Prestonandme

Also, and this may apply only to a very small percentage of patients, some of us have livers that become highly sensitive to alcohol intake post-surgery. During one weekend, I drank a lot of wine and got very concerned when I went to the bathroom and noticed that my poop was jet black and diarrhea in form (sorry if TMI). I was afraid that this indicated internal bleeding so immediately went to urgent care. They performed blood tests and found that my liver enzymes were very elevated, showing inflammation/injury to the liver. They told me to not drink alcohol at all for awhile and to return in a month. They re-tested and found to my relief that my enzyme results had returned to normal. So I severely restrict my alcohol intake -- only a lite beer maybe twice a week. Nothing else.

There have been a few people, including myself, in the forum who have battled chronic nausea, vomiting, cramping, gastric emptying, etc. and after having undergone lots of tests and procedures, were told there was not yet a diagnosis for their symptoms. In my case, my g.i. doctor eventually hypothesized that my nausea, cramping, and chronic gastric emptying was due to vagus nerve separation and possible damage. The vagus nerve serves as a connection between the brain and the gut. During WLS, its afferent and efferent segments are separated and, according to the National Institutes of Health, "the gastric vagal branches are often damaged during bariatric surgery." In my case, I am mostly dealing with nausea, chronic cramping, and frequent gastric emptying (I've experienced those same extreme rushes to the toilet you describe, but haven't dealt much with vomiting issues). My PCP prescribed an anti-cramping medication called Bentyl, which I take twice a day. I'd say that it's alleviated my symptoms by about 50%. My g.i. doctor offered Elavil and/or Librax as alternatives (both reduce g.i. spasms) but the Bentyl has been doing a good job for me so far. If you have the opportunity, you may want to ask your PCP or G.I. doctor whether any of these medications might help your situation. I hope you feel a lot better soon.

Please ask your physician about whether you would benefit from electrolyte drinks such as Pedialyte and Gatorade. The chronic vomiting and malnutrition could cause electrolyte imbalance. Electrolytes play a very important role in your cell and organ functions.

Thanks!

Not sure if any moderators are reading this, but it would be great if there were an easier, more accessible, faster way to update our weight loss, such as a tab to click on at our homepage. Even after being in the forum for more than two years, I still have trouble navigating to the surgery progress page to update my weight.

Before surgery, I was pre-diabetic, moving swiftly towards diabetes as my blood work over the past five years showed increasingly higher fasting glucose counts. Initially, post-surgery, I had great counts -- 74-83, but at six months, my blood glucose was almost back to pre-diabetic levels (95, 99), according to the lab, and even 104 on the glucose monitor. I, too, am on a low carb diet. My surgeon and PCP have repeatedly told me not to worry about this yet, but I had expected much lower counts and apparently, like you, am an outlier because the overwhelming majority of WLS patients get fantastic blood glucose readings post-surgery. My A1C remains normal so far. I did find, though, that the earlier I had my last meal the night before, the lower my blood glucose count the following morning has been. Also, I stopped taking a medication that sometimes can cause diabetes as a side effect. Make sure you're not taking any prescription that has that sort of effect.

I experienced that for about a month or so post-surgery. It then totally resolved.

Before WLS, I was pre-diabetic and opted for the surgery largely because I was worried about developing diabetes. At first, post WLS, my BG readings were in the 70's and 80's, but six months after surgery, they returned to the 90's. I'm two years out and my fasting BG ranges from low 90's to about 104. This is almost where I was prior to surgery. My PCP and surgeon are not really too concerned, but I am disappointed that I returned quickly to high normal. And again, I am back to being worried about developing diabetes. Has anyone else returned to BG readings in the 90's? I'd love to especially hear from anyone who is years out from surgery.

I am glad that I've been able to lose a massive amount of weight via WLS, but I am sad that I, too, have experienced chronic nausea, cramping, and diarrhea for more than 1 1/2 years.

