Arabesque

The only thought I had was a blockage of some sort. I was told I had a small buildup like a speed bump that was causing my slightly strange pooping habits. Told to double up on coloxyl on one day & then again two days later. Didn’t really do anything to help so I just live with it now but it’s not like the extreme of what you’re experiencing. Maybe a colonoscopy &/or an ultrasound may help identify a cause. Certainly the constipation will cause the bloating and bad gas. I’m recovering from a coloxyl overload at the moment. Discharge nurse told me to take 2 when I got home on Wednesday, two that night and two more Thursday morning, (I hadn’t gone for 4 days by Wednesday & you’ll remember how important it is to keep everything soft after a hysterectomy.) Well pooped 4 times Thursday & twice yesterday. Of course nothing today. Don’t know whether to take one again tonight or leave it for another day.

Apparently they leave your ovaries unless your menopausal so that’s likely why you still had yours from 28 years ago and they took everything of mine. Oh yes hospital food is awful. Plus at my hospital they have an app through which to order your meals & your water. OMG the worst app ever. Ordered a jug of water (to take my meds) and a cup of tea early one morning but then couldn’t order breakfast 90 minutes later because the app said I’d already ordered breakfast! Rang to order instead and the wrong meal was delivered. Oh we don’t have natural muesli anymore I was told when I complained so they bought me an high sugar, high fat, high calorie alternative! Grrrrr! Everything was all spicy and pasta & pizza & burgers for people in hospital!! I lived on clear soup (salty or flavourless) and jatz crackers and cheese (threw up the cheese) & hummus. No weight drop for me though just constipation & peeing out the fluids for days. Hope you’re recovering well.

Liquid diets or liver shrinking diets before surgery are very common. Different surgeons will want patients to follow specific diets (like all liquid) prior to their surgery usually for about two weeks though can be for longer or shorter. The aim is for you to lose a little more weight before surgery, thus making it safer, and to shrink your liver so the operating field is more visible and your tummy and digestive system easier to access. Different patients will fe given different plans to follow based on their weight, current health status, surgery, etc. Some are given weight loss goals to reach like you, others not. For example, I was put in Keto and not given a specific weight loss goal just had to lose some. I lost 4.5kg (9.9lbs) in just over two weeks. Just follow the diet plan you’ve been given & you’ll be fine.All the best.

Soup is usually fine to have. I was drinking soup from liquids. Broths & cream soups in liquids, thicker or puréed soups in purée, & slow cooked soups with well cooked meat & vegetables in the soft food stage. The issue is not the soup but the noodles. The noodles in your chicken noodle soup like pasta, rice and bread swell in your tummy. So you fill up with what is a food that is low in nutrient content and protein and not with protein rich and nutrient dense foods you really need to be focussed upon eating. Strain the soup & drink the broth and you‘ll be fine & still get the flavour you enjoy (just not the texture). It’s not forever though I still don’t eat those starchy, simple carbs as I find them too filling and too heavy in my tummy.

Very common for you to experience temporary changes to your sense of taste and sometimes smell after surgery. Everything became super salty or super sweet and certain textures (like the grainy texture of the shakes) became off putting for me. And yes, sometimes foods you didn’t enjoy before become enjoyable though that can change back. For me it was smoked salmon which I strangely began eating regularly once on real food but a few weeks later it was back to nope it’s too strong & rich. I actually embraced the aversion to sweet and lost my desire for a lot of it.

Generally most things are raw like meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, oats, barley, etc. If I ate rice or pasta I’d do it cooked like soup. But yes as @SpartanMaker said apps tend to specific raw or cooked when you log your food.

I hear you. I hate being sweaty & all flushed in the face with exercising. I never felt the euphoria that avid exercises say they feel. All I feel is oh God I’m exhausted & thank goodness that’s over. Ask any of my friends or family and they’ll tell you me and exercise don’t go together. I used to enjoy yoga especially the stretches because it reminded me of the ballet classes I took when younger. So that’s what I started to do: a few yoga stretches. Then I got some resistance bands and googled a few things to do with those. I also added wall pushups & a few other things to increase flexibility and strengthening. As I described in an earlier post, I spread these out across my day 5 or so minutes at time. Or start by adding something while doing something else. Boiling the kettle stretch your quads. Cleaning your teeth do some deep knee bends or raise and lower your feet to work your ankles. Reheating your lunch do some wall pushups. You said you enjoyed aerobics. You’ll likely find some old aerobic videos on You tube & you could do a couple of routines (one song each) across the day. Right from after my sleeve surgery I began by upping my every day routines yes like taking extra trips up & down my stairs to do chores. For example, this morning I went up & down my stairs twice to bring up a couple of bottles of water. Could have done it in one trip but got more out of doing two. I’m 4 days out from a hysterectomy so I’m a little restricted at the moment though I started doing some my exercises day 2 in hospital. Now I’m home, I’m starting my bands again.

