SemperVeritas

Hi, sorry to hear about your struggles 😔 it can be so tough! I'm 17m post op bypass, and although my team was happy with my loss at one year post op, I wanted to lose more and was really aware of how much I wanted to eat, like I never stopped thinking about food. I started taking compounded semaglutide in April, and the low doses didn't do much for me, but I've recently reached the therapeutic dose, and it has been great! Just this morning I hit a normal BMI, something I thought I could never do. I've been thinking about posting about my experience with it, because it was made a huge difference in both my physical appetite and my thoughts about food. I weighed 157 at my one year post-op, and 144.8 this morning! And most of that has come off just the last two months. Any drawbacks - I have had a few "learning experiences" like I did post-op, but overall it's been fine. If your doctor thinks it might be worth a trial, maybe give it a try. ☺️ I know it's making a big difference for lots of people.

I'm also just a year post-op, and I recently had some super weird severe shoulder pain (saw the Dr 😁) and I took a couple Advil/ibuprofen maybe 3x-4x in total over the course of a couple weeks. I ate first, and chewed a couple Tums. There was recently an episode of Dr. Weiner's podcast A Pound of Cure, where he addresses NSAIDs after bypass, and he touches on the spectrum of a very limited, careful taking of ibuprofen for a specific short term pain, vs someone who might have a chronic pain issue or injury that needs continuous dosing. Good luck and hope your jaw feels better soon!

My program counts from the highest weight in program, not the surgery day weight, to calculate progress towards patient goals.

Hi! This is the thread for people who had surgery in 2023 😁 but I had to jump in and say hi- I had my bypass last year on the 7th and it has been a really good experience for me, so I'll be thinking of you this year on my surgiversary and wishing you well and an exciting year ahead!

March 7th... I'm down 63 and the team would like me to be at a loss of 75-85 at a year, so I hope I can make it. I'm at my lowest adult weight, which is great, but I can eat a wide variety of food, and being home all day makes it tough to not oversnack. But feeling pretty good and thankful most days!

Been following along with your ups and downs and really feel for you with this latest development... it's been a lot! I too have a "B" shaped belly, so I was curious what you meant by it sticking out. When I saw the pic the first thing I thought of was diastasis recti. I saw a picture of a pretty thin lady that had it, and her stomach made that same pronounced shape. Good luck finding answers and with your next surgery!

1. Basics: GENDER, AGE, HEIGHT F, 38, 5'4 2. Total Weight lost in the 6 months BEFORE surgery (if any) 11.6 lbs 3. Weight on DAY OF SURGERY. 221.4 4. Weight at 1 MONTH POST surgery 202.4 5. Weight at 3 MONTHs POST surgery 189.4 6. Weight at 6 MONTHs POST surgery 7. Weight at 12 MONTHs POST surgery

I had the bypass done on March 7th. I'm 5'4 and starting weight was 233, 221.4 on day of surgery. Today I weighed in at 184.6, so about 48 lbs lost in total. Really excited to hit 50 lost, and then I'll only have about 5 lbs to get to my previous low I had reached on my own about 5 years ago. I'm averaging about 1100 calories a day, and I track with LoseIt because I could see myself snacking around my restriction. I do "formal" exercise about 3x week, and I'm generally pretty busy around the house or going for walks. Energy level is pretty low though, I definitely don't feel like I'm bouncing around lol. Hope everyone else is well and healthy!

I've only had general anesthesia twice. Once as a young teen, and then for this surgery. Great experience both times. I chose some calming, empowering phrases like "I am making an amazing choice to take care of myself." "I am safe here." And fun ones like "see you in a minute!" to my spouse. The anesthesiologist team was great, friendly and calm. He put a little something in my iv before we left pre-op, and although I was aware of going down the hall, and seeing a couple familiar faces in the OR, talking to the nurse who was adjusting the board at my feet, and recognizing the country song that was playing (couldn't tell you what it was now though 😅), the next thing I knew I was in my room, and my spouse was coming in. I just felt very sleepy and although I kept trying to open my eyes to talk to the nurse and my husband, the nurse was like "just go back to sleep! Everything's great!" So I did ha. You've got this!!

My program actually recommends the Flintstones Complete. They are affordable, especially for the beginning where you might need to take more expensive chewable calcium and stuff. I take two Flintstones, two chewable calciums (will be glad when the bottle is done though ha) and one B12 melt (every other day). I do think I'll switch to pills once I'm done with my stash of chewables though.

I was required to have chewables at first (still on them). My regimen for now is: Prilosec on applesauce upon waking Chewable calcium at breakfast Chewable calcium at lunch, and a B12 melt every other day Two Flintstones Complete at dinner BP med at bedtime (and my calcium if I missed one during the day) I tried the Bariatric Advantage Calcium first and it *ahem* upset my stomach quite a bit. I was glad I had tried it before surgery ha. Although, to be fair, I was also taking major vitamin C in the run up to surgery so that combo might have created the tummy/bathroom issues. I'm now taking the Celebrate calcium and while it isn't fantastic tasting, I try to just tell myself it tastes like a smartie 😅 not too bad.

Definitely sound dehydrated! Dehydration increases nausea, which makes it even harder to get fluids in. I really had to mind over matter fluids for a while. I liked powdered Propel mixed in warm water, or Lonolife broth in warm water. Also, Biotin mouthwash helps a bunch with dry mouth, but you need to be taking in fluids. Constipation - a capful of miralax daily is a gentle treatment okayed by my team, but it is osmotic (drawing water into the intestines) so you need to be taking in fluids for it to work best.

Yes, my resting heart rate went up at least 10 bpm the week or so after surgery and my Garmin watch showed I was highly stressed. But with the exception of a bad 24 hour stretch I had a good recovery and wasn't really in pain. Just my body doing its thing I guess. It's lower now at 5 weeks post-op than it was before surgery.

Thank you both for your thoughts. It's helpful for both now and thinking about the future!

I'm almost 3 weeks post op (bypass). I plan to ask my NUT, but how did you measure your food, especially in the early days? Previously, when calorie counting, I would weigh my food. But now when I read the suggested meal plan it says stuff like 3 tablespoons cream of wheat and 2 tablespoons chicken (made that combo up 😅). So I've been measuring by volume because I have a one ounce scoop/or tablespoon. But there is a considerable difference between the volume and weight for most foods, so I'm curious!