laceemouse

I had regular periods my entire life but most women with weight problems have issues. As you lose weight your hormones change drastically. You really need to go back to your GYN and try another birth control.

My surgeon says to never go more than 4 days without a BM. He recommends Benefiber. You add it to your Water and can't even tell it's there. It helps with constipation and diarrhea. He also recommend Milk of Magnesia. Every surgeon is different.

The purpose of the pre-op diet it to shrink the liver since most obese people have a huge fatty liver. The stomach is behind it and hard to get to, however, surgeons have a device they insert which holds the liver up so they can get to your stomach. Some surgeons feel that this is sufficient for their needs. I have heard of people who had no pre-op diet at all. I haven't heard of Dr. Hernandez but my surgeon only required a 3 day pre-op diet. He believes most people cheat when it is longer. And mine wasn't all liquid, it was just low fat/low sugar. When I had my surgery it was discovered that my liver was a normal size anyway, a long pre-op diet would have been unnecessary anyway. I have one less incision because my surgeon did not have to lift my liver. It's rare, he says he has never had a patient where he didn't have to do that before. That being said many people lose a lot during the pre-op diet. I didn't, so I feel like they are way ahead of me in weight loss. Still, long weeks of starvation pre-surgery sounds terrible to me. Why don't you go ahead and start eating healthy before your pre-op diet even starts? You could cut sugar and caffeine, drastically cut carbs and fat, etc. So when your 5 day diet does start it won't be like giving everything up cold turkey.

Most things taste terrible to me and I am a month out tomorrow. Anything that tastes artificial I just can't stomach. I got regular Fair Life and it tastes weird to me, I can handle it IF I add a little Nesquick to it (just a tiny bit) so that is what I am doing to use it up.

This question has been discussed a million times, search it. My doctor says most people wait a week, we were ready a couple of days after that. But the idea of my husband's 200 pounds on my at the time was a no go. We did spooning for the first week back at it. At around 2 weeks and a couple of days we were back to normal. Don't do anything you don't feel like doing. My stomach was very sore for a while and covered with bruises, in fact I am a month out tomorrow and still have the remnants of one bruise.

I felt hungry the day after the surgery in the hospital. I know it can be head hunger or stomach acid but it sure feels like hunger to me. Sounds like it too. The nurse told me many people feel hungry until they get to the point of getting some real food (not just liquid) in their stomachs.

Dehydration makes you feel nauseated. Make sure you sip water. Call your doctor if you can't get water down, your urine gets dark, etc.

After surgery we have to eat Protein first with each meal. Do you dislike lean meats? eggs? cheese? Yogurt? Or do you just go for carbs because you like them better and fill up on them? For me I always liked healthy foods. I love seafood, chicken, etc. My problem is I never felt full. I would have a healthy protein/produce lunch or dinner and get up from the table still hungry. I felt like I needed a starch or two with the meal to feel satisfied. SO....I think the surgery is working for me (I had VSG on Halloween, so far I can hardly eat anything) because when I do start eating I should be satisfied with mostly protein. At the moment I can't wait to eat tuna, salmon, eggs, cheese sticks, nuts, etc. If I would have tried to ditch the carbs before surgery I would have been starving. In fact, I tried it a million times and I WAS starving. Maybe try Weight Watchers or an Atkins diet now? What have you tried before?

Almost everyone who loses a significant amount of weight has saggy skin. You can exercise arms and legs to build up the muscle and it helps a little but it depends on how much you lost in those areas. Stomach sagging is pretty much always the case. Go to YouTube and search: WLS, VSG, RNY, etc. Look for "skin flicks". People strip down and show it all.

I wasn't even allowed to drink the first day, and the next day when I could I had to take it really slow. Small sips. I had my surgery on Halloween and still have to drink really slowly. When I do a protein shake I can only drink about a third of it and then I have to take a break before I can continue. It takes me over and hour to drink a 10 ounce shake. You just had major surgery, you will be swollen inside for 5 or 6 weeks. Even after that you will only be able to hold a few ounces at a time. The first few days just concentrate on getting fluids in. You will have to sip all day. If you don't you will get dehydrated and end up back in the hospital.

I have it on good authority Thin people are not even interested in eating..... I don't know, all of my family and most of my friends are thin and most of them love to eat. They just get full very quickly. I would go out with 6 or 8 girlfriends for lunch and we would all have the same salad with broiled chicken, dressing on the side. They couldn't finish their plates, they were stuffed. I would eat every last bite and get up and leave the restaurant hungry. I was even like this as a kid, although I was normal weight. I ate school food and camp food while everyone else complained about it because I was HUNGRY. I cleaned my plate and asked for more. When I did get the point I needed to lose weight I would never stay on a diet long, I was STARVING. I did Weight Watchers many times and was hungry morning, noon, and night.

How far out are you? Water is the most important thing the first couple of weeks.

My surgery was 10/31 and I still struggle to get my Water and Protein shakes in. I don't understand how people are already eating a couple of weeks out, I really have no room for that. I do 2 Premier Protein Shakes to get my 60 grams a protein but it takes me like an hour to get each one down. That plus my water and I may have room for half a yogurt or a few spoonfuls of cream Soup each day and they is it. My surgeon says that is the way it is for the first 5 or 6 weeks, we are swollen inside. But like I said a lot of people seem to be eating and drinking a lot more really soon out. Yes, the swelling will go down and things will loosen up and it will get easier to eat by a couple of months out. By 6 months most people feel like they can eat too much if they don't watch it. Concentrate on getting your water and protein in, my surgeon says anything else is "practice eating" for a couple of months.

