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Hi everyone, I'm 2 weeks post op and so far so good. I hope you're all healing well. X Sent from my SM-G980F using BariatricPal mobile app

Just want to thank you Guru . . . I'm 5 weeks out from surgery (May 18) and struggling with fear, negative feedback from friends and general anxiety. I don't have as much weight to lose as some, but the VSG was recommended by my (Harvard trained) internist who has watched me struggle for many years now with one diet after another. At 78, carrying around 50 extra pounds and sometimes 25 more more is no joke and I would love to spend the last part of my life being able to move better and with less pain. Other than the weight, I've been blessed with great health although I'm 78, am still very active. Your post this morning helped me more than I can tell you and reinforces that I should not cancel the surgery out of fear that I will not be able to make it out of the "dark hole" that inevitably follows a major surgery. You are an inspiration!

I am 10 days post-op today. The first 3 days after surgery it felt very difficult to get fluids down. I was getting worried. At my appointment with my surgeon on post op day 4 he did a barium swallow. He first asked me to drink a full medicine cup of the barium. I looked at him like he was nuts, and asked if he was sure. I mean I had only been hearing “sips only”. But, the gulp of barium went down easily and went straight past my pouch as it was supposed too. I got to see the fluid pass thru on the screen, which helped me mentally know things were ok in my belly. Lol. My surgeon said I had likely been swallowing air when sipping which made the pouch feel full. So he advised after drinking, to keep my lips closed and forcefully swallow. I did that for a bit and now feel like I drink like I was able to before surgery. My next post op appointment is today and I am hoping to graduate from liquids to purée. Good luck to you!

No shakes for me after 4 weeks. No powder, no artificial or processed food. Just food. No other guidance.

Hi! I'm new here, I just googled "Weight Loss Surgery Discussion Boards" and this is the first site that popped up. I hope I'm in the right place... I had Open RNY GB in May of 2002. My weight the morning of surgery was 310lbs. I lost over 100 lbs in the first 10 months and got down to my lowest weight of 153lbs about 2 years after surgery. I was feeling fabulous! However, over the years, I was able to maintain at about 170-180lbs consistently, until I gave birth to my son in 2012. After he was born, I wasn't able to lose all of the weight I gained during pregnancy. I was around 200 - 205 lbs at my lowest after he was born. But, due to some other life circumstances and traumatic life experiences that happened to me in 2016, I have gained back over 100lbs and am now sitting at about 268lbs. I'm crushed. In May 2021 I decided to research revisions and found a surgeon in my area (St. Louis, MO) who specializes in revisions and I found out that I am a candidate for a revision to Duodenal Switch. After meeting with a dietician for 6 months, psychologist, primary care physician, etc. I'm finally having my revision next week... April 14, 2022!! I'm so scared and nervous this time around. I don't know what to do or where to go. I wasn't this nervous before my first surgery and I think it's because I didn't have as much to lose back then when I was 21. Now I have a 10 year old son who is everything to me and I'm terrified that if something goes wrong, he won't have a mom. Has anyone else in the forum gone through this and if so, can you please share your experience with me?

Well, there were varying degrees of pain so... I can tell you that I had to take pain meds (oxy) for about a week after my plastics (as compared to after wls, when I didn't take any pain meds at all outside the hospital) If i remember correctly, couldn't stand up straight for about 3-4 weeks due to the tummy tuck, and i couldn't raise my arms above my shoulders for about 4-5 weeks due to the arm lift. There was minimal breast lift pain, if at all. I was probably completely pain free around the 3-4 month mark...but i had re-injured myself twice before that because I didn't listen to my doc about taking it easy (i was itching to go running and busted open my stitches in several places...TWICE...oops) So if i didn't eff myself up, I probably would've been pain free much earlier.

