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I think it was the artificial sweeteners, I had greek yogurt with no issues and that's a bit thicker. I've stayed away from it since and haven't felt that way again, thankfully. However, I'm now dealing with serious constipation. It's so painful! I am trying to drink as much water as possible, but feel so bloated it's hard to get anything down. I've had 2 doses of milk of magnesia (the most disgusting stuff ever!!) and it's getting stuff moving, but not fast enough for me. I'm planning to call my doc here in a bit, just to assuage my nerves and also see if she has any advice I hadn't thought of. Soups! So, to be very honest...I don't cook. I hate it with a passion. Most of the stuff I eat is from a can or the deli section at my local grocery store. I blend it and mix different flavors to get some variety. My sister is 2 years post-op and loves to cook, so she brings me fresh stuff once a week and that's been huge. The soups I keep going back to are the sipping soups from Well, Yes! brand. The best and thinnest is the Roasted Corn and Poblano. I don't like spicy stuff and this is perfect! The chicken ones tend to have chunks and/or noodles, so I stay away from those.

your doctor is a jerk and should know better than that! If he's been dealing with this for any length of time, he should know that very few people lose 20 lbs - or even 16 lbs - in two weeks (unless he's Dr. Now and works mostly with high-risk bariatric patients that most surgeons won't touch). I got that crap once from a resident (not my regular surgeon - but some resident that the surgeon had during follow-up appts for awhile). He was sure to let me know that I was a slow loser and behind the rest of my cohorts. Well screw him - I went on to lose 100% of my excess weight - over 200 lbs (and most likely blew the rest of my "cohorts" out of the water). I'd love to see his face NOW.... there are so many factors that influence your rate of weight loss, most of which you have little to no control over (like...your age, for example). The two things you DO have control over is your activity level and how closely you stick to your surgeon's plan. If you're very committed to those and doing what you were instructed to do, then you'll lose weight - whether fast or slow. As long as the overall trend is downward, you're good.

Malabsorption is a fact of life for us. I try to avoid time-released but it's not a hard and fast rule. I have some that work fine while others I've had to change because they didn't work. It all depends on the time release mechanism and where in your system they are intended to be absorbed. But even with non-time release it can still be trial and error. Pills don't sit in our stomachs like with normies. It often ends up being trial and error. Discuss clearly and forcefully with your Docs why any medication may be an issue.

Any one have problems getting your liquids in? I’m in a struggle over here. I’m trying hard to drink and get the amount of protein in per day and getting discouraged fast. The doctor wants me to get in 48 ounces of liquid and 40 ounces of protein in the first couple weeks and I’m barely getting in 30 to 36 ounces. I tried the 4 ounces every hour on the hour but I feel like I’m stuffing myself.

I struggle with stuck food when I don't chew thoroughly enough or if I eat too fast. Still happens to me and I often don't realize it until it's too late. As to your chicken issue, I had good luck with canned chicken. I added seasoning based on what sounded good. Mexican, add taco seasoning and have some beans. Chicken and "gravy," add some extra bullion and a bit of potato. Italian, add Italian seasoning a little pizza sauce and some ricotta. Nothing works for me other than eventually vomiting what is stuck. Walking, stretching, etc. does nothing. Even the tiniest sips of liquid make it much worse. Somehow, I usually end up with hiccups as well.

