Search the Community

My bypass is August 23. So far I've not seen anyone else with this date. Here is something I found online about a medical alert bracelet. Hope this is okay to post. "5 reasons gastric bypass patients need a medical alert bracelet 1 ) You should not be given NSAIDS NSAIDS, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, are known to have a few side effects when taken under normal use. These include ulcers, an increased chance of bleeding, and liver or kidney problems. And that's just for a person who hasn't been through a major surgery like gastric bypass! The point of a medical alert bracelet is to let people know about your condition in an emergency. NSAIDS are commonly used in medicine, so alerting the staff of your bypass can give them the chance to find another medicine to treat you. For people who have had a gastric bypass, NSAIDS can be problematic for newly constructed stomachs that haven't gotten the chance to build up protection against irritants like NSAIDS. 2 ) A Blind NG tube is dangerous for you Blind NG tubes are inserted through the nose of a patient who needs to be fed through a tube after a medical emergency. It's usually fed through with no problems, as doctors know how to do this procedure on normal anatomy. But after a gastric bypass, only a medical alert bracelet can let your healthcare team know that you no longer have "normal" anatomy. A bypass changes the way your stomach is shaped and how it sits, meaning a blind NG tube is likely to break through your stomach walls and cause vast damage. This is especially true because gastric bypass patients do have stomachs that are more sensitive to damage. If your medical team knows about your gastric bypass, then they will incorporate a different method that is equally helpful but cuts down on the risk of damaging your stomach. 3 ) A limited intake of sugar is important Hospitals have variations in the diets and medications they can give patients depending on their medical history. Gastric bypass patients need to actively avoid excess sugar intake for a few reasons. It can heighten any problems related to diabetes, which is common in overweight individuals. It can also cause severe diarrhea in people who have had a gastric bypass. It's also important for your healthcare team to know about your bypass through your medical alert bracelet so that they can continue giving you the right diet. For gastric bypass patients, this means high fiber and low sugar! 4 ) Complications can be found faster Having a gastric bypass surgery is a major operation. It's done to transform your health and quality of life, yet it can have complications. In the rare cases when a complication happens, it's important to get treatment as soon as possible! You could potentially experience bleeding, blood clots, or a rupture in your new stomach pouch. Hernias are also known to happen as well as infections, leaking, or ulcers. These cases can be fixed with usually simple procedures, but knowing is the only way staff can address them before more complications arise. So when you are brought into a hospital, a medical alert bracelet can work wonders in letting the staff narrow down what could be happening to you. It can ultimately save your life. 5 ) Your solid food will need to be limited If you need to be fed while you're in the hospital, then staff should be aware that you need to have your solid food limited. Because your stomach size has been greatly reduced through the surgery, anyone placing a feeding tube will have to know that your stomach is smaller and cannot handle a large amount of food. When someone with a gastric bypass is fed large amounts of foods, a few things can happen that your team needs to know. If they do, then they can properly adjust your in-hospital diet and look for signs that a complication from overeating is the reason you were brought in. Overeating can stretch your new pouch, rupture it, and cause your body to reject the food. Regardless of the situation, a medical alert bracelet can keep your medical team totally up-to-speed on what is going on with you so that treatment can be effective and quick. And everyone at N-Style ID loves keeping our customers up-to-date with the latest information about medical alerts and other topics on our blog. You never know when an emergency could happen, and that's why these bracelets are designed to be stylish and useful."

U all must have diff instructions than I bc I am not steering away from my instructions. You do realize as well different doctors and hospital programs are slightly different. Actually had my first follow up today with PA and I'm doing great according to her. I only eat a few bites each meal chew thoroughly and I'm full. Not drinking 30 min b4 or after either. My only issue thus far is going to the bathroom 🚽. Not pleasant.

