Arabesque

Lovely skirt & beautiful colour @GreenTealael. How often do you sew? I remember you often used to make things. Have to admit I haven’t used my sewing machine for years. Oh I did get it out a couple of years ago to repair a split in a leg seam (no I didn’t split it 😁😁) and the poor thing was clunking - a service is needed I think. I do darn sweaters & such regularly. Can’t be bothered hemming these days though so I take pants etc. to the professionals for a better quality job. Plus it’s too hard to get the length right by yourself. 😁 Apparently sewing classes are taking off here in Australia for those over 30. They want to know how to darn, sew buttons, hem, patch & cycle up existing clothing to cut back on the costs of replacing items they usually would just throw away.

Had to get a new driver’s licence today. They took the new picture which is then run through a facial recognition program where your new photo is compared to your old licence photo as proof of identity. Program runs & runs & runs. Comes back it’s not me. (Well it was when I looked in the mirror this morning.) Had to have another photo taken & had to pull my hair back. (Great. This will be my licence photo for years.) Again the program runs & runs & I’m sitting there with the woman processing my request waiting & waiting. I asked if there was an override to this step. No she says. What happens if it still doesn’t recognise me? We keep taking pictures until it does or the license can’t be issued she says. It does realise I’m 10 years older I ask then I realise: 10 years & 42kgs lighter. Oh… Thankfully, the program decided it was me with the second photo & my new licence will be sent to me in 21 days. (Don’t get me started on that. What happened to them producing the licence there & then & your new licence is warm from the laminated printing process.) Anyone else have unexpected experiences because of their weight loss?

Oh gracious I hadn’t thought about that with their swollen & bandaged faces or noses or chins. But ears can be altered a little with face lifts & I saw a social media post where someone asking if there’s a surgery to reshape ears. Maybe retina scans are the way forward.

Most over the counter versions of PPIs are 10mgs & people will swallow several of those a day regularly without thought. I’m on 20mg Nexium. Took that dose randomly for years before my surgery & now every morning since my surgery so 5 years. None of my doctors are worried so… It wears off some nights (around 10:30-12:30). Generally I just go to sleep but on odd times I’ll get up & chew a couple of Quick Ease 😁. I think if I had to start taking 40mg I’d worry. I didn’t know what was wrong with me at first with the Zantac but a neighbour had one of those pharmacological books with every med with the brand names, uses & side effects listed & there they were. I agree they have to list the side effects just in case. You never know how any pre existing condition or other medication may react to the drug for you.

I thought all PPIs started to work (reduce acid production) immediately (well within 30mins or so of taking the dose). Can understand it takes longer to feel the benefits if you’re taking it to heal ulcers, etc. but GERD… ??? Might be worth a call to your doctor to check. May be you need a higher dose. Or can you supplement it with over the counter antacids at night. I was put on famotadine (Zantac) years ago when the thought I had ulcers which turned out to be only an over production of acid. I swear I experienced every side effect there is with it and they stated pretty much straight away.

This surgery is something none of us have had before & so we have no understanding or experience of how it feels post surgery. Add to that our bodies often respond differently to the surgery, it can be hard to predict exactly how you will feel & respond & how long you will be affected. Like I had no gas pain at all with my sleeve (don’t hate me) but when my surgeon removed my gall bladder two years later boy oh boy did I have gas pain. Also even if we are told things or it’s in the material we’re given, the information overload & usual emotional stress of the surgery means it can be easily missed or forgotten. So 100% no judgement. We’re always happy to share our experiences, advice & any tips we found helpful here. PS: I do have some judgment for any surgeon or team if they don’t ensure you’re well prepared for the very common post surgical experiences like hair loss, constipation, nausea from vitamins, etc. though.

