SeaShells82

Keep yourself busy! I scrubbed my house from top to bottom which had the added benefit of being one less thing to worry about after I got home from surgery but also kept me distracted during the pre-op diet. The good news is that you're right on the cusp of the initial carb withdrawal symptoms easing up. Keep pushing - you've got this!! [emoji1303]

Are the back pains on both sides of your back or just one? I ask because a kidney infection (which can happen when you're dehydrated and most of us are in the beginning because it can be hard to get all our fluids in) can cause lower back or "flank" pain and usually occurs on one side depending on which kidney is affected. Are the pains accompanied by muscle spasms by any chance? If you're walking hunched over because of drains or incisions, sometimes that's enough to irritate your back. No matter what, I'd definitely recommend you call your surgeon and let them know what you're experiencing. They'll be able to guide you better than we can.

It could be related to pain or nausea - are both of those being controlled? Is your blood pressure ok? If it goes too low, the heart tries to compensate for the lack of volume by beating more often. When your heart rate goes up, does it also become irregular? Do you feel palpations or a "fluttering" sensation at all? They should do an EKG if they note a heart rate well outside your established baseline. This will help make sure you're not going into atrial fibrillation (relatively harmless but it does put you at an increased risk for blood clots, which coupled with the increased risk you're already under because of surgery, may make your surgeon rethink what anticoagulation medication they're sending you home with). If you develop shortness of breath, calf pain when flexing your feet/walking, or pain/redness/swelling in your legs, tell your nurses immediately because more tests are needed asap. Just a few thoughts. Hope you're feeling better and this is just a short term thing. Congrats on surgery!

It might be stomach acid - they should have you on a proton pump inhibitor already but check to make sure (and especially make sure they have you on one when you go home). It could also be "head hunger". The surgery fixes the stomach...the brain can take awhile to catch up [emoji4]

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Actually, depending on medications someone may or may not be taking, the person's general anatomy, and technique used (gentle can mean different things to different people after all) digging it out yourself CAN cause injury. I'm not trying to scare the OP but without knowing their medical history, I don't think it's wise to advise someone to proceed with a manual disimpaction without at least running it by their doctor first.

Try a fleets enema first (you can get them OTC at pretty much any store that has a pharmacy). Hold off on taking any more Milk of magnesia until you can get the hard/impacted stool out. You also might want to try using something like miralax regularly moving forward to help keep your stools soft so they're less likely to become impacted. I would not recommend trying to do a manual disimpaction yourself (meaning digging the stool out with your fingers - gloved or not) because of the risk for trauma to the area and potential for perforation and/or infections.

I have to say, while I believe you believe you're being supportive of your daughter, many of the comments in your post reek of judgement - judgement your daughter has no doubt picked up on. Let's take the following 3 direct quotes from your post below - read them on their own and imagine your daughter hearing this sort of thing every day. How do you think that would make her feel? Empowered? Or judged? "she also gives up too easily on the lifestyle change required to keep a healthy weight" "we fear because of her previous behaviors she'll do the same and not stick to this commitment" "we'll work with her to go the healthy route" (an insulting insinuation that what she's pursuing isn't healthy) You say your daughter has struggled with her weight since middle school - at that young age, control over the majority of her food choices would still have been made by the adults in her life (meaning you). The fact that, despite your good choices for her, (I'm assuming you made healthy food choices for your family here but please correct me if I'm wrong) she has still struggled with her weight, should go a long way to showing you that some of this is beyond her control. That's not to say there won't be a significant amount of personal work she's going to have to do on her end to make this surgery a success, but without support from the people who purport to love her, that becomes even more difficult than it already is. You say she has successfully gone through all her pre-op tests. That typically includes (at a minimum) months of an MD supervised diet, a full psych eval, as well as a physical and other lab work/tests. If she's been successful through all that, AND her surgeon, the insurance company, psych, nutritionist, primary care physician, etc all signed off on her decision and agree with her that this is a good option to help manage her weight - why wouldn't you be supportive of it as well??

Small intestine bacterial overgrowth

I can't really help you because I had the sleeve and also don't have kids yet but I sympathize because the malabsorption (and concerns about its impact on potential future pregnancies) with bypass was my main sticking point as well and a big part of why I went with the sleeve. Hopefully others will be able to give you some advise based on their experiences but just a thought - it's possible to convert a sleeve to bypass. Would your surgeon be willing to do the sleeve and convert it to a bypass if/when reflux became a problem? Not sure how bad your reflux issues are now so this may be a shot in the dark but I figured I'd ask.

I had numbness after my sleeve but I attributed most of that to the pain pump they left in place for about a week after surgery because it contained numbing medication. Funny enough though, I just had my gallbladder removed and even though they didn't use a pain pump this time, the numbness around my belly button was worse! It's been about 3 weeks since the gallbladder surgery and the numbness is finally starting to go away. It's a strange sensation.

