Tufflaw

I was sleeved in Dec. 2016 and did extremely well at first - I dropped about 120 lbs in about 6 months, reaching my goal weight. I had some personal/professional issues including losing my job, starting and losing my business, health issues with my kids, etc. and I slacked off and just started eating like crap again and gained almost all the weight back. I had GERD both before and after the surgery but was maintaining it with esomeprazole. I got the revision to bypass in Nov, 2021 and as of today am down a little over 65 lbs. and the GERD is gone. As for your questions: 1) Your reasons for conversion from the sleeve to bypass. - My doctor said I was eligible for a second surgery and that he needed to do an endoscopy to see if the sleeve was dilatated (enlarged). If it was, I could resleeve or switch to bypass. If it wasn't, I'd have to go with bypass. They checked and it was enlarged so I could get either one but he recommended the bypass due to the GERD and potential future complications with long term use of the medication or effects to my esophagus from the GERD. 2) What was the post op period like compared with sleeve? - About the same. I think I felt a little worse right after the surgery because it was longer. My sleeve surgery was 26 minutes, the bypass was about 3 hours. It was supposed to be a little over an hour but there was an issue with one of the stapling devices not being able to reach a certain area so the doctor had to suture by hand which took longer. I believe I felt much groggier and a little more nauseous, but after the first day it was pretty much the same as the first time. 3) What is the best and worst part of having the bypass? - Best part is losing weight again and feeling healthier. Worst part was having to go through the surgery again due to my own screw up. Also this time they put a drain in my stomach for a week which wasn't fun. 4) Any dumping issues? - Not even once.

Wow those are tough restrictions. My doctor had me started on pureed foods on day 1. First day home from hospital I had some scrambled eggs and then later some chicken salad and tuna salad.

Welcome to the club! I had my sleeve in Dec 2016, lost a LOT (about 120 lbs in 6 months), slowly put it back on over then next few years, until I was almost back to my starting point. I got revised to a bypass in Nov 2021 and it's going great so far! As of this morning I'm down 65 lbs and feel great. Both of us now know how to do things right and how to do things wrong, so keep that in mind when tempted, that's what I plan on doing. Good luck!

Here is the Tropical Smoothie Cafe nutritional info charts - https://d38zwb0vf9f6v5.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/19172332/Menu-Optimization-2021-Promo-1-2022-Sports.pdf For me, I think even the Kids smoothie option has too many carbs, but YMMV. Some of the sandwiches look doable, I'd probably split it in half and have both lunch and dinner.

I just stumbled on your post and wanted to recommend the best breakfast I make - Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal There are a few more ingredients than most other oatmeals mentioned here but holy cow it's delicious! And the nutritional stats are really good too. You will need the following: 2 apples, cut in approx. 1/2 inch chunks (with or without skin, I prefer without) 1.5 cups of milk (regular or almond/soy - I use vanilla almond milk) 1.5 cups of water 1/2 tbsp of butter or margarine (I use Country Crock) - if butter sticks, cut them into a bunch of cubes 2 tsp brown sugar 1 tbsp ground flaxseed 1 cup steel cut oats 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt Mix everything into your slow cooker, cook on Low for about 7 hours. That should give it a nice crisp around the edges. Depending on your slow cooker it could end up getting burnt edges which aren't fun. If you want to avoid that use the double boiler method of slow cooking and add an hour or more to the time. Either way, make sure you coat the inside of the pot VERY WELL with cooking spray. Let it cook overnight and in the morning it will smell AMAZING in your kitchen and taste delicious. Put any leftovers in the fridge - to reheat put some milk in and microwave for a minute or so. I calculated that I made about 48 ounces of food, which was 8 servings of 6 oz. each. Here are the nutritional stats per serving (of course you can modify this up or down depending on your serving size, and your own ingredients): 159 calories, 29.4 carbs, 3.4 fat, 3.8 protein You can also add optional toppings after it's cooked such as walnuts, raisins, syrup, etc., that's up to you. Enjoy!

