james2021

Just messaging to say I was 5/20 and I’m also 16 lbs down lol.

On 06/12/2021 at 08:21, Creekimp13 said:

You had your surgery on 5/20. So, 22 days ago, correct?

I had my sugery on December 5th and remember that I ate little teenie bits of everything at Christmas dinner 20 days after my surgery. Mostly, I had minced little bits of turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. Had no issues.

I will say one of the ONLY foods that still bothers me 3.5 years out...is corn. But typically only when I eat crunchy corn off the cob and don't chew enough.

Corn is worthy of caution...but if it was just a few kernels and you chewed it really well, I wouldn't worry. At 24 hours, if you had an obstruction, you'd likely be puking.

I think you'll make it:)

OK, I know I should not have done this, and I'm not going to do it again.

I had a small amount of grits that were restaurant-prepared yesterday morning. They had corn in them, which I was conscious of, but I was thinking that if I chewed it really really well, it would be okay. In the two or three bites of this that I had, I maybe had like.... 6 kernels of corn? I've kept everything down since surgery and I haven't had any issues with it since, and now I'm 24 hours out. But, re: having anxiety, now I'm worried I'm going to get a bowel obstruction from this and die.

SO... did anyone else do anything they weren't supposed to do in the puree stage and end up fine?

I am having a different kind of abdominal pain in the last day or so near the biggest incision. Everything looks normal, it feels like soreness under the skin, like a dull pain. It's not very strong pain, 2/10, but it's different from what I was experiencing before (tearing/burning feeling around the incision when I made some movements but not this dull feeling). Almost feels like a muscle strain or something and it's freaking me out. I was thinking it could be gas but it's just on the right side of my abdomen. Is that something any of you experienced?

Do they know you take marijuana? Mine did and had me wait 90 days between quitting and taking a test. It's annoying that how long THC stays in your system depends so heavily on so many factors. All you can do is hold on taking any more, cross your fingers. Worst case you'll have to wait and retake your first test which might push the date, but hang in there and you'll still be able to get your surgery. Good luck.

I gained 5 pre-liver shrink overall and then lost 20 lbs on the shrink.

15 minutes ago, It’sMe said:

My weight is also now affecting my career as I have been told that leaders “look a certain way” and “have a certain physical presence.” I think these are coded statements about my weight.

First of all, this is extremely messed up and inappropriate and I'm sorry that it's happening to you.

Not a doctor obviously but it seems like you do fit the parameters if you want to get it, having a BMI of essentially 35 and a co-morbidity of high blood pressure. And I wonder if the requirements are that stringent even if you self-pay.

It sounds like it's affecting your quality of life and you are allowed to gain control however you see fit! ❤️ Sending love to you.

8 hours ago, SoulGardener said:

Should I have lost more than 13 pounds in 27 days since surgery?

Everyone is different but this sounds on track to me. Congrats!

Has anyone noticed a change in their sense of smell after surgery? Is this psychosomatic? Lol

7 hours ago, JCF said:

Had lap band conversion to bypass on 5/27. Pain on side where port was is excruciating. Dr said s lot of scar tissue wrapped around it, so needed a lot of manipulation. On the plus side, dr put me right to blenderized diet after swallow test. Having no problem sipping or shooting crushed meds in liquid.

Has anyone had this experience? It almost makes me worried that the surgery didn’t take cause I can drink easily!

Does anyone have good way to take crushed pills that does not taste disgusting?

I would ask your doc if whatever pill can be put in applesauce; thats what they have me do with the celebrex.

23 hours ago, dwells6192 said:

I am 1 day postop right now. I have been Having this issue all day like a feeling of a mixture indigestion and needing to burp, but I can't and i get pain when it happens. Has anyone gone through this? It can happen even when I am not drinking. I have been very careful with making sure I am sipping when I do drink and limiting my intake to 1-2 ounces every 15 mins

YES this happens every single time I do anything other than water!

This is how my surgeon's team does it ---

1. Find your 'ideal' body weight. For males, start at 100 pounds and add 6 pounds for every inch over 5'0. For females, start at 100 pounds and add 5 pounds for every inch over 5'0. For example, I am female & 5'6.5. My ideal body weight is 132.5.

