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No wine/alcohol for one year?

shanshan

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shanshan    175

shanshan
Posted

I'm not a drinker but normally I'll have a glass of wine or martini on my birthday or special occasions (so about 8 glass of alcoholic beverages for the year). My surgery date is April 19 & I Celebrate my 30th bday in June. Also my brother getting married in Jamaica (island) in August & I'll be attending. Read a diary entry online that after bariatric surgery no alcohol for one year. It's Saturday so my nutritionist is not in office. Is it true? Did your surgeon or nutritionist said that no alcohol for one year? Thanks

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GradyCat    3,697

GradyCat
Posted

Mine hasn't told me that, but I have read that after surgery we have to be careful because with our new stomachs the alcohol will be intensified and affect us/make us drunk a lot faster.

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shanshan    175

shanshan
Posted

Mine hasn't told me that, but I have read that after surgery we have to be careful because with our new stomachs the alcohol will be intensified and affect us/make us drunk a lot faster.
Yeah mines didn't tell me that either only to stay away from regular soda.

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KCgirl061    1,533

KCgirl061
Posted

Most surgeons want you to obtain from alcohol but it will vary. I've seen 3 months, 6 months, a year.... There isn't a hard and fast rule of one year no alcohol.

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seaforest    562

seaforest
Posted

It may depend on the type of surgery you have. My surgery team said one year. I'm going with it because I've met a number of people now that have had bariatric surgery and alcohol became a problem for them. I don't want to become an alcoholic and I'm wary because it runs in the family. Oh, and yes, I work with individuals in recovery from addiction.

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RickM    1,753

RickM
Posted

Doctors' philosophy on this vary from a few weeks to never again depending upon their experiences. The basic issues are:

Healing - alcohol is somewhat corrosive to the stomach lining so one needs to give things a chance to heal first,

Alcohol tolerance - rapid stomach emptying means it tends to hit faster, and with less (i.e., a "cheap drunk") so care must be taken there,

Transfer addiction - we can no longer satisfy whatever addictive tendencies we have with food, so it is easy for transfer that addiction to something else, like alcohol, drugs, shopping, gambling, etc. What was a casual habit of a glass of wine with dinner occasionally can easily turn into full blown alcoholism.

Liver health - starting as morbidly obese, or worse, our livers are not usually in very good shape to begin with (hence the "liver shrinking" pre-op diets that are often prescribed) and the liver is further stressed from its role in metabolizing all that fat that we are rapidly losing. It doesn't need any more stress from ingesting a known liver toxin like alcohol (not a judgemental thing, just our physiology at work).

My surgeon is also a biliopancreatic (livers and pancreas) transplant surgeon, so he is in the no alcohol as long as we are losing weight camp (and ideally forever) and indeed we sign a contract to that effect - he doesn't want any of his bariatric patients coming back onto his transplant table!

Those are the issues in play, and some aspects bother different surgeons to different degrees, so they have different policies. Check with what your surgeon's policy is, and decide for yourself - we are all adults here.

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shanshan    175

shanshan
Posted

Most surgeons want you to obtain from alcohol but it will vary. I've seen 3 months, 6 months, a year.... There isn't a hard and fast rule of one year no alcohol.
Yeah I think it depends on the person & how our stomach heals. And thanks much for sharing.

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shanshan    175

shanshan
Posted

It may depend on the type of surgery you have. My surgery team said one year. I'm going with it because I've met a number of people now that have had bariatric surgery and alcohol became a problem for them. I don't want to become an alcoholic and I'm wary because it runs in the family. Oh, and yes, I work with individuals in recovery from addiction.

I'm getting the gastric bypass done next month. And thank you for sharing[emoji173]

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DaleCruse    756

DaleCruse
Posted

Know yourself. If you only have 1 or 2 on special occasions, you'll probably be fine. Me, on the other hand, I don't do moderation. I'm either all in or all out. I was a wine person before surgery 4+ years ago & stayed that way after. I lost 108 pounds & then regained 40 of it because I was drinking 1 to 2 bottles of wine a night every night. The horror stories you've read about are true for some people like me. I'm proud to say it's been almost 2 years since I had a drink & the weight is slowly starting to come off again. If I could change 1 thing post-op, it would be never starting to drink again. But that's me. Good luck, whatever you choose!

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SusieQ2019    567

SusieQ2019
Posted

I also drink on special occasion just the fruity drinks since I never found alchohol to be appealing to my taste. My nutritionist told me that I can drink a little alchohol during the appropriate stage after surgery, however that I must be mindful since alchohol offers no nutritional value.

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DaleCruse    756

DaleCruse
Posted

1 hour ago, SusieQ2019 said:

I also drink on special occasion just the fruity drinks since I never found alchohol to be appealing to my taste. My nutritionist told me that I can drink a little alchohol during the appropriate stage after surgery, however that I must be mindful since alchohol offers no nutritional value.

Great point about nutrition!

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shanshan    175

shanshan
Posted

I also drink on special occasion just the fruity drinks since I never found alchohol to be appealing to my taste. My nutritionist told me that I can drink a little alchohol during the appropriate stage after surgery, however that I must be mindful since alchohol offers no nutritional value.
Oh okay cool & Thanks for sharing[emoji173]

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Go To Topic Listing General Weight Loss Surgery Discussions

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    • Alisa_S

      Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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