Arabesque

Congratulations. Such wonderful news after your struggles. Pregnancy seems to be quite common after WLS. All the hormones flooding your body make you extra fertile. Likely why some surgeons recommend doubling up on contraception for a while. Have you spoken with your dietician? They’ll be able to advise on the small changes you’ll need to make to your eating plan. You’ll also find that you don’t have to add that many additional calories to your diet so your weight loss won’t be compromised just delayed with your pregnancy. I’ve read you slowly increase to only 200-300 extra calories by the third trimester. That old ‘eating for two’ was just an excuse for people to overeat. It may be different for as you’re on a fairly low calorie diet now. And you’re already eating a much healthier & more balanced diet which will be benefitting your baby. All the best.

I eat the same things for lunch all the time. Chicken tenders & salad or prawns & salad & slight variations of the same. Means I don’t have to think about what to eat, portion size, protein content, etc. I think if I still enjoy it, I’ll keep eating it. Today I’m making garlic prawns as I couldn’t get my usual cooked prawns. I’ll just eat the prawns.

I think it’s just bruising too. They do a lot of pushing & prodding at those sites. They’ll continue to fade & have colour change. It looks like you’re healing well.

Anemia is becoming more common these days. I know several women who are anaemic & have regular transfusions. Rarely heard of it 10 years ago. Are you still eating a high protein diet? Have they looked for a possible cause of your anaemia? Infection, auto immune issue, absorption issue, etc. Make sure you’re consuming iron rich foods including: Red meat, pork and poultry Seafood Beans Dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach Dried fruit, such as raisins and apricots Iron-fortified cereals, breads and pastas Peas Increase your vitamin C as it aids iron absorption. As well as citrus fruits try: Broccoli Grapefruit Kiwi Leafy greens Melons Oranges Peppers Strawberries Tangerines Tomatoes Do you still have your dietician’s details? Maybe you can contact them for some advice.

Lowe! I bet that is really painful. So sorry. I sliced a big chunk off my thumb last year. Couldn’t believe how such a small thing like not being able to use such a tiny part of me limited me in doing just about everything. So frustrating. But don’t give up. Yes, try upper body exercise as others have suggested. Remember all your eating strategies. Eat slowly. Eat only until you’ve enough not full - do you need that next bite or just want it. Stick to your portion sizes recommendations & your eating plan. Etc. Nothing has changed except some of your mobility temporarily. I rarely exercised & I lost all my weight. So being limited in your activity is not going to stop your weight loss. Remember why you’re doing this. Stay the course & stay positive. Hope you heal well.

I ate a lot of mince dishes too. Soft food is way easier to manage as it’s more like what you always ate & the rest of the family can eat it too. Spaghetti bolognese (just eat the mince beef sauce), meat balls in gravy (mashed them), etc. Anything that is stew/casserole like. Vegetable & meat soups. Anything slow cooked, fall off the bone tender.

You really won’t ever be able to take NSAIDs again even with a sleeve. Certainly not in full doses or regularly or prescription strength. They are far too harsh because they are more concentrated in your tiny tummy. After about a year, my surgeon told me I could have an over the counter anti inflammatory on rare occasions but never for consecutive days. I’ve taken four capsules in 2 years. One after my gall surgery & another after thumb surgery. When my back went out I took one in the AM & one in the PM. That’s it. I also take a PPI every day which probably helps when I do take a NSAID. I had reflux for years but managed it 99% of the time with dietary choices. Very rarely took medication. Likely why my surgeon still decided to give me a sleeve. I still have reflux now but it manifests differently & is only pretty mild. Yes, I take a PPI every day which keeps most of it under control. I sometimes get burning in my throat late at night but it’s not bad (it doesn’t keep me awake) & is usually because I ate protein too close to going to bed. Personally, I’d ask my surgeon for some stats around long term success of gerd not reoccurring in sleeve patients after hernia repair/fundoplication, and stats of gerd developing in all post sleeve patients. Then make your final decision of which surgery yiu want to have.

A restriction tends to run across our upper chest - a tightness, quite painful & very uncomfortable, makes me want to thump my chest to try to alleviate it. It passes for me after about 15-30mins. It’ll occur if I eat too fast or too much, swallow too large a mouthful or eat food that is too coarse or too dry. Though unpleasant, your restriction can be your best friend too - keeps you on track & doing the right thing so you don’t experience it.😉 But because we all have slight differences in our physiology your shoulder pain could be related to your restriction too. Best to contact your surgeon to ensure it’s not a sign of another issue. Remember: Cut your food into small bites. Use a teaspoon, a baby fork or buffet fork (spork) so you don’t overload your cutlery & take large mouthfuls. Eat slowly. Use gravies, stocks, sauces to keep your food moist. Choose tender cuts of meat like chicken thigh over breast. Don’t over cook meats which dries them out.

I was swallowing pain meds (capsules & round tablets) & my HRT less than 24hrs after surgery. I had a lot of swelling so it was a bit difficult & it did hurt a little. But everyone has different levels of swelling & it may not be an issue for you at all. After a couple of days it wasn't a problem anymore. Just make sure the nurses know you have to take your medication & when you have to take it if it time dependent. They are often stretched across patients & time poor & delays & oversights can happen. Overworked & understaffed unfortunately.

