James Marusek

After RNY surgery, I became lactose intolerant and as a result anytime I consumed milk or a milk product it would produce flatulence and severe diarrhea. Therefore I had to stay away from anything that contained lactose, even some Protein powders. This condition healed after about 2 months.

Good luck on your surgery. I will pray for you. Check back with us when you are on the other side and let us know how it went.

I don't know if I have any good answers for you except one year will fly by pretty quick. I did notice that when you combine foods together, it adds a lot of flavor. So I primarily relied on chili and Soups. I think the kidney Beans in the chili seemed to satisfy my urging to eat bread.

At 4 weeks out your body is still in heal mode. Transitioning to solid food too soon can damage your stomach. For those with RNY surgery, solids are not recommended until week 9.

According to my RNY post op directions, it reads "To maximize weight loss the following foods should be avoided" and one of these foods is BEEF JERKY. So I would recommend that you get off the jerky and find a Protein supplement (Protein shake or protein powder) that you can tolerate. There are several varieties out there and if you want to maximize the weight loss, you need to experiment and find one you can tolerate. Whatever protein supplement you take it should be very low on sugar. I think you are around 7 weeks post op and that means that you are still in the pureed food stage. Jerky is not pureed food. It is still too hard for you stomach. And you are limited to 2 ounces per meal. By going the jerky route, you are nibbling (snacking) all day. Soon you will be out of the pureed stage. I would recommend that you consume high protein chili and Soups for your meals. I have included a couple recipes at the end of the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I live in Indiana. There are around 20 Bariatric Support Groups scattered around Indiana. Generally they meet monthly. Many are in the early evening around 7 pm. Many of the surgeries are performed in Indianapolis in a Center of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery. The Center of Excellence manages these support group meetings and acts as a coordinator for the various groups. So you might contact the hospital where the surgery will be conducted in Wisconsin and ask them about support group meetings. They should be able to direct you to the right ones.

After surgery, it is common to completely lose one's hunger. This effect wears off during time. The strategy during the "Maintenance" phase is different than during the "Weight Loss" phase. Around the 1 year post-op mark you body is changing. After surgery the part of your stomach that processed fats and sugars was cut away and as a result if you consumed these, this would quickly lead to dumping. But at 1 year, you intestines have stepped forward and changed to perform this function in place of you stomach. Therefore you can tolerate these food categories again. Fats have the property of taking away hunger. Once you reach the "Maintenance" phase, the best meal plan is a meal composed of Protein, fats and carbs with protein always first. You may find this link useful. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf I am not sure what is causing your back pain. It might be a Vitamin deficiency or something else. I would not automatically assume the back pain and the hunger are related.

Good luck on your surgery. I will pray for you. Let us know if you need any help on the other side.

The daily Protein requirement is a combination of the protein from meals combined with the protein from supplements (Protein shakes, protein bars). So as your meal size increases, you may be able to reduce the amount of protein supplements that you take and the calories those protein supplements contain. That is if you concentrate on high protein meals. Since you are doing medium exercise, your body may require more protein to compensate, so your minimum daily requirement may actually be larger than 60 grams per day. You may be replacing fat with muscle. Muscle is denser and weighs more. So your body may be physically becoming stronger and you may be in better shape but not actually see it on the scales. When I was a young whippersnapper, I began jogging. I did this to lose weight. I worked myself up to 10 miles per day. I noticed that instead of losing weight I was gaining weight.

A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, found that obese patients who lose at least 10 percent of their body weight can slow down the progression of cartilage damage and potentially avoid knee replacement surgery. http://acsh.org/2015/12/mris-reveal-weight-loss-protects-knees/

Probably closer to a year. Here is my take on the Maintenance phase. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

After RNY surgery, the part of your stomach that processes fats and sugars has been cut away. If you try and consume fats and sugars, it can easily lead to dumping. But around the 1 year post-op mark, and interesting change takes place. Your intestines begin to take on the functions that your stomach normally performed and begin to process fats and sugars. Around this time it becomes important to reintroduce fats back into your diet. In part, hunger which was held at bay for almost a year is beginning to return. And fats take away hunger. When I was at the 1 year mark, I had a frank discussion with my nutritionist, I asked her about long term meal plans. She said meals should consist of around equal portions of Protein, fat and carbs. So in general when I entered the Maintenance phase, I consume 3 well-balanced meals per day and use fats when I snack to control the hunger urges. I now consume whole milk, real butter and normal cuts of meat.

