Bastian

Add more calories by eating higher calorie food not more food

32lbs is fabulous! Look how much 30lbs of fat is!!! I feel like you I lost 33lbs during my hospital stay and have lost barely anything since being home for 3 weeks. But just look at that fat compared to the cereal bowl! We need to change our thinking, which is hard because maybe like me you feel like you did on a diet before the op, you'd lose, hit a stall then it'd all go down the drain. BUT we just have to be patient and let our new anatomy do its job

haha love these replies! I felt like I was sneaking something naughty, so was standing in the fridge sipping the pickle-less juice that I insisted the husband leave in the fridge for me, sip sip sipping wondering if the dietician would tell me off LOL

I think patience is the key to stalls. I find this incredibly difficult as I have the patience of a gnat.

Well, that was a very unpleasant experience. Of course, I had read it wasn't pleasant by any means but stupidly wasn't eating 'mindfully' and was chatting to my husband while I ate and had one meatball too many (they were tiny teaspoon-sized super soft chicken meatballs). Anyway, I paid the price quite quickly and am absolutely hating this new way of vomiting. WHY is it just bile, dear god it is revolting! I didn't get pain so much as just the feeling that something was a bit stuck. So, lesson learnt, MINDFUL EATING IS A MUST lol

@FluffyChix haha absolutely! must. be. mind. ful.

The pre-op diet hunger is hard guys, but it will be over before you know it and you won't be hungry then and will be struggling to work out how on earth to get your protein and daily fluids in lol Stay strong, have a big drink of water when you have tummy pains, it can help ease it a bit. Good Luck!

Good luck don't let them just brush you off!

Congrats on having it all done and dusted Take it easy, surgery is surgery conscious or not and you will need rest to heal! I bet bra shopping will be so exciting

You are very welcome. Perhaps it is addiction physiologically but that is a moot point after 20 years and the fact you still have pain without it and yep doesn't make it any less real. Pain management was one of my specialist interests as a nurse and that was before I was needing it myself. So many health professionals don't even get it. While I was on the morphine pca the pain management nurse said 'you are using it more than we would expect someone to use it with your back condition'. I even had 1 nurse tell me that I shouldn't need morphine at all! People are so quick to pass judgment when they don't actually understand things properly. Well, first of all, they hadn't discussed my back condition with me, nor did they take into account that I also had a twisted bowel which is considered agony. So glad you are seeing your pain management Dr beforehand and will have a decent plan of action. Let me know how you go

Fantastic idea, I am still a bit hit or miss but am trying to do some walking every other day at the moment. Daily is too much to actually go on a walk at the moment, but no reason I can't track the days I do go on one. I also have a husband in the good books who has set up my bike so I can use it in a stationary position, so even if I did 2, 3, or 5 mins I could track that too. pre-op I wasn't doing anything because it was all too hard mentally but this is my path to a new me so join in I shall!

I cannot stand anything sweet now. Post-op I couldn't even have my protein shakes because they are all sweet. But what a fantastic aversion to have! Pre-op I was an absolute sugar junkie so for me this is heaven-sent. Oddly I am craving pickle juice and the juice pickled jalapenos are in. Which is exactly what I craved when pregnant LOL Now what is that about!? I am definitely not pregnant lol

I lost 15kg, 33lbs in 2 weeks!! Crazy I know & I kept asking the nurses if their scales were right but I was pretty unwell. 11lbs is fantastic, Could you have lost 11lbs before surgery so easily? My loss really was due to how unwell I was and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It was really awful and I would have rather lost 11lbs and not had the problems I had. BUT only 1kg (2.2lbs) down since lol so am having the 3-week stall too and it is SO frustrating being on so few calories and nothing is happening. It feels a bit like being on a diet pre-surgery and sticking to it yet not losing anything, so I am trying really hard to just try and trust that it will start going down again. As far as your 1 painful wound, it might just be that deeper down there is a bit of scar tissue pulling when you move a certain way, that will eventually stretch and soften up a bit and stop tugging and causing discomfort.

Hi I'm pretty new here too, but so much helpful advice and support and a plethora of info. I think I have got more info here than from my team I chose to have surgery because I was starting to show signs of metabolic disorders such as high blood pressure, sinus tachycardia etc and really they are big signs that my body was going to give up early on me. Which of course I don't want. So here I am 2 weeks post op (my last op, I had 3 in 2 weeks due to issues) on a huge learning curve about eating and mindfulness when eating and 100 other things related to my new inner workings I hope you have a smooth journey to approval and will be post op starting your new life before you know it

Can't you still take the lactaid?

