myfanwymoi

I had Petersens hernias 2 years out - the membrane that holds in your guts is pulled apart by the weight loss and the intestines slide in and out and loops can get trapped. It never shows on X-rays and not always on ct as it moves about. General emergency docs in uk missed diagnosis and it was finally seen by bariatric department and repaired- more than half my gut out of place when they sewed it back up!
thing is because it moves around the scans don’t always catch it. I spent ages trying to figure out what foods caused it. If I got on hands and knees and rolled hips/back I could often soothe it which we realise now may well have helped move things back.
it needs exploratory surgery to be entirely sure/ rule it out. Make a fuss. Make sure you see bariatric surgeon, use name Petersens
xx

I’m in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Had surgery in Dec 2016. Lowest weight about 8 stone currently hover around 10 - would like to go back to 9.5 but keep succumbing to carb craving/sugar addiction. Overall ok though as just keep going back to what works…
nice to see some uk posts. Early on Id have loved to have known more uk people.

good luck in your journeys …

Robert Lustig says it’s not what you eat it’s what’s been done to what you eat. Look at his book metabolical and Chris van tulkes ultra processed people. Sugar is as harmful to me as cocaine only difference being coke is hard to get, expensive and illegal. If they sold it in sweet shops …
the psychological part is huge - dr Nicole perrera on insta shares lots of free stuff and has a great workbook which is cheaper than therapy. You can nip this in it’s fatty little bud (or butt!) right now!!!

To borrow a phrase from an eighties cartoon “I [you] have the power!”

Robert Lustig says it’s not what you eat it’s what’s been done to what you eat. Look at his book metabolical and Chris van tulkes ultra processed people. Sugar is as harmful to me as cocaine only difference being coke is hard to get, expensive and illegal. If they sold it in sweet shops …
the psychological part is huge - dr Nicole perrera on insta shares lots of free stuff and has a great workbook which is cheaper than therapy. You can nip this in it’s fatty little bud (or butt!) right now!!!

To borrow a phrase from an eighties cartoon “I [you] have the power!”

This gave me a few unhappy hours too!
My father died of a small bowel obstruction related to bowel cancer surgery. Unfortunately he wasn’t strong enough for an op at 92 so it’s different but related.
I had Peterson’s hernias two years after surgery which nearly did for me (nhs docs refused to do cti scan which may have diagnosed it, partly due to prejudice over my having wls privately. I was out of warranty on that though!
anyway, this history makes me more worried about adhesions than I might otherwise be and I had some serious operation remorse yesterday.
But, as has been pointed out, Lisa Marie took opiates which may have helped create a blockage and had ignored some symptoms.
I am sure the wls surgery has improved my quality of life in the 6.5 years since I had it and I can only hope that I haven’t robbed myself of some old age years I might have had - had I dealt with my weight issues in another way. That’s the rub isn’t it - if I’d stayed obese I’d have had worse quality of life and who knows how much less…
so - all in all - I’m very sad for Lisa Marie and her family, but I think I’m ok!

This gave me a few unhappy hours too!
My father died of a small bowel obstruction related to bowel cancer surgery. Unfortunately he wasn’t strong enough for an op at 92 so it’s different but related.
I had Peterson’s hernias two years after surgery which nearly did for me (nhs docs refused to do cti scan which may have diagnosed it, partly due to prejudice over my having wls privately. I was out of warranty on that though!
anyway, this history makes me more worried about adhesions than I might otherwise be and I had some serious operation remorse yesterday.
But, as has been pointed out, Lisa Marie took opiates which may have helped create a blockage and had ignored some symptoms.
I am sure the wls surgery has improved my quality of life in the 6.5 years since I had it and I can only hope that I haven’t robbed myself of some old age years I might have had - had I dealt with my weight issues in another way. That’s the rub isn’t it - if I’d stayed obese I’d have had worse quality of life and who knows how much less…
so - all in all - I’m very sad for Lisa Marie and her family, but I think I’m ok!

