Arabesque

You’re not consuming all that much so you don’t have that much to poop out. I never worried if I didn’t go everyday but if I got to a third day then I’d take something. Yes, once you’re eating more & a more varied diet including vegetables & some fruit, things do ease a little. But constipation does seem like a thing we just have to manage in the long term. Thankfully it’s more of an occasionally thing not an every few days thing now for me at least.

Oh no it shouldn’t be like that. You should only have itching around the wound sites. I’m glad you’re getting some medical help.

Oh yeah. They’re a big thing. I still get attacks usually if a food is coarser than I expected (some vegetables can be too fibrous some days). And sometimes if something sits a bit more heavily in my tummy. Some people rarely experience them & others, like me, are a little more sensitive & have them more often. I can go for months without experiencing one & then oh no. As I said I feel fine after I’ve bought up the offending mouthful or two & often can go back & finish my meal (avoiding the offending component). Had an attack last night with mince. Yes mince. Yet I ate it the night before without a problem. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was advised 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purées so that much of the oatmeal & that was all I could physically or wanted to eat. I could eat more soups if I still kept them thin (diluted them) so like a cup but sipped over some time. I’d check with your team to see what they recommend. They may say 1/2 cup but physically you can only eat 1/3. Some teams have requirements for the period of time you can eat like no more than 20 minutes for a meal. (I wasn’t given time frames hence my long sipping just those portions.) Of course it depends on what you can tolerate in the end. Go slowly & only eat until you have had enough (not full). It takes a good 8 weeks to be fully healed so until then your nerve endings aren’t able to send you accurate signals to advise you are full or are eating too much. It’s why portion sizes & time frames can be so helpful during this time.

I bought so many knickers & bras as I lost weight cause of the sizes I dropped through. Baggy knickers & saggy bras are the worst. Buy the bare minimum. Who cares if you’re washing every couple of days. I did get properly fitted for bras on the way because of back pain - bras that fitted & back pain went. (I’m larger too & also need cups wider than many make.). I also bought Bonds/Hanes bralettes for around the house. They’re cheap & I can get them from the supermarket here in Australia. I went to Target for knickers. I didn’t/don’t wear any compression underwear so I can’t help you with that. I donated my proper bras as I dropped sizes. Couldn’t with my knickers though. All the best with your continued weight loss.

Some of the shakes can cause constipation because of the extra fibre many contain to fill you up - it can bind you up. So I’d probably avoid the Benefibre pre surgery - it’s great after surgery. Try a stool softener to get things moving. For the diarrhoea check if your shakes, popsicles & jello contain sugar alcohols. They’re sugar alternatives used to sweeten many foods & drinks. They that end in ‘ol’ like xylitol, sorbitol, etc. They’re renowned for causing diarrhoea (bloating & cramping) if you consume too much. How much is too much differs person to person. It can become a bit of a cycle. Diarrhoea then constipation cause you’ve cleaned out your bowels. Then diarrhoea again.

My other thought was stomach acid. It’s built up over night & you haven’t eaten to use it. The pain is a cutting type cramp but for me it’s more across the centre of my abdomen rather than upper abdomen. I can get it if I haven’t eaten in too long. (I used to have it a lot even pre surgery because I tended to over produce acid.) If it is stomach acid a PPI at night will help. The gall used to regulate the amount of acid entering your tummy so not having one may be part of the cause. Is your poop a bit smelly? The excess acid can give it a strong smell. My sister in law & I both experience sudden onset cramping & then usually diarrhoea due to not having a gall. It’s like the acid builds up then aggregates the bowel & then diarrhoea can occur. It happens to us every month or so. Just musing. No expert.

The itching can be your wounds healing. All the little nerve ending refiring feels a bit like crawling ants or itchy. As long as there’s no swelling or redness or pain you’re okay.

I think this was the foamies not nausea. It likely was from eating too much soup (being full & heavy) & then lying down so the soup was lying in your tummy. The foamies causes excess saliva (often thick & gloopy) & then you can bring up what you ate. It will occur if you eat something that is too dry or coarse or eat too much or too quickly. The food gets stuck (hence the saliva to try to ease the stuck food down) or literally overflows back up. The zofran won’t help with that. But you’ll feel better after bringing up what you ate.

Hopefully the upper GI will show something though you may also need an ultrasound/scan to rule out gall stones, pancreatitis, etc. as well. I’d rather go in & see the doctor than do a Tele health call especially something like this. They can do examinations, you can show them exactly where the pain is, etc. Hopefully they’ll find an answer soon.

