Metamorphosing

I lost 16 lbs the first MONTH and I started off at over 300 lbs. Your body's going to lose at the rate it loses depending on a whole host of factors, most of which you have no control over (e.g. age, gender, metabolic rate, starting BMI). All you can really control is whether not you stick to your surgeon's plan. If you stick to it, the weight WILL come off, whether fast or slow. I was a slow loser from the get-go, but I was very committed to my plan, hardly ever strayed from it, and ended up losing 100% of my excess weight.
and yes - there are many who believe "starvation mode" is a myth.

My pain was bad... I'm still not sleeping well from the pain I get. I slept 6.5 hours last night and it was a blessing - first time sleeping on my stomach (with doctor permission) since the surgery. So nice, so comfortable. But it's all getting better! My surgery was only one day before yours. Right now, awake I have the most frustration with the water/protien shake diet. I want food....
Reading this forum, I realize how wonderful it is to have so many people with so much expierence in what we're going through. I believe things will get better, so try to stay optimistic. This will all be worth it next year (that's what I keep telling myself).

I can't eat fish of any kind anymore. Everything I've tried has come right back up. And it gets pretty bad, so I probably wont ever eat it again... 😭

I've noticed I can drink a lot of Water in a short period of time (like 4-6 ounces), as long as I dont try to swallow it all at once. I can probably only take one ounce at a time, but I can drink 6 ounces spread over a minute. Anyone else?

I still have a phobia of flying, greatly related to this issue. I dont think I've lost enough to not encroach into my neighbor's seats, but I think I'll be far more excited about a trip when I can!

Photos!

I always see posts without an update, so I wanted to be sure to come back & five one!
we were all correct. The daily regurgitation was not normal. I went to a new surgeon in October. He was skeptical & wanted to blame it on too big of bites or overeating. I kept insisting I would have a feeling of being overly full eating less than one chicken finger, and I would still regurgitate it even an hour later. He decided to run some tests while giving me some food counseling. He was not a fan of the fact that I had little to no aftercare post surgery with my old surgeon.
I went back on purées. Basically every time you vomit, it causes swelling & takes about 3 days for the swelling to go down. We needed to get the swelling down for many reasons. Getting it under control helped me move back onto solid foods with small bites & portions.
We did the barium swallow test which showed liquids were going through fine, but I have a twist in my esophagus. Going in for my EGD scope, my surgeon was still claiming it was all bite size. He walked in after my scope & said, “yeah. So your anatomy is screwed up!”
Along with the twist in my esophagus (which basically means if I need to be tubed, it could be “more difficult”), I have a major kink in my stomach from scar tissue on the outside of it. Instead of being sleeve shaped, as it should be, it is like a capital N or S. In the middle there is a kink that he had a hard time even finding the opening of. Basically if it’s not liquid, it has to sit to digest to go down. This explains why I resorted to drinking my calories & eating easy carbs. He said it could have happened when I threw up right after surgery (a staple could have caught on something) or anytime in the initial healing.
So where does that leave me? I’m going in for a laparoscopic surgery to remove scar tissue January 13th. He can see the shape of my stomach from the scope, but he can’t know what the scar tissue is attached to or how bad it is til he gets in there. It could be attached to my liver. Yikes. So surgery could be half an hour, it could be 3. He may have to revise my sleeve to a bypass. I don’t want that because I have ulcerative colitis, so that’s very much so not recommended. However, I want to have the ability to eat without losing it.
I’ll be on a 2 week pre-surgery liquid diet, and then after surgery, it will be the post sleeve progression. I have about 30 lbs of regain. He expects I’ll lose that fairly easily by the time I’m on solid foods again. That’s good news.
Knowing I actually have something wrong with me, and I’m not crazy has been HUGE for me. I knew something was wrong, but I kept being told “bite size bite size bite size.” I have multiple friends with sleeves, and what I was experiencing was nothing like them. The eye opener was looking online & finding no one like me. So if you’re here because you’re searching, go for answers! :)

I had four airplane flights on our recent vacation. I had the middle seat on all of them and didn't impinge on anyone's space!

I can't eat fish of any kind anymore. Everything I've tried has come right back up. And it gets pretty bad, so I probably wont ever eat it again... 😭

I can't eat fish of any kind anymore. Everything I've tried has come right back up. And it gets pretty bad, so I probably wont ever eat it again... 😭

I'm leaving on a business trip tomorrow. It's one of the few occasions a year I wear a suit, because I'm speaking at the conference. All my suits are 16 or 14 and I've been wearing 14 or 12. I started trying them on and they are all hilariously large. I'm wearing the smallest jacket and a pair of slacks and going shopping when I get home!
My Hanukkah present was going to be shopping at Athleta. Now I think it will be at Talbots. LOL

We were out this weekend and didn't have time for lunch so we stopped at a Circle K to get fresh brewed Decaf. Instead of half n half (to me = empty cals), I found the Fairlife CorePower chocolate milk in their fridge and so I used that for Creamer instead. 170cals; 26g protein; 7g carbs; 5g sugar (lactose=milk sugars).


Here's Premier's nutrition panel:

It's not so world-breaking diff! And the taste was Just. Like. Chocolate. Milk. Seriously. Hold me.

YES! I didn't expect to feel the cold so much after the surgery. I know I've lost a lot of weight, but who would have expected that I'd freeze to death in California? Last winter I never wore shoes, just sandals the whole year through. This winter wont be the same.

Thanks for the info, Fluffy! I read it several times now (and I'll probably read it a couple tomes more 🤣).

