SarahByNumbers

I attended a concert last week that was basically standing room only. In the past, I would have been DYING standing for 4 hours, but now apparently I can do it! My feet were a little grumpy with me, and I was a little sore the next day (over 40 here, lol!) but this is leaps and bounds better than it was in the past. Looking forward to seeing how I handle a 3-day music festival coming up this summer!

It's always good to ask stuff like this, because I guarantee there is someone else out there with the same question who is too shy to ask! 😂 Personally, I haven't had any issues post-op. It's entirely possible that it's something in your partner's diet that's making things taste off/funky to you, or just an "off" stomach week for you. Hopefully it resolves, otherwise SleeveToBypass2023's suggestion works! Good luck!

Someone's gotta tell my PA this! lol Thank you for the encouragement - this situation was at least a good motivator for me to re-evaluate what I'm eating (I was getting a little lax with keeping some of the less nutritious things outta my mouth), so if anything, my worries have put me back on track to sustain this lifestyle change longer term.

I absolutely had this, right around 4 weeks post-op from VSG. With laparoscopic VSG, there's one larger incision where they remove the stomach remnant (usually on the right side), and I know my surgeon said there's generally an internal stitch there that will dissolve over time (or pop, if you put too much pressure on it). In my case, I bent over pretty far to pick something up and felt a POP and a little pain, then it was fine. I noticed right after that my previously puckered-looking incision was now flat, so I was fairly certain it was the internal stitch popping. I asked the team about it, and they said that's exactly what it sounded like, palpated the area a bit, and had no concerns. Now, I'm not sure how this relates to RNY, but it's possible you also had an internal stitch that just finally let go. No pain following the pop is good. At 4 weeks out, your incisions should be starting to heal up pretty nicely, but it's definitely best to check with your team juuuuuust in case! Good luck!

Hi Carrielee - welcome! I had VSG surgery just about a week before my 40th birthday this past November. I had sworn in the years leading up to it that I would NEVER have any kind of WLS, but here I am! If I could have done it on my own, I would have - I needed help to improve my life, because nothing I tried on my own was working, and I tried it all. I had sleep apnea, insulin resistance, and bp that bounced back and forth between hypertensive and high-normal. I felt like I was going to die after climbing up a flight of stairs, and I was passing up good opportunities at my job because I didn't want to walk 5-10 minutes to another building and get all sweaty. I had never had surgery of any kind before (other than getting my wisdom teeth out, but it's not like I was intubated for that), so the thought of getting put under and having my innards poked at was rather intimidating. I would do it over again in a heartbeat. Like @catwoman7 said, I'd do it every year if I had to! I never needed to use my prescription pain meds post-op. I actually take the "long way" to my car at the end of my workdays now. My husband and I routinely walk to the front of our neighborhood and back, whereas previously, I hated just walking the 0.10 mile to our mailbox. My blood pressure has actually been almost LOW ever since waking up from surgery, my IBS-D has essentially disappeared (and I had days where I couldn't be too far from a restroom before), and I'm a little less sweaty. My knees feel INFINITELY better, and they're a little less noisy when I bend down. Now, you do have some health conditions that could make any surgery a little more risky (fatty liver, history of PE especially), but your doctor will review your history and will probably have you do quite a few tests and things to make sure it's safe for you to have surgery. I had some weird, random heart palpitations for darn near 20 years that were dismissed as "nothing major", but my doctor insisted that I do a 48-hour Holter monitor just to be sure. When that didn't show anything, they had me do a monitor for a whole month! They actually figured out the cause (occasional premature atrial contractions, or PACs, which apparently darn near everybody has at some point - some of us just feel them more than others), and cleared me for surgery. Ask your surgeon all the questions you can think of. I watched YouTube videos for months leading up to my surgery just to see what others' experiences were. I crawled through this forum extensively. I read the binder my program gave me over and over and over. I started following tons of WLS accounts on Insta. Do whatever you need to do to ease your mind a bit, and know that there is a large community to back you up! Trust your gut and go with what you know you need to do, be that surgery or something else. No matter what you choose, we'll be here for you.

Yeah, I honestly think that for a lot of us, keto or modified keto (at least in the beginning months or maybe even the first year) is the way to go. I know my program wants us to have a sustainable approach and incorporate all foods, but my body seems to love to hold on to carbs, and I want to get as far as I can in this first year before things REALLY slow down. Thanks for your input!!

Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner! You are correct - I went through UW Health, and their program is still very much focused on balanced meals and not restricting. They give amounts to have at each meal (e.g., 1/2 cup), but I always thought this was a little wonky because a 1/2 cup of beans is way different than a 1/2 cup of sugar. I had to BEG my Dietitian to give me some sort of maximum macros for a day, and some of those ended up being way higher than I'm comfortable with (150g carbs per day), so I'm just kind of going with what makes sense to me...hitting ~80g protein and at least 64oz of fluids, and then loosely monitoring carbs and calories. I'm going to get back to tracking every day, just so I can be sure it's not what I'm putting in my mouth that's slowing me down!

