LittleLizzieLilliput

fantastic!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

this will go away. It was very painful for me as well and I feared it would be that way for life. It's not. I had the VGS, Hiatal Hernia repair and gallbladder removal. My abdomen was weak for the full 8 weeks and it hurt swallowing and eating. But not HORRIBLE pain. Just discomfort. If you are in big pain, talk to your surgical team. Also, it's taken till 3 months out for me to be able to drink Water rapidly rather than sipping. If you swallow too much right now it will also hurt.

Praise baby jesus and all the angels who wept! YES!! I'm buying some tonight.

when was your surgery? These are good questions above. Make sure your supplements are providing you with enough needed Vitamins. Also make sure you are getting your 80-90 grams Protein. That really helps with energy as well.

Than you are on the correct path. We are told to not worry about Calories at this point, purely just getting in your Protein and Water. I was getting between 300 and 500 per day for the first month or two. It's protein that counts. Protein helps us recover and heal, calories we have plenty of in our stored fat. Don't focus on calories, just on Proteins.

Hi there! Ok, what kind of pain meds are you on? at a minimum you should be on liquid tylenol. Have you been told about the gas pains from all the air they pump into your abdominal cavity in order to do the procedure? That gas stays in our bodies and has to be worked out through time and walking. Gas-X strips help some folks with this. Walk, walk, walk. Also, those hunger pains could very easily be acid. What Acid reducers do they have you on, if any? Have you spoken to your surgeon? The pain eases over the next few days. If the gas pains is what you are speaking about. Hang in there, it gets better!!!

Not so far but I'm at 3 months now. I expect it at any time.

wow! Those are amazingly motivating pictures! You've worked so hard and really put in as much effort as you can haven't you? Thank you for sharing!! It really helps me know I can do this!!!

I'm only 3 months post op so I'm waiting, but I love salads and mourn them. lol!

Ok, ok, calm down and please understand...your body is in TRAUMA right now. Your body is still healing and it can take a little while for the bloating to go down in your abdomen, your body is in shock. This will work, you will get past this. This is the worst you will feel and you are also in the emotionally most difficult stage. Your body is awash in hormones and lack of calories and then the extreme emotional change of no longer having food to soothe us. It's OK, it will be OK. The pound WILL drop off. It's OK, I'm so sorry you are going through this fear and pain right now.

Hi Sweetie!! Oh wow, you are still in high school! Good for you for doing this now, your whole life is ahead of you, I'm so excited for you!! The bad news is you HAVE to listen to your surgeons instructions because if you don't and you injure yourself it will take even LONGER to get back to normal. It can take up to 3 months to feel "normal" again. But you are young so I don't think it will be near that long. What were your instructions about lifting from your surgical team/bariatric surgery group? That's going to be what you need to follow. For me it was an 8 week restriction. When was your surgery? Have you spoken to your parents about these concerns? You might not be ready to participate in the Color Guard events quite yet. Good luck and just know, even if you have to skip a few things now it doesn't matter in the long run. You are going to be feeling so skinny and amazing so soon!!!

Are you tracking all your food and calories in an app as well as tracking your steps/exercise? As we lose more we have to exercise more and keep your calories down in order to keep losing. Something that is super important to understand, and isn't told to many I don't think: When we go on a "starvation" diet (which is what this is, we starve our bodies of most of the calories we usually ate) our metabolism is affected for 4 to 5 YEARS. That's right, years. It slows down into conservation mode. It takes years for it to ramp back up again. That means that we have to be SUPER vigilant for those first years post surgery. Our body will save every bit of energy it can. You will gain quickly. After a few years and it's our metabolism gets back to normal we will be able to consume more calories with less worry of immediate gain but it's not the case right now. Any extra we put in our bodies will do it's best to save.

how are you feeling? Are you getting depressed or finding yourself turning to other habits? I went through a bit of a struggle with this but have come out the other side.