No leaking for me either. Neither did my three who also had a sleeve. I didn’t have a liquid test to test for a leak either. They can occur anywhere between the first days or up to a few weeks after surgery - I guess until you are fully healed. They are not very common. Surgeons tend to staple & stitch to decrease the risk of a post surgical leak. You can do things to help avoid a leak too. Follow your eating plan (nutrition & not stressing or straining your healing tummy), don’t carry anything too heavy (<10lbs to begin), don’t be too active too soon (gentle walking at first). If you have any symptoms go to your nearest hospital & contact your surgeon as soon as possible. All the best with your surgery.

I used to take a stool softener the night of the 3rd day without any movement. I felt this kept it under control & I never had any discomfort from going too many days without a BM & I didn’t ever need anything stronger then the stool softener. I often only went every second day understandable when you consider how little we eat.

How long since your surgery? Are you moving about? Walking etc. Do you have low blood pressure? It may be an idea to contact your surgeon/medical team to ensure everything is okay.

It should be gone within a week at most. Some find it’s gone in less time. It just depends on how much they used & how you process it out of your body. Walk, heat compresses, long slow deep breaths, gasx, warm drinks can offer relief. I used to stretch my arms up & down to sort of try to pump the gas out 😁. Pain meds don’t seem to help the gas pain just the surgical pain.

My surgeon listed GasX on my post surgical med list. But I didn’t have any gas pain (apparently my surgeon is known for his patients not having gas pain) so didn’t take any. Can’t say the same after he removed my gall though: the pain was not good. Unfortunately I forgot I had the gasX tablets so suffered through it. Just walked and stretched my arms up & down to try to force the gas up & out. Deep, slow breathing is supposed to help too.

Feeling the cold is terrible. I still do & it hasn’t really improved as some swear it does but I always felt more cold than others too. Can’t tell you how many people have thought I was strange buying long wool coats in winters - why do you need a coat you live in Queensland, the sunshine state, you don’t have winters!! Cinemas & supermarkets are the worst. OH MY GOD. So cold it’s truly a physical pain. And offices, hospitals, doctor’s surgeries, etc where they set the air conditioning extra low arctic temperatures. Shudder. I always kept an extra woollen coat on my chair at work & another woman had a blanket she’d wrap around herself. The only time I appreciated the low temperatures was when I started menopause & before I began HRT 😆. Keep your extremities warm - feet, hands & head. It’s where heat from your body escapes first - socks, fingerless gloves, scarves. I wear socks around my house 6+ months of the year. A blanket, like my colleague may help too. What about some thermals?

You are only in the early stages. I was advised only to consume 1/4 - 1/3 cup of food from purée & slowly increase as I was able. It took me to 6 months to be able to eat about a cup. That’s fine if you can eat more but being able to doesn’t mean you should. Check with your surgeon &/or dietician for your portion size recommendations. Fluids & even purées tend to go through you more quickly so you rarely feel ‘full’ unless you eat/drink too quickly. When you get to solid foods you’ll start to feel full but full will be different to how it felt before. Being mindful when you eat & listening & looking for your physical cues will help you discover your signals. I often find it’s just a feeling not a physical signal I’ve had enough. On days I may be distracted & not as mindful about my eating I’ll start to get a heaviness in my chest. If I eat or drink too much too quickly I’ll feel my restriction (a rather painful tightness higher across the chest - i often thump my chest to try to ease it - doesn’t but …). It’s always better to eat until you’ve had enough & not until you are full. There’s a big difference between actually needing the next bite & just wanting it. Because it takes time for the full message to get through, by the time we feel full we’re over full. It’s one of the reasons we’re advised to eat slowly. Some days you’ll discover you can eat a little more or less than others which is why you need to learn your cues. It can take time to work it all out but you’ll get there.

I used straws for a little while. Wasn’t ever told not to use them. I sort of found them useful at work. Even sipped soup from my thermos through them. (We still had plastic straws then though. Wouldn’t want to try it with paper straws 😁.) I found it easier to do little sips with them & because I didn’t do big slurps I had little risk of sucking in too much air or taking large swallows. Never could understand why many are told not to use straws but they’re not told not to use water bottles like camel back. You have to suck through them. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Personally I find drinking from a glass or cup the easiest & I tend to drink more frequently with them too.

Yeah, the withdrawals can be hard. Takeaway the caffeine, the sugar, etc. & you get headaches, feel weak & sometimes tremors. Similar to withdrawal from alcohol or drugs. You’ll feel generally crappy for a few days then it improves. It can be surprising to realise how much you & your body relied on these stimulants & then in time realise how much you didn’t really need them.

