BlackBerryJuice

I don't know what the dose of B12 you're taking is, but I take mine daily (1000 mg, on top of the small amount in my multi). Your stomach produces something called intrinsic factor, without which it is impossible to absorb B12. You have to take a lot of supplemental B12 post-op to make up for the sharp drop in the amount of intrinsic factor produced. If your B12 is low, you could end up anemic. I've also heard we often need a zinc supplement, and that zinc deficiency may worsen hair loss post-op, but I haven't gotten around to getting a zinc supplement yet. I take Multi Iron B12 Biotin

Have you told your surgeon how you are feeling? If not - or if you have, and he hasn't done much to address is - I think you should describe your feelings to him. I feel that you'd benefit from professional help right now. Ideally, a nurse who's experienced with post-op psychiatric care; if not, I think a counselor who has experience with people who've suffered assault may be helpful (as it seems you essentially feel that you were, in a way, assaulted by having this surgery done on you against your consent). I think you need some guidance in how to address these feelings of being violated and feeling out of control. I have no experience in this area, so all I can do is just suggest you seek out these resources. I think it's great that you still have a cordial relationship with your surgeon, so you should try and use that to your advantage to get referrals for some mental health support to help you process your experience.

I'm down 4 lbs after the 3-day road-trip this long weekend....just as I expected!

How often are you going? Some diarrhea is normal until you transition to solid foods (liquids in, liquids out!). I think the priority right now would be lots of fluids to make sure you don't become dehydrated.

My doc said, no drugs 2 weeks pre-surgery. I would also stay away from it as long as possible post-surgery, as it has unwelcome physical effects such as rapid heartbeat (you don't wanna pass out) or munchies (which, combined with impaired judgment, could lead you to eat something harmful for your new sleeve). I enjoy some substances, but I've made the decision to postpone it all to minimum 3 months post-surgery.

I'm about one month out. While I definitely don't regret it at this point, it certainly comes with challenges. Now that I'm on to regular foods, there's a lot of trial and error. There are some foods that I can't tolerate for some bizarre reason, yet others that you'd think might be risky go down great. E.g. I was in terrible pain after having a forkful of baked salmon and mashed potatoes, but a sushi roll with tempura in it went down smoothly. If anything, I expected it to be the other way around. Right now, it's making it challenging to eat in restaurants, as I never know when the tiniest piece of food will cause me a lot of discomfort and make me head to the washroom where I'm gonna proceed to productive-burp for 10 minutes. However, one thing I noticed is that I CAN eat more now. I was rather worried about dehydration and malnutrition right after I had the surgery, but right now it's a lot less of a concern. I guess we'll see what my 3-month bloodwork looks like, I'm a bit worried about developing issues like pernicious anemia.

Hmmm, interesting. I thought it was usually associated with diarrhea and stuff. I find that this has no rhyme or reason...like I said, yesterday I had a really bad experience with a tiny bit of salmon and mashed potatoes, but today I had 1 piece of sushi and 2.5 pieces of fish from sushi AND some Soup (with a bit of boiled chicken in it) for dinner and felt completely fine. :confused1: EDIT: I don't know, I don't have a lot of the symptoms that are mentioned. And it's not necessarily linked to food, either. Some of the stuff fits, but more stuff doesn't....

I've been having the same problem in the last week or so, see my newest thread in this subforum.

Ok, I'm starting to get sick (ha!) of this...it seems I have this mild nausea and discomfort in my stomach probably 3/4 of my waking hours. It's not bad enough to prevent me from, say, going to school, but it's almost always there. Eating is a chore, as well - a lot of times I feel nausea and discomfort when food goes down. Had a tiny bite of salmon and mashed potatoes yesterday and was doubled over with pain and nausea for 5 mins. I'm getting an Upper GI in 2 weeks, but until then I just have to deal with it, so I was wondering if anyone has experienced the same problems and has an idea of what it might be.

I like drinking a yummy tea (like the Arizona Honey & Ginseng or Chai) with milk and splenda or agave nectar - depending on what my calories for the day are.

I haven't lost anything in a week - but normally, it would've taken me 2 months (if not more) to drop 18 lbs, so I'm not complaining. Plus my only exercise is swimming 400-500 m about twice a week; before, I would've had to spend like 5-7 hours a week working out. When I think about it, my weightloss was always in spurts before the surgery, as well. I'd drop a few pounds quite quickly, then nothing would happen for 2-3 weeks, then I'd suddenly drop several pounds in 2-3 days. So it's about the same, except for I'm not nearly as frustrated as I would be before the surgery, when I'd be hungry and exhausted all the time from not eating enough and working out like a maniac. It will happen, next thing you know, you'll lose like 8 pounds next week.

BTW, this reminded me of a story my surgeon's coordinator told me. They had a patient who decided to head to the mall before he was discharged. I think she told me it was the next day after the surgery, but I'm not sure - my surgeon discharges after 3 days, so it was sometime between 1 and 3 days post-surgery. When at the mall, he indulged in a hamburger (!). Not surprisingly, his stomach actually burst and everything leaked into his peritoneum, necessitating emergency surgery, or else he would have died from peritonitis and then sepsis probably within 24 hours.

Yikes! I'd stick to the diet for as long as you can. If you are viciously hungry, see if your surgeon OKs you for pureed/soft foods. I'd also stay away from unhealthy stuff, if you can. You don't have very much room in your stomach and you should maximize it to eat stuff that will help you heal. I don't know if fish sticks are fried, but deep-fried foods can sit in your stomach for an entire day, stressing it out. One way I thought about it was by looking at my incisions and imagining the same thing around my staple line. Of course, I wouldn't "test" my incisions by having someone punch me in the stomach or poke the scab with scissors or something, and similarly, I wouldn't test the internal wounds on my stomach with coarse foods.

