NovaLuna

10 hours ago, XtinaDoesIt said:

I know it's no where near my goal and I've been losing pretty slowly compared to some but I'm finally consistently below 230! That's a big deal to me! Every time I try to lose weight, I always get stuck around 233 and eventually give up. I called it my "normal fat" weight where I don't hate myself. This feels like my first real milestone. 203 is next (my weight after my first year teaching).

I've been discouraged since surgery because my weight loss pattern is stalling 80% of the time and losing a few pounds overnight every 2-3 weeks. I'm averaging about 7 pounds a month and I'm still pretty early out. But this is a WIN for me! I think this WILL work for me! It just might take some time.

AND I started working out this week. Fingers crossed that it speeds things up (or keeps things going).

7 pounds is good! Everyone loses at a different rate so try not to compare yourself to others, even if that's difficult to do. And honestly? Some of us have stall issues, myself included. Holy hell, but I stall a LOT! In the beginning of my journey I didn't have stall issues. But then the third month of my journey came and I stalled for 23 days and... after that stalls that last 3-4 weeks are the norm now (I'm 15 months post op. Though it's hilarious that stall was in April of last year and the worst stall of my journey happened in April of THIS year... I think the month of April HATES me!). Hell, I literally came out of my biggest stall of my journey (lost a pound on March 29th and then didn't lose anything until April 29th. I lost a pound.) only to hit a HUGE milestone and the past few days I've just added to that by somehow making up for the worst weight loss month of my journey and losing 5 pounds in a week. My trick? I cut my sodium this week. That was it. Apparently that was all I needed to do lol.

Anyway, enjoy every little victory on the journey. I always try and set a weight loss goal for the month. It used to be 10 pounds and then I realized THAT wasn't going to happen anymore and lowered that to 5 pounds a month which worked until December (I lose 2 pounds then same in January. Met the goal in February and March, but lost 1 pound in April. But 4 so far in May). You're doing great. Slow and steady wins the race!

I, honestly, don't know how people do the full liquid diet pre-op. I thought my surgeon's diet was hard! My diet allowed 6-8oz of Protein a day (either meat or yogurt, but not both), two 'healthy' fats (1/4 avocado or 1/4 cup of nuts), 1/2 cup of fruit, and all the veggies you want. I survived mostly off of a veggie Soup I made. I basically lived off of it for two weeks and the two 1/4 cups of nuts I ate and the fruit and meat were like heaven lol. It was hard enough on that. But, I did lose 15 pounds on that diet and was told my liver looked great so, it worked.

Just try to focus on the end goal, because the diet itself won't be fun...

There was a period where I was dreaming of bread every night lol. I hadn't had it in ages, but I gave in and fit it back into my diet though I only allow myself 1 loaf of gluten free bread one week out of the month (I have a wheat allergy that developed after my surgery. I have to have gluten free bread). Now I don't dream of bread anymore lol.

Yeah. I mean I eat tiny portion sizes, but I can eat solids no problem. I'm eating 1/2 cup of homemade macaroni and cheese made with chickpea Pasta noodles right now as I'm typing lol. One odd thing that happened though is that I developed a wheat allergy. I heard it's pretty rare, but any WLS surgery that has the malabsorbative part with it CAN make that happen or even cause Celiac Disease, so just be aware. It's only something like 3% of people though, so you'll probably be fine. I just kind of wish that they would have warned about that... I mean, I still would have done the surgery, but at least I would have been aware that it was a possibility.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

It's been 15 months since I had mine done, but if my memory is correct it was around 2 weeks or so for the gas pain to pass (more like 10 days or so). Fluid was very difficult for me to get in and I struggled so much with the two Protein Drinks I had to drink in the beginning of my journey. Sorry that you're struggling! I hope it passes for you soon!

Also, with the pantoprazole do you feel that it's helping with acid or making it worse? I can't take proton-pump inhibitors because they create MORE acid for me for some reason so I take famotidine (a.k.a pepcid) instead and it works great for me (I have EoE which I was diagnosed with BEFORE my surgery so yes I still take famotidine).

I have osteoarthritis and show multiple symptoms of it in my back, my knees, and my hips. I also have a bulging disc in the L4-5 part of my spine. I knew I had a potential bulging disc before my surgery as I've had symptoms of it for YEARS, but my insurance requires physical therapy to get a MRI and I had a bad experience with physical therapy due to a workers comp injury in 2013 so it took another issue for me to finally give in and do physical therapy and I literally just had my MRI on MONDAY and got the results yesterday lol.

I had my WLS (almost) 15 months ago. The surgery has done a lot for my back, but osteoarthritis and a bulging disc isn't going to go away. The issues are still there, but carrying around less weight puts less pressure on my back and I have less bad days then I used to.

