Hoping052017

I've had rally high B12 levels ever since my bypass in 2017. I take Celebrate 45 multivitamin, which has 1,000mcg of B12 in it, so I'm essentially taking 3000mcg of B12 daily. But even when I stopped taking my vitamins for 3 months prior to my 1 year checkup, my B12 levels were still through the roof (over 2000) Has anyone else had this issue and has it been an issue for you if you have? I've read highly elevated B12 levels can lead to depression (I already have major depression clinically diagnosed), dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease. My PCP is worried, but my bariatritions don't seem concerned. All I get is "that's fairly common with gastric bypass" I have no energy at all. My depression is at a peak (and the Prozac isn't helping). And I'm just generally worried. My Grams died with dementia and my mom shows signs of it from time to time. Since it runs in families to begin with, I'm afraid of having something else that could make it progress early or at all.

I'm planning on having my surgery around the middle of April (God willing) and there's going to be a bike ride event happening about a month later. My question is this: has anyone whose had the RNY or Sleeve done managed to bicycle 30 miles a month out from surgery? Not mountain biking or anything like that, but paved bike trails.

So sorry you're going through this. I'm also having problems again. I eat, but it hurts all the time. I'm now taking protonix twice a day ands sucralfate multiple times a day now. I had another EGD done about a month ago and the office was supposed to call for a follow up (what my mom said, but I think I was supposed to call them). I'm still having issues. Still frequently vomit. Constantly have gas and pain. I'm tired of it. I had to switch to whole Fairlife milk to get my protein in and coat my stomach enough. After the EGD mom said the dr told her the wasn't much change in my ulcer. But I hadn't been taking the sucralfate either. I had a major brain dump in September (18 years of amnesia because of a migraine medicine) and didn't know I was supposed to be taking it. Now I'm waiting for a call back from the doctor to see when I can get back in to see them since things should be getting better and they aren't.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I usually dumbfound my doctors as well. Even since childhood. I hope your doc finds a solution for you!

I had to go in for a small bowel resection after a lot of pain as well. Thankfully, my doctor knows what he's doing. He ended up putting me on I think it's Privolex??? It's a form of Omeprezole, but more potent and the other that was mentioned above that Carafate. They actually had to basically do exploratory surgery on me. I was throwing up everything and had no appetite and it was nuts and I was hurting so bad. Dr. Mourot said that sometimes with an RNY a few people have problems with what he referred to as the "candy cane" part of the surgery. So they have to go in and remove that part and 9 times out of 10 they don't have any more problems. so that's what he did for me and that's when he found the small ulcer that none of the scopes had seen. As for the delayed release of the Omeprezole, that, I was told was what was supposed to be happening. they wanted a continual dosage of the anti acid medicine to ward off excess gas and nausea and ulcers. i've always had excess acid in my stomach anyway, so the ulcer didn't surprise me. But he did stop the Omeprezole (I was supposed to be able to get off of it at a year anyway) but was put on a stronger anti acid med plus the carafate (which I never could figure out how to time with all the other medications i have to take for my mental issues and my back and fiber issues) So, hopefully only 2 more months of the anti acid meds. I've been doing well since the small bowel resection though! Good luck to you!

Is it like totally weird that I'm actually looking forward to my psych eval tomorrow? After the MAJOR funk I've been in for the last few days (MAJOR depressive episode) I think it's especially weird. The thing that's really weird about this is that when I called to make the appointment the other day they told me that it's just a walk in thing. They don't schedule the bariatric psych evaluations. Just show up between 8 and noon. The lady I spoke with said it would take a couple of hours. I think it's some kind of computer test. I know there's a $100 one that you can do online for the clinic I'm going to, but I don't have that kind of money right now. At least my insurance covers this one I'm doing tomorrow. That's a good thing. So, after I get this out of the way I have two more diet and exercise appointments and one more appointment with the cardiologist and then they will schedule my surgery! I'm praying that I can have it done April 22. If I can't have it done that day, it will be okay. But, if I can, it will be perfect!