This gave me a few unhappy hours too!
My father died of a small bowel obstruction related to bowel cancer surgery. Unfortunately he wasn’t strong enough for an op at 92 so it’s different but related.
I had Peterson’s hernias two years after surgery which nearly did for me (nhs docs refused to do cti scan which may have diagnosed it, partly due to prejudice over my having wls privately. I was out of warranty on that though!
anyway, this history makes me more worried about adhesions than I might otherwise be and I had some serious operation remorse yesterday.
But, as has been pointed out, Lisa Marie took opiates which may have helped create a blockage and had ignored some symptoms.
I am sure the wls surgery has improved my quality of life in the 6.5 years since I had it and I can only hope that I haven’t robbed myself of some old age years I might have had - had I dealt with my weight issues in another way. That’s the rub isn’t it - if I’d stayed obese I’d have had worse quality of life and who knows how much less…
so - all in all - I’m very sad for Lisa Marie and her family, but I think I’m ok!

You’ve described my behaviour around sugar and processed carbs. I’m a recovering alcoholic- 10 years this time round and 22 years before with a miserable 4 year relapse in between.
my thought processes, constant internal arguments, obsessive behaviour, reaction to relapse are identical to how I was with alcohol. But sugar is harder to avoid than alcohol. So I hear you: I knew wls would not cure these issues but I hoped the break from processed food/sugar would make it easier. It didn’t.
I do intermittent fasting now - as much to rest my poor pancreas as for any other reason. Fasting is easy for me. I wish I could give up food altogether and take a tablet!
I’m on a wait list for help with my disorders eating- I’m hopeful!
cw: 140lbs lw - 1 year post wls 120lb, goal weight 130lbs.
surgery Dec 16.
and all my friends say my cw is fine. It’s only me who thinks I’m fat. A friend told me that at 120lbs I looked like an hiv or cancer patient. I’m sick enough to feel secretly pleased I got that thin…

The amount I can eat (four years out) varies hugely. I fast 22/24 three days a week and 16/8 or 18/6 the other four days and I’m v low carb/Keto and absolutely no damn sugar at all! Sugar been gone about six weeks this time. Lowest weight 8 stone 2, highest 10 stone 10 about 6 weeks ago! Dropped 12lbs so now 9 stone 12 (137llbs)
feel so good! Sugar is the devil for me!
food pics are air fried thighs and aubergine/courgette mix and a chaffles (pancake made from egg and cheese) with fried pek (Keto friendly chopped pork) and mushroom and a slice of emmenthal.
I have a ninja foodi 9 in one - pressure, air, steam, bake, sauté, grill etc! And I use it most days. In love with ma foodi!

The amount I can eat (four years out) varies hugely. I fast 22/24 three days a week and 16/8 or 18/6 the other four days and I’m v low carb/Keto and absolutely no damn sugar at all! Sugar been gone about six weeks this time. Lowest weight 8 stone 2, highest 10 stone 10 about 6 weeks ago! Dropped 12lbs so now 9 stone 12 (137llbs)
feel so good! Sugar is the devil for me!
food pics are air fried thighs and aubergine/courgette mix and a chaffles (pancake made from egg and cheese) with fried pek (Keto friendly chopped pork) and mushroom and a slice of emmenthal.
I have a ninja foodi 9 in one - pressure, air, steam, bake, sauté, grill etc! And I use it most days. In love with ma foodi!

The amount I can eat (four years out) varies hugely. I fast 22/24 three days a week and 16/8 or 18/6 the other four days and I’m v low carb/Keto and absolutely no damn sugar at all! Sugar been gone about six weeks this time. Lowest weight 8 stone 2, highest 10 stone 10 about 6 weeks ago! Dropped 12lbs so now 9 stone 12 (137llbs)
feel so good! Sugar is the devil for me!
food pics are air fried thighs and aubergine/courgette mix and a chaffles (pancake made from egg and cheese) with fried pek (Keto friendly chopped pork) and mushroom and a slice of emmenthal.
I have a ninja foodi 9 in one - pressure, air, steam, bake, sauté, grill etc! And I use it most days. In love with ma foodi!

