The Greater Fool

This show, for me, feels exploitive. Honestly, it hurts to watch because it's difficult not to personalize it. My spouse loves these sort of shows, so I'm stuck watching. Early years you got to see their challenges, then surgery, then a good portion of their post-op experiences. It was uplifting to see these peoples lives change so dramatically for the positive. The last year or two, it's just the first half of the show exploiting their miserable lives, their failures trying to lose weight, then if we're lucky progress toward surgery. The best ending we get is they are approved for surgery. No payoff with their lives improving after surgery. WTF! I agree with whoever said the people now seem to have severe emotional issues. This show is pure misery porn now. At the weight these people are, WLS actually *IS* the last hope for anything near a normal life. Most often it's WLS or death in a very few years. That really is the choice. Success seems impossibly far away. There but for the grace of god... There is no way I could make a game out of other people's pain.

Boy, that knee and back pain you described to me... say... a couple weeks ago sure sounds awful.

Heretic! You are dead to me.! Except for the appropriate binging, if which I am supportive, you have crossed the the line. Every endeavor of yours is sacrosanct! Every morsel food to pass your lips is your doom! Wait... did you say "The Good Place"? Nevermind, you're OK.

Before I support or condemn, I must know one thing: What genre of TV do you binge?

I find this, dare I say, obsession with feeling judged interesting. I suspect many of us have indeed been judged for our weight by family, friends, strangers, and perhaps most of all by ourselves. We couldn't even cut ourselves a break. So, we decide to take the drastic step of rearranging our innards to finally take control of our bodies. We research the options and one thing leading to another we find a forum like this that offers support and fellowship of like minded folks with similar experiences and hopes. Here are people that get it. But, we are on sensitive ground. Our experiences tell us protect ourselves. We look for the attack history says is coming. And we feel judged. If we could just grant folks the benefit of charitable thought. That they, like me, care. That they, like me, want to help. It will be a more pleasant experience if we can just believe our interlocutors, like ourselves, are good people.

It gets easier. I had a rough time transitioning to food. Learning to eat, the mechanics of it, can be difficult. Small bites, chew extra thoroughly, time between. I found that during this process I had to really focus on what I was doing. Having had so many issues initially, stress about eating made things worse. For me, stress is a killer. So, focus. Try no distractions, no talking, just you and your food. Change anything you think will help. Start small, build success, then increase little by little. Relax. It's ok to fail. It can really be more about your head than your pouch. You can even play with the puree. Gradually move through finely chopped to smallish pieces to bite size, and before you know you'll be there. Trust yourself. If you feel that one more bite will be a problem, don't take it, at least until you feel you are ready. Each meal you are just working to get that one more bit of food until you are at your appropriate meal size. Eventually your pouch and you will come to an understanding. Tek

Moved to other thread.

Creekimp13 made some excellent points. A few studies would come in handy. I've always been shocked how so many surgeons and patients approach the post-op experience as a crash diet. Lose as much as possible while eating as little as possible so you can lose weight as fast as you can. Then when you've lost your excess weight you (hopefully) learn the new appropriate way to eat. Or, as so many people do, return to their old ways and regain the weight. My Doc's plan was to get on the 'forever' eating plan quickly. You learn new habits with the positive feedback of losing weight. All that success makes the plan solidly a habit. Then when you reach your goal (or stop point) you adjust very slightly to maintain. Anyone can do anything for the short term, it's why diets work for a time. It's the long haul that we need to work on. That so many programs make these two phases completely different I think sets a lot of people up for failure, the same failure diets setup preop. But, I would never say don't follow your surgeon's plan. Just remember that returning to the old "normal" will yield the same results as it did pre-op.

That I don't weigh myself isn't an effect of "afterwards." For me there is no "afterwards." My plan is forever. It is not a diet but is and always has been the new normal way I eat. I just don't want nor need a scale to push or encourage me to stay on plan. I do moderation usually on vacation. If you can manage moderation then have at it. Not everyone can manage it.

It's almost as if people are different, go figure. Different perspectives. Different motivations. Different concerns. Different measurements. Different goals. Different journeys. If it works and we're happy then don't mess with success.