2. Take your starting weight and subtract your ideal body weight from it to find your excess weight. For example, my starting weight was 355. 355 minus 132.5 is 222.5. 222.5 is my excess weight.

3. Take 70% of your excess weight (.7 times the number). 70% of my excess weight is 155.75. Between sleeve and bypass, about 70% excess weight loss is what they told me to expect.

4. Subtract the 70%, or in my case, the 155 from the starting weight of 355. This gives me a realistic goal weight of 200.

What has y'all's daily eating looked like since getting home?

I was under 'twilight' anesthesia for my endoscopy. Not fully put under, but I don't remember a thing. I can't imagine they would give you one without anesthesia. When I woke up, I didn't even have a sore throat or anything.

12 minutes ago, aussiescot said:

I am scheduled for VSG for Monday and have been told I'll likely be out by Wednesday. I hope it won't be any longer than that.

Good luck!!!

12 minutes ago, WishMeSmaller said:

Low potassium can cause heart arrhythmias, so that might have been your main problem. Kind of puzzling about your low potassium though. Glad you are out and on the mend! 💕

Oh that's really good to know!

TBD! I'm going to ask about it in my post-op appointment.

I just wanted to put this out into the ether because I wasn't prepared at all for the length my hospital stay ended up being -- vast majority of people seem to be in and out. My sleeve was Thursday 5/20 at around 11am and I was in the hospital for 4 nights and 4 solid days total.

I had some irregular heart activity coming out of surgery I guess (still don't have much detail on what that was about -- previous EKG was normal, all pre-op testing was normal), so the first day and night, they only let me have ice chips. Then on the second day my potassium was really, really low -- don't know why that was. They had to try a few different things to get my potassium up. Finally was released on Monday 5/24 around midday and after a couple of nights of rest at home I feel like a new person. Trying to recover in the hospital is miserable! Impossible to sleep!

Anyway, I was really expecting a short stay because aside from the super-morbid obesity I didn't have any other health problems and I'm in my 20s, but that did not happen.... be warned. All this said, I didn't pack anything "to do" and didn't need it even with a long stay. I was hardly even on my phone because I was so exhausted.

Did anyone else have a longer than anticipated stay?

Good luck with your procedures if you are reading this pre-op. ❤️

Mine took about 8 months from the initial consultation, including the 6-mo dietician requirement. They submitted to insurance within about 48 hours of my last dietician visit, insurance approved within 48 hours of that, and then they called me to schedule my pre-op appointment which was a week later. At the pre-op appointment, I got my surgery date, which was about 3 weeks after that. Hang in there!

Similar experience! I was on a 1000 calorie diet and had trouble hitting that. Bodies just go into another mode entirely when eating that little; it's so weird.

On 5/18/2021 at 8:53 PM, ShoppGirl said:

. I liked Bacardi and Coke so that’s a no go but I had some drink packets I found on Amazon that are margaritaville flavors that will mix well and are only 10 calories a packet. Its a variety pack with pina colada, margarita and strawberry daiquiri. Easy enough to toss in your purse to mix up while on the go if you wanted.

Helpful, thank you! I also have always been a rum and coke person which obviously, can't go back to that in a year or whatever, or however long it takes me to get a drink at a bar again. Was thinking I'll just order a drink straight??? I won't want to do more than sip on that anyway...

How long did your post-op incision pain last? I know it'll take a while to fully heal but wondering how long it just feels like having a big open cut on your body where the main incision is.

Also, I have always been a stomach sleeper. I didn't get any doctor instructions about how to/how not to sleep, but have found that sleeping on my stomach/the pressure against the incision helps with the pain. But it feels wrong to sleep on my stomach. Did any of you do this?

Thank you!

hi everyone, day after surgery. i will be kept for this second night and will hopefully be discharged tomorrow. just need to get in all the liquid they want; everything else is fine. couldn’t start the liquid diet on surgery day because i had some irregular heart activity when i was coming out of surgery. i can’t wait to be home

23 minutes ago, Greendragonfly said:

Good luck surgery twin. Hope all goes well.

Good luck to you too!!

So excited for tomorrow! And so nervous something will fall through at the very last minute! Lol. Won't be able to sleep tonight, just like the first day of school.