Arabesque

How long ago did you have your surgery? If it was recently it could be swelling or internal bruising. If it was a while ago it could be internal or external scar tissue. Next time you visit your doctor or surgeon ask them what they think & what can be done to reduce it if it is something that bothers you. Try gently massaging the scar area with vitamin E oil or bio oil. I used bio oil on my scars & you can hardly see them. I’ve used it on older scars too. It helped fill in a depressed scar that was years old too.

Are you still in contact with your dietician? Might be worth a conversation with them to see if there’s something you’re missing & to get you back on track. Maybe track your food for a week or two as well if you don’t. Can be easy to get a bit complacent about portions, ingredients, etc. as time passes. You could take this data to the dietician too. Have you see your surgeon recently? PS: Can you provide a little more information: type of surgery, starting weigh, weight lost, current weight, how long you’ve been plateauing, etc. It’s very helpful when offering any advice or suggestions.

The PPI won’t cause hunger. It reduces the acid in your tummy. You’re ahead of the game if you can differentiate between head & real hunger. Yay! Those distraction activities will help when you are experiencing head hunger. If you feel hungry after you’ve eaten, that’s head hunger too. Try a warm drink instead of a shake. They’re a meal replacement not a snack. Many are advised to wait at least three or four hours between eating & only three meals a day & maybe a snack. I still have times I can feel liquids go down. It’s a bit weird at first but now it’s just one of those things like my vey noisy, rumbling, grumbling tummy. Your experience last night sounds like late stage dumping not the foamies. The foamies (frothy, thick saliva & bringing up what you ate that was stuck or too coarse or too much) occurs pretty soon after you’ve eaten the offending food. Dumping symptoms can include chills, weakness, light headedness, nausea, bloating, heart palpitations & vomiting &/or diarrhoea. Dumping usually occurs if you eat foods that are too fatty, have too much sugar. Even dairy can cause it. It occurs when these foods go through your tummy to your intestines very quickly (dumps through your system). About 40% of bypass patients can experience dumping. Once you work out what causes yours, you can avoid those foods. Some say in time they work out how much of those foods they can eat without experiencing dumping. Worth a conversation with your team to diagnose & management.

So excited. I actually found Boursin cheese at the supermarket! We’ll ignore the calories & low protein & reflect simply on its deliciousness. Going to make the zucchini tart again but as mini tartlets for drinks next weekend.

I agree. Take a breath & celebrate what you have achieved so far. Then, yes, get back in your surgeon/dietician's plan as you were before the holidays. Make an appointment with your surgeon & your dietician. They’ve seen it all before & shouldn’t judge especially if you’re asking for help. Do you track your food? If you don’t maybe do it for a week or so to make sure you’re not missing something. It’s easy to miss something especially if you’ve let things slide or you’ve got a bit complacent about portion sizes, etc. And you can review it with your dietician. Maybe make an appointment with a therapist too to help you reflect on what was behind your slide & help you get back on track mentally & emotionally. All the best.

Congratulations but also gracious what an experience. How fortunate you have such a wonderful & caring surgeon who was on top of your symptoms straight away. Hope the rest of your recovery goes smoothly. PS: Realising you weigh as much as you did as a child is a head trip. I remember when I realised I must weigh what I did when I was 12. Twelve! Back in the seventies! OMG! And I was just a normal sized child then (before puberty hit.) I actually dug out my tutu from then & it fit (actually was a little big). Freaky!

Liquids won’t fill you in the same way as more solid food simply because they pass through your tummy more quickly. As for your hunger, yes there are some people who continue to feel hungry after surgery. You just have to work out if it’s real hunger or head hunger. If you’ve recently eaten you really would be hungry. If you are hungry for a specific food, taste or texture it’s not real hunger. If your tummy is rumbling (hunger pangs) that’s not real hunger either (just your digestive system working). Are you on a PPI? Tummy acid can make you think you’re hungry. The surgery is hard on us emotionally. Plus we experience hormonal flushes which can mess with us emotionally too. Many of us used food to comfort & soothe our self during emotional turmoil but you can’t. And of course you always want the things you can’t have more. It’s not easy to work all this out. It will take time & that’s okay. If you feel hungry, try distracting yourself. Play a game, go for a short walk, water your plants, craft, read a book, ring a friend or family member, check your social media or this forum, etc. Are you just sipping your liquids & leaving a couple of minutes between sips? Try a warm drink. Many of us found a warm drink like a green or herbal tea easier to tolerate as plain water can almost seem heavy in our tummy & for some cold liquids cramp our tummy.

