PorkChopExpress

Wow man, you're killing it. I started at 385lbs and by the morning of surgery after two weeks of liquid diet, I was at 351.8 - then about 1 1/2 weeks post-op at the surgeon's office I was 341.5lbs. So 51lbs right now is killer. I haven't weighed in about a week, and I'm planning on holding off until my next doctor checkup. I just don't want to step on the scales too much, it's always been my enemy

Totally normal. Don't worry about it...a lot of people mistake it for "hunger" but it's not. When you think about it, your stomach is like 80% smaller now...but it may not necessarily realize that yet. So it's probably trying to produce the normal stuff as it ordinarily would, but can't. A lot of people get excess acid for a while, because the body takes a while to adjust. Gasses are more pronounced because the sleeve is so much smaller. From everything I've read, it goes away over time. But yeah, I'm having the rumbles too, about three weeks in

Get some gauze from Walgreens and tape over it. The meshy kind of gauze you get at the hospital is going to stick to the wound, it heals into the mesh. You want something more like a pad, with some absorbency but so that it won't stick. Now, if you are seeing halos of yellow/greenish color on the bandages and see anything yellowish if you press on the areas around the wound, or notice that there's a lot of redness around the wounds, you have infections and that is why you're not healing. Surgeons don't like to report infections in incisions because it's technically a complication, and it has to be reported. Nobody wants it on their record. So you may want to see your primary care physician about it, to get satisfaction...but I'd go have them looked at, ASAP. You should be scabbed over by now, as long as your Protein intake has been up to snuff.

If he's a baby about surgery, then what he's doing is what he would want YOU to do, for him. That's basic "love languages" stuff. You aren't the kind of person who needs that stuff, and it probably irritates the crap out of you when he's a giant baby about things that you handle perfectly fine. I'm the same way. My wife is a bad patient, and she doesn't deal with pain well at all. I get irritated when she doesn't do what she's supposed to do, and my perception is that she's struggling with stuff I would not find difficult. And the answer is always, "You don't know how I'm feeling!" And that's the rub. I don't. Just because one person has a high tolerance for something, that isn't going to be equal across the board for everyone. Some people bounce back quickly. Others take a long time, complaining about it the whole way. Some are good patients, some are not. Everyone is different. So I finally realized that when she describes something as excruciating, it really doesn't matter how I would perceive it...to HER, it's excruciating. So I try to be sympathetic. I'd suggest you just consider that, when thinking about your husband - especially if he gets a procedure done and is a "baby" in recovery. Because to us, it's simple...but to them, not so much. But that's why he's doting on you...because that's how he'd want to be treated, and that's how he shows his care and love.

I give this thread 9/10 for entertainment value. Recommended.

Do this. Take a piece of paper, make two columns, make one column, "What is great about eating however I want." Make the other column, "What is terrible about eating however I want." Then put everything you can think of in each column. In my case, the "pro" side was three things. The "con" side filled the entire page, and I could have kept going. There's a tendency sometimes to say, "I'm not that bad." Like...Oh, I only have to take one pill for hypertension, so I'm not that bad. But how long are you going to be able to say that? There was a time I didn't have to take any pills. I didn't need a CPAP. My joints didn't hurt all the time. I could get up and down off the floor without struggling. I could fit into an airplane seat comfortably, or a booth, or a stadium seat at a sports event. I watched each 50 pound mile marker pass by, convincing myself I wouldn't reach the next one...and I did. How long are you going to say it's not that bad? Until it GETS bad? Because it catches up with you in a hurry, and suddenly you have health issues that may not be reversible. You're starting a new journey to a healthier version of yourself, with this decision. Over the coming months, you're going to get an education into everything that makes these surgeries work, and it includes getting your own mind right about making the necessary changes in lifestyle and habits. The key to all of it is rejecting the old behaviors that have gotten you to where you are. They haven't helped you, they've only hindered you...so is it really so worthwhile to hang onto them?

