Sadiebug

My tastes didn't change too much. For the first maybe 3 months there would be random stuff that would taste funny - exactly as others have said certain flavors were just exaggerated. I would make my poor husband taste stuff to just confirm it was me But generally I like all of the same stuff I liked before surgery - and sadly that includes the sugar and carbs as well. But, I don't crave them like I used to. I still enjoy the flavors but it's not like before surgery when it felt like my life depended on getting that next box of cookies to binge on.

I didn't do a lot of food prep ahead of time other than buying some protein shakes... As far as the drain - I had one in the hospital and it was removed right before I was released. It wasn't too gross while it was in - the nurses did all of the work to empty it so I could just look away. Getting it removed was stressful for me but it didn't hurt and was over quickly.

I felt like I was a bit fuzzy for about 3-4 weeks. I wasn't completely out of it but I couldn't stay focused as long as I typically can. I just took a lot of small mental breaks throughout the day. I struggled a lot emotionally at first just getting used to everything so that certainly didn't help. I will say that once I got back to work, in my routine and using my brain on things other than the water, protein, vitamins cycle I felt 100% better. Everyone is different so give it a shot but be easy on yourself if you are fuzzy for a bit

I had my first drink about 6 months after surgery - and in full transparency my surgeon recommends waiting at least a year so I was not following their guidelines! I had a vodka based mixed drink, tried to pick one without many 'mixers' to keep the sugar low. My experience was that after 1-2 sips I felt very tipsy. I sipped on that one drink for about an hour and didn't finish it - and I was hammered. It was as if I had 3-4 of that same drink (pre-surgery). So yes, it hits you very hard very fast. The other part I discovered was that it felt good... I have struggled with food addiction my whole life and now I don't have food to rely on - so the fact that the alcohol made me feel so happy so quickly scared the crap out of me. Transfer addiction is a very real thing. Now I drink very rarely (once every month or two) and I always make sure I have someone responsible with me and I limit it to one drink.

I had RNY in January of this year and I had similar fears going in (I have severe GERD so sleeve was not an option). I have not had very few issues with food intolerance and no dumping. I have tolerated all meat that I've tried. In the first 1-3 months I would occasionally get a little nauseous from some meats but that passed after my stomach healed. I do have trouble with sometimes is dry chicken - but really, who wants to eat gross dry chicken??? And I don't vomit or anything, I just get a bit of a 'stuck' feeling and have to stop eating. The only times I have truly gotten sick (i.e. vomiting or pain) was because I ate more than I should have and didn't pay attention when my stomach said it was full. I have noticed that now I can just take a bite of something to get the flavors and then move on (especially with sugar/desserts). I think the 'fear' in the back of my head of getting sick helped me pick up that habit and it's something I still do now even though I know I won't actually get sick.

Totally normal. I wasn't having periods because I had endometrial ablation. But ever since surgery I've had very regular periods every single month [emoji22].

Yes. I'm right at 7 months out also and I've seen a few bad habits starting to creep back in. I justify it to myself by saying the quantities of junk are so much less than they were pre-surgery but I know that won't last. I am planning on starting to work with a therapist. Also I try and narrow down what I'm really craving or feeling in the moment. If I'm craving chips it's probably more that I want something crunchy and so I'll have raw carrots instead or that I'm frustrated and angry so I'll take a walk. Food addiction stinks. Hang in there!

Before surgery I didn't tell anyone why I was going to be out. My supervisor and immediate team knew I was having surgery but not what kind. My leave paperwork just said "major abdominal surgery" so HR didn't know much either. If anyone asked intrusive questions about what kind of surgery I was having I told them I was having a lobotomy and if they pushed further I said "why do you need to know?" After surgery it's been a mixed bag. Most people who have noticed my weight loss just say "congratulations" and that's it. If people ask how I'm doing it then sometimes I say I had surgery if I feel especially comfortable with them. Otherwise I just say diet and exercise. There are a couple people who might have figured it out but they haven't said anything to me and I don't think anyone is gossiping... I have social anxiety and am really sensitive to what people say so I feel like I would know or at least suspect if gossip was happening. I think people just don't care that much. Plus most know I've struggled with my weight forever and they are just legitimately happy for me. Best of luck to you!