The amount I can eat (four years out) varies hugely. I fast 22/24 three days a week and 16/8 or 18/6 the other four days and I’m v low carb/Keto and absolutely no damn sugar at all! Sugar been gone about six weeks this time. Lowest weight 8 stone 2, highest 10 stone 10 about 6 weeks ago! Dropped 12lbs so now 9 stone 12 (137llbs)
feel so good! Sugar is the devil for me!
food pics are air fried thighs and aubergine/courgette mix and a chaffles (pancake made from egg and cheese) with fried pek (Keto friendly chopped pork) and mushroom and a slice of emmenthal.
I have a ninja foodi 9 in one - pressure, air, steam, bake, sauté, grill etc! And I use it most days. In love with ma foodi!

The amount I can eat (four years out) varies hugely. I fast 22/24 three days a week and 16/8 or 18/6 the other four days and I’m v low carb/Keto and absolutely no damn sugar at all! Sugar been gone about six weeks this time. Lowest weight 8 stone 2, highest 10 stone 10 about 6 weeks ago! Dropped 12lbs so now 9 stone 12 (137llbs)
feel so good! Sugar is the devil for me!
food pics are air fried thighs and aubergine/courgette mix and a chaffles (pancake made from egg and cheese) with fried pek (Keto friendly chopped pork) and mushroom and a slice of emmenthal.
I have a ninja foodi 9 in one - pressure, air, steam, bake, sauté, grill etc! And I use it most days. In love with ma foodi!

I was 234 at heaviest 118 at lightest and am now (4 and a quarter years post op) 149.
Yes - lockdown but more than that it’s sugar addiction. At 114 I had no bum or tits or shape and people said I looked gaunt and old but I LOVED being skinny. I’m now a size 8-10 uk - up from a low 6 and definitely not fat or even really overweight. My bmi is maybe a tad over but I’ve always been solid - short legs long back- great build for a hod carrier an ex once told me!!!
so I need to deal but it’s sugar I need to deal with. I go in and off IF and Keto but constantly relapse with sugar. I’m weaning off just now and am going to aim for IF on work days (my tummy is v hair trigger so that helps avoid leaving a classroom mid lesson.
the struggle is real. I’m a recovering alcoholic and sugar hits the same button. I’m depressed, sedentary, lonely but I’m not giving up.
It’s great to hear from people who’ve kept weight off and I’d like too to hear how you get it off again befor it’s all back...
on a positive note I have boobs and a bum again!

I paid privately for my op in the uk: there was post op support but no therapist. There was a group but it was weird times and I kept missing it!
when I had petersens hernias (potentially life threatening complication) I was past a year post op so couldn’t see surgeon. Went to nhs a&e and told was private so needed to go back to him, he’d sent me there. Attitude to me was really shitty because I’d paid for treatment from a surgeon who actually had been consultant at the nhs place I went to! Like I got into debt and saved the tax payer from comorbidity effects and they’re mad at me?!!
point is the aftercare is needed psychologically and it’s hard when it’s not there.

Glad you have it though x

I paid privately for my op in the uk: there was post op support but no therapist. There was a group but it was weird times and I kept missing it!
when I had petersens hernias (potentially life threatening complication) I was past a year post op so couldn’t see surgeon. Went to nhs a&e and told was private so needed to go back to him, he’d sent me there. Attitude to me was really shitty because I’d paid for treatment from a surgeon who actually had been consultant at the nhs place I went to! Like I got into debt and saved the tax payer from comorbidity effects and they’re mad at me?!!
point is the aftercare is needed psychologically and it’s hard when it’s not there.