It has nothing to do with personality disorders and everything to do with what each 10 pounds lost brings to your life. With me, the first 10 pounds was before surgery. It was a great loss, but not much changing. Now, post surgery, every 10 pounds I have lost has brought new changes, new challenges to overcome, a new person every 10 pounds basically. The first 10 was a denial within myself that despite the weight loss that anything was really changing with my body. The second 10 was a realization that I can't wear most of my wardrobe because it's all too big. Along with that realization came the realization that I'm wearing clothes I haven't worn in 20 years. Is 90% of the changes psychological? Yes! Did they constitute mental disorders? Do a lot of us have mental issues? Yes! But the changes that come with the rapid weight loss are NOT serious personality disorders!!! I can't believe one would even correlate a personality disorder with the changes that we all undergo as a result of our respective surgeries! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

My family, especially my mom and husband, were totally against me having wls surgery. My husband, no matter how educated he got on the subject was adamant about me not having the surgery. I know why now, but it has nothing to do with the surgery or anything and he's since passed so it was only my mom I had to contend with. What I did was ask her to go with me to a wls seminar one of the local hospitals was doing one night. She and my daughter (who was also freaking out about it) went with me to this seminar. My mom, even on the way there was against it. After the seminar was over, by the time we were half way back to the car, they were both telling me I HAD to have this surgery done. I was going to do it with or without the support, but I prefer having their support over fighting them on it. Other people that ask about my weight loss I'm not ashamed to tell them what I've done. I'm proud of myself for choosing my life over food. I've even partially changed my mind on my career choice as a result of it. I still want my culinary degree, but I also want to go back to school to become a registered dietician/nutritionist so I can help more people live longer, more fulfilling lives, without the food dependencies. I'm not sure this answers your question, but there you go. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