Best of luck to you!

I visited the Nicholson clinic and they were not very helpful to me, but they have a great reputation. I ended up figuring out that my insurance recommended the Center for Bariatric Excellence at Plano Presby. I had my surgery there with Dr. Hamn and couldn't be happier. I hope someone else who have use Nicholson answers you!

How far out are you? I am 3 weeks post op today and I am scared to eat anything my surgeon does not approve of, you could get a leak and end up very sick. I try to think long term. In 2 more weeks I will be able to eat anything that sits well with me (although I plan to take it slow) I am happy to be losing weight. I can't wait to see what I look like at Christmas, Spring Break, next summer....... I have been eating crap for years, I am done with it, I look forward to healthy things like eggs and fish and eventually veggies. I was miserable at 248 pounds.

With most insurance a BMI of 40 or above qualifies, but for some of them you have to prove you have been at that weight for a certain period of time, attend nutrition classes for 6 months, etc. Each insurance company is so different. I was just at BMI 40 and was approved very quickly, BCBS of Texas.

Thank you so much for your reply. This makes me less worried. Yes i never had surgery whatsoever. Never had kids. No nothing. So this is my first time ever going in cold turkey. But as you put it seems less painfull that people make it out to be. The most i've heard was gass pain. And other complications like lekkage. But this odly doesn't scare. The anesthesia is the part that makes me afraid. Waking up from it and how desoriented i may be. Yes i heard the incision doesn't hurt that much like its the pain of crunches. Yes. The liquid diet and proteine tend to not bother me that much I mean my biggest enemy is the food. And yes maybe i talk to simple. But not eating for a while seems like heaven because it stresses me so much out. Thanks again for your reply. I am really proud of you that you went through it like you did. Sent from my SM-G928F using the BariatricPal App Thank you! I did have gas pains after I had my gallbladder out many years ago but after my sleeve surgery I didn't. If you do have gas pains the best thing you can do is walk, it causes the gas to break up and move out. I do agree it is nice to not feel hungry, but for me it has been hard to get down the things I have to get down. My surgeon fussed at me on my one week check-up because I was not getting 60-70 grams of protein down a day. I just have to take it really, really slowly. Getting my water and protein in now seems like a chore, but I know that will get better with time. The anesthesia isn't so bad, you feel disoriented when you wake up but the nurses take care of you. Plus you will just sleep most of that first day after surgery. I spend 2 nights in the hospital and all I did was pee, sleep, and walk. It wasn't bad at all!

Just take it slow, and try different temperatures of Water.

Many people don't lose much the first week or two. Your body is still healing and you retain a lot of Fluid after the surgery. Also think of it this way, would you have lose 11 pounds without the surgery? I had my surgery on Halloween. I only weigh once a week. I am not going to worry too much about it until I am 5 or 6 weeks out. I can hardly fit 2 Protein shakes and all my Water in my tummy each day. There is no way I could eat less. I do try to walk every day but right now there is nothing else I can do no matter what the scale says. Also, most people lose during their pre-op diet so their bodies were already used to almost no calories.

People lose a lot of weight in their faces so I would think you would lose there. I know people who had to get new glasses because their nose got skinnier, people go down in shoe size, people lose all over!

My surgeon said most people start having sex again after one week, we waited almost 2 because my stomach was all bruised up (my surgeon said I bruise easily) and I couldn't lie on either side before then. I had my surgery on Halloween and still don't like the idea of my husband's weight on me. He isn't fat but he is 200 pounds. What works for us is spooning. I can rest on my good side (the right side, most of us have a large incision on the left where they remove the stomach) and I don't have to move too much or twist at all. And no weight on me.

Are you on your phone? It works better on the computer. Go to the top where it says "Hello Dawn E Dorsey" and you can see all the different categories and make changes to them. Then just "save" the changes.

I love those soups!!! I found them at Kroger, I have had split pea and tomato so far. I was on Clear Liquids for 3 days but after that went to full liquids and things like yogurt. I can't have much else until 5 weeks out but honestly I don't want anything else yet.

I take it you have never had any surgery before? I think of myself as having a low pain threshold. The reason I think that is because I had 4 babies and had an epidural every time. There is no way I could have done it without an epidural. Most of my friends had natural childbirth, home births, etc. If my first delivery would have been natural I would never have had another child. Even the pain waiting for the epidural to be placed was incredible. I just had my VSG on Halloween but I have have had my gallbladder removed in past as well as wisdom teeth and tonsils out in high school. I would say my VSG was not painful at all. I woke up with a morphine pump. I stayed in the hospital 2 nights. They sent me home with liquid codeine but I only needed it to sleep at night for the next 3 or 4 nights. I did feel sore across the top of my stomach for a week or so. It was like I had done a million sit ups. Sitting up is hard for a while. Pain is not the biggest issue, they manage the pain. The hard part is learning how to eat and drink again. You have to go really slow because it does hurt if you try to get too much in too fast. And if you don't get your Water in you will get dehydrated. Even now over 2 weeks out I am struggling to get all my water and Protein in. It takes me like 2 hours to get a Protein shake down. That's the hard part for me. I wouldn't say anything about this has been painful.