kim0221

My surgery was ~8 mos ago. I've started having very itchy skin all over my body... legs, arms, chest, abdomen, etc. Everywhere except my face. And there are some areas that have red 'bumps'. They look like a teen breakout but they're not actually pimples, and I haven't had breakouts for > 20 years. If I'm not paying attention, I scratch so much that I end up with huge hematomas/ scratch marks in large areas. The areas with the 'bumps' are most itchy but I'm essentially scratching everywhere depending on the day. I thought it was dry skin but moisturizing hasn't helped. And I've never had this type of problem before during any season. I've lost just over 55lbs or almost 30% of my overall starting weight, and just over 80% of my excess body weight. Not sure if this is even related to the surgery/ weight loss, but my partner remembers we were told something about skin issues if there is some sort of malnutrition after surgery, but we don't recall the details. My latest lab work was essentially ok except for still very low ferritin and vitamin D, which are both HIGHER than pre-surgery because I'm taking the supplements so those don't seem related to my issue. I think Vitamin A was normal as was everything else. Has anyone else been told of any specific deficiencies that may lead to these skin problems, like itchiness and bumps? What specific nutritional deficiencies have you been told may cause this? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm about 7 weeks post-sleeve. Dietician told me to avoid drinking any liquids within 30 mins of eating solids (on soft diet). I thought that was temporary while the stomach is healing (currently, I can't keep anything down if I have a single sip of liquid around time of soft food). But she recently clarified that this applies for life, as in I will never be able to have a sip of water or anything in the middle of or before/ after a meal, no matter how thirsty I am and no matter how far from my surgery. She said it's because "there is not enough space in the stomach for both". BUT I don't understand the reason why the stomach won't tolerate this if one eats a bit less during that meal. If the total volume of liquids+solids combined is kept at a low amount consistently, then why would having a sip of liquid suddenly overfill the stomach? Is this rule common? Do others (further along in their recovery) still find it impossible to take in any liquids close to solids? Thanks!

It’s interesting that most responses say that this rule should increase food intake. It has the exact opposite effect on me. I find myself stopping a meal entirely because I feel like taking a sip of something and since I can’t, I don’t feel I can take another bite even though I’m still hungry. It’s hard to explain. I just know I’m still hungry but my mouth just can’t tolerate another bite without liquids. So I end up just putting the food away, usually after 3-5 bites total. I feel I could eat more if I could take a sip of water but I don’t because then it all feels stuck for too long. I’m hoping as some of you suggested that I can tolerate a few sips during meals down the line. At this rate, I’m eating 3-5 bites of actual food at a time, which means during work days when I can’t take a break every hour I eat very little.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and suggestions.

Totally agree that the rules are important. But to me, understanding the mechanisms and rationale for the rules is also crucial to make sure I stick to it.

I had to google Sharpei puppy... so cute! lol I agree, > 100 lbs is a lot of weight loss and skin becomes an issue. But even less than that, some people who starve themselves (either on purpose or due to illness as I've seen) and drop dramatically, they end up with skin sags. But I'm referring to very fast wt loss!

That seems like a good weight loss so far, considering you're likely to keep losing for at least another year or more. I'm about 7 weeks out. Lost about 20 lbs. I started at 194 though so it's proportionally probably a bit higher % loss. All that said, I am more worried about losing too quickly! Outside of the surgical weight loss world, too rapid of a weight loss doesn't give the skin time to adjust and might lead to more sagging later, at least that's what I've heard anecdotally. As long as I achieve something close to my ultimate goal within the next year or so, I'm personally comfortable losing it more gradually. I'd rather my body has time to adjust, have less saggy skin (if the stories about rapid weight loss are to be believed), and that the weight lost is permanently gone.

I'm about 6-7 weeks post-op now and have same issues, but mine is with liquids too, even water. It's been improving. I had severe esophageal spasms in the first few weeks, which the surgeon said was more severe than he had seen. So when things were getting 'stuck', I thought it was just a continuation of that. Turns out it's a common thing. I started worrying it was due to a stricture cause stuff wasn't staying down sometimes. The surgeon/ dietician didn't really hear my concerns so I started reviewing this online and found that it's really common and expected this early on. And once I started taking super tiny bites and pausing way longer than it makes sense to in between bites, it seems to be getting better, and I can take in more volume of whatever I'm having.

I've had bad heartburn for years. Same frequency as you but probably more severe because no amount of tums would alleviate it. I needed PPIs for a while, then when the script ran out, I thought I would be fine, but it came back again 3-4 x per week but bad enough to cause severe chest pain. I had the same concerns as you regarding sleeve. My endoscopy was normal. Since my heartburn was controllable with daily PPIs pre-op, I went ahead with sleeve hoping for same response to PPIs post-sleeve. I'm about 7 weeks post-sleeve now and on daily PPIs (I'm on once daily only, which is standard but could be increased to twice daily for some). So far, I've had mild heartburn about 3 times, always after meals, and I think all were related to me missing a PPI dose! I haven't lost nearly enough weight yet to say that my heartburn is better due to weight loss post-op. So I attribute the almost absence of problems with heartburn to the daily PPI. I would have thought twice about the sleeve if my pre-op heartburn was not responsive to PPIs. But for me, since I was PPI-responsive pre-sleeve, it seems my symptoms are PPI-responsive post-sleeve.

Thanks for the reply. So to clarify, you also GAINED weight for about the first week but beyond the week you ended up losing? It's just something I haven't read anywhere - I've read stagnant/ no change or minimal loss at first. But continuous weight GAIN is not something I've read in anyone else's experiences. If that happened to you and others and then you ended up beginning to lose despite increasing food intake over time, then I would feel a lot more 'normal' about myself right now.

Hi, My sleeve was done about 9 days ago. Initially, I slept for 3 days with very minimal oral intake. Ended up 9.8 lbs DOWN when I woke up post-op day #4. I assume that wasn't fat loss since it had only been 3 days - probably just loss of water weight from no food/ limited water intake in those first few days when I wasn't awake enough yet, which I know is temporary artificial weight loss. But I didn't expect that I would start gaining again literally starting post-op day #5. Since then, I've been gaining it all back. 1-2 lbs per day. I'm on a full fluid diet still as required with Plus 2 protein shakes a day. Max 500 kcal per day for now. Yet my weight has been going up starting on post-op day #4 onward, ~5 lbs in ~5 days. I'm nearly back at my original weight pre-op about 9 days ago. I know that weight re-gain is a common thing post sleeve but I thought that was after months or years. Has anyone had the experience of weight gain starting basically right after surgery? And if so, can you tell me if your body eventually caught up and started losing and by what week after surgery did you start losing? If I'm not able to start losing on such a restricted immediately post-op diet with 300-500 kcal per day max right now, how can I expect to start LOSING when my intake inevitably goes up to something resembling more of a sustainable level of intake? Thanks.