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Hi guys, I'm feeling a bit low so I thought I would reach out, everyone seems so friendly here. I had sleeve surgery nearly 6 weeks ago and one of the surgical sites just wont heal. They were all fine, scabbed over and looking great until two weeks ago when they starting weeping. When this happened I covered them up with an antiseptic cream and saw the doctor who prescribed antibiotics for an infection I had. The scab came off on one of them along with the stitches leaving a sizeable hole which scared me to death! Now this hole won't seem to heal. It is about as 1cm deep and 1.5 cm wide. The nurse is packing and dressing it twice a week, but it's really getting me down. I am type 2 diabetic so I know that alone indicates slow healing but my glucose levels are right down now since the surgery which is great. Has anyone else had problems of this nature? It's really getting me down and it makes me feel queasy when I have to have it changed.

Yes I take myself off alone with lots of books for 3 weeks every year. It would be my husbands idea of hell. Deep joy

I feel you on the going backwards thing, honestly, I'm at a point where I'm like, I should just start selling feet pics haha, kidding I will work on rewriting my budget and not buy as many protein drinks, the money for the drinks will be used for more solid pick, my friend has a Costco membership, and said she'd take me, I can buy some frozen foods in bulk to keep frozen for easy meals, I will see what recipes I can do and hopefully after a few weeks, I will be in a much better spot, thanks for the food ideas

@Mspretty86 I JUST got the okay to do upper body Friday- no isolated chest workouts which is fine with me, I have been wanting to workout my back and shoulders. I have been working my biceps and triceps for a few weeks but you can only do so much with that- Still no running or anything that requires bouncing. So HIIT workouts are off limits to an extent. But I am able to wear regular bras now, but need to wear my post op bra at night and during my workouts.

HOLY ISH! A year already?! Time has flown! I still remember the beginning of your journey and those first posts—wow, you've come so far and done so incredibly well! I'm seriously so proud of you!! I totally agree with @SpartanMaker—maintenance is no joke, and exercise really does make all the difference. Weight lifting has been key for me too. It helps so much with maintaining, even more than cardio sometimes. Build that muscle and you're burning calories just by existing. Cardio is still super important,! I’m still figuring out maintenance myself, but my workouts have been consistent and even through my 2month spat of not being able to get my nutrition in control, making sure I kept up with exercise has been key I have been consistently doing this and its been great: 35–45 minutes of strength training, 5 days a week, At least 30 minutes of cardio daily (treadmill, dog walks, biking—whatever tickles my fancy), 2 lower body days, 2 upper body, 1 full body and one day a week my doggy and I do a 5-mile walk (she gets a walk every day, but that’s our long one). You’ve been so fabulous through this whole process, and I can’t wait to hear about your continued journey!

I read this a couple weeks ago and forgot until now to post about it. It's supposed to mimic gastric bypass without rerouting the digestive tract. I'm not sure how to feel about this minimally invasive implantable device. I previously had a Lap Band and it wasn't a pleasant experience. I guess if it makes it past clinical trials and gets approved, we'll see how patients do and if this is another option to end obesity and diabetes. Just thought I would share this with the community. https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-713944

I had sleeve done 12/17/24 and am making some progress. Slowly but surely. This week started soft food.

