ChaosUnlimited

Hope all is going well for you @Frustr8, sending well wishes!

I think people assume I'm more athletic than I really am now. Someone who runs much more than I do asked me if I wanted to go do a marathon or half marathon in the fall. I've been running, but I'm only at a 5k distance, and I'm slow as a turtle! Still a work in progress... I guess I've been pretty lucky, I don't really get any crap about the way I eat. If anything my co-workers love it because if someone brings cupcakes or donuts they know someone will get to have two because I won't be eating mine. People will ask me if anyone called dibs on mine yet, then hide it away for later, lol. My dad, when we were on vacation, jokingly made the comment that it shouldn't matter to me where we got lunch because I was only going to order salad anyway. I still gave my input for which restaurant to have lunch at, and guess what, their salad was fantastic!

James gave great info. I have to take 2000 mg of Calcium a day, but divided up into 4 doses (Different surgeries often have different vitamin requirements). The body won't absorb more than about 500 mg at a time, so for calcium you should also take your doses about 2 hr apart. (I take my calcium early morning, mid morning, afternoon, and dinner time, then Iron at bedtime to space them apart) Bariatric Advantage brand has some great chewy calcium in different flavors, you can get them in 250 or 500 mg chews. They are more expensive but in the beginning especially I loved having them, they are like having a little treat. I think I have tried every flavor and my favs are the chocolate and the raspberry. Also, I found an app called Medisafe which gives me reminders when it's time to take my vitamins. There are days when I am busy that I would not have remembered if it wasn't for that app.

I tested the waters with drinking at about 5 months out. For me there is a very fine line between pleasantly buzzed and stupid drunk. One sip too much and I'm on the dance floor getting crazy, and if there is no dance floor watch out because I'm making my own. I found that I do ok with wine, but can't do the girly cocktail drinks anymore because they make me feel icky and sick from all the sugar. Also can't do carbonation because I feel like my stomach is going to explode, and that was after just a couple sips of someone else's beer. I bought the Skinny Girl margarita mix hoping I could have a good margarita that way, but it tasted awful even though I had liked it pre-surgery. One thing I made recently was an Irish Coffee (decaf) with Crown Royal and a touch of Baileys, it was a good after dinner drink.

These are so good as a treat, the mint chocolate ones remind me of the flavor of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies.

At 8 days out I don't remember being able to eat more than 1-2 oz at a time. (30-60 grams? Not sure of the metrics) I was just transitioning from liquids to puree at that time, so still had a lot of restriction. What does your surgeon/nutritionist recommend?

I quit smoking in 2004 and I'm so glad I did. I was lucky and my employer offered a program to quit, so I did counseling and back then they used Wellbutrin (Zyban) as an aid to help withdrawal symptoms. It really worked, not to say that it made it easy by any means, but the withdrawal symptoms were much less unpleasant than in my many past tries to quit. Maybe you can ask your surgeon or your primary doctor about any programs that might be available in your area. I feel like the support helped, and I remember they had a survey that identified the level of physical and psychological addiction and then had things to help like nicotine patches and nicotine inhalers to help decrease slowly instead of cold turkey, and fake cigarettes to hold to help with the psychological part. It's hard, but the benefits to your health will be worth it.

Sports bras... I've had nothing but bad luck with fit and function until recently. I'm embarrassed to even say how much I've spent on bras in the last year alone. Also with the different womens fashion tops, they make sure that just one style is not going to work with every top. Just invested in a strapless bra so I don't have to try to figure out which bra will work with which top anymore.

I'm a bit taller than the average woman, and there were times that I would have to buy tall pants to get the length I need, and they were often priced $2-3 more than the average length clothes. Now add plus size to the tall length, and it was often $5-10 more than an average size, even in my work clothes which happen to be scrubs, nothing special about them. I hated it but accepted that I was probably paying for the extra material. I always had to shop online to find the sizes I needed, they were rarely available in the stores, so add shipping on to that in some cases. (Side note here: has anyone noticed that you gain length in clothing when you lose weight? I don't always need to buy talls anymore, I think my clothes hang lower or something, so I can get away with the average inseams more often now.) I do most of the shopping for my family and it's definitely hard to find other than average sizes in the mens areas too, my husband and youngest son are just over 6 ft tall and it's near impossible to find a 36 inch length, everything stops at 34, so again, have to look online and wait to get them in the mail.

