Foxbins

Three weeks since I came home. I have been hurting since Tuesday. Not "give me narcotics" hurting, but enough to be taking regular doses of Tylenol. My insides feel tight, like I'm wearing a corset under my skin, and every once in a while there is a little stabby pain. Mostly I don't notice it when I'm awake but when I try to sleep it interferes. I'm not vomiting, nauseated, constipated, dehydrated, or unable to pass gas so I'm pretty sure everything is okay inside and I'm just feeling things healing, probably some adhesion formation too. In contrast to the sleeve, this surgery feels like my insides were rearranged. So far I've been able to eat anything I've tried, I had some boiled rice and some ground pork with hoisin sauce, some peanut butter, some chicken salad, all good. I might try some oatmeal soon. I lost another pound last week but as I add more calories back I think I will be okay. I'm still waking up with a dry mouth but not as bad as it was.

Not California Guy, but I had to have my gall bladder removed a year after VSG. I don't even know it's gone.

I did not have reflux before I had my sleeve, I developed it about 2 years after surgery. It made my life miserable. I regurgitated everything I swallowed, woke up in the middle of the night with acid filling my mouth and throat, and developed an esophageal stricture from the acid. I loved my sleeve and worked with a surgeon for several years to try to come up with an alternative to a bypass. We considered several options but none were as likely to work as well as bypass. I had mine on 6/29 and it has been a life-changer. No more acid. No more regurgitation. No more cutting food into tiny pieces to fit down a 12mm esophagus. Please, think long and hard about a sleeve if you have reflux now. I was afraid of dumping, too, but so far, haven't.

Don't be surprised if you can swallow liquids very easily. Like other people have mentioned, restriction is different with a bypass. I had none with liquids, very little with pureed food. Now that I'm eating soft meats I can feel it. Good luck, I am rooting for you!

I had my surgery on 6/29 too. I didn't poop for a week after, partly due to the fact there is very little fiber in liquids and partly due to the anesthesia that slows everything down. Now I take a psyllium capsule in the morning, make sure I drink at least 2 liters of fluid a day, and I added a probiotic and active culture yogurt to my diet. Some people use Colace or Miralax. If you are truly blocked that's a surgical emergency and you'll have severe pain, vomiting, cramping, and swelling in your abdomen.

I'm noticing that my recovery is kind of a plateau and then an improvement. I'll go a couple of days feeling okay, and then wake up one morning and feel noticeably stronger. I'm walking 2500 steps a day and intend to increase by 500 each week until I'm at 6000. I think I will start lifting some 8 lbs weights for my arms and start doing some squats too. At this stage of my food plan, I have no restriction or feelings of fullness, so I have been looking for a signal so I don't overeat. I think I have found it--twice I have felt a dull pain in my right shoulder while eating. I've decided to pay attention to it. The glue over my incisions balled up and rolled off in the shower a couple of days ago except for the largest incision next to my bellybutton, and there is still a scab where my drain was. There are also some bumps under my incisions but I remember them from my sleeve surgery and know that they go away. At this point, the biggest issue I have is that while sleeping, my mouth is wide open and I wake up with a dry mouth unlike anything I've ever experienced. I'm fine during the day, and I don't understand why I've apparently stopped breathing through my nose at night. It's annoying and uncomfortable. I am hoping it resolves on its own soon.

I have. I live near the Pacific Crest Trail and do sections of it from time to time. I use a Camelbak water reservoir and just kind of eat all day when I'm hiking. Jerky, trail mix, cheese, etc. Dehydrated prepared lunches and dinners, oatmeal for breakfast.

@Groovymommy I hate calcium chews too. An alternative is liquid calcium citrate until you heal enough to take the tablets. I use Reviva Liquid Calcium. It's vaguely blueberry flavored and the texture is like milk of magnesia, but I can put it in milk, shakes, or just slurp it off the tablespoon. Also, I've been cold since my sleeve in 2011. I wear a sweater most days and have a heated mattress pad on the bed. You are doing wonderfully well, congratulations!

Is this off to the left side? Like a little below your rib cage? It looks like the hole the drain is pulled through, and it should have scabbed over by now. Call the doc, and I hope it clears up soon.

