greetings,

those of you post op: what surprised you after surgery? what happened that you didn’t expect or think of?

(gas issues, rate of weight loss, tiredness issues, food intolerances, other people reaction, or whatever else you were not prepared for)

I think for me it's how extreme food tastes so different now. I've always had a sweet tooth, but now the smell of sweet stuff makes me nauseous. Salty things burn my mouth. I'm still trying to find a happy medium but I'll get there eventually.

Oh, and how hard it is to squeeze all of my medications in. I take a lot of pills for migraines and seizures, add in the vitamins and supplements needed and I vomit from them. I'm still working on spacing these out.

29 minutes ago, St77 said:

Oh, and how hard it is to squeeze all of my medications in. I take a lot of pills for Migraines and seizures, add in the Vitamins and supplements needed and I vomit from them. I'm still working on spacing these out.

I'll second the one about medications. Between the supplements and meds I take, it sometimes feels like it takes me all day to get through taking everything. Many nights i stay up too late just trying to get through all the meds!

I knew it would be challenging, but I think I was also expecting to more quickly drop some of my meds. At this point, I dropped my diabetes med and one of my BP meds, but added 2 more (at least temporarily): ursodiol and omeprazole.

Nothing. Not to be a **** head. But, for literally 4-5 months I read everything you could imagine.

Read back for years on this forum and another one. Asked so many questions, talked to people who had WLS. Read every article I could find, even watched a few Utube videos.

I was so prepared. I wanted to know every single thing that MIGHT go wrong. Any side effect, changes that may or may not occur. Literally everything, good or bad.

So, nothing really surprised me although I will say I had about the smoothest recovery you could imagine. Which I am so grateful for!

1 hour ago, kcuster83 said:

Nothing. Not to be a **** head. But, for literally 4-5 months I read everything you could imagine.

….

I was so prepared. I wanted to know every single thing that MIGHT go wrong. Any side effect, changes that may or may not occur. Literally everything, good or bad

i am a lot like you… i have read so many firsthand accounts, medical research papers, clinical study results, forums etc etc …. still paranoid that i am missing something but that’s going to cause me issues or mental distress

For me it was the constipation, loose skin and food intolerance. There are some foods I still can't tolerate though I keep trying. I hate the constant constipation and I have tried so many things. I knew about the loose skin but really didn't grasp how bad it could be. Can't wait until I have skin removal surgery.

20 minutes ago, Candigrl1 said:

For me it was the constipation, loose skin and food intolerance. There are some foods I still can't tolerate though I keep trying. I hate the constant constipation and I have tried so many things. I knew about the loose skin but really didn't grasp how bad it could be. Can't wait until I have skin removal surgery.

a person i know uses xylitol based gummy bears to break constipation. gastric “side effects” happen with overconsumption of some sugar alcohols (a couple spoonfuls of the sweetener may work too)… the body can’t process it for energy so no calorie issues

1 hour ago, KimA-GA said:

a person i know uses xylitol based Gummy bears to break constipation. gastric “side effects” happen with overconsumption of some sugar alcohols (a couple spoonfuls of the sweetener may work too)… the body can’t process it for energy so no calorie issues

I'll check those out. Thanks

I was surprised that I have no restriction. 8+ weeks now and I’m fully on solid foods and still have no restriction. I’ve even pushed it a few times to just see what I can eat and it’s safe to say I have no restriction at all. I’m also hungry. I’m nauseous off and on and I just feel like the surgery hasn’t been a success at all. I was NOT prepared for that.

3 hours ago, KimA-GA said:

a person i know uses xylitol based Gummy bears to break constipation. gastric “side effects” happen with overconsumption of some sugar alcohols (a couple spoonfuls of the sweetener may work too)… the body can’t process it for energy so no calorie issues

Those do the same thing for my friend but I can eat as many as I want without any bathroom issues? Weird how it does that to some people but she uses them the same way. Lol

Like @kcuster83, I too did a lot of reading & I was fortunate who had a friend who’d had the surgery a good year before. My surgeon was very informative & gave me a book to read too. It was very reassuring to know what I was experiencing was to be accepted. Of course sometimes the actual experience can be different from what you imagined. And sometimes the degree to how we experience something can be less or more. If it is more be conscious of what may be too much more like too much pain or too much nausea. If you’re not sure give your surgeon or team a call to be certain all is okay or to get some meds or advice to manage it.

