catwoman7

the SADI is a fairly new surgery and isn't very common - which is probably why the office staff isn't that well versed in it. Although if the surgeon is going to be offering that surgery, they really need to get the office staff up to snuff, because they're the people you're usually going to see when you're there as far as red, purple, yogurt, and fudgsicles, they're probably talking about the day or two before the surgery, and not the regular pre-op diet that many of us have to do for a week or two before the surgery. I've had about four surgeries, plus a couple of colonoscopies, and having a completely liquid diet for the day or two before with nothing red or purple is pretty standard with any procedure. They don't want anything in your G/I tract (that's why they say only liquids), and red and purple fluids look like blood on the equipment they use, so they tell you to avoid anything red or purple.

this is more a response to what you said rather than the general focus of the post, but I just wanted to say that when I weighed 170ish and told my clinic's dietitian that I wanted to try to get down to 150 (which at 5'6" is within the normal BMI range), she told me that was a bit unrealistic because only about 10% of their patients make it to a normal BMI. The rest end up in the "overweight" or "stage 1 obese" (which is not very obese) categories. Research actually does back that up (I checked). I DID actually make it down to 150 - well actually down into the 130s. But at nine years out, I'm now slightly "overweight". But that's where they wanted and expected me to end up anyway, so I guess I'm OK with that (I'd still like to be around 150 +/- though - but it's hard to lose weight when you're pretty close to a normal BMI!

I agree with Mrs. Fritz - anyone who started off at well over 300 lbs and is now under 200 lbs should be celebrated..that is an amazing loss!

I don't know about brownies specifically, but unsweetened cocoa powder is fine. It's really low in calories. I often mix it into vanilla yogurt and throw some berries on top for a treat.

BMI isn't always the best way to judge for people who've lost massive amounts of weight because even though we've lost muscle and bone mass in addition to fat, we still have more muscle and bone than "normies" who weigh about the same but were never obese. (we needed a lot of infrastructure to hold up all that weight!). The PA at my bariatric clinic said we often look 10+ lbs lighter than the scale would suggest, because of that extra muscle & bone (well, there's the extra skin, too - but skin doesn't weigh very much. I think I "lost" about 4 lbs after my skin surgery - but there's that, too, if you haven't had it removed). Your PCP evidently hasn't worked with a lot of massive weight loss patients....

yes you COULD experience deficiencies - but that's why they'll have you take a bunch of supplements and have labs done (probably a few times the first year - and then annually thereafter). That way they can catch any deficiencies early and correct them. As long as you stay on top of your supplements and have your labs done when required, you should be fine.

it's been a while for me, but I think we were allowed decaf at about three weeks post-op and regular coffee at about six months out. The acid in some coffee does bother my stomach - I can handle coffee that's only mildly acidic but some is so acidic that I just can't do it. That may be why in my case (and yours) they wanted us to wait three weeks even for decaf.

I haven't had DS, but from what I've read and heard, the bad ones are usually in the morning. I've also read that eating certain carbs can make it worse for DS'ers. Hopefully someone who's actually had DS will respond.

most people, other than those who are the size of the folks on "My 600 lb Life", lose in the 15-25 lb range the first month (of course, you'll find people who lose more or less than that, but that seems to be where most of us fall). Things slow down after that. So you're well ahead of the game.

I rarely vomit, but I don't dread it like I did pre-surgery. Your stomach is way smaller and doesn't hold that much, plus you don't produce as much acid so it doesn't have that terrible taste, either. However it tasted going down is what it tastes like coming back up. Or at least that's the case with me.

Not like that - although I once had the person who was at the checkin desk at my gym accuse me of trying to get in using someone else's membership card. I immediately had them make me a new card! (I'd shown him my driver's license to prove it was me. He was shocked!!)

