kukuiokalani

i reached the 200s today! :D this morning the scale said 299.6 and i cried xD

This week has been a game changer! ? I am finally able to get my protein and food in without throwing up! I've also found a high-protein drink I can finally stand! It's a Vanilla Premier Protein (I got a big box of them from Costco) heated up in the microwave for 90 seconds, then I mix in 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder (just the chocolate, no sugar), and a shake of cayenne. It's delicious, warm for the colder season, and a very easy way to get in 32 g of protein, 10 g carbs. ? Hydration-wise, I have found that the mango peach Crystal Light is my favorite and is the easiest for me to drink water without getting sick of it. I hope you all are thriving! ?

i am three days away from my 2 month gastric bypass post-op and oh boy has it been a journey! 9/7 - laparoscopic gastric bypass (general anesthesia; overnight in hospital) 9/15 - began vomiting and couldn't progress eating 10/4 - endoscopy (general anesthesia) 10/12 - laparoscopic surgery to revise scar tissue build up (general anesthesia; overnight in hospital) 10/17 - occasional vomiting again 10/27 - upper GI to look for strictures or blockages 11/1 - endoscopy #2; balloon used to open up stricture (general anesthesia) 11/2 - CT scan to make sure all is good to go as of today, it looks like i'm finally in the clear and should be able move my food progression forward to soft foods.

Hi all, I am writing this for the >1% of gastric bypass patients who have the unusual complications that I had and, like me, couldn't find any information about it online to ease your mind. I had my gastric bypass surgery on September 7, 2022. I chose gastric bypass over the gastric sleeve specifically after months of research because of the higher rate of successful weight loss, particularly in women. My first week post-op went great, but after day 8 or 9 when I tried progressing my food intake from full-liquids to pureed foods I began vomiting and feeling really nauseous at every meal. I let my surgeon and dietitian know immediately and stepped my food intake back down to full-liquids. Pretty soon, I couldn't even take in full-liquids and was limited to hydrating fluids and chicken broth. I could keep down hydrating fluids and broth about 80% of the time, full-liquids 50% of the time, and everything else came back up. My surgeon was very responsive and had me get an endoscopy. Under general anesthesia, the endoscopy explored my new stomach pouch and roux limb connections that make up my new tummy system. Typically, gastric bypasses can result in constriction of the connection between the stomach pouch and roux limb, and my gastroenterologist was prepared to use a balloon to inflate the area to ease that restriction. In my case, however, that area looked fine, but further down the roux limb there was a stricture that was almost impassable for the narrow scope. This is what was causing my problem. I had an external compression on my roux limb that was making it impossible for anything more viscous than water to pass through. My layman's understanding of what had happened is that my surgeon brought my small intestine / roux limb up to meet my new stomach pouch through the transverse mesocolon. This involved cutting a hole through the transverse mesocolon to put the roux limb through and then stitching it up a little on either side to make sure nothing else will slip through the hole and cause a hernia. Apparently, this is typically sufficient and there is space enough in the hole in the mesocolon for scar tissue to form but still allow the roux limb to operate appropriately. Not in my case! xD My body and over-active immune system saw a hole and decided that hole must. be. fixed! The scar tissue that formed to close the hole closed tight enough on the roux limb and it was tight enough that barely anything could get through. I had a second laparoscopic surgery on October 12, 2022 to remove the scar tissue and loosen the compression on the roux limb. My surgeon decided to remove the small stitches on either side of the hole in the transverse mesocolon to reduce the chance that any new scar tissue will close the hole up as completely again. Immediately after this second laparoscopic surgery, I felt tons better! I stayed overnight in the hospital and was put straight on full-liquids, which I was barely tolerating before! The reason I am writing all of this out is because, in the month-long interim between surgeries, I couldn't find anything in my online research to figure out what was wrong, or what I could try, or what the next steps looked like, or how long, or why this was happening. I went for more than a month on little to no substantial nutrition, and I found so little information on what to expect or how long I would have to live like this. I even looked in these forums to see if anyone had asked about symptoms that are similar to mine and I didn't find very much information. So, I'm writing about my experience and using as many of the keywords I can think of that I've been searching for over the past two months! So! If you had gastric bypass and you start experiencing nausea and vomiting after what seems like typical food progression, please speak to your surgeon. It could be an internal stricture of the roux limb or the connecting bits, or in my case an external compression of some sort. From the very few resources I could find online, my type of external compression of transverse mesocolon on the roux limb seemed to occur in 0.9% of gastric bypass patients and it seems to happen within the first month. My surgeon pretty much immediately knew what was wrong, and her PA said she had seen it before, but not often, and it was new for my insurance caseworker. The inability to eat made it very difficult to complete normal daily tasks like my job, housework, walking the dog, etc. I wasn't in pain, I just couldn't get enough energy to do anything! My doctors moved quickly to get me back in for surgery, but it still took 4-5 weeks from starting to vomit at each meal to waking up from my second surgery feeling much better. I am so thankful that my surgeon was able to fix what was wrong with the scar tissue compressing around the roux limb; it made a world of difference! I'm not out of the woods quite yet, however. Six days after the surgery to repair the hole in the transverse mesocolon, I had a bad food day and nothing stayed down. I immediately reached out to my surgeon's office and today went in for an upper GI in which I intake contrast dye while a doctor observes how it flows through my new gastrointestinal system with an X-ray. That doctor said it looks like the connection between my stomach pouch and roux limb looks stenosed now. I am grateful that they found something and that there is an explanation for why everything I put in my mouth makes me nauseous and that there's a reason why I don't want to eat anything. I will be having another endoscopy in the following couple of weeks and, as ever, I am hopeful that this will be the last surgery that I need for my gastric bypass.

update re my rny post-op endoscopy: so the goal was for the endoscopy surgeon to send a scope into my new tummy pouch and widen the passageways if they were too tight. good news: my tummy pouch was fine. bad news: i have about 2 cm of very severe narrowing along the roux limb about ten cm below my stomach pouch. basically only clear liquids can get through. the doctor said it looks like my large intestine is severely squishing the connection from of small intestine that moved up to join with my stomach pouch. i don’t know what the next steps are yet. i am supposed to follow up with my bariatric surgeon and i sent her a portal message this afternoon when i recovered from anesthesia to schedule a follow up. i am happy to know that i haven’t been doing anything wrong or progressing my foods too quickly, etc. i’m very hopeful that this will be a safe fix. i imagine i might need another laparoscopic surgery to move or reposition my guts, but i have no idea. o.O

hello september friends! i had my gastric bypass on 9/7 and my food progression isn’t entirely going to plan. i was supposed to move on to puréed but my new stomach was rejecting it so i tried backing up to full liquids again, and now THAT’S being rejected. i have an appointment next monday for an endoscopy to see if there’s something wrong or if they need to adjust my stomach pouch or widen my new stomach connection. apparently this can be a pretty common and my surgeon said once you start vomiting it steps your stomach healing back a couple steps. i am endlessly happy for my surgery and i knew this was an anticipated hurdle. thank gods for the six months to prepare for my life post-op.

Hello September surgery friends! I had my rny surgery on 9/7. It's nice to meet all of you and I hope your surgeries have gone / are going to go well! ?

Nice to meet you! I felt surprisingly mild/good after surgery! I was in quite a bit of pain when I went home - especially that leftmost incision. ? I'm a week out from surgery tomorrow and I'm feeling a lot better. ? I think I made the right decision to have rny bariatric surgery!

Hello! I had my rny surgery last Wednesday, 9/7, in Seattle. I live in the Issaquah / Preston area and I'm still getting used to my new stomach pouch and pain management. :) Kukui