Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

Hi there @numinousvessel I had open surgery 5 weeks ago. Actually it was pretty ok. I spent a bit more time in hospital than my surgery buddies, 5 days, but the recovery was swift. I was up and walking the next day, and a bit more every day. Today my regimen is back to pre-surgery, I am back at work. One plus side - you don’t get the nasty gas pain I vividly remember from my gastric band laparoscopic surgery! Feel free to pm me for a chat, or ask here...

Me too. I worry about this still - last night, craving “a treat” I had 4 cherry tomatoes. When you aren’t eating sweets, these are deliciously sweet and tasty (cold from the fridge - it was 95 degrees here yesterday!) Can I be a person who has cherry tomatoes for treats, instead of a bag of crisps or a tub of ice cream? Well, not choice. I now have this surgery, my new tool...

Hi there cccolins - how long since your op? I have found I can eat pretty much anything that isn’t too sweet - except egg! Odd because it is so goopy, it looks like it should slide right in - but no! As for milk, it is such a good protein source, shame to lose it. One thought - try it at a couple of different temperatures. I hurt with cold liquid from the fridge, but am much better if it is room temperature. best of luck!

That sounds really hard - it is a possibility I am sure many of us worry about pre-surgery. I am glad you have your faith to help you through. Take care and remember, it will pass...

Oh man, you look amazing! Thanks for these - when I get sick of ‘protein first’ eating and crave crisps or sweets, I pull out before and after pics here to remind me of why I am on this journey...

Well, fingers crossed for you! I am nearly 5 weeks post op - the first three days were definitely the hardest so hopefully you are set, ready to watch those pounds slide off, your knees being less sore, nicer clothes fitting, and being complimented on how healthy you are looking! All the best for a fab 2018

Oh no! I agree - the study is ‘compelling’. I bet that manufactured sugar isn’t listed as an ingredient anywhere, on any labelling, either. Man, we humans d**k with stuff, with so little appreciation of or care about long term consequences...

Hi there - took me a while too!! Click on your profile name up there on the right, and chose “my surgery”. One of the options then is Progress (just order the grey rectangle which says Surgery Information, near the top on the left hand side) and viola!

Actually I thought Creekimp’s post was fine. Read the original post again. The OP wasn’t asking anything how to find the Lord, or about god, Christianity, or being converted, so the very strong “Christianity is the answer for you” posts were interesting, but Creekimks “I don’t think Christianity makes any sense” is just as acceptable. She wasn’t mean, hurtful - she just said it might not be God that is the answer. That is ok - this isn’t a Christian-conversion forum or website! And after all, Christianity is strong enough to withstand a little yes/no debate! Back to you, crazy goose. There are GREAT men out there, and bad ones. Just as there are great and bad women. In my experience (and my work history includes trauma counselling, I am a psychologist) bad men zero in on vulnerable women. You have made HUGE progress and I am really impressed with your journey. You clearly have great inner strength, so be proud!! Remind yourself how wonderfully you are doing. As you continue to grow your self esteem and your confidence, in my experience you will find that the men who are attracted to are less likely to be the sort of men who exist by exploiting lovely, low self esteem, vulnerable women. Have you ever had a counsellor or therapist, crazygoose? You might find this helps you bed in the huge gains you have made, and help plot your ongoing growth. I wish you all the best on your inner growth (and outer shrinkage!!) journey. You are amazing. Be proud. xxx

Four days later? Well that might be pushing it! From my experience, what the Dr said and reading here, the two issues are gas pain (like the band surgery - they pump gas in to separate your organs) which seems to be highly variable in intensity, and fatigue. I think the bypass is more fatiguing - with the band, when they installed mine it wasn’t very inflated, so I could eat normally pretty quickly. With the bypass, a week in I was still struggling to drink enough clear liquid (water, clear broth) because of the swelling of the newly cut stomach - which means I was very tired... I am a fast healer. Was eating yoghurt, cottage cheese, soft food within a week. That helped the energy levels noticeably. Be careful with yourself my friend. Bypass surgery did ‘feel’ more major for recovery...

I wish I had your discipline! Good on you.

