Daisee68

I am doing OK. First few weeks weren't too bad, but I had a lot of trouble with nausea and constipation the last 10 days or so but it is finally subsiding. Could have been several different reasons, but as long as I am feeling better, I don't care why! I still am having issues learning to eat slow enough and chewing enough - mostly with meats - and have vomited a few times but I went back to liquids for a couple of days and have stayed on pureed since. I think I just started the more dense foods too early. I have my 6 week follow up Tuesday, so dr will advise how to advance foods. You will find on here that there are so many different plans, and it can get confusing, so just remember to stick with what your surgeon and NUT (nutrionist) require. They know you and your body. The pain really isn't too bad for too long. I mean I took my pain meds, trust me. It is difficult to bend at the waist for a couple of weeks. But by 3rd week at least it was mostly gone. I have an occasional ache near a couple of the incisions but I think that is when I overdo it (I did a 2 1/2 mile walk with my sister this morning and probably 1 1/2 miles yesterday, so I am sore and tired. Probably shouldn't have just jumped in that far, but I was so happy to be feeling normal!) No real complications other than the nausea and constipation and I think it is partly because I was still taking pain med when I probably didn't need to be (I passed 4 kidney stones since surgery which is unrelated to RNY and have a stress fracture in my foot that is healing). Primary rules - fluids, Protein, Vitamins. It is tough getting in even fluids in the beginning but it gets easier. My sister asked me today what the one thing was that surprised me the most and I said the small amount I can eat. And it varies. I just ate 4 ounces of Soup and it was just perfect. I ate just less than that at lunch and was full. Yesterday, I was only able to get in 2 Tbsp of Ricotta Bake at dinner before becoming too full because it is very dense (check out TheWorldAccordingToEggface.com when you get a minute. It is a bariatric patient's blog and she has some great recipes. @@Djmohr has also posted a few good recipes for us lately.) Have a great evening! And thanks for the reminder about nails. I KNEW there was something I meant to do tonight!

Ok, I have always had a hard time trying to figure out food and morning exercise, but now I am even more confused. If I get up and drink Water, then I have to wait 30 minutes before eating and then exercise but can't drink while I am exercising. That won't work. (Honestly even without the exercise, I have a hard time with eating in the morning, generally just doing a Protein shake while I am driving to work.) So this morning I had extra time, so I had 3 Tbsp greek yogurt and then waited about 30 minutes and went for a 45 minute walk. I did drink about 8 oz water while I was walking but man was I dizzy and wiped out when I got back. I knew I hadn't had enough Fluid but also not enough protein, so I drank my Premier Protein Drink but Ugh it took a while. It kept bubbling up and gurgling like I was drinking too fast (though not any faster than normal). Exercise actually makes me tired, so I don't know that I will ever be able to work it in before work (other than a quick brief spin on the treadmill maybe), but for those days when I do have extra time....Suggestions? What is the best way for this to work and not pass out afterwards?

To make things more difficult I have to take Synthroid in the morning and wait an hour to eat (though I can drink Water during this time). I try to take it at 4 or 5 if I wake up to go to the bathroom on something so I have some extra time, but it is tough getting everything in. Its the "don't drink 30 minutes before eating" that gets me in a bind - unless it is a shake as you say. Thank you @BizzyB. I think that makes the most sense. Appreciate all the feedback.

@@Tucker25 - Hi! Welcome! I am only 5 1/2 weeks out RNY, but I am happy to help however I can. Take @@Djmohr up on her offer to contact her personally too though. She has been an amazing friend and support to me and has such reasonable advice! (Deb, I swear I am not stalking you though I know it may seem that way! Anyway, best wishes and good luck!!

Congrats!! How exciting! Keep up the great work!!

Oh my goodness! That us wonderful news that you found this Dr and there is a solution plus no knee replacement in your future. I know how relieved you must be - both physically and emotionally. So happy for you!

So I must have eaten too fast again! I don't know where I went wrong. I set my timer to make sure my bites were at least 1 minute apart. I was only able to get 1/2 of a saltine, 1/3rd of a piece of thinly sliced turnkey (deli meat) and 1/4th of a 2% cheese stick. I REALLY don't want to vomit again like last night. It's been nearly an hour. Any suggestions / tricks how to make it go down? (lunch was pureed meat and it went down and stayed down fine. Maybe I am just not ready for real meat...)

@@The Candidate - My endocrinologist was very specific that I take my Vitamins with food (probably because of kidney stone issues I have). That is tough when you are getting in so little. I try to take them after I eat if I can. If not, I wait about 30 minutes and then take them. I split them up and take at lunch and at dinner. You are supposed to spread out the Calcium and Iron (if you can). I also take half Multivitamin dose at lunch and rest at dinner (1 tablet each time) to spread out the nutrients and not overload the system (in which case you will just pee out the additional because it doesn't get absorbed). I didn't take vitamins pre-op (though I know many drs suggest it). I wasn't able to start taking them until probably Day 5 just merely because I wasn't sure I could stomach it. My B12 is a nasal spray once a week (my insurance cover it which is good because it is VERY expensive - but they provide all your other vitamins for $25 co-pay. I am going to ask surgeon this week if the nasal is really that much better than the sublingual B12. Or maybe we will know if she runs labs? I haven't had labs done yet and coming up on my 2nd check up which is basically 6 weeks post op.)