As to what to do... that is really up to you and your pain tolerance. If you can withstand the pain in your back long enough for you to have your WLS and wait a good year to take some of your weight off and THEN potentially have back surgery (if that's what you're needing) then I would suggest that just because your recovery would likely be a lot easier on your back that way. But if the pain is really bad then by all means address the back issue first.

I'm sorry that you're going through all this and I wish you the best in both your WLS and your back issues!

I did the research years ago and just kept putting it off, coming up with excuse after excuse after excuse as to why not to have surgery. For me, the permanence was something that scared me and put me off doing the surgery for a long time. It was my health declining and fearing that I wouldn't be around to watch my nieces grow up that finally made me make the move. I'm 14.5 months post op with the Loop Duodenal Switch surgery and I only wish that I had done this for myself sooner.

I take Pepcid because Prevacid caused MORE acid. I have no idea why...

14 hours ago, Numbheart said:

I didn't know that it could happen, have you ask your doctor about that?

When I told them I 'dumped' after eating a low carb wheat bread they tested me for the allergy because you're not supposed to dump with my surgery. However, they just told me to avoid wheat and never told me that it was an actual allergy until I saw my gastroenterologist and THEY told me that I'd developed a wheat allergy due to my surgery. I wish the bariatric surgeon had MENTIONED it was an allergy and not just 'avoid wheat'. Like, really? But, apparently it happens. My gastroenterologist said I'm just lucky it wasn't Celiac Disease because WLS can cause that.

My thighs went numb a couple of months ago. It was the back part of my thighs... I never got the feeling back. My labs are fine, so it wasn't that. My doctor thinks it's from my back (they suspect I have a slipped or bulging disc. I have an MRI on the 19th so I guess I'll find out then).

One of my biggest challenges post op was developing a wheat allergy. They don't tell you that it can happen to you after surgery, but it CAN! Learning how to eat around it is insanely difficult! Eating out was already tough, but now it's next to impossible... you have to constantly ask "Is there wheat in this? And if you say no, is there flour in it, because if there is, then yes, there's wheat. I'm allergic to wheat." It gets annoying. I had no idea just how many things have wheat in them! Learning to eat different was already difficult and then I had to change things to take wheat completely out of my diet but due to wheat being in more than 90% of flours it's in pretty much everything! You have to look for either 'wheat free' or 'gluten free' most of the time to know right off the bat that there isn't any wheat in it.

Considering the date... I'd say you've hit the three week stall. It's totally normal and happens to most. It doesn't always come on the third week post op, but it's usually within the first month. It skipped me, personally, but my first stall was at month 3 and it was three weeks long. It frustrated me to no end, but now, 14 months out, stalls are very common. Even so, every time I hit a stall I still want to throw my scale (I'm in one now as a matter of fact as March 29th was the last time I lost weight, but considering it was 3 pounds... I'm okay with the stall lol. I just hope it won't be as long as my last one... 27 days was way too long! 😬). Anyway, you'll pass the stall. Just continue to follow your diet, get your Protein in, and your Fluid, and it'll pass!

Hello, everyone! I had the Loop Duodenal Switch surgery 14 months ago on January 23, 2020. At my heaviest I was 389 pounds, but was 321 on the day of my surgery. I am currently 191 pounds and only 11 pounds away from my personal goal weight. When I was first looking into this surgery (which was the suggested surgery of my surgeon) I was wondering just how many Vitamins I was going to have to take every day and just how much this was going to cost me. So I decided that since I just ordered a year's supply of vitamins I may as well share that for those of you who are looking into the surgery and want to know those things. And what exactly a years supply of vitamins looks like lol (though do keep in mind that every person is different. I take less Iron then the norm because my iron is naturally high. I take less Calcium for the same reason. And not every one will have just a Vitamin A deficiency. Some have B, or D, or K, or all the above)

So, for me, personally, I take 2 bariatric Multivitamins WITHOUT iron, 1 bariatric Multivitamin WITH iron, and 2 calcium citrate every day. I also take 5,000IU of Vitamin A every OTHER day. How much does that cost? Well, you will definitely have to shop around and try different vitamins before you find some that you either like or can tolerate. Some people struggle finding vitamins because certain ones make them sick. I never had this problem. However, generally after a month... or three (depending on your surgeon) they tell you that you can go to non-chewable vitamins. I can't. I have something called EoE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis) which is an autoimmune disorder that I was diagnosed with in 2016 that causes narrowing of the esophagus and makes it impossible for me to swallow pills. Thus, chewables are my only option. It's more expensive that way, but nothing I can do about that so telling you how much everything is isn't going to help as you likely won't have a problem with the far cheaper non-chewable option. If you DO have that problem however and NEED chewable vitamins full time like myself, then I spent $565.23 on a years supply of vitamins. That's about $1.55 a day or $10.87 a week or $47.10 a month (it's not as bad as it seems at first glance when put that way, right?). I wanted to make this thread because anyone who has this surgery will have their surgeon's office reminding you repeatedly, so that you understand, that vitamins are something you HAVE to take with this surgery! You cannot just suddenly decide it's too expensive and then land yourself in the hospital or even DIE because you don't want to fork over the money to keep you healthy. If you know the price ahead of time then you can either set money aside such as my own habit of setting $50 aside a month so that I can just order 6 months or a years supply at a time once I have enough to do so (I just wiped out my vitamin savings with this recent order though lol).

