James Marusek

I went to town today to buy a plastic floor mat for my computer chair and then I began to think of all the little things, outcomes from Bariatric Surgery that make a big difference in my life. I underwent surgery 11 months ago. I lost 20 pounds pre-op and 80 pounds post-op for a total weight loss of 100 pounds. I thought I would start this thread off and others who are far enough along might add to this list. 1. Replacing plastic floor mats. The floor mat is only 2 years old but it is all cracked and now chunks have broken off in the middle. This is due to my former weight. So now that I am down to 160 pounds, I may never have to replace one of these again. 2. One thing I really hated before I had the surgery was poking a hole in my finger each morning and squeezing out a drop of blood for my blood sugar meter. I was diabetic. It is now in remission from the day I left the hospital. 3. When I retired I bought a small little sports car. The kids are grown so a 2 seater is fine. I bought a Mazda Miata, a blue hardtop convertible. Its a great car to drive. It handles curves like a go-cart and we have a lot of curves where I live. The only problem is that I could barely squeeze into it. I wish I had a video of me getting into the car, it must have been hilarious. Now that I have lost the weight, I can get into the car without even thinking about it. 4. I can go shopping for clothes in a department store again. Prior to surgery, I was a size 3X in shirts and 46 in pants. I was outside the range of clothes offered by most department stores. It meant that I had to go to specialty stores to buy clothes such as Big and Tall. But now I am a size S in shirts and 33 in pants. I can go shopping again. 5. Over my lifetime I have probably traveled the equivalent of a dozen times around the world on airplanes. But lately the seats are getting smaller. (I know that some of this is due to my weight gain.) It is terrible sitting in the middle seat and extending to the seats on either side of me. Just praying that the other passengers on either side will be skinny. Well flying is no longer an issue. 6. The high cost of dining out. I went to Olive Garden today and ordered Tortellini al Forno. It was on their small plate menu so my tab was only $4. It was the right amount of food for my size stomach and the food was great tasting. Can you add anything else?

Let's see! At Week 5-8 after surgery, the meal plan recommended to me was: Breakfast: one ounce of Protein + 1 ounce of fruit Lunch: one ounce of protein + 1 ounce of vegetables Dinner: one ounce of protein + 1 ounce of starch All of this food should be pureed. One ounce is equal to 2 tablespoons or 1/8th of a cup or 28 grams or 28 milliliters. This is a microscopically small amount of food. At this stage, you are essentially surviving on Protein shakes, Water and Vitamins. They recommend your daily protein intake should be between 75-90 grams of protein per day. This is important. Also you need to drink 64-80 ounces of low calorie fluids daily. That would be 1.8 - 2.3 liters per day. You move to solid foods at Week 9.

For several years prior to surgery, I would snore so loud that it would keep my wife awake at night. When I went through my second round of pre-op testing, they scheduled me to see a doctor that specializes in sleep apnea. After examining me, he believed that I did have this condition and wished for me to undergo sleep testing. I declined. I reasoned with him that since I am about to undergo bariatric surgery and since surgery can correct this problem, I thought is was not money well spent. He signed off on my surgery. About 2 weeks after surgery, my snoring went away. I sleep so quietly at night that it frightens my wife. She wakes up in the middle of the night and can't hear me breathing and thinks I am dead. I am 11 months post-op now and this snoring problem has been in remission during this whole time.

Some people lost weight prior to surgery in the support group I attend and some folks didn't. I lost 20 pounds without even trying by cutting out the 6 diet cokes I drank each day. It is a good goal to lose some weight pre-op because it can add to your total weight loss after the operation. But this goal is possibly not set in concrete. But as you say Kaiser Northern California in Sacramento may be dictating that requirement. So drink enough Water and I wouldn't cut out all salt completely. Salt is important to your diet too. My mother cut out all salt from her diet and that drove her into the hospital emergency room.

I am 11 months post-op and one of the surprises was how much I like buying new clothes. It was a major motivator in continued weight loss until I reached my bottom weight. I went from a size 3X in shirts down to a Small and from a size 46 in pants down to a size 33. I replaced my entire wardrobe of clothes and it was fun. During my weight loss, I would buy a new shirt. It was so tight that if I took a deep breath, I felt it could rip apart at the seams. Two weeks later it would fit like a glove. That brought me immense satisfaction, very different than standing on the scales each morning. Good luck on your surgery.