I've known this for years. Didn't have proof, but knew it in my heart. All that calories-in, calories-out BS was always nonsense. Our bodies are not sealed science experiments. They adjust. Maybe if I'd gone to med school instead of engineering school I would have found the proof for this a long time ago. Yes, eating a calorie deficit will reduce weight. I know that. The problem is trying to determine the baseline before you can calculate a deficit.

Hands down best one so far @Orchids&Dragons . No mushy BS, to the point. I LOVE IT!!!!

Thanks everyone...I have my post-op appt in 2 days so am going to run these options by them. I am also going to ask about Vitamin D... I haven't taken any yet bc I am afraid the taste will make me gag/vomit.

@lizvirgo09 Thanks for the info and "fed my poodle the chicken" is the funniest thing I'll hear all day! I love it.

I am a July 2017 sleever. My goal weight was 140 lbs, and by June I was 144, which sometimes goes up to 145. So I didn’t get down to it. But I eat a nice amount in a day, I’m never hungry (except right before I eat of course), I have my little snacks which I don’t need to feel ashamed of, as their macros and calories fit in with a healthy diet. So my weight loss counselor told me as she graduated me, that I don’t need to worry about the numbers of the scale any more. I still feel I have too much fat and skin in the lower half of the body. I do plan on surgery to help with some of the trouble spots and skin. And I work out now, I FINALLY believe all those thin people who used to say they loved working out. Didn’t you also think they were lying? Lol. Now I am one of them. I still can’t believe it. I don’t overdo it but I like to do some kind of workout or exercise at least once a day, even if it’s just stretching for 20 mins some days. The surgery was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. Which I did more for my kids than for me, because my blood pressure was getting so bad and I wanted them to have a mother for a long time. But it ended up giving me a new lease on life. I did not lose 100 lbs in 6 months. It took me a whole year to lose 60 little pounds. But that is pretty much what I needed to lose. I could go down 10 lbs but maybe I will after body shaping, skin removing surgery, and maybe I won’t. My face and arms and chest are pretty small and I am not sure I want them any narrower. At my age it just makes you look old. I thought losing so slowly would mean I wouldn’t lose my hair. I was wrong. I lost about 75% of it by last November and by January I was getting vitamin and mineral IVs and extensions in my meager hair (which looked very post chemo). Still have the extensions and also a ton of 2-3 inch new hair growing back in. Whew. My advice to anyone starting out would be to take full advantage of your surgery recovery period when you cannot est normally, and DROP ALL SWEET FOODS PERIOD. Go very low carb, and make your carbs be fibrous veggies and seeds etc. Avoid sweet tastes. Many Bariatric products are full of sweeteners, keeping your palate and gut bugs preferring sweet tastes. Avoid them. Seek the salty tasty ones. Use unsweetened, unflavored protein powders. My doctor’s Nutritionist told us to avoid fruit for 6 months. I did. Thereafter, only 1/2 c berries or less a day. You don’t ever need fruit while you are losing weight. It’s a great opportunity to reset your diet. The gut bugs who love sugar will die out and they are the ones who give you that craving. Take advantage. Another diet thing I learned from keeping meticulous track of what I ate was that 50% of my diet was fat. Healthy fat. And I continued to slowly lose the weight, almost daily, by eating the meats, eggs, dairy, and butter that I ate. All from healthy, Grass fed, pastured animals. Raw whole milk. A very clean healthy diet with a ton of fat. I just steadily kept losing. I’d heard fat doesn’t make you fat, but now I KNOW it. Good luck to all. One of these days I will post my before and after pics and measurements. Sorry such a novel here,

I had none for my WLS. I have to imagine I had one for my plastics bc I was under for 8 hours, but I wasn’t aware of it so they must have done it while I was out and removed it while I was out too.

You might be surprised to find a lift is all you need... they excise extra skin in a keyhole shape and that will reduce your cup size quite a bit all by itself. I had a lift with implants and would up the exact same bra size bc the implants made up for the removed skin (that I’d been “rolling up” and tucking into my bra!