All I can say is what I was able to eat - right away I started with egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, after a little while I added in scrambled eggs with shredded cheese. Every day (and still continuing to today) I drank a Premier Protein shake (12 oz container) and whenever I got thirsty I'd drink Crystal Light lemonade. If you aren't taking in any food or liquid you're going to have problems, you should speak with your doctor's office if its this difficult.

I had GERD since 2010 and took omeprazole daily. 2016 I got the sleeve, didn't affect the GERD one way or the other. 2021 revised to bypass and my Doctor had me take the meds for 30 days post-surgery and then stop - my side-effects after I stopped and the GERD is gone.

One night

When I was sleeved in 2016 I started at 315, and dropped about 25 lbs during the liver shrinking diet. It took me about 5 o 6 months to get down to 195. Unfortunately I screwed up and over the next several years put most of the weight back on. I had the bypass 11/17/21. I started at 293, got down to 278 after the liver shrinking diet, and as of this morning am just over 237.

I felt really really out of it when I woke up after my bypass, much worse than when I woke up after my sleeve. But the sleeve surgery lasted 26 minutes and the bypass was nearly 3 hours (it went long because there was an issue where they couldn't use the stapler to close the pouch and had to suture by hand). I felt absolutely miserable for a day or two but then started feeling a little better every day. Within a week or so I was feeling much much better. I don't know if I would say my stomach was sore, externally anyway. I had some weird twinges inside but that went away after about a month. I don't know what you mean about feeling my stomach or intestines, I didn't have any weird sensations other than the twinges every so often. No burning senations. They prescribed me Percoset, and I got ten of them to take home, I only took four, and two of them were just to help me fall asleep for two nights, I didn't need them anymore after that. I had gas pain after the sleeve, mostly in my shoulders, from the air they pumped in during the surgery. I don't believe I had any this time. It wasn't terribly hard to move around. They had me up on feet shortly after I woke up after surgery, and then they woke me up every two hours to walk a few laps in the hospital hallway. They recommended doing the same when I got home. I didn't do it that often but I was able to get around OK, albeit very slowly for a few days. Good luck!

Yeah this is all standard. I had all the blood tests done and had to get clearance for surgery from a psychologist, cardiologist (who had me wear a monitor for three days and did an echocardigram, stress test, and nuclear stress test), pulmonologist (did PFTs), and had an endoscopy. I think that's it. When I had my sleeve in 2016 I had to do a sleep study but didn't need to do another one in 2021 for the bypass.

I had GERD for years before my sleeve (2016), the surgery didn't change anything, the GERD was the same (not better or worse), I lost a lot of weight quickly but put most of it back on. In mid-November last year I had revision surgery to change the sleeve to a bypass and am losing a lot of the weight again (not as quickly but it's still coming off), and the GERD is gone! My doctor had me take another 30 days worth of esomeprazole but then that was it. You should have your doctor do an endoscopy to confirm whether you have GERD before doing anything else.

I'm trying to add some stuff to what I eat, I have a very limited "menu", can you recommend a few of your casserole/stew recipes? Thanks!

So how did everything go?

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I also reached out to Halo Top and got a less than helpful response just telling me the difference between ounces and fluid ounces. The most useful responses advised to check the grams per serving on the container which I didn't even think of - the serving size on the one I've been eating (Cookies and Cream, yum) says it's 3 servings of 2/3 cup each and then in parentheses 88 grams which is the key. One ounce in weight is equal to 28.3495 grams, so 2/3 of cup in weight is equal to 5.33 ounces which on the scale would be 151.103 grams. So by using the scale and measuring straight ounces (4 ounces) I'm getting 113.398 grams which is actually greater than one serving. To get one serving I should be measuring out 3.104 ounces which equals 88 grams in weight. Or at the very least I should be tracking it properly if I continue to do a 4 oz serving.

Hello, I'm looking for some advice. I weigh and track everything I eat, and most stuff is pretty easy. I like to have a few ounces of Halo Top ice cream as a treat at the end of the day and I think I might be weighing it incorrectly. One container is a pint, which is 16 oz. So if I measure out 4 oz, I should be able to do that 4 times per container, right? However after two servings at 4 oz each, there's only about 1.5 to 2 oz left. Am I measuring it incorrectly, or does the container actually have less than they're claiming? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I couldn't have made it without my Premier Protein, give it a shot. It comes in lots of different flavors, and it also has more protein than what you're currently taking. If that doesn't do it for you, try a different brand, there's a ton out there.

