James Marusek

After surgery, I remember coughing sometimes. Not really the coughing but the pain associated with the coughing. After a few weeks this was no longer a problem. As Myaiku said, make sure you regularly use your spirometer. Some patients have a tube placed down their throat during the operation. Here is a link to an article that describes the condition and relief from it. https://www.verywell.com/why-does-my-throat-hurt-after-surgery-3157316

I am a big fan of physical labor. To me routine exercise at a gym is valuable time wasted. This is especially true because the nearest gym is an hour and a half drive roundtrip. Exercise includes physical labor. If there is no physical labor available, I generally do hill walking. My driveway is very steep and all I need to do is walk out my door. One of the tasks I worked on during my second and third year post op was building an underground shelter. Tornados struck about 7 years ago, just after I retired. The tornados did a lot of destruction to my property but spared my house. My house is a one story without a basement and there is really no place to take shelter in the event of another tornado. So I decided to build an underground shelter from an intermodal-shipping container into the side of my hill. Of course, if I build a storm shelter, it should also be a root cellar. And if I go to the effort of building a storm shelter/root cellar then why not go through a little extra effort and build it for Come-What-May, including asteroid impacts, nuclear war and nearby supernovas, etc. So during each of those years I moved 100,000 pounds of gravel by hand along with around 60,000 pounds of concrete blocks. This year my wife wanted me to build a playhouse for the grandkids. I decided to build a log playhouse and also get some of the grandkids involved in the effort. It uses 160 landscaping timbers. With the loft, it extends around 16 feet off the ground. I had RNY gastric bypass surgery over 4 years ago. Without the surgery, I could never perform these tasks, especially since I am approaching 70.

The three most important elements after Weight Loss Surgery are to meet your daily protein, fluid and vitamin requirements. Food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. Weight loss is achieved after surgery through meal volume control. You begin at 2 ounces (1/4 cup) per meal and gradually increase the volume per meal. With this minuscule amount of food, it is next to impossible to meet your protein daily requirements by food alone, so therefore you need to rely on supplements such as protein shakes. The Weight Loss Phase is short and then you will slide naturally into the Maintenance phase. If you want to get the most out of your surgery, it is extremely important to follow the detailed guidelines given to you by your surgeon.

A few years ago I began experimenting with essential oils. FluffyChix you may find the following article interesting. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Experiments_with_Essential_Oils.pdf

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

I had GERD, diabetes and high blood pressure prior to surgery. I was taking 4 types of prescription medicine for these conditions. All those health conditions went into remission within 2 weeks after surgery and I have not been taking any medicine for these condition ever since. I am over 4 years post-op. I have not information on absorption of Femara after surgery. Probably best to work with your surgeons office on this one. Also I have not come across studies on reoccurrence of breast cancer after WLS. Although I have seen studies that imply consuming less sugar helps in minimizing cancer. Generally after surgery, I was able to control my sweet tooth.

I did not experience any nausea after surgery. But your question needs to describe what you mean by dumping. So off hand I would say the answer is no.

Welcome. Since you have GERD, RNY gastric bypass is probably a good choice, since sleeve will only make the condition worse. Many times the timing from deciding to have surgery and actually having the surgery can be long. For me it was around 9 months. Therefore it is common for the process to encompass two calendar years and thereby two deductible year for your insurance. Therefore if you can schedule the whole process and fit it within a one year timeframe, it will minimize your health insurance costs.

Congratulations. It was a good opportunity to discuss this weight loss option.

I agree with JohnnyCakes. The weight loss phase is extremely short and then you will transition into the Maintenance phase. I transitioned around 7 months post-op. You want to make the most out of the Weight Loss Phase. One thing that you might do is to assess your protein intake. Your daily protein requirement is met by a combination of the amount of protein you obtain from food combined with the amount of protein from protein supplements (protein shakes, protein bars). Right after gastric bypass surgery, the volume of food you consume is minuscule (2 ounces) per meal. But as you get further along, the meal volume increases. Therefore you have a very important option available to you provided you concentrate on consuming high protein meals. You can begin to reduce your reliance on protein shakes. I went from 3 a day, down to 2, down to 1 and eventually none when I reached 1 cup per meal at a year and a half post-op. This is important because protein shakes contain calories. If you can reduce your caloric intake, then you can end a stall. After surgery I completely lost my hunger. This condition lasted for about a year and then returned. It was not as strong as pre-surgery but it was there. The strategy is different in the Maintenance phase than the Weight Loss phase. I discussed this in the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

