Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

Hi there @Midwest Girl I am also a band to bypass revision. I have no feeling of restriction that is even close to the band. I never have productive burps, and only if I swallow something pretty well unchewed do I feel any blockage type feeling inside. But I get comfortably full after about a cup of food (I am six months post surgery, and just under my ‘not overweight any moe’ goal). My surgeon has a strict ‘three meals a day’ rule, no grazing - and I happily live with that. And I really don’t get hungry any more - just like the best effect of the band! I wish I had done the bypass right at the start - it is marvellous, comparatively! The first few days is rough, and then the first few weeks transitioning to real food, but just grin and bear it, stick to your plan and watch the real you emerge! Good luck with your journey!

This is stunning. I LOVE white in a beautiful, simple tattoo. I love it that it represents this hugely important journey that we are all taking. i have a shoulder tattoo from my 20s and an arm band from my 30s. But I now have a breast-bone to pubic bone scar - lower half hysterectomy, top half the open bypass/band and mesh removal. And the gall bladder removal scar running alongside, which is knotty - NO sewing prize for that man! I an thinking about a tummy tattoo - down my side but with tendrils across my belly to just past half way. I dive, and the driver for losing weight was being too fat to safely dive any more, so a seascape with critters, maybe...

What a great post! I am at goal, and am feeling pretty bloody fine, I can tell you. I think the last 12-15 or so pounds would have been hard, but the terror of gallstones kicked in at just the right time and I lost that in about 3 weeks, no effort (but quite a bit of pain)! I just bought a whole stack of great underpants because I noted that mine were really only staying up because my trousers were stopping them falling to the ground! I would like to lose a couple more pounds just to I have ‘wiggle room’ - a bit on and a bit off but still in the healthy BMI range that was my goal. I miss the daily weight loss of being at goal - I have a sense that, without my partner watching my weight too, I could just eat less and less and try to keep the loss on a roll - it is so rewarding. But, I am enjoying occasional treat days - nothing crazy because I can’t fit it in. Nothing like chocolate of ice cream because I got bad dumping and I have decided just not to test the boundaries of ‘how much simple sugars CAN I eat’. But yesterday - local ‘Matariki’ Māori new year. Ate my breakfast at home at 5.30, served poached egg hollandaise and ham and egg croissant at the dawn event. Ate them both! Then went our for tapas dinner, had a lovely salad but also a fritter and an empanada. Felt FULL and over the calories estimate, but no problem. And lost a pound overnight - after losing none at all in the nearly 4 weeks since surgery!! I do like being at goal, the slight relaxation I feel around the rules.....

Oh, that is FANTASTIC! I don’t take meds but get ‘head hunger’ from time to time, and I hate it! I am stoked you found such a simple, pragmatic solution!

So today I made goal! Here I am, one week shy of six months post surgery, and my official BMI is ‘normal’. Not overweight and not obese, any more. So I know that having blooming gallstones has helped with this last few pounds - eating low fat (gallstones), low protein (liver damage) and low carb (dumping syndrome) is pretty restrictive, but I will have my gallbladder out in a week or two (that will drop me another 1/4 pound 🤣) and then I am into my maintenance diet. And here, the difference:

I had this too! Bloody miracle!!! I had open surgery, 8 inch scar - and no surgical pain!! Last week I had my gallbladder out, laparoscopic. Tiny incision in my belly button without the xylocaine pump was way worse!

I loved smoked food (and hot spiced, too). Both were good for me immediately. I was adding chilli powder to the yoghurt 8n the hospital. Had my first home smoked chicken on my first day back home 10 days post surgery - all was smooooth and delicious! (Note, I am in New Zealand and was on solids - shredded chicken - before I left hospital!)

Hi there and it is great to hear from you about this. I agree with sosewsue - find a replacement. For EVERY time this temptation calls. I have found some Salt and vinegar chickpea crisps, and some baked beetroot crisps - nice enough. Not as good as potato crisps but meet the same crunch, salt, flavour burst. So they head off the internal yelling!! Your stats - are they up to date? No weight regain? If so, then this is a great time to arrest this new addiction! And if you have had regain x then it is even more important! Remember the thrill of this journey first tine through? That willpower is still there, my friend...

What fantastic progress - you look stunning!! Are you at what feels like a good goal weight for you?

You could try big dose of vitamin C - some say it can head off a cold...

It is massive! i have lost 75lbs. That is modest by some standards, but 1/3 of my pre-bypass body weight. Two things re riding: On my Royal Enfield, max capacity 170kg, my partner and I can both go on it together, but before we were combined a bit heavy! On my Triumph Bonneville, which we use for longer trips with my wife pillion, it used to cause her pain in the tendons at the top of her thighs. Now - not at all. She worked out - she needn’t spread her legs so far apart to get her knees either side of my backside!!! Generally - I am fitter, stronger, healthier. I am walking uphill, climbing stairs, lifting weights a bit - I feel the difference as I fling the bike around.....

Many people struggle with eggs. Some with cottage cheese. Here on the bariatric pal site, there are protein soups. They were all I ate for a while, and were great. Protein powders - well generally I detest the taste. But they ARE good and easy, so I played around until I found a recipe I could atomach - now I have it every day for breakfast. Give it a whirl but if you don’t like it, try out several. This was probably the 30th recipe I tried!! Here is is: One Nespresso shot of coffee (chilled) 20ml milk 30g vanilla protein powder (the least sweet one I could find) 7 ice cubes Blitz in bullet thingy and drink. Try recipes - there are loads on the web. You’ll find one or a bunch you like...