I eat fairly normal-sized meals and have for a long time. And by "normal" I don't mean the gargantuan amounts I ate before surgery - I mean the size of your average woman who eats more on the light side. No one could tell by what I eat that I've had RNY (like they could have my first few months post-op). If they even notice at all, they'd assume I'm just a light eater. I really don't eat any differently than most of my never-been-obese women friends who are watching their weight. example - if I go out for pizza, I can only handle 1-2 pieces (as opposed to the half a large pizza that I used to eat). At restaurants I'll often order something like soup and salad or an appetizer, but if I get an entree, I'll eat half of it and have them box the rest up. Pretty much the same as a lot of my women friends.

my program told me no carbonated drinks ever again, but a lot of people's plans say they're OK once you're x number of months out. I think I started drinking them at about a year out, but super carbonated things irritate my stomach. I can drink mildly carbonated things. If something is too carbonated-y, I just let it sit for a while to flatten out - then I'm usually OK.

I know this sounds weird, but embrace it. And yes - I know it's weird at first, but after a while I found it very liberating. For the first time in my life, I was never hungry and didn't give a flip about food. For almost all of us, hunger eventually comes back sometime during the first year (mine came back at five months out), and then things get a lot harder. So right now it's going to be easier for you to lose weight than it ever has or ever will be - so take full advantage of that! At nine years out I still can't stomach bananas. I find them very cloying. I used to love them pre-surgery.

I agree with the poster above. If you're not ready, or feel like you can do this on your own, then it's fine to hold off. Only about 5% of people who lose a lot of weight can keep it off, but unfortunately I was not one of the 5%. I gained and lost weight for 30 years until I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to do something drastic. You may not be there yet - or you may very well be one of the 5%. Either way, it's always fine to wait or cancel if you're not ready for this.

not all surgeons require pre-op diets, but even those who don't will require a day or two of liquids only right before surgery so you don't have any food in your G/I tract.

If your ferritin level is OK, I wouldn't worry too much about the iron, esp if your surgeon hasn't said anything. Ferritin is the iron stores in your body that your body taps into if it's too low on iron. also, as far as people taking different amounts of supplements, it depends on the surgery (DS and RNY patients malabsorp vitamins and minerals, so they're usually required to take more of them than sleeve patients are), and as someone else said, after the initial few months post-op, how much you take is going to depend on your labs. If you're too low on something, you'll be told to take more of it; too high on something else, you'll probably be told to cut back. hair loss this far after surgery could be due to a lot of things (although I just read that iron deficiencies CAN cause it). Are you meeting your protein requirements? That can cause it, too.

read as much as you can (hanging out on this forum should be very helpful!) and start trying to eat a really healthy diet - lean proteins, fruits & veggies, whole grains. You may or may not be required to lose weight before the surgery, but I was - I think 20 lbs or something (it's been over nine years for me, so I can't remember the exact number). I worked with a dietitian for six months (actually required by my issurance) and she had me eating 2300 calories/day in addition to focusing on types of food (same ones I mentioned - lean proteins, fruits & veggies, whole grains). I ended up losing more like 50 lbs rather than just the 20! Also, some programs (but not all) require you to give up caffeine for the for the first few weeks or months after surgery, so she also had me gradually wean myself off of it (replacing regular coffee with decaf a little at a time until I was on total decaf). She also got me exercising - slowly at first (I think I started with walking - but I eventually added swimming, too). All this really prepared me for post-surgery life, and I think made it all much easier.

I'm the same - I can't sleep if it's too quiet. But instead of the TV, I have a radio next to my bed. I turn that on at night (usually to BBC World Service since it's on all night, but it really doesn't matter...). Music might keep me up - but news doesn't. I keep it on all night. If I'm away from home, I have to click on the BBC's web site from my phone and put it next to my bed - otherwise I can't sleep. Something like that might work since it wouldn't involve light. The other thing I've used a few times in the past are some of the Tibetan singing bowl videos on YouTube. Some of them go for eight hours. There are other kinds of meditation/relaxation/sleeping videos on YouTube as well.

