SunnyinSC

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.