Glad you have it though x

I'm two and a half years out - went down to about 114 but was really too thin. Then went up to 140 and definitely wasn't happy. My problem is very definitely sugar and carbohydrates. I'm a sober alcoholic (8 years this time out, and before the four year break (divorce + stupidity = relapse) was 22 years. Bu the point is that for me sugar is a drug and the insulin response I get from any processed carb works in pretty much the same way.
So I've been working on killing sugar and processed carbs, plus grains and simple starches like potatoes, along with most fruit apart from small amounts of low GI berries over the last six months or so, trying various things. What have I learned: I can't do anything in moderation that isn't real food (by which I mean Protein and fat and small amounts of carb appearing in leafy veg etc. This, alongside intermittent fasting (Dr Jason Fung is great on this) has begun to make a real change. Because it's not really about the losing weight for me now, although I want to lose about 15lbs still and it's beginning, It's about the need to be healthy, not to be constantly sickened by food, not to be constantly obsessed with food and to find a long term sustainable solution that allows me to get on with my life. Still hoping to cross addict onto exercise but that hasn't happened yet!
Funnily, the post op diet which led with protein and allowed the veg and carbs in if there was room is closest to where I am now. I fast 16/8 - it varies but the average seems to be about 17/7. This is comfortable and I have loads of energy. Only been doing it a week properly and the Keto for about a month but I was struggling with the macros and counting. Keeping it simple now.

Be interested to hear if anyone is doing similar. What I would say is that my level of trust for something that doesn't involve someone trying to sell me special foods, vits, supplements, meal plans, exercise regimes is naturally quite high! Everything I need to do IF successfully if available for free. I like free!

Actually - and again I'd be interested in people's thoughts here, I wish I'd discovered this and worked it pre-op. But hey, can't turn back time!

Thanks all - this was a bit lonnnggg - sorry!

I recall jumping off a stile on a walk a few months in. There was no earthquake, my bones didn’t jar and I was like omg!!!!
enjoy. It’s all worth it xxx

My BMI was 39 when I had my consultation. I self paid (in the uk) and it's now 22. (It had gone down to 19 at its lowest and people tell me I was too thin. I'd argue but I'd probably agree it's ok now :))
Anyway, I had no real co-morbidity, but my twin had type 2 and had had a stroke and I just felt enough already with losing and gaining the same stone over and over - like sisyphus running the boulder up a hill!
So my weight loss has been around the 100lbs all told and it's enough. But it's your body, your weight and your choice.
I would also say that I have cause, daily, to feel glad about my size. I LOVE my clothes, my skin isn't too bad (yeah I'd love a lift but I'm 56 and I'm not sure I can be bothered!), I'm fit and healthy and my confidence has increased.
What's not to love.

Go for it. We''re worth it!

I read a book (or finished reading it) on Nov 1st. It's 'How to stop eating bad sugar' by Allen Carr. Since I stopped I've kicked my sugar habit which was wreaking havoc in my life. Not huge weight gain, but there was a slide upwards. It was just the mental nastiness - the feeling of constantly losing a battle and it made me sick and I'd started getting really bad reactive hypoglycaemia.

So since then: no sugar, potatoes, sweeteners, honey, syrups and no processed food made with sugar. I still eat a lot of fruit but mainly apples (loads of fibre) and tangerines. Bananas are a slight problem - I note they increase sweet cravings and give me muscle cramps, but I'm recently bereaved and so allowing myself to skate that one for now. Dried fruit is also a big no.

I eat meat, fish, veggies (often oven roasted), small amounts of organic proper wholewheat bread - have only found one brand - Cranks- which doesn't have a load of other nonsense in. I snack on nuts and fruit as above. I've lost 6lbs of my slide up from my lowest, but I think I might be at what is a healthy weight for me. (Need to get back to the gym really).

I don't log or do macros but I aim to eat whole food, lots of veg and fibrous fruit. It's working in that I've only had the reactive hypoglycaemia a couple of times since Nov 1st (I think it was banana that did it!) and the cravings are generally gone. The evening hunger is fixed by eating a big apple very slowly and I sometimes have a bed time snack of a little fruit and cheese, or nuts, but the urge to do that is passing slowly.
I do occasionally use Stevia in my posh hot milk and pure cacao/ashwaganda type drinks, but I try also to not make it a regular thing.

