Berry78

All bariatric folk have difficulty digesting calcium. We need calcium citrate, specifically. Blood tests usually won't show low calcium levels because the body pulls what it needs out of bones and teeth. Bone density scans are needed to show bone loss. The other electrolytes; magnesium, sodium, and potassium, also work to establish bone health. Vitamins D and K2 also play roles. Every one of these nutrients are frequently lacking in the bariatric population. Good point about GERD.. it's a possibility. Plus, some of us may hate brushing our teeth

Fingers crossed for you!

So you are burning 300 or so calories... increase your intake by 100-200cal and see if that does anything. I don't think you HAVE to increase, but it doesn't hurt to experiment.

No problem, you warned us from the outset!

No, you are into Onederland, so your losses are going to slow down. Keep on keeping on... (well.. how much do you exercise?)

Ok, found some more info. It's talking about IV irons. "Large doses of iron can be given at one time when using iron dextran. Iron sucrose and ferric gluconate require more frequent doses spread over several weeks. Some patients may have an allergic reaction to IV iron, so a test dose may be administered before the first infusion. Allergic reactions are more common with iron dextran and may necessitate switching to a different preparation. Severe side effects other than allergic reactions are rare and include urticaria (hives), pruritus (itching), and muscle and joint pain." So they'll likely try you on a different IV iron.

Low hemoglobin (anything under 12) can be due to bleeding, your iron deficiency, or even vitamin deficiencies (folate, b-12, and/or vit. C). Gastrointestinal bleeding usually results in red or black vomit or stools. Small amounts of blood may not be noticeable. Lets hope your ulcer is healed. Make sure your bloodwork checks for the other vitamins to clarify that iron is the only issue. Have you tried oral iron supplements? There are several different types, some don't cause as many GI side effects (nausea and constipation). If I figure anything else out, I'll pop back in.

Since you said "seems", you haven't been writing down your weights, right? Start writing them down, at least once a week. Memory gets foggy, and sometimes it can seem longer since the scale moved than it really has been. Plus its nice to have the record to see how your body likes to lose compared to others. And of course, stalls happen. At 2 months out it shouldn't signify a bigger problem.

15 pounds in 10 days? You can try the liquid diet like preop... low carb and low fat, but that is asking an awful lot. Good luck!

C&C Music Factory made a song about me! Now I feel special

Wow Airstream.. you are doing fabulously! 145lbs in a year?! Hoo-ah!!

You're welcome What's interesting is I've only had 2 weeks this whole time that I recorded zero losses. Lots of 1 pound weeks, then, BAM, 4 pounds! Lol. I hear enough about that phenomenon on here, that it's perfectly typical (as is having multi-week stalls... lots of range of "typical"). Here's a little story: So I was 6 weeks postop, and down, what.. 40lbs. including the preop diet (I started at 305). I was so excited! I was updating my MIL on my progress, and, to be honest.. 265 is still really fat... but my MIL was like, "Shouldn't you have lost more by now? I thought you'd be at goal in like 3 months". After I picked up my jaw off the floor, I was like, "Don't you realize I was 150lbs over weight, and if I were on a regular dieting program, losing 2 pounds a week, it would take a year and a half to get to goal? Why should surgery really make it that much faster?" I guess that put things into perspective for her. After all, the body can only burn so much in a day, and the disassembling of the fat cells, blood vessels, skin shrinkage (hopefully).. all these things are HUGE amounts of work for the body to perform. 400 million cells in a pound of body fat. 400 MILLION! And we expect that stuff to just pour off of us like water... I do wish the cells would disappear altogether, but, alas, we just get to make them "skinny". Sigh. And good luck on your surgery!!!

Things didn't really change postop. The problems that were there before, are the same problems as now. If his weight loss didn't fix those things, why do you think yours will? I'm not saying "don't get the surgery". I actually think it may be a good move for you. But I am saying that getting the surgery is not going to fix your relationship. If your relationship is going to be fixed, it's going to require some other type of work (counseling, or lengthy discussions, or something.. I don't know much about fixing couple-problems). I do know that couples need to have common-ground. They should have activities they enjoy doing together. (This is a huge downfall in my marriage, and I'm not sure if/when it will get fixed). Dieting together is one way to help get some common ground. But the problem is, you are already frustrated because you see your hubby eating whatever he wants, just in limited portion sizes. While you eat yogurt. If he continues doing that, don't worry, you'll have your 270lb husband back in a few more years. Classic misunderstanding of what this surgery does. Regain is a real thing, and so even after having the surgery, one must remain on a "diet" for life. Yogurt for lunch is required forever. And, he's a guy, presumably MUCH taller than you. He's always going to be able to eat twice the calories that you'll be able to. It sucks, and I'm in the same boat. You may get the surgery, lose all the weight, then proceed to regain, yourself, if you followed his lead.

Keep in mind I'm 4.5 months ahead of you. I couldn't squeeze veggie 1 in for months! I did start using spinach smoothies for a little while, but decided they weren't my favorite. I had to add so much stuff to them to make me drink it, that it took away a lot of my snack allotment and wasn't as filling. (My milk and fruit and nuts and coconut water.. all in 1 drink!). A couple ounces of steamed spinach makes a pretty slider-ish snack. You wanna see magic? Get out your scale and weigh out 4oz of fresh baby spinach leaves. Put them in a pot with a couple spoonfuls of water. Cook on med-high, stirring frequently, for a couple minutes. Watch what happens. Yeah.. I tend to buy canned spinach now.

