maggiemayuk

I did suffer from 'silent reflux' at night, pre-op, and was taking omeprazole which prevented it. During my sleeve op they discovered that my hiatus hernia was larger than anticipated, so repaired it before proceeding. Like most sleeve patients I was prescribed dissolvable lansaprazole post op. I'm now 6 weeks out and had a check-up yesterday. I asked if I could stop the lansaprazole now as I'd had the hernia repair but was advised to keep taking them as acid reflux is common in sleeve patients. I haven't had any problems so far..

Throwing up repeatedly for a week and a half, two months out of surgery, definitely isn't right and you are justified in thinking your doctor is too laid back about it. Fortunately we can all survive a long time without food as long as we have Water - so keeping yourself hydrated is really important in the meantime. I hope you do get an appointment with him today, get some anti-nausea drugs and get him to sort the problem out properly. It must be so miserable for you. Let us know how you get on.

I'm only down 18lb since surgery on 9/18, but I'm still pleased with that. My jeans (which had been too tight to wear in August) have been on the verge of falling down so I got out a size smaller from my stash of clothes in all different sizes and was surprised to find that they fit perfectly. I don't have a problem with my bras because as I put on weight I used the same ones with band expanders, so I can start to remove those as they get too loose. As far as food is concerned I seem to be managing OK but haven't attempted to eat any meat or chicken yet - I can't face it. Mostly have been digesting everything OK but surprisingly had some trouble with some steamed salmon so ended up cutting it up finely and making fishcakes instead. I'm pleased to say that I don't feel hungry and definitely know when I'm getting full - hope that state of affairs lasts as long as possible. Over the weekend I went out for a celebratory meal with a group of friends who don't know I've had surgery. I chose something light but nevertheless could only manage half of it, eating very slowly I was pleased that nobody noticed - they were all too busy clearing their own plates and talking!

I think it has a sort of 'burnt' smell to it which is a bit offputting, but once it's been mixed into food it's fine.

If your Dr is keen on you staying in ketosis it's still possible to do that and eat non-starchy vegetables/salad - at least that would give you some variety. Low fat/fat free dairy should be OK too. What he's asking you to do is a seriously unbalanced diet. At least Protein shakes are not just protein - they are designed to be nutritionally complete. When I had a follow-up talk with my nutritionist she was encouraging me to introduce vegetables and fruit into my diet 3 weeks out and in fact advocated eating slightly less protein to make room for them. The longer that you are on a diet that's unpalatable to you, the more likely you are to get that 'deprived' feeling and more likely to do something unhelpful like eating high carb foods. I've done the Atkins diet in the past and know what it's like. Definitely talk to your Dr and do what you feel is right for you.

I was sleeved on 9/18 and a month later have lost 18lb. I am not getting any exercise at the moment though because I still have quite a lot of pain from the surgery that gets worse when I'm standing or sitting upright. Bending and twisting is difficult too - the hospital says that there are deep stitches that can pull and cause pain and that for some people this can last several months. Looks like I drew the short straw on that one. I'm not eating very much and am supposed to be introducing more solid foods now but am reluctant to try meat or chicken unless its minced - just can't face solid lumps of anything. Probably not drinking enough either - I have to keep reminding myself that water is essential to help the body break down fat to produce energy (Krebs Cycle) - so not drinking it is self-defeating. When I have dieted before and managed to drink plenty of water I lost weight quite fast. I have decided to weigh myself only on the first of the month and on the 'monthiversary' of my surgery otherwise I could get discouraged. I think I only lost 3lb between the 1st and 18th of this month so am hoping that's the stall over.

Thanks for that. I'm glad you've been so successful with your weight loss - I'm at the beginning of my journey and it's always good to be inspired by others.

I'm only 4 weeks post-op and alternate between constipation and diarrhea at the moment - however that seems to be par for the course while you're on a limited diet. From what I've read longer term if anything the problem is more likely to be constipation but you can control that by making sure you have sufficient fibre in your diet.

Avocado with balsamic vinegar dressing, low-fat houmous, low-fat patés, soft cheese, over-cooked veggies with cheese sauce, scrambled egg, fish pie, shepherd's pie, natural low-fat yogurt with fresh berries, porridge.

I have told 5 people. Two of them have had WLS, one is overseas with weight issues herself and won't be talking to anyone else I know and the other two are people I can trust not to talk and who are sympathetic despite never having had weight problems themselves. I have a part -time job and when I needed (unpaid) time off just said I was having a 'minor op' and no-one asked what it was. Initially I didn't intend telling anyone else that I had surgery but unfortunately I continued to have pain for longer than I anticipated so it was obvious that there was something wrong with me and people started asking what happened. So I said that I'd had a hiatus hernia repair - which is true, because that was done at the same time - and just omitted mention of WLS. I might let more people know farther down the line when my weight loss becomes much more noticeable - but to be honest my weight has always fluctuated dramatically with ordinary dieting and I don't think it's anyone's business but mine how I've achieved the weight loss. I have never discussed my dieting regimes with other people anyway - I think it's a very boring topic best avoided as it only draws attention to the whole issue.