P.S. tomato soup. It could be the creaminess, but it could also be the tomatoes. Tomato things are very acidic. Even now at nine years out, some tomato products still bother my stomach because of the acid.

first of all, most people who aren't the size of the folks on "My 600 lb Life" tend to lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the entire first MONTH. So at only two weeks out, you are way, way ahead of the game. secondly, you are starting out at a MUCH lower BMI than most WLS patients, and starting BMI is one of the factors that determines your rate of weight loss those first few weeks and months. So your rate of weight loss would be expected to be at the lower end. So again, esp given your low starting weight, you are way ahead of the game. third, you have likely hit the infamous "three-week stall". The vast majority of us have our first major stall within the first month or so after surgery. It's usually the third week, hence the name, but it can happen any time during that first month or so post-op. It usually lasts 1-3 weeks. I had mine during weeks 2 & 3. After it broke, I dropped like six or eight lbs practically overnight. so first, you need to manage your expectations. You are not going to lose like someone who starts out at over 600 lbs. But again, you are currently WAY ahead of most of us even "normal" WLS patients at this point. Secondly, the stall: you just have to ride it out. The only thing you can do is make sure you are following your plan to a "T", and stay off the scale. Stop weighing every day. Just weigh every few days or once a week until it breaks. And it WILL break as long as you're compliant with your plan. if you want more info on the three-week stall, do a search on this site for it. You will find over 17,000 posts on it. And no, I am NOT kidding.

I use it all the time, although I've read what you heard - that it really shouldn't be used all the time because there's a risk your body will stop producing your own natural melatonin.

your body doesn't store B vitamins - whatever it doesn't use is excreted in your urine - so a high dose isn't toxic, it just might be wasteful if your body isn't using most of it. I'll check the requirements of the American Association of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgeons and post it - they've changed their Web site since I was last there, so I have to hunt for their supplement list. also, it's the thiamine part of the vitamin that smells and tastes awful. The other B vitamins don't smell. I switched to B complex capsules, since they don't start melting until they hit your stomach. Much better - these don't smell or taste weird. EDITED to add: it looks like their supplement requirement sheet is now in the "members only" section. Cripes. I'll see what else I can find. I had my surgery nine years ago, so I don't remember how much thiamine I was told to take, other than whatever it is is in the B complex capsules I take. EDITED again to add: I'm still looking for Thiamine (B1) requirements for bariatric patients, but NIH does say that 100 mg is a common dosage for people with thiamine deficiencies, which I guess would be us (for normal people, 12 mg is recommended). I'll let you know if I find anything else, but I'm guessing 100 mg wouldn't be considered too much for us, since we're prone to vitamin deficiencies. EDITED yet again: I just cut and pasted this from a very long report by the NIH. Since it says 12-50 mg twice daily, that would be 24-100 mg if you only take it once daily. SO...100 mg isn't too much. I would take it - the problems with thiamine deficiency sound pretty awful, and if you're taking the upper end of this recommended dose (100 mg/day), it should keep those at bay. Try capsules - they changed my life. Not sure if that much comes in gummies. Maybe liquids - but then with liquids, you're still going get that smell/taste. Postoperative bariatric surgery patients should receive thiamine supplementation as part of routine multivitamin therapy (12–50 mg orally, twice daily)

I haven't heard of this (and I live in the US) - but like someone said, maybe it's because it's being covered or partially covered by insurance. Or something.

I wanted the best surgeon I could find that wasn't too far from where I live (within two or three hours). Although I would have been open to traveling if I couldn't find anyone in the region. I don't think he had the best bedside manner of those I did my consults with, but he specialized in plastic surgery for massive weight loss patients and had been doing this particular type of surgery for years...and years. He had excellent reviews. Of course, it's great if you really connect with the person, too - but you'll only be seeing this person a handful of times - if that - but you'll be living with the results of your surgery for the rest of your life. You might want to schedule a couple more consults before deciding. I found realself.com to be somewhat helpful when I was coming up with my list of potential surgeons. you're in California - Dr. Katzen is nationally known and specializes in massive weight loss patients, I believe. EDITED to add - looks like he does all kinds of plastic surgery, he doesn't specialize in massive weight loss patients. However, he's very well known in the bariatric community.