hi Changes4Life, I really appreciate your candid and kind result. Its awesome to have you post.... Im feeling much less alone in all this, Im so sorry you as well have been through so much and grateful your still ontrack and thankful for the life its afforded you, even though its been a very tough go at times! Im definitely happy I got my life back through the surgery, yet if the complications take my life that would be brutal now as a solo parent of two younger kids. I just read a neurology article that states most patients do best with nutritional supports given by injections and not orally. That a large percentage - up to 20% develop neurological disorders even when taking appropriate oral supplementation. This I didn't know about except that it would be prevented by oral supplementation... this article states this isn't so for 2 out of 10 patients. I also learned the neurological disorders are related to how much you loose and how fast, meaning the majority of issues come from loosing the weight in less than 1year. I was 450 pounds and at my lowest was down 293. I lost the weight extremely fast. Ive kept all but 25 off in almost 12 years. to add to my diagnosis list; They just discovered my colon in entirely air filled distended and dilated without air/fluid levels, thickening and no obstruction, meaning now bowel disease but its of unknown origin and significance so its being investigated. it can be related to neurological disorders and vagus nerve issues that eventually cause a paralyzed intestinal system. Im praying and hoping for the best outcome possible. Im just also putting all this out there in case any of the people on this site themselves with any similar struggles and if so may be able to help direct their drs to a 'possible' association with bariatric surgery post complications in order to receive help that's more targeted to correction in a more effective and efficient way than having years go by with a lot of I don't knows. I hope my post not only connects but also helps others in their after surgery care should odd seemingly unrelated symptoms arise and they don't know where to begin... I definitely had no idea any of this except depleted vitamins and minerals could be a play. im definitely not against surgery!!!!!!!!!!! just in my case I hope what drs have missed and if all these accumulated health struggles - not present pre-surgery so these possible and (rare?) complications of post bariatric surgery, as im now reading in literature, that this surgery does not end up shortening my life... if it does only because of a lack of awareness by patients/drs/and specialists, simply because it took to long to figure out the brain/body system complicated connections to the gut or in my case it wasn't fully disclosed or known at the time, I pray this information will help someone in the future who is also seeking answers to complicated health struggles. I've been actively seeking help since 2017, the symptoms have now become physically undeniable;e and hopefully I can be helped in time to continue onward with my beautiful life being present to be involved with my incredible children as they grow up. im thinking of you all and just pray that if someone finds themselves with mounting medical complexities this information will help you advocate for yourself and possible change in the medical systems to provide in my case, better post op care and immediate investigations with this many unexplainable medical complexities post surgery. im glad I had the surgery.... I just want much more time her to enjoy life. just aceesperate mom seeking help and community.

Letting go of addictions is hard. I'm a food addict. Meaning, I will use food for purposes other than what it is meant for...to the detriment of my quality of life. I medicate myself with it when I'm stressed, bored, sad, want to celebrate, when I'm angry, when i'm facing a huge decision, when i'm excited....there is always a self-justified reason to eat. And eat again. And again. (and have a little snack) And eat again. What does using food this way do to my body? A self injurer told me that my use of food was almost exactly like his use of cutting himself. It gave him relief, but it leaves ugly scars. My stretch marks used to look like a bear used me as a clawing post. Big ugly purple lines. Using food this way deteriorates my health and can cause serious illness that can threaten my life. Someone I loved died young of Covid because they used food like I used to. It could have been me. Sex starts and ends with food, right? A romantic dinner, an aftercare snack. Honey, go get me ice cream. A bath should have a cup of something and a little something sweet to eat with it. Might as well live it up, I deserve this home spa treatment. Woke up in the middle of the night? Better have a litttle snack to settle back down so your stomach doesn't keep you up. Got done doing the shopping...the crowds were awul, I still have to drive home, haul stuff in and put everything away. Who wants to cook? Easier to bring home KFC, and you know what goes great with that? A lemon cake and some Coke and look at the 60% off holiday candy! That's a great deal...lets buy 8 bags for the pantry! Kids will eat it! (they didn't need it either, so I would eat it to spare them) Speaking of holidays, lets make Grandma's favorite holiday treats...it's to remember Grandma! (not feed my addiction shamlessly) We're going on a 100 mile two hour car trip? Lets stop twice for fast food, and bring a box of snacks, too. Going to the movies? Lets stop at the dollar store and pack our pockets with snacks for $5...instead of paying $20! See how smart that is? We're clever! Lets have McDonalds for breakfast, Cracker Barrel for lunch and Chinese for dinner. it's healthy, it has vegetables. I get on the scale and if I've gained..... I go on a shame spiral and eat I get on the scale and if I've lost a pound I think....yippee! I bought myself some room in my diet, Let's eat! Let's be healthy and go apple picking....turns into....let's pick apples for a beautiful artisan homemade pie from the recipe book I found in their gift shop. And while we're at it, lets get cinnamon fried donuts and hot cider. We need to stop on the way home to buy ice cream for the pie. To hell with it, I bet I can eat an entire bowl of Halloween candy before the kids wake up. Make bargains that don't make sense. This homemade fresh bread has chia seeds in it. Clearly it is now healthfood. Four servings of healthfood is fine. When you are addicted, you have this complex pattern of behavior triggered by a million different things. You constantly need to evaluate if you are using food to medicate, cope, escape....or are you using it to build and maintain a healthy body. Am I eating for the right reasons? Am I eating the right foods? In the right amounts? And the worst part? You can't quit food. If you do, that's another deadly disorder. You have to make peace with it, get painfully honest about it, and forgive yourself a lot for your screw ups. You work on breaking the patterns every day. For a long, long time. Maybe forever. You have to wake up the next day and make the choice to get back on the horse and be accountable. If things start to get out of control, you get to the therapist before it gets worse. You don't obsess about your pride, and you don't beat yourself up over your screw up. You just go to therapy and get back on track. And you just keep doing that. If you're lucky, you eventually see all this crap clear enough to get ahead of it most of the time and make better choices. If you work hard, you can beat it. But it's not easy, it's not easy, it's not easy. Fixing your stomach does NOT fix your head. But it makes it just a little easier to get to where your head eventually needs to go. If any of this sounds familiar, I'm rooting for you in your daily fight. I hope you're rooting for me, too. We got this.