Am I ready for this?! ......No. ..... Yes. ..... Maybe. ....Wait. What was the question? Am I ready for what? ... This blog that isn't a blog (in my opinion), but a journal of what is going on in this journey called life? Life itself? This weight loss surgery that I am desperately attempting to prepare for? This blog I'm definitely not ready for, but I'm going to do it anyway because maybe by getting over some of my fears, I'll be able to conquer others and hopefully inspire other people to conquer their own inner chicken. Yes, I said inner chicken. It was something that I heard at my youngest son's poetry slam a few months ago and it just stuck with me. Why be afraid of writing a blog? Ummm...because I'm not a very good writer? Because...people can be downright cruel? Because I may be judged for writing what I write? There's a number of things that would make my inner chicken quiver in its boots. (Yes, my inner chicken wears big, heavy, poop kickers! and those poop kickers regularly kick my big behind) Life itself? Who the heck is ready for life itself? Why the heck do you think babies come into this world kicking and screaming? They want back in!!! They are screaming "Put me back in! Put me BACK IN! This place is cold, and loud, and bright, and scary! Put me back where it's quiet, and warm, and comfy, and safe." Some babies grow out of that. Those are the ones that grow into little dare devils. The ones that will give their mothers figurative heart attacks by climbing to the tallest point (quite literally) of the playground where mommy can't reach them and sit down to seemingly ponder the world around them. Yes. This is what my oldest did to me when he was three. He was the one that came a little over a month early (though he tried for 2 months early). Didn't make a sound when he was born. (scared the crap out of me because I thought he was born dead or something) Made up for that fact profusely later (as evidenced in Blockbuster video where he screamed so loud and long that the entire place came running to find out what I was doing to the poor child). And now wants to go into the Navy after he graduates high school in a few months. And now my middle child, my little girl, is wanting to go to a college prep school so she can be a veterinarian at the ripe old age of 12 and the youngest of my 3 big brood is about to start middle school, leaving behind the last remnants of elementary school that I'll have to deal with forever. Am I ready for life itself? NOOOO!!! Put me back in! PUT ME BACK IN!!!!! I'M NOT READY!!!! Yeah, that's going to happen. .... NOT! Am I ready for this weight loss surgery that I'm desperately trying to prepare for? Yes. Unequivocally Yes. Without a shadow of a doubt I am ready for this. I know I'm ready. I think I'm ready. Am I ready? You know...I hope so. It's scary. Not the surgery itself. I'm not scared about that. This surgery will be number 14 in a long line of surgeries. Everything from my first surgery at age 5 to remove rectal polyps to having my tonsils and adenoids out the day before I turned 6 to a complete hysterectomy a little over 3 years ago because of major pain I was having in my gut that turned out to be IBS. So I'm no stranger to having surgery. What I'm scared of is not succeeding yet again. I went on my first actual Dr. supervised diet at the age of 9. I've been yo-yo dieting ever since. Over 30 years of yo-yo dieting. I've tried everything it seems like. I've tried Advocare, Herbalife, Atkins, Cabbage soup, the diabetes diet, Alli, Phenergan, Slim fast, weight watchers...lots of different diets. It was after I stepped on the scale at the Dr. office in July of 2013 and it read 310 pounds that I finally had had enough of this mess. I haven't been below 200 pounds in 18 years. (i was 198 when I got pregnant with my oldest son who will be 18 in a few months). As soon as I left the Dr. I went directly to Best Buy and bought a FitBit and an Aria scale. Best money I had spent in years. I actually got down to 246 pounds in about a years time. But as with all the other times, I gained again. This time topping out at 286. I stayed there for several months. In August 2016, after a physical therapy session, I saw a flyer for a weight loss surgery seminar that the hospital was hosting. It got me thinking about weight loss surgery again for, like, the millionth time in the past 20 years. But I already knew where I wanted to go. The thing was convincing the one person who would talk me out of it just like she had every other time that I thought about it...my mom. I didn't have to worry anymore about my husband forbidding it as he had for years because he had died in 2013. So the issue was how to get mom to realize that this was going to be the best option for me. One of the local hospitals was hosting a seminar soon. I would take her to it. I had already talked to the nice people at Roller Weight Loss and had already watched their online seminar and had made up my mind that was where I wanted to go for my surgery, but mom wouldn't watch the seminar. But she would go to the seminar being hosted