TakingABreak

@Brissie I agree with so much. If you can find healthier alternatives to things you used to find comfort in, go for it! Also for me, post surgery I find that I have things that are staples in my diet. I crave crunching on things, so I eat a lot, I mean a lot, of sugar snap peas with greek yogurt veggie dip. I used to be a big chip eater. Maybe for other people this is a no-no but I suck on SF jolly ranchers if I get a inkling for something sweet and it won't go away. Now, that being said.... it is still 5 calories per piece of candy... but a couple a day might prevent me from raiding the vending machine when I'm on my lady friend. Obviously, you change your life style and those "head hunger" eating habits will slowly diminish. You are training your body and mind to not resort to food in times of stress, boredom, ect.

Thankfully for myself, I had been a member of this community for almost 4 months prior to surgery and I had seen so many posts of the notorious Week 2 stall. I was prepared for it, and discouraged nonetheless when I went through it. Something I always rolled by eyes about was when I read vets who said "Its not a sprint, but a marathon". But, I know now that it is true! It is 100% true. It is a process. You will stall multiple times, for short and long time periods. It gets harder before it gets easier, that is for sure. This advice is spot on! Congrats on your accomplishments thus far

I was referred, it was actually my PCP who said that she wasn't equipped to interpret the iron levels. When I discussed it with the surgeon, he agreed.

I'm prepared for the lashings by saying this, but I don't know why anyone does the sleeve. From what I've read, the statistics aren't as good for taking off and keeping off weight. And of course everything that Matt mentioned above about permanent anatomy changes.

I see, I didn't know that about the IUD. Also, I apologize, I misunderstood your first post, I thought your flow increased since surgery. I ended up going to see a blood specialist about my iron levels, because my bariatric team wasn't equipped to help me level out my iron. That would be my next suggestion.

I use bio oil and it works great on scarring and fading (I'd assume stretch marks would be the same). Worth a shot, and its very very cheap!

@frust8 What's up girl? Why are you confused by the OP and thread?

Could you do an IUD? I'm normally not an advocate, but in your situation if you can't take BC pills, I would recommend something to regulate your hormones and cycles. Have you met with your gyno since surgery to discuss your increased flow?

I never experienced that prior to surgery. I guess I always always ate, all the time. Never was really "hungry".

me too and hangry!

Woot Woot!!!!! Yay! Congrats!

1) My stomach can be noisy from time to time, but honestly, nothing that is out of the normal. From what I've read here, the noises and the rumbling (for a lack of a better word) is often due to GERD and can be controlled by taking a PPI. 2) I'm 8 months post op, and I experienced hunger for a few weeks until I got back onto solid foods. There are days where I forget to eat, and other days that I feel like I'm hungry a lot. On the days I'm really hungry, I focus on eating healthy foods that are light on calories. The good thing is that it doesn't take much to fill me up.

^^^ complete truth. No one in my life made changes but me. I didn't expect them to, because only I had the problem. I wanted it to be a lifestyle change and not contingent on what others were doing around me. I've accomplished that and I think it will give me life long success.

You can’t get the vaccine until min age of 55 years old.

I hope this doesn't scare you, because I'm trying to do the opposite. I had the worst, very worst experience post op with pain management. In fact, my post op pain was so bad that I developed shingles at 28 years old from the trauma and stress on my body. I will have shingles out breaks, potentially, for the rest of my life. That being said, still, absolutely the best thing I've ever done. I would go through that pain 10 more times to be sitting in my same shoes. Everyone's pain experience is different. Some people go back to work after a few days, and are just fine. Some people have a hard time adjusting and lack energy early on. The point is, this is all worth every ounce of pain endured. It will change your life forever, if you are willing to let it.

I never, never, never had this problem prior to WLS. In fact, I never even wore a winter coat, unless it got into the teens outside. And my heater has also been running all summer. I get extremely irritable if I have to leave my office.

Girl yes. I think I'll be needing one of those. That and an electric throw blanket that plugs into the cigarette lighter in my car.

Complaint: Fall equals cooler weather, and I'm anticipating a big adjustment period. I've been suffering from severe cold intolerance when the temps drop into the low 70's... therefore, when fall officially hits in IL, I'll be struggling. Usually by the end of Oct we are getting hit with 40 degree days. Suggestion: I'm going to layer up and enjoy wearing jeans, sweaters, and boots. Looking forward to: Cooking and hosting holidays. I love to feed my family and decorate my house.

Biggest piece of advice I can offer is... Don't use protein shakes before you absolutely have to! I made the mistake of supplementing some of my meals with shakes to "prepare myself" for the pre-op diet. Big mistake. You will get to the point where they are DISGUSTING, and you don't want to increase the timeline of that by drinking them before you need to.

^^^ ditto

Oh shoot, I didn't read the original post correctly. My bad.

Is that really true though? I feel like there were a lot of things that my surgeon's office required that weren't a part of the insurance requirements? I get what you are saying though, just find a different doctor.

Every time I go to update my profile pic off the app (IOS) it does this glitch thing where it blinks that it is saving for about 2 minutes and force closes the app. This is been happening for months, so none of the updates have fixed it.

Thank you! I didn’t drink a lot before surgery. So my tolerance was lower. My experience thus far has been that the effects do not last long. It hits me fast and wears off within 30-45 mins unless I continue drinking. But one drink has me feeling sloppy, unless I make it very light.

I feel you 100%. I am just trying to hold onto the fact that I am grateful for the weight loss and it has ultimately made a huge positive impact on my life, as it will yours. Hair loss (for those who lose it) is a very large draw back to the surgery. I have a friend who would never consider it, because she has such thin hair to begin with. Ultimately, seeing how much this has changed my life... I wouldn't take it back. Hair will regrow, it won't be pretty, but it will regrow. At the end of the day, this process will be a small blip of my life.