I'm 4 weeks out so I'm no expert but I'm also not a big/good cook. I've cooked twice since post-op. I started puree/soft foods 2 weeks ago and this is what I do... For breakfast and/or lunch, I eat yogurt or have a protein shake. My nutritionist said I can have turkey bacon so sometimes I throw some in the microwave and have that. For dinner: I've been eating canned salmon (not big on tuna) and canned chicken. They last a pretty long time and there are some really simple recipes for them. I don't consider that cooking because mostly I saute them with frozen onion and peppers, season it and I'm done in 10 mins. If I want more flair, I'll add a small amount of teriyaki sauce or oriental sauce. As far as fast food, I've also had rotisserie chicken from the Peruvian restaurant by my house. It went down better than the canned meat! Right now for the most part I just eat meat so it's pretty easy to track. I have a digital scale and I just measure out 3-4 oz. The 2 meals I cooked were 2 different types of chili. Both of which only had like 5 ingredients. I had leftovers for a few days. I haven't been to a restaurant yet but I like all the advice that BigSue gave on this. I'll def keep them in mind!

Yep, when I was younger and thinner I had a non-issue neck. Then I gained weight and I suppose any aging/slackening of the skin in that area was camouflaged by the excess fat. Fast forward to after weight loss and my neck was actually the first thing (after an arm lift) that I realllllllyyyyyy wanted to get done. Didn't end up getting it done as it didn't bother me as much after a while, but now I think it looks odd. Its not so very flappy nor droopy (but it is definitely NOT firm), and I have these weird vertical lines of skin that makes it look like I have a giant hole in my neck (see 1st pic below), and it gets more prominent when I'm smiling. Weird. Depending on your age/genes/amount of weight lost, the degree of sag will vary. You won't really know how your neck will fare until you get to your desired weight. Of course there is always face/neck lifts. I've also recently read that botox is injectable into the neck muscles (I didn't know this!) that results in a firming look. Will be asking about this at my consult next week. See second pic below of a before/after pic I lifted from a random site. So there is hope...(I hope!) P.S. I'm 50 this year.

Thanks all! I’m 39 but look way older now. I was sleeved in 2012 and had acid reflux and weight gain w it. So they did bypass to fix the acid which I love but I dropped so fast in 2 months. Had my bypass 11/2 and I’m 5’3 176. Goal is 150 and then I get my PS. I went yesterday to the cosmetic n laser np. She said not a big deal but to me man it’s really really saggy and bad. I’ve never had it before and it bothers me more than anything. I guess too, I’ll take being healthier over tight skin nice neck lol it’s just hard seeing it

Hi, I’m 4weeks out from gastric bypass surgery, and just the other day I attempted some moist cooked shredded chicken to get my protein in ,I honestly didn’t think I ate too much maybe a little too fast but about several minutes later the pain started ( remember thus was my first time). Well it hurt, I sat there going “this is not fun wow , So now I get to experience the dreaded it’s stuck!, well I fought it but then It came up!! more than anything it honestly wiped me out..my question is when does it get better??!

