SunnyinSC

So I had my pre-op appointment and they mentioned that a pre-op diet is not required, but did recommend doing a protein shake for dinner the night before instead of solid food. I mentioned I had read online that most surgeons seem to require at minimum a 2 day liquid pre-op diet and the nurse let me know that they reason they aren't requiring one is because my BMI is not 50 or more. I guess they only require it for heavier patients. I was just wondering if anyone else had a surgeon that didn't require a pre-op diet. If so, what surgery did you get, and how was recovery?

I agree with everyone else, 21lbs in 4 weeks is great! At my actual check in I had lost less than that (14lbs total) because I hit a stall 2 weeks after surgery that lasted almost 3 weeks. My surgeon was still supportive and happy for me. Hopefully yours gets the stick out his butt and is more supportive in the future. You're doing awesome. Celebrate that loss and don't let his bad attitude get you down.

Hey everyone, just checking in cause I haven't in a while. My scars are healing nicely. They're little pink thin things. Much, much better than the ones from my gallbladder out where they sealed the incisions with glue and the scars left are big circular deals. Had my first post-op appointment with the surgeon and my dietician cleared me for all foods, not just soft. However, I've still been sticking to soft foods just cause they're easier on the tummy. Getting in around 500-600 calories a day, which my dietician mentioned was to be expected this far out. So feeling better about that. I had been worried that I wasn't eating enough even though I sort of felt like I was eating all the time. Still so strange to feel like I'm kinda constantly eating but still only be eating so few calories. I am down to 242, so my stall is long gone, which yay! It lasted about 2 and a half weeks total when I was at 252-251. Total of 28lbs lost since surgery on the 8th which is pretty amazing. Also down 12 inches over the past 3 weeks, not all from one spot but an inch or from various spaces (thighs, biceps, chest, hips, waist, neck). Starting to feel more "normal" again which is amazing! Getting on soft foods and more regular foods really really helped. I think my favorite meal right now is just deli turkey, cheese, and some olives or dill pickles. Hope you are all doing well too!

Yup, finding one that deals with disordered eating and all is extremely tough. One of the things I found super surprising was that I've actually been in therapy for a good 15 or so years now off and on, with different therapists as I've moved around. Not once was disordered eating ever brought up in regards to my weight. My weight was addressed as something I wanted to change, but nothing really beyond that. The general understanding from my therapists was that if we just fix the depression, then the weight will magically float away. Which didn't happen. So I was super surprised come psych eval time when they mentioned it. I definitely recommend talking to the therapist that evaluated you if that's an option. Even if you don't decide to go with him, he may be able to offer suggestions for other people/places. Also wanted to clarify my "homework" comment a bit. That was probably the wrong word for it. I have behaviors that I need to change for this to stick long term. So each session we'll kind of pick a behavior to focus on given my current progress and feelings. I will report how it went, but I don't get graded on how I've done, and the therapist doesn't degrade/insult/demean me or anything negative if I do badly. We always tend to focus on what went well, and what we can do better. It's strictly a trial and error thing and finding what works for me while making slow, sustainable changes. I have actually used BetterHelp around 4 years ago (maybe more?) and, it wasn't for me. Now, they may have improved since I used it because if I remember correct they didn't use to require people to be certified and all that, and now they do. But the old experience was just not something I found helpful. Was fine for just venting, but pretty useless beyond that.

My doctor's office had me do a psych evaluation prior to approval for surgery. I asked the therapist that did the evaluation for recommendations of a long term therapist I could use prior to and after surgery. She was able to give me one that accepted my insurance. Therapy will be a lot of talk about feelings and that sort of stuff, because the goal is to get at the root of why we feel the need to overeat and address that, not just the eating itself. It's all about identifying triggers and then working to modify behaviors and such to either avoid the triggers or work through them in a healthier way. As some examples from my own therapy sessions, I know I'm an emotional eater. Through some questioning the therapist helped me realize that keeping a list of tasks/errands/chores in my head could cause me to feel overwhelmed and that stress would lead me to overeat. She gave a suggestion that I keep the tasks written down on our fridge, not in my head, and that way my husband can know what I want done without me having to ask, and it doesn't fall on me. That has been working for our household, but if it didn't then I would have gone back and discussed what about it worked, and what didn't, and other ways to address it. Part of it has been discussing exercise, and how I schedule it into my day. Or that I don't cook often, but really need to be better about that long term so I'll have "homework" to cook x times per week. My homework for my next appointment is to pick out some clothes I feel good in (I've been living in PJs or athletic clothes for months). Which sounds simple and maybe silly, but I find therapy can just give me that extra little push sometimes to set goals I wouldn't have otherwise set for myself, and reporting to the therapist adds a level of accountability that makes me more likely to stick to it. It is a long process, and changes to behaviors and attitudes won't happen overnight. I started seeing my therapist about 4 months ago now, and I still have a lot to work on.