I wish I could!! We don’t have premier protein in New Zealand - I went online, and can get 12 of those wee 330ml cartons for $1199! (About US$900! They say it is the postage!!) I have found this - I have 1/2 a bottle each morning, which gives me 15g protein and one shot of coffee/caffeine to start the day... not too sweet, so that is good, but not exactly delicious...

It is 9 days since my RNY procedure. (A bit unusual because I had open surgery and also had a gastric band removed.) After the surgery? Well, it iwa a brutal surgery because they used a rib spreader to give maximum easy access, and an incision from rib center down to tummy button. The wound felt ok, but my chest felt like I had been kicked in the chest by a horse. (My family were bemused as I inadvertently txted them all that it felt like I had been licked in the chest by a horse, and they couldn’t understand if that was good or bad!) The joy of open surgery - no gas pain! Slept rest of day 1 and much of day 2. Self pump morphine allowed a dose every 5 mins, but needed way less. Walked corridor 4 times on day 2. Day 3 30ml (medicine cup) or water an hour. Diarrhoea begins - daily once or twice. Don’t trust a fart!. Last morphine dose 10am. Short walk every 2 hours. Day 4 60ml hourly in the morning, 90ml afternoon. Lear broth for dinner with a tablespoon of jelly for after. Slightly longer walk. Day 5 Tablespoon of purée fish for lunch, over 30mins - and when it goes down, off home (to a big city hotel). Hooray. Nice, peaceful home, where no one wakes me up every three hours to take my blood pressure! Sleeping a bit uncomfortable, need a pillow ‘under’ my tummy to sleep on my side. Now I am on day 9. Diarrhoea stopped day 7 and quite normal now. I am going for gentle walks maybe 300 yards/metres but they do quickly tire me out. Can sleep on my side with near comfort now. Eating: 3 teaspoons yoghurt for breakfast, slow - 15-20 mins. 3 teaspoons cottage cheese with pesto/mild chilli/flavour for lunch, also over 15-20 mins. Protein soup from BariatricPal pal for dinner - 8oz over 1/2-3/4 hour. In between, water (20% Apple juice cos I hate water) constantly, and 1/4 chai latte in a cafe today made me feel like a million dollars! About 250 -300 calories, 30-40g protein and I am up to 6 cups fluid today. Not enough hours to get in All the food and the liquid! Eating speed is hard to judge - I was told to expect a lump in my chest if I ate too much or too fast, but don’t get that. So just trying to be sensible - if I AM too fast I get mild sharp tummy pain about an hour later. No regrets so far - really manageable surgery. Not half as rough as a hysterectomy!! No weighing yet - till I go home on Boxing Day...

Isn’t there some kind of law against calling a teddy bear ‘kinda ugly’? 🤣🤣🤣

I made a decision to stay away from ice cream. 😥 I have noticed in my month since surgery, that the less sweet stuff I eat, when I do (like a sweet protein drink) I find the sweetness overbearing. For me I think I am better trained to not want sweet, trying to break the sweetness addiction. Protein bars - there are some great ones. Quest bars ar really good - I took another member’s advice, so cut one into small chunks and put in a plastic bag, and bring out a bit as a treat during the day...

Fantastic. Life is better when our food looks like normal healthy food. I made cauliflower fritters last night with egg, almond flour, grated/blitzed cauli and parmesan. Tasted lovely but I couldn’t get it into my new tummy. First maybe three mouthfuls (maybe 1/2 fritter) too fast and that was it! Sort of a lump at the bottom of my throat for 3/4 hour. Good low-calorie dinner!! Still, my other half polished off the other six and loved them!

“Grilled paddock”? That is one whole lot of greens!!🤣😂🤣 Look forward to hearing how it went. It is the middle of a long, hot, dry summer here in New Zealand. At least my recouperation gets to be peppered with endless sitting in the sun, drinking my cold water!

That would explain you slower and frustrating weight loss rate - I am peeing exactly as before - maybe a little more since I drink more. I have noticed if I have a salty food day (lots of feta or salty stuff) I will put on weight overnight, not lose. Yep, call your doc. How many calories a day? I am using myfitnesspal to track - 600 but edging up to 700 for me...