I wanted to make this thread because when I was going through the process I really would have like to SEE what a years supply of vitamins looks like! Also, if you have any questions about the Loop Duodenal Switch/SIPS/SADI-S and my own experiences with it, feel free to ask! Well, here's what a my own years supply of vitamins looks like:

I'm 14 months out and my surgery involves a sleeved stomach. I never really had to worry about eating too fast because I have EoE which is an autoimmune disorder that causes narrowing of the esophagus and choking issues. So I've been a suuuuuuper slow eater since 2015 when I first started choking on almost everything I put into my mouth. I had to learn to chew my food to absolute mush or choke and end up in the hospital with them trying to give me medicine to relax my throat so that the food could go down naturally. By the time I had my surgery last year I was already used to taking an hour to two hours to eat a meal. Nothing really changed for me in that respect except that because I eat less sometimes it only takes me 45 minutes to eat. I just take a bite and chew it slowly and then wait about 30 seconds before taking another bite. Then I take another 30 seconds or more to chew so that it's around a minute in total between swallowing each bite so I'll know when I'm full before eating too much and feeling like I'm going to vomit (not gonna lie, I HAVE eaten a bit too fast a few times and it's not pleasant. I get nauseous for a good hour or two and feel uncomfortably full for around two hours. Considering I can count the number of times I've done this on both hands and still have fingers to spare... it's rare. Eight times in 14 months is really not too bad imo.)

With Protein you can either add in a pre-made 20 or 30g Protein Shake (or clear protein) or two and then try to eat the rest in your diet. Or, you can buy Protein Powder and add it to your food or drinks. Fluid itself is a hard one. I get around 55-65 oz of fluid a day but early on it was a struggle for me to even get in the bare minimum my surgeon wanted of 48oz (half the time I was lucky if I could get in 32oz). The beginning is always the hardest. Trying to get into a routine that works for you, and getting used to a new way of eating. It's a lot to adjust to at once. Just do your best to meet your goals and if you don't then just try harder the next day. Eventually, you'll find a way to get there! (it worked for me, anyway)

56 minutes ago, Somenelsons said:

Hi there! I'm in St. Louis and taking steps to get the LoopDS. Your experience in this thread is encouraging. There's a lot online about how LoopDS isn't nearly as effective as DS and it's all very confusing. I'm curious what surgeon you ended up with? I'm seeing Dr. Minkin at STL Bariatric Specialists? Thanks in advance.

Actually, my surgeon said that statistically the weight loss is about the same. At least in the surgeries he's performed and he's been doing those two surgeries for many years before I had mine. Also, just be aware if you have the DS, Loop DS, or Gastric Bypass they don't warn you that you can develop food allergies. I mean, I know they said you can develop a food 'intolerance' but I literally developed a wheat allergy after my surgery. It shows up in my blood work and everything. I didn't have that allergy before my surgery according to my gatroenterologist. You can also develop Celiac Disease. They never warned me about that. I mean, I would have done the surgery anyway, but I really wish they would have warned me.

Good luck with your upcoming surgery! Even with the wheat allergy I don't regret my surgery and am grateful every day that I made this choice for myself. Bright side of the wheat allergy is a lot of the foods I used to love I can't eat anymore because most of them contain wheat flour (which is in friggin' EVERYTHING because most flours... have wheat in them!) so I don't have to worry about straying off my diet because I literally can't eat that stuff or it'll make me sick... I see that as a plus and keeps me eating like I'm supposed to.

Once I got approved it was 7 weeks. But, I also got my approval the last few days of November 2019 and everyone and their mother wanted to have their surgery in December so they had to schedule mine in January 2020. And the end of January at that! 🙄 For most I thinks it's about 3-4 weeks after approval. Because, you know, the 2 week pre-op diet that most bariatric surgeons require and all... Hope everything goes smoothly for you and you get your surgery soon!

