Arabesque

Nexium is omeprazole. Just a different brand name. Don’t know what it’s like in the states but in Australia you can only buy 10mg Nexium over the counter. 10mg is fine for basic heartburn but reflux & gerd really needs a stronger dose. Here 20mg is by script & 40mg requires the doctor to fill out additional paperwork because of the strength & effects of long term usage of PPIs so they are reluctant to prescribe the 40mg. As to your surgeon. Did he describe what he would do in your surgery before your surgery? If so did he say he would do the sleeve gastrectomy as well as the bypass? As the form said he would do additional procedures if necessary, what was his justification for doing the gastrectomy? His saying it’s what we do here is not good enough because he told you you’d have bypass surgery & you did not have a gastric bypass alone. If it’s what they do there the gastrectomy aspect should have been identified on the consent form. At the very least you were provided with inaccurate & incomplete information about what your surgery was & involved. Generally, your lower BMI would indicate a sleeve would be most appropriate for you, however, your existing GERD would support the decision to have bypass. Doing both seems excessive. Just my opinion.

You may struggle with vegetables that soon out unless they’re really well cooked. I’d add carrots, onions, celery, tomato, cauliflower, mushrooms, to soups, stews, etc. anything slow cooked from soft food. They’d be very soft & mushy. In solid food I found I could tolerate a little microwaved/steamed shredded cabbage or cauliflower, then green beans. Other vegetables were too coarse or tasted unpleasant for a few more weeks. But we’re all different. You can only try.

My hunger didn’t come roaring back either. Sort of crept up with odd times I’d be hungry & thankfully usually at meal times. Along the way l’ve learnt to look at my hunger very differently & am much more aware of which is real hunger & which is just head hunger. Makes it way easier to manage - not always successfully but hugely better than I ever did. Some find their hunger starts to return in their first year. For others it takes longer. The first time I felt real hunger was 9 months out & in maintenance. Busy day, had hardly eaten anything & it hit me late at night. I didn’t know what was wrong because it was such a different feeling. Didn’t feel it again for months so my hunger didn’t really start to come back until well into my second year which was when I had my first craving since before surgery. I still have odd days or times I’m not hungry. Sometimes I wish I had more of them though 😁.

I agree 100% @Jaelzion. Besides clearer advice about portion sizes, food choices, food sensitivities or intolerances that may occur, etc., I’d also add discussions about things like stalls, hair loss, constipation... These issues can cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety. There’s enough to work through enough with the surgery, changes to our diet & lifestyle without these worries as well.

Ok, breathe. It’s ok. It’s only been four days since a pretty major surgery. You’ve had 80+/-% of your tummy removed. There are lots of staples & sutures holding your tummy together. You have been inflated with gas & had your insides pushed, prodded & pulled. You’re supposed to be in pain. Give yourself time to heal. The gas pain, surgical pain & muscular pain will reduce. Some people find improvement after 3 or 4 days while others a week. We’re all different. Even our ability to tolerate pain is different & that’s ok too. Contact your employer & see if you can negotiate a delay to your return to work or maybe a staged part time return if you think you will need it. Again we’re all different & you may need longer to recover. A friend was back after a week no problem Another needed three weeks. Me, I needed four weeks & still only returned to work part time. (My blood pressure was very low & my energy levels were zip.) You’d know if you had a leak. They’re pretty rare these days. Symptoms to look for include: Dizziness Fever Shortness of breath or fast breathing - more than 18 breaths a minute Fast heart rate - higher than 120 beats per minute Worsening abdominal pain Chest pain shoulder pain (not from the gas escaping) A general feeling of illness and anxiety Be kind to yourself & your body. You’ve been through a lot.

Regrets are common with specially in the first few weeks when you’re on the restricted staged eating plan & so limited in what yo can eat & drink & when. In time you will be able to eat & drink a lot of your old favourites but likely not as frequently and not in the same portion sizes. Or you may eat healthier versions of them. You’ll also discover new favourites too. But that will be your choice & how it fits in with you being able to maintain your weight. Caffeine is harsh especially on your healing tummy to begin which is why we’re advised to avoid it. After it just depends on if you can tolerate it or not. I sipped a gin & tonic a couple of months after surgery. I went from drinking a very large glass of wine or two every night to only having a single drink may be once a month. Initially my taste buds changed & I didn’t like the taste. Now, it ‘s my choice but I don’t look for it & don’t miss it. The only thing with beer may be the carbonation - some struggle with bubbles in any drink. Almost three years out & I still consider portion sizes & calories. I don’t measure & weigh every day. I do random checks of things I eat regularly but check every new food or recipe I eat. I’ve worked out cheat checks of portion sizes fir when I’m eating out - compare to my palm, a fist, finger length etc. I check portion size recommendations & read nutrition panels. I make most of my own food so I know exactly what I’m eating. It’s easy to get complacent & over estimate hence my checks. I know if I let this slide I’ll end up making bad food choices, eating more than I need & be back where I started.