One cracker isn’t going to make a difference in the pre surgery diet. Best advice though is to ensure you stick to the post surgical staged return to eating diet - no cheating then. That diet is in place to support your recovery & healing - remember all those cut nerves and staples and sutures holding your digestive system together. When tempted remind yourself why you’re doing this. You've got this. All the best.

I agree it’s more of a volume consideration than mass. Also agree with checking in with your team for their recommendations, I was advised 1/4-1/3 cup from purée slowly increasing to about a cup at 6 months. That was pretty much all I could manage too. That was me. You could be very different. I never considered the actually weight of what I ate until I was in maintenance and working how much I needed to eat though I know some are given weights from early on.

I was wondering the same as @ShoppGirl. I’ve been taking 20mg ppi since my surgery 5 + years ago. It covers me for most of the day. Sometimes late at night I have a little reflux so I just chew some quick eze. I actually took the 20mg randomly before surgery because I already had reflux but managed it predominately with dietary choices (avoided caffeine, spicy food, rich creamy sauces & a lot of carbonation). Only needed the ppi a handful of times a year - usually if I had one too many Champagnes or gin & tonics - LOL! Certainly worth a conversation with your doctors. And of course what may work for some may react differently with you or you have other health issues to consider.

Love it @Starwarsandcupcakes: soup is liquid salad. 😁

The resistance bands I use have helped a lot with my arms too though I still have flappy bat wings of course. I get complements about my arms which is amazing but that’s because I don’t wave my arms about too much so they can’t see the saggy skin 😂.

I was thinking the same thing as @catwoman7: the rising levels could be a result of your weight loss so far. It’s very common to have rising liver function levels while you’re losing. Also worried me a bit because I had a glass of Prosecco at lunch on Sunday and then had a liver function test Monday in preparation of a surgery I’m having next week. Hope the glass didn’t throw my results out at all. Considering I was asked lots of questions at the pathologists, they didn’t ask when was my last alcoholic drink and how much and often I drink. Hmmmm.

Dr Matthew Weiner has done a few podcast and has been speaking about regain with sleeve on his social media a lot lately. May be worth checking them out if only for some information to consider. He does prescribe GLP -1s for many of his sleevers and says this is a path many will have to go down as regain is common with sleeve. Have you been in contact with your surgeon (if they are still practicing nearby) to discuss options? Have you considered revisiting your dietician too. May be worth tracking what your eating and drinking too just to ensure your not missing something. It’s easy to become complacent about food choices, portion sizes, frequency or meals, etc. or not meeting protein & fluid goals as time passes. Have you had any medication changes? What are your activity levels like?

I don’t take them because of an issue with my pancreas either. I don’t absorb protein well as a result of my gall removal. Malabsorption after gall surgery isn’t uncommon but it being for protein is more rare. (Also don’t absorb some medications either now like hormone replacement meds.) I forget to take them at times too - usually my lunch time one. I keep the bottle on the bench right in front of me to remind myself. The creons keep my protein levels at just on the border of okay. The original dose of 10 000mg 3 x a day didn't do anything so it was increased to 25 000 3 x a day which does. I don’t like having to take meds. Am lucky & very glad I only take the creons and a Nexium in the morning.

Glad you’re feeling more yourself @Starwarsandcupcakes. You’ve been through a lot the last few months and recovery is just not the healing of physical scars. Looking forward to seeing your meal prep pxts again.

No one sees my saggy, baggy thighs @ms.sss LOL! Wish you could get rid of the lose skin with exercise or weights. Actually it’s mainly my inner thighs so no shorty short shorts. I do wear longer closer to the knees ones which show off my toned knees.

