So this is a weird issue... I am down 77# from my surgery weight, and am very happy with the results thus far. However, I cannot cough deeply anymore or belly laugh like I used to. I used to have a very distinctive loud laugh, and I literally cannot do it anymore at all. Same with the coughing... you know when you have phlegm deep down and you want to cough a deep inside rattling cough to break it up and get it out? I can't do that any more.

Any one else experience this? Is it indicative of some bigger problem (hernia, Fluid in lungs)? I have no adverse symptoms to report.

So this is a weird issue... I am down 77# from my surgery weight, and am very happy with the results thus far. However, I cannot cough deeply anymore or belly laugh like I used to. I used to have a very distinctive loud laugh, and I literally cannot do it anymore at all. Same with the coughing... you know when you have phlegm deep down and you want to cough a deep inside rattling cough to break it up and get it out? I can't do that any more.

Any one else experience this? Is it indicative of some bigger problem (hernia, Fluid in lungs)? I have no adverse symptoms to report.

Hi. Yes, I've noticed I can no longer cough as I used to. This was very disturbing to me when I had a severe chest cold and bronchitis which led to pneumonia. I'm now down about 95 lbs and at the time I had lost a total of about 80-85 lbs.

I do believe that once I healed completely from that period of illness my lungs were stronger and therefore my cough had a little more force to it. Now that I've read your post I'm totally curious to see how my cough is at the moment, but I just had my gall bladder removed and coughing hurts!

I'm interested to hear what others have to say as well. Thanks for bringing this up!

Lisa

I cough and laugh the same as before surgery. I wonder if some nerves for those functions were cut in your case--maybe they will grow back with time.

Yeah, this is abnormal, and I WOULD talk to your surgeon and/or PCP about it, as it is a bit of a concern for pneumonia.

Most likely, some of the nerves connecting to the diaphragm were injured or cut. I've never heard of this before with the VSG. My experience is that neither of these things (laugh tone, cough strength) have changed for me.