Djmohr

I'm typically very open about everything with mostly everyone. I don't have anything to hide really. I'm just over sensitive about this because one time one of the girls that used to work here took time off to get a boob job. She was in her mid 40s and went from a size A to a D. She never told anyone why she was taking a vacation she just did. And then she came back with breasts. It was the freaking talk of the century. Like who cares? It's her body, but you know people can be so petty. I am such a horrible liar! But at least I have time to think about it... Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App Another thing to think about is if you need or plan on doing plastics after you reach your goal. I am at that stage now. I have not seen a lot of my exe coworkers since last August but I am sure they are going to notice my newly beautifully contoured arms given how bad mine were to begin with. I also plan on a TT and Breast lift with augmentation but that won't be at least for another 3 to 4 months. I am sure some of the jerks once they see me will figure out that I had plastics. I really don't care. I don't work there anymore and I know who my real friends are.

I was one of the folks that didn't worry about sharing this information with people. If I had to do it over again, I would have limited that just to my best friends and family. There were a few coworkers I told and I worked at a big corporate office in Minneapolis. Well, you know how that works, the rumors then spread. Funny thing was, after 25 years there, I actually was layed off 4 months before my surgery but I had been working on it for 5 months before that. Anyway, I am still friends with over 100 previous co workers and I stop in there when I am in town to see some of my closer friends. I will get little snarky comments from people that I didn't hang with but heard about my having surgery. It's almost like they are waiting for you to fail or something. For me, I would tell only my family and my very best friends and I would not share my story with coworkers. When people ask now, I tell them the truth. I lost my weight by changing the way that I eat and getting more exercise. That is not a lie, it is the truth and honestly after the honeymoon period is over it becomes your reality. You want to maintain? You have to be even more careful about your food and beverage choices and you better be moving your body some. Just my two cents. I think you are right to be concerned and in the beginning less is more.

@@amandasc218 That is a good strategy to go back to the last phase until you see your doctor. You might have a lactose intolerance which is usually temporary. If cottage cheese is bothering you and feels heaving that is likely. I use a 1% cottage cheese so it doesn't have as much fat. The fat could cause you to feel sick as well. Your best bet is definately to take it slower and see your doctor to rule out a stricture.

Congratulations! Things will get exciting now for you! Keep us posted.

Wow, I am exhausted just going though all of these responses. I wasn't sure I even wanted to get involved in this trending topic. I work hard to try to make sure that I speak from my own personal experiences and I try hard to watch my tone while at the same time trying to be straight forward with people. I tend to be very outspoken in the non virtual world and I know there are times when people read tone when tone is not intended on line. I have always tried hard not to be mean nor a bully but up front and honest. When you are asking for help and wondering why you are gaining and not following the rules, I am going to call you out. It is getting harder and harder to be real on this site. I spend a lot of my free time on here trying to give back and help people because I personally got so much out of this site. I know how important it is to have people that are experienced to reach out to and I also relish our newbies because they are so excited that it is contagious! I personally get caught up in what their new reality can be, this is what brought be back when I stepped away a few months ago. That being said the issue becomes, if I have to really go back and read every post that I make to ensure no one will be hurt by what I have to say, that will stop me from posting nearly as much. There have been times when I have been involved in posts in which someone is calling out that "we" are mean or bullies because they simply do not want to hear the truth. I think the truth needs to be told and I personally try my best to be kind while still being straight forward. That is hard for me to do sometimes. I will continue to post on Bariatric Pal and do my best to be kind while still being real. If I have personally made anyone feel butt hurt, you have my sincere apology. It certainly was never intentional. What I won't do is sugar coat or coddle. It helps no one.

I think James is probably right. We miss chewing in those first few month and it really makes us think we need food when in fact we don't. Are you pureeing soup? I know when I first started eating Soups that were not pureed I really had to beef them up with lots of chicken/beef and vegetables. It's the meat that will actually fill you up and keep you satisfied. Try ensuring there is a lot of meat in your soup. I made things like hamburger soup, chicken tortilla soup sans tortilla, chicken and vegetables, my favorite was beef barley and I doubled up on the beef and used half the barley which is a whole grain. That is my favorite most filling soup.

@@beckygensel I would be happy to help. Can you message directly if you are interested? Just click on my name. It would be good to know what you are doing at this point and what kind of help you are looking for.