I've had both. I was sleeved in 2016 and did very well but then had some personal issues and put back most of the weight. I had the revision to a bypass last November and feel great and am doing well again. I was considering resleeving however I have had GERD for 11 years - it wasn't cured with the sleeve and it didn't get worse, but it didn't go away - and my doctor strongly recommended the bypass to avoid potential severe issues in the future from the GERD. I take the vitamins they recommend to avoid malnutrition and it seems to be working so far. The surgery for the sleeve is quicker than the surgery for the bypass since there's less moving stuff around, so the recovery can theoretically take a little longer, but I was in the hospital for only one night after both surgeries. The bypass was the "gold standard" for many many years and the statistics show that people with the bypass tend to lose SLIGHTLY more weight than those with the sleeve, all else being equal, but only a few percentage points. And you can certainly lose all the weight you need to lose with the sleeve, those are just overall statistics.

I didn't have band to bypass, I had sleeve to bypass, but I can still suggest what I think is the greatest tool for me - tracking RELIGIOUSLY. Every thing that goes in your mouth gets weighed and tracked. Buy yourself a little digital scale, you don't need anything fancy, can get a decent one for ten bucks on Amazon. Make sure it does both grams and ounces, and USE it every day for every meal, and put it in your tracker. I use MyFitnessPal (free version), you can use whatever you feel comfortable with. But weigh and track. NEVER eyeball a meal. You will always assume it is less than it actually is. I don't eat more than 4 oz or so at a time, and you would be surprised how small 4 oz of some foods can appear. The scale keeps you from cheating with the portions (even accidentally) and the tracker keeps you honest about how many calories you are consuming, as well as the nutritional values. An extra benefit of the tracker is if you start to have problems or backslide, you can go back to see what you did that worked and recreate those meals. I recently went back and looked at my entries in 2016 and 2017 to see what I was eating the first months I was sleeved because I was doing so well, and I started eating those same things again now and am seeing similar success.

Aldi's is great but you have to be careful, especially if you're driving far to get to one - the website shows their products but it doesn't show what's in stock or available at a particular store. You can't call a store directly either, the only way to see if they have a product in stock is to actually go to the store and look.

BJ's is a wholesale club like a Costco or Sam's Club. They also sell that Caulipower veggie pizza at other stores like Target.

Originally I started at 315, got sleeved in late December 2016, made it all the way down to 195 in about 7 months or so. I had several major issues in a short amount of time, including losing my job, having a health issue with one of my children, starting my own business and then losing it, so I had a lot going on and didn't focus on keeping with the program. When I started my two-week fast at the beginning of November 2021 in preparation for revision surgery, I was about 293.

Not to be cliche, but if you think you'll succeed or fail - you're right. You need to have the right mindset going into this. I did very well with my sleeve that I got in 2016, until I started slipping and put it all back on. Five years later I got the revision to bypass 6 weeks ago and it's going very well again, except now I know what to watch out for and how to (hopefully) avoid the pitfalls of last time. Believe that it will work, and do everything you can to help it work, and it will work.

Do you have an Aldi's near you? Every so often I buy their Panino Deli Tray, which is basically a few different types of sliced meat wrapped around cheese, I eat about 5 for a meal I think, which is about 4 oz. https://www.aldi.us/en/products/deli/prepared-meals-sides/detail/ps/p/specially-selected-panino-tray-5/ If there's a BJ's near you, try the Caulipower pizza (veggie pizza on cauliflower crust, it's delicious).

Oh yeah eggs are great - starting with the first day back from the hospital I have had eggs every single morning. I scramble two eggs, then mix in an ounce of shredded cheese and pour on a little taco sauce to taste (I do like adding taco sauce to everything). It's delicious, filling, and really cheap. I calculated it's about 50 cents a meal and that's my breakfast every morning.