Yes, The gallbladder caused Pancreatitis, Diabetic Ketoacidosis (I wasn't diabetic, my gallbladder failure caused my pancreas to virtually stop) and low functioning kidneys. When they took out my gallbladder the surgeon said it was so scarred that it has adhered itself to the surrounding organs. Ugh. My symptoms were vomiting nightly and daily, discolored stool, mucus in stool and massive leg cramping at night from no potassium or magnesium in my system because of the malabsorption. It took the docs WAY too long to diagnose and thus I suffered for 8 months. To the OP: The discolored stool is a big indicator of gallbladder or pancreatic problems. It's due to malabsorption. Rapid weight loss can cause gallstones and gallbladder attacks so definitely keep an eye on this and let your surgeon know.

Hi, Congratulations! I'd strongly recommend talking to your surgeon's office and obstetrician ASAP, we aren't qualified enough to entrust us with your baby's health. Thats wonderful, congratulations again!

I'd work with a nutritionist to adjust your diet. You need to increase your calories however our bodies are in starvation mode and I was told that for the first 2-3 years post loss our metabolism is still afraid of starvation so it's still slow. You need to increase your healthy calories. I think JamieLogical had great suggestions too. Once we reach goal that's when we have to be even more careful not to let ourselves backslide.

Yeah, if you have your gall bladder please inform your surgeon's office. My gallbladder almost killed me. I was in ICU for 4 days in February - Pre-surgery.

my surgeon wouldn't let me take any pills till 3 months post op. Said that they can get stuck in the incision line in the stomach and cause an ulcer. I am on Vitagene Bariatric Vitamins, chewables, for the first 3 - 6 months. not sure exactly how long. then they start sending me my pill form vitamins.

Part of what is happening is your metabolism is going "WTF IS HAPPENING???" and is slowing down in order to retain energy. You just have to wait it out and keep up on your program. It will kick back in, I swear! Your body is in shock, give it time to adjust and deal with what you've done to it. lol! Stalls happen throughout the whole process. The body doesn't like to lose this much weight this fast. It thinks something is terribly wrong and so it will slow your metabolism down to "save" itself from "starvation". Also, it takes a few years for our metabolisms to recover. So for like 24 to 36 months after we've reached goal is the easiest time to gain weight back because our metabolism is stuck on "we're starving" mode. After that it slowly speeds back up.

You need to call your surgeon's office. You could have leakage, it could be any number of things. There is a lot of pain in the first few weeks but if it prevents you from even taking in liquid you need to call them. I'm confused why they let you go with so much pain still when ingesting liquid or food.

I think I am giving her a fair amount of benefit of doubt. We don't know her. I see you making a lot of negative assumptions about her and judgements. If you really want to help her you'd be trying to understand her perspective and then assist her to a more healthy set of information and guidelines. I saw one poster, who's always there to snark, mock the OP's profile which then lead to others looking at her profile and then to her FB page. To me this seems like the least friendly or "Pal" place.

Lol! Yes, your abdomen is still swollen. My tenderness and swelling didn't go down from like 8 to 10 weeks. I couldn't even wear a bra for a while. That was a nightmare. Still probably have gas trapped too so walking helps the. Plus your G.I. tract is going through a bunch of trauma. You're likely to experience constipation that you won't even notice because you'll be so focused on trying to get all your Protein and Water in (start the Fiber or smooth move tea habit now), the entire abdominal cavity is going through things and won't be settled for a while. Expect to see most of the changes in your face and arms and legs for the first 4 to 6 weeks and then suddenly your pants are dropping and you need suspenders or new pair pants'

You should be on an acid inhibitor. That caused a lot of my "hunger" feelings.

It will happen!! Don't worry. Plus, it's only been a month! Be kind to yourself. Understand that your body is adjusting to a huge change. The swelling in your abdomen hasn't even gone down yet. Don't worry, you'll be falling out of your clothes quickly!

If you look at the label just focus on the total carbs, that combines the both. Keep those to 15 or under per the amount you eat. (I didn't say "servings" because their serving size is probably much larger than what you are able to eat.) Try not to get too upset or demoralized over this, it's really not that uncommon. Many people have starts and stops throughout the whole process. It's important you just focus on the few real goals we have each day: 80+ grams Protein, 64+ oz Water, walk at least 30 minutes a day. If you stay within those guidelines this will work.