a couple towns over. Two weeks later, after we left the seminar, my mom looked at me and said, "You have to have this surgery. I don't want to lose you." And that was that. After I got the money together for the registration fee for Roller (my birthday present from me to me last year) I scheduled my first appointment. Unfortunately, that appointment couldn't be until November 4. November 4 came faster than I imagined it would. That day felt like i was put through the proverbial wringer. Fasting blood work, nutrition appointment, EKG, breathing test, H-Pylori test (that was a first. Had never heard of that one before), chest x-rays, OMG! This was absolutely insane. Though, I was grateful that they were being so thorough with my care. They don't want to take anything to chance. So, now, I'm getting ready for my fourth Diet and Exercise appointment on February 6. Less than a week away. Then I have March and April Appointments to get through and then I will be scheduled to have surgery within a few weeks of that last appointment. Easy breezy rice and cheezy, right? Yeah, not for me. No. See, I haven't lost much weight since that first month. I think I've lost 14 pounds since November 4. And it's entirely my fault! Over the past few weeks I've been doing a lot of thinking about WHY I haven't stuck with my pre-op diet. Don't I want to lose weight? Don't I want to see my future grand babies? Don't I want to see my daughter graduate veterinary school? Don't I want to see my little squirt graduate high school? YES!!! I want all those things! So what's the big deal? What's my major malfunction preventing me from getting what I want? My head is majorly screwed up. That's my major malfunction. So, I decided to do something about it. I went back to the therapist yesterday. I did it. I finally kicked my inner chicken back. My inner chicken is still there. Yes, it is. But for this, it's backed off. I'll be going every week and a half to get help with my major depression and anxiety disorders. To get help with pain management that has me in tears often because of my upper back pain. To get help conquering my personal demons that prevent me from getting a good night's sleep most nights. Why haven't I gone sooner you might ask. Well, it's a deep subject. I went to several after my husband committed suicide in 2013. I only found one that began to help. Then I was fired from a job I had had for nearly 15 years because i was always sick and hadn't put in a 40 hour work week in almost a year, thus losing me my insurance and the therapist that was beginning to help. Then I tried the only therapy place that Medicaid would cover. That ended up being a total disaster. You know, seeing someone maybe once a month if you're lucky when you don't want to be on the face of the earth anymore doesn't help a whole heck of a lot. So, March 15, 2014 I stopped going to that place. Stopped getting help of any kind. Tried to find a boyfriend. Found a good friend that helped as much as he could. Now, I help him at his shop when I can, but I barely hear from him. It makes me really sad. And I went back to that unhelpful place yesterday because I realized that I can't do this by myself. And I can't lean on my mom for everything because she has her own personal demons to fight and she leans on me to battle those and I'm afraid (scared to death really) that she's developing dementia like my Grams did. The lady I met yesterday I like. And the funniest, most ironic thing possible happened. I found out that she is in the pre-op stages of getting the same surgery I'm getting through the same clinic that I'm going through. My new therapist is going through the same thing I am as far as bariatric surgery goes. Crazy, right?! I'm trying to understand why I do the things I do. Why it is that EVERY SINGLE Blessed time that i am going good on a diet (I've lost a ton of weight, people notice and compliment me, I'm getting into smaller clothes) I just stop. Just. Flat. Stop. It makes no sense to me. Not even a penny of sense. Why do I jeopardize every diet? Why do I always blame it on someone else? It's someone else that's sabotaging me. Not me. I know that to be a cart full of bologna. But it's what I do. And I want to know why. I mean I know I'm scared of not knowing what I'm going to look like afterwards. I know I'm scared of having to change practically every aspect of myself (the way I dress, the way I eat, the way I organize things, the way I plan things) And that, I think would be scary for anyone, let alone someone with anxiety issues and major depression amongst several other things. That is why I'm starting this journal of sorts, this blog. To chronicle these steps I'm going to be taking to a new me. Hopefully, by the end of it all, I will be able to see someone in the mirror that I'm proud of being. Someone that I'm not ashamed of. Someone who is able to stand up and take charge of her life, goals, and new dreams. Someone who can kick her inner chicken and its poop kickers to the curb, pluck it, and have it for dinner! God and Heaven Bless and Protect you always.

