Sreeves

Congratulations on your surgery! I had a very complicated first post-op day. My surgery was 5 weeks ago today. They could not get my oxygen levels to stabilize and I had very severe nausea. I wasn't even out of bed until post-op day 2. By the end of that day (surgery was Wednesday, so postop day 2 was Friday) I was well enough to go home. I felt TONS better that last hospital day. I hope that today is a better day for you. Just remember to listen to what the nurses are telling you. They kept getting on me because I was ignoring my PCA, lol. I didn't want to get constipated! Please keep us updated on your progress. I am looking forward to you posting your progress once you are out of the hospital.

That's a lot of liquid!! I hope you are keeping good records, lol. Congratulations to both of you on your surgeries yesterday! Mine was 5 weeks ago today. The day after my surgery I was barely conscious, lol. My oxygen kept dropping into the 70s and I was extremely nauseous, so my recovery didn't start until 2 days post-op. I wish you both speedy recoveries. Welcome to the other side!

I have only had dumping syndrome once, thank goodness! I was eating canned Spam spread during the pureed food phase. I figured it had about the same amount of fat as the canned ham spread or babyfood meats I had been eating, so I did not check the label. Ooops. It is 27% fat and boy did I find out in a hurry!!! I felt like I had the flu for about an hour. Since then I read EVERY label to check all nutrients, but I especially check the fat content!

I am in perimenopause. I was having HORRIBLE problems with sweating profusely. I hated going to Walmart because I was drenched by the time I got in line, even if I was only there for a few minutes. I had my surgery on April 8 and have lost 35 pounds so far and I am happy to say that I have stopped that dreaded sweating. I can't take my hormones for 2 more weeks but honestly, I have had zero hot flashes or night sweats and the exercise-induced (shopping induced??) sweating is totally manageable at this point. Best of luck to you tomorrow. You will be amazed at just how much better you feel in a very short period of time!

I had surgery on March 8, and at about 3 weeks I stopped losing and actually "gained" 5 pounds! I read a lot of information about the 3-week stall, which appears to be pretty common, and I just kept doing what I was doing-60 grams or Protein daily with a combination of drinks and food (a LOT of tuna salad and cottage cheese) and the stall lasted about 10 horrible days. I have finally dropped that weight plus another 2 pounds. I felt the same way; like that was all the weight I was ever going to lose! This forum is awesome for encouragement. I am so glad I came here to get great advice and to find out that all of this is perfctly normal. Keep eating and drinking protein, limit carbs (I try to stay under 25 grams but occasionally end up at around 40-50 for the day) and get plenty of Water. The extra weight (for me I think I might have gotten a little dehydrated when I was at my lowest weight) and the stall WILL end.

@@Smye I think leaving the original recipies is fine. I love the evolution that happened right here on the forum and ended up being a brand new amazing blog and possibly a cookbook! It is a lot of fun to read just the way it is.

Oh sorry! I meant to say I like it as is. It's clean and simple (and delicious looking) and I think it will drive more people to the blog.

I really like the Egg Bake post for here. I am just now catching up on the whole thread (missed a few pages when I was here last!!) and I am SO happy to see you now have a blog! I will be following you both here and there. I am in fish mode right now, lol. My husband just returned home from the oil fields in ND so I anticipate a nice, long salmon summer. Salmon recipies would be greatly appreciated!

@Smye Oh. My gosh. These recipes look amazing!!! I am just starting into the soft foods phase and I am definitely looking forward to real food again. I also live in rural Washington. I am going to friend you so I can keep up with your posts. Thank you so much for sharing!

Thanks, everyone! I am talking about very severe constipation. I now have a fissure and it is excruciating. I have always been hypersensitive to Iron supplementation. When I was finally able to go all I could smell was the iron. I am definitely getting enough Water (I track it on Sparkpeople, about 60 oz a day). I stopped the Vitamins 3 days ago and today was the first day that was semi normal. At least I don't feel completely bloated anymore. I was starting to get worried! I am thinking once I do reintroduce iron (at a later date, for sure!) I will not be taking 2 vitamins a day that contain iron. I will do one with and one without and see where my bloodwork is. I have been drinking V8 with Fiber but it has a lot of carbs and I stalled in my weight loss for over 2 weeks. I am FINALLY starting to lose again, thank goodness. I was starting to think I was never going to lose another pound, lol! I see my surgeon again in July but if I feel like my iron might be low I will have my GP order a panel to check it. I definitely want to keep taking all my other vitamins, and I will try the Centrum Silver and see how well I tolerate those. Thanks again for all of your advice!

