of full and couldn't help striving for it.
Now, I still plan my meals, but more for nutrition than satisfaction. I hate bring full, I can easily skip a meal if there is nothing that meets my dietary needs, and I don't think twice about it.
Instead of living to eat, I eat to live. WLS has broken the mental hold foood (sic) had on me and I'm thrilled.

I grew up not drinking with my meals, so it wasn't that big of a deal early on.
I mean if you really don't understand why eat and drink at the same time while on soft foods. The pain and discomfort will stop you from ever wanting to do it again.
At a year plus out I do take a sip with something that turns out to be dry like chicken because taking a sip is better than choking on dry meat
I think practicing before surgery is almost impossible and a waste of time. Life post op is so different at first, it will teach you.

@@even11, give yourself permission for time to more fully absorb the idea of surgery and lifelong changes for lifelong success. Don't do it until you are reasonably calm of mind, heart and gut.
While you anticipate post-surgery problems, remind yourself that there's always a possibility regardless of the surgery, meaning bariatric, appendectomy, a manicure or other. We all make choices when we're as close to ready as anyone can be.

Luckily, salad is a slider for me too... i am 3 months out and i always have some sort of salad or veg with my Protein... i take 2 small bites of salad, to each bite of protein... but i don't use the standard salad mix... i add things like spinach/arugula, radish, Tomato, olives, cucumber, peppers, feta cheese, avocado etc
This way i am getting Vitamins and actual nutrition as well.

When I asked my NP about ssalad at about 6 months out, she asked me what I missed. I told her it was the crunch/flavor variety of the sweet peppers, spicy onions, cukes, olives, radish, etc. She told me to go to the market sala!d bar and make a serving of toppings and have at it!

I could only eat a little but is was exactly what I wanted. Now, three years out, I'm still doing the same.

I think it's just surprising to me that my tastes have changed so much. I think I just lost my "obsession" with salad. Wow. It was the only healthy habit I had before surgery, haha...but I have also lost my taste for bacon, and I am now in love with melon of any kind. Before surgery I wouldn't have eaten cantaloupe or honeydew unless I was being held captive and that is all I had. Now I am in love with honeydew! I think what I have learned is that if I am not passionate about it and/or it isn't good for me, then it's just not a part of the way I eat anymore. Interesting. I am so grateful for this tool. It has helped me to make changes I never thought possible.

I chose the sleeve, which was also what my surgeon felt was my best option. I'm peri-menopausal and I've had severe anemia in the past, so I didn't want to have the malabsorption that RnY creates, since I'm in dire need of Calcium because of my age and Iron because of my medical history. My BMI was 40.5 and my only co-morbidities were hypertension and sleep apnea. I've always been very active, so I wanted the surgery that would give me the best chance for weight loss with the least possibility of causing drastic changes in my ability to be active.
I'm only a couple of months out of surgery, so I don't know yet if I made the right choice, but I feel good, I'm down 38 lbs since surgery and I feel the best I have in 10 years.
Good luck in your decision, I struggled with it for months but finally made the decision and it was a relief to stop swinging between VSG and RnY.

I'm going to copy and paste something I wrote a couple weeks ago explaining my reasons for choosing the RNY over the sleeve. Hope my perspective helps in some way.



I did consider sleeve and would have happily gotten one if my surgeon had had some reason for me not to do the rny. But rny seemed like a better option for me based on a lot of different things.



- There is much more long-term data on it.

- It's considered the "gold standard" of wls.

- My bmi was very high at the beginning of the program... about 67. From everything I've observed/researched and learned in the surgeon's seminars, those with higher bmis tend to lose more during the honeymoon phase and continue to lose more/easier in the maintenance phase. I had a looong way to go to get to my goal.

- I wanted the accountability of the rny. Many sleevers I talked to simply didn't have dumping, or were able to tolerate slider foods even in the weight-loss phase. I wanted the most strict accountability either surgery could offer, and that meant the rny.

- Many sleevers I talked to years out that had started very heavy as I did were not really happy with the larger amount they were able to eat, how easy it was to eat bad foods they should not eat, etc. The rny offers more restriction. True, I can stretch out my pouch just like a sleever can stretch out their sleeve but it seemed to me (and statistics back this up) that rny-ers had more restriction farther out than sleevers, and I wanted that.

- I also knew a lot of sleevers who, for whatever reason, wanted revisions years later and couldn't get them because of insurance, etc. I could mess up my rny too, of course, but I wanted the smallest chance possible, and the biggest bang for my buck.

- I saw many sleevers, particularly ones with high bmis, entering maintenance with 50, 60, 80 pounds left to lose to reach goal. Of course, this wonderful tool will help you reach goal after maintenance has started with enough work and dedication regardless of the type of wls, but since I had such a long way to go and I wanted to lose weight as quickly as possible to give me a good head start on my life-long road to health, the rny seemed a better option. As it is, I'm not yet in maintenance and I'm about 45 pounds away from my goal. Chipping away.

