Pandemonium

Appointment well pretty well, though apparently it was supposed to be an over-the-phone appointment, though this was not communicated to me. So I showed up at the office, Fortunately, my doctor was able to see me in-person, which I was more comfortable with since the last visit was 4 weeks ago and 6 days post-op. Felt better to have someone look at my incisions and assure me they'd healed up perfectly. Their scale said 2 pounds lost since last week, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow which is my official weigh in day to record it on my scale. My diet plan is now 2 diet plans now to give me the option of using normal food. Still doing 2 Celebrate shakes, only switching from 1% milk to almond milk. And then I have the choice between doing 2 20g protein bars or doing 1 20g protein bar and 4 "forkfuls" of a protein source (approximately 2 ounces). Recommendations are scrambled eggs or yogurt first and then try chicken and fish if no issues with the eggs or yogurt. This makes me much happier. My goal is to try 5 days on the all protein shakes/bars plan and then 2 days where I mix in regular food.

His reasoning behind it is that his experience has shown that the reintroduction of regular food into the diet is when he sees the weight loss begin to slow. So apparently he likes to do a very slow progression and keep to liquids for as long as possible so as to maximize the immediate post-op weight loss. I'm not sure if I buy into that entirely. The protein bars surprised the hell out of me too. I was like "ummm...that's not pureed and I'd barely qualify it as a soft food". Of course, the way he has me eating them is that I cut the 1.5 bars into 4-6 pieces and then I spend 20-30 minutes eating a single piece until they are gone. So I'm only really consuming about half an ounce each time. My bites are small and well chewed so I've avoided any discomfort or vomiting so far. But it still seems weird to me that I get to have protein bars before I can have eggs, yogurt, or cottage cheese. I've been eating Think bars, which are one of my favorites. I also love the One bars, but I am out of those at the moment. I also LOVE Built bars, but the majority of their flavors are only 15g of protein and my doctor wants me doing 20g bars. I'm gonna be curious about my weigh in today (and tomorrow at home) since it doesn't feel like I've lost much this week and thought I might be looking at the first stall, but I go out of my way to only weigh myself once a week. Otherwise I'd probably drive myself crazy.

100 minutes to my next follow up appointment with my surgeon. Tomorrow will be the 5 week mark. I'm still weighing whether to ask to begin integrating pureed foods into my diet or not. He wanted me on protein shakes only for 8 weeks, but said it was up to me when to start integrating other foods. I decided the 5 week mark was where I'd draw the line. Then he threw me a curveball on Friday by adjusting my diet so that I do two protein shakes and 1.5 protein bars. I've tolerated the protein bars with no issues (other than the fact that my tastebuds are a wreck and my favorite bars taste kinda horrible now). So now I'm debating whether I can do this shake and bar only combo for a couple more weeks or if I should stick to my guns and ask to start on normal foods on the proper consistency.

You can absolutely find positive support here and I am sorry that you have had an encounter with New&Improved. His toxicity is a serious detriment to these forums and I urge you to ignore him. I've very sorry that you're not getting the support from your husband and that it's making things difficult. It's definitely not too late to turn things around, even with the chaotic state of the world. The fact that you've acknowledged that you need to make changes and have begun to make them is an amazing step in the right direction! I've been in the same boat with the exercise portion of my post-op routine. Between some persistent light-headedness and the stream of 90+ degree days, my efforts to walk 30 minutes a day generally have only been for 10 minutes. That might be a good place to start for you as well. It may not be 30 minutes, but it's still exercise and gets the body moving and burns some calories. Food logging is definitely going to help. I've been using the Baritastic app since I started in my weight loss program in February. It's been a definite boon and I highly recommend it. I wish I had some advice on what you can do to get your husband to be part of the process again. Maybe leading by example might get him back on track? You've got my support on this, as well as the support of many others on this site! You can do this and you're going to kick butt doing it!