I am here to add my vote for meal planning. I also have ADHD tendencies and I LOATHE food tracking. In the early days after surgery when I absolutely had to make sure I got in my protein and water, I managed to track by keeping a physical tracking notebook next to me at all times. I had to see the book to remember to do it. I stopped tracking around 5 months when I was consistently hitting my goals. Now that I am almost a year out, my weight loss has slowed (as expected) and I am finding it too easy to make poor choices if I don't plan ahead. I forced myself to actually track for a couple days and was shocked by how many calories I could eat and what I was choosing even when I "thought" I had been pretty reasonable. So, instead of tracking, which I am still terrible at, I've started meal planning and prepping ahead. For breakfast and lunch, I came up with a selection of maybe three or four choices I liked that have around 20g protein and entered them into my meal tracking app. For example, a spinach frittata for breakfast that I can slice into several servings, fruit cups that I make ahead for the week, single-serve packets of protein oatmeal or a protein bar for those days when I have to grab and go. For lunch, I make homemade chicken veg soup and also salad jars. I also like to make a batch of turkey chili to have on hand, which I store in single-serve containers. I also came up with a few snacks I like such as Greek yogurt with blueberries, or an apple with cheese. I also entered in my typical favorite 6 or 7 homemade dinners as recipes or meals in the app so I could easily add them to my day with one click. Before my shopping day, I try to plan my meals for the coming week. If I see my calories going too high or my protein not being enough, or whatever, on any given day, I can adjust accordingly. On a day that I eat oatmeal, I make sure my other choices are less carb heavy. If I have eggs for breakfast, I might plan to have a carb at dinner. I have the tab easy to get to on my computer, but printing it out each day would also work, as would entering each meal as a reminder in your phone's task list or calendar app. It is so much easier for me to look at my menu and follow it than it is for me to decide what to eat every day in the moment. It also means that if I can eat what I plan most of the time, I can have a restaurant meal or a dessert a few times a month without worrying about it or trying to track it. And since I tend to package up most of my make-ahead meals in single-serve containers, it's pretty easy to grab something to take along if I'm going to be out and don't want to have to hunt for food on the go and risk being off plan. The worst days for me are when everything in the house is an ingredient instead of a meal. That's exhausting and inevitably leads to snacking or poor choices. I find I need to set a regular day of the week for shopping when I can also have time to prep some items right away, before the food even goes in the fridge. I have the most success for the week when all my produce enters the fridge already washed, sliced, and portioned into fruit cups and salad jars, and when I can kick off a batch of chili in the slow cooker, a frittata in the oven, and a batch of taco meat to store for later in the week all at once. Freezing complete single-serve meals is another great strategy for those busy days when you might otherwise get off track. Like any habit, it takes a while to establish and may not be 100% perfect all the time, but I definitely find this helping me.

Today's win ? Returned to weight lifting after what seems like a 200 year hiatus. 🤣 Nothing extreme or crazy....very light weights with lots of reps. Injury avoidance is key concern. Other win is the overall feeling like I have things dialed in and the cruise control is activated. The positive feels from this are so welcome. The last 6 years or more have been chaotic and hellish at times. Things are slowing down and falling into place. Sure the scale is giving lower numbers every week, but the real improvement has been with the pure simplicity of returning to the initial advisements of the professionals at my bariatric center.

The past week have been nightmarish. I have lost 3 something kgs and my BMI has dropped to below 18, which is considered underweight. I am totally okay and feel fine (checked with my team, my surgeon doesn’t seem too concerned) but been trying to eat everything caloric dense and fattening, no luck in gaining any weight so far!!

I remember my hands especially were so puffy with fluid. It took over a week just to get back to my day of surgery weight because of all the fluid. But you're still losing fat even if the scale doesn't show it, so don't worry!

I am feeling immense shame as I write this post but I cannot carry on like this and I am requesting advice from the lovely people of this community. I had my surgery in 2022 and unfortunately (due to undiagnosed ADHD) I did not follow the post-surgery plan to retrain my stomach. Now that I am being medicated for ADHD, I find myself needing to snack less for dopamine and want to start strength training, but I cannot finish solid meals without becoming full immediately with stomach pain. Can this be resolved by going back to the post surgery diet for a few weeks? Does anyone have any advice, please? 😢

Hello, just found site and joined. I am on my 2 week pre op diet and surgery is on May 2nd, out patient. I have supplements, protein water, unflavored protein, 1 ounce, 2 ounce disposable containers obtained as well, scale and still trying to figure out the whole sips to intake at least 64 ounces of water, i currently drink over 124 ounces daily but again, not by sips but gulps, lol. will figure once i get to that stage. Just now we all got this! Karen

Everyone dumps in a different way. This sounds like yours. I’m 5 years out. A food that I ate just fine one week can make me dump (I usually get nauseous) the next. There is no rhyme or reason to what does it to me. I just lay down until it passed.

