notmyname

So, from everything I read/heard before surgery, it would take my brain a while to catch up to my weight loss and I would still see myself as super heavy for a while. I seem to be the exact opposite - As I've lost, I've felt like I'm really small, then as I'm in a new size for awhile, I look at myself and realize I'm just not. So, I feel/think I look thin when I first get into a new size, then later feel/think I look fat. Not really ranting, it is just interesting how my perception of myself has been very different than I had been told it would be.

MY cycle has been super weird. 8 months out, I'm still not regular (although I wasn't regular before). My first period was about 6 weeks after surgery (so more than a month late), then another 6 weeks later, then 2 weeks, then 4 weeks, then 9 weeks. It may also be worth discussing BC with your surgeon and gyno - my doc said that BC may not absorb correctly after surgery.

Thanks - my PT thinks some of my back pain is being caused by neck issues and has been working to see if that causes my migraines, too. The PT has been helping my back (a little, and not fast enough), but my migraines just keep getting worse.

Anyone post-op have their migraines get progressively worse? Mine were 99% under control before surgery - maybe one every 3-4 months. Since then, they've gotten progressively worse. I've now had some form of migraine (some moderate, some severe) every day for about 3 weeks. I'm trying to get into my neurologist, but until I can, i just don't know what to do. I can't take triptans, NSAIDs are now out, and tylenol does nothing. I feel like crap and I'm out of ideas.

So, I've been having some new back pain the last couple months. It's not bad, just constant and annoying. Surgery was 5+ months ago. Surgeon said it could be that my posture is changing, so I'm using muscles that I haven't used, and that some of his patients did physical therapy and it helped. But then he didn't prescribe physical therapy. Anyone else had back pain after losing lots of weight? Are there exercises I can do to try to sort it out until I can find a back doctor? Thanks!

Most sleevers don't get GERD if they didn't have it before - it just seems that way because people don't really post the positive - you're FAR more likely to see a post about getting GERD than a post about not having a side effect/complication. According to some studies, about 9% of people who are sleeeved get GERD (the title in the link to this article is a bit misleading: https://www.mdedge.com/gihepnews/article/80250/gastroenterology/sleeve-gastrectomy-often-worsens-gerd) According to the article: "Most LSG patients [who had GERD before surgery] (84.1%) had persistent GERD symptoms after the procedure; only 15.9% reported resolution of symptoms. An additional 9.0% of LSG patients reported postoperative worsening of GERD symptoms. And 8.6% of patients who didn’t have GERD before undergoing sleeve gastrectomy developed the disorder afterward." So, if you don't have GERD now, this study would say you have an 8.6% chance of getting it afterwards. Most of the people I've met who have had the sleeve have no GERD (and one bypass patient I know does). And the few sleevers I know who do have GERD have it well under control with medicaiton. In the end, read the studies. Talk to your surgeon. Have you had an endoscopy - talk to your surgeon about the results and what s/he thinks it means for the likeliness of getting GERD. As to why - my understanding is that because you're stomach basically becomes a tube, the pressure in your stomach increases, which increases the chance of the acid being forced back into the esophagus. This is a really nerdy article, but Table 1 talks about why obese people in general have a higher incidence of GERD, why someone might newly get GERD after sleeve (de novo column), or why GERD might get better after sleeve ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4579881/ NOTE going into the next paragraph - my experience is NOT typical. I know some on this board would prefer that people don't talk about their bad outcomes, but I feel like people should know that a small number of patients do get the. I'd also say that, for me, some presentations of GERD are not preferable to being overweight. Unfortunately, my surgeon gave me the 8.6% figure as ALL sleeve patients - he didn't give me the #s on people who had GERD before (I recognize I should have done more of my own research - I did some, but somehow didn't see the study linked to above). I had a bit of GERD that was very well controlled before surgery. I felt great for about 3 months post-surgery. Months 4-5 were so rough with GERD I could barely eat (I struggled to get 3-400 calories vs. eating about 700 in the few months after surgery) and struggled every waking moment not to throw up. It is better now (at 8 months), but I still have GERD and can tell you at any given time exactly where the acid is in my esophagus. I can tell you that at months 4-5, I would have 100% taken all the weight back to feel better. And even now I seriously regret the surgery and would trade the 125-ish lbs loss to feel like I did before surgery (edited to add - I also have other complications, so its not just the GERD that makes me regret this - but I likely would have had the other complications with RNY, too). But, for various personal reasons that really only apply to me, I wouldn't have had the RNY and still won't convert. So, I'm working on it in therapy because it is not mentally healthy to continually regret a decision I can't take back.