My recovery went pretty smoothly too. The only real issue I had was low energy & low blood pressure but that in itself was to be expected based on my own idiosyncrasies with those things.

Best advice for the constipation is keep on top of it. If I got to day 3 without movement, I’d take a stool softener. On the odd occasion I’d need to take two the next day but that would fix it. If it didn’t I probably would have tried a stronger laxative. Personally I have an issue with artificial sweeteners. Anything that continues to feed your desire for sweet things isn’t a good thing in my opinion. Xylitol can cause a lot of bloating too so tread carefully if you do decide to go down that path.

All the best.

Edited October 12, 20223 yr by Arabesque

I'm only 14 days post-op & learning how to eat again is the biggest shock so far. I used to be able to eat a 3 entree Chinese plates for 30-45mins non stop. Now that I'm in my puree stage it's interesting to feel myself get full & satisfied after minutes & w half an egg! I listen to my body say 'we're good' & I'm like 'oh, we're already full? We can stop ALREADY?!' then I proceed to tell my family how crazy it feels haha

Edited October 12, 20223 yr by bbykitty
removed auto sig

I developed a wheat allergy. What they don't tell you is that if you have a surgery with a malabsorption element then you have a 3% change of developing a wheat allergy or Celiac's Disease. I found out the hard way, but honestly? It's been a blessing in disguise. It keeps me on track. I can't eat fast food which I loved before surgery and eating out is next to impossible because it has to be a place that caters to people with food allergies and where I live we have like 1 gluten free place.

I guess since I'm a revision, Band to Bypass the only thing that surprised me is how natural Bypass feels. After having a torture device (Lap Band) for about 7 years, this feels so completely natural. I've had no food intolerances. Fried foods smell gross, that's the only thing that I've noticed. Like when you park at Publix, and you're walking inside and the deli is frying chicken and that smell is permeating the parking lot... ?

As for medication, I take my normal meds and vitamin in the morning with my proffee and then I have an alarm set on my phone for my calcium. Noon and 4 pm. I carry some calcium in my purse in case I'm not home. It's just part of wls that I committed to, so it's no big deal to me. And that's the extent of my meds for the day. Very doable, imo.

9 hours ago, Jen-ny said:

I was surprised that I have no restriction. 8+ weeks now and I’m fully on solid foods and still have no restriction. I’ve even pushed it a few times to just see what I can eat and it’s safe to say I have no restriction at all. I’m also hungry. I’m nauseous off and on and I just feel like the surgery hasn’t been a success at all. I was NOT prepared for that.

Sometimes restriction takes a bit of time to feel. Due to cut nerves. But I get what you're saying. For me, it depends on the foods that I eat, some offer more restriction than others. Like grilled chicken, denser proteins offer more restriction than say, Greek yogurt or crockpot shredded chicken. The bypass is just a tool, and it will not do all of the work for us, which I have to be mindful of now because when I had a lap band, that thing was so restrictive that almost everything got stuck and felt dense. So when you can, choose denser proteins and weigh/measure your food so your stomach and brain learns what your new "full" feels like.

I didn't lose my hunger either like a lot of people do. And I work out and lift weights and that has always made me hungrier, especially when I started weights again at 6 weeks post op. I never experienced nausea, but I know acid can cause nausea. Are you on an acid reducer?

Idk if surprised is the right word but I did not consider the possibility that I would go through the surgery and have a bigger than expected pouch. I still really don’t know why but the amount of food I could eat has been more than expected at every given stage since surgery. I never really feel restriction. I mean I do if I try to eat like before but I could always eat quite a Bit more than most others post surgery if I didn’t measure my food and just eat what I should. The good news Is that measuring worked. I was able to reach my conservative goal. I just wasn’t prepared for that issue.