catwoman7

first, I used to live not far from there (Boone and Banner Elk, NC) - went to the Tri-Cities all the time! (that was about 40 years ago, though...). I still have a brother who lives in the NC mountains, though. secondly, not many bariatric surgeons do the DS - so I'd be surprised if there were any in the Tri-Cities area, but just googling it, I did find some surgeons in Knoxville who do it. I also saw a place in Asheville, NC and of course, Charlotte (NC), but Knoxville may be your closest bet. But someone on here from the area might know - if so, hopefully they'll see this.

yes. Huge difference.

^^^ this is such a terrific video. It's my second time watching it. Clinics should be recommending this to all pre-op patients!

the SADI patients may be posting under DS. SADI isn't traditional DS, but it's kind of similar. I didn't have SADI or DS, but I never had issues with my surgery either. No pain, no weird things - part of me wondered if he'd even done the surgery!

your stall is actually late - most people have their first major stall around the three week mark (in fact, if you search this site for info on the "three week stall", you will find over 17,000 posts on it. And no, I am NOT kidding...) actually, I just decided to do the search for you. Here you go - 17,501 posts now! https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

as long as you know how many calories it takes to maintain your weight - and track your food intake to be sure you're not going over that (except for an occasional "splurge" day, like on a holiday - in which case you just get right back on track the next day), you should be OK. Also, decide on what your top acceptable weight is, and once you get there, it's all hands on deck to get it back down again before it gets out of hand. as for the hunger, I'm guessing your body is probably happy where it is and doesn't want to lose weight. That's not to say you can't, but it'll be a struggle, because you'll be fighting biology. I'm dealing with the same thing right now. I want to lose 10 lbs - but the old body doesn't. You'll have to decide if it's worth the struggle. For some people it is, for others it's not. If you want to lose but the hunger is really bad, there are medications to control that (Wegovy might be one (??) - not sure - but they're out there). Some clinics are fine with prescribing those to you, others aren't - but it sounds like your is OK with it.

at two years out, she should be getting double the number of calories she's getting now (if not more - depends on her height, weight, activity level, etc) - unless she's super short or has really screwed up metabolism or something. 662 calories is only common in the first few months after surgery, not at two years out. re: the 10 lb gain, most of us gain 10-20 lbs after hitting our lowest weight, so that's not uncommon. It's almost expected...(not inevitable, but it happens to most people) protein - most of us are encouraged to get 60-80 grams a day. I need 100, but that's because we discovered early on that I malabsorb it - my prealbumin level tanks if I don't get that much. But I'm not the norm. 300 is crazy. No one needs that much - not even body builders. That's so weird that the app is telling her that!! you mentioned an RD - might be a good idea for her to see one to get some good advice and guidelines on what/how she should be eating. She may have some issues that we don't necessarily know about (like me and my protein issue....)

when I was in the weight loss phase, I weighed myself daily except for when I was in a stall - then I'd just weigh about once a week until the stall broke. Once I hit maintenance, I started weighing about once a week.

I was always able to drink more than they said I would be able to. I was concerned about it, but the PA at my clinic said my stomach would let me know if I was overdoing it.

You see your biggest drops the first month or two. As others have said or implied, weight loss drops off the further out you are from surgery, and the closer you get to a normal BMI. You're obviously starting at a lower BMI than I did, but it took me 20 months to lose all my excess weight. After I hit the year mark, I was losing about 2 lbs a month, despite working pretty hard at it.

if you're female, 20.6% if actually quite low. You're definitely reached goal!

I had my surgery at age 55. I know several people who've had it in the 50s and 60s - and even a couple in their 70s!

