Djmohr

I can eat a very small spoonful of rice. I will say before surgery I did not like spicey at all. Now I love it. Weird!

First, you look fantastic in both pictures! The new you looks much healthier. Congratulations on your progress. I think people have no idea what to say and tend to stumble without even realizing it. I just give them the benefit of the doubt most of the time. I have had a couple of instances where people literally do not recognize me so I do believe that we don't always look like ourselves. One of these instances my husband was with me and the person asked him where I was. my husband looked at them all confused like really? She is right here. I guess he is used to how I look but I do think my face looks a lot different and I have nearly lost half of me. That person was shocked. I have also had someone ask me if my weight loss was intentional and then confided they were worried I was sick with cancer or something. This type of weight loss is drastic and so fast that I think people just don't know what to say and apparently saying nothing doesn't even cross their minds.

First, you would no longer be a high volume eater. I am 16 months post op and eat between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of food per meal with a small healthy snack once or twice per day. The reason people gain their weight back is: 1: they go back to eating lots of sugary, carbs and processed junk food. 2. You can literally eat around the surgery by eating small amounts all day long. In order to not gain weight back you literally have to follow the plan for the rest of your life. Yes, once in a while we all indulge however we account for it by tracking and making sure the remainder of our day we follow the plan. I can pretty much eat anything I want to but I now choose not to. Honestly your tastes change so much after surgery. I have no want to ever eat fast food or junk food. My body craves good Protein, fresh veggies and fruits. But, I had to work towards that. For me it started at the pre op stage. Once I went through that I did not care to gorge myself on sugary, carbs and junk food. Hopefully I answered your question.

@@ForeverHealthy First I will say having this surgery is the best thing that ever happened to me. My only regret is that I did not do it many years ago. I am 16 months post op, down 139lbs with 6lbs left to go until my ideal weight. I went from a BMI over 40 to 24.5. I had numerous comorbitities like type 2 diabetes, severe Gerd, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, anemia, sleep apnea and stage 3 kidney disease. I will say, I waited too long and did serious damage to my spine as well as other joints. Waiting too long is my only regret. The answer to your question about snacking is yes I do. I am very restricted so in order for me to get all my Protein and veggies in, I have to have 1 or 2 small healthy Snacks a day. I track everything I eat throughout the day to ensure I am within my protein goals. I think the moment it takes me to track is the reason I have been able to be so successful in losing my weight. I intend to continue that habit because I want to maintain my new healthier body. Best of luck to you!

My surgeon did not use my belly button either because of previous surgery. I had a total of 7 little incisions from bypass surgery and unfortunately lost my gallbladder 20 years ago before they did lap surgery So my incision is about 4 inches diagonally. My poor tummy looks like a road map. The good news is when I get a tummy tuck hopefully a lot of that will go away.

Hello Michael!

Your Dad is very young yet and has a lot of life yet to live. He is lucky to have someone like you to love and care about him. I am 52 years old and had a slew of comorbitities including severe Gerd, type 2 diabetes, anemia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and stage 3 kidney disease. I also had sleep apnea. I had RNY bypass because of the Gerd. I have had no complications and all of my comorbitities were resolved. I am down 139lbs with 6 left to lose to reach my ideal weight. This surgery is the best thing that ever happened to me. The biggest thing for your dad is, he has to be ready. If not, he may struggle with following the plan.

@@liannatx I have to say my grown boys think it's so hilarious that they are calling me Bartles too. My husband thinks he's a comedian. I wouldn't have it any other way.

@@NYLux12 You have done a great job on getting yourself healthy. I hope that things work out for you with this test. Please be careful that you don't push yourself too far too fast. It really does take more time than a month or two to recover from this surgery. A little light weight training may not hurt but please be careful and kind to your body. You have to remember you have put yourself through a lot of stress in the last couple of months. The other advice I would offer is that setting timeline goals after WLS can be a problem. Just be aware that weight loss really happens on its own schedule, stalls happen along the way. The same is true of how are bodies react to all the stress. If for some reason you don't meet your goals to pass the test in time, please don't let it discourage you. You can always try again next year. Lastly, your doctors advice about not weight training really is strange. Yes muscle weighs more than fat but you need that muscle to remain healthy. I might suggest pushing back on him and get clarification. I wish you the very best!

