James Marusek

I was not into my physical appearance before surgery. Most times I would hardly look at myself in the mirror. It was only when I saw myself in a photograph that I was shocked by my excess weight. After my weight loss, I was surprised by how I could buy good looking clothes and radically change my appearance. It was a good turn on. I dropped from a size 3XL down to a size small in shirts and from a size 46 down to a 33 in pants size. I am an excellent bargain shopper and found it to be very enjoyable to hunt down the latest styles at bargain prices. I replaced my entire wardrobe. Good luck on your surgery and getting back to marvelous.

There are many different choices for Protein powders and drinks and I suggest you experiment with them until you find one that you can tolerate. It is very important that you mix the powder with the liquid with an electric blender rather than by hand. Otherwise the powders do not dissolve very well. At this stage I used Muscle Milk Light. Then I started blending in a banana with the powder, it made a major taste improvement. You might also try using milk. At the beginning immediately after surgery, I was lactose intolerant. So milk was not an alternative. But after a couple months this condition disappeared and milk was on the menu for supplementing my protein. During the winter, I would drink a large cup of hot chocolate milk. You must use the "no sugar added" variety. Further down the road, you will be able to transition to Protein Bars to replace some of your Protein shakes. I recommend QuestBars.

After the weight loss, I found that many people I know do not recognize me. Sometimes they have a strange look on their faces - like I think I know who this person is but I can't quite place it.

As Lissapmkn1 said, your ability to drive is dependent on when you get off the narcotic pain medicine. When I went into surgery, I told the anesthesiologists that I wanted no pain medicine after I left the recovery room. She told me that she would go easy on the anesthesia also during the surgery. After I left the recovery room, I was up and about walking every 2 hours. I started to do significant lapses but the nurse came over to me and told me to cut it out. Otherwise when the anesthesia wore off I would be in terrible pain. So I began to limit my lapses. Well I think the anesthesia wore off at around 3 a.m. but I am unsure because I could barely tell due to the fact that I experience very little pain. Anyways, I would attribute the lack of pain (1) to walking every day prior to surgery and (2) doing the walking while in the hospital. The nurse who distributes the pain meds would come into my room and when I told her my pain level was 0 or 1 on a scale of 10, she would leave angry with a scowl on her face. While in the hospital, make sure you get one of those pull-up bars above your bed, so you can get up easier. At the beginning it is a little hard to get around because you are dragging a pole with wheels around that has your I.V. attached to the arm. But after a day that stuff starts to come off and it is easier. The hospital I was in allowed your spouse to stay overnight. I liked that. Since you are unmarried perhaps one of your parents could stay with you. I went in for the operation on a Friday. This is a bad day to go in because most of the staff rotates out over the weekend. I left the hospital on Sunday. But if I had it earlier in the week, I probably would have left the hospital a day sooner. I was driving within a few days after I left the hospital. Your time in the hospital will be uncomfortable. You will want to come home. In the hospital, you need to get up every two hours to do your walking. So you can forget about sleep. (There are two reasons for the walking (1) prevent blood clots, (2) stretch the muscles). So get some sleep and rest just before the operation.

Are you getting in your B12 vitamins (500 to 1000 micrograms sublingual B12 weekly or 1000 mcg. IM injection once monthly)? Are you getting in your 100 mg. Thiamine (vitamin B1) weekly?

I am 66 years old and I had the surgery a little over a year ago. I lost 110 pounds. My diabetes and high blood pressure went away almost immediately along with some other medical issues. I would do it over again in a heartbeat. My stamina has increased to the level it was at when I was 35 years old. Over the past couple weeks I moved 40,000 pounds of gravel by hand and didn't think much of it.

Experiment with different foods until you find something that you can tolerate. As I recall the following worked for me during the puree stage: canned tuna, farina, mashed potatoes, apple sauce (no sugar variety), bananas. The amount of food is so small in this stage, you don't need to buy very much. A small container might lasts a week.

I had a RNY gastric bypass and I did not experience the symptoms you described. So something might be wrong. I would take a close look at Vitamin and medicine intake first.

Some Gerber baby food contains sugar. If sugar occupies the number 1, 2 or 3 position in the listing of ingredients, I would recommend you avoid it. After surgery, your taste buds change. I bought a lot of baby food before surgery and didn't eat any of it because it tasted awful.

There are different types of Protein bars. Some are loaded with sugar. Need to stay away from those. My preference is QuestBars. They have a lot of varieties. I am not sure what type of surgery you are scheduled to have. I had a RNY and after about 6 months I began using Protein Bars when I was away from home and couldn't blend up a Protein shake. By the way, your tastes will change after surgery.