Welcome. It’s ok to feel scared & nervous. It’s surgery. Food likely is something you depend upon as an emotional support & that is going to change & you will be changing what & how you eat. Things like how much pain you will experience after surgery is very individual. You may have a lot of gas pain or nine at all (I didn’t after my sleeve) but there are things you can do to help the gas escape your body. You may experience surgical pain for a couple of days or a week but again you’ll have access to pain meds to help. You may have muscular discomfort & struggle to get up & down for a little while or you may have very little at all. Pre surgical diets differ a lot too. Some are two weeks, some are just a couple of days. Some are all shakes. Others 2 meals shakes & 1 meal protein & vegetables. Mine was keto so … (I have done shake diets before & for a couple of months at a time.) The first challenge to the pre surgical diet is the psychological loss of the crunch & chew comfort of solid food. This can increase your head hunger & cause a lot of emotional turmoil. The second is the withdrawal symptoms (headaches, nausea, tiredness, etc.) from cutting out caffeine & sugar. This usually lasts less than a week. These things are small & are only a couple of weeks in duration. Nothing when you consider the big picture of your whole life & your health. The surgery is an opportunity to makes big changes but you have to be psychologically & emotionally ready. Don’t be afraid to seek support from a therapist (one who specialises in bariatric patients & disordered eating are best). A lot of people have found therapy extremely helpful. Yes, you are on a low calorie restricted diet & eating small portions to begin. Initially it is to support your healing. Then to make you look at the nutritional benefits of what you eat but within a few months you’ll be eating more & a greater variety of food. By maintenance you’ll be eating the portion sizes we all should be eating (not those giant plates two & three times more than what we actually need & lead to our obesity). And you’ll be consuming only the calories your body needs to function effectively & maintain your weight. You’ll discover your relationship with food will change. I still enjoy eating & the taste & texture of food but I see it as something my body needs to function & not as something to comfort & soothe me emotionally - because I’m bored, sad, happy, angry, etc. I’m not continuously thinking about what & when I’ll eat next. It’s that maxim of eating to live not living to eat. All the best.

I didn’t use a recliner or binder either. Was sleeping in my usual slightly twisted side position almost from the beginning & had no trouble getting up & down. Your recovery is very individual. You may have lots of gas pain or no gas pain. You may experience surgical pain for a couple of days or a week. You may get around easily or experience muscular discomfort. You may have days of diarrhoea or be constipated. Make sure you have your post surgical over the counter meds at home ready before you go to hospital. Imodium, gasX, pain meds (not NSAIDS), anti nausea meds, electrolyte drink, etc. Some surgeons give you your scripts for your other meds (PPI, opioid pain meds, anti nausea meds, …) before your surgery others after. Throw in an extra set of underwear & sleepwear just in case you stay in for an extra day. It’s often nicer to be in your own sleepwear. Disposable underwear can be handy too in case you do experience diarrhoea (it can happen unexpectedly & be messy!). Have a couple of different brands & flavours of protein shakes, broths & cream soups. After surgery, some things, temporarily, just taste awful. Get in some green or herbal tea. I found warm drinks very soothing to sip. All the best with your surgery & recovery.

Congratulations. Such wonderful news after your struggles. Pregnancy seems to be quite common after WLS. All the hormones flooding your body make you extra fertile. Likely why some surgeons recommend doubling up on contraception for a while. Have you spoken with your dietician? They’ll be able to advise on the small changes you’ll need to make to your eating plan. You’ll also find that you don’t have to add that many additional calories to your diet so your weight loss won’t be compromised just delayed with your pregnancy. I’ve read you slowly increase to only 200-300 extra calories by the third trimester. That old ‘eating for two’ was just an excuse for people to overeat. It may be different for as you’re on a fairly low calorie diet now. And you’re already eating a much healthier & more balanced diet which will be benefitting your baby. All the best.