Okay, folks, I am looking for some support here. Has anyone else experienced a histamine reaction at the sites of their heparing injections? My case seems to be a little strange because the reaction didn't happen until 10 days after surgery. I honestly thought I had somehow gotten a flea in the waistband of my pants! Then the next day I noticed the one on my upper arm. That one didn't itch as bad as some of the abdominal one, at least not for the first couple of days, but after a few days it struck me that every one of these hives is at the site of a heparin injection! I mentioned it to my surgeon at my 2-week post op visit and he agreed that yes, they are at my injection sites, but he said he had never heard of an allergic reaction taking so long to present itself. Tomorrow will be 21 days postop and I still have very large, very itchy plaques at every site. I finally found some Benadryl capsules so I just took one hoping to at least relieve the itching, but should I be worried that this isn't going away? Thoughts?

Maybe that's why, at 3.5 weeks postop, I still have bruises on my arms from where they tried to take blood. I have terrible veins, lol. I still have the hives but they do seem to be getting better. They don't itch all the time now, just occasionally. So weird!

Hi Alexis! I won't be 4 weeks postop until next Wednesday but, like Fuzzy, I am at the 3-week stall. This site is awesome for support and I am finding lots of us who had surgery right around the same time. Welcome aboard!

I have it, too. I found that sucking on a sugarless candy (I love the Jolly Rancher ones!) helps a lot.

I had my band removed in December and had the worst gas pain I have ever had from that. It radiated into my left shoulder for about 4 days. Fortunately it wasn't as bad with bypass (3 weeks ago) but even that lasted 3 days. I am sorry you are having bad gas pains. I know how much that hurts, and unfortunately the only thing that really worked for me was time.

I gained, too, these past couple of days. I am meeting Protein and Water requirements, but I am also battling constipation. I actually "gained" 4 pounds since 2 days ago, and that is after a week-long plateau just 2 weeks postop. My surgery was on April 8, and I am also right around 30 pounds total. It's very frustrating, but I keep hearing that I am doing everything right and eventually my body will catch up to my miniature meals, lol. I have been reading about the "3-week stall," which, apparently, is an actual thing! I am sorry you are stuck in the same place I am, but it does help me to see that this is very normal. I wish you the best! @@fuzzyfeline

Well it has been an interesting week, to say the least. I saw my surgeon last Friday and was bumped up to the pureed-food phase. Woot! He said that my 30-pound weight loss is actually ahead of schedule, but most of that was lost during the liquid preop diet. I stalled for 5 whole days last week. Ugh, how frustrating. He was very reassuring, though, and I know exactly what I am putting into my body every day because I track it all on Sparkpeople. These last 2 days I am actually UP 4 pounds! WTH! I am chalking it up to the constipation I have been having. Hopefully that rectifies itself by tomorrow. I asked my surgeon about the 8 large hives I have on my lower abdomen and the one on my upper right arm. I started itching a week ago and I thought a flea had gotten into th waistband of my sweats. It took me until Thursday to realize that these hives actually line up perfectly with where I got my heparin injections in the hospital. My surgeon agreed with me; they are my heparin injection sites. How werid is that???? He had never heard of that before and neither have i. Who gets an allergic reaction 2 weeks after the fact? Oh yeah, I do. :\ Also, my back is out. Like, out-out. I can only takes a few steps without that nerve catching on an osteophyte and it is really incredibly frustrating. After all, I am supposed to be walking!!!!! Just sitting here on the couch is doing nothing for my hemorroids, either. But-and it's a big but, I am very happy that those first 30 pounds are gone. I am happy with all of the support I have and I have gotten lots of encouragement from my bariatric team and my family, so I know all of these issues are temporary. I did experience a little bit of dumping syndrome 2 nights ago, probably from the Spam Spread I ate, and I am NOT a fan. No more of that, I say! I am still very happy I got this surgery and that aside from this bumpy week things are going along swimmingly. Here's to a better week next week!!

@hello2brenda I actually logged in to say the same thing! I think our surgeries were 1 day apart. I stalled last Sunday and saw no movement until Wednesday, when I went down 1 pound. Then yesterday I had lost another 2 pounds but this morning I was actually UP 3 pounds! Argh. I saw my surgeon on Friday, though, and he said this is normal. I stalled at 29 pounds and every diet I have ever been on I have stalled at 30 pounds so i kind of chalked it up to my body doing some rebooting, lol. Not sure why I am up today but I have been pushing fluids and trying to stay away from a lot of salty stuff. Thank you all for sharing. It is reassuring to know that I have not yet reached the end of my weight loss!

