Deb9386

How many calories are you taking in? If it's less than your dietitian recommends could you increase it? I'm finding the puree stage challenging as well - some days I add in 10g of smooth peanut butter (Whole Earth) to up the calorie count. My dietitian also recommended adding in a Weetabix Protein with 1/4 pint warm milk for breakfast which adds carbs and a bit of energy. I don't always feel like it though.

I'd second the dulcolax - they're very effective!

Congrats! That's a lot of weight to lose and you're more than halfway to your goal weight!

I agree - thanks to all who've taken the time & trouble to reply to my queries! This forum has been so helpful to me - I don't know anybody who's had wls and the hospital I went to is a 2 hour drive away, so no support group locally at all. Good luck with your surgery - I dreaded mine, but it's been such a positive experience.

Congrats! Can't wait till I can also say this....

My surgery was 3 weeks tomorrow and one of my incisions hasn't healed yet either. It was bleeding and oozing on my 10 day check-up and Doctor re-dressed & said don't worry. But it was still bleeding after some days so I went to my GP surgery (family doctor) and the nurse there is now "packing" it & re-dressing it twice a week. The "packing" involves sticking something into the unhealed wound which will help it heal apparently. Maybe get your family doctor or nurse to take a look at it?

I'm 17 days post op and quite often "hungry" and thinking about food. But it isn't hunger in my stomach, it's definitely in my head. And I'm also thinking about food - specifically food with a crunch as I'm on the puree stage and missing food textures. I've seen other posts where people say they have head hunger so it's probably quite normal.

I have to say I find it takes a lot of work to take in 800 cals - but the dietitian was adamant not to go below it. I'm on the puree stage - she says to have 'little and often' but between that and also trying to do the 'no drinking around eating' it's a full time job! Does your Dr say to stick around the 400 cals? Always amazed how different the various doctors' plans are.

I'm very sorry for your loss: life truly sucks sometimes. The best thing you can do is to support each other through this as only you two know what you're going through. When our child died, my husband tried to carry on and support me when I went to pieces, without showing his own deep grief. It made me feel better when we talked about how it affected him, because I didn't feel so alone. So whilst you are your wife's "rock" it may help her if you show your own grief. But I'm not a counsellor so can't give professional advice. People who haven't been through the loss of a child say all sorts of things they mean to be helpful, but which are quite hurtful - like "be happy that you have another child" or "concentrate on your surviving child" or "time heals". [Actually it doesn't in the case of a child.] Maybe have a think about whether it would be a good idea to postpone your surgery for a few weeks until you feel able to cope with it all? x

I've only lost 10lbs since surgery 16 days ago. I was quite pleased with this!? I'm only managing to take in about 800 calories per day and was told to do 800-1000, so I guess it's just down to the individual. Some will lose more, some less?

I use the Celebrate B50 Complex - 1 per day - which has 50 mg Thiamin (as Thiamin HCI), as well as multi-vitamins & calcium tablets of course.

Only 10 days after surgery my blood tests show that I now am out of the diabetic range on the Hba1c: it's dropped by 11 points already.

I've found ice helps too!

Yes, it did thankfully! I went back for my 10 day check up on Monday 2nd (i.e. after the new lockdown announcement here) and my Consultant told me that they're still going to be carrying on with the private wls operations until they're told to stop. This is at the private wing of a large NHS hospital - so the private ops will be going ahead at the moment. I don't know about the wls ops on the NHS?

It does get easier to get them down as the days go on.....x

8 days post op and due to start puree on day 11 - I can't wait - I'm so sick of shakes! I'm definitely feeling better now - no gas and starting to get some energy back. Incisions don't look too bad, have a check up on Monday. I've lost 4lbs since surgery, doesn't seem much but I can't do any more so ?

I'm sure someone more experienced than me will be along soon to advise, but in the meantime.... First of all, give yourself a hug and a pat on the back for weighing in and recognising your problem. In years of yo-yo dieting the hardest thing I found was often steeling myself to go back on the scales and see what damage I'd done to my weight. The logical thing would seem to be to take some time to write down honestly what you are doing/not doing that is causing the weight gain. You lost a lot of weight in 2012 so you know what you should and shouldn't do. It's important to be honest with yourself. Then work out how you can address each issue. The easy thing to say would be: "go back to an 800 calorie a day diet for 4 weeks on protein shakes and then calorie count at maybe 1220 pd to lose the weight you've gained". But to do that you are going to have to counter the things that put obstacles in your path i.e. eating through stress/boredom; lack of time to plan etc etc. You've done it before, you can do it again.

You should expect to feel some pain from the op, I was taking a lot of pain meds for the first 5 days, but if in doubt definitely contact your doctor.

I see what you mean - I'm a yo-yo dieter, and could probably lose much of that remaining 50 lbs myself, but I know from past experience that it all goes back on again, slowly and gradually. Wls was a last resort for me. You could always postpone the date and give it a go yourself before finally committing?

Sorry that you've had this experience with friends, but I don't think it's that surprising to be honest. You have lost an amazing amount of weight - many congratulations! A major change like this, whether by wls or not, is bound to affect the established relationships you have with family/friends. Your obese friends have lost part of their "support group" where they can justify their own obesity because all of their friends are similarly obese. You've upset the balance of the friendship group and they can't accept that - subconsciously, it feels like a personal criticism of them remaining fat. They're being cruel and unkind about the weight loss and wls because they're trying to put themselves back into the position where they don't believe they should try to lose weight. Making new friends must be the answer - and make friends who have the same interests you now do i.e. not eating, but keeping fit & active pursuits like walking, running etc. Personally I wouldn't tell them about the wls because why do they need to know, certainly initially? Good luck!

I had the RNY bypass only last week but had been thinking about wls for some time. My husband was exactly the same as yours - very anxious about the risks of the operation and not understanding why I couldn't just lose through dieting as I had in the past. Anybody who has not been obese/morbidly obese almost certainly doesn't understand the issues around weight gain/loss for those who are. I had various co-morbidities and once I decided that I was going ahead with the surgery, just powered through his anxieties by saying I'd rather die of the surgery than spend 10 years having limb amputations due to diabetes. The day before my surgery somebody recommended to me Dr Matthew Weiner's book - How Weight Loss Surgery Really Works - and I read this immediately before my surgery. It validated all of my decision making and I highly recommend reading it if you're undecided about the surgery. If you, like me, are a yo-yo dieter who can lose weight on a diet and then gradually regains it all - it will resonate with you and give insights. Good luck with the decision making!

Wow! Congratulations on your amazing weight loss!

It's definitely to shrink the liver. The pre-op blood tests include one which tests how fatty your liver is and that should determine what your doctor tells you to do re pre-op diet.

I'm only 5 days post-op but finding it hard to drink the protein shakes and some of the protein waters - they all taste incredibly sweet and sickly. I'd had them before surgery and they were fine. The only protein water I can tolerate is a Vieve citrus apple & mint. Their other flavours now taste too sickly. I am trying to get protein in through that and also For Goodness Shakes protein shots which are 25g of protein in 60ml - they still taste far too sweet but it's not much fluid so I can manage it. I have tons of protein shakes I can't use! I don't like the taste of milk on its own and am therefore struggling to get calories in. I might try some milk liquidised with smooth peanut butter later.

Thanks! I bought Wind Settlers from Boots this morning which are small gel capsules each containing 100mg of simeticone, and they seem to be working!