jjwhitman

I read somewhere that people who suffer from morbid obesity and lose all their weight, only 10% can keep it off for good. Compare that to patients that have gastric bypass's surgery and the success rate goes up to 80% Weight loss success permanently. It's just simple, logical math.

For my own personal experience, and from everything that I have read it is normal to have black runny stools in the first couple days after surgery, but if there is any blood visible then this could be a very big issue. My problem was just caused by old blood left over from the surgery and also possibly from the big increase in iron I started taking right away. Mine passed after the first week and became normal.

I had the same thing happened to me last night. I was home alone and decided that I really wanted to make some homemade popcorn and watch a movie. Of course I made the popcorn with a little bit of canola while on the stovetop. I did not add better, but there were still fat from the oil. I munched down about 2 cups worth of popcorn before stopped and realized what I was doing. unfortunately my body quickly caught up to my sins, and I had 45 minutes of sheer misery. Interestingly enough, I have not been able to throw up yet. It's not that I generally want to throw up, but in a situation where I gorged myself on something then I was going to make me sick it would be nice to be able to get rid of it. No such luck last night! I'm hoping what everyone says is true, and that this is just a learning curve. I hope my brain can be retrained, LOL.

I'm also wondering why your blood sugar would be high when we are able to process so little sugar? I'm guessing that's something to do with your liver, too. I'm really hope you get the treatment you need and feel better quickly.

I'm so sorry! Were you taking the medicine Actigall by any chance everyday? My surgeon prescribed me to take it twice a day right after my surgery for the next six months, but I have a hard time swallowing pills right now and usually only into taking one a day, sometimes I even skip it. That is a fear of mine that my gallbladder my act up some day. I was hoping that with my new diet changes that I wouldn't have to worry about gallstones. I don't know anything about enlarged liver's, or what would cause a liver to become enlarged. Did your doctor explain to you what might've happened? What is he advised me to do at this point?

My total process time took seven months, and even though sometimes it felt like it was taking forever, looking back I realize that I needed that time to really learn and to change my bad habits before my surgery. I think if you read a lot of these message boards it will give you a good idea of what to expect. For me, this has been one of the hardest things I have ever done, but also one of the best. It's not something to go into lightly, and I don't think it's the right surgery for everybody because you have to be committed to change for life. It's not like one of the diets we would go on and then if it didn't work out we could just quit and go back to doing whatever we wanted. you will never be able to process everything the same way. So in my opinion, if you've done your research, and you've talk to your doctors and nutritionist, I say go for it! All best and good luck to you on your journey.

Woohoo!!!!

I've stopped losing weight and even gained a pound eating no more that 700 calories a day. My nutritionist told me my body is starving and has shut down on losing weight. I have to start eating more calories in order to lose weight. Could this be your dilemma, too?

Mine are not usually hard to find or take blood from, but on my surgery date the nurses had a really hard time getting an IV started. It was terrible. My blood pressure was also super low. I dont know if this had anything to do with me being on a liquid diet prior to the surgery, or if ironically enough I didn't drink enough water the day before. Next time, before any surgery, I will drink a lot of water the day before.

Has anyone's doctor told them they are not eating enough calories to lose weight?

I agree...it takes a while to learn to eat slow! I just ate cheddar cheese too fast as a snack at work, and I M dumping as we speak. It's terrible. I feel so sick. I know better, and still make this mistake over and over.

I agree about it driving me nuts but we are all told different things! I just change my calorie intake to 800 on my fitness pal. I'll see if I can get in that many calories each day. I guess it will just be a trial and error situation.

I am thirsty all the tome, too. I now have to keep water on my bed stand and wake up A couple of different times every night to drink it. I'm not on any new medications besides vitamins, so I have no idea why I'm so much thirstier. I mainly drink filtered water, and my sodium intake is low. Weird!

I've heard that our hormones are stored in our fat deposits, and that when we lose that we will experience all kinds of emotions that have been stored up. With that said, if my husband hadn't been willing to help me out with my personal needs and around the house, I would have been angry. I am really lucky that he was willing to do that, but after a week or two he did start to get grumpy about it, LOL. I would say to make sure that the kids are fed, and let everything else go to hell for a little while until you feel better. Just close your eyes to the mess and catch up on it later. If you have any family close by or friend who has offered to help, now would be the time to call in the recruits. If not, just do the very basics, and don't ask your husband to do anything. It might make him start feeling guilty and he might have a change of attitude want to do it himself. If one has never had an abdominal type surgery, they don't know how challenging recovery can be for the first while. It sounds like you are doing great but it sounds like you're doing way too much and my opinion. Good luck!

The first 2 to 3 weeks for me post op I had terrible head hunger!! I thought at first that I was truly hungry when I would see commercials or TV show but when I made myself stop and really think about how I was feeling, I would realize that I really wasn't hungry. My body and brain we're so used to eating everything I saw that looked good before surgery but I was still in the habit of having those things. after the third week everything got much better. I could see something that I previously really enjoyed like candy or cake or a cheeseburger, and not even want it. It takes about that long for your body to do detox itself from sugar and the junk food addictions. As far is regular food goes, The first time you eat something that maybe you shouldn't, and you get sick, you will learn your lesson I won't crave that again. I'm learning lessons literally every other day, LOL. it does get easier. I've heard many people mention that this is an interesting journey that we've undertaken, and they are right… It really is a life-changing thing and a learning event. Good luck to you!

Great advice! Thank you.

Thank you, all! That is exactly what I needed to know. I've been averaging around 600 calories and felt guilty for that when I would read about other people only eating 300-500 cal per day. I felt like I was overeating, but I'm not really losing weight. Your comments really helped. Btw, I'm one month post-op.

OMG. I just ate half a Premier bar. I thought I was going slowly, but apparently not slow enough. I'm so nauseous and want to die at this moment. It's so discouraging. I walked around the store with my husband and just kind of tuned out all the food because there's nothing I can eat. We went to the protein shake isle where I get my Premier Protein shakes (they work best for me) and there I saw the protein bars for the first time. 30g of protein per bar...downside is 8g of sugar, but that's still within my guidelines. The tricky part is I just had my surgery on Dec 16th, and so I need to be careful what textures I eat. I shouldn't have eaten the bar. So sick. So depressed. I'm sorry for the whining. Nobody else I know understands.

I had RNY bypass and have five incisions. It would have just been four, but they made a smaller incision to keep a drainage tube in.

I am taking three weeks off. My doctor said to take at least two weeks off, but that if I could take an extra week to focus on getting in my fluids and getting energy back, then I should take it.

So what is the 30/30 rule?

I'm only 16 days out, but am a slow loser, too. I lost 10 pounds by the time I came home from the hospital, but only 4 pounds total since. I think it's from lack of fiber...I don't got the the bathroom like I used to. I can't eat or drink all I want, but I do still crave foods...not sweets like I used to, but I think about breads and eating foods with texture. I would kill for a sandwich! I drink at least 60 oz of water a day, but am still wanting to eat about 800 calories. It's depressing. I know that 800 calories isn't a whole lot, but when I read about people only taking in 300-600 cal a day and being stuffed, it makes me feel like something is wrong with me. I'm going to start walking tomorrow as much as I can.