NovaLuna

My nutritionist was different because after surgery you have to have 3 meals and 3 snacks if you want to reach your protein goals because your stomach doesn't hold as much so my nutritionist had me get into the habit of 3 meals, 3 snacks. I'll usually have a cheese stick or two as a snack or a fruit cup (in water) or 1/4 cup of nuts or indulge in my chocolate craving and have sugar free pudding, sometimes I'll have a yogurt, or a slice of deli meat, etc. After my surgery I have to get a minimum of 80g of protein a day so I work to get at least 50 on my own and then have 1 30g protein shake to make up the difference.

I DID do supervised medical weight loss though mine was a six month program. But since they were all booked out in December my surgery got pushed to January so it was actually an eight month process. And I used https://www.bariatriceating.com/blogs/recipes for recipe ideas when I was dieting. I found several recipes that I really liked. My favorite is a no noodle lasagna. It's delicious! But, you CAN substitute. For example, say you want stir fry. But you can't have rice. So... you use cauliflower rice instead. And for the teriyaki sauce you just use a sugar free one (I use G. Hughes. They also make sugar free bbq sauce. They sell it at Walmart). Also, they have low carb tortilla bread that you can use for sandwiches. They're with the tortillas, usually. Also, cheese crisps are a great replacement for chips, crackers, and/or croutons. Hope this is at least a little helpful...

I don't think I'll ever be 'thin' as my family has athletic builds and tend to be on the curvier side. I always told myself my goal was to be at LEAST a size 14 in pants... a 12, if I'm super lucky. I'm in a 20 right now. And yes, I do still feel fat and because of that I do end up buying bigger sizes. I went shopping the other day and bought a bunch of new shirts and when I tried them on at home they were all too big! And I bought 2xl's!

So my surgery requires a sleeved stomach and I was concerned about the GERD issue myself as I have EOS so I DID have increased acid issues... at night only. But... my acid issues are actually slightly better than they were. I used two take to antacids before bed and now I only have to take one and I'm fine so... I guess it just depends on the person really. It just comes down to whether you already have GERD or are willing to risk it. Not everyone has the issue. But it DOES happen, so just be prepared in case it does...

My mouth would get dry like a desert. I was slightly dehydrated and started to only drink either water with electrolytes, gatorade/powerade zero, or propel waters and bam, the issue went away. So, I'd suggest things with electrolytes. Or go to the doctor because you may need fluid.

... I don't think it'd be an issue. I mean, a lot of women who have children have loose skin from their pregnancy and have no issue with dating, so I don't think it'd be a problem. That's how I look at it anyway... and I use my sister as my reference as she had a lot of loose skin and stretch marks from her first pregnancy and she had no trouble with her love life. She's now happily married and pregnant with her third child (just as reference, my eldest niece is 11. The younger is 1. My sister and her husband have been together for 4 years so... yeah, she did date and had two semi-serious relationships before she met her husband).

Ask your doctor if they are okay to crush first because some pills can't be crushed. For me, I was chewing my meds even before my surgery due to my EOS (autoimmune disorder that causes narrowing in the throat and leads to choking) so nothing honestly changed for me. Some meds come in liquid form or chewable so I'd ask my doctor were I you.

I don't have a MAXIMUM amount of carbs I have to eat every meal, but my nutritionist said I have to have a MINIMUM of 15 carbs per meal because of the malabsorptive aspect of my surgery. So I don't know if that counts... My minimum protein is 80 grams a day.

Are you doing the six month follow up thing? I did the six month thing for my insurance and I did an elimination diet so that I would prepare myself for not being able to eat certain foods after surgery. First month I cute back portion sizes and stopped eating seconds. Second month I cut out soda. Third month I cut out rice. Fourth month I cut out pasta. Fifth month I cut out bread. Six month was potatoes, beans, etc. and just maintaining my diet. I ended up losing 64 pounds on my own so I think I had great success with that! Good luck with your own journey!

As long as you're still above the 40 BMI you SHOULD be fine, I think... I had a 6 month weight loss requirement for my insurance instead of the 3 you had and they still passed me despite the fact that I lost a LOT of weight on my own. I was worried that they'd deny me as well. My first visit I was 385 pounds with a BMI of 62.1 and the day of my surgery I was 321 with a BMI of 51.8. I lost 64 pounds on my own and they still approved my surgery so I think you'll probably be fine.

The only thing I can do for it is get my throat stretched... however, I had my weight loss surgery scheduled around the time it was due to be stretched again (every 2 years or so) so now my Gastro appointment isn't scheduled until mid-July and then I have to wait for them to schedule the upper endoscopy to stretch my throat... I'm not looking forward to it! Last time I had sooooo much pain in my upper back and chest from them stretching my throat that I cried! 😭

Probably the only reason I don't have that issue is because I have EOS (it's an autoimmune disorder that causes narrowing in the throat and can cause choking) and because of that for the past few years I've eaten really, really, really slowly because choking freaks me out and after wayyyy too many ER visits with food stuck in my throat I finally got a clue. 😓 My advice, take smaller bites and chew your food to MUSH before swallowing. If you are eating foods that you don't need to chew (yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.) then just take a small bite and then set the food aside for 30 seconds to a minute before taking another bite. Still keep with the small bites.