I suppose my point will be, that having taken these steps, the obsession, and the compulsion have faded and now I'm free to deal with all my other problems!!!

Good luck to you - your exercise regime is awesome. I so want exercise to be my next addiction!!

My BMI was 39 when I had my consultation. I self paid (in the uk) and it's now 22. (It had gone down to 19 at its lowest and people tell me I was too thin. I'd argue but I'd probably agree it's ok now :))
Anyway, I had no real co-morbidity, but my twin had type 2 and had had a stroke and I just felt enough already with losing and gaining the same stone over and over - like sisyphus running the boulder up a hill!
So my weight loss has been around the 100lbs all told and it's enough. But it's your body, your weight and your choice.
I would also say that I have cause, daily, to feel glad about my size. I LOVE my clothes, my skin isn't too bad (yeah I'd love a lift but I'm 56 and I'm not sure I can be bothered!), I'm fit and healthy and my confidence has increased.
What's not to love.

Go for it. We''re worth it!

My BMI was 39 when I had my consultation. I self paid (in the uk) and it's now 22. (It had gone down to 19 at its lowest and people tell me I was too thin. I'd argue but I'd probably agree it's ok now :))
Anyway, I had no real co-morbidity, but my twin had type 2 and had had a stroke and I just felt enough already with losing and gaining the same stone over and over - like sisyphus running the boulder up a hill!
So my weight loss has been around the 100lbs all told and it's enough. But it's your body, your weight and your choice.
I would also say that I have cause, daily, to feel glad about my size. I LOVE my clothes, my skin isn't too bad (yeah I'd love a lift but I'm 56 and I'm not sure I can be bothered!), I'm fit and healthy and my confidence has increased.
What's not to love.

Go for it. We''re worth it!

I'd echo the poster who said your recognition of it not being a magic bullet is a very positive thing. It isn't. And when you succeed you understand it's the beginning of a longer journey, I went down to 8 stone 2 (114lbs) and now 9stone 9 (134lbs). I'm 5"4. I was too thin at the lower weight, but went up to 140 and felt worried about the creeping gain. Then I realised I was playing stupid games with sugar and that sugar was as dangerous to me as booze or drugs are (I'm in recovery most of my adult life)l

The point is we eat, use, whatever it is, for a reason. And the more of our behaviours we strip away, the more we're left facing our essential selves, and that is not fun.

So, invest in your mind too: do therapy if you can afford it, research other ways of reflection if you can't. I'm in the uk and paid for my op. I'm still paying for it but it's ok. I LOVE being slim. It gives me at least one smile every day, but the trick is learning there are other things to smile about.

So yes, feel your fear, excitement, anticipation, terror even. Feel it all. And throw yourself into a fabulous journey into the unknown - you!

Thanks ladeedee - like you I wish there was more for vets. I have a horror of being where I was and am so aware that it's psychology as much as physiology.
I get reactive hypoglycemia if I overeat sugar. It's happened more than once. That statement tells me all I need to know about sugar but I struggle to act on it.
Well done you for your own stats. And maybe the key is gradually changing behaviour rather than back to the see saw. I can do 7lbs in a week intermittent fasting. But I can't sustain it. I need something for everyday that I can comfortably do!
Anyway. We get to give ourselves back pat's. We're doing okay !

Thanks ladeedee - like you I wish there was more for vets. I have a horror of being where I was and am so aware that it's psychology as much as physiology.
I get reactive hypoglycemia if I overeat sugar. It's happened more than once. That statement tells me all I need to know about sugar but I struggle to act on it.
Well done you for your own stats. And maybe the key is gradually changing behaviour rather than back to the see saw. I can do 7lbs in a week intermittent fasting. But I can't sustain it. I need something for everyday that I can comfortably do!
Anyway. We get to give ourselves back pat's. We're doing okay !