MMME

I had bypass, not sleeve but I had almost no pain at all. I was only ever on paracetamol (which is the Australian version of Tylenol) in hospital and nothing when I got home 2 days later. The surgeon prescribed tramadol for me but I didn't even pick it up from the pharmacy. Fingers crossed you get through pain free as well. And if not, then just remember it's short term pain for the rest of your life being healthier. Good luck.

I was unable to tolerate whey protein as well. My fiance's ex wife (we're friends, oddly enough) had bypass 3 months before I did and she recommended Peptipro gelatin. I'm not sure if you can get it in Ohio, but I order it online here in Australia. It's not whey, but it's easier to digest for me. It dissolves completely in water and no gluggy feel like whey powders.

Exactly! I have a card from my surgeon saying that because of a medical issue my stomach size has been drastically reduced and it would be appreciated if restaurants would take that into consideration by offering small portions. We were in Canada a couple of weeks ago (I live in Australia) and not a single restaurant would honour it. No siree Bob! You'll order the regular sized main course and either not eat it or take it with you - neither were an option unfortunately. You can't really take food back to a hotel for eating later if there's no fridge to put it in. I also found a lot of the choices on the children's menu to be either carb heavy or deep fried. Two very big no nos for bypass as both cause me dumping.

My out of pocket was close to $9000 all up but I accessed my super for about $6000 of it. That figure includes band removal (anaesthetist fee, hospital excess of $500), pre-op Optifast, RnY anaesthetist fee, surgeon fees, prescriptions, pathology and dietician. My post op care is all bulk billed by my surgeon's office. I saw him at week 1 and week 4, but from then on I will be seeing the bariatric GP who works exclusively with the surgeon's patients for aftercare. I should get back another $1000 or so from Medibank, so after rebates from Medicare and Medibank I'll be out about $1000 total.

After surgery your surgeon will give you a receipt. Take it to Medicare and they will fix you up. I had no idea about it until a friend who had the same told me.

I don't meet the public standard and got back $1175. I'm over 55 so no public list for me.

It depends on the surgeon how much gap you'll have. Mine was about 7000 but I could have paid less if I went with a different surgeon. I really wanted Mr Dolan, so I didn't mind paying. My anaesthetist was $500 but my Medibank will reimburse that. As for Medicare, after your surgery you will get a receipt from the surgeon and anaesthetist. Take them to your local Medicare office and they will do a form to get back whatever you're eligible for.

Hi Mikeyy. I'm just north of Perth and had RnY on 26 September. I have Medibank which paid for my hospital charges but I applied to use some of my super for the surgeon and anaesthetist's gap. After surgery I claimed back about $1100 from Medicare and I think I can get some back from Medibank if I send in receipts. So far, 7.5 weeks in I've lost 17 kg. RnY is by far the best thing I've ever done.

Almost 0 pain here. I had 6 hourly paracetamol (Tylenol) the first day but nothing after.

I came home from hospital with a really nasty cold. Less than a week later I had shingles on the right side of my face and inside my right nostril. Ouch is all I can say.

I had that too at first. I think it's a combo of gas and your little pouch saying stop. Definitely take it easy with portions. I could only fit in about 1/3 a small yogurt at first, but 5 weeks in I can eat almost a whole one.

I bought a Wii Fit a few years ago. It's great for those crappy rainy days or when it's too hot to be outside. I also bought a wind trainer for my bike and can ride it undercover of my patio if I feel like riding. I'm lucky that where I live there's a park across the street from my house with all kinds of free exercise equipment provided by the local council. My partner and I go there very early in the morning (before the sun makes it hot and the snakes come out - here in Western Australia it's spring, so we have baby snakes at this time of year in bushland).

Originally Southern Ontario but now living about an hour north of Perth Western Australia.

So, I seem to be stuck. I have not lost any weight for over 10 days (100g up, 100 down, 200 up, 200 down). I'm eating ok, trying to drink as much as I can and taking my vitamins. I walk to work from the train, which is about 3/4 mile each way. I'm trying to walk more during the day, but I just cannot make the scale budge. I know I'm losing something because my clothes are looser now. I'm also having a lot of trouble with nausea. I tried to eat a scrambled egg on Sunday and it came straight back up. Last night I tried well cooked cauliflower and some roast chicken breast with sauce and I promptly vomited that too. Knowing that I was still empty I tried about an hour later to have a slice of cheese which I had been able to tolerate a few days ago. Nope, I immediately felt extremely nauseous and alternating hot/cold. I feel like I'm pregnant with morning sicknes, but trust me, if I was we'd be calling the Vatican because it would be a miracle! I'm due to fly to Canada (I live in Australia) on Friday and I really don't want to be sick for 2 weeks over there. Unfortunately I can't change my travel plans either. Any suggestions from you lovely people how to get back on track? Thanks

I love to bake too. About 2 years ago I started a small cake business so now I get my "fix" of baking but I sell it or give it away. My workmates love Mondays and when my partner is on afternoons because they get all the goodies I've made and not eaten now! I generally bake on weekends or when I'm home alone in the evenings and bored. OP, I really think you're doing the right thing by postponing for now and seeing a therapist to come to terms with your food addiction. Weight loss surgery is a very big life changing decision and one not to take lightly. I do hope the therapy works for you and you're able to break free from unhealthy habits.

Me too. I tried a scrambled egg for breakfast. Big mistake! It came right back up I have managed to keep soup and all bran down. And last night I tried some tinned peaches.