My SIL came to stay with me after surgery for a few days. She came the day before surgery and was there for 3 days after. I had sleeve and was in the hospital 1 night (they let me out around 7PM the following day). My doc required someone to be home with me for 24 hours after I stopped narcotics (although I stopped the narcotics when I left the hospital). I don't think I would have needed someone there all day, but it was nice. Help I needed: I needed help lifting things (so doing laundry, taking out the trash, etc). Couldn't lift more than 10# for 6 weeks after surgery. After SIL left, my neighbor helped me with the trash You can't drive until you have the narcotics out of your system for 24 hours, and my doc doesn't like people driving for 2 weeks (I was so sore, I wouldn't have been comfortable with my reaction time if something had happened while driving), so she drove me around if I need it for the first few days. But I really didn't need to leave the house - for my follow-ups, I took Uber. I didn't need the following, and could have done all of this myself, but it was nice to have someone else thinking for me in the first few days when my brain was scrambled from anesthesia (NOT common, but I do not do well with anesthesia😞 My bedroom is on the 3rd floor of my house. She helped make sure I was OK getting up there . She kept track of my liquid/protein intake and would remind me to sip every 15 minutes or so (she created a great tracking system that I used for about a month or two after surgery) She'd prompt me to walk and track how far we went. Walked about 4-5 times a day, around the block of my townhomes - so each lap was about 500ft of walking. I bet I wouldn't have walked nearly as much if she wasn't here Helped me remember to use my spirometer.

I mostly eat the same things for breakfast and lunch B: either Quark (a yogurt-consistency cheese) or Oikos Triple 0 Greek Yogurt with 1/4 - 1/2 c. frozen blueberries (I eat it at work, so the bb defrost just a bit on the drive in so they're not SOOO frozen) L: eggface's ricotta bake with spinach baked in. I usually make a double recipe, cook it in a mini loaf pan that makes 8 mini loaves. Keep 4 in my fridge, freeze 4. Sometimes I'll have leftovers for lunch, but typically its ricotta bake. Snacks - the Sargento nut/cheese packs, cheese slices, almonds, parm chips with guac or hummus (sometimes I'll have this for lunch as well)

I really like Morninstar farms grillers prime (16g protein) and spicy black bean (9g protein). There is also a Chipotle Black bean burger at Costco (16g protein, but they're huge - i think morningstar farms) that is delicious. I also really like the Morninstar farms hot & spicy sausage (9g protein) Every now and again, I'll put some of the morninstar farms chorizo crumbles in with a scrambled egg and eat it with guac for a tortilla-less breakfast taco taste. I also like boca burgers, but my grocery often doesnt have them

It really is - a REALLY easy meal is 1 serving of parm chips with one of those single serving things of hummus or guac. I buy the hummus/guac at costco and freeze most of them - thaw 2-3 at a time.

I don't know what kind of unholy magic they use to make them, but there little roughly quarter-sized chips made 100% out of baked Parmesan cheese. Really satisfies my crunch cravings. These are the ones I buy (just because they sell them at Costco. https://www.whisps.com/

Oh, I also like parm chips with either hummus or guac. CAn be a snack or a meal for me.

I'm a pescatarian, but mostly eat vegetarian. Some of my veggie go-tos are (I eat far too much cheese, which may not work for you with the autoimmune - not sure): greek yogurt Quark (its a cheese that is yogurt consistency - but thinner than greek yogurt) I almost always have quark with frozen blueberries for breakfast - by the time i get to work, the bb are still a little frozen, but not hard) cottage cheese (there is one that is higher protein) My favorite lunch is ricotta bake (google "Eggface ricotta bake") - I always add some sauteed spinach. I make a double batch and cook them in a mini loaf pan (makes 8 mini loaves) - freeze half of them. beans/lentils (although not a lot of protein here) tofu - I either buy extra firm, drain it, and bake it or buy the baked tofu from places like trader joe's eggs - mostly scrambled Veggie sausage (I like morninstar farms) egg salad (2 eggs, 1 TBL greek yog, 1 TBL may) Veggie burgers (look at the protein content, some are low protein/high carb) Snacks almonds Sargento nut snack packs cheese fairlife milk

re; Instantpot - they're almost always on sale on Amazon Prime day (which I think is in a couple weeks

