SpartanMaker

E komo mai @Mama_Bee! Nausea is pretty common post-surgery, at least early on. I didn't have much, but it did happen once or twice and It was 100% triggered by what I ate. Immediately post-surgery it will be important to track your hydration and food intake. If your plan gives you some sort of tracking sheet, I'd definitely recommend using it. They also typically give you a prescription nausea med like Zofran to help.

Sorry, I messed up there... Stage 3b was days 15-30, not 9-30.

Wow, that's really quick to move to pureed. Let me share the plan from my surgical team for comparison: Stage 1 -- Days 1-4: Non-carbonated Liquids only. Water, popsicles, jello, etc. Stage 2 -- Days 5-7: High protein Liquids. Add in 1 oz of a protein shake per hour. Goal was to work up to 2-3 eight oz protein shakes per day. Stage 3a -- Days 8-14: Easy Pureed foods. At this point, I was only allowed Yogurt, cottage cheese and ricotta cheese. In addition to the protein drinks, I was now allowed to add in 1-2 "meals" consisting of 1 TBSP of these foods per day. Since I focused on Greek Yogurt, this meant a max of 2 TBSP of yogurt per day. Stage 3b -- Days 9-30: Other pureed foods: Now could add in Pureed Meats, Pureed Beans, Cream Soups, Hummus, Cooked Pureed Veggies, and Eggs. Here the meals went up to 2 TBSP in size and I could have up to 3 "meals" per day. In stage 3b on a perfect day, I might have gotten to ~60 grams of protein per day, with the bulk of that still coming from protein shakes. I averaged less, especially early on since I just couldn't get that much food in me. Note that my plan didn't actually have a protein goal for the first month. It wasn't until I got to the next stage where they wanted me to get 70-90 grams of protein per day. I added all that not to say my plan was right and yours is wrong, I just wanted you to see how little protein I was getting for the first month. I think it's important to keep in mind a few things during the recovery period right after surgery: If you have to choose between hitting your hydration goals and food (including protein), hydration comes first. Introduce foods slowly. Things you loved before, or even things you think should be easy to digest may not be. As an example, I loved eggs prior to surgery and ate them all the time. I was unable to eat eggs at all for the longest time after surgery and still don't eat scrambled eggs to this day because of how bad an experience I had right after surgery. Things you never ate before may become your new favorites and things that sound good now may turn your stomach. It's weird how we all react differently to surgery. I would advise not trying to stock up on things now, expecting you'll want them after surgery. Just ask here how many people still have stuff they thought they'd want and now can't eat it. When reading your plan, keep in mind words like "up to", "max", etc. I highlighted some of those above in my plan because sometimes I think people read right over those and think of the upper end as mandatory. If they put words like these in the plan it's there for a reason. You may just not be able to reach the higher end of those ranges and that's perfectly fine. It's not like there's some sort of test and you only get an "A" if you hit the upper end. All the best.

A'ole pilikia my friend. I'm sure you'll do great! I won't lie, it can be hard the first few weeks, but it should does get better over time. Remember, you're having major surgery, so give yourself some grace. Remember to just take one day at a time and if you have problems, turn first to your surgical team, but for everything else, we're here for you.

It's hard and we all went through it, but you need to prioritize fluids. It will get easier over time. The reason fluids are important is that dehydration is one of the most common reasons people end up back in the hospital post bariatric surgery. Yes, protein is important too, but at this point, as long as you're getting some protein, you'll be fine. Protein is prioritized over carbs and fat during extreme weight loss because it can help prevent catabolization of muscle. Hitting your protein goals does help some, but it's not the huge issue some people think it is. A lot of that mentality comes from the bodybuilding world where every ounce of muscle mass counts. The reason we don't want to lose a lot of muscle is because metabolically, muscle is more active than fat. I believe the net difference is roughly 6 calories, meaning if you lose 1 pound of muscle, vs lose 1 pound of fat, you'll burn about 6 calories less per day. Keep in mind that some loss of muscle is inevitable after bariatric surgery, so don't stress over it.

