I had a gastric sleeve on February 26 and recovery was dreadful. I'm pretty stoic when it comes to pain but I suffered miserably from the surgery. My weight loss has been painfully slow. For several days I've been terribly constipated so night before last I took Milk of Magnesia. Well it took effect last evening and I spent about 45 minutes in the bathroom until I felt that I was finished "going".

I woke up this morning thinking "oh well, my weight will finally be down a pound or two but I cannot trust it because of the diarrhea." WRONG! I was up a pound. I'm ready to bang my head against a wall. It seems to me that the surgery did me absolutely no good. Here I am 7 weeks out from surgery and have lost a measily 14 pounds and that's will next to starvation.

Very frustrated in Massachusetts.

Grace

I understand your frustration. If I had it to do again I wouldn’t have the surgery. Having the runs, general discomfort with eating one bite too much and food not tasting as good as it once did. I’ve been hammered for expressing my thoughts but, so be it. I’ve also noticed others that have had the surgery, in a few years, have gained their weight back.

I'm sorry you had a rough recovery.

I had a mini bypass March 16th and couldn't be happier.

Have you discussed your concerns with your surgeon or dr? Weight loss surgery does change your internal body rhythm so you might need to adjust diet and speak with a dietician?

Good luck xx

Weighing yourself daily can be very frustrating. Eat a huge meal, lose a pound. Cr*p out an elephant, gain two. Scales just aren't a super accurate depiction of day to day health and weight, they're just an easy one to use. I also suggest speaking to your surgeon and considering talking to a therapist. Good luck and feel better!

I completely get it. If I had to do it over, I am not sure if I’d make the choice. I can’t tolerate dense protein or protein drinks, I have the runs all the tome and no doctor wants to listen to me. My recovery was one of the most painful things I’ve experienced and I’m barley losing weight. I went from a heavy but healthy girl to a still heavy but always sick feeling one. I try and look at the positives but sometimes it’s just too much.

2 hours ago, Mando313 said:

I completely get it. If I had to do it over, I am not sure if I’d make the choice. I can’t tolerate dense Protein or Protein Drinks, I have the runs all the tome and no doctor wants to listen to me. My recovery was one of the most painful things I’ve experienced and I’m barley losing weight. I went from a heavy but healthy girl to a still heavy but always sick feeling one. I try and look at the positives but sometimes it’s just too much.

Hi Mando313,

When did you have your surgery and which did you have? I had the same issue in the beginning. Nurses/Dr. did not seem to believe what I was saying when it came to protein drinks, but man I would go all day long and it seemed like I wasn't loosing anything or at the least not as much as I should be in the beginning. For me, I realized I had to do each phase 1 or 3 weeks longer than what was recommended. I even mixed phases. For instance, if I was on the puree phase 3 weeks loner than what was recommended I'd eat one bite of protein that I cooked for my family. Eventually, after I backed off of protein drinks and moved to more solid proteins I tried the premier proteins and never had a problem again. Though it did take a really long time and I got to the point of not even sharing certain information with my nurses/DR. (not recommended) because I was being told things like "protein drinks are not going to give you diarrhea" or "you should only be going #2 once a day". Each person knows their body and each of us should follow Dr. orders but also use some self-common sense and do what is right for us personally.

@IAmGrace I felt the same way as I was having a really hard time. This is partially whey once I joined this website I had nothing at all to say because I did not want negative or mean comments about my true feelings about weight-loss surgery. I now think that weight-loss surgery can be a great tool but listening to your DR. along with people that have actually gone through it, especially gone through the same surgery as you, is going to be very helpful and encouraging. In just reading what others have said about the gastric sleeve, the sentiment seems to be almost the same (don't get me wrong, everyone has a different journey or experience but from what I read what you are experiencing seems to be very common with the type of surgery that you got). So, many people has said that there weight-loss was very so in the beginning. I've even seen posts where peoples weight-loss stalled or even went up a bit, but each person, if they have been on the journey for a year or more has said that they lost more weight and although they are approaching their goal slowly, they are now in a place where they no longer regret the surgery because according to them the benefits outweigh the horribleness and slowness in the beginning. I really hope that this gives you some encouragement.

I’m sorry you are struggling at the moment @IAmGrace & had a difficult post surgery recovery. The reality of the changes to your life after surgery can be difficult to come to terms with at first. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of us questioned our decision to have the surgery at some point along the journey. It might have been a temporary thought or maybe it twisted us in knots. It may be of help to talk about what you’re feeling with a therapist.

Reading the posts in this forum you’ll see that everyone loses at different rates some large amounts each week and others slow & steady. We have stalls, we gain, we lose. You’ve been losing approx 2lbs a week. This is considered a healthy rate for weight loss by many doctors & dieticians. I probably averaged 1-1.5kg (2-3lbs) a week. If I had been able to lose this much weight each week before my surgery I would have been celebrating big time.

I found that after a bout of constipation, my weight wouldn’t change for a day or two. Our bodies react to the changes of weight loss & reduced food intake differently. You could have been retaining fluid. Your body could be holding onto your weight in response to your weight loss, reduced food intake & change of diet - like a shock to your system.

Give yourself & your body time to adjust. And don’t judge your progress solely by the numbers on the scale.

@iamgrace I am so sorry you are struggling! What a terrible 6 weeks you've had, and now the whole dahm world has turned inside out. I have been adding fiber to my first glass of water every day...2 tsp... that has helped me get more regular.

On 04/14/2020 at 12:14, xring3 said:

I understand your frustration. If I had it to do again I wouldn’t have the surgery. Having the runs, general discomfort with eating one bite too much and food not tasting as good as it once did. I’ve been hammered for expressing my thoughts but, so be it. I’ve also noticed others that have had the surgery, in a few years, have gained their weight back.

Is this true of all VSG patients? Your post makes me concerned. I’ve never had sgy but am willing to do this to get my health back on track now before I really develop serious issues. Many of mine all stem from being obese. I would hate to lose the weight, only to regain it all back and be back at square one. I suppose all I can do is try.

On 04/14/2020 at 16:37, Mando313 said:

I completely get it. If I had to do it over, I am not sure if I’d make the choice. I can’t tolerate dense Protein or Protein Drinks, I have the runs all the tome and no doctor wants to listen to me. My recovery was one of the most painful things I’ve experienced and I’m barley losing weight. I went from a heavy but healthy girl to a still heavy but always sick feeling one. I try and look at the positives but sometimes it’s just too much.

I suppose that’s the benefit of forums such as this. It allows you to express ALL you feel/go through with weight loss surgery, good, bad or otherwise. Least you can vent here and connect with people who can relate you know.

Is this true of all VSG patients? Your post makes me concerned. I’ve never had sgy but am willing to do this to get my health back on track now before I really develop serious issues. Many of mine all stem from being obese. I would hate to lose the weight, only to regain it all back and be back at square one. I suppose all I can do is try.

Just remember there is no turning back.