Hey everyone! Got a new job and found that we have bariatric surgery coverage. I asked my PCP to send a referral to the bariatric clinic in my area. That was done the week of Thanksgiving 2020. Got a call from the clinic and met the surgeon December 17th. Only have three month supervised diet and have to lose one pound a month! Working through all my pre op requirements. Had my psychiatrist evaluation Thursday. She asked when was my quit smoking start date because my window of time is closing! I am freaked out! Most people I know have had 6 to 12 months before surgery date. This creeped up so fast! Only test left is the endoscopy scheduled for April 20th. After that blood work as well as nicotine compliance test. So TODAY is my quit day! I can do this! Waited twenty years for this opportunity!

I know that if I have the sleeve done I will be on a lifelong diet but one of my concerns is that I don't cook. I don't plan on it so wondering if I will be successful because I do eat all of my meals at restaurants, fast casual, or fast food. I obviously know I will need to make much healthier choices. Any advice? Not looking for advice on why I should cook because I am single and just don't enjoy cooking. I am also concerned about knowing what the correct portion size is because I know you typically can't eat but 1/2 cup to 1 cup of food and obviously you can't take a measuring cup with you to a restaurant.

Hmm never happened to me but did you eat something with sugar or high in fat before this happened? I know when I eat something fatty and too fast I’ve gotten sick. I learned not to do that again and quick. Hope you find out what the cause is!

I had my surgery on 2/9! It's been quite the rollercoaster. I live in Texas and the winter storm hit a few days later, which delayed my protein delivery AND we didn't have water for 5 days. Oh, and I had a severe allergic reaction to the medical adhesive that sent me to the ER in the snow...which for SE Texas is a way bigger deal that you'd imagine. BUT! The good news: I'm down ~15lbs, I feel better and I'm not struggling with my food addiction as much as I thought I'd be. I love soup so it's been great to blend up different kinds and mix them together to create interesting flavors. I've only had 2 food related issues: 1) sugar free jell-o is not my friend yet. It put me on my knees in pain and I nearly blacked out. It lasted about 20min, but was most intense in the first 5min. My advice: if you want to try it, take no more than 2 bites and wait 30min to see if you react. 2) I drank a heavier beef based soup too fast and it had me up in the middle of the night vomiting, but just once. It wasn't too terrible, just something to remember. Good luck to all of you with upcoming surgery dates! I'm new to this site, so I don't know if you can send questions or whatever, but feel free to reply and ask away! :)