Dr. Noora Kanerva from the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues analyzed data from the Swedish Obesity Study (SOS), a more than 30-year investigation comparing bariatric surgery with conventional treatments for obesity. In particular, they were interested in learning whether the short-term dietary changes a person made after bariatric surgery (i.e. in the first six months) might be predictive of the long-term (10 years) success of the procedures. In part, their interest stemmed from the observation that about “20-30 percent of obese patients do not achieve successful weight outcomes after bariatric surgery.” Their concept was that the ability to adapt to the changes necessary for weight loss after bariatric surgery would be predictive of long-term weight loss success. Individuals’ weight, height and waist circumference were measured at periodic interview sessions, and food intake and activity levels were self-reported. Data from about 2,000 subjects of the SOS were included in this analysis. Criteria for participation included a BMI of over 34 for men and over 38 for women and ages of 37-60 years. Baseline data were obtained four weeks prior to surgery. Changes from baseline values were assessed at six months and periodically until ten years post-surgery. Based on changes from baseline, the respondents’ energy intake reductions were divided into three groups: group 1 had the smallest reduction (300 kcal), group 2 an intermediate reduction, and group 3 the largest reduction (2500 kcal). They concluded that early weight loss was indeed predictive of the long-term success of surgery-induced reduction. While their conclusion is logical, there are weaknesses in the design of this study. First, the type of surgery varied among individuals — most had had vertical gastric banding procedures, while others had another form of gastric banding and yet a third group had gastric bypass surgery. It isn’t clear whether the success at ten years was influenced by the type of surgery as well as by the early reduction in energy intake. Further, surgical procedures change with time — for example, more recently the proportion of bariatric procedures performed via laparoscope is much higher than it was when this study began. http://www.acsh.org/news/2017/07/25/even-bariatric-surgery-recipients-require-dietary-discipline-11599

Good luck on your recovery.

1. Take a good before photograph of yourself, so that you have something to compare to after surgery. Many times we are blind to our obesity. We do not see ourselves. Therefore when the weight begins to drop off rather dramatically, we question if this is really happening. Photographs are a good visualization of our success. Many people carry a before and after photo with them, just to remind themselves of their success. 2. Walk 30 minutes each day, every day until surgery (or equivalent exercise). Walking helps the recovery process go smoothly and minimized the pain levels from surgery. 3. Wean yourself from caffeine and carbonated beverages now. After I gave up my 6 diet coke a day habit, I suffered from a week of severe withdrawal syndrome consisting of severe headaches and body aches. I was miserable. You don't want to combine the effects of caffeine withdrawal with the effects of surgery. I lost 20 pounds from giving up my diet coke habit.

The weight loss phase after surgery is relatively short. You will soon slide into the maintenance phase. It is important to maximize the weight loss during the weight loss phase. Consuming honey roasted nuts will make it difficult to reach your goals due to high sugar content.

Congratulations on your weight loss and putting your comorbidities in remission.

One of the risk of surgery is blood clots. Blood thinners are routinely prescribed to minimize the possibility of a blood clot. I gave myself Lovenox (Enoxaparin) shots for the 10 days after surgery. It was't too bad but blood thinners can cause bruises, so after surgery bruises covered my stomach for about a month. It is not always that common for you local pharmacy to carry this blood thinner, so you may want to purchase this from a pharmacy located near the hospital because they tend to have this in stock. This was well covered in the class that I took. Blood clots can lead to a Pulmonary Embolism which can cause death, so these shots are very important.

Good luck on your surgery.

I did not experience this effect after surgery. When I entered the pre-op stage, I gave up all carbonated beverages and caffeine. I ended my 6 diet coke a day habit. I suffered severe withdrawal syndrome from giving up the caffeine. This caused great headaches and body aches for about a week. Generally giving up caffeine is a prerequisite to the surgery. So might this be the cause.

One of the reasons why I had RNY gastric bypass surgery rather than sleeve was because I had severe acid reflux (Gerd). The sleeve will only make this condition worse. So you might factor this into your decision.

It is common to see some fluctuation in weight. For example many individuals experience stalls. Just keep following the program guidelines.

I got rid of everything. I gave some to my brother and the rest to Goodwill or similar stores. That made my closets empty which was a good thing because I filled it up with an entirely new wardrobe in the latest styles. Shopping was a lot of fun, especially when you can buy clothes in normal department stores. I am a bargain shopper and generally buy clothes for around 75% off retail. So replacing my wardrobe wasn't really that expensive.

Good luck on your surgery.

Congratulations.

I had RNY gastric bypass because of health issues. I had diabetes and high blood pressure and several other conditions. The surgery helped resolve these issues quickly and place them in remission. I do not believe my personality changed as a result of the surgery. I am still the same me. I did find that my stamina (ability to perform physical labor) increased dramatically. It was also nice to be able to buy clothes from department stores again. I went from a size 3X in shirts down to a size small and from a size 46 in pants down to a size 33. Here is a picture of what happens in just 6 months after surgery.

It can be hard to make the transition to solid foods especially meats like steak and chicken. I found that softer foods such as chili and soups went down much easier than harder foods like meat. I have included a few recipes in the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf