pintsizedmallrat

I did; it almost entirely sprung from an incident that happened about a month after my surgery. I woke up in the middle of the night, and I always keep a cup of water by my bed. In my groggy sleepiness, I drank several large gulps of water because I momentarily "forgot" I can't drink like that anymore. 30 min later I woke up choking on stomach acid and went through the most violent vomiting episode I've ever experienced (because I was fighting it; I hadn't vomited yet after my procedure and I was half-awake and terrified.). I THOUGHT that was the end of it. Apparently some of what I coughed up got into my lungs and kicked off a nasty infection that landed me in the hospital with bacterial pneumonia on IV antibiotics for a week and almost killed me. That's not an exaggeration; my husband has since told me he didn't know someone could get that sick and not die. He didn't think I was going to make it. Some of the symptoms you're describing sound like some that I had early in the infection; if you start coughing up anything that smells or tastes gross/yeasty/cheesy/smells like an infection or start running a fever, go to the ER. Immediately.

I'm honest. I really don't care what peoples' opinions are. I almost died to get here. I'm proud I made it through to the other side. They can judge me if they want but I know the truth; this is far from the easy way out and if someone wants to treat me like it is, I appreciate them letting me know they're not someone I want to continue to maintain a relationship with.

I feel like the people who act this way don't understand the mountain of obstacles and commitment that is the difference between being able to lose 20 or 30 pounds this way vs a few hundred. I always COULD have lost 20, 30, 40 pounds the "old fashioned way" but I need the tool my sleeve provides to get to where I ultimately wanted to be. I think of my sleeve like a combo multiplier in a video game; for every good choice I make, it multiplies the benefits.

I am fairly sure my surgery center suggested not driving for 48 hours but my husband didn't want me to drive for a week because he was worried about me (luckily we both work from home so there wasn't very much need for me to drive). After four days unless you're having issues you should be ok for at least a short drive. Just be careful.

First of all, give yourself a break; being 2 1/2 years out and having maintained most of your weight loss is a win, so give yourself credit for that. You said yourself you're under a tremendous amount of stress. Any of the options you mentioned (your surgeon, your PCP and your OBGYN) would be good options just to rule out anything that could be contributing (menopause, stress levels, or even just taking a good hard look at where you can make do-able changes that would help). Maybe even all 3. I know you occasionally hear of people doing what they call a "pouch reset" where they follow an abbreviated version of their initial post-surgery diet (i.e. doing only liquids for a few days, then moving on to purees, etc), but I haven't done it and can't speak from experience how well it works. There's information out there on Google if that's something you'd like to read more about.

This absolutely can contribute; I feel rough if I deviate from my supplements for a few DAYS, so after a year I'm sure you probably don't feel your best.

19 pounds in a month is fantastic; there are folks on this very board who would love to be able to say they had lost that much their first month. I wouldn't put too much stock in how your body reacted to losing weight prior to your surgery, your entire system has just gone through massive changes and is still very much in a healing phase, so you've got things like fluid retention, inflammation, etc at play.

You may not be sleeping as well as you should right now, which can contribute. It took me weeks to get used to how I could lie at night without aggravating my incisions.

I did a lot of soups and yogurt at the time, along with very soft set scrambled eggs.

Man, that's a hard thing to predict....if you would have asked me a year ago what size I thought I would be by now I would have been WAY off! I would probably err on the side of too big because it's going to be easier to take in a dress that's too large than to let out a too-small dress (if it's even possible, because it often isn't.) I would wait until much closer to the time of the event to get it altered, maybe even reserve a spot with a tailor in advance and explain the situation as to why you can't get it done sooner. They may make you pay in advance but at least you know you'll have your chance to get it altered in time.

Screw peoples' judgement. If they had to go through what we do, they would never breathe a word of "easy" about the process. I felt at times like I was walking through hell barefoot when I was recovering; I literally almost died to get here. The only people I've experienced derision from are either a) completely uninformed about what the surgery entails and thinks I had all the fat sucked out or something (aka idiots...like yeah I just went back every week for a year and had a pound removed at a time? GTFOH with that!) or b) people who have never been fat and probably have never had a family member be fat either, and have no understanding of how someone ends up gaining weight. Good on them for being genetically blessed but that doesn't give them the right to judge anyone.

You might be suprised...I always thought I was "big boned" but apparently I was hiding a really small frame underneath all that.

As far as taste goes, you might try using sugar-free hard candy as long as you are capable of not biting down and crunching it up and can let it melt.

I like using a blender bottle for powdered shakes (the sports shakers with a little round wire ball inside that works like a whisk). It seems very good at breaking up the clumps.

I have a sleeve, and when I was experiencing severe acid reflux in the beginning, I had some regrets about not going for bypass. At over a year out I seem to have less difficulties with various foods than my friends who had bypass (I can more or less eat whatever I'd like in reasonable quantities), and I feel like in my own particular situation, I may have had even more difficulty than I already do with keeping what weight I have left ON...I have been attempting "maintenance" for about 4 months now and still am losing 2-3 pounds a month, and I am done actively trying to lose. It's actually hard to eat enough to maintain my current weight.

I've been in therapy for a few months because my body image is really out of whack. While I don't think I am the same size I once was, my concept of what I look like is about 50 pounds behind, and to this day I still pick up clothing thinking there is no way it is ever going to fit only to find out it's too big (even clothes I already own!). I was carrying the majority of my weight in my trunk, so almost all my excess skin is on my neck and stomach. The neck is snapping back slowly, but my stomach would probably need surgery before I would feel comfortable wearing a bikini in public. (I read somewhere that if a part of your body had stretch marks on it, it's less likely to bounce back entirely due to the scar tissue, and that lines up with my experience, I only had stretch marks on my belly and bustline and those are the two most stubbornly saggy areas.)

My bust didn't really "shrink"--despite all appearances, I wear the same cup size that I did before my surgery however they are noticeably less full now and a bit floppier. I was a 40F before the surgery and a 30F now.

I don't have kids, but I do have a husband, and an adult brother who lives with us, neither of which are bariatric patients. I usually just eat the part of the meal that agrees with my diet, maybe with some small alterations (i.e. I eat the broccoli and chicken that the fellas are enjoying over pasta, or just the stir-fried meat and veggies with no rice).

Introduce things slowly and in reasonable amounts as you try to expand your diet. Honestly, the thing that helped me the most was when I ended up in the hospital, ironically. They had me receiving the same tray that elderly people who can't chew/swallow well receive since I was still on purees/soft foods, and it gave me a chance to try a few things I hadn't thought to introduce into my diet. I may have only been able to eat a tablespoon of those peas but I found out I could eat them!

Unfortunately, any "triggers" you may have for dumping will change, and come and go as you recover and go on with your journey. Early in the process, a LOT of things would set my stomach off, a few of which you wouldn't expect (banana baby food was a surprise). Now, it only seems to be a combination of carbs and alcohol which means if I have a drink I try to have a small amount of nuts, or some cheese available to snack on so I don't get the bright idea to have a cookie and end up with another concussion. It's trial-and-error, and what causes one person to do it may not do the same to you and vice versa. We're all kind of unique.

I use cannabis (the legally-available kind) and feel like while it does give "the munchies" at times, I am the one in control and I choose whether I eat or not, and it helps if you know you're planning for a bit of a sesh to prepare some snacks you're comfortable eating before you start...the way I see it, it might make me hungry but it also makes me lazy, so if I have a convenient, healthy snack or a less healthy one I'm going to need to actually prepare, I'm going for the easy stuff! For whatever it's worth, I feel like the times I've consumed alcohol, it's lowered my inhibitions and led to much worse food decisions than weed ever does, especially since it seems like alcohol makes it so I can't feel my restriction as strongly.

First off, I am another one of the "lucky" sleevers who dump, we're less common than RNY patients but we exist. Secondly, I was about where you are at 3 months, could barely get 200-300 calories down and certain things would not agree with me AT ALL (specifically eggs and potatoes, and I'm 16 months out and still have problems with potatoes). I had burned my esophagus with stomach acid due to really bad acid reflux, and it took quite a while for me to heal. I'm doing fine NOW, but I feel your pain and I hope your doctors are taking your concerns seriously. Be a squeaky wheel until you get answers. Sending you warm thoughts; I know it sucks and the only way out is through. Stay strong!

At around 3-4 months I was eating about 500 calories a day and struggling to even get that down. My surgeon was concerned that wasn't enough and tried to get me to raise it by 100 each week until I got to 800. Your numbers may vary; I am a woman and I'm very small in stature so it's likely your team will want you to eat more than that.

You're going to need lots of storage, as the person above said, because however much you think you're going to be able to eat, it's probably going to be less than that. If you don't already own a food scale, you need one now. They're not expensive but tracking what you eat doesn't do you a bit of good if you don't have accurate measurements of how much you're eating. This may fall into the category of "just me" but I found it easier to drink fluids out of a bottle with a "sports top" (the little pop up "nipple" like you see athletes drinking from) right after my procedure as opposed to drinking straight from the glass. I could kind of squirt it in my mouth and I felt like I swallowed less air like that.

This is a question for your surgical team; everyone's plan is different