Not an appliance, but I got a great small (5") cooking pan - steep sides, well made, non-stick. Given the amounts I can eat, it is SO much easier to cook in - especially if I'm doing an egg or any kind of sauce. I kept looking for one where I live, but ultimately found it when I visited a friend in Europe.

So, your description of your workouts and the fact that you're losing inches tells me you're likely losing fat and gaining muscle. Muscle is more dense and takes up less space than fat. I read somewhere that one pound of fat is roughly the size of a small grapefruit; one pound of muscle is about the size of a tangerine. If you're losing inches, but maintaining weight, that means you're still getting healthier and losing fat, even if you're staying the same weight. It may be frustrating, but it is still really good for your health and your appearance.

I'll also add that my experience is why you shouldn't compare yourself to other people - you don't know if they're so sick they can't eat, or if they'll stop losing at 6 months and you'll continue for 18, or any number of factors. Just live your journey.

Hard to know, and my doc doesn't set expectation/compare you to any baseline. But I've lost around 80% of my excess weight in around 8 months. Considering the average total weight loss is 60% (granted - that's at 5 years, I think, so includes some folks having some regain), I feel pretty good about it. BUT, I've also been incredibly sick every time I eat since around February (so, starting around month 3-4) and am eating a LOT less than other people. I've just started to feel better and eat more, but most folks with my surgeon are eating 100-1200 cal by now and I'm lucky to get in 800. I would not recommend going that route. I'm in a monster plateau for about the last 4-5 weeks, but I'm OK with that. Heck, i'm ok if this is where I stop.

8 months out, I get 70-80, but I also drink a lot of milk (I'll often drink 16 oz of Fairlife milk in a day - which is 26g of protein). But at 3 months (which it looks like is where you're at) - I was still using shakes.

This is a fairly typical day for me. I always start the workday with either quark or greek yogurt and blueberries (frozen and defrosted on the way to work - gives it a bit of texture). Plus usually a homemade latte with 8oz milk Lunch is often ricotta bake. On this day, i had leftover tofu. Some days I have parm chips and hummus I almost always have a snack of either a Sargento nut snack pack (nuts, cheese, cranberries) or cheese. This day I had both. Dinner is usually 1-2 oz of shrimp/shrimp, ricotta bake, or tofu. In a perfect world, I'd add veggies to those meals. BUT I still get very sick when I eat (8 months out), so I only eat the bare minimum to get my protein. If I added veg, I'd never be able to get my protein in. And I MISS veggies!

The note I got from my doc just said that I needed 2-4 weeks off for recovery from surgery. It didn't say what surgery. Also, talk to your doc about how much time you need. My doc was fairly insistent that I take 2 weeks off and telework (if possible) for a third week. I was not allowed to drive for two weeks (but I understand a lot of docs are less strict and just don't let you drive until you've been off narcotics for a few days). I couldn't have driven anyway. No possible way I could have reacted quickly enough if something had happened because a lot of the leg movements actually come from your core - and mine was WAY too sore.

I have some new back pain after my sleeve (started about 5-6 months out. Surgeon and physical therapist said it was because my posture was radically changing because of how I carry my body and my muscles aren't used to it. Hoping PT will help, but it hasn't so far. But nothing like herniated discs for me (or at least they don't think so - no X-rays yet).

Realize this is an old thread, but my PCOS seems to be better (I'm actually getting my period again - good for my overall health, but super annoying. Plus, my period is SUPER unpredictable). But my acne is worse. Its starting to even out (at about 8 months), but was terribly for the first 5-6 or so months.

You likely won't need a prescription. I just bought some - either online or at a pharmacy, not sure. Maybe even from this website.

Mine is significantly more gravelly. But that's because of my severe reflux f'ing with my vocal cords.