Hello, everyone! So, after having little to no restriction for quite some time, I finally found a doctor here in South Carolina who was willing to do fills without charging a huge amount of money and making me jump through hoops like Roper St. Francis hospital systems did. After multiple appointments with this new doctor it became clear that I have some sort of leak or disconnection somewhere in my band. The very first appointment he pulled almost no fluid out, then even after adding fluid in the band for two more appointments in a row after that, the same amount of fluid was not pulling back out and I really didn't feel anything restriction-wise. On our 3rd appointment, after once again only being able to pull a tiny amount of fluid out, the saline had a yellow tint which my doc stated indicated that blood was present and getting into the band. This solidified his suspicions that I had a leak. He felt that was the issue at the previous appointments, but he said seeing that tint was a dead giveaway. This doctor and his staff were so helpful and wonderful, but I feel their total pricing for having a revision is a little steep. Perhaps I am simply ignorant, and I expected it to be expensive, but wow. It's not the pricing of the VSG itself that I'm surprised by, it's the price they're adding on top of that for just taking out the band. They want about $25,000 total to revise me from band to sleeve and it also seems like they want me to do two surgeries rather than one. Financing is available, but I worry about taking out that amount. To break it down, they are charging $15,500 for the VSG (which is fine) but then another $9,000 on top of that just for the removal of the band itself. Just to clarify, the only doctors who ever touched my port and/or band was my doctor in Florida who placed my band back in 2013 and then this new doctor in SC who only did those fills I was speaking of prior. I know that the doctor here in SC who did the fills did not cause the leak with a puncture or anything since there was little to nothing in the band in the first place at the first appointment. I also hadn't seen my original doctor in a few years, and in between him and this doctor here in SC, no one else has messed with my band/port. The last time I saw/had an adjustment with my original doctor, I was good to go and had the right amount of fluid and restriction. It's been the last couple years that my weight has started to creep back up and I began losing restriction. I have no clue why the band began to leak or what caused it. As stated before, no other doctor messed with it, and I've not had any sort of accident that could have caused damage to the line, port, etc. I even had an Upper GI in 2020 when I was trying to go through Roper St. Francis hospital's bariatric department for fills and they told me the band was in it's proper place and there was no indication of a slip. They just said the liquid they had me drink during the imaging was going through fine and there seemed to be no restriction present. The point of my rambling is this...since the issue with my band is not anyone's fault and seems to be some sort of malfunction with the band itself, does anyone know ANY loopholes, per say, in order to avoid paying an arm and a leg for the charge of the removal of the band. Again, I'm not haggling over the price of the VSG, I'm attempting to haggle the price of the removal of the band itself. I know business is business, time is money, revisions take more time and resources, and our medical system here in the US is crazy expensive. But, I personally feel like I should not be financially penalized by way of extra cost for the removal of the band itself. The VSG part of the surgery itself I'm happy to pay for and am not trying to negotiate the price of, it's just disheartening that the band is essentially broken and my options feel like, 1) either keep a useless foreign object inside my body that serves no purpose, or 2) pay an exorbitant amount for it to be revised even though its failure is not my doing. To add to my annoyance over the situation, the band has been intermittently causing me discomfort; particularly at the port area. My surgical doc placed the port in the center of my abdomen right above my navel and as of lately, it'll feel sore and has even felt slightly swollen a couple of times. It almost feels as if the port moved or was pulled from the inside. The discomfort is similar to the discomfort you feel when a surgical incision or a cut is still tender...that's the best way I can describe the pain/discomfort. **In addition. I do have insurance, but it covers nothing bariatric. Any constructive advice is welcomed and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this long-winded post!

I had to google Sharpei puppy... so cute! lol I agree, > 100 lbs is a lot of weight loss and skin becomes an issue. But even less than that, some people who starve themselves (either on purpose or due to illness as I've seen) and drop dramatically, they end up with skin sags. But I'm referring to very fast wt loss!

Hiya! I am recovering pretty well & I'm getting my fluids in and my protein. I have had cramping & nausea but today has been better for that too. My pain is definitely lessened & I can move and walk and take stairs without feeling exhausted. I actually wake up like normal and maybe take a short nap. I feel like I'm healing too fast...like I should be having a harder time & since I'm not, I think it failed. I'm even feeling hungry. Is this unusual?

Was told the same info. I'm actually meet with the dietician for the first time next week and I plan on asking about that in more detail. I'm hoping once I'm done with the surgery that that part will be easy for me as I currently don't typically drink while eating. I think it's because of the way I grew up. We HAD to eat our food FIRST before we were allowed to drink, but for the occasional sip, because my dad didn't want us kids to "fill up on liquid and not eat our dinner". Anywho, that seemed to have stuck with me throughout my life. Hey, maybe that's why I'm fat? All that eating and no water in-between to fill me up faster? LOL But seriously, I think that part will be easy for me. Now what I may have an issue with is eating too fast. I am horrible with that. I usually rush through my meal in order to get done and get moving on to the next thing that needs to be done. I think THAT is where my problem will be.