I eat the same things for lunch all the time. Chicken tenders & salad or prawns & salad & slight variations of the same. Means I don’t have to think about what to eat, portion size, protein content, etc. I think if I still enjoy it, I’ll keep eating it. Today I’m making garlic prawns as I couldn’t get my usual cooked prawns. I’ll just eat the prawns.

I think it’s just bruising too. They do a lot of pushing & prodding at those sites. They’ll continue to fade & have colour change. It looks like you’re healing well.

Anemia is becoming more common these days. I know several women who are anaemic & have regular transfusions. Rarely heard of it 10 years ago. Are you still eating a high protein diet? Have they looked for a possible cause of your anaemia? Infection, auto immune issue, absorption issue, etc. Make sure you’re consuming iron rich foods including: Red meat, pork and poultry Seafood Beans Dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach Dried fruit, such as raisins and apricots Iron-fortified cereals, breads and pastas Peas Increase your vitamin C as it aids iron absorption. As well as citrus fruits try: Broccoli Grapefruit Kiwi Leafy greens Melons Oranges Peppers Strawberries Tangerines Tomatoes Do you still have your dietician’s details? Maybe you can contact them for some advice.

Lowe! I bet that is really painful. So sorry. I sliced a big chunk off my thumb last year. Couldn’t believe how such a small thing like not being able to use such a tiny part of me limited me in doing just about everything. So frustrating. But don’t give up. Yes, try upper body exercise as others have suggested. Remember all your eating strategies. Eat slowly. Eat only until you’ve enough not full - do you need that next bite or just want it. Stick to your portion sizes recommendations & your eating plan. Etc. Nothing has changed except some of your mobility temporarily. I rarely exercised & I lost all my weight. So being limited in your activity is not going to stop your weight loss. Remember why you’re doing this. Stay the course & stay positive. Hope you heal well.

I ate a lot of mince dishes too. Soft food is way easier to manage as it’s more like what you always ate & the rest of the family can eat it too. Spaghetti bolognese (just eat the mince beef sauce), meat balls in gravy (mashed them), etc. Anything that is stew/casserole like. Vegetable & meat soups. Anything slow cooked, fall off the bone tender.

You really won’t ever be able to take NSAIDs again even with a sleeve. Certainly not in full doses or regularly or prescription strength. They are far too harsh because they are more concentrated in your tiny tummy. After about a year, my surgeon told me I could have an over the counter anti inflammatory on rare occasions but never for consecutive days. I’ve taken four capsules in 2 years. One after my gall surgery & another after thumb surgery. When my back went out I took one in the AM & one in the PM. That’s it. I also take a PPI every day which probably helps when I do take a NSAID. I had reflux for years but managed it 99% of the time with dietary choices. Very rarely took medication. Likely why my surgeon still decided to give me a sleeve. I still have reflux now but it manifests differently & is only pretty mild. Yes, I take a PPI every day which keeps most of it under control. I sometimes get burning in my throat late at night but it’s not bad (it doesn’t keep me awake) & is usually because I ate protein too close to going to bed. Personally, I’d ask my surgeon for some stats around long term success of gerd not reoccurring in sleeve patients after hernia repair/fundoplication, and stats of gerd developing in all post sleeve patients. Then make your final decision of which surgery yiu want to have.

A restriction tends to run across our upper chest - a tightness, quite painful & very uncomfortable, makes me want to thump my chest to try to alleviate it. It passes for me after about 15-30mins. It’ll occur if I eat too fast or too much, swallow too large a mouthful or eat food that is too coarse or too dry. Though unpleasant, your restriction can be your best friend too - keeps you on track & doing the right thing so you don’t experience it.😉 But because we all have slight differences in our physiology your shoulder pain could be related to your restriction too. Best to contact your surgeon to ensure it’s not a sign of another issue. Remember: Cut your food into small bites. Use a teaspoon, a baby fork or buffet fork (spork) so you don’t overload your cutlery & take large mouthfuls. Eat slowly. Use gravies, stocks, sauces to keep your food moist. Choose tender cuts of meat like chicken thigh over breast. Don’t over cook meats which dries them out.

I was swallowing pain meds (capsules & round tablets) & my HRT less than 24hrs after surgery. I had a lot of swelling so it was a bit difficult & it did hurt a little. But everyone has different levels of swelling & it may not be an issue for you at all. After a couple of days it wasn't a problem anymore. Just make sure the nurses know you have to take your medication & when you have to take it if it time dependent. They are often stretched across patients & time poor & delays & oversights can happen. Overworked & understaffed unfortunately.