Well I just tried the nectar Fuzzy Navel that everyone raves about and UGH. Smelled just like Isopure to me. Gross. Glad I only bought a sample. I bought strawberry Kiwi and Caribbean Cooler also and will try those with a little Crystal Light as suggested, but I am guessing I will have to stick with Premier Protein. Hopefully one day I will be able to get most of my protein from food and can at least cut down to 1 a day (currently drinking 2).

G2 is lower calorie. Try Powerade Zero though. It is zero carb. And have you tried Propel Fitness Water? Good flavors. No carbonation. No calories. @leag78- Neither wine nor carbonation are a wise choice at this point - which I am guessing you already know.

@@kell778 - it is on my list of approved foods for that stage, but you need to check your approved list. Please make sure it is very moist. I apparently did not and it came back up. I am scared to try it now, but I will again soon. I think it was just too early and I didn't chew well enough. It was the first thing I ate that really needed to be chewed so my fault...

Ice? Heat? Massage? Call your dr and see if prescription muscle relaxer (Not an NSAID) is ok?

@@WL WARRIOR - I am so sorry you went through this! And also to so many here who had no support. It makes me want to do 2 things - maybe 3 - 1) Call my mom and my sister who were with me and were and still are BEYOND supportive and tell them how much I love them and appreciate them. (I did them flowers post-op.) 2) Contact each and every person who has ever been so disrespectful and just plain MEAN to every single one of you and give them a piece of my mind; and 3) Figure out a way to create some sort of company that would be available to bariatric centers to help with patients - physically, mentally, emotionally - who do not have support including taking them to surgery, stay there during surgery and take them home and help get them settled the first couple of days. You truly are a warrior. I have been at home caring for myself since 2 days post-op (my choice - and obviously not alone when I am at work), but I cannot imagine going through this the way you guys did. My heart breaks for each of you and I wish I could be there to take each of you to and from the hospital!!

@@xylena88 - I would wait until you contact the bariatric center as they will likely refer you to a nutrionist. If they are a Blue Distinction Center, they likely have one on site. If you cannot travel that far once a month (which makes sense), you might be able to do phone consults. The NUT I use is only over the phone. And I saw someone on here that posted in the articles section that does NUT visits via phone and Skype. Just be sure you communicate all this to the bariatric center. Re dr monitored, I don't think OB/GYN would be a problem. You may not actually have to have a separate doctor monitor it if the NUT works with the bariatric center as they sort of consider that being monitored by the doctor (I think - don't quote me on that). I just didn't have this issue because I always have an appt with one dr or another it seems. My endocrinologist was the one that wrote the recommendation letter (often required from someone other than the surgeon). Hope that helps!

@@sarahbee - Um, you might ask him for a taste of one of them first or at least buy only singles and not the 12 pack like I did. Pre-op I could tolerate because I could drink it quickly and avoid the smell. Post-op I cannot tolerate AT ALL. The smell is just too much to get past. As my co-worker so appropriately named the Coconut flavored one "coco-fart". She said "seriously how did they bottle the smell of farts?" LOL. Still making me laugh.... Lots of people like them but MANY don't. (I think there is a recent thread just about the Isopure ready made drinks you might want to search.) SORRY! Not trying to discourage you! Just don't want you to be out the same money I was! I bought some samples of the Syntrax nectar at Vitamin Shoppe today. Hoping I like those because I am getting tired of the plain chocolate and vanilla.

Are there any that you know of that are high energy, dance or Zumba? I've bought some that said they were, but they felt like slow motion to me. As long as I modify the arm moves, that would be a great option! I know you said you don't have good internet access, but if you can access (maybe from the library), you might check out www.collagevideo.com. It is a good site for all kinds of exercise DVD's and you are able to sort them buy all kinds of different workout types, goals, etc. Then they will have reviews and generally a brief sample of the actual video. That might help you to locate one that would suit your needs.

I am with you! I truly don't have cravings except I want carbonation so bad!! I won't. It's not worth it. Anything "sparkling" is carbonated so no go. I was just thinking about this today. I would like some more options. Crystal LIght has a lot of different flavors but it is too sweet for me, so I have to be careful and not add the whole packet to my Water. BUT what I have been doing that has helped is Decaf Green Tea with fruit flavors that I ordered from Republic of Teas. Now I order Green Tea because I have kidney stones (chronic issue pre-WLS - related to a thyroid disease I have) and not supposed to drink black tea (supposedly) because it is a high oxalate food, but if you don't have those restrictions, you might find some of these really enjoyable. I have a Ginger Peach flavor that I really like (has gotten me through my morning nausea) and Superfruit (or Passionfruit or something like that) that is also good but once poured in to ice it eventually turns a funny color which puts me off (silly I know). They even have chocolate teas and teas that are similar to sangria on this website. I was just looking at the catalog and thinking the new Hibiscus Herbal tea with different flavors sounded good. Hope that helps!