I love these NSVs! Congratulations! It's such a good feeling, isn't it! We have a tiny garage in a 1 bedroom apt at the moment. When we put our SUV in there, there is about 1 foot of space between the wall and the front of our vehicle. To get into the passenger side you actually have to walk out of the garage and go around and then you have about 1 foot in to open the door and get in. My husband usually will back out and then I get in. A few times I have walked thru that space sideways just to see if I could. This week without even thinking I walked straight through that tiny little space with all my winter gear on, walked around open the door and got in. When I looked up my husband was staring at me. I said what's up James? He calls me Bartles (like Bartles and James wine coolers). He said "Bartles, I suppose you think you are all that! You are so skinny you think you can fit anywhere"! I swear this is my new thing, to squeeze through spaces I never could fit before. I am constantly finding things I can do with my new thinner body.

I was very restricted and literally a couple of bites would fill me. With dense Protein like chicken I still can only eat a few bites and I am full. If it is something really soft like yogurt I could maybe eat 1/4 cup and further down the road I was able to eat 1/2 cup. Even now 16 months later 1/2 cup cottage cheese will fill me or 2 to 3 oz. of meat. What you are experiencing is normal.

What worked for me was walking a lot, using a heating pad while sitting or laying and gas x strips will help with gas as your bowels start working again which also can be painful. This usually will get better every day, mine was gone after about 5 days but it improved a little everyday. To keep dehydration at bay which is a vicious cycle you must sip liquids like crazy. Try room temperature liquids. The cold can make your tummy seize up. Keep the cup in your hand and sip every few moments. I swear the number 1 job for the first couple weeks is just sipping liquids. If you don't do this nausea will set in and you will feel terrible. If you are nauseous now, call your doctor and ask for something. This will help but it will come back if you don't sip. If dehydration gets completely away from you, you will need to go in and get IV fluids. Best of luck, I hope you feel better soon.

I make chicken salad with canned chicken, dill pickle, chopped celery and a little lite mayo. You can use cucumber slices like crackers or eat it just the way it is. Caprese salad - 1 oz. fresh mozerella cheese (I buy the little snack ones that are already portioned), sliced tomato, sliced cucumber, dried basil, dribble of olive oil, good balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper Cottage cheese if I don't feel like messing with salad Homemade Soups lunch meat and small salad

I hear ha too! I swear I am the queen of the stalls. My longest was 28 days and that one I had to put my scale away for awhile. I am thankful I have not gone months like some do. The closer you get to goal, the more frequently and longer you stall. I have learned for me that making adjustments does no good. Simply following the plan and riding it out will result in loss down the road. Hang in there!

For me, it is hanging skin. Ugh! I do have a lot of it but hopefully some day I can do something about that.

Yes, I think I like that plan. LOL!

Hey, that's not funny. When I was 8 years old I was playing red rover with my cousins and I got clothes lined. I broke my arm so badly that the elbow was on backwards. LOL! Everytime it rains or snows that arm aches. I still remember them trying to set my arm in the emergency room. They kept drugging me and trying to manipulate it into place. Finally they had to take me to surgery but I can remember the pure torture. Sad thing is, 2 weeks after I got the cast off I was in the neighbors baby pool and a mean boy threw a ball at me and I reached over the side of the pool, hit my left elbow on the ground and broke it the exact same way. Back to surgery I went and my parents were grilled by authorities because they could not believe that this happened again now on the other arm. I was so skinny then and apparently it did not take much to break my bones.

I am a daily weigher. I have had to learn that my weight is going to fluctuate and I have had to learn not to let the scale dictate my mood. The scale is only 1 barometer of how you are doing. The most important is how you feel, the second is how your clothes are fitting then the scale last. It's completely up to you to figure out what keeps you on track and motivated. For me, tracking everything I eat good or bad and weighing daily keeps me on track.