Every surgeon/program has their own guidelines on this, but it seems common to be 3-4 weeks before swimming (my guidance was 4 weeks, but one of my incision sites has been a slow healer so I've waited).

I thought you were leaving. Clearly your commitment isn't nearly what you tout it to be. Again, leave us Sleevers alone. We don't want or need you poisoning our forum with your toxicity.

Yes, it is fine for people to post about being unhappy or not having the success they had hoped for on here because they are looking for support and guidance from people who have gone through the same thing. Not for some little goblin like you to come along and crap all over them and wave your success in their face to taunt them (WHICH IS WHAT YOU DO). Your disgusting behavior on this site is well documented. The only reason you are here is to make yourself feel better at the expense of others. Not a single person in this thread posted that they were slacking off or they were cheating, so your little attempt at justifying the vile and rancid crap that you spew is just another load of crap coming from you. Again, get the hell out of the Gastric Sleeve forum. You are not needed here. Oh...and I'm gonna bookmark the hell out of your post that I quoted for when the honeymoon ends and you regain weight.

No, you're not. You are only ever tooting your own horn and providing nothing helpful for people. The OP didn't once ask about alternative surgeries or for anyone here to toot their own horn about their own weight loss, which is all that you have done and is practically the only thing you ever do. You CANNOT speak from experience to people unhappy with the results of their sleeve surgery because you NEVER HAD a sleeve gastrectomy. So again...go find any number of the other forums to harass with your poor excuse for "information" and "experience". Your toxic personality is not needed in this one.

Pssst...in case you missed it, this thread is in the gastric sleeve forum AND isn’t about you. So why don’t you take your toxic personality, for which there is no surgery to fix, and go find some other thread to poison with your opinions and gross attention seeking.

Hey New & Improved...did you realize that it's against forum rules to shame people for their choice of surgery? Now why don't you bugger off with your constant hot takes, lousy opinions, and egotistical attention seeking?

No two weight loss journeys are ever the same. The advice given about shaking up the foods you're eating and adding in some extra calories (preferably high protein, low carb) is a good one. So much of weight loss is waging war with our bodies. Our bodies are always going to do what they can to adapt to the changes we make, so we have to constantly be making little changes here and there to keep ahead. Definitely communicate with your surgeon and hopefully also your nutritionist to get guidance on how best to proceed. Set your own goals. I still maintain that it was irresponsible of your surgeon to impose his expectations of losing 100 pounds by Thanksgiving. The effect that that has had on your morale is obvious as you're experiencing slower weight loss than your surgeon made you anticipate. Set your own goals and as you meet them, make new ones. Ignore people who tell you that you got the wrong surgery or should switch to a different surgery. Their journey is not your journey. You've got this and you're going to kick so much butt! 10 weeks is still just a drop in the bucket and there's plenty of time to get past this!

I just want to say that I think it was deeply irresponsible of your surgeon to put THEIR expectations onto you, especially when every single bariatric patient is unique and loses weight at different rates pre and post op. For every 5 people who manage to lose 100 pounds in 6 months time, you'll find 5 people who'll lose 50 or less pounds in that same span of time. Your surgeon should have allowed YOU to set your own goals for where you hoped to be by Thanksgiving and then helped you to get there.

I can't say for certain why my doctor said no Miralax (even though the handbook HE wrote specifically talks about it for constipation), but I suspect it was about hydration and avoiding laxatives that require you to drink even more fluids. His post-op instructions are very strict and strenuous. Right now, I am still supposed to be only sipping 1 ounce of fluid every 15 minutes. For the 10 or so days, I have been gradually increasing the pace just to get more fluids in me because with that rate, I was maxing out at 54 ounces of fluid in a day. I'm now hitting 64-68 ounces, with no discomfort or ill effect. Thus why I feel a little better about starting in on some Miralax for a little while to hopefully help out. Granted, I can feel myself dehydrated today, so I've been sipping away at Pedialyte today (I suspect the MoM yesterday is the primary culprit for the dehydration). The handbook specifically mentions fiber chewables or Benefiber for constipation. Given that I am still on liquids (again...doctor's orders and his strict regimen), I opted for the Benefiber powder to mix into my protein shakes. Today's the first day of adding that in and so far no irritation or anything. We'll see if it helps. On the plus side, I did have a BM a couple of hours ago. It still hurt, but that's because of persistent inflammation from yesterday, but was small and loose, which was a VERY welcome change of pace. Now if I can just keep them that way.