No leaking for me either. Neither did my three who also had a sleeve. I didn’t have a liquid test to test for a leak either. They can occur anywhere between the first days or up to a few weeks after surgery - I guess until you are fully healed. They are not very common. Surgeons tend to staple & stitch to decrease the risk of a post surgical leak. You can do things to help avoid a leak too. Follow your eating plan (nutrition & not stressing or straining your healing tummy), don’t carry anything too heavy (<10lbs to begin), don’t be too active too soon (gentle walking at first). If you have any symptoms go to your nearest hospital & contact your surgeon as soon as possible. All the best with your surgery.

I used to take a stool softener the night of the 3rd day without any movement. I felt this kept it under control & I never had any discomfort from going too many days without a BM & I didn’t ever need anything stronger then the stool softener. I often only went every second day understandable when you consider how little we eat.

How long since your surgery? Are you moving about? Walking etc. Do you have low blood pressure? It may be an idea to contact your surgeon/medical team to ensure everything is okay.

It should be gone within a week at most. Some find it’s gone in less time. It just depends on how much they used & how you process it out of your body. Walk, heat compresses, long slow deep breaths, gasx, warm drinks can offer relief. I used to stretch my arms up & down to sort of try to pump the gas out 😁. Pain meds don’t seem to help the gas pain just the surgical pain.

My surgeon listed GasX on my post surgical med list. But I didn’t have any gas pain (apparently my surgeon is known for his patients not having gas pain) so didn’t take any. Can’t say the same after he removed my gall though: the pain was not good. Unfortunately I forgot I had the gasX tablets so suffered through it. Just walked and stretched my arms up & down to try to force the gas up & out. Deep, slow breathing is supposed to help too.

Feeling the cold is terrible. I still do & it hasn’t really improved as some swear it does but I always felt more cold than others too. Can’t tell you how many people have thought I was strange buying long wool coats in winters - why do you need a coat you live in Queensland, the sunshine state, you don’t have winters!! Cinemas & supermarkets are the worst. OH MY GOD. So cold it’s truly a physical pain. And offices, hospitals, doctor’s surgeries, etc where they set the air conditioning extra low arctic temperatures. Shudder. I always kept an extra woollen coat on my chair at work & another woman had a blanket she’d wrap around herself. The only time I appreciated the low temperatures was when I started menopause & before I began HRT 😆. Keep your extremities warm - feet, hands & head. It’s where heat from your body escapes first - socks, fingerless gloves, scarves. I wear socks around my house 6+ months of the year. A blanket, like my colleague may help too. What about some thermals?

You are only in the early stages. I was advised only to consume 1/4 - 1/3 cup of food from purée & slowly increase as I was able. It took me to 6 months to be able to eat about a cup. That’s fine if you can eat more but being able to doesn’t mean you should. Check with your surgeon &/or dietician for your portion size recommendations. Fluids & even purées tend to go through you more quickly so you rarely feel ‘full’ unless you eat/drink too quickly. When you get to solid foods you’ll start to feel full but full will be different to how it felt before. Being mindful when you eat & listening & looking for your physical cues will help you discover your signals. I often find it’s just a feeling not a physical signal I’ve had enough. On days I may be distracted & not as mindful about my eating I’ll start to get a heaviness in my chest. If I eat or drink too much too quickly I’ll feel my restriction (a rather painful tightness higher across the chest - i often thump my chest to try to ease it - doesn’t but …). It’s always better to eat until you’ve had enough & not until you are full. There’s a big difference between actually needing the next bite & just wanting it. Because it takes time for the full message to get through, by the time we feel full we’re over full. It’s one of the reasons we’re advised to eat slowly. Some days you’ll discover you can eat a little more or less than others which is why you need to learn your cues. It can take time to work it all out but you’ll get there.

I used straws for a little while. Wasn’t ever told not to use them. I sort of found them useful at work. Even sipped soup from my thermos through them. (We still had plastic straws then though. Wouldn’t want to try it with paper straws 😁.) I found it easier to do little sips with them & because I didn’t do big slurps I had little risk of sucking in too much air or taking large swallows. Never could understand why many are told not to use straws but they’re not told not to use water bottles like camel back. You have to suck through them. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Personally I find drinking from a glass or cup the easiest & I tend to drink more frequently with them too.