JamieLogical

Have you had blood work done to see if you have any deficiencies? How much protein are you getting daily? How much weight have you lost and are you still losing rapidly?

How are you doing on getting your protein in? At 5 months your restriction should still be tight enough that by putting protein first and getting in 100 grams a day, you just don't have the room for carbs.

It is incredibly common for people to experience "buyer's remorse" in the early days and weeks post-op. You are uncomfortable, you are tired all the time, you have hormones raging through your bloodstream, you are struggling with water and protein like it's a full time job, you are wondering if you will ever feel "normal" again. I promise you that it gets SO MUCH better. You WILL feel normal again. You will get things figured out. It will get easier to get your water and protein in. You will have more energy and be able to do more things. You just need to have a little patients to get through these rough days.

Without knowing more about the dynamics of your relationship, it's hard to say what the best course of action is. My husband did not agree with my decision to have surgery, but at least respected the fact that it was MY decision and he supported me afterward, because at that point there was no going back. Would I have liked him to understand? Of course. But I was grateful that he at least didn't fight me on it.

As long as you get up and start moving as soon as possible post-op, you have nothing to fear. WLS has a lower mortality rate than knee replacement, which is really saying something when you think about the fact that most WLS patients would be considered "higher risk" for surgery in the first place!

Congratulations on your success so far. Don't panic if things slow down or stop altogether in the next week or two. It is very very common for WLS patients to experience a stall on the scale around 3 weeks post-op. Just stick to your plan. Meet your protein and water goals. Take your vitamins. And walk as much as possible.

Ask your surgeon if you can take something else or if they have any recommendation for how to get them down more easily.

There's nothing you can do NOW to prevent hair loss. It is a result of trauma and events that took place months ago. The good news is, if you have been getting your protein in and taking your vitamins, then you should see it slow down pretty soon and the new growth start soon after. I lost hair from about 3.5 months out until a little over 5 months out. Then the new growth started right away.

The surgery doesn't cure carb addiction. In fact, carbs seem to go down easier than just about any other type of food. You have to be disciplined and keep putting your protein first. If you are getting in 100 grams of protein a day, it doesn't leave much room for carbs. A good way to "reset" when it comes to carbs is to go back to shakes and protein only for a week or so. That will put your body in ketosis and as long as you then stick with protein first and don't do any carb-only snacks, your carb cravings should subside a bit.

@@OutsideMatchInside and @@sassyfrass23 Just want to point out if you want to talk about skin removal surgery or whatnot, the community in the Plastic Surgery forum here on BariatricPal is pretty supportive.

That tracks pretty well with my rate of loss if you look at the progress in my signature.

I'd caution against relying on dumping as a 'pro' for bypass. Not everyone experiences dumping. If risk of failure is your number one concern, I'm not convinced one option is better than the other. Both are tools and require you to stick to the guidelines and put in the work to be successful. I would consider the advantages of bypass over sleeve to be potential to lose more quickly (while total loss is about the same ultimately, the malabsorption cause bypass patients to lose faster, which can be good if you have a very high BMI and high risk of immediate health issues related to your weight), the fact that it seems to immediately cure diabetes in most people, and the lower risk of GERD. The trade off for those advantages is rerouting of your intestines, loss of your pyloric valve, higher risk of late stage complications, and permanent malabsorption.

I personally find them to be not only useless, but potentially dangerous. I have read articles about how they can squish your internal organs. http://news.health.com/2015/03/10/what-is-waist-training/

I used them when I made my own protein shakes with unflavored whey isolate. They are just a way of making flavored shakes without relying on flavored protein powders. I had about 6 different flavors and would mix and match them... like vanilla and orange or strawberry for a creamsicle falvor.... chocolate and irish cream for like a mocha coffee flavor....

It is completely normal to experience a lot of anxiety in these final days pre-op. I didn't sleep at all the night before my surgery and had lots of restless nights before that. What you need to remember is that you and your surgeon made this decision when you were in a calm and rational mindset. Right now you are being emotional and irrational, which is absolutely to be expected, but you shouldn't let your current disordered thinking deter you from a decision you made when you were thinking clearly.

Do a search on these forums for "week 3 stall". Nearly every single WLS patient experiences a stall on the scale around 3 weeks post-op. It's completely normal. Just have your husband stick to his surgeon's food plan, get his water in, and move around as much as possible. The stall can last anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, but it will break eventually and the scale will start moving again.

I certainly FELT like I was going to die. I was moving at a snail's pace. I was only "running" by the most generous definition of the word at that point.

Huge milestone! Congratulations!

Be sure to post back and let us know how it goes! I'm sure everything will go great!

You didn't really give any reasons for why you are starting to lean toward bypass. Is there something specific about bypass that makes you think you will be more successful?

I think around 4 weeks is when I really started to feel like a normal human being again too. I think by then you are recovered from the surgery, at least on soft foods, getting a fair amount of calories in, and getting back into a routine. So I think that, yes, it is normal to feel "normal" again around that time.

Before surgery I had done Couch to 5k a couple of times in previous weight loss attempts. I loved the idea of being a runner, especially because I had never run until I was in my 30's and was TERRIBLE at running as a child. I maybe in my wildest dreams had thought of doing a half or full marathon, but honestly a 5k was really hard. I thought it would be crazy to even do a 10k! So when I got this wild hair to do a half marathon, I had pretty low expectations of myself. So glad to have proved myself wrong!

@heather5565 http://www.bariatric...proof-i-did-it/

@@Cervidae That is do sad! Maybe you can just come to cheer the runners on, then.