This is gonna be TMI and nasty, since it's all about constipation. 30 days post-op and yesterday was the absolute worst day I've had. I can't recall being in as much pain and discomfort in all 43 years of my life. My post-op constipation has been ongoing. Generally there's been 3-4 days between bowel movements and every bowel movement has taken a lot of effort. Yesterday...yesterday was a whole new world of suffering. I was on day 4 since the last BM and woke up knowing I was backed up and I was going to have one at some point soon. Except 5 trips to the bathroom yielded nothing but straining and discomfort. I ended up going home early because I was so uncomfortable. Came home and downed 60ml of milk of magnesia and prayed it would work fast. It didn't. Ran to the store for Miralax (which my surgeon wanted me to avoid for the time being) and an enema kit. Drank the Miralax, despite knowing it wasn't going to actually do anything right away, but would hopefully start the process of helping going forward. Called my primary care because I was in so much pain and was pretty much told to drink MoM and start on Miralax and definitely use the enema to hopefully break things up and make it easier. Waited a couple of hours to see if I could pass anything on my own or if the MoM was helping. Nothing but liquid and blood from hemorrhoids for my trouble. Finally gave in and used an enema. Met with even higher levels of pain as I expelled the liquid, but nothing else. Spent 20 minutes on the toilet in agony and tears, on the verge of asking to be rushed to the ER. I could not physically stop straining to pass what was blocked. I was finally able to get it to pass and was horrified by what had finally left my body. I am 99% certain I was on the verge of a fecal impaction based on what finally came out. The diameter was about 1.5" and probably a total of 12" in length. I ended up having one more loose movement about 45 minutes later which may have been from the MoM or remnants of the enema...not sure. Then followed 8 hours of added agony in the aftermath where extra strength Tylenol did very little to ease the discomfort. Sitting down? Hurt. Standing up? Hurt. Lying down? Hurt. Went to bed around 10pm. Fell asleep around 1am when the pain finally started to subside. No BM this morning. Mixed Miralax in with my breakfast protein shake. Not sure if I should do more MoM today or not. Need to go to the store and get Benefiber since the Celebrate powder clearly doesn't have enough fiber in it for me. But the worst thing is that I am genuinely afraid of trying to go to bathroom now. I can't go through that again. I would gladly take the pain from the first two days post-op back if I could get rid of this constipation. I really hope that I can get past this.

Surgery was on 7/7, so I just hit the 4 week mark. HW - 341 SW - 263.8 CW 238.4 Today was also the milestone of hitting 100 pounds lost. As far as my condition goes, the past 7-10 days have found me doing worse than I was previously. I've begun to have periodic dizzy spells that most commonly happen when I stand up, but also when I exert myself. As such, my exercise has not really been happening between the ongoing heat in the past week or so and this dizziness. Was worried I would see lower weight loss this week as a result, but am pleasantly surprised that I came up just shy of 5lbs. The other issue is constipation. Right now, I'm having bowel movements every 3-4 days. What's worse is that when I have them, it's causing hemorrhoids that leave me in excruciating pain for the entire day afterwards. My doctor prescribed some Colace, but near as I can tell, it isn't helping. I've also had nothing but terrible sleep the last couple of weeks, though this can partially be blamed on the fact that the two new CPAP masks that my provider will let me use are just terrible. They don't cover the mask that I prefer. It sucks. I'm also STILL on just full liquids because that's what my doctor wants me on for as long as possible in order to maximize weight loss and avoid the slow down. This has been pretty damn awful, but I'm getting through it. Doctor wants me to do it for 8 weeks. I'm telling him at my follow-up with his next Monday that I'm done and ready to move on. He's getting 5 weeks from me. Otherwise, I'm doing well. All but 1 incision is fully healed and that one is getting close. Just looking forward to being able to start transitioning into other food phases and start the slow path back to the new normal.