I was a teaspoon dipper or baby bite person too. My bites were just want ever was on the end of the teaspoon I dipped into my food. Don’t be afraid to wait longer between bites: a couple of minutes. Even eating 1/4 cup of food would take me 20 minutes or more. I would avoid the crackers and focus only on eating protein at this stage and any incidental vegetables like what might be in a soup you’ve blended. Generally any carbs should be left to the last thing you eat & only if you are able. So eat your protein first, then if you are able any vegetables then finally carbs you’re allowed at each stage (usually whole or multi grains not the more highly processed, less nutrient dense breads, rice, pasta, crackers). So if you were able to eat the saltines, you would have been able to eat more of the chicken salad & therefore more protein. There were many times I ate protein & nothing else for some meals for months. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

A sip isn’t a mouthful. Think about 1/2oz (15ml or about a tablespoon). As your body is able, you’ll be able to taking larger sips. How much & when is individual. Some can take several mouthfuls at a time in a couple of months. Me I’m 5 years out and two swallows is it for me. Your body will tell you if you’re drinking too much or too fast but certainly in that 8 week healing period best to keep to sipping. They insert a breathing tube which can cause swelling which hinders breathing & swallowing. It usually passes after a couple of days. Keep trying to do some slow deep breaths throughout the day. It will help you breathe out the surgical gas. Watch not being able to not breathe deeply especially if you have heart palpitations, chest pains or coughing. If you have that as well go to your nearest medical centre as it may be a clot. Try some biotin for your dry mouth/thirst. I found green tea soothing & refreshing. Any warm or hot drink can help too like herbal tea & soups & broths. Try warm water though some say cold water is easier.

Yep surgical gas & IV fluids. It will take about a week for you to breathe out the gas (it’s not in your tummy but in your abdomen & it rises up behind your lungs before being absorbed into your lungs) and a couple of days to pee out the extra fluids. You can help the gas move up & then into your lungs to be breathed out by walking, doing arm lifts, marching on the spot. (Do as much as you can without straining your post surgical body. Little and often is best.) Deep, slow breathing can help too. Heat pads can help with the shoulder pain that occurs when it rises behind your lungs.

It’s another big surgery that will make other changes to your digestive system so it’s understandable you are still questioning whether to go ahead. How much I eat depends a lot upon what I’m eating (liquidy, soft or solid) & if I’m in a hungry or not hungry phase. I don’t measure & track, just random checks, but I can eat about 1.25 - 1.5 cups of say soup. About a cup of a mince & vegetable dish (like savoury mince or bolognese). I can eat about 1.5 cups of milky oats, yoghurt & fruit. And about 3ozs of meat (steak, chicken, lamb, pork) with a good cup of vegetables, Generally I don’t exceed a recommended serving size of what I’m eating. I still eat slowly: 30-45 minutes & still ask myself if I need the next bite or just want it.

How big are your bites? I was advised to eat 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purées. So it took three days to eat two scrambled eggs & the same with a serve of rolled oats. Would your 3 bites be equal to about 1/4 cup? (Was 6 months before I was able to eat a bare cup of food which was what I was advised too.) Eggs can be hard at first. Many can’t tolerate them so that could be contributing. What if you had soup at night. Easy & quick to heat. I used to freeze individual serves of lots of things like soup, meat balls & gravy, etc. Popped a serve in the fridge to defrost in the morning & reheated at night. Even took them to work for lunch. Or try your shake at night ( just sip until you’re finished even if it takes an hour) or a high protein yoghurt. There is a lot of trial & error in the beginning especially while you are still healing (takes about 8 weeks to be fully healed) & your tummy can be very fussy & temperamental . Plus your taste buds &/ir sense of smell can temporarily change making some foods disgusting. It dyes get better & easier.

Generally full healing takes about 8 weeks but of course some are a little faster others take a little longer. There will be some abdominal swelling from the surgery & being poked & prodded, your organs being shifted about & the external wound areas. Again recovery is very individual. If I remember correctly it took me about a week. Some abdominal swelling is from the surgical gas (it’s not in your tummy but the abdominal cavity) which you will slowly breathe out over about a week or so. They also pump you full of a lot of fluid so you may be retaining some fluid from that. It can take a few days for you to pee it all out. Some shakes can cause bloating from the lactose or if they contain sugar alcohols (sorbitol, xylitol. Erythritol, isomalt, etc.) Some find if they sip too quickly they can swallow air & become bloated & gassy too. GasX can help with any gas. All the best.