I started the surgery process a couple months ago, and just had my second nutrition appointment....and now I'm getting very overwhelmed and having second thoughts. I have my psych appointment next week and my endoscopy in two weeks and I'm thinking about cancelling them cause I feel like this is really rushed and that this is such a big decision I should take some time to think it through and everything. I'm very worried about possible complications and things going wrong. I have had GERD in the past (this was several years ago and I did weigh more then) and have been on pantoprazole for years. I am tapering off, so it might not be an issue, but my doc kinda pushes the sleeve and I'm worried about getting bad heartburn afterwards, even tho he said there's a 50/50 chance. I've read accounts of people getting crazy bad heartburn afterwards, or just being ravenously hungry all the time, which would be absolute torture for me. Also, I'm on depression, anxiety, and ADHD meds and I just learned about possible malabsorption issues, or even the difficulty of taking pills after surgery. I'm worried enough about remembering everything you're supposed to do post-surgery and not getting totally overwhelmed, it will pretty much be impossible if my depression gets worse.... I wish there were less permanent options available, the idea that you can't go back if anything goes wrong is terrifying....I know the chances of something going wrong are low, but I don't want to rush into anything and regret it afterwards.

@ShoppGirl so I was unsure if I should start trying! My boobs having fully gotten soft, I think they are fully dropped though? From what I measured I am a 34DD? but this was a while ago. I am 11 weeks post op do you think I should try now or wait another month or so?

I’m starting to notice a pattern. The dreaded stalls and the gained pound for me seems to come after the too good to be true weight loss 🤣 basically what I’m saying is when I lose a couple of pounds quicker than my normal rate then I may go a week without dropping anything or I actually gain a pound or two before I lose again. But the overall my rate of loss for the last 30 days remains pretty consistent. It is super helpful to have that weight log in the Baritastic app. It automatically calculates your loss over the past seven days the past 30 days the past 90 days. Plus, it has a really cool little line graph so that you can see the steady loss also, you can track your measurements on there which is a nice way to keep them because I tend to lose things written on paper. 🤣

just a note on BMR - I've heard this from both a former dietitian of mine and from a nutrition class I took a couple of years ago at UW-Milwaukee on obesity and weight loss, so it's likely true (seems to be the case with me, anyway...). It's very common for formerly obese people to need to eat 300-400 calories less per day than a person of the same height/weight/activity level who's never been obese in order to maintain their weight. So in other words (and I'm just pulling this example out of the blue), if a calorie calculator tells you that it takes about 1800 cal/day to maintain your weight, if you were formerly obese, that could mean that for you, it's probably more like 1400-1500 calories to maintain. That being said, I do agree with some of the others that you may be underestimating your calorie intake since I would think you'd be losing weight at that intake level. It might be helpful to cut back by about 100 cal/day for a couple of weeks and see if the scale starts moving again. if not, cut another 100 calories for a couple of weeks. Rinse and repeat until the scale starts moving. I've had to do this a few times to get things moving..

I was on a liquid diet then a full liquid diet. Followed by a soft protein only, so you are not weird about the no fruit and veggies. I have had no fruits or veggies yet and I'm only 5 weeks out from surgery. I'm still taking in soft protein. I did reward myself on Friday with a Pretzel and I made sure I softened it and chewed it a bunch before swallowing it, but having the crunch was so satisfying. That's the thing I miss most is the crunch. I had no puree diet following surgery. Soft protein, my go to is Ricotta Bake, and my husband makes it with spices and uses pizza sauce for further flavor. It is creamy and cheesy and really filling. So, just wanted to chime in that you are not alone in the no fruit/veggie department.

I’m a week post-op and I’m up to 32 oz of water. My issue is I get gas pains no matter the water’s temperature. Has this happened to anyone else??