I don't know if @LindsayT is still active here, so she might not reply considering how old this thread is. You might consider starting a new thread to see if there are other active members that have any input for you. Personally, I would recommend seeking out an Exercise Physiologist to assist you. Unlike PTs and OTs. an EP focuses on designing exercise programs for people managing chronic conditions that limit or impede their ability to exercise. Most large health systems have a rehab center that should employ at least a few EPs, so that's where I'd recommend starting.

I love this, though I do have to warn you that some of us as we continued to lose weight found that we ended up with less "padding" and now have "bony-butt syndrome"! In other words, unpadded chairs, benches, etc. start to become painful to sit in since we're sitting right on our ischial tuberosity. It hasn't been a focus for me so far workout-wise, but I might have to start some dedicated glute training to try to get some extra padding down there!

This 100%! Life's too short to worry about things that may never happen. I totally get it. It's perfectly normal to be concerned about the unknown, but if we focus too much on all the things that MIGHT happen, we can become paralyzed with fear. The reality is complications from bariatric surgery are rare, while the upsides like looking and feeling better are almost universal. I think that's the trick, at least for me when facing the unknown. Thinking logically about all the good outcomes vs. the possible bad outcomes and the likelihood of those things happening helps to keep me focused.

I actually never restarted drinking sodas after surgery and don't miss them at all. Same with alcohol. You do you, but I figured if I was fine without them for that long, what did I have to gain by restarting?

I'm glad you're feeling a bit better. Really all you can do is take one day at a time. Again. not trying to diagnose you, but there are some studies suggesting that there is a higher rate of autoimmune disorders among those with autism. I figure it can't hurt to at least get checked out.

Believe it or not, low blood glucose can actually be a symptom of prediabetes. Below 70 mg/dL is considered hypoglycemia and needs immediate treatment, so if you see regular readings in the 70s, that might be considered borderline hypoglycemia? There is a condition called hyperinsulinemia that happens because you become insulin resistant. The body tries to compensate for this resistance by creating even more insulin, but this can push blood sugar too low. Again, not trying to diagnose you, just throwing out things for you to consider and discuss with your doctor. I brought it up because low blood sugar (potentially caused by caused by not eating or not eating well), can cause nausea, excessive tiredness, etc. Since these are some of the same symptoms you mentioned and diabetes or prediabetes are common among obese people, I figured it's at least worth checking out. The good news is if you are diabetic or prediabetic, bariatric surgery will often put that into remission (you are never "cured" of diabetes). The bad news is that this does sometimes cause long term hypoglycemia issues and can be challenging to manage when on a severe weight loss diet. Best of luck.

Well, it makes sense that it could contribute to your nausea, but being the cause of so much nausea feels like a bit of a stretch to me? To be clear, I'm not a doctor and certainly can't diagnose you, but if I were to tally up all the conditions/syndromes you've mentioned, it would be highly suggestive of an autoimmune disorder. This might explain a lot of your seemingly unconnected ailments. Note that these can be devilishly hard to properly diagnose and it can take years to get at the truth because various autoimmune disorders can be related and can manifest in similar ways. They are also often systemic in nature, meaning they can impact seemingly unrelated parts of your body. Again, I'm no doctor and I could be way off, but I do think it's worth a discussion with a rheumatologist. All the best.