I took way too much to the hospital with me....but, what I did use was my ipad. I just liked to stream videos for the noise and to help drown out the hospital noises. Plus my sleeping was all messed up so it was nice in the middle of the night when nothing was on TV. I would echo the suggestions for a long charger cord. The plug in my room was pretty far away from my bed and my charger didn't reach. Also, I brought baby wipes which were nice because I didn't feel up to taking a full shower for the first couple of days.

I can't explain why the guidelines vary so widely between programs....but, I will note that it also is different within the same program! James and I had surgery at the same place - mine was this year though - and the guidelines now are liquids for 1 day, the purees and soft foods (can be cut with the side of a fork) for 6 weeks and then solids as tolerated starting after week 6. I personally felt like that moved a bit fast but I just went with whatever worked for me. I'd say there isn't much difference between rotisserie chicken and baked or grilled chicken. Rotisserie might be a bit more moist - I know if I grill a chicken breast it does end up more dry than other methods. At the early stages the goal is really moisture. And the head hunger was the worst for me the first 3 weeks. After that it got much better. But I had vivid dreams about food and eating all the time. I still do occasionally but not nearly as bad. You do get used to the new way of eating eventually

I met my surgeon briefly at the very first seminar - she did a presentation for a group and then I got about a 10 minute consult with her. The next time I saw her was 10 months later in the OR. I could have paid for an extra appointment with her in between but I didn't really have any questions that my NUT or nurse couldn't answer so I didn't bother.

I'd say call your surgeon's office and specifically ask when they will be submitting the paperwork to insurance - they should be able to answer that pretty easily. My insurance has 15 days to respond (and they actually responded in about 9 days) so maybe yours is similar. It's possible the "month" timeframe included the time for the surgeon's office to submit and for insurance to respond. But the only way to know for sure is to call and ask. I hated calling and bugging my surgeon's office because I didn't want to be "that patient" but in hindsight I realize I could have saved myself a LOT of stress by just asking a few simple questions.

My dr didn't require anything special leading up to surgery other than liquids for the day prior and nothing after midnight. I tried really hard to stick to a low fat/low carb diet but it was challenging for me (I had a horrible "last supper" mentality). Thankfully my surgery went perfectly fine but I will say that the first couple weeks after surgery were very rough for me. My head hunger was out of control and I was going through major sugar/carb detox on top of all the normal healing from surgery. So I'd say stick with what your surgeon recommends and don't do what I did!

Every 2-3 weeks I have a week where my weight goes up a bit for a few days. Like 2-5 lbs up... and it usually drops back down after a couple days. It is terribly frustrating even though I know to expect it, I know it's not a real gain and I know it will go away! Hang in there!!!!

I live really close to my hospital so my husband we home for showers and overnight. To be honest, I wanted him to go home and get a good nights sleep because otherwise he would have been grumpy and impossible to deal with (and I was already grumpy and impossible to deal with - we didn't need two of us!) The nurses were awesome about helping out when I got in and out of bed and then kept a close eye on me when I was walking. There were only 3 patients on the floor when I was there though. Had it been more crowded I might not have gotten that much attention. If we lived farther away we might have handled it differently - some of the other patients when I was there did have their spouses stay with them.