It seems to me that different surgeons have different opinions. I discussed band vs sleeve initially. The surgeon said they'd had a lot of success with the sleeve and no longer considered it just an intermediate stage for very large people before they went on to have the bypass. I thought the sleeve sounded less drastic than the bypass because there's no re-routing involved and therefore there should be less malabsorption. Also re band vs sleeve the sleeve should help more with type 2 diabetes and with the sleeve the part of your stomach that produces ghrelin, the 'hunger hormone' is removed. However, by the time my surgery was scheduled there was a new surgeon with very different opinions. I met him just before surgery when it was too late to change things without cancellation and long delays. Basically he said that the sleeve was just as drastic as the bypass with the disadvantage that it couldn't be reversed whereas the bypass can be. That scared me a bit because obviously with the bypass you still have 'spare stomach' inside you whereas with the sleeve he was going to take away 90% of my stomach and that would be gone forever. It seemed to me that he had taken over the other surgeon's list and didn't necessarily agree with the choices made. However, to be honest I've never heard of a bypass being reversed - I don't know whether anyone else here has? I went ahead with the sleeve and am 4 weeks out now and don't regret it so far. I'm certainly never hungry and that's a bonus although I realise that this will probably change the farther out from surgery I get. Good luck with everything whichever choice you make.

That's a shame. I didn't try them until nearly 3 weeks post -op and only have one egg and that fills me up. Hope you can tolerate them soon.

I always add a small amount of skimmed milk to eggs when I'm scrambling them, and cook them very slowly over a low heat. That way they stay creamy and moist instead of getting hard and rubbery. I have no problem eating eggs cooked this way.

Had a conversation with my dietician about this today. She said that flax seeds sprinkled on food are very effective so I'll get some. although the prunes do work for me.

I didn't have a BM for a week after getting home from surgery - was advised to increase my milk intake and that seemed to work. Then nothing for 5 days or so, so once on puréed foods I puréed some prunes and had them mixed with natural yogurt for Breakfast and that worked. Now I have them every other day or so, as I prefer natural remedies to laxatives etc.

I am always thirsty when I wake up in the night - I usually have to visit the bathroom at least twice. Sometimes I clean my teeth again in the night because my mouth is so dry and feels furred up. I also keep a bottle of Water at the side of the bed and sip from that whenever I wake up.

Maybe the instructions depend on how drastic your surgery was. From what I've read a lot of surgeons take away 70 - 80% of the stomach. Mine, however, took away 90% and said that what was left was the size of his little finger. I'm not surprised therefore that I was advised to crush the pills until everything heals up and the swelling goes down. They said I could go back to normal pills after 6 weeks.

@@Beni I have been wearing wigs for the past two and a half years. I had lost hair due to thyroid problems and alopecia and then chemo treatment finished it off. It has grown back, except in the alopecia areas, but it is very fine and frizzy - nothing like it was before. As someone else commented, with wigs you get what you pay for. I wear ones from the Raquel Welch range and have found them very good - get the right one and they look natural. I am often asked for the name of my hairdresser because people think it's my own hair (apart from close friends who know it's not). In fact I do get a hairdresser to trim them a bit to suit my face and I'm very pleased with them. The only drawback is that they are hot to wear in summer.

Yes, you do need to check with the pharmacist. They will tell you which ones can be crushed and can recommend substitutes in some cases for the ones that can't. The only med I'm not taking at the moment is my statin because one of my liver markers is raised and statins can make that worse. There will be a review after blood tests have been taken in around 6 weeks time.

I have been told to crush all my meds or get soluble equivalents for the first 6 weeks after my op. Have been crushing them and taking in Water but they taste revolting. Will be glad when I can go back to taking them whole.

I had my flu shot one week post surgery without any problems.

@@Sharon Walls Thanks for that, that's reassuring. Sometimes it feels like something inside is 'tethered' and pulling when I move - I guess that's the internal sutures. Getting impatient for everything to heal up now.

@@Sharon Walls I'm just over 2 weeks post op and am also still experiencing deep pain on my left side. I'm sorry you have it too, although it's a comfort to know that I'm not the only one. Sitting upright for any length of time sets it off and bending over creates a sharp horizontal pain in my abdomen below my ribs. On occasion I've managed to twist whilst bending and that made the pain bad enough to take my breath away. I have cut back on painkillers and try to only have one or two a day. Have also started my first cold and cough for two years and am having to put pressure on my side to help reduce the pain when I cough. Did you call your Doctor about it and if so what did he/she say?

Don't worry about it at this stage - a lot of what you've lost so far is Water - as the glycogen is used up, the water it's held in disappears and so your liver shrinks. This is not the same as burning fat. You may have lost a couple of pounds of fat so far as well as the water, but you would have had to have eaten 42,000 fewer calories than you need over the past week to lose 12lb of fat (3,500 cals = 1lb) - and that's highly unlikely. There will be plenty of time to burn off fat once the op has been done. Just concentrate on shrinking your liver to make the op easier for the surgeon and forget about the weight until afterwards. Good luck with it and let us know how it goes.

I had my op two weeks ago and still have pain on my left side and a 'pulling' feeling in my lower abdomen. I developed a chesty cough after I left hospital and coughing is pretty uncomfortable. I tend to hold a pillow or cushion over my side if I get into a coughing fit. Like BeagleLover though some people recover much more quickly and don't have a problem with coughing or sneezing. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can bend, stretch etc without getting stabbing pains inside.