Cupboard/freezer pie. Minced beef, vegetables & puff pastry from my freezer & tinned tomatoes & lentils from my pantry. Just used fresh basil, parsley & an onion. Made enough for 6 serves so some will go back into the frezer. Ate about 2/3 of this but all the pastry. It’s odd. I struggle with bread, pasta & rice but can eat some puff pastry. Nit a lot but some. 🤷🏻‍♀️ (Watching UK celebrity Masterchef while I ate dinner as you do.)

Fortunately most of these are not permanent effects though very annoying at the moment. The only exceptions are the constipation which may always be something that occurs at times. And feeling the cold can continue. Head hunger will be a constant battle - surgery doesn’t fix that. It just seems worse at the moment when your diet is so restrictive. You always want more the things you can’t have more. Most of the others pass over a few months once things become more settled. Hormones start to rebalance, energy picks up, you’re eating more & a wider variety of foods, etc. Watch the blood pressure drops though. Get up slowly, avoid too warm showers, keep your fluids up, add a little extra salt to your diet. Add some soluble fibre to your shake, a soup, a smoothie, etc. to help with the constipation. Try not to let it get away from you. I’d take a stool softener if I got to a 3rd day without movement.

Dr Matthew Weiner just did a post on his IG account (poundofcure) today about the pill trials - not that successful yet. Terrible nausea with one & consequently participants dropped out early. Yikes! There are a large number of companies developing them though.

This is terrible. What sort of aftercare is that. Send an email directly to the surgeon if you can listing the questions you have & didn’t receive answers about or didn’t have a chance to ask because you were pushed out the door. I had good follow up which is why I’m very surprised & disappointed for you at your after care. I saw my surgeon at week 2, 1 month & then the 3rd month. A colleague then took up my follow up appointments. I saw them every three months until my third year. I still see this doctor every 6 months. I don’t know for how much longer though. I guess my next appointment at my 5 year mark will tell.

Have you had a liver function test done? Excess copper is excreted from your body in your bile by your liver. While we’re losing, it’s not uncommon to have odd liver function results (processing our fat out of our body strains it). Maybe if your liver isn’t functioning effectively or being stressed by your weight loss may mean it’s not processing the copper out of your system & it builds up. I don’t really know either. Just wondering. Worth a deeper conversation with your doctors as to why it might be happening & what can be done to help reduce your levels.

Menopause is the worst. It’s when I gained my weight. Went from 60 to 75kg very quickly during perimenopause. This was my usual fluctuation so I didn’t worry that much. Then entered full menopause & bam another 15kgs. I swear I gained it overnight. Several of my friends were the same - gained 10-15kgs very quickly with menopause. Couldn't really shift a kilo of it. Drop a couple & put them straight back on. I had hoped that being on HRT might balance out my hormones & help me lose some weight but nope. Struggled for a couple of years. Wasn’t happy. That’s when I decided to have my sleeve. Why don’t you try getting in contact with a bariatric surgeon to discuss your revision options like to a DS. Does your surgeon who did your RNY still practice? Have you considered whether the new GLP - 1 medications might be an option? Certainly worth a conversation with a surgeon. PS Congratulations on your long term success with your original surgery. Such an achievement.

In most cases, your stomach growling is just your digestive system doing its job of digesting food and nothing to do with hunger (despite what we were always told). Your tummy is a muscle that contracts & expands as it digests what you are eating & moves that food through your digestive system. All that squishing & squelching is noisy. At the moment, it’s probably spasming to some degree too as a result of the surgery & the shock to your system. (All those cut nerves, cut tummy.) I’m 4.75yrs out & mine still rumbles & growls like my own personal poltergeist. It will grumble, rumble, whine & groan while I’m eating & even just drinking water for up to an hour or two after so certainly nothing to do with hunger. (It’s doing it now LOL!) My nieces & nephew think it’s hilarious. Sometimes they put their heads on my lap just to see if they can hear my tummy. Can be embarrassing at times though.

I echo the advice to seek help from a therapist to support you while you are experiencing emotional distress, anxiety, depression & support you to find strategies to manage your desire to turn to food during these times. The battle not to eat/ make the best choices is eternal. My brain whispering to me. It will be all right if you eat that. A small bite won’t hurt. It will make you feel better. You deserve it. Etc. It isn’t easy to fight your head/thinking though. And if there are odd times you just can’t argue your way out of it, forgive yourself. You are arguing against an intelligent person - you!

