Berry78

So glad to hear you are actively looking for a fix and that your bloodwork is good. Good luck with Hopkins and the place in Annapolis!

I never got the hang of chopsticks.. (stab a grain of rice, anyone?!) Shoot, should have done that preop, wouldn't have needed surgery! Lol! I really do think these are great ideas though.. LOVE my little dishes and flatware...

A LOT of people have this problem with the big incision. It's to do with the stitch on a nerve. Can last for 6 weeks. But, in case that isn't the problem here, if the pain becomes unbearable or you develop a fever, be sure to go to the ER.

Lol, I KNEW it would come across that way! Not swimming specifically.. exercise combined with low calories. Increases cortisol, which makes you retain water. When you take a break, cortisol levels drop, releasing the fluid retention.

Fat floats on muscle, so what? That's why we're all here.. to flush the floaters. Pixie, you are doing fabulously! I think those last few pounds have got to be the worst! Wear plenty of compression, and once you've spent the money on that, you'll want to get your use out of it .. which means any potential delay in surgery isn't such a bad thing. After the swelling from the future surgery goes down you will likely need smaller clothing. Which means more money. See? It's all how you look at things...

3 pounds a week from week 2-23. Umm.. nothing. You are losing fat and retaining water. Take a 2 day break from swimming and eat more calories for a couple days and watch the weight pour off. Then get back to it because your current routine is losing the inches.

It may be time to switch up what you are drinking. Our tastes keep changing, so it could be that. Try different flavors and temperatures. Keep an eye on it though because 6-9 weeks is the worst time for strictures. Since you are eating ok, I don't think strictures are your problem.

Fleet enemas are good for getting things moving immediately. Miralax or milk of magnesia are good to add daily until you are on a regular diet. Do NOT add fiber until you are able to meet/exceed fluid goals every day. Fiber can block you up if there isn't enough water to flush it through. If/when you are allowed to have a spinach smoothie each day, those help me. Straining productively isn't going to hurt you. If you strain and nothing happens, then don't keep at it. (For example, the enema will create the need to strain, but things are moving.. so it's ok.) The first couple weeks postop we all need to be pretty agressive with this. At first, the intestines can take 3 days to wake up from anaesthesia. Then we don't have enough water on board, and add pain meds and protein shakes, and it's a veritable firestorm. I used enemas every other day from 5 days postop until 21 days postop. Didn't hurt a thing (no long term dependency or anything), and kept things moving. My GI doc was impressed by my proactivity.

Yup, I have stretchy 100lb (or more!) weight range pants too! Mine don't have the dangling crotch though.. so I'm betting I'll get 150lbs out of them. Forest Gump would be proud!

Welcome! Basically the point of a liver-shrink diet is to make surgery safer for you. The best way to make this happen is to go on a very strict diet for a period of time before surgery. The diet needs to be very low carbohydrate and very low fat. Pretty much just protein and non-starchy vegetables (no fat added to the veggies). Using the protein powder is a good idea for saving money. Mixing the powder into 8oz skim milk twice a day is the simplest way to make your shakes. You can also blend it up with skim milk and ice. Sugar free flavoring syrups (like you'd add to coffee) can add flavor. This is a good time to get used to reading labels. Look at calories, fat, carbohydrate, and protein content. You are learning skills now that will help you for the rest of your life. Good luck!

Scar tissue is as variable as the patient. But it does pose problems for a surgeon. You should be prepared to have a drain when you wake up. Occasionally scar tissue can be so bad as to make surgery impossible, or the surgeon can't do a more involved procedure. (Have to do sleeve instead of bypass). Those are kinda worse-case scenarios though.. chances are very good that you won't have issues.

9/8: 221lbs.

The most common reason to talk about the "start weight" is to figure out the goal weight post op. When you go under the knife, your body has one set point, and when you wake up it has another. So, to figure out what your preop set point is/was.. it's the weight that you were holding steady before the preop diet. Doesn't matter if the preop diet was 2 days long or 6 months long. There is no way to tell for sure what your postop set point is until you get there. But, on average, if a sleeve patient is 100lbs overweight before the preop diet, then he should expect to lose around 65lbs from that weight. If he keeps working at it, he can lose more, but it won't necessarily be easy. My weight before the preop diet was 305. 65% loss puts me at 210lbs. So that is my first goal. If I go below that, great! (After all, who wants to be average?). But to know that just because I had surgery, that 150lbs isn't guaranteed puts my head in the right space.

Jess.. yep, pretty much For whatever reason, neither surgery gets all patients down to a normal BMI, and it's not because the patients necessarily stray from the program. Average loss for the sleeve is 65% of excess body weight. The bypass is 70%. That pound a year that people put on is mostly due to falling RMRs and keeping calories the same. "I don't understand where that 5#s came from, doc. I haven't changed anything!" Menopause knocks ladies' caloric requirements way down too. The oft-quoted "2000 calorie diet" isn't helping. My 74 year old MIL probably thinks she's supposed to eat that many calories. Try 1200! And to lose weight, she needs to knock it down even more.