Because I was at goal and having the revision because of intractable GERD, the dietary instructions for RNY really don't apply to me. The texture progression does, liquid to pureed to soft to regular food, but the caloric advice doesn't. So I scouted around on the web. Gastrectomy and intestinal rerouting has been done a long time for GI cancers. There is a surgery called a Billroth II that is almost the same as RNY so I have been following dietary guidelines for them--whole milk and full fat yogurt, mashed potatoes with small amounts of butter, basically avoiding low-fat and low-sugar options without taking in so much fat and sugar that I might dump. We'll see how it works, I only weigh myself once a week and there are a few more days to go. Last night I woke up at 2 am and had to pee. When I got back in bed, my abdomen, inside and out, ached and throbbed. I have no idea what happened, maybe I twisted getting out of bed. I tried to deep breathe enough to relax and go back to sleep but couldn't. I ended up taking half an oxycodone (2.5 mg). Tylenol probably would have worked but it was in the bathroom and the oxycodone was in the drawer of the nightstand. First painkiller of any kind I've taken since July 5.

I weighed myself on Sunday--137 lbs. My lowest weight after the sleeve was 132 and I'd really like not to go below that with the bypass. I have been trying to get the chewable bariatric vitamins down (BariSlim with 45mg iron) but they just seem to irritate my intestines and they make my poop orange, which is weird to see. The nutritionist at the hospital suggested Flintstones but Amazon reviews say the formula has changed and there isn't enough iron, even at a double dose. I have almost a full bottle of Costco Mature Multi vitamins that I was taking before the bypass and tolerated well and I can cut the tablets in half to make them easier to swallow. I'm thinking if I take 2x the dose, and supplement with the Feosol iron and the sublingual B12 I was taking with the sleeve, that should be adequate supplementation. I have to contact my endocrinologist about calcium, my levels were high last December and he cut the dosage to 500mg/day. No reflux, no dumping (but haven't challenged myself) no regurgitation. Walking a mile a day. Sometimes have to take a nap in the afternoon but not always.

You should be fine. I live alone so I spent my first few days drinking my fluids and protein, peeing, and taking a short walk each afternoon. I'm 2 weeks post-op RNY tomorrow and feeling much stronger, did light loads of laundry yesterday and went grocery shopping today.

I had my sleeve post-menopause at age 55. I lost 100 lbs and kept it off. Developed GERD and converted to bypass 2 weeks ago. I don't think being post-menopausal had anything to do with my success, I think it was the right surgery for me at the time and I had a great surgeon. If I had it to do all over again I'd still have a sleeve first. catwoman is right when she says the surgery helps but it's not going to work if you don't do your part. Chocolate and ice cream slide down a sleeve very easily. I saw the scale start to creep up when I relaxed my vigilance but fortunately resolved the problem before it became more than 5 lbs, which were not too difficult to lose.

Yes, I felt like a big fat slob even after getting to goal. What helped me (but will be difficult in pandemic times) was trying on clothes and asking the salesperson for their opinion. I started to see myself as thin when I was trying on a jacket and the salesperson said, "You really need a six, you're kind of narrow." Never before in my life had someone described me as narrow.

@_Chonk_, the drain was placed during the operation. Please, don't worry. I had my sleeve nine years ago and everything went perfectly. I lost 100 lbs, stabilized at 137, and kept it off. Complications are rare.

@_Chonk_, GERD gave me an esophageal stricture that was fixed with a myotomy, cutting through the muscular outer layer of the esophagus to let the inner layer expand. I also had a small hernia repaired. So in total with the bypass I had three procedures done. It was a four hour surgery. My surgeon suspects bleeding from one of the staple lines, but he doesn't know which one. I had a drain for nine days.

Good call by your wife! And the fluid is better out than in, hoping you will feel better soon.

When I have been discharged, no one has to sign anything, but a hospital employee took me to the exit and saw that I got into the "medical transport" vehicle. Also, where I live, there are taxicab companies that qualify as "medical transport" though Uber and Lyft do not. You might check the regulations in your area.

