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I’m not in San Antonio, but just some advice from someone who had the same issue - in the fall of 2019, through a wellness program sponsored by my employer, my bloodwork came back as pre-diabetic. The wellness program has a diabetes prevention program but you have to meet with a doctor once a quarter, do bloodwork, and meet with a nutritionist at least twice (which helped immensely once I met with the surgeon - I didn’t have to do 6 months of work with their office because of it). When they set up my first doctor visit, I specifically asked for a non-judgmental doctor because I didn’t want to spend the entire time lectured about my weight. What I am really trying to say - look for PCPs that may specialize in pre-diabetic or diabetic care and read the reviews for them. The doctor they gave me for this program (it had to be at a certain clinic to qualify) was fantastic and so great to work with. It is always a struggle when you meet a doctor for the first time when you are worried all they will see is your weight. (PS - I got my A1C down to the lowest pre-diabetic point - 5.6 - prior to surgery and post-op it is now 4.9 😊. I’m about to graduate out of the prevention program - my doctor just wants to check it another time or two and then I’ll be released.)

I gained 10 lbs after surgery - they pumped me full of fluids and it’s the trauma on the body. It will come off within the first couple of weeks (along with other weight). Stick with it - it will be fine!

I wore yoga pants and leggings that I hadn’t gotten rid of that were a size or two too big. I will warn you, though, 6 days after surgery I got a horrible rash on my side (not on the incisions but very near the incisions) - they think it might have been a reaction to the glue but it was MISERABLE. I thankfully had an old nike workout dress that was too big and I lived in that for probably 2-3 days as I had to be slathered in calamine lotion 3-4 times a day and I couldn’t stand anything touching my skin.

I eat salsa all the time once I went to regular foods and I use Cajun spices on my grilled veggies. No problems for me.

My surgeon wanted to do the sleeve because of where I was (BMI around 40) but she told me up front that an endoscopy was required first to check for reflux and if it showed scarring then I’d have to do a bypass. I did have reflux some before but no scarring. Got the sleeve and I haven’t had reflux at all since.

My office gave suggestions but it wasn’t requirement to use a certain brand. I told them I have serious issues with taste (cannot stomach broccoli, no matter how much cheese you drown it in, and the thought of fish makes me nauseous) and they recommended the core power by fairlife as those seem to be tolerated well. The only requirements were no more than 200 calories per shake and there was a carb limit as well that I cannot recall of the top of my head.

Dr. Kajese was my doctor. Really great. She’s very good at explaining what the process is going to be like in simple terms and the staff at the office is supportive.

I highly recommend the Davis Clinic at Memorial Hermann. They have a really good program for pain/nausea management post-op (with a little help pre-op) - I think it really helped and the surgery was truly a piece of cake. I’m 11 weeks post-op and lost about 45 lbs (I had lost close to 70 pre-op on my own). Did the sleeve and have been really happy.

Are they going to do an endoscopy prior to surgery? That was a requirement for me. I wanted the sleeve and the doctor wanted to do the sleeve based on my starting point when I first saw her (BMI was around 40 then) but she wouldn’t make the call until she did the endoscopy. She said if there was a lot of evidence of GERD she would most likely go with bypass. Endoscopy was clear so sleeve it was.

I had no issues taking my pills after surgery other than I took them one at a time instead of all together like pre-surgery (and one of them is a pretty large pill). I probably waited 30 seconds between each one at the beginning but now I can take up to 3 at a time. I do take my multivitamin separately at night because of the size and it kind of has a weird taste, but then take my vitamin D and nighttime med right after that - no waiting.

I went back and looked at my food logs for when I first advanced to purée. I was eating about 4 TBS per meal on average - after the first few days I was eating up to half a cup of puréed black bean soup but my turkey chili purée was still 4 TBS (plus a TBS of fat free Greek yogurt and a scoop of protein powder). I would listen to your body and what you can do - and I was probably eating 4 meals a day at that point but one was a shake.

Oh yes, my surgeon’s office is all about doing plant-based diet and you will drag meat from my cold, dead hands. I will eventually even add occasional treats such as cake and ice cream and other goodies I bake - just not so soon after surgery. I did a body scan and RMR test last week and met with a sports-based nutritionist and she not only agreed my protein goal was good (I’ve been aiming for 65 g/day, my program said 40 was sufficient), she was all about including meat and also increasing my protein up to 80-90 g. I will include the birthday cake I made last week for a friend (one of the few who knows I had surgery) - she told me I didn’t have to but I’ve missed baking. Since it’s a tried and true recipe I didn’t have to taste it and managed to have all of it leave my house without so much as licking the frosting bowl. It’s a 3 layer chocolate cake completely from scratch.

Yeah the averages thing can be a mess. When I had my 2 month post-op virtual check-in with the nurse a couple of weeks ago, I got really frustrated because the nurse said I shouldn’t set a goal in the normal BMI range. Their goal is to get you below a 35 BMI. Well, hell, at that point my BMI was around 30 already so a 35 BMI would be a failure for me, since my BMI at surgery was 37. I fully expect to get to a normal BMI range and I was actually a bit taken aback by her insistence multiple times that I shouldn’t set my goal that low even after I gave her my stats. I know she was going by the averages but given where I am at this point at 2.5 months post-op, I don’t see why a normal BMI shouldn’t be my goal.

