BigSue

I had gastric bypass on July 16. I've only lost 15 pounds since the surgery, which kind of sucks since I'm getting less than 500 calories per day and I feel like the weight should be flying off, but I'm trying to be patient because I know the weight loss will happen eventually. I am enjoying the fact that I have not felt hungry for a single moment since I woke up from surgery, and I hope that lasts. I had a very quick recovery with very little pain other than gas the first day, and I only took a week off from work. It's too soon to make a judgment on my decision... Ask me again in a year!

I highly recommend the MyFitnessPal app. It has a huge database of foods with nutrition information. For almost anything that has a barcode, you can scan the barcode and it will have the nutrition information. It also has stuff without barcodes (like fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.). You can build recipes with multiple ingredients and it will calculate the nutrition information per serving.

I had gastric bypass, but I think this part is pretty similar for both surgeries. I have six incisions. Five of them are in a row; you could connect them with a horizontal line about three inches above my belly button. The second one is about two inches below my right breast. The largest one is about an inch and a quarter and the smallest is about half an inch. The largest one had a lot of bruising around it at first. i was instructed to keep the dressings on the incisions for three days and leave the steri-strips (adhesive strips to hold the incisions closed) on for a week. The incisions looked kind of nasty when the dressings and steri-strips were on, but when I removed the dressings and steri-strips, I realized that I was just seeing dried blood and the incisions were almost healed. i was surprised by how little pain I had. The only real pain I experienced was gas pain, and it was awful the first day but improved quickly. By 24 hours after surgery, I was merely uncomfortable, but not really in pain. I had a couple of doses of Toradol in the hospital. I went home the day after surgery with a prescription for Vicodin, which I filled just in case but did not need it. I didn’t even need Tylenol. I have not felt any pain in the incisions except a tiny bit a few times when I leaned over a certain way and the waistline of my clothing rubbed against an incision. I could feel a little internal discomfort if I twisted my torso too much (e.g., rolling over in bed). By about the 4th day after surgery, I felt ok. I could have returned to work (desk job) at that point if I really had to, but I was definitely better off taking the week off and focusing on getting fluids and protein (which is pretty much a full-time job at first). I went back to work 11 days after surgery. I remember that I actually felt great that day, better than an average day before surgery. I’m almost a month out right now and I basically feel “normal,” except that I am not hungry at all. I haven’t felt the least bit hungry since my surgery despite the fact that I haven’t had more than 500 calories in a day for over a month. I was instructed not to lift anything over 20 pounds for the first 6 weeks, but that’s the only physical restriction I have.

Well, I am almost a month out and I am constantly worrying about whether the surgery is going to work. What if I went through all of this for nothing? (BTW, you may see in my profile that I have lost 81 pounds; most of that was before surgery and I have only lost 15 pounds since surgery, and hit the 3-week stall right on schedule.) I can tell you that you should absolutely not draw any conclusions from a single week, and frankly, shame on your dietitian for saying how much you "should have" lost in 6 days. She should know better. I lost over 60 pounds in the 5 months before my surgery, and I had a few stalls, including one where I lost no weight for two whole weeks, despite the fact that I "should have" lost a few pounds based on my calorie deficit. Also, I had some GI discomfort during my pre-op diet and I've had very few issues since surgery (other than the first few days), so don't make any conclusions about that, either. Your stomach will be totally different after surgery so there's no telling how you'll feel then.

