GeminiA

Gemini A, I understand your pain, I am 7 months post-op, and I can't keep food down most days. Major, major regret, the worst decision I ever made.
I suggest staying focused on taking your Vitamins and keeping your Fluid intake up (I understand this can upset your stomach, too) so that you don't become ill. Hopefully, things will get better for you; many people in the comments have had better outcomes.

GeminiA, I am so glad to read about your experiences. I had surgery on Monday, August 30, and since I had surgery in the morning I had much of the day to get used to my new situation. First, this was a conversion from sleeve to bypass, I initially had the sleeve in February of 2014 after illness left me obese. In October of 2018, I was forced to stop working due to continuous, severe pain on my left side which was found to be due to CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. I required multiple pain and neurological meds, in addition to different types of injections which had little to no impact on my pain. With the pain and inability to do anything that involved my hands, I became depressed, gained weight and required conversion surgery. When I had gastric sleeve surgery, there were no post-op issues out of the ordinary. I was also able to keep the weight off until after I became ill and told I could never work again. Anyway I digress, on August 31, I went home, exercised a little, sipped 45 grams of Protein, sipped Water and took my medication. On September 1, only able to sip 30 grams protein, little water and some pain and discomfort. On September 3, abdominal aches and pain are worse and involuntary vomiting begins, and only able to sip water all day with a little broth. On September 4th, unable to sip cold or room temperature water without excruciating pain. In addition, my CRPS pain is off due to med schedule being off. At this point I am praying. I cannot drink anything without more pain and vomiting, including my meds. By the afternoon of September 4th, I started heating my liquids to see if temperature was the issue, and it was. I was able to sip hot liquids, harder to take pills but doable! Today, I am able to drink cooler liquids, no longer need to boil everything. Thus, the pain of September 3 and 4th were so severe, that I too regretted having this surgery until I figured out another way to resolve the issue of vomiting and pain. If we continue to read these foums, they can be helpful.

Hi just a quick question I had gastric bypass Wednesday the 18th and I feel alot better but I keep having a tight knot feeling under my right breast and it just feels really heavy.. has anyone had this? Is it normal? I plan to call my surgeons office Monday. It's not painful it's just more irritating because it feels like a tight heavy ball. [emoji53] Tia
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Yeah protein drinks I can get down but feel terrible afterwards. It's awful. Thanks!


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Hi I had surgery the 18th of Aug and I have so many regrets, I should've never went through with it. I take 2 bites and I'm sick as a dog for hours... does it ever get better? I have been so depressed from all the sickness. I am still on pureed stage but take 2 small bites and I'm done then I don't eat anymore because I'm too sick.
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Only for the first weeks/months. I drink now immediately before eating - I’m Bypass 8 years on. I don’t drink while I’m eating because I don’t want to fill up on liquid. My daughter can, though, eat and drink at the same time. She’s 10 years out. To start with when my stomach was tiny I did the 30 minute before, 45 after thingy - then narrowed it to 15 mins before, and then eventually no delay after drinking. It depends on the size of your stomach…

I heard that you cannot drink within 30 minutes of eating on each end.

Are you drinking with your food? Wait a few minutes in between bites. A lot of people can't tolerate the same foods they used to or it takes a while to be able to eat them again. Try different foods and keep a food diary with reactions. It does get better! It's not easy, but so much worth it!

I’m 1 year out and it was the best decision of my life. Give your body time to heal and adjust things will get better. Over time food will be more tolerable and you will feel better. Hang in there you already taken the leap now fly! 🦅

My surgery was a bit more than months ago. I am pretty much back to normal eating now, though not with sugar and fat. When I was 4 weeks past surgery, I could only tolerate about 4 ounces of food. Now I'm up to almost 8 ounces, even a bit more if the foods are mostly liquids like cottage cheese and pineapple.
I was never quite as bad as you are, though. Can you tolerate Protein Drinks? In my early days they were a mainstay of my diet. Staying hydrated is also important.

Lots of us have regret the 1st month. Give it time, it will get better. You have just put your body through a major shock! Just take it easy & slow down your eating. Take one bite, wait 10-15 min then take another. In a couple of days shorten the time between bites. You’ll get there.

I've been having some mild chest pain on the right side. When I called the doc's office, they told me it's probably some retained gas, and prescribed simethicone. They said it can go on for several days, and told me if it still persisted after 5 or 6 days on the simethicone, I should call back.
BTW, you can buy simethicone over the counter. One brand name is Gas X.

Once I had my initial meeting (via video due to Covid) with the surgeon, I got all my tests, and everything else they required (which was me reading and viewing tons of videos, answering questions and passing, meeting with the dietician/psychologist/etc), done within a month. But I am also a homemaker so I had time to sit down and just get all the "homework" done online and submitted quickly.
Then when it came time to get the blood work and various other tests done, I tried to get as many done in one day as possible. Like the chest x-ray, blood work, and EKG I was able to walk in to my local out patient medical center and do it all at once. The only thing I really had to have appointments for were the psychologist, dietician, meeting the surgeon in person for the second time, cardiologist and pulmonologist. And all of those appointments were done via video within that same month. It all went quickly.
My surgery date was given to me once all that was done and while we waited to hear back from the insurance company for final approval (once all that was submitted). A week later we heard back from then and that was it.

Tik tok and pinterest are the worse [emoji1787]

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I'm still on full liquids so currently my day is usually as follows: half a Protein Shake first thing, fluids, half a greek yogurt, fluids, other half of Protein shake, 4oz strained Soup, fluids, half a greek yogurt, fluids, more soup or sugar free pudding, protein shake or Water, sometimes broth some times a sugar free popsicle. I try to hit over 40oz on regular fluids and then Protein Shakes or water get me to 64oz for the day. And I'm averaging 60-70g protein. Currently around 400 calories in a day. I'm dying to move on to purees, I would love a scrambled egg or egg salad. I like to torture myself at night watching tiktoks of other people eating delicious food 🤣

In my experience, you have to finish ALL of your pre-op stuff before they can submit it to insurance. It only took a week for mine to be approved after everything was completed.

I think a lot of that has to do with your insurance company.