myfanwymoi

I had Petersens hernias 2 years out - the membrane that holds in your guts is pulled apart by the weight loss and the intestines slide in and out and loops can get trapped. It never shows on X-rays and not always on ct as it moves about. General emergency docs in uk missed diagnosis and it was finally seen by bariatric department and repaired- more than half my gut out of place when they sewed it back up! thing is because it moves around the scans don’t always catch it. I spent ages trying to figure out what foods caused it. If I got on hands and knees and rolled hips/back I could often soothe it which we realise now may well have helped move things back. it needs exploratory surgery to be entirely sure/ rule it out. Make a fuss. Make sure you see bariatric surgeon, use name Petersens xx

Robert Lustig says it’s not what you eat it’s what’s been done to what you eat. Look at his book metabolical and Chris van tulkes ultra processed people. Sugar is as harmful to me as cocaine only difference being coke is hard to get, expensive and illegal. If they sold it in sweet shops … the psychological part is huge - dr Nicole perrera on insta shares lots of free stuff and has a great workbook which is cheaper than therapy. You can nip this in it’s fatty little bud (or butt!) right now!!! To borrow a phrase from an eighties cartoon “I [you] have the power!”

Getting really bad cramps! I supplement with magnesium and have also developed mild heart block which worsens if I don’t supplement. I’m wondering if anyone has similar issues and how they manage them… have ordered a magnesium cream which I hope will help.

I’m in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Had surgery in Dec 2016. Lowest weight about 8 stone currently hover around 10 - would like to go back to 9.5 but keep succumbing to carb craving/sugar addiction. Overall ok though as just keep going back to what works… nice to see some uk posts. Early on Id have loved to have known more uk people. good luck in your journeys …

Nothing as severe as yours but I get horrible hypoglycaemia when I eat carbs/sugar. But it’s addictive and the world is full of it so October succumb - sometimes accidentally but often just through weariness! Anyhoo - for me low carb works. If I’m eating Keto I’m fine apart from cramps and palpitations. banana’s definitely spike my sugar and set off cravings - I try to stick to berries and yogurt. hope you get some help with this - hypo can be terrifying and feeling ill all the time is what we wanted to leave behind!!!

When I had the Petersens hernias (which create blockage because loops of intestine have slipped through a hole in the sac that keeps your guts in place / sorry forgot name of it!) I had intermittent pain. It was hard to describe- crampy mainly, pressure a bit - I’d get relief from going on hands and knees and rocking my hips- looking back that may have helped loops to slip back in. anyway I went to emergency departs twice or three times - showing a text from my wls surgeon which said Petersens hernias likely please do a cti. They did x/rays which won’t show the issue - or the tear which causes it and sent me home. Another time they said why wasn’t surgeon seeing me himself - was past date when he had to under the private contract- they said he’s a rich man he should see you. (He’d just retired as senior consultant at that hospital which is a bariatric centre) my pain had gone by this time as I’d not attempted to eat or drink in 24 hours (I’d told them that too) and they sent me home insisting I did it properly with a go referral. which I did. got an appointment at same hospital -told will re it’s d be in touch within six weeks. Call next day - oh we have a cti cancellation can you pop in. Did so and they then had another magic cancellation to schedule repair op. Turns out half my small intestines had migrated through this tear. Shiny new doc told me this and older once shushed it down as they were obvs worried I’d litigate. I was just pleased not to have died. Petersens used to happen after peptic ulcer ops and were common- changes in treatment of ulcers made them more rare - they’re increasingly common again as post wls issue. so - point of this long post - intermittent issues- and this happened over a six month period- need checking out too. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which foods caused it and it was actually just the food moving - or intermittently not, through my small intestines…

This gave me a few unhappy hours too! My father died of a small bowel obstruction related to bowel cancer surgery. Unfortunately he wasn’t strong enough for an op at 92 so it’s different but related. I had Peterson’s hernias two years after surgery which nearly did for me (nhs docs refused to do cti scan which may have diagnosed it, partly due to prejudice over my having wls privately. I was out of warranty on that though! anyway, this history makes me more worried about adhesions than I might otherwise be and I had some serious operation remorse yesterday. But, as has been pointed out, Lisa Marie took opiates which may have helped create a blockage and had ignored some symptoms. I am sure the wls surgery has improved my quality of life in the 6.5 years since I had it and I can only hope that I haven’t robbed myself of some old age years I might have had - had I dealt with my weight issues in another way. That’s the rub isn’t it - if I’d stayed obese I’d have had worse quality of life and who knows how much less… so - all in all - I’m very sad for Lisa Marie and her family, but I think I’m ok!

