Sunnyway

Thanks for this post, MiniGastricBypassDude! Us Omega-Loopers are a clear minority on the forum, so it's great to read a detailed post from someone further along the journey than I am.
I concur with your praise of the MGB - despite a run-in with ulcers and my repeated stalls due to how little I've been able to eat (both have improved immensely now), I'm still super glad I got this procedure. Everything has resolved and it's now getting easier and easier. I can get more calories in now, so the stalling has stopped and I'm losing at a good clip.
My surgeon offers Sleeve, RNY, MGB and SADI-S, but is very pro-MGB over RNY because of all you mentioned. He says it has better long-term results, though yes, our supplements are vital. I had originally wanted the Sleeve (the malabsorbtion and potential dumping had me a little wary of a bypass), but because of existing GORD, he talked me out of it and into a MGB. Glad he did, as yes, this is the right surgery for me.
I'm also ETERNALLY grateful that I've never had an emotional attachment to food, or BED. I know I'm very fortunate that my head has been in a great space for this, and I feel for folks who are having a rougher time of it.

I wanted a way to track bowel movements with Baritastic so that I can better tell when I’m ok vs constipated. I couldn’t find anything in the app so here’s my workaround. 😂

I just record it as strength training!

You can use Baritastic to track your BM by going to Daily Notes, then click on Add New. You will see 3 options to track: hunger, happiness and bowel movements. There's a place for journaling there too.

When i was about 2 months out I had a couple sips of a soju-sake (sugary alcoholic drink) thinking it was just a couple sips and it was xmas, so what’s the harm?
Anyhoo, about 10 mins later my heart started racing, and i started to feel tired. A few mins after that i got nauseated and had to poop (not the explosive, didnt make it to washroom kind, but urgent and loose nonetheless). Then i was exhausted and had to go to sleep.
Figured it was dumping.
About a month later i had 2-3 tablespoons of a VERY sugary, creamy fruit salad. This time it was like death. I had “material “ coming out BOTH ends, lol. Mr literally picked me up off the bathroom floor and carried up the stairs to put me in bed and i slept it off for a few hours.
KNEW it was dumping.
Sugar does not affect me as badly/quickly now (am 3 years out). But i still have to watch it. I can lessen the effects if i eat small amounts, ensure that i don’t eat excess sugar on am empty stomach, and try not to mix dairy and excess sugar at the same time.
Case in point: yesterday i didn’t want to eat dinner (i made stir fry noodles for the fam and I don’t really eat noodles). I did end up eating 3 sour key candies later while watching tv (yeah i know that was dumb). Anyhoo, i got the heart racing, the onset of exhaustion and a mild death feeling and ended up going to bed super early. No poop or barf issues, but still unpleasant.
P.S. Im a sleeve.

I don't believe I have ever truly dumped and I'm almost one year out. I may have had a mild episode based on symptoms, but what I ate really didn't fit the bill. That being said, I've had many episodes of eating too much/too fast/not chewing well enough. Many people confuse the two.
I don't want to have the experience in general. But when I eat out, I'm very, very careful to limit quantity and not try items for the very first time.

I don't dump (only about 30% of us do), but I'm not sure I'd push the envelope like that to find out. It's evidently pretty awful. If you're a dumper, you'll find out eventually - but I wouldn't want to purposely try to set it off.

Praying all goes well and you’re feeling good after surgery.

You're going to do great and we will be here cheering you on!

Well today Is surgery day I am very nervous and ready to get this over with I pray all goes well.
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I really hope someone can give us some tips because avoiding artificial sweeteners is a major objective as I go forward. I'm a sugar addict, too, and I suspect that my continued use of artificial sweeteners is making my recovery more difficult. So-called "natural" sweeteners like stevia and monks fruit are still heavily processed and no better than Saccharine or Aspartame.

A dietitian suggested adding a probiotic supplement and meat tenderizer (!) to my diet daily.

So again, this is a tool to use. It is not a quick fix nor is it an easy way for you to lose weight and still keep your bad eating habits. It changes your physiology to make your weight loss chances more permanent. The rest is up to you. Now this is going to sound harsh but it is on YOU to do the research about any procedure before you have it. It is on YOU to do what is required to make a procedure like this work. To proclaim it bullshit because you don't want to put in the work is not placing the responsibility where it belongs.
What are you eating? Is it fried food? Carbs? Cookies? chips? Are you getting any exercise? Because if you are still eating garbage and sitting around on the couch then, yeah, you're screwed.

After the first 5 or 6 days you are going to feel significantly better all of a sudden. Hang in there, you will start to notice it soon. Make sure you are getting up and walking to keep things moving...

You may be one of the unlucky ones like me, who did not lose their hunger after surgery - my therapist said that happens to about 20% of her patients.
I've never heard of thyroid medications increasing hunger, but talk to your doctor.
But... even if you are hungry now, once you get on solid foods, you may be less hungry.
Hang in there!

Great NSV for me today. I got some blood work back and my A1C dropped to 4.9 and Glucose to 87. This is a huge change for me. In just over 3 months I have lowered my A1C by 2 points, Glucose by 40, Improved blood pressure to 115/70 unmedicated, come off Diabetes meds, Cholesteral meds and Blood Pressure Meds. It is as close to a miracle as I have ever experienced.