Remember that’s added sugar. Not the naturally occurring sugar. The naturally occurring sugar in milk (& other dairy products), fruit, vegetables, are fine. Keeping your added sugar under than 7g is easy. I do it every day & am 4.75 years out. I’d go further though & say stay away from as much artificial sweetener as well. It only feeds your desire for sweet/sugar, causes weight gain, affects your immune system, etc. it’s not easy cause they put that stuff in seemingly every darn thing. But at least try to keep it low.

I agree. Definitely contact your surgeon. It could be just swelling. It could be a stricture. But you really shouldn’t be experiencing strong pain a week out (except from the surgical gas pain but even that should be reducing each day.). Most of us throw away our opioid pain meds by day 3 or 4 & often don’t need any pain meds after then either. Yes, meeting those fluid & protein goals can be difficult in the beginning. I’m another one who struggled at first (one shake & a cup of soup each day from day 4 & really nothing before then except a few sips of water). As long as you are making an effort & slowly getting closer you’ll be fine. Be aware of possible dehydration though. All the best. And push to get a response from your surgeon asap.

I bought protein shake in powdered form & bought yoghurt drinks when I discovered them. (Be careful some have a lot of sugar/sweeteners & are actually low protein.) I didn’t realise I could make them myself so easily. LOL. I bought some supposedly flavourless pea protein to make my own smoothies but it was awful. All I could taste was peas (& I love peas but pea protein powder blah!). Some good tips I use when eating with others is not to eat while others are speaking. It slows you right down. And it means you give your full attention to others. Plus I put my cutlery down & lean back in my chair between bites even when eating alone. My last tip is to cut your food into small bite size pieces before sitting at the table. Of course you can’t do this when you’re out. I still do this at home. It’s like I’m prepping a meal for a toddler. lol! Use a small plate like a side plate for your meals (still do) to keep your portions small. I also used small ramekins. And I used a teaspoon initially & then a cocktail fork or spork instead of full sized adult cutlery to keep bites small. Some use children’s cutlery.

PPI are proton pump inhibitors which reduce the amount of stomach acid like Esomeprole (Nexium), Omeprazole (Prilosec), etc. I think you need a prescription in the States too for 20+mg doses. Over the counter ones of less than that usually aren’t strong enough. In most cases your stomach growling or hunger pangs are actually just your digestive system doing what it’s supposed to digest food. The PPI will help with that because at the moment your body is still producing enough acid to digest the amount of food you used to eat. Your head can mess with you bad at this time. It makes you want the food you can’t have at the moment even more Plus so many of us used food as a comfort & you can’t have it at the moment so aren’t able to comfort or soothe yourself like you usually would in a time of stress & emotional turbulence. Give yourself time to heal & recover from what is a pretty major surgery. It takes a good 8 weeks to fully heal & feel more like yourself. Be gentle on yourself.

Congratulations on your loss. Whoo hoo! Might be worth checking your calorie intake & what your body actually needs to maintain your current weight & activity level. What portion size are you actually eating? I eat pretty much what is considered an appropriate serving size in maintenance e.g. 3-4ozs protein & a cup of vegetables. Took me to about 18 +/- months to be able to physically be able to eat that. I had been snacking a lot in between to try to stop my continued weight loss until I got to that portion size. I actually still do have to snack just not as frequently. Might be worth a conversation with your dietician to see if there’s something you’re missing & what you could add to your every day eating to help. Also, a growling tummy is more often than not your digestive system doing what it’s supposed to - digest food. Mine is noisiest during & after I eat for up to a couple of hours. Remember you can’t be really be hungry as you’ve just/recently eaten. Your cup of tea is a great idea when this happens. PS - I snacked on combinations of cheese, multigrain crackers & hummus, protein bar, fruit, peanut paste, nuts, yogurt, chia pudding, etc. about 5x a day. Yes I felt I was eating all day long. Now I snack 3 x a day on basically the same things & also occasionally beef jerky & baked fava beans/chick peas.

Instead of snacking as you’re driving, try stopping & having a proper meal - salad, soup, grilled/steamed fish, etc. At three moths you'll have a few more options. Even picking up some yoghurt or pack some protein shakes & have them in a park. It may take you a bit longer to get where you’re going but it should reduce your desire to mindlessly snack in the car. Remember that’s just head hunger - eating out of boredom as you sit in the car. Travel safely.

Try warming the shake or using warm water to make it. Warm drinks are often more soothing & easier to drink & tolerate. Are you taking a PPI? They may help with the gas & belching as may GasX. Worth a try anyway.