I am so sorry your surgery had complications. I had a sleeve to bypass revision for GERD on 6/29. I was unable to stand up to begin walking without becoming tachycardic and dizzy on 7/1. My hemoglobin was 7.1 and I got 2 units of packed red cells. I felt much better afterward. My drain was left in for 10 days as I continued to produce a lot of blood from the chest. My surgeon suspects I bled from several areas as I had more than one procedure done. I feel much better now. I hope you feel better soon, you have been through a lot.

My surgery was 6/29. Naps are good!

The drain was removed today, the output was down to about 30cc in 24 hours. When they removed the drain from my sleeve surgery, there was this sort of funny slithery sensation inside. Today I felt nothing. The stab incisions, covered in glue, are starting to itch and I'll be happy when the glue is gone. Some is flaking already. I weighed in at 140.7, I'm happy I haven't lost, but I think I still have a lot of fluid in me. My abdomen is pretty swollen and has turned green, yellow, and purple from the bruising. I'm getting sick of the protein drinks and I've started cutting them with skim milk. It makes them less sweet.

I saw my surgeon yesterday and because the drain is still putting out so much bloody liquid, he left it in. The ER did labs on Sunday and my hemoglobin looks good. The surgeon wonders if I didn't have a big clot inside that has been dissolving over the past week and causing the blood in the drain. He didn't sound terribly sure that was the cause, but just threw it out there as a possibility. I go back on Thursday for another drain check. Drain volume has been decreasing and I'm hoping it will continue. Eating and drinking are fine. Liking my blenderizied soups because they aren't sweet and I'm tolerating them well.

My surgery was nine years ago and I'm still cold all the time. I wear a sweater most days and I have a heated mattress pad I sleep with turned on all year round.

Well, I just got home from the ER. I was standing at the sink, fixing the cat's food, when I felt dizzy and weak and sweaty. The ER said I'm dehydrated but I swear I drank 64+ oz of fluid on Saturday--14 oz soup, 28 oz protein shakes, 32 oz crystal light, and a glass of skim milk. I wonder if I had a little dump episode--for breakfast I had half a protein shake topped up with some of that Fairlife milk. Neither one should cause dumping but who knows? I think getting used to my new insides is going to be all trial and error. Anyway, I'm supposed to get my drain out tomorrow, It's still putting out 40 cc of bloody fluid every 12 hours so I am going to ask about a scan to look for a bleeder, but who knows if I'll get one. Part of me thinks that if everything is okay my surgeon should have pulled the drain on Friday when he discharged me home, but he didn't, leading me to think that he was hoping for a decrease in the volume over the weekend, which isn't happening. Still no reflux and I am so frigging happy not to be regurgitating everything I swallow I can't even say. What a relief.

I had my revision done on 6/29. There were a few little hiccups--after surgery I couldn't pee, so I needed a catheter, and I lost quite a lot of blood and needed 2 units of packed red blood cells transfused, which upped my hemoglobin level enough to where I'm anemic now but not fainting when I stand up. It was a long surgery, as I had three procedures done--a myotomy to fix the esophageal stricture I got from GERD, a hernia repair, and the RNY. I was originally supposed to come home on July 1, but my drain was still bloody and filling quickly, so I stayed until this afternoon, 7/3. I still have the drain, it's supposed to come out Monday. I have had two episodes of "heartburn" but neither were in my new stomach, but in the intestine, because the burning is above my bellybutton but below my rib cage. My stomach is much higher up and has not hurt at all. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I am not regurgitating everything I swallow and that I can sleep through the night without acid crawling up into my mouth. My nurse was quite concerned when I finished an 11 oz. protein shake in fifteen minutes, but the surgeon told her it was fine as long as I could tolerate swallowing things that fast. Because I'm at goal and don't want to lose any more weight, he also said for the next two weeks I could eat anything I could pour, but to be careful of sugar and fat content in case I dump. This brought back memories of a Saturday Night Live sketch called "Bass-O-Matic" (it's on YouTube, it's a hoot) but blending a whole fish is not on the menu. I have not had much pain, mostly gas because he had to operate so high up in the chest he put a lot of gas in. I came out of surgery with both eyes swollen shut because the gas seeped into my face, but it is mostly gone now. Now it looks like I have bags under my eyes. I loved my sleeve and tried everything to keep it but the GERD was just too bad. Hoping I come to love the bypass too.