If you were advised 65-75g protein as your goal & one shake helps you to reach that goal or just exceed it as this stage you’re doing well. When your nutritionalist recommended 2 shakes did they realise you’re able to get 40-50g of protein in eating real food? To me the goal was to be get all I needed nutritionally from eating real food. I never had another shake after the2 week liquids stage, so from when I began purées. I ate a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink to give me the extra boost of protein to help me get near or to my 60g goal. (It did take me a while but my surgeon & dietician were okay with that.) To help reach my fluid goals, I started drinking during the night. still do. Every time I get in or out of bed I drink. Get up to pee, drink. If I’m reading in bed, watching tv, on social media, etc. in bed, I sip regularly. I get in another 8-10ozs most nights.

Interesting question. We women experience a burst of estrogen as we’re losing weight as estrogen is stored in fat. As we lose weight it’s released into our bloodstream. It stops once we get to a healthier weight range & our weight loss has slowed? Your question made me wonder about testosterone. I found this brief article which you made find interesting. It seems testosterone is stored in your fat where it can’t be used by your body & in overweight people it shows as low testosterone levels in blood work. Weight loss results in an increase because you have less fat so less testosterone is stored & it’s available for your body to use. Sounds like good news for you if you are actually producing adequate levels yourself. Worth a conversation with your doctors anyway. https://www.sharecare.com/health/endocrine-system/can-overweight-lower-testosterone-levels#:~:text=Finally%2C testosterone is a fat,being stored in body fat.

I was given the 1/4 - 1/3 of a cup from purée advice too (slowly increasing to a cup by 6 months). If that’s yoghurt it would be about 2-3ozs. But I agree with the others - contact your team to ask. We have different needs & surgeons & dieticians have different requirements. Remember to eat slowly. Wait a couple of minutes between bites. I used to dip my teaspoon into my purées. No spoonfuls. Try not to eat until you feel full. Those signals are still not functioning accurately because your nerves were cut. (Takes about 8 weeks to be fully healed.) All the best.

Perfectly normal. Things suddenly become disgusting - taste, texture or smell can be the cause. It lasts a couple of months +/-. For me the shakes became extremely grainy & I couldn’t tolerate them & other foods seemed overly sweet or salty. Some find foods they didn’t like before suddenly taste delicious. Good opportunity not to reintroduce certain flavours back into your diet (like sugars) & to try new foods. These first couple of months can be challenging. Trying to find foods your tummy will tolerate. Food you eat one day easily the next day your tummy is no way. Not feeling hungry or interested in eating. … I used to say my tummy was like a petulant, temper tantrum throwing 2 year old. I never knew what the day would bring.

Yes, fish is good especially soft flaky fish. Try poaching them in a broth flavoured with various herbs. Yum! I made a lot of mince meat dishes. Actually I probably only made two or three because I had enough for a week’s worth of meals of each dish 😁. Put single portions in zip lock bags & froze them. Easy to take to work for lunch too. Made meat balls/rissoles, bolognese meat sauce, savoury mince. Ate soft runny scrambled eggs, milky instant rolled oats (transitioned to traditional low processed oats after a couple of months), omelettes, slow cooked stews/casseroles, etc.

Don’t apologise. There’s some sort of glitch that’s been happening on & off for a while. Seemingly takes forever fir a reply to submit & post. I’ve had a couple of occasions when I’ve clicked to submit & it never posts. So I’ve also clicked it twice to make sure it posts & suddenly doubled posts. You’ll see couple & triple posts scattered throughout a number of threads. 😁

I split my vitamins & meds across the day. One multi, my PPI & vit D in the AM & the second multi & HRT in the PM. Didn’t hurt me or affect my blood work. As long as you’re taking them. Routines are essential.

It seems okay but it might be best to sit down with your dietician. Were you given any targets? I wasn’t given any other targets than 60g protein & 2L fluids & a nebulous low fat, low sugar, low carbs & given no calorie guidance. Others are given very detailed macros they’re to meet & there are differences in those too. But then we are different & have different needs & our surgeon & dieticians have different requirements. Oh & don’t worry you won’t gain weight eating less than 700 calories.