I didn't rearrange my innards to live on a diet. I learned a new, sustainable way of eating with the positive reinforcement of losing weight. My plan long ago became my normal. As my Doc did, I measure success by my health and happiness. I will not live under the whip of a number on a scale.

I was too large to fit on a home scale so I could only weigh monthly at my follow-up appointments. Once I could weigh at home I weighed several times, just for the novelty of it. I have moderately severe OCD so I could see myself living on the scale so I decided just to go with the monthly weigh ins. I never experienced any stalls, or those pounds that just would not come off. Now I just weigh annually at my annual physical.

Give or take a symptom that's how I feel when I'm dumping. How is your eating, plan wise? It may behoove you to, and I hate saying this, keep an honest food log to see if there are any consistent types of food that show up. Post nasal drip may be both a symptom and a cause. Usually this is in relation, for me, to not eating. Often related to stress or fatigue. There are several intestinal issues that can result in your symptoms. Heck, constipation can do it. Now that I ponder it, give or take a symptom it sounds like a psoriatic arthritis flare. Just about any autoimmune disease can have these symptoms. I wouldn't take a chance. I would be talking to a medical professional, perhaps more than one if the cause doesn't jump out. Don't give up until you have an answer and resolution.

Another consideration is that us Gastric Bypass folks have the blind stomach. Ulcers or other issues in the blind stomach are not easily diagnosed and treated. They can't shove a scope down your throat to look at it. Medications that depend on contact, those that coat or numb don't get where they need to go to coat and/or numb. I did have a bleeding ulcer because of a medication I was taking. We were carefully monitoring for just such an occurrence, stopped the medication immediately, and it self resolved quickly.

Talk to your medical team. There are lists of "don't take this list of drugs" and "these drugs are OK". Not every surgeon agrees with either list. Mine didn't. Everyone is different. We have different medical issues, different sensitivities, different tolerances, different likes and dislikes, different beliefs. Different differences. We need to take all of these things and more into consideration. Drugs are always a risk v. reward thing. Are the possible negative effects worth the probable positive effects? Whether you can or should take any drug is up to your medical team and ultimately your personal choice. Inform yourself, talk to your team, make a choice, monitor carefully. I take drugs from the "do not take" list daily. I know the possible side effects and I monitor carefully. As an example, every pain medication known to humanity carries side effects AT LEAST as bad as NSAIDs. Of course, living in constant pain also has some negative effects. The first 6 weeks you are healing so some things have a higher risk during this period. Talk to your medical team. After the first 6 weeks, well, talk to your medical team. Tek

I have it on good authority that "foreplay" is a myth.

Moved to other thread. Tek

Moved to other thread. Tek

I have a special name for this phenomenon: Healing. The swelling is going down making things less sensitive. You're having less pain because you've been careful to take small sips. Keep doing what you are doing. Good job! Tek

Apparently, for you it is. Something consider is you've been on a pretty severe pre-op liquid diet. You've basically been starving yourself for a couple weeks. Yesterday and today you may have had nothing. So hunger is reasonable response. Many people don't feel hungry because of their reaction to surgery and anesthesia and all the other stuff that can affect their response. Yours is a rational hunger. I would view this as a good sign that your going to have a good recovery because, again apparently, you are experiencing little inflammation. Good news. Follow your program, learn your new functionality. Do you. Good luck.

I've had scrambled eggs that were so flakey it literally melted in the mouth. I've had scrambled eggs that were like a big yellow blob that required cutting to get a mouthful. I would say one qualifies as pureed and the other not.

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All things in moderation, including moderation.

Try this:

I, too, hate exercise for it's own sake. But, I do like people watching. So my spouse and I would go walking to people watch. Malls, museums, zoos. We lived in Las Vegas so going downtown and the strip was always good turf to watch people. Before we knew it we were walking 6-8 miles several times a week. We had a blast. But no exercise. Later, for some reason, I set myself a challenge to run 3 miles. I enjoyed it more than I thought. Listened to a lot of audio books. Bottom line: If you don't like it you won't maintain it. 'Activity' works too.