April 2024 Surgery Buddies

[vsg.molly 3]

Hi yall! I had my surgery on Monday (4/22). I’m going well at home. The gas pains are starting to subside and my soreness is beginning to lessen. I’m struggling to figure out my fullness cue vs what is just gas. Any tips on how to determine the fullness cue as I advance to full liquids tomorrow?

[lily06 54]

On 04/25/2024 at 00:42, vsg.molly said:

Hi yall! I had my surgery on Monday (4/22). I’m going well at home. The gas pains are starting to subside and my soreness is beginning to lessen. I’m struggling to figure out my fullness cue vs what is just gas. Any tips on how to determine the fullness cue as I advance to full liquids tomorrow?

I found it hard the first 3 -5 days but once the internal swelling calmed down i kind of focused on feeling drinks or food going down. I’d spend 30 minutes mentally following the mouthful and trying to identify what i felt. In the end i’ve notice a sort of tension in the stomach as the first sign of being full.

Then there were other random signs : hiccupping is the strangest one, and for the first week i’d get a runny nose if i’d eaten too much

It’s all so new but we’ll work it out - good luck 😊

[Elizabeth21again 18]

Hello!

I try to stop a bit "early." I figure after a few minutes if I feel I need more I can have a couple more bites, but, if I get overfull I will spend a lot of time feeling miserable.

Best wishes!

Elizabeth

[LAMamma 6]

Hi all, I'm LeighAnn and just had surgery on 4/24. I did ok in the hospital, came home on 4/25, and felt fine on 4/26, but yesterday and today I'm really struggling with nausea when I try to drink the Protein Shakes. I'm also struggling with really bad lower back pain. Anyone know what that might be all about?

[wendy4energyrenewal 20]

On 4/26/2024 at 7:14 PM, Elizabeth21again said:

Hello!

I try to stop a bit "early." I figure after a few minutes if I feel I need more I can have a couple more bites, but, if I get overfull I will spend a lot of time feeling miserable.

Best wishes!

Elizabeth

8 hours ago, LAMamma said:

Hi all, I'm LeighAnn and just had surgery on 4/24. I did ok in the hospital, came home on 4/25, and felt fine on 4/26, but yesterday and today I'm really struggling with nausea when I try to drink the Protein Shakes. I'm also struggling with really bad lower back pain. Anyone know what that might be all about?

Congrats, LeighAnn! I also had back pains and it ended up being the gas from the surgery. It dissipated after about 4 days, and I felt much better. Remember to drink REALLY slowly and the nausea hopefully will lessen as well. I had some nausea just because at this point, I am SO tired of Protein shakes! I still have a little trouble 12 days out, but trying different flavors helped some as well as the slow-paced drinking.

[LAMamma 6]

@wendy4energyrenewal Thanks for the welcome. I'm one week out now and the nausea with Protein Shakes seems to have lessened (I'm just already tired of them). I did figure out that mixing the shakes with Water and ice made it a little more tolerable ... the thickness of the pre-made shakes is not sitting well.

Wow, 2 weeks on pure liquid didn't sound like much but after a week, I'm really starting to feel deprived. I'll make it, but I'm already planning some pureed meals!!

Edited May 2, 2024 by LAMamma

[pamela 10]

How are all my April buddies doing so far? I’ve lost about 20lbs so far.

[Lorna Nicole 13]

1 hour ago, pamela said:

How are all my April buddies doing so far? I’ve lost about 20lbs so far.

Hey Pamela! That is amazing 👏

I am doing well, I had surgery on the 10th of April and lost 34 lbs so far x

[wendy4energyrenewal 20]

On 5/18/2024 at 2:35 PM, pamela said:

How are all my April buddies doing so far? I’ve lost about 20lbs so far.