By day five I was getting in excess of 1.5 miles per day, close to 2 miles...but it was spread out over three sessions of walking per day.

Could be a kidney stone, I imagine.

I will say that for me, it never got any easier until the day of surgery...after which, I didn't feel any hunger and really didn't care to put anything inside me. So the only thing to focus on is, there's a time limit to the pre-op diet. Just follow it to the letter, and give yourself the best chances for a good outcome you can. This is the start of disciplining yourself for the rest of your life, so start off on the right foot

That's entirely up to your surgeon, I would think. But if you're really ONLY eating the things you've said, and you're eating them in the amounts you should, then there's pretty much no way you should be gaining weight. What you need to do is be honest, get an app like MyFitnessPal, track how much you're eating in the app and see what the calories are amounting to. You may be eating healthy things, but in unhealthy amounts. If you're eating full-fat yogurt with fruit filling and all that, it's really high in sugar. Chasing that with a lot of fruit as well, your carbs are possibly very high every day. My pre-op diet was virtually no carbs, everything was sugar-free and non-fat, the focus was 90% on protein intake. I followed it to the letter (and consequently lost about 35 pounds before surgery).

I have told a couple of co-workers because I had to take the time off for surgery, so of course they were curious...and would have figured it out when they saw me eating these tiny portions at mealtime. But other than that, nobody knows. I haven't shared it with anyone outside of family. I'd prefer not to make a big thing of it, they'll see me how they see me, when they see me.

The thing is, no medication for "gas" relief is going to help, because this gas is in the abdominal cavity...it isn't inside the organs. It has to pass into the intestinal tract before it can leave the body, and the only solution to that is lots of movement. Whether it's rolling from side to side while laying in bed, getting up and walking frequently (not just for long stretches, it's better to do it less duration but more frequency), etc... Sometimes the stuff is just stubborn, it always takes me about 3-4 days to get rid of it (I've had three abdominal surgeries). After 2-3 days, that's generally when I start passing meaningful amounts out the "other" end and the pains start to subside a lot. But the only answer is movement, that's the only thing that gets the gas out.

I was preoccupied with food the first week or so, that "head hunger" or mourning process everyone seems to go through. But I really thought about it a lot the first couple of weeks and how dominated I was by food, and it started to ease up. I'm now getting used to the new eating behavior and I really don't think about it that much anymore...which is a good feeling. I finally feel like I'm going to be able to shake the influence of food that has controlled me for so long. Very nice.

I originally went in for RNY but because of scar tissue from prior surgeries, they had to convert to a sleeve. The more I learn about long-term effects of RNY, the more I think I'm better off with the sleeve. A woman my mom knows had RNY and said the malabsorbtion is really only good for the first couple of years, and after that it's just a hinderance...and she also said she developed celiac disease as a result of the surgery. Malabsorbtion isn't the issue in sleeve surgeries that it is with RNY. My wife also wants surgery and she's still feeling like she wants to do that "gold standard" surgery, but I am starting to think a sleeve is the better way to go.

Part of the process of how fat cells shrink is water retention. They take in water, and then expel the waste with the water. The body is constantly refreshing itself and water is one of the main tools it uses for that (which is why it's so important - we are primarily made up of the stuff, after all). Pre-op, you were on a liquid diet most likely...so everything you put in yourself was liquid, in some form. You were putting in a LOT more than you currently are, too. If you're only a week in, you're probably lucky to get 64oz of water in a day, total. Just give it time, your body will get back into a more normal rhythm again. It's always kind of wonky post-surgery. Bowel movements won't be normal for a couple weeks too, probably.

Next year. I've always wished I could dress up for Halloween with my wife and kids, but I always felt like I'd just look stupid. Next year, I am not gonna look stupid...but this year, I go as a guy who just had bariatric surgery

I think I exhausted Google of all its information on these surgeries before I even got to my pre-op diet. LOL Now my questions are more about others' experiences.

Keep up the good work!