Ditto here - although I'm unsure if the pain is truly worse or if it just seems more obnoxious because I can't use Motrin. My cycle also seems to be speeding up which is a fresh new kind of hell. Fingers crossed things settle down. I'm 4 months out and nothing about my body seems "stable" yet.

Ok, that makes more sense. Anesthesiologists don't generally meet their patients until the day of surgery so they (understandably) tend to be more conservative in signing off on stuff like this. The BP could have been high from nerves/stress - the days and weeks leading up to a major surgery are enough to make anyone's BP spike! Glad you'll be seeing a cardiologist though. I'm sure they'll get things sorted out for you quickly. I know it probably feels like a set back but keep your head in the game and surgery will be here before you know it [emoji4]

Do you have a cardiologist? If not, you might considering going in to see one for a surgical clearance. That might be the only issue but it is strange your surgeon wouldn't just say that. Patients needing weight loss surgery almost always have BP issues (whether they're being treated for them or not) so the high BP in and of itself really shouldn't disqualify you for surgery.

I'm a little over 3 months out from VSG and am experiencing quite a bit of hair loss. I'd been expecting this and am consistently meeting my protein goals, taking biotin along with my vitamins, etc but it's still distressing to see. I was due to get another perm right around the time of my surgery but held off thinking the hair loss might not be so bad if I gave my hair a break from the chemicals. Since the hair loss has happened regardless, I'm wondering if getting it re-permed now would actually end up helping a bit with volume to fill in the thin spots. Has anyone had experience with perms during the 3-8+ month window after surgery when hair loss is heaviest? I don't want to make things worse but am curious to hear about anyone else who has experience with this. Thanks!

Are you doing a lot of broths? Those tend to be high in sodium and can cause fluid retention.

They'll give you disposable underwear and a pad to use. It happens all the time and the pre-op and OR staff won't even bat an eye. Good luck with surgery!

Do you still have your gallbladder? If so, that might be the culprit, especially if the nausea is accompanied by upper right abdominal pain (sometimes radiating to the back and underneath the right shoulder).

I'm a little over 3 months out and have been having gallbladder pain for about 2 weeks now. Just had an ultrasound done that showed a ton of stones so I'm going to get it taken out sometime this month. It's an unfortunately common issue after weight loss surgery.

Keep yourself busy. When I wasn't at work I was scrubbing my house from top to bottom to keep my mind off food. The first few days are the worst but after that it gets much easier. You can do it! [emoji1303]

IV fluids/vitamins aren't a long term option after surgery unless you've got some very serious health complications - it's not something you can plan for. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question?

I had my surgery at 10am and wasn't allowed to have anything to drink until the following morning after an upper GI to confirm there were no leaks. They should have you on IV fluids though so you won't get dehydrated. Congratulations on your surgery [emoji1303]

The sleeve is generally a faster surgery than bypass (usually takes about 30 minutes less than bypass depending on the patient's anatomy and the doctor) which means you're under anesthesia for a shorter period of time. It's also a simpler surgery (if any surgery can ever be considered simple) because the doctor doesn't have to do any re-routing of the intestines like they would with a bypass. With that said, it's still surgery, and being done on overweight people who usually have at least 1 other significant health condition which will increase risks for complications regardless of the type of procedure they're having done. These risks aren't over once you "wake up" - you're at risk for blood clots, bleeding, leaks, etc. for weeks and even months after surgery. That's why it's important to find a surgeon you trust and ask them lots of questions until you're comfortable making a decision about whether you feel the benefits outweigh the risks. When you meet with your surgeon, ask them specifically about their outcomes. All surgeons need to report deaths that occur during or after surgery (I think up to a month after surgery but I could be wrong on that one).

I was in the hospital for 2 nights (could have gone home after 1 but I was having problems with nausea). The pain was bearable with meds but until we got my nausea under control it was a little rough because my dry heaves (nothing in my stomach to actually vomit up that first day) really hurt. I was off pain meds the day after coming home. I still had pain - I was just able to manage it with a heating pad and Tylenol. I was up walking about 5 hours after surgery and increased my distances each day. By week 2 I was walking 2-4 miles over the course of the day. I wasn't cleared to do anything more strenuous than walking for 8 weeks though because I had a large hernia repaired during my sleeve. Because of the hernia I was also out of work for 7 weeks. I have an active job and the doctor had given me a 10 lb lifting restriction which my job just couldn't accommodate. It was honestly such a blessing though because it gave me the time to really get my eating and Fluid routines down. My main struggles after surgery were getting enough fluids in because of feeling like every sip would get momentarily "stuck" going down and my tastes completely changing. I'm now 8 weeks out and both of those issues have resolved. Congratulations on getting your surgery date and good luck! I can already tell this was the best decision I've ever made [emoji1303]

Dr. Moazzez did my surgery in February. He is absolutely FABULOUS and I would highly recommend him. The whole Fair Oaks office staff is great and I just can't say enough good things about Dr. Moazzez and the Inova Bariatrics group.