I had to go shopping for a new suit yesterday...about a month ago, I bought new pants in a size 14 and they're already too big for me...yesterday I bought pants in a size 8! I've only lost about 10 lbs in the last month, but my body composition must've changed.

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Well, each type of plane is has different size seatbelts and differently sized seats. So, what fits on an A321 might not fit on a 777. In general, small planes have smaller seats and seatbelts, so those were the only ones I really needed extenders on at about 260. Now at 199.8 (!) I can fit in any seatbelt on any type of plane I've flown on since about 260 lbs. However, I haven't flown on any really small planes since I was about 250 (before I gained the last 30 lbs during the first part of the pandemic that led me to seek surgery).

I am at 35 weeks weight loss from September surgery sometimes it times to change things up to see results. Focus on Protein intake or exercise.

To break a stall you may have to heat MORE. It's counter-intuitive, but your metabolism may have gone into "starvation mode" hanging on to as much as possible.
You may still lose inches during a stall and your body will eventually catch up. To speed up the process, try increasing your daily calorie consumption to 1000-1200 for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I have bad knees, one of which was replaced but still hurts two years later. As a result, I cannot walk long distances even if I use a cane or rollator. Instead, I do aquatic exercise and use fins and a kick-board to swim laps at the local YMCA pool.
I started using the pool before I had total knee replacement in a "Hip & Knee Class" recommended by my orthopedic surgeon. I liked it so much that I continued in the class for a year after surgery. Then COVID struck and everything shut down. A year later, in April 2021, I was so discouraged by being at home all the time and not getting exercise, I called three people who had been in the "Hip & Knee" class and suggested that we return to the pool. The YMCA was not yet holding classes, but the pool was open again. We knew the routine down pat. We started going for an hour each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In September, the YMCA started offering aquatic classes again. The four of us signed up for the "Senior Stretch & Tone" aquatic class AND the "Knee & Hip" class back to back! Yikes! The class meets only on Mondays and Wednesdays, but we go on Fridays, too, so we get five hours of exercise weekly
Since the Senior Stretch and Tone class uses some of the same exercises that the original Hip & Knee class used, we started using the second hour of class to develop strength by swimming laps using kick-boards and flippers. The fins make us work harder, kicking from the hips instead of the knees, and we are getting a good aerobic workout,
By increasing the number of laps by two each time, I finally swam 1/2 mile or 18 laps last Friday. I'm going to try to increase by two more laps each time I go. I want to be able to do a mile (36 laps) by summer. I'll have to take a break after my upcoming revision surgery, but I've been told that as soon as the incisions are healed I can go back to the pool. Maybe by spring I'll have lost enough fat that I will no longer float like a beachball, and will be able to actually SWIM rather than kicking.

I struggled with giving things like that up as well. I ate sugar free jolly ranchers or other sugar free hard candy during the pre op and early post op. I’m 6months post op and if I really need something to suck on occasionally I have a sugar free cough drop. Just be carful with the sugar free candy bc some has a lot of calories per piece.

sugar free popsicles were my life saver during pre/post op. Jello also helped me as well.

When leaving the hospital you’re likely bloated from IV fluids, surgery itself and your body’s ability to adjust sometimes takes a while. Give it some time, you’ll be on track to where you need to be just make sure you keep up on your Water and Protein.

I have bad knees, one of which was replaced but still hurts two years later. As a result, I cannot walk long distances even if I use a cane or rollator. Instead, I do aquatic exercise and use fins and a kick-board to swim laps at the local YMCA pool.
I started using the pool before I had total knee replacement in a "Hip & Knee Class" recommended by my orthopedic surgeon. I liked it so much that I continued in the class for a year after surgery. Then COVID struck and everything shut down. A year later, in April 2021, I was so discouraged by being at home all the time and not getting exercise, I called three people who had been in the "Hip & Knee" class and suggested that we return to the pool. The YMCA was not yet holding classes, but the pool was open again. We knew the routine down pat. We started going for an hour each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In September, the YMCA started offering aquatic classes again. The four of us signed up for the "Senior Stretch & Tone" aquatic class AND the "Knee & Hip" class back to back! Yikes! The class meets only on Mondays and Wednesdays, but we go on Fridays, too, so we get five hours of exercise weekly
Since the Senior Stretch and Tone class uses some of the same exercises that the original Hip & Knee class used, we started using the second hour of class to develop strength by swimming laps using kick-boards and flippers. The fins make us work harder, kicking from the hips instead of the knees, and we are getting a good aerobic workout,
By increasing the number of laps by two each time, I finally swam 1/2 mile or 18 laps last Friday. I'm going to try to increase by two more laps each time I go. I want to be able to do a mile (36 laps) by summer. I'll have to take a break after my upcoming revision surgery, but I've been told that as soon as the incisions are healed I can go back to the pool. Maybe by spring I'll have lost enough fat that I will no longer float like a beachball, and will be able to actually SWIM rather than kicking.

I noticed after losing over 200 lbs that I actually SANK instead of floated! I've gained about 20 lbs back since then so I'm not a sinker anymore, but on the other hand, it takes a lot more effort to tread Water than it did when I weighed almost 400 lbs! I think swimming is the only exercise where it's actually easier to do when you're carrying around extra fat!