I wasn’t required to track. I sort of did initially on random days for own curiosity. I did keep to the portion sizes I was given. I still do random checks to keep me on track & ensure I haven’t let things slide especially with new foods or recipes. I check protein, sugars, calories but don’t keep a formal record. I keep a mental tally of my daily protein intake but only because I have a protein malabsorption issue. It works for me & that is the key: finding out what works for you. If that’s tracking great. If it’s random tracking/monitoring or it’s none at all that’s great too. As long as it allows you to maintain, is manageable & not consuming you, all is good. I put on a good 2kgs/5lbs at the two year mark but didn’t know why. We worked out I wasn’t absorbing my HRT after my gall removal (why I don’t absorb protein too). Was put on a HRT patch & I slowly lost half of it over about 6 months again without changing what I ate or my activity. I’ve pretty much lost another kilo and now, nearing my 5 year mark, am pretty much what I weighed at my initial stabilised weight depending on the day. I should add I am very careful with what I eat & how much I eat. Still eat slowly. Still take small bites. Still eat to a routine most of the time around what & when I eat (I’m a clock watcher for my meals & snacks). Still very conscious of whether I am really hungry or just head hungry. Still very conscious of eating what I need not just how much or what I want to eat.

Yes we are told to avoid NSAIDs because they are so harsh on everyone’s tummy nit just ours because of our much smaller tummy the effect is concentrated & a greater risk of ulcers. In the first months we’re not eating anywhere near enough solid food to provide any sort of protective barrier in your tummy either. Excedrine does contain a NSAID as well as aspirin & caffeine. (Remember we’re often told to avoid caffeine too at least for a while). Contact your surgeon & ask about alternatives pain medications you could take like maybe the triptan meds (e.g. imigran/sumatriptan) which are prescribed specifically for migraines. I find paracetamols & aspirins useless too - might as well have a tic tac. My surgeon allowed me to take NSAIDs at the two year mark with my sleeve: one tablet at a time, not on consecutive days and always, always with food in my stomach. I don’t need to take them often, < 5 x a year & usually only need one, which is why I think he said I could take them. Don’t beat yourself up about it though. Sometimes we just have to make the best decision we can at the time. It was once so you should be okay.

It was a while ago now but I remember I still wasn’t hitting my protein goal. I wanted to do real food only too & plus I found the shakes disgusting & never touched one after liquids. For breakfast I scrambled eggs with extra milk & took three days to eat them or ate rolled oats again made totally on milk & took three days to eat a serve. Lunch & dinner were often just protein (maybe 2 ozs) & nothing else or with just a green bean or two or a small cauliflower floret with dinner. And yes I’d take a while to eat that - 45 mins +/-. After a week or two on soft food I added a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink as an afternoon snack to burst my protein. I wasn’t hungry or really interested in eating. I simply couldn’t eat more than I was but I was following my surgeon’s portion size recommendation of 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purée slowly increasing to a cup by 6 months If you are worried by getting your protein in try protein water. You’ll get about 16oz liquid, 15g protein & about 70 calories. So fewer calories (if you count calories) than a shake (which is really a meal) but not as many nutrients. Just watch those with added sugar or sugar substitutes or artificial sweeteners.

Beautiful china & cutlery @NickelChip. Such lovely patterns. I love vintage/antique cutlery & china too. I have my grandmother’s best china she got when first married so about 70 odd years old. It’s not an expensive collectable brand like Wedgewood, Spode or Royal Doulton but beautiful & very special to me.

As @ChunkCat said you should be fine in any city which is likely where you’ll be while studying. These surgeries are performed just about everywhere these days. Find a good general practitioner (PCP) & then they should be able to refer you if you need/want. The PCP will be able to request & monitor your blood work & ensure you’re not missing out on any thing or your levels aren’t dropping too low or getting too high. They could refer you to a good dietician as well. Actual follow ups with your surgeon differ. I saw mine for the first few months & then his colleague took over & I still see her almost 5 years later. I saw him again two years later when he took my fall out though. Some never see their surgeon again unless there is an issue or a concern. You don’t need special bariatric food or vitamins after surgery. Just good, healthy, nutrient dense food the more natural & low processed the better. Some surgeons recommend specific brands for the pre & post surgery liquid stages but generally any high protein shake (pre made or powder) will work. (My cynical side says they likely have a marketing deal with that shake company.) I only had shakes for 2 weeks post surgery & I bought Atkins cause it was easily accessible at my grocery store - lol! Just check the sugar content (real & artificial) & protein content & calories. Same with vitamins, look for quality brands & check how much of each vitamin they contain so you’re not double dosing. Your blood work will help inform what vitamin supplements you actually need. All the best.