Ask your nutritionist if they allow them. My program does not encourage their use because there is no way to tell exactly how much you are getting when it is absorbed through the skin. But I've had a different procedure which is more malabsorptive, so it may be different for someone getting a sleeve.

Items I was glad to have: Chapstick Slippers/flip flops My own hand lotion My kindle for something to read, although I was too sleepy most of the time Something comfortable to wear home Since you are going to be there 3 days, maybe bath/shower supplies if you are particular about what you use

I have found that I can eat (and even like) some foods that I hated before surgery, such as cottage cheese, but I haven't really found that I dislike anything that I used to like. Like Orchids & Dragons, I love spicy foods, but I have to be careful about eating them now because I have gotten reflux from them since surgery, especially if I eat them in the late afternoon, evening hours.

You make good and valid points. I don't think the info itself is more useful because it's given out over a period of time, but I do think that stretching out the education over a longer period of time gives opportunity to integrate new eating habits into ones lifestyle before having to take the plunge after surgery. That might not be the case for everyone, but in retrospect, I think it softened the blow for me, although I couldn't see it at the time because I wanted to begin my post surgery journey asap. I'm sure for the insurance companies waiting times are all about the cost analysis rather than for anyone's actual well-being. Admittedly my post went on a side tangent compared to the topic of the article, I know six other people through work and other areas who have had surgeries at different practices and we've compared notes and discussed some of these topics. I don't know if there is actual correlation between re-gain and shorter wait times or less educational requirements, because I'm just going by the experiences of myself and a few people I know, but I was wondering aloud in my post because I think it would be interesting to look into. Side tangent again: We've all seen that there is no consistency in pre-op diet, post-op diet and some other requirements between different surgical practices. The means to me that there is no evidence based method that defines how to achieve the best success overall of getting to and maintaining a more healthful weight or BMI. I have wondered if this has not been looked at more closely because it is still considered an elective procedure rather than a life saving or life extending procedure. I hope you don't think that I was placing blame on people who have regain, because I assure you I was not. I am not even sure whether or not I will fall into that category in the long term. I just wonder if there are practices that can be looked at to help increase the chance of success, which we all want to achieve, however we each define it.

My insurance required a 6 month supervised diet program, had to have frequent phone check-ins with one of their nurses to assess my readiness during that 6 months, and it required me to choose a "certified" program - which has nothing to do with an actual professional organization certification, it's the insurances own certification program that the practice has to apply for. I was so frustrated, I had to choose a program that was over 70 miles from my home rather than my local hospitals program which is <10 miles from my home. I had, like most everyone else, considered the option of surgery for a long time, and when I finally made up my mind, I wanted to do it sooner rather than later and I was devastated to find out I had to wait 6 months, even though I had been seeing my primary doctor for weight loss pills for months, and I had documented weight loss and gains over the years. Now, in retrospect, these requirements turned out to be the best thing that could have happened for me, with the exclusion of the insurance nurse phone calls - I didn't feel like I got any benefit from that. I am so happy with my surgeon and my practice, I just can't speak highly enough about their care, their program, and the hospital they use. I had the option of the duodenal switch surgery at this practice, which I am very happy with, and would not have had that option at my local hospital. And I feel like I was very well prepared for the surgery and the changes that come with it during that 6 months in which my surgeon required educational classes and follow up with their team of nutritionists. I'm not sure I would have adjusted as well to the lifestyle changes without that time of preparation, education, and support from their team. Having talked to others who participated in different programs for bariatric surgery, it seems like they didn't get nearly the amount of education for post-surgery that my program requires. Some have already started re-gaining weight after 1-2 years, which I can't predict if it will happen to me, but I feel like I still have an open line of communication with my practice and a lot of support when I have questions or issues. I often wonder when I see people posting about "cheating" on their plan within mere weeks or months of their surgery what their programs preparation requirements were and if it has any correlation to post op outcomes like compliance with diet. (This statement is not directed at anyone, it seems like these types of posts are fairly frequent here, and I'm not judging, but truly wondering if an intense preparation period makes a difference in outcomes)

I think that calorie restriction post surgery has more to do with the weight loss than exercise, but every little bit helps. Right after surgery the best thing is to walk as much as you can for exercise while you're healing. (If you can't walk much because of your back, maybe you can look at doing chair exercises, look it up on you tube) Once I got the go-ahead from my doctor, I started doing floor exercises like sit ups and leg lifts daily, which I think really helped build my core muscle strength back up and improved my back pain. Improving core strength may help with your back pain, but check with your doc who manages your back first.