You’ve described my behaviour around sugar and processed carbs. I’m a recovering alcoholic- 10 years this time round and 22 years before with a miserable 4 year relapse in between. my thought processes, constant internal arguments, obsessive behaviour, reaction to relapse are identical to how I was with alcohol. But sugar is harder to avoid than alcohol. So I hear you: I knew wls would not cure these issues but I hoped the break from processed food/sugar would make it easier. It didn’t. I do intermittent fasting now - as much to rest my poor pancreas as for any other reason. Fasting is easy for me. I wish I could give up food altogether and take a tablet! I’m on a wait list for help with my disorders eating- I’m hopeful! cw: 140lbs lw - 1 year post wls 120lb, goal weight 130lbs. surgery Dec 16. and all my friends say my cw is fine. It’s only me who thinks I’m fat. A friend told me that at 120lbs I looked like an hiv or cancer patient. I’m sick enough to feel secretly pleased I got that thin…

I’m four, nearly five years out and had out some weight on because I rediscovered sugar. I’m now involved in a running battle with sugar and eating. intermittent fasting really helps, low carb helps but I now have this intense reaction to carbs and I’m at a loss. the extra weight - just a few pounds now, goes if I fast. The obsession with food goes too. But I get cramps and am sure I’m not eating enough when I do fast. feel a bit stuck! Had chips last night and my blood sugar shot up to 20 just after then down to four within 3 hours. But, if I do intermittent fasting, blood sugar stays constant at around 6. anyone dealing with similar?

The amount I can eat (four years out) varies hugely. I fast 22/24 three days a week and 16/8 or 18/6 the other four days and I’m v low carb/Keto and absolutely no damn sugar at all! Sugar been gone about six weeks this time. Lowest weight 8 stone 2, highest 10 stone 10 about 6 weeks ago! Dropped 12lbs so now 9 stone 12 (137llbs) feel so good! Sugar is the devil for me! food pics are air fried thighs and aubergine/courgette mix and a chaffles (pancake made from egg and cheese) with fried pek (Keto friendly chopped pork) and mushroom and a slice of emmenthal. I have a ninja foodi 9 in one - pressure, air, steam, bake, sauté, grill etc! And I use it most days. In love with ma foodi!

I paid privately for my op in the uk: there was post op support but no therapist. There was a group but it was weird times and I kept missing it! when I had petersens hernias (potentially life threatening complication) I was past a year post op so couldn’t see surgeon. Went to nhs a&e and told was private so needed to go back to him, he’d sent me there. Attitude to me was really shitty because I’d paid for treatment from a surgeon who actually had been consultant at the nhs place I went to! Like I got into debt and saved the tax payer from comorbidity effects and they’re mad at me?!! point is the aftercare is needed psychologically and it’s hard when it’s not there. Glad you have it though x

I was 234 at heaviest 118 at lightest and am now (4 and a quarter years post op) 149. Yes - lockdown but more than that it’s sugar addiction. At 114 I had no bum or tits or shape and people said I looked gaunt and old but I LOVED being skinny. I’m now a size 8-10 uk - up from a low 6 and definitely not fat or even really overweight. My bmi is maybe a tad over but I’ve always been solid - short legs long back- great build for a hod carrier an ex once told me!!! so I need to deal but it’s sugar I need to deal with. I go in and off IF and Keto but constantly relapse with sugar. I’m weaning off just now and am going to aim for IF on work days (my tummy is v hair trigger so that helps avoid leaving a classroom mid lesson. the struggle is real. I’m a recovering alcoholic and sugar hits the same button. I’m depressed, sedentary, lonely but I’m not giving up. It’s great to hear from people who’ve kept weight off and I’d like too to hear how you get it off again befor it’s all back... on a positive note I have boobs and a bum again!

I'm two and a half years out - went down to about 114 but was really too thin. Then went up to 140 and definitely wasn't happy. My problem is very definitely sugar and carbohydrates. I'm a sober alcoholic (8 years this time out, and before the four year break (divorce + stupidity = relapse) was 22 years. Bu the point is that for me sugar is a drug and the insulin response I get from any processed carb works in pretty much the same way. So I've been working on killing sugar and processed carbs, plus grains and simple starches like potatoes, along with most fruit apart from small amounts of low GI berries over the last six months or so, trying various things. What have I learned: I can't do anything in moderation that isn't real food (by which I mean protein and fat and small amounts of carb appearing in leafy veg etc. This, alongside intermittent fasting (Dr Jason Fung is great on this) has begun to make a real change. Because it's not really about the losing weight for me now, although I want to lose about 15lbs still and it's beginning, It's about the need to be healthy, not to be constantly sickened by food, not to be constantly obsessed with food and to find a long term sustainable solution that allows me to get on with my life. Still hoping to cross addict onto exercise but that hasn't happened yet! Funnily, the post op diet which led with protein and allowed the veg and carbs in if there was room is closest to where I am now. I fast 16/8 - it varies but the average seems to be about 17/7. This is comfortable and I have loads of energy. Only been doing it a week properly and the keto for about a month but I was struggling with the macros and counting. Keeping it simple now. Be interested to hear if anyone is doing similar. What I would say is that my level of trust for something that doesn't involve someone trying to sell me special foods, vits, supplements, meal plans, exercise regimes is naturally quite high! Everything I need to do IF successfully if available for free. I like free! Actually - and again I'd be interested in people's thoughts here, I wish I'd discovered this and worked it pre-op. But hey, can't turn back time! Thanks all - this was a bit lonnnggg - sorry!

I went from 40C to 36AA. Tragic! Not the whole pitta bread thing going on but definitely lacking in tone and dimension. And although I haven't got obvious droops of skin, it's definitely baggier than it ought to be. Would love to have the op but just can't afford it. I comfort myself with the thought that it could have been a lot worse. I just look like I'm wearing skin a size too big! (rather than the seven dress sizes I actually lost!)

I recall jumping off a stile on a walk a few months in. There was no earthquake, my bones didn’t jar and I was like omg!!!! enjoy. It’s all worth it xxx