Wahinebythesea

13 hours ago, HeatherE said:

I can relate. I love buying beautiful high heels now instead of wide sneakers. Shoe shopping and clothes shopping are fun.

Amen! I never wore high heels because balancing on the balls of my feet was painful - but 85 pounds later, it's not! I could run around in heels all day!

5 minutes ago, lizonaplane said:

Thanks! I'm about at a M right now, so that should be fine. I bought some base layers and haven't found them that helpful, but maybe that brand is better?

I was stuck outside a lot this winter, and I was cold even INDOORS so I tried a bunch of different types of base layer clothing. These were my favourites - I almost forgot how great they were until one day I forgot to put them on, and just about froze to death. Wearing them inside under my ordinary clothing is the only time I'm actually "comfortable / toasty".

I still don't understand how they work so well. They are made of wool and aren't scratchy to my skin, but if you have allergies / sensitive skin, they might not work for you (they are wool, after all :).

On 4/27/2022 at 5:29 PM, lizonaplane said:

Has anyone found a good solution?

Icebreakers (260 zone thermal base layer).

Very lightweight so you can wear it invisibly under almost anything and sooooo warm! (Only caveat is that they max out at XL).

This has not been my experience.

At first (say the first three months) I had to be quite careful about how much I ate. I only vomited once or twice, and it was entirely due to my eating too much, too fast. Now weighing out food and eating more slowly has become second nature, and I simply don't have that issue.

Weight loss (75 lb) resolved my hypertension (which I expected) but it also has drastically improved my Migraines w/aura (which I wasn't expecting).

I had back pain and muscle weakness when I started to cautiously re-engage with my real life (at about a month post-surgery).

My doctors and physiotherapist put it down to deconditioning (just not doing the things I had been doing before surgery). Apparently you can lose a lot of muscle mass in just a month!

Kept battling, and it gradually improved - took 2-3 months before I actually felt back to normal, though.

High heels!

I used to find functioning in high heels (or even getting up onto my tiptoes) difficult - but now it's not!

coffee. Just doesn't taste the same.

A new study by Aminian et al out of the Cleveland Clinic shows surprisingly strong benefits of bariatric surgery particularly for preventing the progression of liver disease.

Summary https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/health/obesity-fatty-liver-surgery.html

Actual paper https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2786270

I actually thought about this a whole lot.

I was self pay in Canada, and while there was nutritional counselling, there wasn't any psychological counselling as part of the package. I worried about the emotional and psychological adjustments that I'd have to make after surgery, changes in interpersonal relationships, possible dysmorphia, etc. etc.

Your mileage probably will vary, but what I found is that none of that has been an issue. I am skinner and healthier than I was, but otherwise I am exactly the same person as I was before. Maybe that's because I didn't really have as much weight to lose as some (I'm only down 65 lb) but for what's it's worth, my experience was that the psychological impact of surgery was vastly overemphasized.

I think your planning for potential problems is wise, but for what it's worth, I spent a lot of time worrying over nothing.

Congrats! Amazing achievement!

Carb Manager (free version)

Macros, bar code scanner, many pre-programmed foods and of course you can program in your own foods.

14 hours ago, NovaLuna said:

I'd already called them and they'd re-faxed it twice already so something was getting lost on their end and they needed to deal with it.

I had the exact same problem - hospital said "we faxed it, they lost it" and surgeon's office said "they didn't fax it".

You may have outgrown this problem by now, but for anyone else who runs into it, I suggest requesting the results (on paper) from the lab (usually via Medical Records) and delivering them to the surgeon's office in person (when you're going there anyways). If you're comfortable with it, you can photograph the pages with your cell phone and email them.

That solved the problem for me.

Pro tip: It's usually the surgeon's office - not Medical Records - that screws up. Keep a copy of the results just in case you need to deliver them more than once

I had roux en y gastric bypass because 1) I already had GERD and couldn't bear it getting worse and 2) RnY GB has been around longer than sleeve, and in my mind the long term complications are better understood.

My major co-morbidities were hypertension, impaired glucose tolerance (pre-diabetic) and a fatty liver on imaging. The hypertension resolved in the post-op phase. Last pill I took was the day before surgery. Zero GERD since surgery. Haven't had a repeat fasting glucose or ultrasound, but I expect those (and my lipid profile!) to be improved as well. Incidentally, I used to get Migraines (with aura) pretty frequently, and those have gotten a LOT better, too.

One other factor is that I was self-pay in Canada, and RnY is more expensive than sleeve.

My surgeon used tramadol, but after the first 24 hours I talked the nurses into just giving me Tylenol.

I found the tramadol made it hard to think / converse / walk - once I was off it, I was much more clear headed.

Wow - that's rough! My surgeon took my starting weight and if lost "too much" on the pre-op liquid diet before surgery, that was just fine.

And when I presented for surgery, they just asked me what I weighed - didn't bother actually verifying it.

On 8/9/2021 at 9:18 AM, lizonaplane said:

I was getting down to where if I lost 8 more pounds I wouldn't qualify for surgery anymore

They said my tastes would change, but I thought to myself "Sure, right . . . "

But there are so many foods that I really used to like that taste entirely unappealing now, like coffee. Same coffee, made the same way as usual, and it is just . . . so blah.

On 7/26/2021 at 2:23 PM, gotagoal said:

I have a lot of Migraines, no coffee?

For what it's worth (n=1), my Migraines disappeared once my weight started to drop.

And while I used to like coffee, it tastes so strange now . . . I just don't want it anymore.

Wow! That's amazing!

Self pay in Canada. My original surgery date was 6 weeks from first contact but a la COVID it actually took 3 months.

5 hours ago, lizonaplane said:

Keep pestering people till you have an answer!

This!

My biggest irrational fear was that somehow - even after all that - I STILL wouldn't be able to lose weight.

P.S. I am losing weight

The 2019 ASMBS update recommends 5,000 - 10,000 IU / day Vitamin A. My dietician does NOT recommend anything near that, and I can't find any Multivitamin that has that much Vitamin A.

Are any of you bypassers actually taking that much?

I went with RNY over VSG because the RNY has been around (in roughly its current format) since the 60s; there's half a century of long term follow up. The long term follow up with VSG is shorter.

I always choose the devil I know

Fun fact: the earliest reported example of bariatric surgery was performed on Sancho the Fat (the King of Leon) in the 10th century!

I found that after surgery all Protein Shakes and powders tasted awful (I've heard that Syntrax is good, but I can't access that where I am.)

My vote for least repulsive pre-made Protein Drink is Fairlife's Core Power (26 g).