After insurance approval? My surgery was scheduled about six weeks after the surgeons office got the approval, but their schedule was really packed at that time because everyone wanted to get their surgery in before the new year and so I got bumped to January...

Three words "three month stall". My weight loss slowed down as I approached my third month and then I had a two week period where I didn't lose a single pound! Then I lost three pounds seemingly overnight and then another week went by with me not losing a single pound! I'm four months post op right now and I only lost 8 pounds in the last month. Your weight loss is going to fluctuate and it will seeemingly drive you crazy (it does to me), so my advice is to just take the small victories and celebrate those and not focus so much on the weight itself. For one thing, if you're exercising you may be putting on muscle as you lose weight and muscle weighs more than fat so your scale isn't going to accurately tell you how you're doing. For another my primary told me that stressing about your weight will increase hormones that will SLOW down your weight loss! That's why I said you should celebrate the small victories. For example: I was finally able to wear the regular sized hospital gown verses asking for a plus size hospital gown. I was finally able to have the blood pressure cuff go on my upper arm like a normal person instead of on my forearm because it never fit before (the cuff would pop off as it aired up). I can fit into 2xl shirts (I was a 6xl at my heaviest). I'm down to a size 22 pants (I was a 32 before). Things like that will make you see that there IS a change in your weight because when I look in the mirror it's hard for me to see a difference. Everyone else sees it, but I don't... I felt great though when at my nieces birthday party my sisters friend who hadn't seen me in 9 months asked my sister what I'd done to lose so much weight (this was in February when I was 45 pounds heavier than I am now). So yeah, take the small victories and celebrate them. Try not to stress as much. The weight WILL come off!

Get your proteins and vitamins in or else you'll continue to feel like crap and it'll only get worse! And I'm 4 months post op and have only lost 67 pounds since my surgery so you're losing weight at a FAST pace, not a slow one!

Stevia is an all natural sweetner. But it's REALLY strong so a little goes a looooong way!

Update: I was so happy that I've been able to tolerate every food except for Jello that when my doctor told me I could now incorporate low carb tortillas into my diet I got really excited. Problem? Apparently I can't tolerate them! 😭 I got the WORST nausea and stomach 'issues' after eating that I don't know if I'm ever even going to TRY bread again, because I don't want to experience that again! I hated how bad I felt afterword and I was trying to figure out what they heck it was and it was similar symptoms to dumping syndrome which isn't even supposed to be POSSIBLE with my surgery! 😭

I was very much a sweets lover and chips and pasta and bread and alllllll the things you can't eat for at least six months after your surgery lol. I actually stopped eating all that stuff months before I even had my surgery so despite the fact I'm only four months post op, it's been close to a year since I've had most of that stuff. Do I miss it? Kinda. But honestly, your taste buds do change and you'll find enjoyment in foods you perhaps didn't appreciate as much or even like before! I loooove my yogurt in the morning. And sometimes at night lol. I find that's actually the thing I crave the most and I kinda get my sweet fix from it. Also, sugar free pudding gets me my chocolate fix when the store is out of my chocolate protein drinks lol

It's okay, we all have button topics and that was mine so don't worry about it! And yes, it's a terrible thing that I wouldn't even wish on my worst enemy! My TN got that bad because it was originally misdiagnosed as TMJ which is a common thing. If you or someone you care about ever is told they 'probably' have TMJ make sure they get check for TN too! Narcotics medication doesn't work for Type 1 pain though it can help with Type 2 so that's a sign if they have Type 1 pain and no amount of pain meds is helping. My own experiences helped a co-worker whose grandaughter was suffering facial pain and after hearing and seeing my own issue with it she had her grandaughter checked out and sure enough she had TN. After that knowing that my own suffering helped someone else get diagnosed made me feel better. And I'm incredibly sorry about your headaches! I rarely get the cluster headaches since they only happen once or twice a month so I can't imagine how terrible it must be to get them frequently! You can't just sleep them off like I can since mine happen so rarely... Quality of life for people with pain conditions sometimes just really sucks because you just want to be 'normal' and pain free but it just seems impossible at times and frustrating as hell! I can only imagine how bad it is by my experience with my mom. She gets so miserable and has days where she can't get up from bed because her head hurts, she's nauseous, dizzy, and has no appetite at all. I hate seeing her like that, but at the same time I have so much appreciation for her because I don't know how to help her when she has those days and yet when I was suffering for almost a year when my TN was at it's worst she was the one that made me fight the urge to just find a way to escape the pain because she was always there for me and went with me on my NUMEROUS ER visits and hovered and tried to make me feel better when I was sobbing my eyes out from exhaustion and pain. My mom is amazing and it hurts to see her suffering like that! I'm sorry that you're going through something like that yourself! I hope the meds they have you on now work!