I always recommend talking to a doctor first. That being said, Miralax has always helped me. I have IBS and use to tend towards constipation to where I had to take Miralax daily. Since surgery I've actually evened out a lot and haven't had to take it. Hopefully you feel better soon. Don't push to hard and give yourself a hernia or hemorrhoid!

I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I'm off of my blood pressure medication! Super happy as that was one of my goals. I am down to 246lbs as of today as well, so 19lbs lost since surgery on the 8th. I hit my 4 week mark and am now getting to reintroduce some soft foods, which I am loving. I can say that I now understand people mentioning certain things, such as chicken, sitting in the stomach like a rock. Lunch today was 4 pieces of deli turkey and two slices of cheese, and dinner was a tiny bit of shredded rotisserie chicken, with a little bit of feta cheese and some buffalo hot sauce. Most my protein for the day is still coming from liquids though. I am finding it hard to get enough protein from food alone, mostly because I don't feel like I can eat frequently yet. It takes quite a long time after eating for the "full" feeling to go away. So between that and drinking water constantly, I just don't feel like I have the time to eat more actual food.

Thank you guys for all the input. It sounds like my eating capacity at 8 months won't be much different from a year an 8 months if I'm interpreting everyone correctly, so we'll give it a try, assuming they allow leftovers to be taken back to our resort. I think they do, but I will definitely call ahead and ask before going. It's not something we want to do regularly by any means, but we did want to do it once just to have the full experience. It was something we were interested in before the surgery, I've just not had the confidence to go. Funny how that works! We will also still be celebrating our anniversary either way, so no worries there. We actually use vacation time at work to schedule a week off around our anniversary yearly, so plenty of stuff to do that isn't food related as well

So, I'll start this off by stating I've never really done a fine dining style experience. My husband and I eventually want to try Victoria and Albert's (in the Grand Floridian in Disney World). We'd like to go for our anniversary, which will be about 8 months post-RNY surgery. Their meal style is a whole bunch of courses (6-8). Each individual dish is pretty small. Does anyone have any experience with eating at this type of restaurant post-surgery? Is it out of the question given the smaller tummy or do you think we can still have a good time? Should I perhaps wait an additional year and we can try for our next anniversary? Note: This is assuming it is reopened by the time our anniversary rolls around. It's currently closed due to COVID. I assume it'll reopen at some point.

I'm sorry to hear it's been going so poorly so far. I haven't experienced the same problems, but I can say that the problems I did experience got better as I adjusted, and as time passed. I was lucky in that the hospital had a list of my medications and they gave me my antidepressants and blood pressure medications when appropriate. That being said, feeling regret within the first few weeks of surgery does seem to be pretty common on these forums at least. The good news is that regret also seems to be temporary, especially once people can start eating more normal foods. I hope you start feeling better soon!

My appointment with the surgeon himself, we just went over the surgery. He mentioned which type he'd recommend given my weight and co-morbidities. Then he went over what the surgery itself involved and asked if I had any other questions. Was very short and to the point. Now, that same day I also spoke with a nurse and dietician. The nurse asked some more probing questions about my acid reflux and ended up ordering an endoscopy since I was self-pay (and therefore couldn't afford revision if I got sleeve and it made things worse). We also went over pre and post-op expectations, as well as what to expect during the hospital stay.

There's a comedian that was making fun of pseudoscience (Dara Ó Briain) and he pointed out that dietician is the registered term for people who had received an education and all, and anyone can pretty much call themselves a nutritionist. It really surprised me because in my head, nutritionist sounds like the more "legit" of the two. Yay for learning through comedy I didn't know that some states actually do regulate who can use the nutritionist title though. Sadly, it's none of the states I've lived in, so I will continue to view anyone who labels themselves as a nutritionist in my area with heavy skepticism. Glad my hospital/program uses dieticians!

I've been encouraged by doctors and all to walk as much as I want, provided I am not exhausting myself and straining my body. They also wanted to make sure that I kept on top of my water intake if I was walking a lot so as not to dehydrate myself. I didn't have anything to count my steps, but like many others here, I would bet I walked over a mile the day of and day after surgery while in the hospital (maybe not all in one go though). Lots of laps trying to get those gas bubbles out.