The program is automatically truncating the address. Let's try www. (then type) breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Pattiann This is the web address. Just type it into your browser window. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I wasn't able to pick the right foods from the beginning. All foods lost their taste. I like scrambled eggs before surgery and they were tasteless after surgery. Everything was a pain. But I experimented a lot and finally found things that would work for me. Although we are conditioned to believe we will die if we do not eat, right after surgery foods are not so important, its the Vitamins and Protein supplements that are the drivers. Around the time I reached a volume of 1/3 cup per meal, I stumbled into chili which I ate for 3 meals per day. Later I added high protein Soups to add a little variety to the menu.

I am assuming that you are probably communicating from Australia perhaps. Due to the use of metrics and the fact that you are about to fall asleep. So maybe the regiment on Bariatric Surgery might be somewhat different there. Here in the States, they provide us with a document that provides a basic meal plan. The document describes the volume of food to be consumed at each meal based on the stage after surgery (first 4 weeks, weeks 5-8, weeks 9-15, months 4-6, months 7-9, months 10-12, months 12-18 and months 18 and beyond). It delineates each meal by ounces of Protein, starch, fruit, and vegetables). Then it defines which items (such as yogurt, Beans, rice etc.) are approved in each category at any given time after surgery. This meal plan is very complicated and regimented. When you went through surgery, did you receive the same type of document.

chicken is an interesting meat. In general it is very tough and it can be a problem in the early stages of the recovery process. The way I prepare chicken is to place one or more chicken breast in a covered pot of Water, throw in a few chicken bouillon cubes and then boil it for a few hours at low heat until it is so tender that it falls apart with a fork.

Hi Phil I discussed my meal plan in "How I Survived Bariatric Surgery" and even included some recipes. I am 11 months out and this approach worked for me. You can find the article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf Jim

My doctor prescribed Omeprazole (20 Mg) which is also sold over-the-counter as Prilosec to me (and I suspect all his patients that undergo gastric bypass surgery) once per day for the first year following surgery. He did this to allow the stomach to heal. It's a good question because Prilosec is used to treat heartburn caused by acid-induced inflammation and ulcers of the stomach and duodenum.

I am 11 months post-op. I lost 20 pounds pre-op and 80 pounds post-op. I am now down to 160 pounds and at the bottom of my weight loss. It took me 6 months to reach a happy state. Part of this was figuring out a meal plan that works for me. I figured out that when you mix food groups together, they can make eating enjoyable again. At week 9 after surgery, I had enough volume in the meals and enough ingredients on the approved lists to do just this. Since then I have been eating Soups or chili for each meal and loving it. These are homemade and contain around twice the Protein of store bought soups and chili. The interesting thing about this approach is that I do not have any pain (heartburn, nausea, dumping) when I eat as I initially experienced with solids.

After the surgery, it may be a little overwhelming. But don't give up. At the beginning the pounds will melt off quickly. I underwent the surgery primarily for health reasons too. Most of my health conditions went into remission within the first couple weeks after the operation. I don't know what type of health conditions you are dealing with but hopefully you will experience the same outcomes that I have experienced. I will pray for you.

Good luck on your surgery. Although I wasn't officially diagnosed with sleep apnea and didn't have a CPAP machine, there was a good chance that I had this condition. The specialist in this field that examined me thought I had this condition. My snoring kept my wife awake every night. That went on for several years. A couple weeks after surgery that stopped. Now I sleep so quiet, my wife wakes up and thinks I am dead, because she cannot hear me breathing. I also had high blood pressure. I took myself off all high blood pressure medicine around 3 weeks after surgery because my blood pressure was getting too low. I am 11 months post-op and these conditions have been in remission over that time.