Since WLS is documented to trigger remission in a large percentage of diabetics, it's very unlikely that your recent diagnosis will prevent you from undergoing the surgery. If anything, it gives you more evidence that your WLS is necessary. Remissions are more common for people recently diagnosed with diabetes, as opposed to those who have had the condition for many years, have been taking insulin for extended time, and/or whose diabetes is uncontrolled.

There are several ongoing threads addressing dental problems post-surgery. I and others have experienced tooth loss, increased decay, etc. Many of us have been prescribed special fluoride toothpaste and one mentioned that she was given fluoride varnish to prevent decay. If you are experiencing increased dental problems, work closely with your dentist, schedule regular maintenance and cleaning appointments, and make sure that your annual blood work shows no deficiencies.

Some Starbucks drinks have huge loads of carbs and sugars in them. But if you visit the Starbucks website or app, you can easily see their breakdowns. I usually either order Iced Black Tea (requesting "no water" so it is not watered down) or Iced Passion Tango tea which has a lovely hibiscus, lemongrass, and apple flavor.

Interesting... Same here. I had very severe IBS-D for most of my adult life, but it ceased abruptly ten years ago when I was prescribed an SSRI. Post-surgery, the nausea, cramping, and frequent bathroom visits resumed, although I am still taking the SSRI. When I had the IBS-D, I ended up in the ER about three times a year when the pain was unbearable, and I was administered dilaudid. Since surgery, I haven't experienced that level of pain, but am dealing with the other symptoms which come and go without explanation. I hope they figure out what is causing you so much discomfort and can treat it.

I had RNY nearly two years ago and take CBD tincture daily (50mg), with no problems. My PCP approved this. I also take multiple prescription medications for ailments but the CBD doesn't adversely interact with them. If you are uncertain whether CBD can work for you, ask for your doctor's opinion. The tinctures are great but just one suggestion... If you decide to take CBD tincture, have a little food before using it because the oil can cause a little nausea for people with sensitive stomachs.

No, not entirely. The gastroenterologist hypothesizes that during surgery, when my vagus nerve was re-sectioned at the gastrointestinal level, it might have provoked these symptoms to occur. The fact that they are subdued by xanax (a calming sedative) show there may be a brain/gut connection such as the vagus nerve that's causing these disorders.

I've been dealing with continuous, intermittent nausea, cramping, and diarrhea for over a year and a half. My surgeon couldn't find anything wrong after performing his regular tests so he referred me to a gastroenterologist. I was surprised at how thorough the gastroenterologist was in taking my history, and then ordering a much more comprehensive series of blood tests and other tests, including a colonoscopy. I've now been prescribed an anti-cramping agent, Bentyl (these symptoms could be occurring because of vagus nerve issues) and also was offered the option of Librax (a combination anti-spasmotic/sedative) but Librax is super-expensive (about $300/mo on average) and Bentyl is $13. (I didn't have insurance to cover those). I also take a sedative (xanax) in the rare times the cramping becomes too painful and won't abate. I can say that over the past couple of weeks, my symptoms have improved.

If you are taking any medication whatsoever, get in touch with your surgeon and ask him/her to review the prescriptions in order to determine if any have weight gain as a side effect. In particular, there are several prescriptions prescribed for psychological/psychiatric issues that can cause great weight gain. There are other non-psyche meds that, while not causing weight gain, tend to inhibit losses. For example, in one interesting study, researchers found that WLS patients who took Metformin post-surgery lost much less weight and plateaued while those who didn't take it showed much more drastic weight loss.

I'm nearly two years out and sometimes experience "hunger days" when I have urges throughout the day to satisfy my hunger. When I'm having one of those days, I use MyFitnessPal to log everything I eat throughout the day, and I concentrate on low calorie snacks (e.g., a grape is 3 calories) to quell the hunger pangs. I make sure I don't exceed my recommended daily caloric intake this way. One of my best "cheats," however, is to drink a cup of coffee because for some reason it usually stops my hunger cravings for several hours.