I haven't yet but I have a recipe for a soup that I love so I'll make a pot of that tonight. I simply have no interest in eating anything I might try going back to blended and liquids again for a few days to see if that sparks an interest in food. It's just really odd to me, that for over 40 years I've been addicted to food but it's like I'm not only cured of the addiction but the "drug" I used to love repulses me now. I'm sure it's just a phase, but I really don't want to make myself ill by not eating anything. So... soup, yogurt and some I'll try some beans. Thanks very much for your suggestions. My partner tries to help but he just doesn't get the fact that my tastebuds have changed so dramatically in the past month that everything tastes bad. I'm even off coffee!

Not that just sounds wrong :O

Ok, I'm now 30 days post op and have completely lost the will to eat anything. This morning while I was looking for what to take to work every option just made me feel ill. I'm forcing down my daily All Bran (30 g) with milk but only because if I don't eat it every day I'll get bunged up and that's horrible. I know I'll get malnourished if I don't eat, but there is nothing that I see that I actually can face eating. The thought of an egg makes me gag, the chicken breast I tried last night made me nauseous, the tuna with mayo yesterday lunch made me nauseous, sweet potato (my favourite thing!) just tasted horrible. I don't know what to do....Any ideas anyone? Oh, and my weight loss has stalled. For the last week I have stayed within 100 g. 97.4, 97.3, 97.4

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/06/10/0008-5472.CAN-10-3973.full-text.pdf (The journal article is titled "A Low Carbohydrate, High Protein Diet Slows Tumor Growth and Prevents Cancer Initiation") I prefer to get my information from reputable sources. Like the American Association for Cancer Research. Where they have, you know, real researchers whose sole job is cancer research.

When I was allowed to eat egg I hard boiled it and added some non-fat Greek yogurt to make an egg salad kind of thing. Just mash it up well and chew, chew and then chew again. I'm struggling with water and protein too 4 weeks out. I'm managing about 1 litre but I'm just not hungry so having a hard time with the protein thing. I cannot get past the gag reflex with protein shakes so that's out. However my partner's ex-wife (we're friends and she's 8 weeks ahead of me with RNY -even the same surgeon!) gave me some pure unflavoured non-gluggy gelatin based protein that I've been adding to my supper, so that has to be helping. It's called Peptipro gelatin. It's from Australia so I'm not sure if they deliver to the US but you should be able to find something similar online.

I'm headed to Canada in 10 days. If I can find room in my suitcase I'll bring you back some and send it over. I have a list of stuff to bring back that we can't get here.... Crystal Lite, chewable pregnancy vitamins (my sister has been on them for 7 years post RNY), cheap clothes that don't look like K-Mart $3 t-shirts.

I'm in Perth. Also banded in 2009 and revised to RNY on 26 September. Medibank covered most of it, but I still had a $7500 gap (accessed my super for it) and Medicare paid $1175 back. I'm waiting until tomorrow to go to Medibank and claim back the things that Medicare don't cover (anaesthetist fee, labs, etc). Once I get to a regular diet my dietician said I can eat just about anything I want, so long as it's low carb and has lots of protein. My sister had RNY in Canada 7 years ago and she's done great. She's lost about 40 kg and kept if off. She eats everything! When she was over visiting me in April she insisted we get pork belly and she wanted lamb (things they just don't do where I'm from :D)

I'm 3 weeks post op and my surgeon said walking and swimming this week then I can do more physical stuff starting next week. He said after 6 weeks I can start doing weights and go to the gym. I'm really lucky that my insurance covers rehab and physio so I'm starting pilates this week and the place I'm going has put it down as post operative rehabilitation/physio so I can claim some of the money back on my insurance. We've got a gym at the hospital where I work, so thankfully that's only $2/week.

I had my gastric band put in in 2009 and lost 41 kg (90 lbs) over about 18 months. I then had abdominoplasty in 2012 to get rid of 5 more kg (11 lbs) of skin. Once the surgeon took the fluid out of the band for surgery it was stuffed! I could never get just the right amount of fluid in - 3.5 ml and I couldn't swallow even water, 3.25 ml and I was starving. As a result I ended up gaining back 32 kg slowly over the last 6 years. I finally got fed up of feeling tired and fat and in pain all the time with bad knees, so asked my bariatric surgeon what we could do about it. He suggested revision to RNY, and I trust him implicitly, so said ok. I had my band removed on July 17th and it was alright. I was only in overnight and like Matt he used the same incision points as my original surgery so no new scars (not that anyone looks at my belly anyway ). I did have a lot of post op shoulder tip pain, but that went away very quickly. I'm also very allergic to any kind of tape and developed a terrible blistered rash under the OpSite he used over the incisions. The only other downside was that I was able to eat anything I wanted and in large portions. I gained another 6 kg before my RNY on 26 September. The RNY surgery was super easy. I was admitted at 6:30 am, taken to the OR at 7:30 and back in my room and wide awake at noon. I asked the nurse doing my obs if I could get up to go to the toilet and she said I could so I took myself for a walk around the ward before getting back into bed. I had absolutely no pain with any part of the surgery. He used Dermabond glue instead of bandages or Steri-Strips and it's pretty much all fallen off now. I think the worst part was having the drain removed 2 days post op. I was only in hospital for 2 nights, which suited me fine. I think people recover better at home where they can lie in their own bed, not be woken up every 2 hours for someone to check blood pressure and such. I did go home with a terrible head cold (that I think my partner gave me) and developed shingles on the side of my face and up my nose, but honestly I'm sure that was a side effect of my body having to try to heal itself from the surgery and then the head/chest cold on top. I'm now 3 weeks out from the RNY and could not be more happy with my decision. I'm down 2 dress sizes and the pain in my knees is so much better.