Are you taking anti nausea meds to help? Multi vitamins can cause a lot of nausea so they may be contributing. Make sure you take them after you eat. If you take additional iron separate when you take them (multi in the morning the other at lunch). I used to split my multi - 1 in the morning the other at night. Water can almost seem heavy which may make it harder to drink too. Add a herbal tea like ginger (which may help with the nausea) or similar or green tea as an additional liquid option. Have you spoken to your surgeon/team about there nausea?

It’s not easy for everyone to hit that 64oz goal the first couple of weeks after surgery. I certainly didn’t. You’re about 2/3 of your goal which is okay as long as you are making an effort & are slowly but surely increasing your intake. Don’t forget you can include your shakes, soups & broths in the liquid stage. After that include only the extra liquid you add to a soup or shake, etc. (e.g. say your shake recipe is mix with 250ml of water but you add 300ml so count the extra 50ml). Also keep water by your bed & sip through the night. I sip every time I get in or out of bed (which is often cause a layoff peeing 😁) & can get in another 8 - 10ozs or more. Set a reminder alarm on your phone so you sip every 5+/- mins and always keep water or other liquids close to hard. It eventually becomes a habit. You’ll be hitting that goal easily before you know it

Lots of nerves were cut during your surgery so the messages/signals you used to feel around your eating rather aren’t getting through or are distorted. It’s why it’s so important to stick to the portion sizes and timing for eating/drinking you’ve been given. It takes about 8 weeks to fully recover from the surgery & the nerves are healed. It’s then too that you may start to feel your restriction (a tightness across your upper chest). It’s a good opportunity to become more aware of more subtle signals around having had enough or too much to eat or drink. I still ask myself do I need the next bite or sip or do I just want it & I’m five years out. Also when your signals do come back you may notice they’re different. Sneezing, runny nose, hiccups, etc can all be your new signals for having eaten or drunk enough. A gurgling tummy,or hunger pangs aren’t in most cases a signal you are hungry. They’re usual a signal that your digestive system is working. I don’t know why but the gurgling & growling seems much louder after surgery. Mine are very loud & yes I still get them (it’s happening now). I say I have a poltergeist in my tummy, rumbling, grumbling, squelching & rattling the chains. My younger nieces & nephew think it’s hilarious! All the best with your recovery.

So it takes about 6-8 hrs for food to pass from your tummy through your small intestines to your large intestines. It takes about 36hrs in total for anything you eat to fully leave your body (pooped out). I’m going to presume you’re having gastric bypass which involves surgery to your small intestines (sleeve doesn’t) so not eating for 6 hours before sort of makes sense. However, saying that every surgery I’ve had was nil by mouth from dinner the night before regardless of time of surgery. I know people who are told nothing after midnight, who get up & eat a meal at 11:30pm. I had a pelvic MRI last week & it was nothing for 6 hours before which was odd because the images the MRI took of the pelvic region of course included the large bowel which would have been full of waste which was odd to me. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Check with your surgeon. Only way to be sure.

Never too late to give away or donate from your freezer. Then you’ll have plenty of room to freeze single portions of anything you cook. In a short time you’ll have a variety of meals you can simply defrost & heat. I usually only cook twice a week from scratch, freeze several portions then I ‘shop’ dinner from my freezer. Tonight I’m having pork schnitzel from the batch I cooked last week. Once defrosted it will reheat in 30/40 seconds & I only have to prep vegetables. I use zip lock bags for my single serves: any meat cuts (steak, lamb cutlets, etc.) plus soups, meat balls, bolognese, anything really. I even cook a mini roast, slice it up & freeze individual portions in the bags with gravy. Easy to write on the bag what it is & add a date so you remember when you cooked & froze it.