I don't know if it'll help, but right out of surgery I found my "sips" were a bit too big. I definitely felt like I was sipping, but then I'd get the air bubble feeling like I have to burp, and trying to force myself to burp would make some liquid come up too, so I'd have to swallow again, then burp, and repeat several times in order to get the air out. I think maybe since I use to gulp water prior to surgery, my sense of a sip versus a normal drink was off, and I was drinking more normally rather than sipping. I eventually did what @Creekimp13 suggested and repurposed our shot glasses into water cups, set myself a timer and made sure I was drinking an ounce over 15 minutes rather than drinking 1-2 ounces in a few minutes and then nothing for the remaining time. Sitting up when sipping helped a bunch as well. I noticed when I tried to sip while in bed at night, it was much much more common to get the bubble feeling. It did get easier as I got further out, and I can take bigger sips at 3 weeks out then I could at 1. Still sometimes do one too big and get the bubble, but far less common now.

249.4 today! I am officially in the 240s! Haven't seen that in a while cause my body loves to hang around 250-252. Doing a little happy dance for scale victory. I am also starting to notice that I've been having to tighten the drawstring a bit on my PJs, otherwise they'll slowly fall off as I walk around. Haven't tried on any jeans yet because my belly button incision is still a little tender. Hoping for a nice surprise when I do. I don't expect a dramatic difference yet, but hopefully some of my pairs that had gotten tight will be back to fitting more normally and not leaving stamps on my stomach.

I got a little bit of cramping and increased my potassium intake via adding in some avocado and bananas to what I was already eating. For example, I'd put avocado in egg, or banana with my yogurt. I don't know if the muscle pain you're getting is from cramps, exercise, or just general pain, so I don't know if that'll help. The only time I've taken magnesium citrate is for constipation, and that was pre-surgery. If the pain is a constant, I'd call the doctor.

So I don't normally get periods due to my birth control. However, when losing weight I will spot on and off. As catwoman mentioned, it's totally normal due to estrogen being released. It's happened to me even prior to surgery when I lost a significant amount of weight through dieting. It's always eventually stabilized and gone back to zero period (since that's my norm). If you are concerned though, giving your doctor a ring is never a bad idea

I agree! The whys are definitely important. I had to put surgery on hold for 3 months while I saw a therapist and I'm actually really glad I did. We ended up doing a couples session and identified at least one sort of "trigger" for me that I didn't really think about before. For me, I've realized that "mental load" can often wind up feeling really overwhelming if one thing sort of gets knocked out of place. I'll list up all these tasks in my head of things I need to do, and then if say.. I suddenly have to work overtime, I'll panic and stress eat as a result. And sure I'll tell myself that it's only this once, and I deserve it I'm working extra so I don't have time to cook and blah blah, but if those things were true then I wouldn't have ended up as overweight as I am. The truth is it wasn't "once". The solution we've found that works for our household is me just keeping the "list" written on the fridge instead of in my mind. This means my husband can see what needs to be done without me having to ask, because I hate hate hate asking (it makes me feel like a mother instead of a partner). If he knows what needs to be done, then he'll do it, especially if he sees I'm stressed. That has helped ward off a lot of the overwhelmed feelings that led me to eat before. I also came to a rude awakening post-surgery regarding not finishing food. We were a "clean your plate" household, and while I'm aware of it, I didn't realize just quite how much throwing away food I was enjoying would bug me. If there's enough for leftovers, then I'll store it, but sometime I literally have a bite or two left. It's gotten easier to discard the little bits as time has gone on, but the first time I had just a couple bites left I sat there staring at my food for a good 20 minutes or so, hoping the full feeling would magically disappear before I finally tossed it out. I am still continuing to see a therapist, and will be doing so until I've got a comfortable hold on my various "whys" and how to address them. While I am definitely better off than I was several months ago, I still have a lot of room for improvement. Eventually I hope to get to a place where I'm comfortable just calling the therapist when I'm having a particularly bad time, but I'm not quite there yet.

Edit: I quoted the wrong person. This was suppose to be in reply to @laurenantics I am not sure if I could have changed into my own nightgown. I didn't really ask and just stuck to hospital gown until I went home (they gave me two, one to put on the right way, and then one to put on backwards to cover up my behind while I walked). I had an IV from the time I was checked in for surgery to when I went home. I actually had IV needles in both hands too, just in case one failed. Had to sleep with them, and walk around with the IV cart for gas pain. I did not shower in the hospital. Did shower once I got home. My surgeon wanted no food or drink past midnight the night before surgery. Had a protein shake for dinner that day too. After surgery I could drink as soon as I was awake (I know some people have had to wait a bit after and use those little sponges). Ultimately though, everyone's surgeons seem to have different things they do, so I would recommend posing those questions to your surgeon/nurses. They'll be able to give you the policies for your hospital stay.