What you are experiencing isn't right, but you do have some choices. Have you had any tests to see why you are having these problems? If not, and your surgeon isn't willing to look into it, then you'll need to look elsewhere. Your regular family doc can refer you to a gastroenterologist. The GI doc can order tests. There is also the possibility of switching bariatric doctors. There is a program in Annapolis that you could check out. (I don't know anything about it.. just that it is there). If things become an emergency, like you can't drink, then you can go to the emergency room at Hopkins. Always choose an ER of a hospital that has bariatric surgeons so you have the chance of seeing one of them. Not saying you will.. but at least the possibility exists. Physical therapy is nice, but if you can't keep down food, that is your problem, and exercise won't fix it. Please be proactive getting some help. Don't wait so long that it becomes a life-or-death situation.

I know all about the lingering cough.. about 6 weeks seems to be the magic # for that.. Keeping my fingers crossed for you that you'll be golden for surgery.

Hey, I just saw you're in Easton. I lived there for a few years and graduated from Easton High! I live in Western Maryland now (since '99). Where did you get surgery done?

Thanks Fluffy! I learned something just now, too!

I totally "get" not wanting to count every little thing every day. I really do! This is why it's a good idea to have these in depth conversations NOW, so you can figure out how to plan out your day so that you don't have to plan out your days to come. Double up on your shakes, then forget it. It's not like you have to worry about getting TOO much protein from your food choices.

Your nut may be used to bypass patients that can only eat 800 calories. Calories DO matter postop. Case in point, a patient right after surgery on tpo (IV nutrition).. 2000 calories "forcefed" into the vein, and patient didn't lose significant weight. My theory as to why bypass patients lose for a year and sleeve patients lose for 18 months: Picture a bypass patient and a sleeve patient (with identical stats) at the start of a race. They share the start line, but each have individual finish lines.. the bypass patients' is a few steps further from the start line. The sleeve patient runs at 5mph, and the bypass patient runs at 8mph. Even though the bypass patient has further to go, (s)he still makes it to the finish line first. But, like I said before.. you can pass your body's "finish line" through continued work (you CAN keep losing for more than a year...it just becomes harder).

Ooooooohhhhhhhh... Wine! Lol! Totally makes sense! 1 glass of wine isn't a bad thing. You don't want to drink more than that, though. If alcohol is causing a problem for you, please speak with your doctor.

I got distracted by the counting protein issue.. I actually got back on here to say I looked up more about soy, and I'm willing to go back on what I said. The studies where soy was linked with causing problems were flawed (imho), so eating moderate amounts of non-gmo soy in tofu or plain bean form shouldn't be a problem. I feel the same way about processed soy as I do about other processed proteins... which is to say, "to each his own" .. figure out what is right for YOU.

I'm concerned to hear you say this. Veg heads HAVE to pay attention. If a simple source of protein is included daily, then the day to day food plan isn't necessary. Drink 2 (30g) protein shakes a day and the rest of the time you can eat grains, fruit, and salad without having to think about it. Or 1 protein shake and 7oz tofu every day. But the idea of not counting is for those with normally sized stomachs. They can eat 3 or 4 pounds of food a day... and their natural appetites will make them hungry and do so. I can eat 4oz at a time. 4 meals makes 1 pound. In a year or two, I'll eat 8oz at a time.. 4 meals makes 2lbs. 2 pounds of beans or tofu has 64g of protein. 1 pound of beans or tofu has 32g protein. I have found zero sources that indicate it's ok for an average height female to consume fewer than 46g of protein a day. Which is 1.5 pounds of beans.. more than I can eat in a day. Granted, nuts are a more concentrated source, so adding a couple ounces of nuts decreases the amount of beans required. But if you fill up on lettuce, spinach, apples, tomatoes, and potatoes.. and avoid protein shakes.. it.just.won't.work.

I've been eating about a pound of food a day since 12 weeks postop. (I'm over 5 months out now). It is split up into a LOT of little meals. Sometimes I get it up to a pound and a half if I'm extra hungry. (The extra is veggies). I still eat eggs, dairy, and meat .. so the veg. lifestyle is all theoretical for me at this point.. still in the research phase. If/when I feel that it truly IS the best course for me, I'll make the switch.

Ok, first off, thank you very much for making this post. It got me to go look up tofu and seitan.. and those led me to tempeh. I'm dismayed that tofu has so little protein. It has the same amount of protein as straight up beans and lentils, but being an unfermented soy product, there are potential health issues with it. Seitan is an extremely concentrated source of protein.. but it is wheat gluten. Gluten is a highly allergenic type of protein, and frequent over-exposure could, in theory, trigger allergy where none existed before. Tempeh is apparently where its at. It is fermented soy, which is apparently safer than unfermented, and it is concentrated.. about twice the protein as that of beans and lentils. Fish, of course, is concentrated protein as well. On days you eat 4oz of fish, you simply add a cup of lentils and 2oz of nuts, and you've met your requirements for the day. What? Room for leafy veggies??! Amazing! Lol. Tempeh doesn't have quite the protein of fish, so you'll need 1.5 cups lentils and 2oz nuts. Still not too bad.