I ended up staying a second night - my white blood cell count wasn’t where the doctor wanted it and she preferred me to stay another night to make sure it came back to a good level. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for COVID, I would have gone home, but the thought of having an issue and having to come back to an ER made me stay. For the record, I felt just fine and really had very little pain - but I was up and walking as soon as possible. The count was back to a normal level the next morning and I was home by 10 am.

So I lost a lot of weight on my own before I consulted with the surgeon for the first time (around 50 lbs). Between my consult and the day of surgery (about 10 or 11 weeks later) I lost another 20 lbs. My BMI the day of surgery was around 37. I’ve lost over 40 lbs since surgery 10 weeks ago and my BMI is currently a 29. I did go to that calculator and it estimated my weight at 1 year to be about 17 lbs less than where I am today - so know that is just an estimate and dependent on many other factors.

Drugstore calcium and vitamin D; Bariatric Fusion multivitamin with iron (my program says you have to have a bariatric multivitamin but the others can be OTC). I would never do chewables - capsules only.

I don’t understand doctors who say “you should lose x in this many weeks”. I don’t know how tall you are, but it would appear to me using 5’5’’ or so as an average you were on the lower end of folks who had WLS. My weigh-in surgery date was around the same as yours and my weight at two weeks was 212. My doctor just has had me focus on protein and fluids and following the food steps (full liquid to purée to soft to regular). I would just focus on your protein and water and when your back is better then you can do some walking. This is a marathon, not a sprint - you are in this for the long-haul! Good luck!!!

I just caught up on this thread. Chantrella, hope the surgery went well and you are recovering comfortably.

Yeah I was hoping to avoid that but if that is the worst side effect I’ll take it, lol. It happens at the oddest times.

I had lost over 50 lbs on my own before I consulted with the surgeon, and at that point my BMI was around 40. By the time of my surgery, my BMI was I think a 37, which is relatively low for WLS. Back when I was in my late 20s, I lost 140 lbs on Weight Watchers, but eventually the weight crept back on. I know what is needed to lose weight, but maintaining it is another thing. This surgery is a tool to make it much more likely to be successful in the long term. My only regret is not doing this sooner. Good luck with your decision but honestly this is one of the best things I have ever done for myself - and I speak as a recent patient (8 weeks post-op today).

I had my surgery in mid-January. You will be on a recovery floor and those folks will have all been tested. I really wasn’t too worried because the staff doesn’t “cross-contaminate”. Honestly, not having the surgery and staying obese is a bigger risk. I didn’t sleep with a mask on but you will know when they come in because nothing in the hospital is quiet. I pretty much kept it on during the day (I stayed 2 nights because my white blood cell count hadn’t come down enough that my doctor wanted to check it again the following day) once I was “up” from surgery. I don’t know where you are located, but I felt very comfortable at the time with the precautions my hospital was taking and we were not in a situation here at the time where the hospitals were overwhelmed. You can also ask what precautions your hospital is taking when you do your pre-op work. Good luck - you got this!

Well, I haven’t weighed myself for this week, but as of last week at 6 weeks I was down about 32 lbs from my surgery. I only weigh myself once a week right now so as not to obsess over slight daily fluctuations. I will admit that I lost 6 lbs the week of the big freeze here in TX - think my body was burning through some extra fat that week to try to stay warm, lol. I really lost the majority of the weight before I even met with my surgeon for the first time in late October - think I only lost 20 lbs from there until surgery. I had done a wellness program sponsored by my employer that was free that had quarterly meetings with a doctor and a nutritionist so I was able to use that to get approved pretty quickly for surgery - could have even done the surgery at year end but I wanted to be able to enjoy Christmas without being on a liquid diet.

That’s exactly what my program does as well. They are actually quite reluctant to give a calorie count because they are worried folks will just focus on the calories and not worry about the protein and eating nutrient-dense foods. They really emphasize at least 65 g of protein and 64 oz of liquid. I’m at nearly 7 weeks post op and I would say I’m in the 600-700 range of calories and usually able to get close to 70 g of protein a day and 64-80 oz of liquid.

I gained 10 lbs after surgery. It was gone after a week (along with some other weight), but it could take as long as two weeks. Don’t stress about it - it’s perfectly normal and it will go away shortly.

My surgeon doesn’t have patients start for a full week after surgery. I definitely did not choose chewable for a couple of reasons. First, it wasn’t the clinic’s first or second choice, and second, I have major issues with taste/texture. Like I cannot take liquid meds at all without puking. The couple of times I had to take a prescription cough syrup medicine it was a...process, to say the least, that required crackers and holding my nose taking the medicine and then more crackers and water, and I still gagged. Give me pills any day. So I take calcium pills 3 x a day, and vitamin D and a bariatric multivitamin with iron at bedtime (which supposedly helps with any nausea, which I haven’t had). That being said, every surgeon/clinic has a suggested regimen and start date, so be sure to check with yours. Good luck!