That's terrible -- sounds like they're really disorganized! What kind of cookies and cream protein shake did you get? I bought some Premier Protein cookies and cream shakes and I hate them. Fortunately, I only bought a 4-pack, but I'm very disappointed. 🙁

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The Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collective has a database of WLS outcomes, and they created a calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and gender to estimate your weight loss for each type of WLS. Of course, this is only an average and any individual's results can vary, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

That must be so frustrating! I really hate having to call and nag people, too. I encourage you to call the office, though. You don't have to be obnoxious about it, just say you're inquiring about the status of your pre-surgery requirements and want to check if there's anything else they need from you. I had to call my surgeon's office a couple of times during the process to prompt them, and if I hadn't, I may not have gotten my surgery yet! The first time, they had told me that a psychologist was supposed to call me to schedule a psychological evaluation, but the psychologist never called, so after a few weeks, I called the surgeon's office to ask about it. it turned out that the psychologist had closed his office indefinitely due to COVID-19, and my surgeon's office got me scheduled with someone else. Who knows how long I would have waited if I hadn't called? The second time, I had completed all my requirements and was waiting for a call about scheduling the surgery, and when I didn't hear from them, I called to ask. It turned out that I had missed their call earlier that day about my insurance denying me and I had to go back to my PCP to get a letter. My phone sometimes goes screwy and sends calls straight to voicemail without registering a missed call, so i wouldn't have known if I hadn't called to check. As long as you're polite (and I bet you are that kind of person), they won't think you're a troublemaker.

I don't have any tips, but yes, I experienced really bad bloating during my pre-op diet. I was supposed to drink 4 protein shakes per day, but most days I could only manage 3. I had a really bad day where I felt nauseated and painfully bloated. The day before surgery was clear liquids only and I was relieved not to have to drink any protein shakes. I don't usually have issues with whey; I think it was just the large quantity of protein shakes I was drinking that week.

I hope so! It is really motivating to see people like you who have lost all the weight and kept it off.

I, too, consider myself to be a very honest person. I am a terrible liar, so I feel like I can't get away with anything but the truth. But I haven't told ANYONE, not even my family, that I had weight loss surgery, and I don't intend to. That is personal medical information and it's nobody's business. The only people who know are medical professionals. There is a lot of judgment in this world about weight and WLS. It's ironic because the same people who openly criticize fat people also don't like it when fat people choose the only method of weight loss with more than 10% long-term effectiveness to lose weight. We just can't win! I'm not sure what will happen if/when people start noticing I've lost weight. I've actually lost more than 80 pounds already (most of it before surgery) and nobody has noticed because I was so big to begin with that I'm still really big even after this much weight loss. It will probably be a few more months before anyone notices. I only took a week off from work for my surgery, so I'm not sure if anyone will make the connection. Everyone saw me eating salads for lunch for several months before surgery, so maybe they will just assume I've been on a diet. Because of COVID-19, most people are working from home and we aren't having team lunches, so nobody has seen what I'm eating lately. I will probably be able to eat a small salad by the time we have another team lunch. I am known for being a very private person, so I hope that means that my coworkers will know better than to ask me about my weight. They talk all the time about diet, exercise, and weight, and I never take part in these discussions. I am also very careful never to comment on anyone's body in the workplace, so nobody dares to say anything about mine (at least not in front of me, although I have heard them say things behind my back). My preliminary plan if anyone asks (a) how I'm losing weight or (b) if I've had WLS is to act shocked and say, "Wow, that's a personal question." I think it will be harder to hide from my family, but I don't see them very often. They've seen me yo-yo diet over the years, so it might not be a big shock to them, although I've lost more weight by now than I ever have on previous diets. I am hoping my mom will assume that I wouldn't have had surgery without telling her, and if other family members ask her, she will say that she doesn't think I had surgery.

I am just curious because I see a lot of discussion on getting enough protein, but not much discussion on carbs. I can't eat very much at this point, so I am prioritizing protein since they said that's more important than carbs.