Hi, all. I am just over a month out and losing okay. I've lost 27 pounds. I'm having trouble advancing to the soft foods, in particular meats. I must have a repeat upper GI and possible endoscopy to see what could be going on. My doctor said he's worried about either an esophageal stricture at the stomach or an ulceration. Fun times. I'm sooo tired of Protein shakes! I guess that shakes in some quantity will be a part of my life for a while though. I'm so glad to hear that you, Pamela and Lorna Nicole are doing well.

[LAMamma 6]

Hey everyone, just wondering how it's going.

I'm 6 weeks since surgery and my weight has stalled. I'm down a total of 34 lbs, but almost 1/2 of that was pre-surgery. I was losing quite nicely for the first 5 weeks, but this week is just staying steady and even going up a bit 😥. Is this normal? This week is back to "regular foods" although I'm mostly still on soft foods because I'm not tolerating any thing else yet.

Edited June 5, 2024 by LAMamma

[wendy4energyrenewal 20]

19 hours ago, LAMamma said:

Hey everyone, just wondering how it's going.

I'm 6 weeks since surgery and my weight has stalled. I'm down a total of 34 lbs, but almost 1/2 of that was pre-surgery. I was losing quite nicely for the first 5 weeks, but this week is just staying steady and even going up a bit 😥. Is this normal? This week is back to "regular foods" although I'm mostly still on soft foods because I'm not tolerating any thing else yet.

Try not to be too discouraged at your "stalled weight loss." Your body has undergone a lot of change and just needs time to catch up and adjust. If you're following the recommendations, I'm guessing the stall will only be for a week or so. That was my experience. I am 7 weeks out from my RNY, and I had a "stall" as well, which lasted about 5 days. Since that point, I have had a pattern of staying the same weight or even increasing a pound or two for 3-4 days of the week, and then having a 2-3 pound per day drop for the other days in the week. As long as I am trending down, I don't care how I get there. Also, I'm curious about your not tolerating foods past soft. I had immediate trouble when I tried to advance to meats, and had testing done which revealed a surgical stricture. My body had reacted to the surgery site by closing down too much. I had an endoscopy with dilation and am doing better. I do still have to really focus when I eat to not eat too fast or too much. When my pouch gets too full, I get chest pain, which is just me feeling that stretch of the pouch. We all will experience differences in our bodies. I think it's really important that we all listen to our bodies and learn our new subtle signals in order to have success.

[LAMamma 6]

Wendy,

Thanks for the info. I'll just keep at it and trust that things will start trending down again soon.

As far as not tolerating things past soft, I have an appointment this afternoon so I'll discuss with my doctor. It hasn't been that long so I'm not too worried about it yet. I surprisingly have had no problem with chicken, but Pasta and rice don't go down at all! (Chest pain like you said, and it stays for almost an hour before it finally dissipates!) I would have thought those would be easier. I haven't tried any other meat other than ground beef. I think my boss is getting BBQ for a meeting today, so I might try a little something today.

Glad to hear your surgical stricture is much better now. I didn't know that was a potential issue.

[Mspretty86 472]

Hi April Surgery buddies how are we doing? How is the weight loss coming?

[wendy4energyrenewal 20]

13 minutes ago, Mspretty86 said:

Hi April Surgery buddies how are we doing? How is the weight loss coming?

Hi, Mspretty86. I love that you reached out. I forget about this forum. My surgery was April 16, and I have lost 71 pounds. I lose in chunks and then remain plateaued for weeks. Very strange, yet the scale shows a trending down line. My body feels weird. My skin is losing firmness as the fat cells diminish. I feel like I may have something else going on though. I do have more energy and less pain, which is huge for me. I'm curious how others are doing?

[LAMamma 6]

Hi Mspretty86 and wendy4energyrenewal. I'm doing ok, I'm down 51 lbs total (including the 15 pre-surgery), so the loss is slow, but continues to trend down. Of course I wish it was faster, but as long as it is on a downward trend, I'm pleased. No one at work has even noticed yet (or at least no one has commented), so that too is a little depressing.

I am not really feeling any differences from before other than I rarely ever feel hungry ... it's the weirdest thing and something I've never experienced before, I used to be hungry almost all the time!