JessLess

@JRT Mom, "quarantined" and "under a stay at home order" are being used pretty exchangeably. I've been under a stay at home order for about two months. I can leave for the grocery store, drug store, to take walks, for emergencies, and that's about it. The things that help me are calorie tracking, exercising, planned Zoom get-togethers with my friends or volunteer groups, and walking my dogs outside. Maintaining my weight loss has been very challenging.

Yes, I've been on them for many years. I take Xanax for anxiety nightly. You can go into withdrawl and even die if you go cold turkey when you've been taking it as long as I have, so my surgeon had them add some to my IV when I was in the hospital, I take Nefazodone for depression and was able to swallow the pill the day after surgery.

Malnutrition can lead to amenorrhea (no or irregular periods.) Please go see your surgeon for blood work and your gynecologist to discuss. You can probably have both conversations with telemedicine and just got to get blood drawn. Good luck!

I could and did swallow pills the day after surgery at my doctor's direction, with the sleeve.

I was getting monthly Vitamin B injections for the sleeve after surgery because I had to take a lot of other vitamins, but going to my doctor's office got old fast so I switched to tablets.

This is what my program recommends for Sleeve and Bypass: Morning: • One A Day Women’s Vitamin • Vitamin D 2,000 • Vitamin B12 500 mcg • Vitron C Iron Noon • Viactive Calcium With Dinner • Viactive Calcium Evening • Viactive Calcium I keep track of it with a free app called Medisafe. The only chew is the Calcium. I think at 1.5 years out I could probably get rid of some of it, but I feel great and my bloodwork is always good, so I just take it. I get most of these generic at CVS so it's 20% off and BOGO.

I don't think a reputable surgeon would do that. I can eat a fair amount with my sleeve at 1.5 years out. I don't want to, because I don't want to gain weight back. Example: I used to be able to eat half a medium pizza. Now I am full after 1 slice. The first few bites of most things taste the best anyway. You'll be satiated with less which will help you reach your goal of losing weight.

Try to up your water to 64-100 oz. a day. You need water to do this. I use to take a Colace every morning. It's a stool softener with no cramping. Eventually I graduated to 3 prunes with breakfast. That has worked great for me. I don't like taking laxatives or teas that give me cramps.

I've sold some and donated some. The best stuff went to a friend who is my old size. But yeah, I have been buying and selling on eBay for over 10 years.

I've found cheap and nice leggings and tops on eBay. I have a bunch of my own too-big jeans listed on there to sell as well.

There are fun, inexpensive classes like aerobics on Zoom right now. I like having an instructor and set time, but if that doesn't matter there are a lot on YouTube. Also, if you can swing it, maybe get a treadmill? A lot of people are Spring cleaning and unloading things they don't use. I do Pilates for my bad back and long, lean muscles, run my dogs, which is somewhat challenging with a mask, and run on my treadmill. I've come a long way. My back was so bad before my surgery, my only exercise was physical therapy! Good luck, sounds like you are doing great!

I didn't feel that way BUT I was already on antidepressants when I had my surgery and I have heard many people talk about having similar feelings. Some people feel even worse and completely regret their surgery. I think depression, anger, sleeplessness, etc. are also quite common during the pandemic, especially for women. I don't know if you are open to this but my insurance is offering many options to talk to a therapist online via Zoom. You might find that helpful if it's something yours offers. I would think someone with bariatric surgery experience would be best. Maybe your surgeon's office can recommend someone? Feel better! You're doing amazing.

I've been really happy with the decision all along. I'm 1.5 years out. At first, when I was dropping a noticeable amount of weight each month, I was just super happy. I'm very wary of regain and just do my best to exercise and eat healthy, low calorie food every day. A lot of people say they wish they had had it sooner, but I wasn't really ready any sooner. I'm also glad I waited until there were some relatively long-term outcomes on the Sleeve.

My surgeon wanted me to have a sleep study but insurance denied it so I never did it, we just moved on.

Are you a dietician? Not sure why you are telling people what they should or should not eat when a lot of bariatric patients are successful with Keto, which is high fat. I wouldn't do it, but I wouldn't tell people not to either.

Can you switch doctors? He's wrong. Is we could lose weight with diet and exercise we would have. Only 5% of people can keep it off long term.

Your employer needs therapy.

I had a drink fairly early, 3 months out. Joke's on me, I don't get a buzz from alcohol anymore, just a wicked hangover.

Hi! It could be water weight or constipation, yes. How many calories are you eating a day? If you have a deficit, meaning you burn more than you eat, it's probably a temporary fluctuation. How's everything else going?

I had thought about it for years, but when my PCP recommended it, I went to a highly recommended WLS program, met with my surgeon, and started seriously learning about it.

Ugh, that guy! Haha Yeah, I agree about there being no such thing as maintenance. I'm always going to be on a diet or healthy eating plan, or whatever you want to call it. I don't plan to ever stop counting calories and being vigilant about not gaining. BUT I had plenty of confidence when I was fat because I am more than my weight. If I didn't accept myself as a fat person, I never would have lost the weight.

I took a lot of Colace (stool softener) after surgery. Maybe 1-3 a day for the first six or so months. That and being really hydrated helps a lot. I hate cramps from laxatives. Now I eat three prunes at breakfast EVERY morning and that's it. Works perfectly. Good luck!

My program paid for me to attend some webinars from My Hungry Head since we can't meet. I wondered if anyone else had done them? They seem a little low level to me so far. During the first Zoom meeting, I fell asleep with my iPad on my head. Good thing my camera was off!

I've taken Phentermine several times. Most notably, the last time I lost 80 lbs and gained 70 back before I decided to get WLS. You can't take them for more than a year, and when you stop, at least in my case, you get much more hungry than you did previously. They are also speed, so sleeping can be challenging. There are some newer ones out, but I don't know as much about them.

@WInston223322I have a telemedicine call with my PCP coming up shortly. Thanks!