Hi, I’m about 4 1/2 weeks post op and I still haven’t started taking my multivitamin. I’m only taking calcium and D3. I tried to take my multivitamin but I kept vomiting it right back up. It sucks bc I know I need to take it AND I had one that was once a day with iron so I didn’t have to take 8 different pills per day! Is there ANYTHING out there that’s a chewable one a day that meets our requirements and includes iron??? Thanks so much for any advice!

Rileyjay, I got my sleeve 7/11 and am having the same issues. I take BariMelts for multi vitamin, biotin and iron. I have different brands for B12 and calcium chews. But they all taste awful. I find the soluble pills are least terrible if you take them with a swig of OJ and let them melt a bit in your mouth with the juice before you swallow. At this point, I haven’t bothered trying to mix them into smoothie bc I’m consuming such small volumes of liquids.

Clarify what, exactly? I have Anthem BC BS and I also have to be followed by the surgeon and nutritionist for 6 months, have a psych evaluation, cardiology visit, stress test, and attend two support group meetings, and have a barium swallow test. Like allwet said, it all sounds completely normal and expected. Are you getting two different sets of requirements depending on the doctor? If so, I'd go first with what your insurance requirements are. Then your bariatric surgeon shiuld do what insurance requires. Sent from my SM-N950U using BariatricPal mobile app

My water intake has been better than it ever has considering I stopped drinking light beers to speed things up and even seltzer water because very little of it quench my thirst. 2 things i should have never been drinking but did and still lose weight not that I quit I’m stalling, how ironic. I don’t do weights and will not start to until I’ve lost another 30% of my weight I’m focused on lots of cardio and resistance training. I measure my loss with a scale not a BMI tool or measuring tape because that’s all that matters to me. I track my weight on an app called happy scale so even if my weight fluctuates a pound or a pound and a half it means nothing to me because I understand my moving average. When I tell you I’m stuck on this weight like a rock unfazed without reason i mean it. I’ve been telling myself to be patient because there is no other diet or regimen better than the one I’m already on, i can not restrict anymore nor am I upping it and I’m deff not going to start eating carbs hell with the “good carbs”. Speaking of which, I’ve also been on ketosis the entire time. So to sum it up.. I eat clean as all hell I literally have nothing to log because I only have meat without even marinating it bc I don’t want to add cals and carb just salt and pepper and premier protein shakes and water. Clean lean low cal fat and carb. If someone else wrote this I’ll blatantly call them a liar because such isn’t possible one would be melting away. When I tell you I’m furious it’s an understatement! Thanks for trying to figure this out with me 💪

Used my camel back on yesterday and today's walks. Minus the bladder because one of my kids broke it some time back. Had my daily BS I carry in it and my 32oz water bottle. Hardly any weight but considering I havn't done any kind of exercise in YEARS it works for now. I think the bladder pocket is a perfect place to put the weight. I have steel plates of varying weight and size so once I get more comfortable with this new fandangled walking thing I'll experiment with different amounts.

............So just got back from my walk and after talking to my wife about calories burned I found out using a generic input on MyFitnessPal was not a good idea. Apparently with the tiny amount of walking I did there is no way I could burn so many calories. Well maybe not but I still lost 4lbs according to my scale that sometimes very often does not read accurately. ITS MY STORY AND I"M STICKING TO IT.....as long as you all know it's probably all BS. I did learn something though...............

Is there a reason you don’t use regular milk? That smoothie wouldn’t work for my plan bc of the carb to protein ratio since almond milk is skimpy on protein. Regular milk would make it work for me. Just curious.