- The only arguments people had against the rny did not really matter to me at all. I have to take Vitamins for the rest of my life? Okay, no problem, most people probably should be anyway. There's a slightly higher risk with the rny? Okay, it's really a tiny extra risk, and with all the added benefits, entirely worth it. It didn't scare me at all. I may deal with malabsorption and other complications? Well yes... but so may the sleeve. The different percentages of risk were so close anyway, it didn't worry me at all to take that leap for what I perceived to be my best chance at getting the best head start I could, which would not only greatly improve my health (it has!) and greatly improve my self-esteem (it has!) but also greatly reduce the difficulties of everyday life (it has!!) as soon as I possibly could. I'm 24 and I left college two years ago because I was so sick. I've been sitting here fixing my body and essentially saving my life, and I really don't want to and can't wait another second to start my life. I'm enrolled and going back to school in about 3 weeks, and I look and feel pretty much normal now. I've had no complications, and I've lost 172 pounds since the day of surgery less than a year ago. This was my dream, and it felt like a silly and ridiculous fantasy before. But here I am, and everything I could have possibly wished for has come true for me. AND BONUS! It only gets better from here!



For all these reasons and many more that are more personal and harder to explain, I would choose the rny all over again, and again, and again...

Nope. I was never a big salad person -- I like meat. And now, I find that I don't really care for it, and I am so cautious about not getting stringy sorts of greens/raw vegetables. So, pretty much, I have a couple of bits of arugula every now and then, and that's just about the only raw vegetable I eat.

My life is pretty much charcuterie and cheeses. :-)

For me, salad is a slider. No restriction at all. I can eat a massive amount of greens, I usually have a 50/50 mix of spinach and european greens. I eat about 85 grams at a time, that is 3 cups roughly.
I find it to be awesome. I have 2 salads like that a day pretty often. It is a great "snack" and the only way I can get my greens in. I need the Fiber and a huge volume amount of salad greens are 20 calories. 20 Calories for a HUGE bowl. I use calorie free dressing or I just use seasonings.
I didn't add salad in as a regular part of my diet until about 9 months.
20 calories, 3 cups. It is the only time you get to eat a large volume post op and it is basically no calories.
Don't discount salad, when you can eat more it is can be very mentally satisfying.
I am still trying to get to the pound of veggies a day that Dr Matthew Weiner suggests.
BTW Lettuce has basically no nutritional value, I never ate it before surgery so I won't start now. I have always been a baby spinach lover.

I'm like that with everything. I would get all excited, get my hopes up and then 2-3 bites later I'm full. Why bother? I eat what I need and move on. One less thing to think about.

I also don't enjoy salads like I used to. Find that cooked veg are easier for me to eat and enjoy. Steamed or sauteed zucchini, summer squash , asparagus are my go to veg right now.

@@justhere4theshow The changes are very interesting, aren't they? My biggest weakness pre-surgery was baked goods...cupcakes, Cookies, cakes, pies...anything sweet. Now I don't even think about those (thankfully!) I like to add romaine, celery, onion and pickle to tuna or chicken with greek yogurt or light mayo. I can only get down about 1/4 cup, but the additions to the Protein make it not so boring and give it some texture.

I agree that this behavior is dangerous and should not be validated. BUT, it's not a reason to talk about someone like they aren't present. That was incredibly rude. We'd all be of more assistance to each other if we deal with facts, not emotions. Yeah, it pisses me off to see someone squander a chance like this, when they can achieve better health and move away from self-destructive behavior, and then willingly choose to be non-compliant, but I don't think it helps to express that rudely every time I read something on here that I don't like or agree with. Why does everyone feel the need to be judge, jury and executioner? State the facts and leave it alone. We are not doctors and we are certainly not responsible for anyone but ourselves, so to get all shocked and act like that diminishes your credibility. These things happen.
Edited for clarity.

I was dying for a salad for sooooo long. I hadn't had one since before mother's day (my last day before I started pre-op liquids). I thought I would never be the same without salad. I have been doing pretty well with most everything I have had a taste for thus far, and tonight I got up the nerve to have a salad. Hubby wanted hot wings from Zaxby's, so I ordered a side salad and a single chicken finger. I cut up the chicken finger and ate it first. I had room for three bites (small bites) of salad, and then I was just completely disappointed. I don't care for it because it seems so empty and useless. And now I am hungry after about an hour. Has anyone else concluded that salad is just a waste of our time or do you still enjoy it? I would rather single out a couple of my favorite veggies and have that with my Protein. The lettuce is just not useful. Although I think I will try some baby spinach next time and see if it's better. What are your thoughts on salad?

@@JazzyV it is very overwhelming. For me, I think it was one of the hardest things I had ever done related to my eating habits and relationship with food in general. It helps so much to find out how tough you are as you go along in the process.

My thoughts exactly!

I think it's just surprising to me that my tastes have changed so much. I think I just lost my "obsession" with salad. Wow. It was the only healthy habit I had before surgery, haha...but I have also lost my taste for bacon, and I am now in love with melon of any kind. Before surgery I wouldn't have eaten cantaloupe or honeydew unless I was being held captive and that is all I had. Now I am in love with honeydew! I think what I have learned is that if I am not passionate about it and/or it isn't good for me, then it's just not a part of the way I eat anymore. Interesting. I am so grateful for this tool. It has helped me to make changes I never thought possible.