Anyone who has ever flown commercial has seen the safety briefing, right ? "In the case of cabin pressure drop....an air mask will lower itself in front of each passenger.....put your own in place before helping those beside you" Took me quite a while to realize that our own personal health condition is no different. The WLS provided a wild ride for about three years. Surgery yield excellent weight loss results. Faster than I was ready for. I didn't make the best of decisions and never missed the opportunity to go have fun. One day....I woke up from the hubris and took inventory. My marriage had somehow survived...as it had survived tough times well prior. I was a dad to an insanely gifted son. I had a good job surrounded by great people. Mostly, though....my wife was there at my side and patiently waiting for me to get my head extracted from my arse. I did. We then had what can only be described as the best years of our marriage....like we were dating again. I was blessed and the first to acknowledge such. She had some health issues arise and we discovered it was worse than we were expecting. Diagnosis was cancer....treatment began right away but it was a terminal diagnosis. She fought hard...superhuman efforts. Her pain tolerance was simply beyond my compression. Cancer took her in April of 2021. I maintained my promise to her to keep on with the sobriety. I failed in most other ways. I had zero desire to cook as it was too painful. Anytime I'd try the sense of loss would be overpowering. We had so many fun times in and around the kitchen....I'd cook and she'd help me clean up my mess. Music always on....every day together was alike a date night. I remain so very grateful to have been given those recent great years together....but I chickened out when it involved anything we'd once do together. No cooking of anything other than maybe a quick breakfast.....no music....no movies or shows we once enjoyed, no gym, no maintaining of friendships......just went to work each day and came home....existing off fast food and vending machine garbage at work. Three and a half years went on like that. As the fourth anniversary of her death loomed, I once again took inventory. What I acknowledged was ugly. The mirror sucked, the way most of my clothes fit sucked, my annual checkups with our primary care doc sucked....and I owned every single bit of it. I owned all that suck. I also knew that she would kick my ass for letting myself give up like I had. I've never quit anything in my life....yet there I was....quitting on pretty much everything. I pissed myself off so badly. I made the decision to crawl outa that hole and do what she would have me do if she was here to push & pull on me to get my shyt together. She fought so hard to live....and there I was... giving up...no fight, no attempt, just giving up like a punk. So things began to improve greatly when I started jumping on what I could gain control of. My health was a perfect place to start..... And so it has been going the last few months. Daily macros are improving more each day. Essentially keto but am supplementing with fish oil, fiber, turmeric, powdered greens, multi-vitamins.....trying to shore up every aspect of daily good stuff taken in. I flipped the collective bird to all the fast food restaurants and their drive thru windows. Screw 'em all. Found the stereo again....whether in the truck or at the house. There is music. Took over the yardwork....and there is a pile of it needed. Joined a gym. Bought some new ear buds and gym clothes....and a heap more new music. In short.....I acknowledged that throwing my own health away was what had been selfish......taking control of it was imperative. The loss is still there....but my response to it is now different. Now I am doing much more to honor her by living as she wanted me to. She wanted me to live....all aspects of living. Health first, foremost and always.......and the other aspects of living are becoming more clear each day. Life is a gift. Squandering that gift is a crime. Longwinded answer.

No I haven’t once I was discharged form hospital I was given 4 sheets of dos and don’ts and dieticians no but I can’t seem to get through. I had my bypass no on nhs in uk. have a 6 week appointment on 10 th march so I will speak to them then x thank you for taking time and advice x

i had arm lift, breast lift and tummy tuck in Canada, and paid roughly 15K CAD for all three (back in 2019); that's about 11K in today's US dollars. Mind you, i did get the panniculectomy portion of the tummy tuck covered by provincial insurance which i believe saved me about 6K CAD.

Hi, thanks for your response. How much protein do you suggest? *ill look into Sparten maker) I have always strugglled with protein. I was vegan for 18 years before surgery and afterwards I couldn't handle the beans etc. I used for protein. I had to add back in dairy and now my, the past 6mos, I have some chicken breast a couple times per week. I have a elliptical I use for exercise its a hard workout. I want to add back in DDP yoga for strength training. I have the issue if exercise making me do tired so I've struggled to add in more but I'd like to get up to an hour. I'll keep going and hopefully I'll start to lose again. My biggest issue is staying consistent, I get discouraged when I don't see results.

I need an overhaul. My weight loss has been so slow but I have been losing inches like crazy, I know it is possible and I see the changes, but it irritates me so bad not seeing the scale move. Maybe I should set some serious NSV to achieve. I have exactly 150 days til my birthday and I think I am gonna give this whole surgery thing an overhaul and see where it takes me. I will be honest, I have been low-key skating buy because I got discouraged right after my first stall..... I refuse to quite and I am gonna give it all I got right now.