I am with everyone else on this. Verify that it really was the hospital and then many of them are willing to work with you on a payment plan if you owe another 3K or 6K, whichever is right. I can totally understand why you are freaking out. I certainly would be as well. Just make sure you are not being scammed.

Hi there and welcome! Congratulations on your surgery and your recent weight loss. There are more good things to come! Although the first 2 months are the hardest in my opinion because of recovery and getting used to the whole learning to eat thing, they are the most exciting as well because weight loss seems to be much faster during those first few month. I too had bypass in September of 2014, I am just 22 month post op. I have lost 152lbs and and currently maintaining between 158 and 162. My goal was 165 and I honestly never thought I would get to goal. I thought I would consider myself lucky if I met the average of 70% excess weight loss but once it started coming off and I started feeling better I was bound and determined to get to a optimal weight for my height and improve my mobility. I have been able to do that and if I can do it, anyone can. Welcome to the losers bench!

I am so sorry to hear you have had such problems. Personally if I were you I would try again with perhaps a different surgeon and I would suggest looking at one of the other surgeries like sleeve, bypass or duodenal switch. Because of your size you would want to look at a surgery that is going to allow you the safest surgery that is going to give you the best chance to get to a healthy weight. This is just my opinion but I would do it even if it meant having an open bypass, sleeve or DS. I wish you the very best of luck and I really hope you are on the road to a healthier life soon. I never would have believed life could be so much better until I had bypass.

Hi and Welcome! I am 53 years old and had bypass 22 months ago. Like James, I had many other surgeries that were much more painful. I recovered quickly from this surgery but most of the pain will come from the gas they pump in your belly. The only way to get rid of it is to walk, sip on fluids, using a heating pad or hot packs while sitting or laying and once your bowels start producing gas, gas x works to help alleviate that as well. If you have ever had tummy surgery, gas pains can be quite painful but they will pass especially if you walk and drink consistently. As I said, I am now 53 and have lost almost half my body weight. I lost 152 lbs and I currently weight 158. I can hardly believe it some days. I went from a size 26 to a size 8. I am 5'10". 2 weeks ago I had my first plastic surgery to remove my sagging arm skin. I feel about 25 years younger, have more energy than ever and am loving life. All my comorbities are gone: Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, stage 3 chronic kidney disease in remission. Severe and I do mean severe acid reflux has been completely obliterated! Prior to surgery I coughed and coughed every single day for well over a year from acid. NO MORE. I still struggle with damage done to my spine and shoulder joints but let me tell you I feel so healthy it's crazy! Best of luck to you and feel free to reach out with questions!

I am with James on this one, you may be advancing sooner than your tummy will allow. I struggled terribly on pureed stage. I would gag and puke and I (now) I believe it was more of an aversion to pureed meats, eggs and fish. I still 22 months later have an aversion to eggs because of the pureed stage. I would still with Soups, cottage cheese, applesauce, cream of wheat, Protein shakes. Anything that will slip down vs. have to swallow. For me it took some time before my pouch even appreciated meats of any kind. I could eat fish fairly easily but even shrink was difficult. By 8 weeks post op, most if not all my swelling was down and then I was able to start eating ground beef, ground chicken, soft juicy chicken breast in a mushroom gravy, thinks like that.....another month down the road it got easier and easier. But my suggestion would be to go back to creamy Proteins like cottage cheese, yogurt, refried Beans, unsweetened applesauce, and definately protein shakes at this stage. Premier Protein for me were the best because they had a whopping 30 grams of protein and only 1 gram of sugar. I had to actually add lactose free milk to them in the beginning so it would take me almost a whole day to drink 1 shake. Best of luck to you and I promise it really does get better, if for some reason you can't get even softer foods down like I suggested then there is more going on and you might have a stricture. I would check with your doctor if that becomes a problem. Your tummy just needs a little longer to heal and honestly it will be better for you in the long run.

Welcome! Which surgery are you considering? There are a lot of folks on here with a good cross section of bypass, sleeve and Lapland. There are even some balloon and DS patients. What questions do you have? I am a bypass patient post op 22 months. Originally I was going to get the sleeve but because I had severe reflux, it was the right surgery for me given bypass cures that. Feel free to message with questions or post them here, you have many people that will try to help you through it. Best of luck to you!