You can't remove the trigeminal nerve lol it goes from your brain, behind your eyes, your upper jaw, cheek, and lower jaw. They can cut it, but they can't remove it. Cutting it is just a temporary solution because supposedly it can heal itself and that's likely what happened to you if it worked for a while and then the headaches came back. I know a LOT about the trigeminal nerve because of my trigeminal neuralgia (a.k.a TN) and the research I did when trying to figure out what procedure I wanted to have. I went the most drastic route and had a Microvascular Decompression (brain surgery) which added a padding between the nerve and the artery that was hitting it and was causing my flairs. It had completely worn away the myelin sheath surrounding the nerve and that was why I had been in constant pain. The surgery was not a cure as there is no cure for TN, but just a temporary fix. Every now and then the padding shifts or something because I have gotten three flairs in the last year though the last one was August. I think my headaches are actually type 3 pain of TN which I never had before my surgery as it was always type 1 and type 2 pain, but I'd take that over the type 1 pain ANY day! (the reason I had the surgery was the debilitating pain from the type 1! I can deal with type 2, for the most part). So yeah, I don't know why the doctor said he was 'removing' the nerve because that was a lie. It can't be done because if it was possible to remove it TN would actually HAVE a cure. And it DOESN'T! Sorry if I'm coming off as rude, but my TN is my sore spot and those months leading up to my surgery were the worst in my LIFE! I was in so much pain and it was constant, I wasn't sleeping, I was barely eating, and everything seemed to make the pain worse. I didn't get any breaks from it, it felt like I was in an endless neverending HELL! There is a REASON TN is called 'suicides disease' and it got so bad that if my insurance hadn't approved my surgery I wouldn't be here today because I would have sought any way out of the pain even if it meant taking my own life! TN is the WORST pain EVER! Nothing compares to type 1 pain! NOTHING! When I started getting flairs again last April I had a complete mental breakdown and couldn't stop crying for a WEEK because I thought it was going to be like before my surgery. My doctor had to put me on anti-depressants and a psyche doc had to talk me down and tell me that just because I was having type 2 pain didn't mean the type 1 pain would come back and that I could always have the surgery again if that happened. It's been a year and the type 1 pain hasn't come back, I'm off the anti-depressants, but have my Carbemazepine on me at all times for when I DO get a flair. If the type 1 pain ever DOES come back I'm immediately asking my primary to refer me to a neurosurgeon at Stanford again or even the one I used before, even though he's at UC Davis now, because I REFUSE to deal with it again! So yeah, sorry you unintentionally hit a sore spot for me...

I have a co-worker who had Gastric Bypass and she swears by the shaper she wears. It has hooks in the front and is a full body shaper, one of the more expensive ones. I would suggest waiting until you've healed though because you will be sore for the first two weeks weeks or so and I'm pretty sure pressure so soon after surgery would be a bad idea.

I honestly can't remember how many months they wanted us to go without chewing gum... I think it was three? Urgh, I can't remember because I'm not a gum chewer... sorry! I think they mentioned something about chewing gum allows air to get into your pouch and can cause it to expand like using straws can do and that's why you have to wait a while before you can do either. Sorry I'm not more helpful, I guess I wasn't actively paying attention when gum was brought up...

I miss some things, but surprisingly not that many. Heck, we've had a few birthdays in our family since my surgery and I watch other people eat cake, but didn't have any myself. It looked delicious, but it didn't really bother me that I couldn't have a slice. My family brought fruit salads for me each time and I ate that instead and was perfectly happy. You don't really crave food like before. Or at least I don't. Though... I dreamed of bread the other day lol. I kid you not! I told my nutritionist about it and she laughed and told me I could add low carb tortilla's into my diet if I really want to now that I'm 4 months post op! 🤣

I just buy the Wal-Mart brand protein shakes in either Vanilla or Chocolate. I have a co-worker who had Gastric Bypass and she swears by the Slim Fast High Protein shakes (they're 20g protein) and her preference is the coffee flavored ones (Mocha Cappucino and Caramel Latte), but I haven't tried them because I don't like coffee...

Sometimes we have to jump through hoops to get the things that we want, but I'm glad that it seems to be working out for you! I know how difficult it is when insurance denies something you NEED! My own experience happened three years ago when I had to battle my own insurance to get an MRI so that I could get the visual proof that I have TN so that I could see a neurosurgeon and originally they denied it, but my neurologist at the time fought it for me and sent in four different requests before finally telling them he was checking for a tumor (TN can sometimes be caused by tumors, mine isn't). I was lucky that he was so set on getting approval because I couldn't even get a hold of anyone, but they finally did approve it and I got my proof, had my brain surgery and have been relatively pain free since (a few flairs came back last year, but are soooo much better than they were). I hope everything continues to work out for you and congratulations on your upcoming surgery!