James Marusek

When they perform the operation, they pump your body with a lot of fluids and gases. As a result you gain some surgery weight. This should quickly go away. At this point you are around 11 days post-op. Your body is still trying to heal after the surgery. Give it a little time and stay on the regiment.

On the upper bar there is a box that reads "Hello shavonk1". Click on that box. It will bring up a menu. Click on "My profile". That will bring up your profile. Click on "Edit My Profile". And make your changes.

Enjoy jumping out of an airplane. Sounds great!

Climbing up and down stairs or hill walking uses two different sets of muscles. One when you go up and one when you go down. I consider it to be a better form of exercise. If you do it for a while and you walk on a flat surface, it feels almost like you are gliding.

Recent studies show a correlation between exercise and a longer life. And this link applies to older people. http://acsh.org/2015/04/exercise-linked-to-decrease-in-mortality-even-in-older-folks/

Immediately after surgery, the 3 most important requirements are Protein, Vitamins and fluids. These are key. food is secondary, especially because the volume of food is very limited in the beginning. Your body is converting your stored fat into energy that drives you body. As a result you are losing weight. In my opinion most of the protein shakes taste terrible. But it is very important that you take in the required protein each day. As time goes on and your meal volume increases, you can gain most of your protein from your meals, provided you consume high protein meals. But that is not the stage you are in, so experiment and find the protein shakes that you can tolerate. There are a wide variety of powder and premix protein shakes available. For me Muscle Milk Light powder mixed with a half a banana in a Ninja single serving size blender worked well. Your protein requirement is a combination of the protein you consume from meals combined with the protein from supplements (protein shakes, protein bars). It is equally important that you take in the required amount of fluids each day. I use to like to drink a glass of Water with ice cubes several times a day prior to surgery. But that changed after the operation. After surgery, I found that flavored water (Crystal Light) was good. Also I began drinking fine teas. The Fluid requirement is the total amount of fluids that you take in each day. It included the fluids you consume in your protein shakes. It is also equally important that you meet your Vitamin requirement. Your body does not convert food into the essential vitamins that you need. That is why you must use supplements. In the area of foods, I found that Soups and chili went down easier. Therefore that is what I used. I wanted to get off the protein shakes as soon as possible, so I made my own soups and chili with about twice the protein as store bought variety. I have include some of the recipes in the link below. It also gave me good control over the volume of the meals that I consumed. I would make up a pot of food and store it and eat it all week. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I am 66 years old and I had a RNY 23 months ago. I think it was one of the better decisions I made in my life. It nipped most of my (weight related) health issues in the bud.

After a RNY operation I lost significant weight and my weight loss leveled out for almost 6 months. But then I got the stomach flu. I didn't feel like eating at all. I lost a pound a day for a week. A month later, I lost my appetite again and dropped another 5 pounds. So overall I was 10 pounds below my lowest (maintenance phase) weight. I thought maybe I should just accept my reduced weight as my new bottom weight. A year has past and I still maintain this lower weight loss level. So there may be an upside to the stomach flu.

If you have GERD, you need RNY gastric bypass. That is the best option. Your doctor is right. Most people are worried about losing too little weight rather than too much. But at 208 pounds, I think you can lose quite a bit and still not reach the danger level. I understand your concern. If you went back a hundred years, people were considered healthy if they carried a little extra weight. That is because when a sickness struck, generally people would lose weight and this could lead to their death. With a little extra weight, one could struggle until the immune system kicked in.

Need to get up and start moving.

I ran into a severe problem with constipation after my RNY. The only workable solution was inserting a glycerin suppository up my rear end every 3 days. I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life and I finally stumbled across a simple cure. I ate an apple a day just before bedtime and that made me constipation free to the present time (for over a year). But you must eat the skin of the apple or it will not work. If your intake volume of fluids are too low, they can contribute to constipation. So make sure you drink enough liquids each day. Here are some of the other cures mentioned on previous threads on this website: Smooth Move Herbal Tea Prune juice (warmed) Prunes (4 in the morning and 4 at night) Magnesium citrate Insoluble fibers (Garden of Life Raw Fiber or Renew Life Triple Fiber). Haribo sugar free Gummy Bears Aerobic Magnesium 07 Low Fat Bran Muffin (recipe). 80 calories each 1 cup flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon cinnamon 2 cups bran Cereal 1 ¼ cups milk 1 egg ½ tablespoon applesauce optional: banana, berries, mini chocolate chips Bake 400° F for 22 minutes