I tested out Protein drinks prior to surgery. I also discussed different types of Protein Drinks at support group meetings prior to surgery. To me most protein drinks taste terrible. I chose one that was the least terrible called Muscle Milk Light. I found that vanilla Creme was the flavor I liked the best. I would blend it with Water and throw in a half a banana. It had 25 grams of protein per shake. There are others that are super concentrated that are in the 40-50 gram range. To me these taste extremely bad. Right after surgery, I was lactose intolerant. This condition was temporary. A month or two later I could tolerate milk. Muscle Milk Light is lactose free. If you are not lactose intolerant, you might think about using milk. Once I reached my bottom weight, I switched completely off my Protein shakes. My protein drinks now consists of a large cup of hot cocoa (no sugar added) in the morning and a berry smoothie in the evening. At 11 months post-op, I also get a lot of protein from my meals. Since you are only a week out, this is probably too early to make this transition to berry smoothies. In order to achieve a great weight loss also focus on the calorie side of the daily minimum protein requirements. Too many calories in your daily protein drinks might stall your weight loss.

Mrs. GloMartin I had bariatric surgery called Roux-En-Y which is referred to as gastric bypass surgery. I am 11 months post-op. I lost 20 pounds pre-op and 80 pounds post-op for a total of 100 pounds. I am now at 160 pounds and I don't regret my decision to undergo surgery. I reached my happy state at around 6 months after surgery and have been in a happy state ever since. So remember, in spite of all the hassle ahead, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

After surgery, my weight dropped like a lead brick and then all of a sudden it stopped. I thought it was a little to early to reach a plateau. I looked over what I had been eating. The meal plan was so small in volume at that time that I decided that was not the culprit. I looked at the Protein requirement. I had been drinking 3 Protein shakes a day. When I added up all the calories I was taking it was still a little on the high side. I was using Muscle Milk Light which wasn't a bad shake. So I cut that down to 2 shakes a day and my weight started dropping off again. When I talked with the nutritionist a month later she was not upset. I was still consuming enough protein to meet her bottom requirement. So I would say if you hit a plateau, you might look at the calories on the protein side of the equation. There are many choices in Protein drinks. Some of the choices out there are even super concentrated. They may not taste good, but maximum Proteins with minimum calories at this stage can make a big difference in achieving a great weight loss.

When I had surgery, my wife stayed with me overnight in the hospital. It was nice to have her there although she probably lost some sleep because I had to get up once every 2 hours to do my walk.

I lost 20 pounds pre-surgery. It went a long way towards achieving my bottom weight. So your loss of 32 pounds is a good step in the right direction. I too broke the rules prior to surgery on diet. But your post-op diet will be very, very hard. It is not due to the need of willpower but rather the sheer complexity (meal size, Protein, Water, Vitamins, medicine). After surgery, I found that I had lost all hunger. It is easy to lose weight when you have no hunger. It takes no willpower. It is no diet. But eating is a balancing act. Good luck on your surgery. You have the will to succeed.

I am 11 months out and had one full episode of dumping. Generally, I can feel when I am full because my enjoyable meal turns into a horrible meal. So I stop eating at this point. I know what one bit more will do. Focus on foods with Protein, low on sugar and maximize experimentation.

It looks like you lost 32 pounds pre-surgery. That will help you a lot in reaching your post-surgery goal.

I drank Cokes for 40 years. When weight became too much of an issue I switched over to Diet Cokes; which I drank for another 10 more years. Usually around 6 Cokes a day. I still gained weight. As I entered my 6 month supervised exercise weight loss program which was a prerequisite for the operation, I went cold turkey and gave up all carbonated beverages and caffeine. On that change alone, I lost 20 pounds. It is now 6 months (pre-op) + 11 months (post-op) and I have not had any carbonated beverages since then, and I don't even miss them. I went through a rough week or two after I went cold turkey. I experienced severe joint pain. But that went away. I suspect why this produced weight loss is due to the carbonation. As the small carbon bubbles explode in your stomach they microscopically increase the size of the stomach which in turn allows you to eat more food which in turn is responsible for weight gain.

Thanks for your comments.

I am 11 months post op and have not noticed any hair loss. I understand that when you hit rock bottom and then loss more weight, hair loss may occur. I hit bottom at 6 months. I have been taking Juvenon for six or seven years now. I continued this after surgery. From my perspective one of the side features of this supplement is that it appears to halt hair loss. I have asthma and this supplement helped me breathe easier. That was the main reason why I continue to use it.