I have made a decision to stop thinking about being on “a diet” and instead for the rest of my life I will be paying attention to “my diet”. Cute semantics, but for me a diet is temporary. My diet is permanent. Because I have an addiction, I anticipate it may be some time before my diet is just an effortless, habitual series of mostly good choices. Maybe not but I know me and the ways I deceive myself to justify potato crisps and dip. “I will eat less/exercise more/exercise at all tomorrow”. With my diet now, attention to protein. Protein first. From my surgeon this is the only rule for ever. Every meal, start with protein. For two of my three meals this can not be slider food like a protein shake, but chewed protein. After that, I will make choices. I must say, I am loving the hummus, crisp veggies, and real flavours of real food, and my partner has lost a couple of kilos because of my cooking choices (I am doing all the cooking because I am still off work). No takeaways not (too hard to do the ‘protein first thing’) - that alone is an important part of my diet these days...

PS another pound down overnight, and another old ring back onto its ‘correct’ bigger finger, so SOMETHING is working!!!

I had vegetables on day 4 - before I left the hospital! Broccoli cooked until it was well dead, then mashed. Very nasty. My surgeon has you eating that and meat (steamed fish, mashed) to check tolerances, before we leave his care. Not a big quantity, maybe 25g. So for lunch today, I will have 55g (half a packet) of lemon, sesame and dill tuna with maybe 10 sliced and steamed baby spinach leaves stirred through. I will have maybe two slices of red bell pepper with it, for crunch, and maybe some cubed cucumber. Not much -50g tuna fills me up pretty much. I also wonder if it is an after effect of the band, not having those ‘feedback loops’ from your tummy saying you are full. And maybe you and I will have to be particularly careful of slider foods like yoghurt that will slide right through. As if I was EVER any good at eating rules!!!! But this is my last tool in the line, so... I have committed for the rest of my life to one easy rule. Protein first. And then other stuff if I have room. Like 1/4 diced plum with my weetbix and yoghurt breakfast! There are other rules that I imagine I might find harder to keep 24/7 forever. I have tried and failed at so many diets! But that one, non-negotiable. Do you have to chew until food disappears? I try to remember to, but if I swallow a chickpea sized chunk (cos I am pre cutting stuff before my mouth, because I get distracted from chewing occasionally) it just goes down fine...

The soups were a life saver! So many protein powers are way way too sickly sweet - I loved the savoury soups. I also got variety packs...

Thanks THMommy - sometimes you just write and it feels a bit into the void, you know! And I read so much about people at 3, 4, 6 weeks struggling with purée, and I eat a lentil patty no problem, so I think my experience is unique, and useless for many folk here! So thanks! I did wonder if my surgeon cut me open, took the band out and sewed me up. But then at about week 3, I gave in and had a tiny portion of iced Christmas cake, home made and given as a gift by my boss (the perils of not telling your work about the surgery!) 5 minutes later I had a dumping episode - 45mins of retching, heart racing, bright red and overheated. Never again. But clearly, I had the surgery! At week 3 (ie a week ago) I started eating a midday meal of chicken, fish, beef chilli. Small amounts (50grams) fill me very quickly where water, yoghurt, cottage cheese don’t - do you get that too? I am getting most days 50g protein, but still struggling to get over 600-700 calories in. Have just introduced mid morning and mid afternoon snack to assist. Water - if I forget and take a gulp or two - no problem. But I try not to. Tell me about your diet?

My RNY was done by open surgery - cut from navel up to rib cage, ribs spread apart, when whole 9 yards. (complications from previous gastric band). So - your surgical worst-case scenario basically! Within 2 weeks I was happily walking, but still fatigued very easily. 4 weeks and I feel like normal, no more fatigue, but lifting weights isn’t allowed until 6 weeks.

Hi Brenda - I am 4 weeks out, and eating salad. I do steam spinach quickly or else the leaves stitch a little, but cucumber, bell peppers, zucchini, marrow, tomatoes - good chew and they are good. Not great volumes post surgery - once I eat my protein there isn’t huge room left!