There are different types of weight loss surgeries. So the appointment will focus on whether you are a good candidate for the surgery; which type of surgery would be best for you; what is the projected outcome; what are the risks; what are the steps that you must pass through in order to get the surgery. So be forthright about any medical conditions. As you said, having acid reflux may limit you to a RNY rather than a sleeve.

Bariatric surgery does more than just reduce body weight. http://acsh.org/2014/08/bariatric-surgery-reduce-body-weight/

Congratulations

Congratulations

I eat high Protein versions of chili and Soups. I have included some of the recipes in the following article. I am 16 months post-op from RNY and currently I am getting about 60 grams of protein from my meals alone. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

If you eat too much, you body will react very negatively. Generally it will become painful. After a gastric bypass (RNY) your body is essentially feeding off you stored body fat. It is very important that you follow the requirements for Vitamins, Protein and liquids. They will keep your body going through the early phases.

Sucralfate is a cytoprotective agent, an oral gastrointestinal medication primarily indicated for the treatment of active duodenal ulcers. Sucralfate is also used for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and stress ulcers. I suspect the reason why you are taking it is to avoid acid reflux. So it makes sense that you would take it an hour before each meal. I suspect that after surgery, it will even get more of a hassle for you. There are so many Vitamins and medicine that must be taken and spaced out throughout the day that it becomes a logistical nightmare to take them all in and at the appropriate timing. On top of this you may no longer be able to swallow whole many of these vitamins/medicine, so you will need a pill splitter and a pill crusher. But it will become more manageable as time goes on. Some of the vitamins come in various forms, so after surgery be aware that if one form of Vitamin is too difficult to use, there may be an alternative form available.

From the time that I decided to undergo Bariatric Surgery until the surgery took place was about a year. My insurance required a 6 month medically supervised weight loss program. But then even though they required it as a prerequisite for surgery approval, they refused to pay for these doctor visits. What was even stranger is that they paid for every other visit. It made no logic to me. The insurance said that they made a mistake by paying for every other visit but they would not ask me for the money back. So indeed it felt like a test. It felt like if I was really serious then I would have to financially put up with this. It seemed like their way of trying to discourage me from going forward.

Before when I would eat out at a restaurant, I would typically spend $15 on a meal. Now its $5. Although you are not taking any prescription medicine now, I think you may want to broaden your perspective a little. I am 65 years old and have been overweight for several decades. This has resulted in a number of medical issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes. When these conditions occur, they not only lead to prescription medicine but also open the door to more serious conditions. These conditions can be very expensive to deal with, such as a diabetic foot ulcer. They can make you an invalid and dramatically impact your life. So the actual comparison is between what your life would be like without the surgery vs. what it would be like with the surgery.

I did not have a problem with hair loss. Around a decade ago I started using a supplement called Juvenon. I order it over the internet. The supplement feeds the mitochondria in the cells and makes them healthy. One of the side effects of this supplement is that it slowed and reversed my hair loss 10 years ago and also stopped my hair from graying. My surgeon restricted my use of this supplement until around the 2nd month after surgery and then I began taking it again. I am 65 years old and initially experienced some hair loss around age 55 due to normal aging.

I had a RNY gastric bypass and I lost 100 pounds in 7 months. Sleeve gastric bypass is a different operation and weight loss is slower. Also it seems that many individuals that underwent sleeve operations seem to hit stalls much more often. What have other individuals with sleeve bypass lost at the 7 month mark?

I have been eating very high Protein Soups and chili. I consume a cup a meal. At that volume, I am consuming about 60 grams per day just from my meals. I have included some recipes in my article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I tried it once. Tasted awful. But my wife thought it tasted O.K. It sure has a lot of condensed Protein in it.

Constipation can become a problem after surgery. I have found that eating an apple each night prior to bedtime cures this for me. But you must eat the skin of the apple. Many individuals report hitting stalls during their weight loss. Some individuals even gain weight temporarily. Sometimes this might be associated with Water retention. Some people recommend only weighing yourself once per week at the same time of the day to avoid the stress.

I am 16 months post op and I do not regret the decision to have gastric bypass surgery RNY. Its a struggle with managing food intake, Vitamin requirements, liquid requirements and Protein. But I have lost 110 pounds and my health has improved dramatically. It took me 6 months after surgery to reach my "happy state", when everything seemed to click. Good luck on your surgery. I guess its natural to be scared. But if you don't have the surgery and your life is shortened because of it, how will your daughter feel all alone.