I am now on the waiting list to have gastric bypass surgery after taking the prep classes that start in a couple of weeks. I've bought the Dummy book and some cookbooks for post op but I have a few questions still.

1. Post Op, do you feel hungry like you used to when your stomach was normal size?

2. Do you still have cravings? Does anything help with that besides making sure I'm hydrated?

3. How much weight do you really lose right away?

4. If I keep up exercising after surgery say about 15-20 minute daily walks will that keep me from having the excess skin leftover? Will it help at least?

5. Aside from going to Mexico, has anyone found a cheaper way to finance this surgery? Insurance will cover a big portion of mine but I'll still have to pay about $9,000 out of pocket.

6. How has this affected your family and meal times with them? Is it difficult to watch your family eating a bunch of goodies and you can only eat liquid or soft things for the first few months? How do you cook for the entire family and yourself?

I'm sure I'll have more questions after someone answers these but thank you in advance!

Tara

I am going to try to answer your questions:

1. Post op you sometimes have to eat by the clock because you don't feel hungry. But you need to eat small amounts several times a day and get your Protein in.

2. I never had cravings and actually found that my tastes had changed. Did not want sweets at all.

3. Very different for everyone. It depends on what you can eat, protein intake and such. I had no appetite so started losing very fast. If I remember correctly, by my 2 week checkup with the surgeon I had lost over 20 pounds.

By 7 months I passed my goal of 140 and have been holding steady at 117 or 120 ever since.

4. This also depends on diet and exercise. Also on age, as older skin has much less collagen. If your younger you have a better chance of less skin.

5. This one I have no answer for. Mine was totally covered by medicare and mass health. I am on disability, guess I was lucky for that. I'm sorry you have to pay so much. Just my opinion, not everyone's, I would not go to Mexico. I think our medical facilities are higher standards. I have no personal knowledge or experience though.

6. I really had no appetite, so I didn't care what they were eating. I live with my sister, so she did all her own cooking. When my appetite returned after several months, I cooked dinner and ate a small plate. It was very hard reintroducing ckicken or beef. Red meat was the worst.

I know you didn't ask this but here goes. It's been a year on December 5th. Now I am starting to crave some sugar and other bad things. I have to make

sure I don't slip. So it doesn't cure everything, but it is a great help. Medical issues resolve, and you can once again do things that had become difficult.

I hope I was of some help. Email me anytime at emmafiona0926@gmail.com. I would be happy to help anyway I can.

Happy holidays to you and your family.

Maggie

Thank you so much for all of the information!

Congratulations on reaching your year+ mark. Don't worry, I won't go to Mexico...again. About ten years ago I went through a serious bout of depression and was only about twenty pounds over weight but went to Mexico and had the band put in. Even the doctor told me it wouldn't work but he did it anyway because I was paying. Now I actually really need it.

Let me ask you this and I'm also going to post it to everyone, too but have you had other bariatric surgery before? Is there a difference in pain or recovery time? I'm hearing how much pain some of these folks are in and I had absolutely no trouble with the band EXCEPT for such bad gas pains for a few days that I thought I was having a heart attack but as soon as those subsided I was hungry and able to eat anything. I just had the band removed about 18 months ago because quite literally my pouch had grown to almost the size of the other half. Just asking because I'm trying to gauge my recovery time for work.

You also said you had no appetite during the holidays last year, because you didn't feel hungry? How about cravings? I'm pretty sure that's why I eat all the time. Did you feel nauseous, sick, achy, not hungry, out what? It took you a few months to be able to eat regular foods? I don't eat too many sweets or very often but I love meat and fruit. If I could actually afford to only eat fruit I'd be thinner and healthier but who can afford to only eat fruit? Lol.

You lost 140 pounds in about 7 months, holy crap! I thought you should only lose about 10lbs per month? I'm at 275 now and would love to see 140/150 but I'd be happy just getting down to 200 again.

Sorry if some of the words are wrong. I'm in my phone and auto correct is stupid sometimes. Lol

Thanks again! I'm excited, I start my classes on the 7th for six weeks and then they are looking about the beginning of March for surgery. I can't wait.

Talk soon!

Tara