Just a thought, but some people find that different temperature fluids can help. For example, instead of ice water, have you tried something like hot tea? Might not work, but it does help some people. I was actually thinking something like Scratch labs. it's pretty clean as far as ingredients go. No fake sugar or artificial flavorings, just a nice light clean flavor. Yes it has real sugar, but that honestly might not be a bad thing for you at this point? Since you're not at particular risk of dumping, I'd think sugar shouldn't be too much of an issue, especially if you're struggling to eat. Just like everything else that's new, it might be problematic, so if you do decide to try it, start really slowly. Speaking of sugar, have you ever had your blood sugar checked? Some of the symptoms you've mentioned are really similar to diabetic/pre-diabetic symptoms. Maybe something to discuss with your surgeon? I totally get not wanting to sweat a lot if you're worried about dehydration. I went for a ~2 hour run on Sunday in 80+ temps. Believe it or not, I lost almost 8 POUNDS of sweat in those 2 hours. I know because I weighed myself before and after. When I say walking, I'm not talking about a power walk. If you're sweating a lot, you're doing it wrong. I'd just want to see you moving like you were walking around a shopping mall. Don't think of this as "exercise". You're really just trying to move your body. Speaking of shopping malls, that might not be a bad place to go to get a walk in if it's too hot outside? Again, that might not be possible for you, but sometimes it's good to just go someplace different.

Palak Paneer & something we call "Chicken with Indian Spices", The Palak is a fairly authentic indian recipe, but the chicken is mostly made up and not authentic at all. We've been making it so long I don't remember where the original recipe came from. It's supposed to have some chopped cilantro on it, but I forgot to add it after I took the time to chop it.

So sorry you're going through this! This does NOT seem normal to me at all. Yes, most of us have things early on that just don't seem to sit right in our guts. For example, I could not eat eggs in any form for the longest time. I also can relate to the mental side of things. I was probably about 3 months post surgery and had a work function where they catered lunch. I knew better, but wanted to "fit in", so I decided to just eat whatever was provided. It was sandwiches so I decided to just eat the deli turkey out of the sandwich. It made me horribly nauseated to the point I had to leave work. After that, it took me almost 2 years before I tried any sort of deli meat at all. I knew it probably wouldn't actually make me sick, but the fear that it would kept me from trying it. Anyway, my point is a few changes and food aversions is quite normal. EVERYTHING making you sick is not normal. Regarding fluid intake, lots of people have a little bit of a challenge drinking at first, but it's supposed to get easier and easier as you go. That does not sound like you're experience, though? At 5 weeks in, if you're still only getting 40-48 oz that's pretty low. You mentioned that you're working with your surgeon. I'm curious what they are telling you? Have you really told them everything you explained above? I have found a lot of people (forgive me for stereotyping a bit), especially younger people are not good at advocating for themselves. Unless you really make your doctor fully understand what's going on, they may not realize just how big of an issue this is. I would also recommend talking to your dietitian and your therapist about all this if you have not already started working with those other professionals. The dietitian should have more experience dealing with these sorts of dietary issues and may be able to help you find foods that can help. I would also agree with your assessment that at least some of your issues are mental, thus talking to your therapist would be a really good idea because they may be able to teach you some ways to overcome those issues. With all that our of the way, I wanted to maybe suggest a few things for you to try to help you eat and hydrate: Your water intake seems to be on the low side as I mentioned. I would think you really should be getting closer to 64 oz a day right now. (If your program told you a different amount, go with what they told you.) Be aware that dehydration can actually cause nausea, so could be making your issues worse. IMO, you really need to double-down on drinking, even if that means you have to change your meal schedule. Also, at 5 weeks you should be able to drink several ounces at a time, thus it really should not take hours to get in another 15-20 ounces. If it does, this is yet another thing to talk to your doctor about. You could also consider adding in an electrolyte drink to help with the dehydration, but please only do that with your doctor's blessing. Consider taking a broad spectrum probiotic. I know that then becomes one more pill to take, but I do think at least some of your digestive issues are due to an out of whack gut microbiota. If you can get your gut healthy again, it should really help. You mentioned you are not exercising. At 5 weeks, you really should not be doing any strenuous exercise anyway, but you do need to be walking. I don't know your current weight or how much you're capable of doing, but if all you can do is just 5 minutes to walk to the end of the block and back, that's what you should be doing. If you can do more than 5 minutes, great, do what you can do. I would strongly encourage you to do this outside if at all possible. There are lots of benefits mentally from that exposure to nature, so please don't just walk around the house or on a treadmill. I know this feels like just one more thing to do, but how about you take some water with you and drink some while you're walking? Believe it or not, walking can reduce stress and even improve gut health. In short, don't consider this a nice to have or somehow related to weight loss. Think of it as part of your treatment plan to get past this nausea and on the path to feeling better. Food-wise, you mentioned you're okay with yogurt, but getting burned out on it. You might try flavoring it? In other words, if you're just eating plain greek yogurt to avoid the fake sugars and other ingredients, you probably can add extracts to make whatever flavor you want. I love coconut for example, but vanilla, almond, etc. would also work well. Just check the labels carefully and make sure it doesn't have weird ingredients and that it's using natural flavorings. Fairlife Milk. This is lactose free and taste just like regular milk (at least to me). It also has a lot more protein in it than regular milk, so will be a way to boost your protein intake. Best of luck. I do hope you find solutions to your issues.

