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Does it get easier?



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I’m about 5 weeks out from surgery and food, while easier than the first two weeks, is still hard. It’s stressful because I’m nauseous all the time. Things I love I can’t have, even if they are healthy. I’m really struggling with if it’s going to be like this forever. I can barely eat more than two bites at a time. I just need to know if this gets better cause I’m really struggling. It’s making me irritable and not fun to be around.

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I’m struggling with this too. I’m 3 weeks post op and my surgeon seems to much more strict with my meal plan than a lot of others, so the food is getting quite monotonous. Not to mention it’s 4 weeks on the pureed diet for me. As for nausea, my Vitamins are the main culprit and my PCP prescribed me Zofran to help mitigate the nausea while I play around with my vitamins to see what works.

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I'm 3 months out. I am finally able to include things like carbs & it brought back A LOT of normalcy for me. I am also able to eat about 3-1/2 to 4 ounces of food which fills up a small bowl & visually it helps me a ton. It took me about 2-1/2 months for me to finally feel like myself again. It will come! It will get easier & having access to your old healthy favorites will bring comfort. I promise!

Edited by bbykitty

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Yes it does get way better & easier. Because we’re different & we heal & recover in our own time, there’s no real definitive time frame when this will happen for you. Your tummy becomes less sensitive & fussy, the sensitivity you may develop for certain tastes & smells goes, you feel more comfortable & confident about what you can eat, you can eat more & a wider variety of foods. And one day you’ll look back & go yep, I’ve come a long way from those first couple of weeks. In the meantime keep eating small bites slowly.

Remember too the restricted diet & staged return to eating specific foods is to support & not stress your healing tummy.

I wasn’t able or interested in eating much either. I ate from a teaspoon & each bite was barely 1/2 a teaspoon. I wasn’t eating 300 calories those first months & barely ate 900 at 6 months. Started with eating only 1/4 to 1/3 cup from purée. Got to almost a cup at 6 months. You will slowly but surely be able to eat more too.

Try some anti nausea meds to help with your nausea. Most are prescribed them initially. Ask for some or try some over the counter ones & see if they help. I had varying degrees of nausea in the morning for 8 months. It stopped when I stopped taking my Multi Vitamins (didn’t need them) - they’re often the culprit especially Iron.

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The first few months post-op are the hardest because you’re still healing from surgery and adjusting to a lot of changes, but you’re not yet getting the benefits of the weight loss. It’s very normal at this stage to have feelings of regret and wonder if the surgery was a mistake. As time goes by, though, it gets easier in many ways. You’ll be able to re-introduce more foods into your diet as well as get used to the changes that will become your new “normal.” And in the meantime, you’ll lose a lot of weight and get to experience life as a non-obese person. This rough part of your journey will be a blip in your memory, and if you’re like most of us, eventually your only regret will be that you didn’t do this sooner.

I’m 2.5 years out from gastric bypass and I can eat pretty much normally. I still avoid foods that are high in sugar or fat, and bread, Pasta, and rice, but I tolerate most foods and I eat pretty normal-sized portions. In fact, it scares me sometimes to see how much volume I can eat, and I have to be pretty careful to eat low-calorie foods. Sometimes I kind of miss the early post-op days when I could only eat a few bites at a time and was never hungry. Although it’s not fun, take advantage of this time because it will never be easier to lose weight than it is right now.

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I am 5 months out from surgery.

I had a rough time mentally that first month! Once I was past that, everything about this has been so much easier. When times are tough, think about why you had the surgery and remember that this stage is only temporary.

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Thank you everyone! It’s good to hear that it gets better - I keep forgetting I’m barely a month out.

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On 12/18/2022 at 4:04 PM, Courtney* said:

I’m about 5 weeks out from surgery and food, while easier than the first two weeks, is still hard. It’s stressful because I’m nauseous all the time. Things I love I can’t have, even if they are healthy. I’m really struggling with if it’s going to be like this forever. I can barely eat more than two bites at a time. I just need to know if this gets better cause I’m really struggling. It’s making me irritable and not fun to be around.

Hang in there, you're doing great!

This too shall pass. It might pass like a kidney stone, but it WILL pass! :)

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Everything will come with time, the main condition is waiting and understanding that nothing is in vain and you can not give up. Everyone goes this way differently, but what is certain is that everything will work out.

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    • 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

        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

      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

        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.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        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.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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