Congratulations on such a significant weight loss! 80lbs in 6 months is phenomenal. There is a big danger to setting a time limit on weight loss. The closer you get to goal, the longer it takes to get there. You will reach your weight loss goal, why the pressure with the time limit?

Congratulations! You did very well very quickly! Good luck with the maintenance phase now. I think that is my biggest fear, only because I have been able to lose years ago and always put it back on. This time I believe is different but I do believe maintenance will be the hardest part of this journey. Best of luck to you!

@@j16 I would remove arthritis from your con list. The reality is, you remove the weight off your joints now, no more damage. You wait too long and pretty soon the weight loss won't make a difference. I have both psoriatic and osteo arthritis severely. My one regret is that I didn't lose the weight before I did so much damage. The good news for me, the pain in my knees and ankles is completely gone. The bad news for me, I have ver severe arthritis of the spine and the damage is done. I take medications other than NSAIDs to help with the pain. Don't wait, run to the nearest Bariatric center of excellence. You won't regret it.

@@jessicasantana28 You will do great because you are preparing yourself by researching and getting a better understanding of potential complications. Complications do happen for some people but if you do everything you are supposed to, you mitigate most of that happening. The best of luck to you!

It is very likely that you qualify given your comorbitities however you need to check your insurance for their requirements. Most insurance companies require a 40 BMI without comorbitities and a 35 BMI with comorbitities. Given you have several comorbitities it is very likely that you will qualify but only your insurance company can confirm that for you. They can also confirm the requirement for a supervised diet. My insurance company would not have accepted your example. If they don't, don't get discouraged. That time is so important to get yourself prepared for the changes that will come and the time goes by quickly. My wait ended up being right around 9 months and I had a 6 month supervised diet required. Also, they may have other requirements. For example I was only allowed to have this procedure through a Bariatric center of excellence. Your insurance company will help you through the requirements. Best of luck to you!

As most of you know I have been dealing with a lot of spine problems that have progressively gotten worse over the last 6 months. I had surgery 4 weeks ago to have an old non working neurostimulator removed. They believed that the surgically placed leads were somehow causing this severe nerve pain across my back and radiating into my right rib cage. Honestly this pain has been some of the worst I have ever felt in my life and having severe osteoarthritis in my spine in other places is pretty severe. This pain is even worse. Anyway, we have to wait another 4 to 6 weeks to do an MRI to ensure they don't address artifacts from the surgery I had. prior to this they did do a CT scan which showed a Schwarnoma (benign tumor) on one of my nerve roots in my thoracic spine. Today when the doc examined me we discovered that I have numbness both on my back and my right front rib cage. He believes it is this Schwarnoma on my T11 level that is causing all of this and is not wanting to order an MRI. Instead he wants me to remain on both Vicodin and now gabapentin to see if that helps. If that don't work he wants to do epidural injections and consider putting a new neurostimulator in. I will not agree to that plan. Anyway, he did say that gabapentin can cause weight gain. I have never taken this drug and I am guessing because of how I eat and my bypass tool, the weight gain should not be an issue. I am wondering if anyone is experiencing weight gain with gabapentin and if so do you have tips and tricks on the weight gain front? I have worked very hard to get nearly to my goal and I am very restricted on exercise. I have to be honest I really am nervous about this approach but I am willing to give it a try because this pain has literally stopped me in my tracks. It has been going on since June and it actually overwhelmed me. I have very good coping skills and I normally would not take narcotics but no matter what I do this particular pain has really gotten the best of me. So I am willing to try it but just wondering if anyone has experience with this drug post operative. Thanks for your help!

This is all about Vitamins and getting your blood work done per the plan. I wa surprised when my surgeon shared with me that more than half of WLS patients really stop taking vitamins and getting lab work done after the first year or two.numbers in recent years have improved some but it is part of the reason that bypass has gotten such a bad reputation years ago. These are the same people who end up with horrible complications and blame it on the surgeries they have had. Of course many stop following the rules, begin grazing and also gain their weight back. My advice is this: if you are not prepared to change your life and follow through for life, DO NOT consider weight loss surgery. It won't do you any good.