Sorry, I forgot to mention earlier. A lot of the popular protein shakes like Fairlife and Premier Protein have a pretty good amount of potassium in them. This makes sense because milk has quite a bit of potassium naturally. I assume you're drinking these since most people are early after surgery. If so, you may be getting more potassium than you think.

Interesting thought. I'm diabetic and have never had this happen, though I know it's a big issue for some people. In diabetics, both low blood sugar and high blood sugar can cause muscle cramps. As I understand it, in the case of high blood sugar, you body reacts by excreting excess blood glucose into your urine in an attempt to get blood glucose levels down. Nasty things happen if blood sugar levels stay elevated. For a number of reasons, this process of excreting excess glucose can also carry away too much water and electrolytes, leading to dehydration. In the case of low blood sugar, it's actually your muscles being starved for glucose (the primary fuel our muscles use), that causes the cramping, not dehydration. My point is that technically I don't think it's consumption of carbs per se that's causing this. It's the impact of those carbs on blood glucose. Thus if someone is diabetic and having this issue, it would be a good idea to check their blood sugar levels when this happens. If they see either high or low blood sugar, then dietary modification is likely needed and talking to a dietitian would be a good idea.

So sorry you have struggled with this for so long! It does sound like the increase in frequency was brought on by the reduced water intake and a reduction in the electrolytes. I get that it's hard right after surgery to drink much since the amount you can drink at a time is so limited. This will get better over time, so I'd definitely try to eventually get back to at least 100-120 oz a day. FYI, you might not need to go all the way back to 150 oz in the long term. This is because your overall water needs, just like caloric needs will drop as your body becomes smaller. That multivitamin you linked has 150 mcg of Iodide (as Potassium Iodide). It's honestly not very much potassium, but it's in there. It sounds like your doctor is more worried about magnesium anyway, so I wouldn't sweat (lol), the potassium content unless they tell you it's an issue, especially since you're going to be adding an electrolyte powder. Speaking of electrolytes, I'm glad you found a decent electrolyte mix. The better ones should absolutely have sodium, potassium & magnesium, and typically will have at least some glucose as well. This is because glucose will also help your body absorb the electrolytes (primarily the sodium). I get it that as close to surgery as you are, you may want to skip the glucose, so a sugar free brand like LMNT is a good choice. The important thing is to look for one that's free of artificial stuff like flavors or sweeteners because a lot of these ingredients can bother sensitive post-surgery tummies. Another tip, don't start using these full strength. That may bother your stomach as well. I'd say half strength is probably a good place to start. You can up that over time if it doesn't cause any stomach upset and you feel you need more electrolytes. Just keep in mind that really high doses of electrolytes may cause other issues like edema or heart palpitations, and can even cause a lot of the same symptoms as low electrolyte levels like muscle spasms. Look up Hypernatremia vs. Hyponatremia if you want to know more. If anyone cares, my favorites (caution, they have glucose in them), are Tailwind Endurance Fuel and Scratch Labs Hydration Sport Drink Mix. Nothing artificial in them and they have worked well for me for quite awhile. I do occasionally use other brands for various reasons, thus I have an entire cabinet full of electrolyte drink mixes right now.

