bodycando

Yes, I waited about 18 months after surgery and then got pregnant right away.

I had an IUD (Mirena) when I had my surgery and didn’t personally have any pregnancy scares. Congrats OP if you aren’t pregnant—but if you’re not perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise. It’ll give you more time to lose weight and your future bb better conditions to grow, the further out you are from surgery.

I weigh at the same time every day (morning before breakfast, after tea). Also always naked. Sometimes I don’t remember to weigh myself so it’s sometimes more like 3-4 times a week. My weight has stabilized in the last six months though.

I’m a year and a half out from surgery and my doctor and I are very happy with my weight loss. I am also very happily pregnant (in my first trimester) and so far have had great medical care. I spoke with my bariatric nutritionist today and she mentioned that I should absolutely not lose any more weight and should work on eating more, ideally seven eating moments per day, gaining 15-25 lbs over the course of my pregnancy. I’m running 5k 3-4 times per week and have been continually, slowly naturally losing weight. I told her this and she said to just eat more so I would gain more weight. In hindsight I feel a bit like I wasn’t totally done losing weight. The shift from being focused on weight loss to gaining weight is unexpectedly hard to make, but it course I follow my doctors instructions to a T. Anyone have similar experiences with struggling to gain weight during pregnancy?

I know this is meant well but I found this painful to read. I’m 11 mo out from my surgery and have lost noticeably a lot of weight (~115 lbs) and people have no problem disparaging my looks from the recent past. I even remember my GP saying before my surgery “let’s hope I won’t recognize you next time I see you!” I just don’t find this a nice sentiment because I loved and accepted myself the way I looked when I was bigger and think that everyone should be taken seriously even when they are very overweight. The idea that you look crazy and shouldn’t be taken seriously as an overweight person, and that you look smarter when you’re thin, goes to show how much society pressures us to intertwine feelings of self-worth that are not related to our weight. Anyway with that said, congrats on your journey @RussT ! It’s really great to have someone so successful with lifestyle changes check in at the 3-year mark as I’m often hearing that restriction and maintenance are more difficult after 2 years.

Really fantastic to see you thriving and happy!

Couldn't agree more. I actually didn't feel super comfortable with my surgeon (mostly because I had no direct contact with him before the day of the surgery, and the surgeon actually switched a few days before). If you feel confident in the hands of your surgeon I think that's a good and even strong sign. There will be so many strange feelings and mysterious symptoms that come throughout the various stages of recovery, and you will want to have full confidence in your surgery experience when encountering them. And like @GreenTealael already said, surgery might give you a perspective that makes you not sweat the small stuff. I just went on my first vacation since surgery (10 months and 100 lbs ago) and what I noticed is that 1.) no one cared what I looked like or even really noticed me at all and 2.) everyone else is also a little loose/saggy/scarred themselves. Hope this helps your decision making.

That’s insane that they dislocated your hip during surgery! Was the surgeon leaning on your hip or something?! And thanks for sharing your experience—did you have to make any major diet modifications after surgery? How long did it take you to get back to normal?

Thanks everyone, I have a pre-op appointment for next week! I hadn’t thought of it being dangerous or the risk of infection with waiting—good to hear that it was an easy decision for everyone.

Hi all, 115 pounds down and some pesky cholesterol stones have wreaked havoc in my life! There are many of you who have had your gallbladders removed due to gallstones. Please share your experience here! Background: I’m not getting a lot of clear information from my doctor about what to expect from removal, just assurances that it’s a very easy surgery. Given my last surgery (gastric sleeve) wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, I would love to hear your experiences with removal. Did you immediately choose for removal? Anyone here choose to control their stones through diet modifications or take a “wait and see” approach? After getting an attack during a work meeting in Korea 😅 I’m realizing removal is probably my best bet. I’m having 1-4 attacks per week for the last three weeks.

Same story here, in 2015 I realized I was relying too much on consuming things (both food and alcohol) for stress relief and immediately signed up for a gym membership, eventually sought out counseling, and a year later quit drinking on my own accord. My stress levels were out of control (mostly money-related) and through counseling I was able to set up a life for myself with more stability. This included quitting drinking and eating for pleasure/nostalgia. This has been a huge challenge for me—and not taking on too much work continues to be challenging—but I feel I’m better equipped now to know when I’m dipping into the stress danger zone and notice my eating behaviors change. I think with alcohol it’s very easy for us to deny problems that are really there because it’s socially acceptable (or even expected) to drink in so many occasions. For me I know it’s best to just avoid it entirely because I can skip back into denial quite quickly. Best of luck with everyone dealing with this.

I’m 10+ months out and when I had surgery I was not anticipating being in so much pain (mostly because of what I’d heard from others) and I was completely blindsided from the extreme pain when I woke up. It took me a month to get back to work, and even then I built up my hours. I live in the Netherlands though so I *could* do that an still get my salary. In hindsight I’m really glad I took it slow. Even in the third week I was so weak and barely able to walk long distances.... good luck with your recovery.

Tylenol with codeine but only for rare/extreme pain. For everyday aches and pains I tough it out or take regular Tylenol.

Haha you've got a point! I'm going to give this some thought and potentially start tracking soon. One question--do you use measurement cups or a kitchen scale or both? I live in Europe and the way we track everything is metric / with a kitchen scale, which feels *quite* exact.

It's good to hear that this is also working for you too--I was also never told to count calories by my bariatric nutritionist or surgeon, rather they gave me guidelines to stay within (i.e. no refined sugar, always whole grain, eat five times a day, etc.) My nutritionist actually wants me to eat more carbs... different strokes I guess!