I mean, the nurse is technically correct that the bariatric vitamins will be giving you everything that you can get in fruits and vegetables...but she's friggin' ridiculous if she thinks that means you don't need to eat fruits or vegetables. No dietician is going to tell you not to eat fruits and vegetables and the nurse shouldn't have either. You'll find them as part of your diet when the time comes.

I thought that I had been doing an amazing job of recovering in the 3 weeks after surgery as I was feeling great, was able to slowly get my fluid intake up from the mid 40s to 60 ounces, and had a good amount of energy. Then the bottom dropped out a few days ago and I have absolutely no energy now. I didn't manage to crawl out of bed until about 45 minutes ago (8:15am) and it's been like that since the weekend. It's very heartening to know that this is not unexpected and I greatly appreciate reading everyone's experiences with this. Just gotta keep on moving forward and get to the other side of it!

A shame you can’t adapt your garbage takes and personality

At the end of the day, there are myriad reasons why people may have gained weight over the course of the past 4-5 months. We do not know and cannot know the paths that they walk and the obstacles that they face. COVID-19 is a catastrophic event that has had a huge impact across the world and has upended the lives of EVERYONE. The stresses involved with such a massive disruption to how many people live their lives will have many effects, both visible and invisible. I find absolutely no fault whatsoever with anyone who has gained weight in the midst of the global crisis. Food is a comfort and is (regrettably, in some ways) an easy way to find a moment of peace and solace in the face of so much uncertainty. That some people need to use it to improve their mental and emotional well being is neither surprising, nor shameful.

Today is 3 weeks since surgery and I'm down a total of 19.6lbs since then. I would have done better this past week if I'd been able to get the exercise in that I was supposed to. Unfortunately, the ongoing heat made me have to scale back from that and prioritize keeping myself hydrated, since my doctor still wants me to only drink 1 ounce of fluids every 15 minutes. Of course, in the past week, I have been able to increase my fluid intake by not following that instruction. As a result, I have felt considerably better, though still probably not at optimal hydration. Goal is to get exercise in this week once the temps drop a little. Still remaining on liquids only diet, as per my doctor. He wants me to go 8 weeks on liquids. I am going to give him until my next follow up appointment in 2 weeks. I still haven't really developed an appetite or hunger yet, which has been nice. I just drink my protein shakes at their appointed times because it's what I am supposed to do, rather than any feeling of hunger. My biggest issues right now are energy (I am still tired a lot and have some light headed episodes when I stand up) and constipation. I'd give anything to get rid of those issues because I feel like I would be in a much better place mentally if I didn't have to contend with them on top of everything else.

The diet my doctor gave me is netting me about 700 calories a day. I'm doing two Celebrate 4-in-1 shakes mixed with 1% Lactaid (his directions...I have no lactose issues) and then one scoop (instead of the normal two that make up a serving) of Premier Protein powder mixed with 8 ounces of 1% Lactaid. The focus is on protein totals over calories, so I'm getting 89g a day and when I factor in my Crystal Light intake for the rest of my fluids, I nudge just over 700 calories. Every doctor has their own plan (like my doctor wants me to try and do liquids only for 8 weeks before moving to pureed...I don't see how I can manage that) so it's interesting to see the post-op plans of others.

I wore mine for 3 days once I was discharged. That was when I took my first shower and after removing it and realizing there was no additional pain from not having it on, I figured I was in good enough shape to go without it. Trying removing it for that shower and see how things feel. You can always put it back on if you feel better with it on.