Looks awesome! I'll definitely check this one out. Not my favorite, but my wife loves lamb. Thanks for sharing.

Well, I guess the OP isn't coming back. 🙁 If any of the rest of you are thinking about trying something like this, I'd encourage you to read up on what dopamine is and isn't. It's not a drug or a chemical that you can diet, detox, or fast your way past, regardless of what the social media influencers may have told you. You can't make it go away and no amount of deprivation is going to lessen your bodies ability to produce it on demand. In fact, contrary to popular belief, dopamine isn't a even the "pleasure" hormone it's portrayed to be. It has a number of functions in the body, but one of it's key uses is as a neurotransmitter (think of it like a messenger from one brain cell to another). Dopamine job as a neurotransmitter is in reinforcing reward-seeking behavior. Said differently, dopamine does not actually "cause" any pleasurable sensations, it simply triggers the brain when we do have pleasurable sensations to remember those and reward the behavior that caused the pleasure. You can think of it like a feedback mechanism. If you do something pleasurable, dopamine kicks in and says: "hey, we liked that, let's remember what caused it." Dopamine is easily manufactured in your body, so as I said, trying to remove pleasurable stimuli in the hope that this will keep you from seeking these reward behaviors in the future just won't work. Plus, once that reward mechanism is triggered, removing the stimuli after the fact makes no difference. Your brain still remembers the pleasurable sensation. If you have concerns about unhealthy behaviors such as late night snacking, the best plan is always going to be talking to a mental health professional. Through counseling and some techniques they can teach you, there are ways past these behaviors. If counseling isn't in the cards right now, I'd also recommend seeking out a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book can teach you to trade out bad habits for good ones. If sleep is a concern, we do have a pretty good idea of things you can do to improve the quality of sleep. As I mentioned, sleep is absolutely critical to weight loss and franky to just staying healthy. If you're looking for tips on improving sleep, I recommend Googling "sleep hygiene". There's a wealth of information out there. Finally, I want to close by mentioning that late night eating is not necessarily bad and is not actually a cause of poor sleep. it depends more on what you eat, but multiple studies have shown that going to be hungry may be WORSE for sleep than eating before bed. It all comes down to what you eat and how close to bedtime you eat it. This is another one of those "common knowledge" things that's just wrong.

Ouch! Live and learn.

So glad to know you did talk to your surgeon! One of the reasons people responded to your post the way we did is because we see way too many people on this board who ask people here for advise when they have a medical issue after surgery. The reality is even if someone here had a similar issue, that does not mean you are having the same issue. While most people here are really grateful they had bariatric surgery, the risks of complications can be high. We're not doctor's here and we just want people to be safe. As to your multivitamin, It's likely there is potassium in it, since almost all of them I've seen have potassium iodide as an ingredient. If yours does not, then it might be a good idea to switch to one that does have that in it. Just because it's combined with iodide, does not mean that the potassium is not bioavailable. Certainly follow your doctor's advice regarding your hydration and magnesium supplementation needs. I did want to point out that 70 oz of water per day sounds a bit low to me, especially since you live at altitude. All patients at my bariatric clinic are told to try to hit 100 oz and we're down on the plains at roughly 1000 ft. I also wanted to mention that magnesium is a common sleep aid, so while the effects of a lotion may be different for you, higher doses of magnesium might make you sleepy, so are typically best taken later in the evening. I agree with @Arabesque that an electrolyte drink might not be a bad idea. I started taking one pretty early after surgery and still use them quite a bit now that my exercise routine is quite strenuous. Just keep in mind, the point in your case is to help you retain water, not really replace lost electrolytes. This means your sodium levels will rise above normal and if you're not used to them, they can cause some weight retention. (It's just water, which is what you want.) If it freaks you out because the scale stops moving for a while, keep this in mind. I should also caution you that if you have edema, upping your sodium intake might not be a good idea, so it would be best to check with your doctor first. Best of luck! I hope you get it figured out.