Hi Lindy, I have actually done that before via a diet called Keto. It’s quite successful and yes, the withdrawals are crazy and the migraines even worse. It is def worth it. So..... I had my bypass on 10 July everyone. It’s the 27th of July and I’m still in hospital. A day after surgery, I had major tummy pain. All obs were done however, nobody picked anything up because everything (blood pressure, ecg, oxygen etc) were normal. So after 3 Medical Emergency Team calls at my bedside, fainting, bed hopping in between ICU and normal wards, it turned out I had leaky gut. So in for surgery I went again. I came out with drains, nose time down to my stomach and loads of everything else into my arm. I have a pick line which all my meds go through and been fed nutrients the same way. If anyone is un familiar with a pick line, it is a mega canula that goes to the main artery above your heart. I have been nil by mouth for 2.5 of the 3 weeks I’ve been here. And guess what. I put 8kg on in a single week of fluid. Then I lost it. And yup. It sure as hell went that I didn’t not lose any weight doing that either. Lol. No food the whole time and i lost nothing. I have to say this though, the reason I didn’t show any signs in the obs was because I was so healthy. Losing weight at this stage is the last thing on my mind. I need to get healthy again to be able to lose weight properly and not be because I am sick. I am more appreciative of carrying that little bit extra because it got me through. Basically, even. The doctors were very concerned. I’ll be here a while still however I appreciate my body so much more than I ever have.

Probably bc eggs don’t agree with a lot of us for a while. It took me several months before I could tolerate them even though they were allowed during mushy food stage at 3 weeks.

Hi, I’m taking the bariatric multivitamin with iron (I’ll try to attach a pic). The first time I broke it open and dumped a little bit in my mouth with some water bc I wasn’t sure my stomach could handle the big pill or break down the capsule. I instantly vomited (first time since my surgery 4 weeks ago). Then today I took the whole pill hoping it would just break down. It didn’t hurt or get stuck, felt fine digestive wise, but within five minutes my mouth started watering and I vomited again. Ughhhh is there a chewable that has the same thing thisnone has? I don’t wanna take more than one pill a day so that’s why I bought this one. Thanks for any advice, I really appreciate it!

Agreed. I bought a multi vitamin gummy & my nut had stated I shouldn’t take gummy bc we can’t break them down fully as well as they usually aren’t withholding the same amount of vitamins as a regular capsule or multivitamin pill

Every time I make a healthy eating choice over what I would have eaten before I count as a victory! Now that I'm over a year out it is getting harder to do, my appetite has returned and so have my cravings for stuff that I should stay away from. A recent personal victory for me: When on vacation we were watching a shepherd demonstrate his working dogs herding sheep. He caught a sheep to shear and wanted a volunteer to come help. I never would have done it before because people were videotaping and I would not have wanted my fat body on camera! When no one else stepped forward, I did, and went up to shear a sheep with him, and then fed the lambs with a giant bottle. I was glad I got to experience it!

Um, she started the name calling with rude and ignorant. I responded with rude, insecure and judgmental. This is not the first time she has called me names. She is a bully. Just my opinion. Not sure about the rules on a unmonitored public internet forum as long as no porn or profanity but if I need to be disciplined BRING IT... I am not on anyone's side other than standing up to a bully know-it-all. She can and will keep spewing her BS and tearing down others. People like that have no conscience or consideration for the feelings of anyone. I am really done her now but continue discussing amongst yourselves and get those reports in!!