Summerseeker, you said you had so much nausea--how long did it last? I'm about 3 months post op and still am struggling with nausea-

I had to keep a bottle of fluid in my hand all the time, and I had to keep rotating them so they were iced cold. I still don't really like water unless it is iced cold. I drink a lot of iced coffee and hot tea, as well as water mixed with flavor packets. Don't worry in the first few weeks if you don't get 60+ g of protein. Focus on the fluid first. That can get you messed up first, dehydration. Several posters here have mentioned juices, but I wasn't allowed to have sugar, so I found sugar free juices (5 calories per 8 oz serving) that I really like.

Im actually interested as well. Find myself trying to sip more and end up with a belly ache. I find myself so dry and either Im trying to eat or drinking and have to slow down. My surgery was two weeks ago but weight loss is sooooo slow and Im nervous.

I have noticed lots of people coming to the forums in distress because they regret having the surgery, I too was one of them. I wanted to share some of my own experience to reassure those going through regret that for some of us this is completely normal and part of the journey. Its awful, you feel like crap and wonder what the hell you have done to yourself and for some we wonder if we will even survive this life changing decision we made. You may feel like you have ruined your life, you may feel like you will never eat or drink your favourite things again. You may think you will die of thirst or even starve to death, I am here to say you will get through it, you will feel better and you will eat/drink your favourite things again (even if you shouldn't 😉) I had my final check in with my mental health care worker the other day and to hear her read back my "statement" and how I was thinking 7 months ago made me cringe, was that really me, was I really down that dark hole ? Yes I was but thankfully I am a long way from that place now. What we go through is a number of things first and foremost grief, yes grief and you will go through all the stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance and for good measure throw some anxiety and remorse in there too. Then there is our hormones omg the hormones what a rollercoaster ride they send us on so hang on tight !! I remember a few bad moments, one that stands out is standing in the shower feeling incredibly weak from not eating or getting my fluids in screaming "why, why me why do I have to feel like this" (some of my friends had breezed through the surgery) lucky no one was home and I did feel a little better after.....so don't be afraid to cry, don't be afraid to shout and scream. Another outburst was at the family dinner table for fathers day screaming why did I do this ? why didn't anyone stop me? I told my team that they shouldn't have approved me and they hadn't screened me properly and they had failed me 😔. I could tell of many more "moments" but I think you get the picture. Some people especially those who have had an easy time after the surgery or haven't had the surgery wont understand why you feel like you do I mean you chose to do this right ? The hardest thing is even we don't understand why we feel the way we do, we wanted this, we paid the surgeon to have this done. Yes its normal to go through a whole range of feelings and some are really bad but it gets better and easier everyday. It might start with 1 good day in a week then 2 until eventually good days out weight the bad you will feel like you are going 1 step forward and 2 steps back but you are still going forward. Be Kind to yourself let people around you look after you but also make an effort to look after yourself even though you don't feel like it. Soon you will get to a point where you no longer have that deep regret and you finally arrive at acceptance and from there you realise you wouldn't have lost the weight without surgery, your life is going to be fine, you can have that coffee and cake with friends , you can eat a meal with your family and your health has improved and you post your weirdest non scale related victory !! You made it!! You got through it !!! There is no more regret !!!

A muscle pull. So they believed. Went away after several weeks and I haven't felt it since.

Yea i hear that the gas pains are the worst of it and pain medication dont really do anything for that. Shall see what they actually give once surgery is over. In any case i secured some pain medication to keep on hand just incase. I always like to keep some on hand because i also have a condition called Diverticulosis and when that flares up oh man the pain is intense and have to be on 2 antibiotics for 2 weeks til it clears up.

we were originally told we'd have to crush pills for awhile, but they only crushed them for me when I was in the hospital. The PA at my clinic said as long as the pills were no bigger than a pencil eraser, I could swallow them whole. Bigger ones might take two or three weeks, he said. Almost all of mine were small, so I never crushed those. And one of the big ones was calcium (those giant horse pills), so I just got a chewable.