As Catwoman7 mentioned, be sure to request an afternoon appointment. You'll then be able to split the prep-drinking, half at night, half the next morning. My doctor's directions stated that I had to drink each prep within one hour, but after I explained I had WLS, he told me I should "do my best" and take longer if necessary so I would not vomit up the prep. I ended up taking two hours to drink each prep, but it worked perfectly. Some doctors want you to finish the final prep and stop all liquid intake two hours before the colonoscopy, while others (like mine) make you stop four hours before the procedure. So on the morning of the colonoscopy, be sure you get up early in order to complete drinking the prep according to your doctor's instructions.

I had RNY two years ago but had my colonoscopy two weeks ago. The prep is horrible of course but the procedure itself was quick, painless, and easy. I don't have to repeat the procedure for another ten years. For this procedure, they administered an anesthesia that kept me very alert. Five years ago, though, when I had my last colonoscopy, they administered a different anesthesia which made me really drowsy. During that procedure, they removed one benign polyp but during my most recent procedure, I was polyp free. You'll be fine. It's the prep that's the worst part of the colonoscopy experience.

Yes, I had my gallbladder removed nearly three years ago and was given no dietary restrictions. I eat red meat about once a week. No problems at all.

I loosened up way too much in my daily carb intake. My dietitian asked me to remain at 90 g or less of carbs but I found myself exceeding that amount frequently. I also got sloppy about what type of carbs to eat. But in my case, I am now paying a price for my sloppiness. I never was diabetic but my A1C and blood glucose have returned to my pre-WLS levels, which were just nearly in the pre-diabetic range and have been creeping up steadily for the past year. So now I have to be extremely strict now -- return to my original diet plan and, in fact, try to stay at about 60 g of carbs or less per day in the hopes of lowering my A1C and blood glucose before I cause myself irreparable harm.

The scale keeps me aware of microtrends. I use MyFitnessPal to track my weight and I weigh daily. There have been three two-week intervals where I gained and lost 6-8 lbs. even though via food-tracking, I confirmed there was absolutely no change in my daily caloric intake. I reassured myself that these gain/losses were aberrations, not signs of actual weight gain. They could be explained by water retention, salt increase, medication changes, etc. So I look at 7 day, 30 day, 90 day, and 180 day trends. For the past six months, I've been relatively stable and I owe this to food diarying and daily weighing.

Lots of different choices available to readjust your situation. You can easily restart tracking your food. It will be helpful in several ways because you will have to write down exactly what you eat and how many calories, carbs, sugars, fats, etc. you take in. Be kind to yourself if you find that initially you are logging "bad" foods -- sugary treats, etc. Focus on hitting and not surpassing your maximum daily caloric intake. Little by little, modify your diet so that you are back on track with your protein and carb goals. Remind yourself that you are not on a fast train to disaster. You have identified a problem before it is out of hand and you are immediately taking steps to remedy it. As for exercise, lots of us falter, particularly during these COVID times. When I stopped exercising like you did during 2020 COVID (because I quit the gym), I was nagged by family members, sent articles about fitness, and finally was encouraged to take small steps to reintroduce the exercise I needed. I began viewing the Leslie Sansone "Walk at Home" videos on YouTube and walked along to them every day. At first, I would fast walk just 10 minutes three times a day with the videos and eventually I shifted to one 30 minute a day fast walk accompanied by video. She offers scores of different videos so I can do new ones every day for variation. So I think actually you are in a great situation to regain control of your life. You haven't regained. You are very aware of your shortcomings. And you are motivated to change. Take small steps towards each goal and you will get back on track. Best wishes.

One suggestion -- you may want to have your physician order a hepatic function panel for you about once a year. This just ensures that your liver remains healthy. One terrible weekend, due to incredible stress, I overindulged in alcohol and had such a violent physical reaction that I ended up in Urgent Care and learned that my liver enzymes were elevated above normal. But within a week, when retested, they were normal again. So I am very, very careful about drinking alcohol now. My surgeon told us at our pre-bariatric seminar that he has had only one WLS patient die during his 20 years of practice, and this was from alcohol addiction leading to cirrhosis. Because of the WLS, the cirrhosis developed very quickly. So we have to be careful and, if we drink, ask our doctors to conduct blood labs to ensure our livers are processing the alcohol and remaining healthy.