I got my JP drain out yesterday and it sure feels good to be rid of that thing! I have a lot more mobility and I got to take a real shower without being tethered to that thing. Things are going pretty well. I am meeting 60 grams of protein and getting all of my fluids. I felt the need to change things up a little bit today. I had been out running around and decided to get some baby food. I have been doing fine with Strawberry Sorbet Unjury, Chicken Soup Unjury, and Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurt, but I just really needed a little variety tonight, so I got some Gerber baby food. I have a little jar of Turkey and Gravy and a half a container of Squash for dinner. It may not have been quite a half cup, but boy oh boy did that hit the spot! I guess I just needed a "meal," you know? Since I am only at 50 gm for my protein intake today I can still have one of the Oikos yogurts later on, which will bring me up to 65 grams for the day and I actually feel satisfied. I felt a little funny shopping for baby food but I think it was worth it.

Hello mykidzmom! When is surgery? I just had my 2-week postop check in with my surgeon and my nutritionist yesterday and apparently I am doing great! The chicken soup Unjury really is delicious. I enjoy a mug of it daily. It is so nice to have something savory (definitely not sweaty, LOL!!) because I am finding that the sweet protein shakes are just too much for me. There is also a product called Syntrex Nectar that is a protein isolate which, according to them, is a highly refined protein powder of very high quality. I got a 15-pack of different flavors and they are also amazing. Very fruity but not like a shake at all. They are more like Crystal LIght on steroids, lol. Good luck with surgery and please check back in. I would love to know how everything is going for you!

@Fahcilit8or It really is a learning experience! I will stay away from the V8 for a few days and see if things improve. I am hoping it was just a one-time thing. I don't drink V8 every day but I sure do like it every once in a while. I am not huge on sweet Protein powders all the time. Too much sweet and not enough savory in the beginning. I actually had some baby food turkey and squash tonight for dinner. It was amazing, lol.

EDIT: I am 8 days post op, not 9/ Got ahead of myself. Hello folks! I have had a touchy tummy today. I got my JP drain removed earlier today (YAY!!!!!) and while I was at the doctor I noticed a whole lot of rumbling in my tummy. Since that time I have felt a little queasy and gassy. I mean, I have been gassy since surgery but this feels moreso than usual. My diet consists of 2 unjury shakes a day made with Water, an Oikos Greek Triple Zero yogurt, and some V8 with Fiber. I wonder if it is a lactose reaction but I am not taking in exessive dairy. Am I normal? Will it go away? What helps? Thank you in advance!

Well I have eaten my last solid food for a long time. Tomorrow's diet is 3 protein shakes and LOTS of water. I cannot believe the day is almost here! What a long, long ride this has been. I am so grateful I got a little break between band removal and bypass. I definitely needed to let my body rest. My esophagus is back to normal. Crazy! I thought I would be messed up for life from the problems I had with the band but apparently I am resilient. Getting through tomorrow will be rough. Lots of last minute details to take care of and a couple of long car rides, but by this time tomorrow night I will be in a motel room with my daughter getting ready to go to sleep. The next morning we are off to the hospital! Surgery is late morning, and I am very glad about that. I am pretty tired of being hungry, lol.

Well it's been a week since surgery and I actually feel pretty darn good! I am meeting my protein requirements with Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurt, which has 15 gm of protein and tastes amaaaazing, as well as a couple of Unjury shakes a day. I also drink 8 oz of V8 with fiber (who knew??) and I add a serving of Miralax to something every day to make sure things stay regulated. I get plenty of water or tea because I found out that dehydration actually feels like hunger. Not fan. I am down 22 pounds since I started my 2-week preop liquid diet, averaging 2 pounds a day weight loss this week. I have a JP drain in from surgery but I get that removed tomorrow and I cannot WAIT. I am creeped out by the drain and constantly worried i will pull out the tubing so once that is no longer an issue I will have much greater peace of mind. Exercise is supposed to be a 5-minute walk a day but I have been pushing it. I have a household to run, after all. Walmart is a great way to get some walking in, lol. Right now I am very happy I decided to take control of my health. The second my clothes start to look ridiculous because they are so baggy I am going shopping. I have not bought any new clothes in 2 years because I was not going to be this weight for very long. ooops. Oh well. Shopping will be a lot more fun next time I think!

@faith19evans i knnow what you mean about advancing. Protein shakes and yogurt do it for me right now. I have the chicken Soup unjury Protein powder for when I want something savory and although I don't yet get a full 60 gm of protein a day I am still figuring out the right combo of shakes and other stuff. I got the Oikos yogurt at a local grocery store but I am going to check Walmart today to see if they carry it. It really is good stuff!