I had surgery on a Monday, as well, and my first BM was Friday morning. Stay put, lol. P.S. Word of warning - while my first BM was mostly solid (remnants of my "last supper" pre-surgery), several of the subsequent ones were VERY liquid and VERY sudden. We're talking, I was glad I live in a small apartment and not a 2-story house...

Are you a binge eater? I used to binge before the surgery, and my counselor recommended "Overcoming Binge Eating" by Christopher Fairburn. It's an older book, but it's very scientifically based and is considered to be the gold standard.

I agree. My father loves it. I don't think I've ever even tried it, because I find the look and texture of it repulsive, as well as the thought of cold congealed beef fat. I do enjoy beef or lamb bone marrow, but it has to be hot. It's insanely bad for you, so I only have it a few times a year.

So, pre-op I considered myself to be a major emotional eater. I'm now 3.5 weeks out and *knock on wood* have had zero desire to overeat in reaction to any sort of emotional stimuli. Before the surgery, overeating or binging was my normal response to being either happy or upset. I even signed up for counselling for my emotional eating after the surgery, and when I went for my 2nd appointment on Monday, I had nothing to talk about when it came to food. Which makes me wonder, how much of this "emotional eating" is actually based in your physiology? Maybe it's just that the yo-yo dieting made me extremely hungry and the severe hunger was just harder to resist under emotional stress, which led me to binge? It's just bizarre, I was so worried that I'd binge post-surgery and hurt my stomach, but it's like I was cured with a magic wand (again, *knock on wood*). Can anyone else share their experience with emotional eating before vs. after surgery? I'm looking to gather some individual experiences and, based on the anecdotal findings, maybe relay this information to our local obesity expert and an eating disorder specialist I know to see if either of them wants to conduct an actual medical study about this issue. Maybe therapy is NOT the way to deal with this at all.

I don't see why you can't walk on the treadmill, just take it easy, don't start at 3.5 mph right away. But why do it indoors, try to enjoy the weather while you can! My surgeon said you can also start swimming around 2 weeks post-op, once the scabs have all fallen off and the wounds are closed. I find that I don't have the endurance I used to, and I need to bring something to drink with calories in it (juice or Protein shake) in between laps, otherwise my blood sugar drops after like 10-15 minutes. Otherwise, I enjoy swimming 300-400 meters at this point. I think we get cleared for strenuous exercise at 6 weeks, which works well for me, as I signed up for 2 dance classes to start just then. I think I'll start with some easy stuff, like stretching and yoga, next week, once I'm 4 weeks out, but no weightlifting til 6.

LOL, what are you gonna do with it? Keep it in your freezer then throw away when it's covered in freezer burn? I originally wanted to see it after the surgery, but forgot to ask for it in the whirlwind before the operation (I went first and they literally took me into the OR minutes after Dr. Aceves gave us a talk about our post-op lifestyle). In reality, they'll put it in formaldehyde or whatever other Fluid they use for preservation and send it to pathology, where it will be dissected and inspected microscopically. The best you'll get is probably a bunch of weird brown chunks.

I always thought of WLS as a bit bizarre until I heard some lectures on obesity in medical school and the expert (physician, not surgeon) who lectured to us told us that only 2% of obese people can lose the excess weight and keep it off for 5 years. He also told us that he believed WLS to be the ONLY treatment for obesity for the remaining 98%. After doing more research into the physiology of obesity, it suddenly made sense that surgical treatment was the way to go. Of course, surgery is a big thing, it's irreversible, and I really wish we could just pop a pill instead, but it's not an option now. Maybe one day there'll be a pill to suppress ghrelin, but probably not until we reach retirement age.

Hey, thanks! I can't get my imaging til 2.5 weeks from now. Dr. Aceves foolishly thought I could get it done the same day...welcome to Canada, lol. I'd definitely just go to Mexico if I were closer.

Thanks....the most frustrating thing for me was that I felt that she didn't give a rip about the fact that I wasn't feeling well. I felt no concern coming from her whatsoever. I shared this with a friend who said she also saw her for something a while ago and got this really uncalled-for 20-min contraception lecture after she told the doctor she needed birth control pills to control her PCOS - even though she emphatically said it was not for birth control purposes. Sounds like this doctor exhibits a certain pattern of behaviour, so I'm glad I filed a complaint about her.

I only brought $60 with me for food, tips, etc. The cost of the hotel is included. You will only have one meal, we went all out (appetizer, entree, one drink, and dessert), and I think it cost us each about $25 at this Mexican restaurant that Ernesto recommended. I wasn't buying medications there, though, as I have a drug plan here. Plus after I bought them here, the price difference was not very significant (on the order of 15% or so). So unless you plan to buy meds, there's no reason for you to bring more than $100.

I'm sorry you're feeling upset. It's definitely not a light decision to have this surgery. The OR staff should've definitely stopped as soon as you told them to stop - it's not an emergency surgery and you were sentient at the moment, so they should've obeyed your instructions. I guess there's no way to go back now, though, so you just have to focus on the positives. I'm not having the cleanest recovery (several episodes of severe nausea, dizziness, etc that led to a trip to the ER and the like), but I just don't dwell on the negative stuff. I remember how I felt BEFORE the surgery - completely out of control with my eating and powerless - and realize things are better now, even though there are a few bumps in the road to recovery. The allergy will clear up soon enough, don't worry about it. It's too bad that the staff was disrespectful of your desires and didn't use an alternative to betadine.

Where are the needle marks? You can expect the gown to come off, as your body will covered in sterile draping to protect the area that will be disinfected and cut into. http://img.medscape.com/fullsize/migrated/558/014/aos558014.fig1.gif