When I finally convinced my Dietitian to give me some sort of macros to follow, they actually said "150g per day" for carbs! I thought that sounded WAY too high, and even 100g seems like a lot to me. I've done keto before (and that was the only way I lost any weight at all, prior to VSG), so it's not too difficult for me to cut back there. Thank you for weighing in - I really appreciate it! :)

Meowdy, friends! 😸 I had VSG on 11/22/23 (the day before Thanksgiving here in the USA 😂, almost 5 months ago), and I have not been a very fast loser. While some people may have dropped 20 lbs in each of the first two months post-op, I'm just at almost 40 lbs down since surgery. My Physician's Assistant (we don't meet with the surgeon at all post-op in our program) said I'm definitely a "slow loser" and am about 12 lbs higher than they'd expect me to be right now. Anyone else out there only losing about 1-2 lbs per week? Anyone who was in this situation and managed to kick things up a notch? And also, anyone who was a slow loser who eventually met their weight loss goal? I've always been awesome at getting in my water, protein, and vitamins each day. My program pretty much refuses to give us macro goals other than protein, but I know I'm generally under 100g of carbs daily (sometimes much less). Protein, I'm usually at 80g+. Calories, I float around 1000 per day. Water, I get a MINIMUM of 64oz. I took a week off of exercising (elliptical and weights) when I was sick with a cold, and I actually lost the most in that week, so I laid off the exercise for a bit, worried it was slowing me down. I'm going to start back up on it, just because it's a good habit to get back into. When I do the elliptical, it's usually pretty vigorous for 30 minutes, sweating profusely and burning ~400-500 calories. I put on some very loud heavy metal and take out all my frustrations on the machine 😅 I'm worried I'm going to be stuck at this weight and that I'm "wasting" this tool and opportunity, or that maybe I chose the wrong surgery. Granted, my current weight is way better than where I was before starting the pre-op diet, and my mobility and endurance are IMMENSELY better, and my IBS-D has basically disappeared (THANK THE LORDT), but it's still not where I'd like to end up. The PA told me that sleeve patients can lose for at least 18 months post-op, so hopefully it's just a slow-but-steady race for me. I guess I could just use some encouragement or advice or anecdotes from others who were slow but successful, or if someone sees something glaringly "wrong" with what I'm doing.

Yay!!! 🤩 I am so proud of you for how far you've come! You've worked hard to get here, and you've earned it! Also, your hair is *chef's kiss* 😙👌

Log in, click your username up at the top of the screen, click "Profile", and then click "Edit Profile" (for me, it shows up in the box toward the very top, right under the green banner selling things. lol) Hope that helps!

Hi Star! I had a similar issue (minus the spotting beforehand). I have a hormonal IUD (Mirena), so I don't tend to get more than a tiny amount of spotting at most every month. Usually I don't get anything at all! However, after surgery, I had what was basically a "regular" period - my first one in YEARS. Surgery stresses your body out, so it's normal for AFAB people with uteruses to bleed afterwards. Since then, I've had a light period every month. Like Summerseeker said, fat cells harbor estrogen, and we're dropping fat quickly, which basically frees that estrogen and causes our hormones to go wild and have a party! So, don't worry too much - your experience is pretty common. ❤️

Hey there! I have a WLS Instagram account, but I set it on Private (so I have to approve any follows and only followers can see what I post), set my profile pic as something random (not my face), and I've clearly stated on my profile that I only accept other WLS accounts as followers, just to keep it all semi-private. I still get a bunch of weird bots (and fake Keanu Reeves?? 😂) requesting to follow me, so I just run through and delete their requests every few days. There are a LOT of different hashtags you can use to find other WLS accounts to follow - just use words like "bariatric", "sleeve", "rny", "bypass", etc. and they should all show up. There's a pretty decent community over there, so even if you choose to never post anything, it's nice to see all the support and read others' stories! I don't post much either (I always figure I don't have much interesting to say).

I'm on Day 8 of 14 for my liquid pre-op diet, and honestly for me, it hasn't been all that bad! I didn't get "keto flu" or any of that, possibly because I've done keto diets before and knew to keep up with electrolytes. The only crummy part is when I can SMELL tasty things. I'm fine if I can see them, I'm fine sitting next to people chowing down, I'm fine watching YouTube cooking shows even, but if I walk past someone's office and smell something delicious, THEN I really miss food 😅 I'm starting to make myself anxious by reading about post-op infections (it feels like the only people I've read about getting them on my program's Facebook group are those who have the same surgeon as me...), "How will my cats EVER forgive me for not being able to sleep with me the night before surgery?!", "WHAT IF I CAN'T WIPE MY BUTT AFTER SURGERY AND MY HUSBAND HAS TO DO IT?!", etc. etc. etc. 😂 I think the big key is to always remember your "why" - Personally, I'm not just doing this to lose weight. I'm doing this because I have a family history of a number of different cancers whose risk is greatly increased with obesity (and I had a precancerous colon polyp removed earlier this year...I'm not even 40 yet). My "why" is that I want to be here a lot longer and be healthy and be able to enjoy that time doing fun, active things and not overheating and sweating my arse off while I'm at it. Today's my last day working in-office prior to surgery next Wednesday, and I'm really thankful for that. All my good savory liquids are at home! I hope everyone is doing fantastic and healing well, or having an easy time with their pre-op regimens! 💜

Contact your new insurance and see if they will allow you to continue with the same provider regardless of whether they are "in-network" or not, since you've already started a program with them at another covered location. I've been able to do that before - it just depends on your insurance!