At about 5 months out, the max my surgical team gave me was 1/2 of food if it were all chewed up. The danger of eating without knowing is that many times, Bariatric patients get comfortable with eating more than they should and it backs up into the esophagus which is not good. There are studies on this. It is very very unlikely that you stretched your pouch however how long is it taking you to eat an average plate of food? My guidelines prefer that i eat slowly but not to take longer than 20 minutes and never ever eat longer than 30. Because your pouch can also start emptying at that point thereby allowing more food than you need to be consumed. Lastly, are you drinking with your meals? The reality if you are is that you could be pushing foods out of your pouch faster and thereby making more room and creating more hunger. These are just some ideas that could be the culprit.

Hi There, I am so sorry that you are having such pain. Did your surgeon give you pain medication to take? Sometimes you have to take that as direction exactly on time to get your pain under control. If it is not working for you, call your doctor immediately. My doctor actually met me on a Sunday in the parking lot of her office to provide me with a new written script following plastic surgery. I have never had a doctor do that before but she did and boy was I grateful. If they cannot help you today, you should go to the ER where they can help you get your pain under control if it is that overwhelming. With bypass so much of it is caused by that gas in your tummy. In many cases the pain meds won't work alone. I had to get up and walk a lot and when I wasn't walking I would use a heating pad on my belly. I also used gas x tablets because your bowels begin to work again and it is really tender in your belly so you have surgical pain, gas pain from the surgery and actual gas. The 3 of them together can be overwhelming for a day or two. While you are in pain, take deep breathes through your nose and out of your mouth several times. It will help you get control as well. Hugs!

@D'Sleeved Looks like you are ready ready ready! Good luck on the pre op liquid diet as well. If you haven't done that before, the first couple days are the roughest and honestly if you focus 1 day, 1 hour at a time it will be over before you know it and you will be in surgery. Keep reminding yourself of why you are going this, it makes it all worth it when times get tough. You will do great!

That is really cool! Thanks for sharing! Hope you had a great walk too.

Sorry. YUCK! As you can tell, I did not do well on pureed foods. I lived on yogurt, cream of wheat, cottage cheese and Protein shakes. I also cannot eat bean and that is a really good source of protein for those on purée stage. Most people talk about that and ricotta bake. Maybe if I had done baby food I would feel differently. For me it was an aversion to the texture. Yuck. LOL. I could not wait for that phase to be over. Best of luck......

I was going through menopause at the time of surgery, still am. My emotions were off the charts. You have to remember there are other hormones at work as well and it is normal to simply have mood swings while going through such a significant change in your life. For many food was there coping mechanism and now that is gone so it is only natural that it happens. At least that is what I have been told and what I experienced.

costco. My favorite store. The store you cannot get out of for less than 200.00 and most times a lot more. Premier Protein Ready Make shakes - about 3 or 4 times a year they have 5.00 off a case and I stock up Fresh Fruits : Strawberries, Apples, Cherries, Watermelon (I always have fruit) Fresh Vegies: Baby cucumbers, Lettuces, Mushrooms, Carrots, baby peppers Olive Oil Tilamook Cheddar cheese Gruyere cheeses Cooked Shrimp from Deli area Ground Beef Beef Tenderloin Black Olives Wonderful Pistachios Frozen veggies chicken and beef stock when they have it Tomato sauce for cooking I love Costco for their fruits & Veggies and some of their meats.

@@nursey10465 You will get there! I did not believe I would ever go from 310 to 165 either and I was a slow loser. It took me 18 months mostly because I had 2 back surgeries and a shoulder surgery during that time. But I made it! As soon as I hit wonderland I felt like anything was possible if I kept at it and it worked. You will get there too!

Yes, that sure sounds like it maybe a mild case of it. You might have eaten too fast. SF jello shouldn't cause it so you might try it again but go very slow.

It is not the normal. When you say your fluids are good are you really getting a good 64oz in? If you are then maybe give your doc a call because if you are well hydrated you should be ok. Keep in mind you also had major surgery just a couple of weeks ago so you are likely just feeling the effects of that but I would call to be sure.

@@RJC5197 They removed your stomach or its is still in there, just bypassed a portion of it. If it's truly removed, like sleeve hunger should not return. Also it looks like you just had your surgery in May. You still have some time before the nerves reconnect @ I know you think you are feeling hungry but it is impossible at this stage. It is more likely that you are actually more dehydrated than you think or it is head hunger. Ask your surgeon about it.