11 hours ago, Jaden said:

I went for my first nutrition visit today. I have to do 6 for my insurance to cover my surgery. And I can't gain any weight. Well when I first went in for my evaluation I weighed 238 which I thought was lower, I usually weigh 240. Then I have been dieting and stuff and my scale says 233-236. So I'm thinking I'm good to go then today at the first nutrition visit I weighed 245!!! that's 7 pounds up from last visit and 10-12 pounds more then my scale says. And I have checked my scale and it is accurate with everything and every person who has tried it. Does anyone have any advice or tips, or similar experiences. I'm feeling very discouraged that this issues will stop me from being covered since they say you can't gain any added weight.

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I totally understand the frustration. Every time I go to the doctor the scale (at minimum) makes me at least 5 pounds higher than my home scale. I went yesterday and it said I weighed 199. I about cried! My doctor has to remind me every time that their scale is 5-10 pounds off because she weighs herself on it every now and then and she's noticed that it does that even though it's supposed to recalibrate itself. She said it's always off by at least 5 pounds and everyone finds that frustrating, even her (she had weight loss surgery herself about 15 years ago. She's been able to keep her weight off even after having more kids after her surgery). It always frustrates me and I immediately weigh myself when I get home just to see how far off their scale was. I was 195 on my home scale with my clothes on so it was off by only 4 pounds (193 sans clothes because it was the afternoon and... it's also that time of the month so Water weight is pissing me off. I had to check that too because I was paranoid I'd gained more water weight due to my stupid period).

I like pickles. I just don't eat them much. I don't think I had tried eating pickles until I was 6 or 7 months out... I had no issues with them.

Six weeks?! That's crazy! I've never heard of a surgeon requiring a 6 week liquid diet! Generally it's just two weeks! I guess your surgeon is really testing your willpower to stick to it. Sorry you're struggling with it, but hey, you're a third of the way through already. Just try and focus on why you're doing it and your end goal whenever you feel yourself struggling. Hope the time passes quickly for you!

I have two back injuries myself and so I was concerned about that as well, but I've had less pain. What pain I do have I just take tumeric for and it works just as well as Naproxen or Ibuprofen used to.

It very much depends upon your surgeon. They all say different things. My surgery involves a sleeved stomach (just with added intestinal changes) and my surgeon doesn't allow rice (doesn't want us to ever eat it again because it swells and can potentially cause your stomach to stretch), they also don't want us to eat Pasta (though I was told veggie pasta like chickpea or lentil pasta is fine in moderation), bread is off limits for six months, starches are off limits for six months (potatoes, Beans, etc), they don't want us to drink alcohol ever again (but if you do they want you to wait a minimum of 1 year)... and that's all can remember off the top of my head other than no processed meats or other foods (which is a given).

5 minutes ago, Akiisha said:

Im eating small portions, my body won't let me eat anymore even if i wanted to. I have been eating more fruit then anything else, i keep craving fruit, it's weird i never liked fruit before. I've only stalled for a week.

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A week is not bad at all. Stalls generally last 2-3 weeks. The fruit craving might actually be your body either wanting more Fluid or you're craving sugar or carbs because fruit tends to be higher in both sugar and carbs. Fruit isn't a bad snack, but just be aware of how much of you're eating. If the stall lasts longer than you're comfortable with try consulting your nutritionist.

I never really had that issue. food was something I ate when I was hungry. Or bored.

When I get upset I've always read, watched a show to distract myself, played a game, or wrote. I do all that on normal days too... food was never an emotional thing for me. I think that's mostly because when I did the bored eating thing I could eat a whole bag of chips or a whole bag of candy or 6 tacos in one sitting. I was always disgusted with myself afterwards. That's probably why it was never something I did to drown my sorrows, so to speak, because in the end I knew if I did that I'd just feel worse if I did.

Personally, if you're struggling I would suggest maybe you try and find a hobby or something to distract yourself with. It always works for me. Not the best way to deal with your problems, admittedly, but since you can't really see a therapist right now, it's the best advice I can offer. Sorry if it's not much.

It depends on how long you've actually stalled. I've had TONS of stalls on my journey. My first one was at three months out and lasted 23 days. My body just had to adjust itself. It wasn't anything that I did wrong, it just had to 'catch up' so to speak. My last stall was in mid January and last 27 days up until mid February. I've lost 7 pounds in the five weeks since my weight loss picked back up. Like I said, stalls happen. Sometimes we just have to adjust what we eat slightly such as watching our sodium intake, our carbs, our fat intake, our calories, our sugar, etc. Sometimes it's nothing we're doing wrong. Think about your diet and if you feel something needs to change slightly then try it. Or, try and ride it out. It'll pass. Maybe call your nutritionist for advice (it's helped me a few times).