Arabesque

Depends upon how long you’re staying. I wore home what I wore to hospital & packed basic toiletries - deodorant, body wash/soap, moisturiser, facial cleanser, toothbrush, toothpaste. I was made to shower alone the morning after (sort of a test to see if I’d be ok at home I think plus you feel so much better after that first shower). I took my iPad but I didn’t use it - slept a lot & couldn’t really concentrate enough to watch anything I’d downloaded or read. All of the meds you’re currently on in their original packets/bottles from your pharmacy with the printed script label attached. I refilled my meds before & took them in unopened. I do suggest packing extra knickers & sleep wear than you think you’ll need. Believe me embarrassing accidents can happen post surgery! Good luck.

I wore soft elastic & drawstring waist pjs in hospital then wore fitted but not tight pants with stretch to go home. I found the gentle pressure of the pants against my wounds supportive while travelling. Once I was home I just turned down the waist of the track pants I was wearing each day so they sat below the wounds. My wounds never really hurt but waist bands sort of were annoying against them. Good luck.

It will get better. Multi vitamins can make some people nauseous - they did me. Plus your tastebuds are pretty screwy over the first couple of months so lots of things will taste off & or disgusting. It can take a bit of trial & error to find things that you can tolerate. Again it does get better. My surgeon said it could be challenging to reach fluid & protein goals to begin but as long as I was making an effort & was close to goal he was happy. Don’t forget all your shakes add to your fluid goal too. Congrats on your surgery.

Your Tim is a shopping king @BayougirlMrsS. Oh @WishMeSmaller, I hope your surgery pain doesn't last long & your recovery is smooth & quick. My suitcase for my friend’s wedding. I promise it really is just for three days, two nights. Are 6 pairs of shoes too many??? ? I’ll post pxts of Fraser Island when I get home. There’s no wifi on the island & download speeds are crazy slow like dial up slow. Literally took minutes to download these two images.

Lots of evidence on this site that it’s true. You store fat everywhere on your body including your feet so why wouldn’t you lose it from there as well. I went from a 38.5/39 to a 37.5/38. My foot is narrower too. I’ve given away quite a few pairs of shoes to my cousins & a pair of flat sandals my feet were flapping around in to my 11yr old niece. I resized a Art Deco pinky ring (O - L) a year ago but it spins on my finger again. Amazing what dropping a couple kgs can do. Can’t size it down any more though because of its design & the shank. I wear a lot of my rings one finger up now - ring finger to muddle finger etc. I bought a half hoop in a size that fits to stop my triple cluster slipping down my finger ... well that was my excuse it buy it ???.

Unfortunately when you juice fruit or vegetables you leave a lot of the goodness behind like the fibre they provide. Blending is fine cause you still consume the whole vegetable.

You’re most likely experiencing head hunger. The mind is a powerful organ & you have to retrain it so it knows what real hunger is (not habit eating or emotional eating or craving eating) & to understand what portion size is actually enough food. It takes time to break all your old eating habits & learn new ones or at least manage them better. Also stomach acid can make you feel hungry when you’re not. Esomeprazole will help with that. If you weren’t prescribed any ask your team for a script. Good luck.

If you are still on liquids only stage then don’t eat the wontons. The stages are designed to benefit the healing of your tummy & digestive system. Eat too much or eat the wrong food you risk doing harm or delaying your healing. I would maybe only eat the wonton filling in the soft food stage. Purées are that sloppy thick soup consistency i.e. still with a high liquid content. Chewing & chewing something won’t get it to the right purée consistency.

It’s likely swelling from the surgery. It happened to me too & that’s what my surgeon said it was. I had so much saliva as a result I carried a sick bag with me to spit it out. Had trouble swallowing my meds too. It noticeably improved by about day 3. I was not anywhere near meeting my fluid goals for those days. But it did improve. Good luck.

You look fabulous in that red dress @ANewJourneyAwaits. Hope you had an equally fabulous birthday. Gotta love wearing jeans that actually fit, @kristieshannon. Waist, hips, thighs & a belt too - lookin’ good.