Yea the weight loss does get slower the closer you get to a normal BMI. My last 20 or so pounds were a BEAR to get off. I worked my butt off and lost about 2 lbs a month. But I finally got there...

agreed. People who have lost a lot of weight often have more muscle and bone than someone who's never been overweight. It's because you needed that extra "infrastructure" to hold up the weight. You lose some of that as you're losing weight, but not all of it. The PA at my clinic said you'll probably look about 10 lbs lighter than what the scale says, because of the extra muscle and bone weight (well, and loose skin if you have it). So the lower end of the BMI scale might be too low for the OP. I got down to the middle of my normal BMI scale, and I looked crazy thin. I look much better at the higher end - or even slightly overweight.

oooo yea - that looks bad. That's kind of how I was after my plastic surgery (and I discovered I was allergic to the glue or tape they used). They had me on prednisone tablets for 10 days, which does the same thing as the cortisone shot will - depresses your immune system so it won't react to allergens. Should do the trick...

I don't know how many of those products actually do the trick. Some people swear by biotin; others say it doesn't do a thing. I've never heard of Nutrifol, but I expect it also has its fans and detractors. Those hairs are already dead and will eventually fall out, so I don't think anything can help with that - it's just the natural growth/fallout cycle, it's just been sped up due to the trauma of surgery + restricted calories. At most, some of those products may help with the regrowth once it starts. The loss will stop eventually - it was three months for me (but fortunately, I didn't lose much hair. Not enough for me - or anyone else - to notice, other than I did notice more hairs than usual in my comb -so I knew I was losing some)

yes. Especially for small incisions like you have with WLS. I didn't find out I was allergic to it (it was either that, or surgical tape) until my second skin removal surgery. Not sure if they used a different tape or glue with that one, or if it just took awhile for my body to build up a resistance to it. It was too early to remove the tape, so the surgeon put me on prednisone for ten days (which lowers your immunity), at which time it was safe to remove the tape. as someone else said, your surgeon or PCP can put you on benadryl to deal with the itching, too.

if it's hurting, you might want to go back to liquids for a few days and then try again. Sometimes your stomach isn't quite ready to move on to the next stage. It's always fine to go back a stage if need be.

my first year post-op I usually ate a light yogurt or some sugar free pudding or Jello when I had a sweet craving.

14 lbs in three weeks is pretty normal. Most people who aren't the size of the patients on "My 600 lb Life" seem to lose 15-25 lbs the first *month* after surgery. And since you're a revision patient (weight loss is usually slower for revisions than for virgin surgeries), I'd expect you'd be at the lower end of that range. You're only at the three week mark, so I'm guess you'll be 15 lbs down (if not a little more) by the end of your first month. not having an appetite at all is completely normal. Hunger usually comes back sometime during the first year after surgery. Mine came roaring back at five months out. Honestly, I wish mine had never come back. Although it was weird at first, I must admit it was easy to lose weight when I was never hungry and didn't give a flip about food. THings got a lot harder once my hunger and appetite came back. So take full advantage of that!! also, even though I was a slow loser from the get-go, I lost 235 lbs (at least originally - I gained about 20 lbs back in year 3, which is also common - most people have a 10-20 lb weight rebound after hitting their lowest weight). you are doing absolutely fine - actually a little better than expected since your surgery was a revision. I think you're doing great! P.S. I lost 16 lbs my first month - and I had a virgin surgery AND weighed almost 400 lbs. You're what we call a "light weight" at 222 lbs - and this is also a revision for you - so you're doing very well!

I had surgery several years ago, but I think I remember showering before I left the hospital - if so, they probably just covered them up with surgical tape so they didn't get wet.

yes - you just need a letter from your clinic saying they're medically necessary

at nine months out, you're probably still not absorbing all your calories. That malabsorption lasts up to two years at best - so watch out! Once that ends, you're likely to gain if you go over your calories (well, not with a one-shot deal - but if you do it for too many days over the holidays, YIKES!) other than that, though, you've done great with this! Congratulations!!

just so you know, those last 20 or 30 lbs are a bear to lose. It took me FOREVER! You can do it - it'll just be pretty slow going. The last four months or so I was losing like 2 lbs a month! UGH!!

you're welcome! Do run it by your PCP, though, in case it's because the dosage of your blood pressure med needs to be changed - that'll sometimes cause it, too - but i'm betting on orthostatic hypotension since it seems to be very common the first few months after WLS.