So... the people WITH experience of this are saying “it works, it is excellent, as long as you are ready to change your life it is a great tool” and the people whose experience is confined to what they hear in the paper or from gossip is “no, too radical, it might not work, no need, danger danger”? And which group is is sensible to believe? I think a stock of ready answers might just do the trick! Feel free to pinch any of these, as the situation demands: “Thanks for your concern, funny how everyone has an opinion about what is best for MY body!!” “Thanks for sharing your worries, but I have enough of my own! Could you just support my decision?” ”oh, you are such an expert. When did YOU have this surgery?” (Complete with “I see it didn’t work for you - why not?” if appropriate) ”I know it isn’t a magic bullet, but it is a tool and I need this tool.” ”People who regain the weight generally don’t have a good support network to help them keep the weight off. Can I count on you being there as part of that support system for me?”

Bear in mind I am in New Zealand - things re post op diet seem to be much more ... relaxed here. For example I was eating solids before I left hospital! My surgeon’s single instruction is “three meals a day, forever, is the single rule”. He advised volume would start tiny and gradually increase per meal to 3/4 to 1/2 cup, and take a tiny, basic multivitamin daily. That is all! No protein encouragement. Re what to eat, he said ‘Experiment and find what works. Would be good to about potato, bread, rice - useless food that will just fill you up and not leave room for good food. You’ll probably never eat more that a teaspoon of ice cream.” My earlier lap band advice, different surgeon, was similarly vague! So

Hi @SpartanWolf This might help. My surgeon has done longitudinal research on 1700 of his bypass patients, tracking and following their progress - health, weight loss, eating. On average, they are getting around 800 calories a day, one year post op. But that is an average - some will be higher and some lower. I am sorry, I don’t know if he factors in exercise...

Hey friends - these feelings are 100% normal! I remember posting something similar, and loads of us do in the lead up to the big day. Honestly, it is a good sign - you are not entering this lightly, but in serious contemplation of a life changing experience. Everyone warns ‘you need to change your eating forever’ and similar - I didn’t really ‘get’ that until afterwards - but also, the op MAKES it I easier to do this. You get this great new tool! But is isn’t without challenges. There are days (even a week at one point) where I crave my old crappy diet of junk food. Head Hunger, some call it. But most days I love my new ways of eating, and I ESPECIALLY love my new ways of looking!! Hang in there, we have all been through it and those pre-op days are really tough! But remember, a new you, the real you, is just around the corner...

Fantastic! Seriously one of the best milestones!

Hiya Every surgeon has a different plan. No one is the only way. I was eating solids (chicken, fish) before I left hospital!! That said, keep an eye on this period is my real advice. Part of the reason for a plan is to force you to change your eating habits. You haven’t gone through all this to get derailed, right??!! So just keep a good food diary, like in MyFitnessPal or similar, and keep an eye out for staying in the new eating groove that leads to long-term success...

Chew it, but don’t swallow it!

Hmmm. Have you just downgraded your pain relief? I just had my gallbladder out (gallstones being a common weight loss after effect). Was good but today! Three days post op, I also am very sore on the left of my tummy - but I have stopped my pain meds - so rather than pain starting, I realised it is feeling it that is just starting. If you haven’t changed meds, I’d suggest you ring your surgeon’s clinic....

I had a lap band revised to bypass. Let me know if you want to know about that too (but it might well be that you know sleeve is the right one for you). Cheers

As some of you will have read from earlier posts, my RNY has been a dream run. An absolute dream. But, A glitch in that, and here I sit in hospital, awaiting further tests. 10 days ago I had a bad experience -it just felt like bad bloating at the start, but became really quite bad pain in upper stomach (navel to rib cage) which made me retch, but not vomit. I ended up curled in a foetal position on the bathroom floor in pain (thank heavens for under tile heating!) and then *click* just like throwing a switch it was over. 45 minutes of pain, then as if nothing had happened. But it did make me wonder if I was developing gallstones, the dreaded RNY risk. So, two nights ago, bed time, it started again. But this time the waves of pain went on, every 45 minutes regular as clockwork, all night. Exhausted, I came here to hospital yesterday morning - bedside ultrasound showed a gallbladder full of grit - sand sized stones. But more alarmingly, the liver enzyme tests showed me on the verge of liver failure from damage presumably caused by 12 hours of bile flooding through the liver. In hindsight, I got sick in China a month back, thought it food poinsoning but now think that was my first all-night-gallstone-event, and probably the start of the liver damage. Sigh. So now I sit here in a hospital bed feeling fine, awaiting an MRI to look at the condition of the bile duct and pancreatic duct which look enlarged, and awaiting bloods to see if the liver is stabilising. If not - urgent surgery to remove gall bladder and investigate liver, but if so, go home and return for non-acute surgery and keep my fingers crossed I don’t have another event. Advice - if you have that top-of-tummy pain (which can refer through and feel like back pain, too) get it sorted quick, before liver damage occurs!!

I didn’t. I think @Creekimp13 did.

You’re looking fab! In both my weight loss journeys (gastric band and now bypass) I found the stall was when I dropped a clothes size. Someone posted a great post - they cut lengths of soft string that are neck, waist, hips, thigh, calf, and upper arm measurement lengths. And I think you will see that your stall is when those bits of string become too long!

Oh bummer! Post op no gallbladder and non-functioning gallbladder are the same. But what a pain, having to have another surgery! Laparoscopic I assume, so just that nasty gas to deal with. 24 hours later, I am just on paracetamol. It is manageable as surgery goes.