So, today is 11 days post-op. I'm doing pretty well. My incisions are healing fabulously. I'm walking every day. Now, with this I should put in a disclaimer...I walk every day in bursts. LOL. I still get tired pretty easily. If I can keep my mind occupied, then I can walk for a longer time than when I'm trying to do household chores or something like that. For instance, my mom and I went to Burlington Coat Factory. That store is so much trouble! LOL I kept falling in love with all the clothes that I'll be able to wear once I reach my goal weight. Plus their housewares area is unreal. Such great prices! I was able to walk around the store for about a half hour before I REALLY had to sit down somewhere. And I've noticed, standing still....not a real great idea. It makes me more sore and wears me out so much faster than actually walking around. Even a week and a half out I'm still pretty sore in my tummy. But again, that soreness is usually amplified by sitting in one place too long. Like tonight playing Castle Panic with the family because it's Saturday - Family game night. It's a tradition we instigated several months ago where my kids, me, and my mom all get together for pizza and games and/or movies. It's a time for family bonding and it's almost always awesome. Only time it isn't awesome is when one of us is not feeling good or is in a rotten mood and pretty much kills it for all of us. It's life. It happens. Thankfully, it doesn't happen often. Tonight was hard though. I LOVE pizza. Hot pizza. Cold Pizza. Cold Pizza for breakfast. Cold Pizza for lunch. Hot pizza for supper. Veggie pizza, meat pizza, everything pizza, pineapple and ham/canadian bacon pizza...just no jalepenos please. LOL. I even found out before surgery that BBQ Chicken pizza isn't bad either! After not eating anything solid for 13 straight days, the smell of that pizza everyone was enjoying was so hard to endure even though I was "full" from my protein shakes, broth, and water. Believe me, drinking an once of fluid every 15 minutes with a tummy the size of an egg keeps me pretty full all the time. I have an alarm set on my phone to go off every 15 minutes to remind me to sip some water. I've made it my theme song. It's Rachel Platton's Fight song. I felt it appropriate since I'm fighting to take my life back from my food demons. The other hard part is dealing with the people in my life who are resistant to change. Like my oldest son. He wasn't happy about me getting this surgery. At all. He likes having something to hold on to that's more than the skin and bones that he is built like. He doesn't like change of any kind. He's fought his senior year every step of the way because it means change. He still doesn't understand that change is inevitable. And you can either roll with it, or be rolled over by it. I used to thrive on change. Until 2013 happened and there was so much change in so little time that my mind couldn't deal with it and pretty much ceased to function correctly. I fight every day to get my mind to function as it once did. To thrive on change again would be such a blessing. But my son. He has never dealt with change well. So, instead of supporting me, he teases me. Just like his father used to do every time I tried a diet or tried to lose weight. He'd purposely get something that I could not eat. That he knew I couldn't eat. And he'd bring it to me and say "Here hon, look what I got you. A chocolate glazed donut with bavarian cream filling. Your favorite. Oh...that's right. You can't have these can you? I'm so sorry. I guess I'm just going to have to eat it myself." And then he'd proceed to eat one of my favorite donuts in front of me, pretending to savor every last morsel. My son hasn't been quite as cruel as his father was, but he'd get a kiwi and slice and eat it and slurp the sweet juice from it and say things like "Gee, mom, don't you just wish you could have one of these right now?" Then he'd laugh and finish eating his kiwi and walk away. Or, hey mom, don't you just wish you could have a slice of this delicious pizza. I'm so sorry you can't. It's SOOOO good!" So, that's been really hard the last week or so. I really didn't care the first week because I really just wasn't hungry for anything at all. I had no appetite. Nothing sounded good, nothing tasted good. Not particularly. And after 4 days of chocolate shakes I was ready to scream. Now, after 2 solid weeks of nothing solid and only sweet protein shakes...I've already got supper for next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday planned out! Salmon, bunless Turkey burgers, and pizza!!!! with sauteed zucchini and mushrooms....mashed cauliflower......stewed tomatoes.....asparugus, spinach, tilapia, cottage cheese!!!!! Yogurt! OMG, I'm making myself so hungry...I really need to stop. See, I don't see my surgeon again until May 4. The last time I ate anything solid was April 16. 17.5 days without anything solid to eat. I'm about to go mad. But it will be okay. I know I can do this. I have to do this. I saw my primary care person yesterday. (She's a nurse practitioner, so technically not Dr, but might as well be.) My weight there was 258. Actually one pound less than what I was the morning of my surgery! She took me completely off my diabetes medicine. And I see her again in 6 weeks. Then, she's sure she's going to be taking me off my blood pressure medicine and my thyroid medicine. So, I'll be down to only the medicines for my back pain and my acid reducer, so 3 medications! Quite a change from the 7 or 8 I've been taking the past few years. I'm really excited. Well, that's all the updates I can think of right now guys. Oh! But let me tell you something about those 4 in 1 protein shakes (you know, the ones that have all the vitamins already in them so you don't have to swallow a handful of vitamins quite yet or chew those nasty tasting chewable).... If you get the vanilla flavor (I imagine it could work with chocolate too, but not with as much variety) you can add things like the Sugar Free Orange Crush water flavoring to the mix and if you drink it cold, it tastes just like an orange creamcicle! Raspberry Ice is really good too. Cherry is okay, but not one of my favorites. You can add unsweetened cocoa powder to the mix to make a chocolate. Add Unsweetened cocoa powder along with the Raspberry Ice to make a chocolate raspberry shake. There's so many possibilities. The only problem I've found is that you get really tired of the sweet stuff all day every day. I look forward to supper when I have my cup of Bone Broth (the beef is my favorite) It's by Great Value if you have a walmart in your area. It's the only broth that I found in the entire store that has 7 grams of protein per serving. All the other broths only had a whopping 2 grams of protein per serving!!!! Anyway, nature is now calling again (one of the drawbacks to constantly drinking...lol) Praying for healthy, happy, love filled days for you and yours!