I love my vegetables but I found I could only tolerate a tiny cauliflower floret, 2 green beans or a little shredded cabbage to begin. Everything was soft. I ate my protein first then tried the vegetables. Some days I could eat some, others I couldn’t. I found I could eat a few more vegetables if I put them in mince dishes, casserole type dishes & soups - tomatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, celery, etc. I wrapped smoked salmon & cream cheese around thin batons of cucumber for a little while too (until my tummy decided salmon was bad ?). Also added vegetables like spinach & mushrooms to cheese omelettes. You can always make steamed vegetables your snack too. It does get easier & you’ll be able to eat more vegetables in time. Just take it slowly.

The stats show the average weight lost at about the 3 year mark (maybe 5yr I can’t remember) is 60-65% of the weight you have to lose to put you in the healthy BMI range. This is likely the weight loss number your doctor advised you would likely lose but you can aim to lose more or less. Do people lose more than the 60-65%? Yep. Some of us do. Do some lose less? Yep, some do. Do some maintain the lower weight they reach? Yep, some do. Do some put weight back on in the years after surgery? Yep, some do. That’s the reality. For some, a weight in the healthy BMI range is not sustainable. It may be because of lifestyle i.e. an inability to sustain a lower calorie intake & increased activity level to maintain at the lower weight. There’s nothing wrong with that. You have to be able to live your life. Or it could just be them - a weight their body is happy at & is easy to maintain. I wonder if your doctor’s comment re people who lose a lot pre surgery, lose less after surgery is really about how fast you lose & how long it takes for you to reach your goal. Generally, the more you have to lose the faster you lose to begin. Therefore, if you lose a lot of weight pre surgery, you likely won’t lose as quickly at first as you would if you hadn’t lost much before your surgery. The rate of your loss slows as you get closer to your goal weight. This is because your calorie intake & energy output is closer to what is needed to maintain at that weight. We’re all different. No one can predict exactly what you will lose or maintain at, they can only suggest what might happen based upon statistics & experience. Good luck with your surgery. PS. I lost about 5kg in the two & a bit weeks pre surgery. I reached my goal in 6 months then lost 13kgs more at my lowest. I waiver at around 49kgs now.

Oh, I love those easy to wear, pop on, no fuss & look stylish jersey dresses too @GreenTealael. I want another one with sleeves so I can wear it under coats in winter. Whoo hoo @kristieshannon. Bet you wear it a lot over summer. Is your tattoo a little lizard? 2023 has been diarised @Sophie7713 ?. Lovely to look at all your green lushness Sophie. It’s chilly & raining again here today so pretty gray. At least things are green from all the rain we’ve been having but unfortunately it’s not falling over agricultural area which are suffering badly from drought or in many of our drinking water dam catchments. You’ll be rockin’ a new fitted wardrobe in no time @Roses436 & we will expect photos. Congrats on your weight loss @bethow. We need some photos from you too.

Ahh. Five Mike Creek was totally fictional & I hate to say it but it was also ‘americanised’ A lot of Australian movies & tv programs were then so they would be relatable to the American audience. Language was changed, accents exaggerated, even cars on the wrong side of the road, etc. While it lead to an increase in American tourists, it also resulted in a lot of disappointment because the real Australia wasn’t like the version in movies & tv programs. There aren’t kangaroos hopping down the streets. We don’t greet each other by saying giddy mate. We don’t all wear Akubras. And it’s almost 2500km (1500 miles) from Sydney to the Great Barrier Reef. And we don’t all drink beer.

Could be from the internal scaffolding suture. You are still healing so go slowly & don’t do anything too strenuous or physical to strain or stretch the internal wounds.

Are you on esomeprazole? Stomach acid can cause discomfort which make you think you’re hungry. Most surgeons prescribe it for the first couple of months at least. Congrats on your surgery.