My surgeon does not talk about goal weight until around 1 year post op. So I've picked a somewhat arbitrary number for now just because I like to calculate things like percentage of excess weight lost. But as others have said - my real goals are much less number focused and more quality of life focused (reduced knee/ankle pain, mobility, buying clothes in real stores....). I don't know where I will end up as far as numbers go but if my quality of life goals are met I'm pretty sure I will be happy whatever the number is. I've been overweight as long as I can remember from childhood so I have no frame of reference to pick a weight where I think I would be happy. I don't really even have a good frame of reference for some of my quality of life goals to be honest so I'm just going with the flow for this first year and then will figure it out

I've had terrible breakouts since surgery too and was lucky enough to get my period back in full force as well (I've had my tubes tied and endometrial ablation so I haven't had a period for several years). I think it's all of the hormones that get flushed out with the rapid weight loss. I have had the best luck with the acne spot treatments and keeping up with my normal routine with cleansers and scrubs. I'm hoping it all settles down soon!

I think it's important to distinguish between "head hunger" and real hunger. During the first couple of weeks I had a lot of trouble with this. I constantly though I was hungry and starving but in reality I wasn't - it was all in my head and I was craving carbs and bad food (likely detoxing). I had the same situation - my family who came to take care of me while recovering were going out to eat and enjoying all of the old stuff I used to have and it was tough. Also if you have a lot of acid bubbling around in your stomach you can also feel hunger. Are you on a PPI like pepcid or nexium? If not you might talk to your dr about adding one. Also be honest with your doctor or nutritionist, let them know how you are feeling and they can help provide more suggestions.

I was very nervous and overwhelmed in the weeks just before my surgery - which shocked me because I had been planning for it and waiting for it for nearly 10 months! But, figuring out coverage for work and all of the plans for those weeks right after surgery was a lot to deal with. Just take it one day at a time and remember all of the reason why you are doing this surgery. Make a list of the things you are looking forward to after surgery/weight loss. Take good 'before' measurements and pictures. And take lots and lots of deep breaths You'll do great!

What help and questions do you need? I'll try and help - I'm certainly no expert but I hate for people to feel like they aren't getting support. I've been there and it stinks.

On your home screen, click on goals and then you can edit each section. I think you can only do this from a computer - I haven't found any way to do it from my iphone/ipad apps. I had to reset mine because I was annoyed with it 'yelling' at me every day because my calories were too low

I'll be 5 months next week and so far I've lost 41% of my excess weight (starting weight - goal weight = excess weight). I did set my goal weight about 15 lbs higher than what the BMI chart would probably recommend.... My surgeon does not discuss 'goal weight' until you are closer to 1 year post op which drives me nuts but that's another topic As far as percentage based on my starting weight as you've calculated it I'd be at 21% or so.

My NUT told me that some people (mostly women) lose weight as if they are stepping down stairs (lose and then stay the same for a bit, then lose and then stay the same for a bit). Others lose like walking down a ramp (basically lose the same amount on average every week). For some reason this picture made perfect sense to me and has stuck in my head. I am for sure a stair stepper and it drives me nuts but I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter if you are stepping down stairs or walking down a ramp you'll eventually get to the bottom So it may not be a true stall but maybe just the flat part of the step. Hang in there!!

I wore loose yoga pants or pj pants that went to my belly button. My incisions were all above my belly button pretty much. I had one kind of close to my waistband and on days it was bothering me I just pushed my waistband down below my lower belly. If you're going to do that I highly recommend longer shirts Loose dresses would be totally fine also though. I also bought several really stretchy wireless bras (the kind that just pull over your head) and those were much needed. I don't feel comfortable going with no support at all and those were good because I had one incision right at my bra line that got really irritated if I tried to wear anything with wire...

Be kind to yourself! you are still in major healing mode and it is totally normal to not be able to meet all of the vitamin/liquids/protein goals right at first. I think it took me nearly a month to get up to the required amounts. Just do your best and try and do a little bit more each day. I personally focused on liquids first because I didn't want to get dehydrated. Second I focused on protein. Third was vitamins and last was actual food. Before you know it you will be knocking out all of your required amounts without problem And I second the GasX recommendation - the burping is yucky for sure.