I had a RNY about 23 months ago and all is fine. One of the reasons why RNY is recommended over other procedures is that individuals with severe acid reflux (GERD) have difficulty with the sleeve. RNY surgery caused part of my stomach to be cut away and rerouted. As a result my body cannot automatically convert food into the Vitamins that my body needs. Therefore I need to take Vitamin supplements for the rest of my life. I suspect that mandatory bed rest (and the lack of exercise) will be detrimental to both RNY and sleeve patient recoveries (and weight loss).

Generally dumping syndrome takes care of itself. Once you overeat and experience the syndrome you learn very quickly to recognize when your body is full and as a result you learn to stop eating at that point of your meal (or face the consequences). Immediately after surgery, there are three main focuses: Protein, fluids and Vitamins. food is secondary and very minimal. Many people who undergo RNY experience a loss of appetite. It is not difficult to lose weight when hunger is not constantly gnawing at your bones. Don't worry, you will not starve. Your body is converting stored fat into energy, thus you lose weight. As your meal volume increases during the first year, I took the approach of fortifying the protein in my meals so that I did not have to rely on Protein shakes for the rest of my life. At a volume of a cup per meal, I am consuming about 65 grams of protein in my meals alone at this point and completely off the protein shakes. A common form of protein is found in meats. But meats are difficult to eat after surgery. I use to like to eat lobster and crab legs, but they became tasteless to me after surgery. Most meats are too tough for your stomach. With chicken, I found it important to tenderize the meat. For example slow cook a chicken breast in Water for a couple hours after you add a chicken bullion cube. The meat will become so tender that it will fall apart in your fork. I also found that softer foods went down easier. So I rely on homemade high protein chili and soups for most of my meals. If you want some recipes to look at see: http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I would say go for it. Most guys are raised with a thicker skin. So long as you are talking and focusing on your personal experiences (dieting, WLS and the effect on your health) and not lecturing him on his abundant weight, the conversation may be productive.

I had intravenous Vitamin B12 shots (once each month) for about a year before I switch to daily sublingual B12 tablets. The shots were to the upper arm. I had my wife do it. She pinched the skin together and inserted the needle at the top of the pinch point. I changed to daily tablets because my wife hates blood and every time, just as she inserted the needle into my arm she would turned her head away so she wouldn't look.

Good luck on your surgery. I have a sweet tooth too. The process really educated me on the different types of sugars and what types to stay away from. So much of the food I consumed prior to surgery was infused with loads of processed sugars.

I am sorry to hear you had such a rough go of it.

Congratulations.

Many cans of tomato soup contain too much processed sugar.

Congratulations.

I am 23 months post op from RNY gastric bypass surgery. Before I had surgery, I was a Type 2 diabetic. After the operation it went into remission. Before I even left the hospital, I was off my meds and have remained so for all this time.

Here is an earlier discussion about this pain and possible solutions. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/321933-tailbone-problems-anyone/

After you lose weight it is common to experience some pain and discomfort (on your bum) when you sit for a long time. I went on a long trip by car and I had to resort to buying a gel cushion to sit on to reduce the pain. The pain drove into my feet and made it difficult to drive. I drive a stick shift. But this was a transitory problem. I believe it was amplified by the fact that I was suffering from the cold at the time. That problem seems to have self corrected itself over time. Other posts on this website discuss this problem and there is a variety of cushions made for this anomaly. So you might search the back threads on the site for ideas. Here is a link http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/321933-tailbone-problems-anyone/

One of the great things about bariatric surgery was how quickly I began to drop clothing sizes. I would buy a pair of pants one week that I could barely fit in. (I would take a deep breath and suck it all in to get the pants on.) The next week they would fit like a glove. It will happen to you. Be a little patient. But then marvel at how good it is making you feel.

I waited until my weight resulted in a number of health issues including diabetes and high blood pressure. These issues take a toll on my body. It would have been better for me to nip this in the bud earlier than later.