Really your cardiologist and pharmacist should be working this out for you. If there is no way you can get the medication in liquid form then they should be converting you to one that is. What did they say about you not being able to have it for a few days? They have a duty of care to sort this out for you if you absolutely cannot miss taking it for 2 or 3 days. I would be demanding (politely of course) that they find you an alternative. It is not your responsibility as a patient to be sourcing medication.

Hmmm could you make the ricotta bake so that you are getting pizza flavours without the pizza? Or if you can tolerate meats have a little with pizza sauce, a little cheese a tiny bit of the toppings you crave? For me, I always enjoyed the works on pizza so if I was making a little bite or 2 now (if I could and was craving) I would do pizza sauce finely chopped green pepper, some diced ham and some cheese zapped in the microwave so it is gooey. Just enough for say 2 small mouthfuls so you can savour the flavour? I know for myself it is the flavours I miss (big Indian food junkie), perhaps this would work for you? In a very small amount? Then again this may well make the cravings worse. As far as sweet stuff goes, really have to work on avoiding the sugar or you definitely will dump. For me, the fear of dumping is enough to make me avoid anything that might trigger it, I even check how many carbs are in everything that is passing my lips so I don't dump because I can't stand all the drooling/vomiting/abdo pain. As already suggested do you get any kind of counselling from your bariatric team?

Absolutely gross aversion therapy, best kind I guess?! Funny thing is I thought perhaps I had no pouch at all because I hadn't had any issues lol AND not really sure of my anatomy now due to having a sleeve first which went 'wrong' then an emergency bypass a few days later. My surgeon only leaves a 1cm wide sleeve which is pretty minuscule, so I was like erm how on earth did he make a pouch with what was left? Well, I now know there is definitely some kind of pouchiness going on after meatball-gate LOL I spent yesterday pretty uncomfortable all day so not sure if I aggravated my 'pouch' and made it swell a bit from the vomiting, but nothing went down easily yesterday, even fluids weren't great and had pain all day. So Just had an early night and slept it off

I really hope your awful pain is under control soon, don't be scared to ask for pain relief when you need it. Each day really does get a little easier x

Monk fruit affects blood sugars exactly the same way as sugar cane sugar and we should all be avoiding it. The body treats it exactly the same way as normal sugar and will be converted via the liver and stored as fat. I too hate stevia on its own but I found a blend of erythritol and stevia doable. It is called Natvia here, or you could do it a cheaper way like I do buy stevia powder and erythritol powder and mix them together yourself.

Likely they gave you glucose in your iv fluids?

Hi, got my Acute Care Nurses hat on here. Any pain that cannot be easily relieved with over the counter medication definitely needs investigation. And looking through these boards this does not seem to be a side effect that is common with other members. The pain sounds quite severe and I would really recommend you get it checked out, preferably when it is happening. How long does it last, what score do you give it out of 10, do you have any kind of fever with it? Bowels do get blocked and can twist etc and that is a very very serious issue if it happens, although normally it would be ongoing and wouldn't stop so even though it is very unlikely to be that you really MUST get checked out and sorted. It may well be that your bowel is just having spasms and even though I say 'just' spasming, it can be incredibly painful. It does sound like spasms, but I always say much better to get checked out and know that even though it is very painful it is not serious. Keep us updated on how you go

There are other forms of these meds which will enable you to take them post op. But after my own experience with my opiates for other problems I cannot stress enough to you to get this side of things sorted BEFORE you have your operation. I ended up in absolute agony not just from the complications of my surgery but my uncontrolled back pain too. People do not understand my back pain as they could see me pacing the corridors, my back pain was as severe as my surgical issues and I was climbing the walls in pain, so please get it sorted ASAP

Again, it is because of oestrogen being released from fat cells, as well as other hormonal changes. It can happen even with the pre surgery diet. Or at different times in life if you have a sudden diet change that causes fat cells to start shrinking. Our bodies are such amazing things that we still just don't know enough about

Oh perfectly normal to be scared of infection and this whole journey is emotional That is why forums like this are so good, you can come and get reassured AND it is ok to feel tearful or scared about stuff, we are all just humans doing the best we can and new stuff can be scary and I expect you are still pretty worn out and not yourself from the surgery x