Definitely not in liquids. All you might be able to do is try a peanut butter flavour powder & add it to your shakes. I wasn’t allowed peanut butter until maintenance. Though it has protein it’s not a lot & it’s high fat (even the natural ones) & often high in added sugar. I enjoy a teaspoonful as one of my snack options now but my fat intake is low & sugar is very low so I can get away with it. Check with your team/dietician as to when you can add it & how much you can have.

Love, love, love the denim skirt. The jumpsuits look great on you. The one with sleeves is my favourite. Personally I avoid jumpsuits. The whole stripping down to go to the bathroom thing. And I had a couple of close calls in public toilets back in the day trying to balance & not let the jumpsuit touch the scary floor in any way. Shudder! LOL! There are some really lovely & tempting denim pieces about at the moment. I’m looking forward to wearing a charcoal denim trench I have which honestly I bought a couple of years ago & haven’t worn yet. I have too many clothes!

Yep, baby spoons or teaspoons. I used to sort of just dip my teaspoon in - nowhere near a spoonful. Think of the teeny taste a child will take of a food they don’t like or have never had before & think they won’t like. Your purées may be too thick for your healing tummy to tolerate yet. Try adding more liquid (water, stock, gravy, milk, etc.) & thin it down to a thick pouring consistency like custard or thinner for a while & see how you go. All because your plan or doctor says to move to the next stage, sometimes your body just isn’t healed enough to move on. It’s not uncommon for people to step back to the previous stage for a couple more days. We all heal at different rates. Keep it slow. Leave minutes between bites. Don’t be surprised if it takes 20 or more minutes to eat that 1/4 cup. And if you can’t eat it all, that’s okay too. It will get easier. A lot if this may sound like a bit of a faff but there is a lot of good learnings in these seemingly strange behaviours we’re asked to follow. For example taking small bites helps you to appreciate & think about what you’re eating. It takes a good 20 minutes for your full signal to get through to your head. Eating slowly helps to make sure you’re not eating to excess. So the message you’ve had enough gets through before you’ve eaten way more than you actually need & aren’t ever at the OMG I’m stuffed stage. It helps you to reassess & avoid that mindless shoveling in of mouthful after mouthful of food in a short period of time.

Drs Weiner & Pilcher are great. Lots of information of their sites & you tube channels. I’d probably avoid a lot of social media around weight loss. Bad advice, scary stories, etc. just to garner attention. I stumbled upon one that actually showed you how to purée burgers & fries to eat two weeks after surgery & how to eat around your surgery. Just horrifying! This forum is great. Supportive, encouraging & a wealth of experience. Was so helpful in the beginning & I still learn things about post bariatric surgery life. Personally, the sleeve has been wonderful for me. Do I have a few little idiosyncrasies? Yep but my tummy was fussy & a bit sensitive about certain things before so nothing really different. I lost all my weight & more & have basically kept it off for 4.75 yrs. Never ever been able to keep weight off for any length of time even a month. Does it take continued work? Hell yes. This is a forever thing. Can you eat the same as you did before? No. But why would you? I mean that’s how you (& we all) ended up obese in the first place. That’s not saying you can’t enjoy things you used to. You’ll focus on how much of it you eat. How often you eat it & even look for healthier, more nutritious versions of those foods. You’ll work out a way of eating that is sustainable, doesn’t limit or restrict you & allows you to live & enjoy your life as you want. Are there risks? Sure but there are with any surgery. They’re not common because the risks are very low (I read appendectomy is higher) & often are related to pre existing conditions. Sometimes issues are discovered before of after surgery because of the more intensive medical testing we undergo & then monitoring. Sometimes it’s just our own body & how it reacts which you can’t really predict. Most are easily remedied or manageable. I didn’t have any comorbidities before my surgery (though they were very likely in my future) so I can’t share my experiences with that. Do lots of research on reputable sites like those of the above doctors’ & here. List down your questions & take them with you to your surgeon. Ask for their statistics & experiences too. All the best with whatever path you decide to follow.

Very normal. Weight loss is never a consistent straight downward line on a graph. It goes up & down. Zigs & zags. Some weeks you lose a lot. The next not so much & yes you will stall. Stalls are an important part of your weight loss. It’s the time your body takes to reassess your new current needs & then adjusts your digestive hormones & enzymes, metabolism, etc. accordingly. Weight loss puts a lot of stress on your body so think of this time as when your body closes the door, pulls the covers over its head until it is ready to face the world again. The stall will break when your body is ready. Don’t push it or force it to break & stress it more. Just let it ride it out.