I first looked into WLS about 15 years ago. At that time, gastric bypass was the only option from most surgeons, and I was scared away (and talked out of it by my family) due to the potential complications. It was mostly being done as an open procedure; the surgeon I talked to was doing it laparoscopically only for patients with a BMI below 40. When I started looking into it again this year, I was leaning toward the gastric sleeve because it seemed like a less extreme, less scary version of WLS. But when I went to my consultation with the surgeon, he pushed me toward gastric bypass, mainly because I started with a very high BMI (60) and gastric bypass tends to result in slightly more weight loss. The more I have looked into it, the more I became convinced that gastric bypass was the way to go. Maybe it was just confirmation bias since that's what the surgeon thought I should do, but I learned that the complications are actually not that different between sleeve and bypass. They are both done laparoscopically and have relatively quick recoveries. You have to take vitamins either way. Dumping is more common with bypass, but could happen with either. I have never had acid reflux, so I wasn't too concerned about that, but I have seen a lot of people on this forum end up with GERD after having the sleeve, and a lot of people getting revisions from sleeve to bypass. I saw a surgeon on YouTube (Dr. Vuong) say that everyone should get the sleeve because you can always get it revised to bypass if necessary, but to me that's crazy -- I don't want to go through a second surgery! I'm 3.5 weeks out from bypass so the jury's still out on whether it was a good decision, but that was my decision process.

That is so weird. I'd be interested in knowing your surgeon's reasoning behind this extreme post-op diet. Yours seems to be an outlier in slow post-op diet progression. What really surprises me is that he said you can eat protein bars. I assumed the point of the "protein shakes only" diet was about staying on liquids, but protein bars are more solid than pureed foods. What kind of protein bars are you eating? I am looking forward to being able to eat protein bars again (I love love love Built bars). I'm getting tired of shakes!

Congratulations -- that's awesome!

If the surgeon's office said it will be fine, it will be fine. They don't want to put you on the schedule and go through all the prep only to cancel the day of surgery. They would tell you if there were any requirements about not gaining weight before surgery. Good luck!

I didn't drink many protein shakes before my pre-op diet, so I purchased a bunch of samples of protein powder from various brands. This helped me figure out what I like, and it was also nice to have some variety. I got samples from IdealLean, 1up Nutrition, Northbound Nutrition Waves of Whey, Strength, and KetoShop. Once you start buying protein powders online, you'll start seeing ads for other ones. Just make sure you check the nutrition information and ingredients to see if they fit within your program's guidelines. Good luck! It will be surgery day before you know it.

It never occurred to me to "shop around" for pre- and post-op diets before choosing a surgeon. I figured they would all be pretty similar and was very surprised to learn how much variation there is. Mine is probably on the conservative side of average. I had a two-week pre-op liquid diet (the first week allowed one low-calorie meal per day), and post-op, the first 3 days were clear liquids, then full liquids until the end of the first week, then purees for the second week, and four weeks of soft foods before eating "normal" foods. I don't mind it because I started with a high BMI and I carry my weight in my abdomen, so it probably was necessary for me to shrink my liver. I'm more than 3 weeks post-op now and still only eating purees plus cottage cheese and ricotta bake (which are kind of on the edge of puree and soft food). I haven't had any issues with purees, but I'm a little afraid to try anything more solid. I have no hunger, so I'm not particularly eager to advance my diet.

Oh yeah, I have an entire cabinet devoted to all my protein powders and stuff. Equate caramel is my favorite! My coworkers turned me on to it. Sometimes 3 or 4 of us have the same thing for lunch (and they haven't even had WLS). I also like the southwest chili soup (and I bought the big bag, too, because it was 75% off).

Wow, that is horrible -- so sorry you had to go through that. I hope the worst is over. May I ask why your surgeon wanted you to avoid Miralax? Mine has repeatedly said to take Miralax once per day. It makes me nervous because the bottle says not to use it for more than 7 days. I didn't use it at first, but when I went to my first follow-up, they gave me an info packet on the post-op diet and there was a page in it about how to make and give yourself a homemade enema, and I said "Nope" and bought a big bottle of Miralax on Amazon Prime. I am just using it every other day. They told me to avoid Benefiber until at least 6 weeks out and the don't recommend Metamucil or Citrucel at all because they form a gel and can get stuck in the pouch.

Have you tried protein soups? How about protein hot chocolate? I find that warm liquids go down a little more easily than cold. I got some protein hot chocolate from the BariatricPal store that is really good. It tastes like normal hot chocolate, no weird protein taste.