Yeah.. once upon a time I read something someone said.. it was a father talking about "all the kids eat". And he said, it's nothing but white flour and cheese and a little tomato sauce. Then he proved it. Macaroni and cheese Cheese Pizza Grilled Cheese sandwiches Cheese Quesadilla Spaghetti O's (Any of the Chef boyardee) Ketchup and Catsup and more ketchup. Even Chicken McNuggets are about 1/3 flour, and they're eaten with... ketchup, catsup, and ketchup! What about breakfast? Frosted mini wheats? Yep.. wheat and milk (which is another way of saying flour and cheese). And for those in the south: biscuits and gravy (and at least how my MIL makes it, the gravy has almost no meat.. it's just flour, milk and some bacon or sausage grease). Sooo.. (there is a point!) If we eat such a limited palate of foods anyway, why not distill them down further and stop kidding ourselves. Here. You get a serving of wheat, and a serving of dairy. Fix-em how you like. But by doing it this way, it doesn't "hide" the fact that your go-to meals are actually the same 2-3 ingredients, repeated day in and out. If the diet demands a certain # of servings of fruits, nuts, beans, dairy, veggies, meat, fish, eggs, grains... every day.. then it incorporates ALL the food groups, which HAS to be better for us than living purely off of wheat, milk, and tomato sauce, ad nauseum.

I actually just looked to see what your stats are. Your starting weight was a bit higher than mine, but you are taller, so we started out pretty close. All the calculators indicate my end weight should be around 200lbs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I go lower, but have to be realistic too. How long was your preop diet?

My monthly totals: 1. 17lbs. 2. 13lbs. 3. 8lbs 4. 12lbs 5. 14lbs 6. 7lbs And I've lost 7 so far this month with 9 days to go.

Yeah.. average joe. But, keep in mind, Mr. Average Joe is counting every calorie (probably eating 1500) and going to the gym 6 hours a week. And for all that, he gets to see the scale move 8lbs a month. Average weight loss for bariatric patients seems to be about 15-25lbs the first month, and 8-14 pounds for the next 5 months, then less after that. A very common scenario I see here is women's starting weight 240-260lbs. They reach goal (or close) at about 7 months postop. From 7 to 12 months, they drop another 10 lbs (2 pounds per month). I noticed this because I'm 6 months out, and started 50lbs heavier than my surgi-buds. They are all getting very close to goal, even though I'm still 50lbs away. Over and over, I've seen we are in sync virtually to the pound! My losses began around 3lbs a week, but now has slowed down to about 1-1.5lbs a week. My calories have been higher from the start, and I don't exercise. So that is likely why I've kept pace with lightweights who are eating less and exercising. 13lbs in a month sounds an awful lot like 3lbs a week to me...

This is an amazing article! Pretty much everything you have laid out is new to me... or at least presented in a new way. Fabulous!

No, the sleeve isn't more complicated. Either your surgeon misspoke or you misheard. There IS risk of leaks during the first 2 months postop, but bypass also has its own set of risks. The complication rate during and right after surgery are about the same for sleeve and bypass. BUT, the further you get from surgery, the sleeve complications drop significantly lower than those of the bypass. (Pretty sure GERD is left out of this statistic).

Here's a post you made back in 2014: "Husband is getting bariatric surgery in 1 month and I'm pretty scared. He's 350 lbs, hasn't had sex with me since 2013, and out of the blue in January tells me he's been looking into getting "the sleeve". I thought it was a very good move, and was very supportive of him, but now I'm worried. I'd been reading up on the procedure, and over and over again, I hear that 85% of marriages fall apart in 2 years after surgery. The truth is, my husband's been very pushy, ever since we were engaged -- I hate conflict, and I let him have his way almost always. I'm now about 30-50 lbs overweight (I was 20 lbs overweight when we were married, and he was about 250 back then.) I'm feeling very bad about my half-hearted attempts to lose weight, but now I'm feeling frantic, like I need to be thin before he is, or I'll look like the frumpy old wife he needs to get rid of so he can enjoy his new life. I haven't lost weight, and feel that once he does start losing weight, his pushiness will get even worse, as his ego goes into overdrive and women start flirting with him (which I hear is very common after WLS, even when the patient is still mid-weight-loss) and he'll become a NIGHTMARE. I already feel ignored, like I'm not even female, let alone the woman he worked so hard to win over. All I am is a paycheck and a maid, and I fear he'll be grinding me down even more when he's flirting back and hitting on women in front of me. I've had boyfriends do that to me before in the past , and even when you do up and leave, the damage to your self-image doesn't ever really leave you. I thought my husband was different, and I'm afraid he won't be. I'm not looking forward to being thrown away while my husband enjoys his second adolescence." ----------------------------------- Here is an interesting article that may or may not apply... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201412/codependent-or-simply-dependent-what-s-the-big-difference%3Famp

Ermm.. well, you'll think I'm weird, but several years ago I taste tested butter. Do you know that most butter is disgusting? It tastes either like barn or refrigerator. But! I tried "Plugra" European style, and is so good and smooth without any off-flavors. (Probably horrible for me..). Barn..reminds me of goat cheese....blech! You know what causes barn flavor in grassfed dairy products? I don't either, but I suspect it's to do with the omega 3 content. Polyunsaturates are highly susceptable to becoming rancid, and so ... yeah.. that's my theory.

You are a "light weight", and can expect to lose more slowly than a heavier person. I weigh about what you do now, and am losing only about a pound a week. (I started out 60 pounds heavier than you, and am 6 months postop). As we get smaller, our bodies don't have to work as hard feeding the fat and carrying it around. Weight loss slows down.

Yes, the sleeve does pose high risk when it comes to GERD. And a bypass is high risk in a smoker. Let's hope y'all can be a team, regardless of surgical status.

Sure.. umm..I love taste tests.. my favorite type! Most recently it was for expensive brands of water. Figi and Evian are da bomb..