Definitely talk to your dietician especially as you’d like more guidelines around calories & portion sizes. Never be reluctant to ask for as much help &. advice as you need. You have to feel very comfortable & confident with your food choices.But also never get down on yourself if you make a mistake or get confused. You’ve lost weight so you’re not totally on the wrong path. 🙂 I’d also ask for a recommended food list for each stage. While in the liquid stage, we’re usually encouraged to consume protein shakes & in my list, yoghurt was not recommended to try until purée (too thick). I’m also presuming you’re straining your soups & only eating the broth component. Many are not allowed caffeine either so it may be an idea to check that too. There are lots of variations of calories, portion sizes, food restrictions & recommendations, stages, etc. so it is always best y check what your surgeon & team want you to do. It is difficult to work out the calorie content of foods you make yourself. That’s when I found portion size recommendations were really helpful from purées. On liquids, I used to sip for as long as I wanted & reheat as necessary. I’d take a couple of hours to drink my breakfast shake. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

You’ll find that there are a lot of family favourite recipes you can modify pretty simply. As a few simple ideas to get you started: On liquids - make a big pot of chicken & vegetable soup. The family can eat it all while you strain your serve. On purée - make soup again but just purée yours. On soft - make spaghetti bolognese. You eat the sauce but no pasta. You can add zucchini noodles for yourself later on & you may even find your family enjoys them too. Meat balls are great too. Anything was gravies & sauces to keep things moist. On solid - make pork or chicken laab. You eat the mince & herb component while your family can wrap them in the lettuce leaves. You can eat everything when you’re ready for leafy & raw vegetables. Look for low fat, low carb recipes. Don’t be afraid to add herbs & spices as you can tolerate them. Look for healthier cooking methods. Air fry instead of deep fry. Bake instead of pan fry (I dry bake all my lamb cutlets & pork chops now & they cook in their own fats & juices). Steam or poach... etc. Choose trimmed, heart smart meats like a pork loin vs a leg of pork. Chicken thighs are tastier, more tender & easier to eat than breast meat. Make your own sauces so you can control the ingredients, how they are cooked & reduce how much processed foods you eat. You will have to be a bit selective when it comes to which vegetables & when you can start eating them. Though I found if I slow cooked them in soups, stews, etc. I could eat quite a variety from soft foods. Don’t be afraid to pick out & just eat the meat & the odd vegetable as you’re able for your meal while your family eats the whole dish.

I only told select family & friends about my surgery too. Though it can be a bit challenging not to confuse who knows & who doesn’t. 😉 For those who didn’t know & asked specifically about my weight loss & how I did it (like one very competitive friend) I’d tell them I was seeing a dietician, had done a lot of reading & reflecting & was working out what way of eating was best for me. All of it true. You will find that in time no one says anything at all. They start to accept the changes you’re making & how you look & the inquisitive (nosy) questions stop.

I read an article that, simply put, explained weight gain from consuming artificial sweeteners occurred because the body tastes sweet & so expects there to be sweet it can use for energy. (Our body does need some glucose to function.) But because there isn’t any glucose, your body thinks something is wrong & will store calories you consume as future energy i.e. as fat. Does make sense as your body will go into starvation mode & store as many calories as it can in times when food intake is low. It’s why many find their weight loss eventually stops on ultra low calorie diets. And of course artificial sweeteners do absolutely nothing to modify/eradicate your cravings for sweet things. Plus there’s a lot of the studies about the negative impact of them on gut health & your immune system. It’s hard to get sweeteners completely out of your diet as they’re in so many things but at least reducing the amount you’re consuming can only be a good thing.

What you’re likely seeing is your natural fluctuation. Mine is a kilogram (2.2lbs) over a couple of days. Fluctuations in our weight occur because we may be retaining a little fluid, be constipated, may be you didn’t pee as much the night before, hormonal fluctuations, just how your body digests food, stores energy & excretes waste, etc. Because you likely didn’t weigh yourself this frequently, you’ve never really noticed this fluctuation before. Weight loss isn’t a consistent straight line of losing the exact same amount every day. It’s a wiggly line of ups & downs & plateaus. As long as the general trend of your loss is downwards you’re golden. There’s nothing wrong with weighing yourself every day. I did & so do a lot of others. You know yourself best & what you need to keep you on track & motivated. If you find it hard to reconcile the wiggly line of weight loss, weighing every day is not for you. Many find it useful to take body measurements a long the way as well. Especially as sometimes es the scales don’t move but the tape measure does. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

After surgery only too. (But I didn’t take them before anyway.) Think it’s so they get an accurate blood test reading to compare with post surgery tests. Plus supplements might hide any absorption issues you may have or vitamins, minerals, etc. you are naturally lacking. This test should help inform the breadth of vitamins you may need after surgery too. My iron levels were great before surgery & continued to be good after so I didn’t need to take an additional iron supplement.

There are several variations of what a surgeon may require you to do pre surgery. I had an easier road as I was on keto for two weeks (I did almost three because of when I saw my dietician). Some do two weeks of nothing but shakes. Others, two weeks of shakes for two meals & one of protein & vegetables/salad. Some do a day or two only. I did discover my surgeon recommends different diets for different patients based on their weight loss/gain history, starting weight, health status, etc. The purpose is to shrink your liver which is likely fatty & enlarged therefore clearing some of the abdominal field so they can better see what they’re doing during surgery. Some use it to see if you can manage a restricted diet before surgery because of the restrictive diet to support your healing after surgery. But I do agree. Wait until your next appointment before buying anything for your pre & post surgery diets.