I recently bought a bunch of seasonings from Flavor God. Nacho cheese is good on pureed refried beans and mashed cauliflower. Buttered cinnamon roll is good on applesauce (helps to cover up the taste of the Genepro protein powder I add to is). Pizza is good on the famous ricotta bake. I also bought everything seasoning, taco Tuesday, and lemon garlic but haven't tried them yet. I like sugar-free caramel syrup in applesauce and tea. And I like to mix chocolate protein powder and PB2 powdered peanut butter into Oikos Triple Zero yogurt.

I had gastric bypass, but I went back to work 11 days after my surgery. I had surgery on a Thursday, took the whole next week off, and went back to work the following Monday (I am working from home most of the time now, but I usually have to go into the office once per week, so I went in on Monday and worked from home the rest of the week). I have a desk job and I was fine. I could have gone back the previous week if I really had to, but I was definitely better off taking the week off because it's a lot of work to get all the protein and fluids when you can only drink an ounce at a time. By the time I went back to work, I was able to drink fluids at a reasonable pace and didn't have to pay so much attention to it. I sipped water all day at work and had a protein shake for lunch and I was good.

Something similar happened to me. I think it might have been because I used a lot of Listerine breath strips while I was in the hospital. Apparently, overusing products that kill bacteria (like mouthwash or breath strips) can kill off the good bacteria in your mouth that keep fungus under control and make you susceptible to developing thrush. Based on some internet recommendations, I started rinsing my mouth with warm salt water (1 teaspoon salt to 1 cup of water) 3 times per day. This helped very quickly -- big improvement after a couple of rinses -- but took a few days to go away completely. I had an appointment with my doctor before it went away completely and she prescribed an antifungal mouthwash, but I ended up not needing it because the salt water fixed it by the time I picked up my prescription. Also, I stopped using regular mouthwash and breath strips. Hope this helps!

I have struggled with my weight since puberty and I've been obese all my adult life, and I've hated my body for just about as long as I can remember. I never got to the point of loving myself, but I at least accepted it and decided that I was not going to care what other people thought. I accepted that some people get to be thin and beautiful, and that was not among my gifts, but so what? I am great at other things, so I will make the most of those talents. And I think I have -- I've worked incredibly hard to overturn the stereotypes that make people assume I'm stupid and lazy just from looking at me, and I've earned respect for my accomplishments. But no matter how much you love yourself, and no matter how little you care about other people's opinions of your body, it is freaking hard to go through life as a fat person. There's an active thread on the General Weight Loss Surgery Discussions board called "Things I won't miss about being fat," and while there are quite a few replies relating to body insecurity, there are also a lot of replies about things like not being able to fit in chairs, or airplane seats, or rollercoasters, and not being able to buy clothes in our size at roughly 99% of clothing stores, which are legitimate problems that make life hard. Add to that the widespread size discrimination in our society, and it is hard not to hate being fat. I think you can hate being fat without necessarily hating your body or yourself, although it is easy to see how one leads to the other. Now, back to your question. I did not have this surgery to look better, but because of the health aspects. I have always pushed myself to make sure my weight didn't stop me from doing anything, but as I've gotten older, that's become difficult. I've gotten frustrated with the physical limitations I'm starting to have, as well as health conditions that are strongly associated with obesity. I am just over two weeks post-op, but I lost over 60 pounds before surgery. I've had recent visits with three different doctors who were just thrilled with my weight loss, and it made me so uncomfortable when they cheered my weight loss and congratulated me, because I have tried very hard to separate my value as a person from my weight. I had flashbacks to when my mom used to weigh me every other day and basically made me feel as though her love was conditional upon my weight. And yes, sometimes I feel guilty here when I congratulate people on their weight loss, because that goes against my normal policy of never commenting on other people's bodies, but I also recognize that people here are working hard to change themselves (for whatever reason) and deserve encouragement.