I don't think you should be concerned at this point about your diet. Give it a few months and see what happens. The direction I received from my nutritionist was eat 3 well balanced (Protein, fat, carb) meals per day and avoid grazing. I mentioned that I still found it difficult to eat more than a cup per meal. She said then try eating 4 meals per day. The gallbladder is a different story. If you have reoccurring episodes, this might need to be addressed.

You might listen to the reasons why he/she made the recommendation before you leap. In my case in addition to high blood pressure and diabetes and sleep apnea and other co-morbidities, I also had severe acid reflux (GERD). RNY was my surgeons choice and it was also mine. There were several individuals on this board that also had GERD but went with the sleeve and had to have a revision to RNY because of incompatibility with GERD. Some doctors are just comfortable with a certain type of surgery. It is their expertise. It is their preference. But there are also medical conditions that drive a specific type of surgery. After all do you really want to undergo the knife twice when once will suffice?

Congratulations.

After RNY surgery I lost weight over a period of 6 to 7 months. The weight dropped off quickly at first then slowed down. One thing that might help you get over the stall is to analyze your Protein intake. Your daily protein requirement is a combination of the protein that you obtain from meals combined with the protein that you consume from supplements (Protein shakes, protein bars). At the beginning your meal volume is so small that the protein from meals barely counts but at 4 months post-op, it becomes important. If you concentrate on consuming high protein meals, you can begin to decrease your reliance on protein supplements and the calories that go with them. When I hit a major stall, I began to drop off one of my protein shakes and this is what broke the stall and kickstarted my weight loss again.

I'm lost! You are 3 weeks post-op and eating 80 grams of protein from your meals alone. Something is wrong. After RNY surgery your meal volume is so low that it might be almost impossible to get 80 grams of protein from a full liquid diet of 3 meals of 2 ounces per meal. The protein daily requirement is a combination of the protein that you obtain from meals combined with the protein from supplements (protein shakes, protein bars). So as you progress over the next few months, if you concentrate on high protein meals, you can reduce your reliance on protein supplements. So if you track both the protein in your supplements and in your meals, you can consume less supplements and thereby less calories, which can contribute to your total weight loss.

Good story. Congratulations. Let us know if we can be of any help during the rest of your journey.

In the beginning the meal volume is so small, it almost doesn't count towards your Protein requirement. But as time goes on and your volume increases, the protein in meals will begin to significantly count towards reaching your daily protein requirement. In my case I would make a pot of chili or Soup and add up all the calories and protein of everything I put in the pot. Then I would divide by the volume in each meal. Since a pot of chili or soup would last almost a week and since I repeatedly used this as my meals, it made sense. I put a couple recipes on the internet at the end of the following article, if you are interested. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

One of the properties of fat is that it is a good insulator. As you lose weight, you will feel the effects of cold more pronouncedly. It does not get any better during the "Maintenance" phase. It just levels off. When you are outside shoveling the snow, hand warmers almost become a necessity. Thermal underwear is good. Layers of clothes are good.

I am 30 months post op RNY. In the beginning I found it difficult to eat hard foods so I primarily consumed softer foods (chili and soups) for the first few years. But I would keep trying harder and harder foods and my ability to eat them improved in time. As advice - eat the foods that you can tolerate and every once and awhile experiment and try the ones that are difficult. Your experience is not typical. It is like something else is going on. After about the first year, your intestines should begin to change and you should begin to tolerate fats and sugars again and they should not lead to dumping. Around this time, I have let fats back into my diet but not sugars. Fats can take the form of whole milk instead of 2% milk, real butter, no lean cuts of meat. In general meals should consist of equal amounts of Protein, fats and carbs but always put protein first.

Congratulations and let us know if we can be of any help.

I had sleep apnea prior to RNY surgery. My snoring kept my wife awake night after night. Within a couple weeks after surgery, my snoring stopped. I would sometimes find my wife hovering over me in the middle of the night. She was trying to detect if I was still alive because I was sleeping so soundly.

I had been on Blood Sugar medicine for several years prior to the surgery but had not made the transition to insulin which was what my family doctors desired. When I left the hospital two days after surgery, the surgeon completely took me off all my blood sugar meds. I took fasting blood sugar readings every morning prior to surgery. As I dropped weight during pre-op, I noticed my blood sugar numbers were falling so I reduced the amount of drugs I took for diabetes prior to surgery. Have you been taking daily blood sugar readings? Have they been dropping into normal range?

I was just wondering if the effects of weight loss had any detectable effect on your conditions of Narcolepsy or Cataplexy?