I use the reminders, the calorie/macro tracker for protein goals, and the weight/measurement features mainly. I'm not really exercising yet or I'd hook Apple Watch up to it too. Sounds like you're doing great! I think my stall is very very slowly breaking still. I'm down to 250.2! I can't wait to see 249 on the scale. My body loves hanging on to weight at around the 250 mark. I am still happy with my overall loss though. My highest weight was 275, then I was 265 day of surgery (I did not have a pre-op diet, but still lost 10lbs in the three months leading up to surgery). So still down 15lbs in 3ish weeks, and 25 overall. Not a bad little start Also, welcome to all the new people. I hope your surgeries and recoveries go well! I didn't want to post a response to everyone individually and end up spamming the thread with replies.

Just doing a quick check in. I'm almost 3 weeks out of surgery. I went from 265 down to 251 and then hit a stall which I've had for nearly a week and a half. Hoping it's breaking as my weight finally went down by .4lbs today instead of just being the same freaking thing. I started using the Baritastic app at the recommendation of a friend and am loving it so far. Have also been trying to be better at eating at least 3 meals a day instead of just two and protein shakes. I'm trying to focus on getting my calories up a bit while hitting my protein and water goals. I will say that with the buffer time (30 minutes before and after) for drinking, paired with how slow I'm eating, it feels like I'm constantly eating. That being said, I'm still only getting in around 800 calories a day max. So that's a really surreal thing for me, to feel like I'm eating all the time, but still only be eating around 800 calories. I did have one instance where I ate too fast and threw up as a result. Throwing up was also a really interesting sensation. There was no stomach acid, so what came up was basically what went down plus some saliva. Not pleasant but not as bad as pre-surgery. Hopefully everyone is doing well and recovering without much issue!

I second going to see a therapist who is knowledgeable about bariatric therapy together. Hopefully that can help you guys communicate and get at the root cause of what his issues with surgery may be, as well as tips for addressing or working through them. It isn't really fair to you if he's getting on you about weight, but then also gets upset when you try and get healthier, especially to the point of giving what sounds like a veiled ultimatum to you. Improving your health is important and hopefully you guys can find some common ground so that taking steps to improve your health doesn't result in the relationship falling apart. Best of luck!

That does sound a lot like mine! I had surgery at around 10am, then that day had clear liquids for dinner (water throughout the day as requested too). Following day first meal was clear liquids, lunch was liquids (cream of chicken, some yogurt, then protein shake), and dinner was pureed turkey and pureed green beans (with some cream of chicken/protein shake/milk on the side). Needless to say I didn't eat all of it. I was dunking the pureed turkey into the cream of chicken too. Pureed turkey on it's own is just.. not for me. I got discharged after dinner, so I didn't stay the second night, but if I had the next full day would be pureed. I'm sorry to hear you're doing poorly! I can definitely see eating too quickly or too much. I don't have any sort of "full" indicators that I'm aware of yet so I imagine it'd be really easy to eat too much. Too quickly as well. I've been trying to offset that one by buying super small spoons (I got little ice scream spoons off amazon) and then making sure to pause between bites. I don't know if that's helping me at all, but so far so good. I hope you start to feel better soon!

Glad you found something you can keep down! That sounds like a good combo too

Yeah, I have no clue. I got worried at first cause my plan was so very different, but my doctor has also been doing this for a long time (25 years) and teaches at a medical university so I'm sure he's got his reasons for the methods. Puree is sort of soft, but more like constant baby food. When I get to "graduate" to soft it'll actually be whole foods, just ones that are softer, if that makes any sense, lol. I'll get to eat things like shellfish, chicken, turkey, lunchmeats, cheeses and soups, without having to puree them to baby food consistency first. They do need to be chopped into smaller pieces, but not pureed. I do get hungry now, but it's not like.. keep me awake at night hunger like it use to be pre-surgery. It usually only comes if I've been bad and forgotten to eat my puree dinner until much later. If I eat on a schedule then I'm not hungry at all. The trouble with trying to eat on a strict schedule is that sometimes I'm bloated/uncomfortable by the time a certain meal is suppose to come around. I've had a lot of gas discomfort/bloating (I wouldn't call it pain) in my intestines and such since surgery. Comes after eating or drinking anything, stays for a while, and then passes. Even water makes me feel bloated. Fingers crossed it'll eventually go away. It has gotten a bit better since surgery so looking hopeful at least!