That's because you are all swollen and such. Give it a few days. You'll get there!

That's because you are all swollen and such. Give it a few days. You'll get there!

Thanks for the info, Fluffy! I read it several times now (and I'll probably read it a couple tomes more 🤣).

Also, please make your surgeon and RD clarify what they mean by "ounces." This was one of the MOST confusing things to me and it aggravated me no end!
I don't honestly even know if THEY understand the confusion they cause!
VOLUME is king in our world. Most often, when docs and RDs refer to "ounces" in the very early days post surgery, they are talking BY VOLUME and Fluid measurement. That means roughly we should aim for these volumes. People will swing either 1 step up or down on the time scale for volume. In early days when real estate is totally at a premium, we concentrate and fill that volume with Protein first. As we mature, we can handle other things in addition to meeting our protein goals.
When dealing with dense, solid PROTEIN in the progressing phases, it's important to go by weight, but it still needs to fit within the VOLUME limit for the meal. And this is where it gets tricky cuz 1oz BY VOLUME does NOT equal 1 oz by weight. That's why I still weigh my protein into a measuring cup first so that I know I get my protein needs met and don't exceed my 1 cup per meal volume prescription for my forever diet:
BY VOLUME:
1-2 weeks post op:
1 oz by volume = 2 tbsp of food = 1/8 cup by volume = 1 medicine cup of volume
2 oz by volume = 4 tbsp of food = 1/4 cup by volume
3-4 weeks post op:
3 oz by volume = 6 tbsp of food = approx 1/3 cup by volume
4 oz by volume = 8 tbsp of food = 1/2 cup by volume
5-8 weeks post op:
5 oz by volume = 10 tbsp of food = approx 2/3 cup by volume
9-12 weeks post op:
6 oz by volume = 12 tbsp of food = 3/4 cup by volume
13 weeks to forever post op:
7 oz by volume = 14 tbsp of food = approx 7/8 cup by volume
8 oz by volume = 16 tbsp of food = 1 cup by volume
BY WEIGHT:
1 oz by WEIGHT = 28.35g by WEIGHT METRIC = 1/4 cup by volume (approx) = approx 7g of protein by macro/cooked
2 oz by WEIGHT = 57g by WEIGHT METRIC = 1/2 cup by volume (approx) = approx 14g of protein by macro/cooked
3 oz by WEIGHT = 85g by WEIGHT METRIC = 3/4 cup by volume (approx) = approx 21g of protein by macro/cooked
4 oz by WEIGHT = 113g by WEIGHT METRIC = 1 cup by volume (approx) = approx 28g of protein by macro/cooked
1 oz by WEIGHT = 28.35g by WEIGHT METRIC = 1/8 cup by volume (approx) for veggies cooked al dente
2 oz by WEIGHT = 57g by WEIGHT METRIC = 1/4 cup by volume (approx) for veggies cooked al dente

I forgot to mention - BP was 122/88 and I haven't been on meds for that for 2 months now. Lost 2.5 inches in my neck, 5 inches around my belly and 4.5 inches at my waist!

Slept for about 3-4 hours can’t sleep anymore! Lol I go in in a few hours! Excited, pumped, and nervous! Long road to get here! 😁

Thanks everyone. Got home about 12 hours ago. Was very tired, weak, and gassy but slowly getting better.
Few things I noticed. Also keep in mind that my surgeon actually moves you to the purred/Soft food diet the day after surgery. I know not a lot do that but for some reason he does. Two friends of mine also used the same surgeon and same thing happened.
1. Yesterday I only took in about 450 calories. Did have some ground chicken with low-fat ricotta cheese which was well tolerated but only about 1 oz total. Had about 50 grams of Protein. Doc wants me at 90 per day. plan today is to incorporate premier shakes 2x a day at 30 grams per serving. In reality I know I may only be able to have 1/2 and then another 1/2 later. Not pushing it. 1 scrambled egg for Breakfast, a no fat yogurt for lunch, and the chick for dinner.

2. How long does it take for the tiredness and weakness to get better? Seriously the past 48 hours since surgery I think I slept like 30-40 hours lol
3. Gas-x has also been a miracle for me.

My job requires working closely with surgeons. I recently had an opportunity to shadow one of my surgeons in the operating room, which meant putting on surgical scrubs. I haven't gone into the OR since nursing school, and required, basically, the largest size scrubs on the shelf, and they still didn't fit well (OR scrubs are cut for men, no thought to hips or butts!). This time I wore size L and they were baggy!

Wow, that's fantastic! I have a billion pounds to lose (well, 150 ish) and I dont think I'll be anywhere near 70 at my 2 month point - I'm thinking I might be over-optimistic hoping for ten pounds a month at the moment. Great job!

Well it's a small milestone but I've officially lost 100 lbs since surgery on July 1. I was 441 then and now I'm 341 as of Dec 1. Overall for the year that puts me at 132lbs lost! I've been eating right, no cheating, working with weights for my arms and just started swimming 2 wks ago. I go swimming 4 days a week for 30 mins. I still have a long way to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel
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My pain was bad... I'm still not sleeping well from the pain I get. I slept 6.5 hours last night and it was a blessing - first time sleeping on my stomach (with doctor permission) since the surgery. So nice, so comfortable. But it's all getting better! My surgery was only one day before yours. Right now, awake I have the most frustration with the water/protien shake diet. I want food....
Reading this forum, I realize how wonderful it is to have so many people with so much expierence in what we're going through. I believe things will get better, so try to stay optimistic. This will all be worth it next year (that's what I keep telling myself).