That stuff is all good exercise, but bear in mind that it's primarily aerobic. That is good for a burn while you do the activity, and you may add a little bit of muscle that way, but weight training is by far the most efficient way to add muscle and thereby increase your calorie burning potential. And don't worry, you won't wake up in the morning looking like a pro wrestler

9/23. Over the last couple decades plus, I've become a bit of a subject matter expert on weight loss and weight lifting. I could just never actually lose all of my weight or keep it off, body put up too much of a fight every time. Hence surgery

Today was another fun milestone. I have been finding my shorts loose and baggy in the waist, so I finally decided to take out a box of clothes that I'd packed away in anticipation of the day I might actually lose weight and fit into them again. This is stuff I haven't fit into in YEARS. I tried on a pair of shorts I can remember wearing when I was dating my wife, five years ago...and I still remember when I was going through my clothes and putting them in the box, trying these shorts on and having trouble even pulling them up. They seemed miles away from being able to zip and button. Today? They fit perfectly. Then as I put my belt on, I realized that I unconsciously fastened it at the next belt hole. I spent maybe one week on the other hole before I moved on to this one. Unreal. My "starting weight" belt hole is now three holes away from the one I'm currently on. Just over a month into this process and I think I've probably lost as much as I'd typically take 5-6 months to lose, through normal dieting. Feels good, man.

You have to understand how the body loses weight. At the beginning, the easiest thing for it to drop is Water. That's why at the start of most diets, your first week is BIG. You didn't lose fat weight, you lost water weight with some fat. Also, remember that the first week or two, you're struggling to get calories in your body. The further along you get, the more calories you can get in. If your calorie consumption goes up, then your caloric deficit gets smaller. Also bear in mind that you're losing muscle mass due to the extreme calorie deficit (that's why Protein is so important, at LEAST the minimum requirement and more if you can). So when you lose muscle mass, you're losing a huge source of calorie burning potential, at rest OR in exercise. So that will cause weight loss to slow, as well. Really, the whole thing, regardless of surgery, is calories in vs. calories out. Always has been. One way you can boost the calories out is through exercise, and when you're cleared to lift weights, I strongly suggest you do it...and when you do it, be drinking your Protein shake DURING your workout, and after. You really want to keep those muscles up, to keep your calorie burning going strong. Otherwise, you'll find that you can just increase your calorie intake but your calorie burning suffers, and your weight loss will of course slow. One pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories. Say every day you are taking in 1,000 calories less than your body needs to maintain its current weight (its TDEE). That means you'll lose 1 pound in 3.5 days, or an average of two pounds per week. If you have a four pound loss in one week, that means your caloric deficit is still pretty huge. On a normal diet, the recommendation is to shoot for 1-2 pounds lost per week. So four pounds is great.

Don't weigh every day! It'll drive you nuts. The body drops fat on its own schedule and the way it does it sometimes causes weight GAIN, because part of the process of the fat cells shrinking is that they take on Water, first. So you end up retaining water in your fat cells before they release it with the waste. If you're going to use the scale, use it every couple of weeks. Two days is not a stall. However, one thing you definitely need to do is get your minimum amount of Protein, no matter what. If that means you need to switch to a different drink (there are a ton of them) do it. Or even get some of the flavorless powder and mix it in with your crystal light or something. Just get that protein...it's crucial to the healing process and more importantly, you MUST maintain as much of your muscle mass as you possibly can. That muscle mass is what burns calories for you all day long. If you don't have that, your calorie-burning machine is compromised...and then no, you won't lose weight very fast, because you won't be burning many calories. Trust me, when you run the caloric deficit that we are in the weeks following surgery, your body is going to find that energy somewhere...and while being in ketosis will cause your body to seek energy from fat, it takes a lot longer to convert...muscle is a lot faster. So you WILL lose muscle mass if you don't protect it. Actually, you'll lose muscle mass even if you DO protect it, but you're going to lose a lot more if you aren't providing protein sufficiently. Nutrition is no joke, and post-surgery we have to take it even MORE seriously.