Agreed. It's always best to talk to a health professional whenever your health is involved. It's never a good idea to self-diagnose issues, even if it's something you've had going on before. Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) is potentially life threatening, so not worth taking a risk. While the risk for DVT is highest in the first few days after surgery, it can happen even weeks or months later. If it's not DVT, I do find it odd that you seem to struggle so much with dehydration and think you really need to double-down on drinking more water and not so much on supplements. Hopefully you're taking a bariatric multivitamin as recommended by your doctor? These typically already have potassium and magnesium, so it seems unlikely to me that you'd need additional supplementation of these particular electrolytes. (I assume that was the rationale for eating bananas and avocados). Sometimes people that sweat a lot exercising can actually lose too much sodium and cause an electrolyte imbalance since sodium is the primary electrolyte in your sweat. I suspect if you're only 3 weeks out, this is also unlikely.

I'm not entirely sure if this is a win, but let me give you a little bit of my backstory first. Thanks to a work accident many years ago, I have multiple herniated discs in my lumbar spine that sometimes cause a lot of sciatica. When this was at its worst, I had to use a walker just to get around the house because I had no motor control over my right leg. To be honest, this is one of the things that actually led to me becoming obese. I wasn't able to workout (I could hardly move), and was in a lot of pain, so I self-medicated with food and alcohol. The pain isn't completely gone now, but after losing all this weight, it's so much better than it used to be. Fast forward to this week. I spent basically 4 days (Saturday-Tuesday), trapped in a zoom class and this inactivity took its toll on my back. I'd been in a lot of pain and hadn't worked out at all since taking a short run Monday. Wednesday and Thursday I didn't get the walker out, but i did seriously think about it. Today the pain was still about a four or five on a ten point scale, but at least it wasn't radiating down my leg much. I really struggled with trying to determine if I just needed to man up, or if it was stupid to try to workout, knowing that I might make it worse. I finally decided I just needed to try to run, since I knew that once the endorphins and endocannabinoids kicked in, I'd probably be fine. Plus, the movement should actually help loosen things up in my spine and help me heal. It took a bit for me to work up to going for it, but I did finally go run this morning. (The bad thing was that the delay meant I was running in the heat.) To be honest, the run really sucked for the first mile or two. Thankfully, once I made it to about 4 miles, the pain was mostly gone and I was able to complete the 9 miles I had planned. I'm still thinking I'm going to have to skip my strength training tomorrow (I'll probably log a few running miles instead), but at least I got out there. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that completing the run wasn't actually a win. The win was that I didn't let this pain become the start of a spiral down to a place I never want to go to again. I personally think the most important thing is not actually the highs, though those are great. It's not succumbing to the lows and letting yourself fall back into those old destructive habits. I wanted to throw this out there because i know I post a lot here and I suspect some of you might think I've got it all together since I'm normally the one giving advice to others. That's just not true. Like everyone, I have my own demons that I have to deal with and this back pain is just one of those.

Wow, you are all doing fantastic and I love that you're feeling good about your new bodies! (Especially those of you rocking a form fitting dress or bikini, that's effing awesome!) For me as an older guy, I don't really have a style, unless you consider athletic clothing a "style". Yes I know athleisure is a style, but I think of that as more for women? When guys wear workout clothing, it's just what we happen to be wearing at the time. I guess what I'm saying is I didn't explore new "styles" as much as I had a blast buying types of clothing I never would have worn at my heaviest. My point is even style challenged people like me can have fun dressing in ways that we never would have considered before.