OK so big (for me) NSVs 24 hours. 1) someone at work who didn't know I had surgery and who I don't see very often saw me yesterday and said "you look good. Are u losing weight?". Why yes. Yes I am. I told her I had gastric bypass. I have told everyone. I am not embarrassed! 2) I mentioned to my good friend my pants were falling down and she said "not that we are talking about u behind your back and always staring at your butt but so and so and I were just saying this morning ghat your butt has gone down a lot!". Funny. I had just noticed the same thing myself. 3) I finally bought a fitness band today (I decided on Garmin Vivosmart). They come in small and large wrist sizes so I asked the sales guy to open one because I worried the small wouldn't fit. He looked at me. And looked at my wrists and said "no u definitely have small wrists". Umm can I tell u how many bracelets I have returned because they will not fit my wrist? Anyway, tried one on and yep the small fit!! Barely but just enough to get both the posts snapped and I figured it should fit even better soon. This is a silly one I know but it made me feel good. Tomorrow I am going to wear my new fitness band to walk a 2 Mile bridge here in town with my sister. One if my goals was rotten that bridge. Now I'm not sure I can go all the way across and all the way back but after a 40 minute walk today, I know I can go at least halfway - provided my stupid foot holds up. So far so good today after this morning's walk. Have had 2 acupuncture treatments in it so maybe it's working!! It hurt like crazy yesterday!!

I have Cigna and while I haven't been thrilled with the times I have had "medical director denied as not medically necessary", I have always found the customer service people to be VERY helpful. I would suggest calling Cigna yourself and see if one of those individuals could tell you exactly what was missing that caused the denial and ask if you can submit those items yourself. While your patient advocate at the surgeons office SHOULD be doing this, they apparently are not so you have to kind of take hold of the reins yourself. There are appeal procedures so you should find out what those are and file your own appeal along with all the documents and I would cc your surgeons office and send them a copy. Good luck! They did approve mine in less than 24 hours of all documents being provided. Now 5 weeks out they still haven't paid the hospital likely because they are arguing some items but they will pay eventually and I will stay out if that for now. PS have you seen the document online that tells you exactly what Cigna requires? Let me know if not and I will send you the link.

FYI, I asked my NUT about just adding more protein powder to drink in the morning and she said you can only absorb 25-30 g protein per hour so loading up on all your protein in one drink doesn't work u less you were to take at least 2 hours (for a 50 g protein drink) to drink it.

@@teamskinny_keea - No wonder you are nervous! It took me months to get used to the idea of having bypass, so I can only imagine how you feel when you were told as you were going in to surgery in addition to the issues you had. I am really sorry that happened! But again, you can totally do this. Remember how you started with sleeve and then your NUT will help you with the transitions.

OK I haven't had revision. I went straight to bypass but let me say this - if you managed to lose 110 pounds with sleeve, you totally got this. A lot of the same rules apply (from what I understand). Protein, fluids, exercise. If you have not done so, get a meeting with your NUT ASAP. And I would recommend seeing a therapist to in order to help with the adjustment which sounds like it came on very quickly. Deep breaths. We have complete and utter faith in you. In fact, you can teach us newbies a lot! Hugs!!

Same here. Went in wanting sleeve but was having terrible acid reflux that day and surgeon said that could get worse with sleeve and highly recommended bypass (plus I am type 2 diabetic). I walked out so disappointed and saying no way I was doing bypass but after a month or so, I finally came around to it. I am 5 weeks post-op and last 2 weeks of it have been no picnic but seemed to have turned a corner today and hoping to never look back! Take your time and read everything but know that the surgeon has (or should have) the best answer for you - if they are the right surgeon. For what uts worth, my endocrinologist also started with a recommendation for me for sleeve but after I showed some dedication and lost a little pre-op, he said he preferred Bypass for me but just wasn't sure I had been interested in hearing that or dedicating my time to it.

Woo-hoo! Congrats! Can not wait to enjoy that NSV!!!!

I took 2 1/2 weeks and worked from home most of that time. Having said that, I have since missed 5 additional (not necessarily consecutive) days because I was too nauseated or too constipated or just too dangerous exhausted. Really wish I had taken 4 weeks. I think it would have cut down on some if the additional absences as I think I pushed myself. Even if you feel physically able, learning to eat slow, drink fluids, etc is very hard to get used to once you are back at work and otherwise distracted. There are a lot if people on here that went back in a week and my Dr said I could return in a weenie needed. I honestly cannot imagine how people do that but there clearly are those that do. My advice is to take whatever time you can get!