Did you have side effects from the creons? The only thing I’ve noticed is that it firms things up and can cause a little constipation as a result. I think it’s like the creons slow the passage of digesting through the intestines so more nutrients are absorbed - could be right off the mark though 😁. I do wonder if they are contributing to my increasing cholesterol which is a conversation I’m going to have with my GP and prescribing doctor.

I sometimes date the bag as to when I made it but generally up to 6 or so months. I found some lamb cutlets (raw) in the depths of the freezer that were about two years old (I think from memory). I made soup with them. Tasted fine, just ensure the food is room temp when you freeze otherwise you’ll get ice build up. This degrades the food most & more quickly I feel. I did a clean out last week and threw out some egg muffins that were a good 16 months old and some mystery meat I’d cooked but didn’t label. As @SpartanMaker said - the mystery meat just looked grey and unappetising. oh, sometimes double bagging helps with freezer burn. Zip lock the individual portions of a certain food and then bag them together in a larger plastic bag (I sometimes do this and recycle my fruit & vegetable bags).

I wouldn’t trust any signals now either. Simply because many nerves were cut during the surgery, so signals either aren’t getting through, aren’t the same or maybe off. You won’t start to get these signals again until you’re fully healed (about 6-8 weeks). This is why it’s so important to follow your plan in regards to portion sizes and frequency of meals. Many do find their signals change. Well may be not change more you learn to identify and recognise what the signals really mean. Like a signal for being full (or had enough) might be sneezing, hiccups or a runny nose. We also learn to differentiate between head hunger (which usually used to drive us to eat ) and real hunger .Generally if you are craving a specific texture, flavour or food. Like many want to eat something crunchy during puree stage - that’s head hunger. Your desire for coffee is head hunger. Like @SpartanMaker said real hunger has different and unusual signals. I get restless and think something is wrong and then I realise I’m hungry. And yes, most times a grumbling tummy (hunger pangs) are just your digestive system working properly. It takes time to learn what these things mean to you. Just tread slowly and stick to your plan.

I ziplock everything: soup, casseroles, home made pies, meatballs, steak, chicken, pork, lamb, etc. with gravies or sauces or without. Just don’t reheat in the ziplock bags - they don’t do well in heat! I find vegetables cooked in a dish (like soups, casseroles,…) freeze well but by themselves they can get mushy. So your taco filling should be fine except I don’t think you can freeze guacamole either. Much like custard, cream, yoghurt I think it may go lumpy or split.

What about a mouth spray? I take a D3K2 as a mouth spray in winter when my vitamin D levels drop (the regular blood tests identified the seasonal drop). It doesn’t real taste of anything and you simply squirt it under your tongue. I buy Bioceuticals but I don’t think they’re in the UK but there are other brands that make mouth sprays. Even if you can reduce how many capsules you have to swallow will help. And yes look fur capsules and not those huge, dry horse tablet ones. Check with your team about what vitamins you need to take @Chatterboxdea. Different surgeries have different vitamin requirements & ask when you should begin them. Plus your blood tests will inform what you may be lacking in so you don’t take more than you need which can have side effects (and can be expensive). For example I had a sleeve. Didn’t need to start taking supplements until the surgery and only took a multivitamin and briefly a vitamin D. My surgeon advised I could stop the D at about month 3 or 4 and then the multi at about 8 months.

I agree with @SpartanMaker, @ShoppGirl. You can’t spot lose weight/fat. But be careful building muscle in your thighs as they could end up bigger. I have three pairs of slim legged pants I can’t wear anymore because they became too firm in the legs. Weight hadn’t changed. Pants still fit perfectly in the waist & around the butt but the thighs, and calves in one pair, nope. Waah! And no they didn’t shrink in the wash. (Remember when we used to use that as an excuse -lol!)

I love a doctor who explains everything (& not using medical terminology) and draws diagrams. Glad yours does this and you feel comfortable with them and confident about the surgery. It makes such a difference. You’re well on your way now. Yay!

Go slowly, my first drink was a gin & tonic and I nursed that low ball for hours. Not kidding - hours at my cousin’s 40th. I chose the G & T because I was very sensitive to anything that was even the slightest sweet tasting. I actually found I lost a lot of my taste for alcohol too and some drinks I used to enjoy the taste of I didn’t until well into my 2nd year. And yes it will hit you more quickly. I still can get a bit ‘happy’ on less than a glass of something specially if I haven’t just eaten.