The following is a list of abbreviations commonly used on this board. ACL = Anterior cruciate ligament AGB = Adjustable gastric banding AMRAP = As Many Rounds As Possible (crossfit) AT = Aspiration Therapy BB = belly button bc = because BCBS = Blue Cross/Blue Shield BDD = Body Dysmorphic Disorder BED = Binge Eating Disorder bf = best friend BM = bowel movement BMI = Body Mass Index bp = blood pressure BPD = Borderline Personality Disorder or Biliary Pancreatic Diversion bs = blood sugar btw = by the way C25K = Couch Potato to Running 5K CBT = cognitive-behavioral therapy CC = common channel c diff = clostridium difficile cos or cuz = because CPAP = continuous positive airway pressure CRNP = certified registered nurse practitioners CT = Computed Tomography (commonly called CAT Scan) cw = current weight CXR = Chest X-Ray DDD = degenerative disc disease Dr. = doctor DS = Dumping Syndrome or Duodenal Switch EBT = Endoscopic Bariatric Therapies EGD = Esophagogastroduodenoscopy EKG = Electrocardiography ER = emergency room ESG = Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty ff = fat free f/u = follow up GB = gastric bypass GERD = gastroesophageal reflux disease GI = gastrointestinal GIF = Gastric Intrinsic Factor GNC = General Nutrition Corporation store GP = general practitioner or family doctor HBP = high blood pressure hr = heart rate hw = highest weight ICU = Intensive Care Unit Idk = I don’t know IGB = intragastric balloons IF = Intrinsic Factor IMHO = in my humble (honest) opinion IMO = in my opinion IUI = Intrauterine insemination LAP Band = Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band LES = lower esophageal sphincter lol = laughing out loud LSG = Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy med = medicine MFP = my fitness pal MGB = Mini Gastric Bypass msg = message NAFLD = nonalcoholic fatty liver disease NASH = Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis nf = non fat NG = Nasogastric NP = nurse practitioner NSAIDS = Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug NSV = non-Scale victory (“scale” means “weight scale”) NUT = nutritionist OA = Overeaters Anonymous omw = on my way Onederland = a magical place or destination for those trying to lose weight. It might correspond to attaining a weight in the hundreds or losing a hundred pounds. op = operation OSA = Obstructive Sleep Apnea OTC = Over the counter Oz = Australia PB = Productive Burps PCOS = Polycystic Ovary Syndrome PCP = Primary Care Physician PICC= Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter PM = private message (email) PMS = premenstrual syndrome POSE = Primary Obesity Surgery Endolumenal postop or post–op = post-operation or post-surgery PPI = Proton Pump Inhibitors ppl = people preop or pre-op = pre-operation or pre-surgery PTSD = Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder PVC = Premature ventricular contractions RA = Rheumatoid arthritis RH = reactive hypoglycemia RN = registered nurse RNY = Roux-en-Y RTD = ready to drink Rx = Prescription medicine RYGB = Roux-en-Y gastric bypass SADI-S = single anastomosis duodeno–ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy s/f or sf = sugar free SG = Sleeve gastrectomy SIPS = stomach intestinal pylorus-sparing surgery smh = shaking my head, scratching my head SO = significant other SOB = shortness of breath st = stones (a unit of weight measurement) sw = weight at surgery tmi = too much information TPN = total parenteral nutrition TT = tummy tuck TTC = trying to conceive Ty = Thank you. [but according to the urban dictionary “Ty” is also an abbreviation for “a total stud with a massive carrot”.] u = You UGI = Upper Gastrointestinal VSG = Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Vit = vitamin wks = weeks WLS = Weight Loss Surgery WOD = Workout of the Day w/o = without wt = weight

Mine was overnight at the hospital I had my surgery at. The room was set up like a hotel room. I had wires all over my head, legs and arms. I also had two straps with wires around my chest. I barely slept at all lol I was out by 6am and I went home, showered (bc you have goopy stuff all over your head from the leads) and slept for 6 hrs.

And of course someone who had surgery 17 years ago, failed and then a repeat 2 years ago does not even post their statss....your opinion really means a lot. Why don't you tell YOUR story of regain and where your are now. But jump in and run your mouth. pure class. There is no high horse, I am just working hard on making the changes I need to to feel better and be healthier. I don't seek or need the approval of others but I am fed up with the bullying that occurs on this site. I come here for information and friendship only. I do not need to try to denigrate others for their choices or make others feel like they are ignorant. You want to eat a ton of carbs that is your decision. Much easier to jump on that carbage bandwagon and have a muffin with the delusional and very rude queen of crappy carbs. Most people on here do not need to tear others down with their delusional stupidity but clearly you do.