Wow. I Had to stay overnight at the hospital. But I'm glad about that. I wasn't in any shape to be at home. On the up side, I was the first to go home of the four of us that had surgery that day. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

That's very similar to what mine was. But I only got 4 oz meat. [emoji4] Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

Seriously?! 80%on this site? I'm not one of them either! I had my surgery 6 wks ago and it seems my diabetes is a thing of the past. My blood sugar levels are better than they ever were (even as a kid), I'm off my metformin completely, my blood pressure is better than my 11 year old daughter's and I was able to come off the main blood pressure medicine (I still take one, but it's for a tremor instead of blood pressure, which they said I'll have to keep an eye on if I start getting fainting spells again), and today I was able to fit into a pair of capris that have been hanging in my closet with the tags still on them for 8 years or more because they were given to me by my sister in law and they were always too small! Just for those reasons alone I would never regret having this surgery done! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

My condolences for you about your partner. I understand, though, about wanting to scream. I don't have a husband anymore, he passed 4 years ago. But I have my mom and kids. My heart goes out to you and my hat goes off to you as well. This isn't easy, even with support. Keep hanging in there! And remember you've got this! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

Hmmm...I see a lot of people swear by the premier shakes, but my dieticians don't allow me to use them. They say that the vitamins in them aren't as digested as the shakes geared toward bariatric patients. Also cream soups and puddings (even sugar free) aren't allowed because they are fairly carb rich. Oh how I would love some chocolate pudding right now. Especially while my family eats mocha chocolate cream graduation cake! Lol Sugar free popsicles... yes yes yes! And flavor packets! If you get a vanilla shake favor and get tired of it, you can add the sugar free water packets to that as well to change it up a bit! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

I didn't use medicine chips, but rather a "shot glass". Wal-Mart or any kitchen supply area should have a 1 oz measuring cup. (Wal-Mart is where I got mine). It will come in handy for cooking later on as well as helping with sipping now and post op. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

I am 5 weeks post op and the gas strips or chewable gas x (the equate brand is just as good, imo, and much less expensive) have been a life saver. It is true that they don't help with the CO2 gas (only walking helps with that) but it does help with actual gas. I used them a lot and still do since I'm still learning what my system can and can't handle. Sometimes I get gas from nothing (but I was that way before surgery too) so those chewable pills really helped and, to me, they don't take up space you need for your shakes and water. [emoji4] Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

Wow. All I hear is excuse after excuse from you. There have been so many really greasy suggestions for you and you shoot down every single one of them. Going to a support group meeting designed for bariatric patients is not putting a label on anyone. It is what it is. Believe it or not, most of us do have a disease if we've gotten to the point of needing bariatric surgery. It's called loving food too much. It's called co-dependency. It's called having a problem with food. Besides being "normal" is highly overrated. I, personally, don't want to date anyone "normal". For me, "normal" is boring and dull. If you don't want to take the advice of anyone, why bother asking for advice? Like someone else said, if you don't want to change your way of thinking about things, then you're not going to get very far. I'd be happy to date another bariatric patient. I know they want to better themselves and actually like themselves enough to help themselves. You may not like the label, but for whatever the reason, you ARE a bariatric patient and whatever problem you had with food to get to this point IS a disease, just like alcoholism. Deal with that fact first. Then try finding someone to be with. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

Try "meet up". Find a group that has the same interests as you. That's a good way to become more social. I believe it's meetup.com. It's a way to do what you like to do and meet new people in the process. Going to local support group meetings either specifically for bariatric patients or Celebrate Recovery is another way to be more social and meet new people. Either way, you'd be able to meet people who either enjoy doing the same activities you like to do or people who understand the challenges we face as bariatric patients. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app