Two weeks isn't really too bad. I'd follow doctors orders if it were me but I'm a worrier and wouldn't too afraid to deviate. You'll also have to be on a liquid diet after surgery. Sent from my Pixel 4a using BariatricPal mobile app

Liquid diet, first 3 days are difficult or at least they were for me and had me browsing YouTube for various kinds of food recipes and food videos 😂 But beyond 3 or 4 days, it gets a lot easier. Tru flavoring your shakes. I used to use " instant decaf coffee, peppermint/spreamint extract" with my chocolate shakes. Vanilla I didn't like it much so I got less of those. With Vanilla you can try similar flavoring with coffee and/or orange, strawberry extract or try Crystal light flavoring with it". Shake, flavoring, ice and churn then all together and it's yummm. I still miss those shakes at times 😂

How have you been doing? I had to have my gallbladder out when I was 4 1/2 months pregnant with my son. I had severe pancreatitis and had to have 3 days of IV pain meds and antibiotics before I could even have the surgery. I had a horrible attach with throwing up (throat felt like it was on fire and like I was throwing up acid). My gallbladder was so bad it was about to burst when they did the ultrasound and saw it. They freaked out and admitted me right away. I'm so glad you got that horrible organ out (they're terrible lol). I hope you're doing well now.

Just keep sipping. My surgeon was ok not meeting goals for the first couple of weeks as long as I was making a concerted effort & was close. But if you’re drinking your three shakes a day you should be fine. (I diluted mine cause I found them to thick & I got more fluid in.) Some find setting a time on their phones helpful so they sip every day 5 minutes. I keep water beside my bed so I drink during the night too. I also found it easier to drink warm/hot drinks than cold. I even heated my shakes (the chocolate one & pretended it was hot chocolate😉).

My husband's A1c is 13 and his surgeon won't even think about surgery until he gets it below 9. Mine was 6.9 (I cut out ALL sugar for 3 months and it took it from 8.4 to 6.9 so my doctor is thrilled and I was approved). My husband's doctor told him it's because a high A1c means the body is unstable, and it puts more stress on other organs. Doing a major surgery with the body like that is a recipe for disaster. Did you ever get it rechecked? Did you get to have your surgery yet?

I’m still on puréed for two more weeks (surgery date was 3/22). Then I can move to soft foods for 3 weeks. I’m currently back in the hospital; Monday night I had an a-fib episode. I’ve never had a-fib issues before but they do not think it is WLS related. Because of my surgery, they put me back on a liquid diet while I am here because they don’t really have puréed foods that are heart healthy. I think I had a total of 183 calories yesterday and like 2 protein. I’m taking steps backwards instead of forwards. Ugh. I did manage to drink more water yesterday but I am still nowhere near my goal of 50 ounces (that’s where my nephrologist wants me). I think I was at 33 ounces. Hopefully I will be out of here tomorrow so I can get back on track!

I have been really hungry since right after my surgery. I talked to my surgery center and they put me on Metformin and Topamax. I've lost weight really well, but it's so frustrating to be hungry all the time. I find that drinking a lot, especially tea and coffee (I use splenda a low fat milk), helps. Being distracted, eating lots of fiber from veggies, and eating 5 times a day vs. 3 is what works for me. Good luck! PS - I'm eating about 900-1200 calorie a day now at 7 months out.

Hi guys, 2 months post op gastric sleeve and felt super hungry this week been having over 1000 calories a day when I was averaging between 700-900 before? any ideas?

Officially 3 weeks post op. Down 85 lbs total since beginning this journey, down 33 lbs since liquid diet and down 18 lbs since surgery. I am on soft foods and loving it. Living on egg variations and grilled chicken.

I'm on week 5 and I still have pain in one of the spots my surgeon cut. It gets better with stretching. 😊

I am 2 weeks post op. I felt that way last week and this week is better.

Our bodies really want carbohydrates and it can take from 3-5 days for those carbohydrate pangs to disappear. You absolutely should expect things to get easier. you can do it!