I didn't have to do anything with pulmononlogy. For cardiology, a lot of people have to have an EKG. That's a breeze. My surgeon also required a nuclear stress test for people over age 50 and/or people under 50 who'd had previous heart issues. For that, I had to lie on a table and they pushed me in this big loop thing that looked kind of like an MRI machine, but it was much bigger and shorter (because only your chest really needs to be inside - your head sticks out one end and you're sticking out the other end from the waist down). They did all kinds of readings - not sure what exactly, but I don't remember feeling anything. Then they gave me this shot of something that made my heart race (they said they can also make a person run on a treadmill for awhile, but it's hard for some people to get their heart rate up fast enough when they do that, so they usually just do the shot which has the same effect as really intense exercise). Then they stuck me back in the machine and did a bunch of readings again - the same readings they did before, because they want to see how your heart functions under stress, and how quickly it recovers. other than the part about the heart racing feeling freaky, it wasn't bad. No pain or anything.

I'm close to your height and started out around the same weight (5' 2" HW of 271) and had some heartburn before I started my program. My symptoms were milder than yours (lots of discomfort after eating, able to tough it out without tums, but miserable for hours after eating). I found that when I lost some weight pre-surgery it mostly went away. May have been self-inflicted pain from my habit of eating too much and too fast. I did have an endoscopy and menonotry done which was enough information to make my Dr. comfortable with VSG for me. He waved the 24 hour PH study for me, but that is normally part of tests my program does to ensure someone with GERD symptoms is a VSG candidate. Turned out that while I had a little bit of stretching in my esophageal sphincter everything looked great and I was given the green light for VSG. I'm 1 week out from surgery now and feeling really good. Part of my program's protocol includes putting VSG patients on omeprazole for the first few months which is supposed to help tame the stomach acid while your healing and eating very little. You might ask if this is something that your program does. All that said, I really understand hesitating. The prospect of GERD misery getting worse with surgery is scary. My understanding from my program is that the results of the menometry, PH study, and endoscopy are pretty reliable in determining if someone is not a good VSG candidate because of current GERD, but that there is also a chance that anyone could develop GERD with VSG, so there is some gamble for everyone. Weighting the % risk of this vs. that was one of the hardest parts of making my surgery decision. It took me 2.5 years from beginning to consider the option of WLS to signing the papers to confirm that I made the decision. I am only a week out, but so far I am really glad I did it and none of my worst fears have happened. Good luck!

I like Floradix Iron and Herbs for fast absorption and bioavailability (ask doctor first)

The first few weeks it wasn’t that bad at all, It took time to adjust to not eating so fast (but with so much excitement it was hard) so I only became nauseous when I ate fast or over did it but I learned quickly and had no issues, I wasn’t even taking the medication for acid/nausea. Now that I’m a little past the 2 months and introducing more new foods I do get the GERD, but I’m hoping it’s just temporary and apart of transition- I’ve noticed it usually happens when I take in any vegetables (specifically broccoli, which was my fav). Aside from all the vitamins, it’s the only medication I’m taking right now- it is as needed, but I take one before I have my “biggest” meal which tends to be lunch. If I don’t take it then I end up with the heartburn, nausea, etc. and will take one and it immediately helps. I have noticed getting up to walk around in between bites helps a lot.

I don't do much fast food these days, or even before, but what I preferred when I needed to during my early days - loss phase and early maintenance - was a Chipotle order of soft tacos, whatever fillings you like but I biased it toward the basic meat, cheese and veg. Early on just ate the filling out of the tortilla, but later included that, too (I never was big on the low carb game - just give me nutrition.) One taco was enough, and I would save the other two for future meals. Generally when we ate out we went to regular restaurants, more often independents rather than chains, and just ordered the healthiest things that looked good on their menu - nothing really special as ?bariatric food" - and split things up to take home the leftovers. Even today, ten years out (call it 16 for my wife) it is disappointing not to get two or three meals out of a typical restaurant meal.

I am scheduled for surgery on 3/15. For two weeks I am supposed to do 2 protein shakes a day and a small meal for dinner. Struggling with protein shakes though. They taste horrible! Am I allowed to drink it super fast just to get it done? It doesn't taste as awful right after I make it.