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.

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!

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

For me, miralax every day until I'm going regularly (I totally keep notes ha) and then I take it every 2-3 days. I was diluting my shakes with Fairlife skim milk, it has 13 g of protein in 8 oz! So once I was tolerating cold liquids better, I'd fill a big insulated cup with a protein drink, 8 oz of Fairlife milk, and 8 oz decaf coffee. That was 43 g protein and 30ish oz of fluid 😁 plus the ice adds a bit more. It took me about 2 or 3 hours to drink that, but it is a bit quicker now. Also love Lonolife powdered bone broth! Especially the chicken and beef. Not sure about the Thai curry flavor. Anyhow, I think they are a tasty and that's 10g protein, and 8-10 oz fluid! Good luck 😃

Wow, very noticeable difference!! Nicely done and I hope you find that visual progress encouraging! 😁 A few thoughts- 1) you've just passed a month since major surgery and your body is working hard to recovery, repair and get you back out there to your active life 🤗 I'm just a couple weeks from my bypass and working on talking to myself/honoring my body, sometimes with humor 😅 but acknowledging "my body is amazing, and strong, look how well I'm recovering", stuff like that. 2) your food plan looks good to me 3) while you can't actually build brand new muscle without being in a calorie surplus, I wouldn't be surprised if getting back to working out after a lull could cause some micro tissue tears and some water retention 4) need new scale batteries? Lastly, I don't know if you'd have access to one somewhere, but a BodPod uses air displacement (something like that) to accurately measure fat vs non-fat. It was so enlightening to me to see that pre -surgery, I legitimately could burn 3000 cals on an active day, even at 5'4 😅 because of my build. Anyhow, I just needed to know that, so when the scale wasn't moving I could say "science!!" If I'm eating 500 cals and burning even just 2000, I will eventually see it on the scale or tape measure. The body is just going to process weight loss and healing in its own sweet time. All that to say, it must really be disheartening to not see the numbers change after all your hard work and I hope you find some answers. Maybe for now frame your loss since Christmas or New Year's, because you've lost so much! Good luck to you!

Sorry it's been so rough! I had 24 hours of puking around 4 post-op and it was terrible, so my heart goes out to you. I hope your recovery starts snowballing now and a week from today you feel *normal*🤗 My plan counts protein drinks and soups towards liquids 100%. ( And for the record my "output" has been regular and the right color and whatnot, so I've not had reason to second guess it). I didn't love premeir protein's clear, but I could keep down propel (the individual sticks) either in hot water or well-watered down. I also love Lonolife powdered bone broth, it has 10 grams of protein and just settled really well. Lastly, a protein drink (fairlife or premeir), 8 oz of skim Fairlife milk, and then 8 oz of decaf coffee has really been helping me get down protein (43 grams) and fluid (~32 oz). It just seems to settle better than a straight up protein drink. It just takes a couple hours to drink, but I don't mind sipping on it that long 😅 Lastly, I did try mixing some powdered pb or regular pb into a blended shake because my plan okayed that. That can bump up calories 👍 I just need to taste something different/different consistency, so I haven't done it again. There were a few days there everything tastes weird and nasty, but thankfully that has gone for the most part!

Really interesting, thanks for sharing.

Right?! Plus I like the features in Lose It to keep notes, take progress pictures, easily track my protein. I guess maybe the paid version of MFP might include those things, but I didn't want to pay to find out!

I previously used MFP, but switched to Lose It, and I really like it. I use the the paid version.

Hi all, tomorrow I will be one week out from my bypass. My recovery has been a bit bumpy, I spent about 24 hours over the weekend puking (I don't know where it all came from!) and in pretty severe gas type pain. That calmed down, and know I'm just trying to increase clear fluids, and not worry about protein. It was scary and painful and I don't want to overdo it again! It's kinda weird thinking I've had virtual no calories for a week, but since I'm able to use the bathroom and everything seems normal there, I'm just going to press on and hope for more each day. Anyhow, my surgeon closes incisions with staples, and I'm scheduled to have them removed this week. While I'm looking forward to having them out because I think they are gross, I'm honestly super nervous! I've never had staples out. Could anyone share their experience or insight on what to expect?

Great topic! I've been thinking about this too. I heard the surgeon say that people can remember how small they were in their wedding day, or in high school, and I was like "nope!" I vaguely remember doing weight watchers in high school and getting to around 158, and when I got married my wedding dress was a 14 and I was excited it wasn't a 16 (probably around 185). So trying to imagine life, imagine my body and perception of self at 140-150 is just very strange. I think I'd be pretty psyched to maintain around 160... I also don't want to self-sabotage, but there is absolutely no frame of reference and I'm afraid to set too low of a goal and fail. It's tough!

I'm starting my pre-op diet today as well! Protein drinks and a small dinner (and pickles.... probably a lot of pickles 😅).

March 7th, I'm getting the bypass! My first appointment was the very end of December, so it's been a whirlwind. I'm excited! Edit: I was so excited, I made a typo 🤣 first appointment was end of November. Still fast...but not crazy crazy fast!