We all carry our weight in different places regardless of what we weigh. I’m still an hour glass & my friend is still pear shaped. Unfortunately we can’t do much to change that except through surgery. Liposuction maybe an option if it continues to bother you though you may end up with more loose skin. It sounds like you’ve been fortunate in regards to not having a lot of loose skin though. I was doing well until I lost the 10kg below my goal but I don’t have a lot - pinches not handfuls. ? I also found that in the months after I lost the weight, the remaining fat redistributed itself a bit. My face doesn’t look as gaunt & my butt, while still pretty flat & has a little more shape. So the body you have when you hit goal may be a little different a few months later. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

Don’t regret it at all. I’ve made some decisions to cut certain foods out of my diet but they were danger foods for me & I don’t really miss them. For example I avoid sweets (no cakes, biscuits, desserts) but I had dessert & cake at Christmas. Was never a fast food person so cutting that out was no loss. Used to have takeaway about once a month. Now I’ve only had takeaway food a couple of times in almost two years while with friends (Chinese & gyoza) & again don’t really miss it. How much or how often you eat certain ‘bad’ foods is up to you. Your tummy may restrict you eating some foods depending on your surgery (sweet or fatty foods can cause issues for bypass people) but it is individual. Don’t understand the no red meat advice. I’m a big carnivore & only issue I have is if it is too fatty like pork ribs (pork tenderloin is fine). Can’t do oily fish either but I wasn’t great with fatty/oily foods before surgery either. My GP was very supportive. I’m sorry yours isn’t. What are their reasons for you not having the surgery? What are their reasons for not supporting you to make the changes for a healthier life?

I don’t have children either but I can share a couple of stories. My mother asked by 20 yr old nephew if he thought I was different since I lost weight. He gave my mother a strange look then looked at me & said nope. She’s still the bestest aunt. My 8 yr old niece asked me why I was skinny now. I told her it was so she could give me better hugs. She threw herself at me & wrapped her arms about me then ran off to play. The 10 yr old son of my friend was talking to her about a boy in his class who was very overweight & how sad it was he couldn’t play sport. My friend said yes, it is difficult when you are big to be active. Look how much I can do with you now I’ve lost weight. Her son looked at her quizzical & said what do you mean you lost weight. She said you know from when I was really overweight. He replied you were never fat. Sometimes, our children, nieces & nephews, only see the real us inside not the physical outer us. & they can be more accepting & non judgemental about changes to our external selves. I don’t know the ages of your children but be open. Talk to them about why you’re doing this & how it will be better for all of you. You healthier, more active, etc. & benefits to all of you because of better eating habits as well. Introduce the changes that directly affect them slowly so they are more accepting & not adverse to the changes. Good luck.

Oh, to be so graceful & serene.

No, I didn’t have weight gain on HRT but couldn’t shift the weight I had put during peri menopause & early menopause before starting HRT. I remember people used to complain about weight gain on the pill but I would actually lose a couple of kg. We had Cobb & Co in Australia which carried passengers & the mail. Can’t recall a tv program about it except for the odd documentary. There is a Cobb & Co museum in Toowoomba which is close to where I grew up but I’ve never been. Isn’t that the way though. You never go to the places near you but will travel interstate or overseas to see museums & places of historical significance.

I’ve always had that - getting stiff or cramped if I stay in the same position too long (could be five minutes could be 30). My hands became cramped from holding my iPad while reading last night. Your weight distribution is changing as you’re losing weight so that may be contributing too. Magnesium can help with cramping. But if anything seems or feels strange for you, always contact your medical team to be sure.

Thank you for your kind words. Only second best country? Tsk tsk. ?? Maybe you’ll be able to visit with your lovely friend in Adelaide soon. Damn COVID & how it limits our lives. It’s definitely worth a conversation with your GP about HRT. Good luck.

It takes a lot of excessive over eating over time to stretch your tummy again. It’s not an easy thing to do. Some can eat a little more depending upon the type of protein & how it’s prepared (I found I could eat a little more liquidy protein) but as long as you’re following your plan you should be ok. Check with your team if you’re concerned. Remember to eat slowly so the message you’ve had enough gets through before you’ve eaten more than you need. Try to eat until just before you feel full. There’s a difference between eating what you need & eating until you feel full. Good luck.

I’ve been taking it for about 5 years now & no side effects that I’m aware of. I still have odd break through hot flushes usually in summer when I’m hotter all over anyway. My emotions are more stable too. My mother at 81 still takes HRT. If she goes off it all the menopausal symptoms return. She’s been on it for 30+ years. The only side effects she has had was a small benign uterine polyp which may have been from one prescription she was on (they changed it just in case). I remember three women in my town had strokes in the same year as complications from severe menopausal symptoms - two died. I decided then & there I would take HRT if I had symptoms.