Wearing them now 😁. Fitted tops of course. Wear them around the house in winter with sweaters and cardigans. I secretly love (not so secret now!) seeing my skinny legs reflected in my glass doors. Like you, @SleeveToBypass2023, it took a while to accept the skinny, non thigh rubbing kegs were mine, but now it’s good motivation to stay on track. Have a wonderful mini break in London @MrsFitz. Just think next time you visit, you may not need your scooter & you’ll have many more. wardrobe options. Yay!

Oh you poor thing. Vomiting is the worst. Just throwing some ideas out there for you to consider. It’s not uncommon to develop some food intolerances (usually always temporarily) after surgery - lactose & sugar alcohols in artificial sweeteners being the most common (often in protein shakes). Could this be a possibility? It can be sensitivity to other foods or ingredients too. It’s not uncommon to develop spasming in the stomach & digestive tract after surgery. Again this is usually temporary but the body & mind can be unpredictable. My dad experienced chronic vomiting after chemo & his doctor explained that sometimes the body/mind thinks vomiting is a normal behaviour. It just takes time to break the habit. Don’t let your surgeon or support team brush you aside. Malnutritiion, dehydration are a possibility with vomiting like you’ve been experiencing. This is some information about spasming you may find interesting. https://renewbariatrics.com/stomach-spasms-after-gastric-sleeve-surgery/ Hopefully, it will get even less frequent & it stops for you soon.

The incontinence could have developed because of the catheter they likely inserted during surgery. It may have irritated your urethra. This usually is only temporary. Keep an eye on it though & watch you don’t develop a UTI. Oh & it’s often quieter here on the weekends. Don’t know anything about instagram sites but if they’re like many Facebook sites the information, advice & support isn’t all that great. All the best with your revision. Keep us updated on your progress.

I wore home what I wore to the hospital: a loose thigh length top & pull on trousers with elastine. The pants fit snuggly (not tight) a little above my wound line & I actually found them supportive around/against the wound line. Also knew they’d be easy to fold down if they did put too much pressure on the wounds & the top was long enough to cover the folded waist. My wounds were in line with my belly button but some sit below the belly button - you never know where they’ll be exactly. If you’re worried I’d go the dress route. All the best with your surgery.

If you’re in the purée stage whatever you eat should be a thick but still a bit loose in texture or dollopy like yoghurt. If you want to blend or grind meat add gravy or stock to get the texture thin enough. Minced meats with a sauce or gravy like meat loaf, meat balls or bolognese without pasta are great in soft food. If you’re allowed potatoes they should be mashed. I lived on yoghurt, instant rolled oats, scrambled eggs, thicker blended soups during that stage as I found puréed meats unpalatable. Did even eat baby food twice. A lot of people eat egg salad (mashed eggs & mayo) in this stage. Think of a baby transitioning from milk (liquids) to thin cereals like Farex, baby food, etc. (purées) then soft foods like slow cooked stews, minced meat dishes, sausage, etc. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

Depends on the type of smoothie. One you make yourself with protein powder, milk, yoghurt, a powdered flavour if you use plain yoghurt, a little allowed fruit & you control the ingredients - okay. But a purchased one I’d question. Check the nutritional value & ingredients of any you buy. I used to buy a yoghurt smoothie drink from the same company that made the high protein yoghurt I ate. The nutrient value was similar but with more protein (30+g) & more natural sugars (not added) from the milk added to the yoghurt to thin it to a drinkable consistency. Then I bought a different one but the added sugar content was so much higher & the protein content was very low. I used to buy them before I realised how easy it was make the yoghurt smoothie drink by simply blending the high protein yoghurt I liked with milk. What does your plan say? If it doesn’t say, check with your nutritionalist.

Never heard of protein gel supplements (energy ones without protein but not protein ones) but people do add unflavoured protein powders to broths (bone broths are best), cream soups, consommés, etc. As you progress you can add protein powders to any liquid or runny based food like yoghurt, instant rolled oats, decaf coffee, etc.