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Hi So I’m two weeks post op and currently struggling to get keep my water intake and vitamins intake. Whenever I take a pill I feel severe discomfort like heartburn for 20 mins and need my husbands help to rub my chest off to move it down. This makes it difficult for me. I have restrictions to have only a spoonful of water each time and wait for 3 mins between the next spoon. This makes it tough to get enough water and my skin is becoming flaky. I also find it difficult to swallow anything with protein powder in it . I think I am losing ideal weight 1lb per day but it also includes muscle loss which I would like to avoid. Any advice or tips that I could get on taking multi vitamins and water intake. Thanks in advance.

Hello! This is my first time postimg on here. I've had an IUD for 3 years now, with no complications. No periods either I had VSG on March 1st, and have been spotting here and there. Today I woke up and basically am on my period! Super strange! So I went to the ER (no gynos had appointments for months out) and they took blood work and said everything was fine. They also took ultrasound and said my IUD was where it needed to be and nothing looked abnormal. The doctor suggest it might have been my body reacting to this new stressful experience of having to recooperate from the procedure. Has anyone else heard or this or experience anything like it's? Sent from my SM-N986U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi there, i’m 25 days post op and had a horrible bout of nausea yesterday. Completely out of the blue, I was out walking, stopped for a cup of weak black tea which I drank sitting outside in a bracing wind, when I stood up, it came over me like a wave. Horrid. At 10 days post op I’d had a couple bouts of nausea, mostly at night, when asleep, and they would waken me up. Treatments from my surgeon include a nightly cyclizine, stemitil wafers and a morning lanzoprazole. I was surprised to feel nauseated yesterday, cause it had been a couple weeks since the last bout. hopefully it will become even less frequent?? well done on going out yesterday. It’s good to get moving.

I just started my 2-week pre-op diet today. My program makes us do 100% liquids only (with the exception of 3 dill pickles per day 🤣) for the whole 2 weeks, so I've been to the restroom what seems like 80 times already today 😂 It hasn't been too bad yet, thankfully. I had some weird gas pains going on earlier, but they seem to be gone now. I've heard Day 3-4 are the worst for most people, so I'm looking forward to getting past those. So far I've had a "fruity cereal milk" Orgain shake, "Horchata" and "Strawberries & Cream" TransformHQ shakes, and a tropical coconut Protein2O. Someone's lunch at the office smelled amazing, so I went for a little walk to avoid the smells 😅 Hopefully dinner time with my husband isn't too bad. I'm saving my 3 pickles for dinner so I have something to crunch on. I hope everyone else is doing fantastic and for the post-oppers, that you're feeling better!! 💜

This is amazing @Inspectorjh84! I am still doing really well. I am not up to that many steps yet, but keeping it over 10K a day, which is really good for me. I am going to join a gym in the next couple weeks to help with the skin and try to tighten up. But I am overall very very happy! I am down 92 LBS and hope to be at 100 LBS by the end of Jan when I will take a flight!

Have your favorite non-solid things and enjoy TIME with the people you love. It is hard for us to shift our mindset when so many of our holidays and rituals involve food, but we can always create new rituals. How about proposing a game night? Or going for a nice walk together? Or crafting ornaments for the tree? Doing things instead of eating things. I know it sounds like second best, but I promise you, it's not. I'm 3 weeks post op and still not on regular food. But I've been shifting my rituals with people from food based ones to activity and time based ones. It has been nice...

I woke up hungry in post op recovery... It really annoyed me. LOL Some of us never lose our hunger with surgery. The stomach growling is normal and it isn't always a sign you are hungry. These are just digestive sounds and since your digestive system is spending more time empty, the sounds are louder and more frequent. Swelling can impact this too. For the first two weeks whenever I drank I felt like it was going down a drain, I could feel the displacement of air and even heard gurgling! It was soooo strange! As has been said above, once you are in the soft food stage and food is staying in your stomach longer, these sounds might ease up.

Sorry you guys are dealing with this! Are either of you on a PPI (proton pump inhibitor), this could be something like omeprazole. Typically the over the counter dose isn't high enough, so it is best prescribed by your doctor. Some people end up taking it twice a day. Omeprazole never worked for me, I take pantoprazole in the morning and Dexilant in the evening. Both are prescription. Bariatric patients typically need a PPI after surgery to protect their stomach from acid and help the sutures heal. Our new tummies are still producing the amount of acid we produced for our whole stomach, which is obviously too much acid for a little tummy. This can cause pain, nausea, vomiting, a feeling of not being able to swallow because acid is washing into the esophagus and irritating it. It can also cause that classic heartburn feeling... If you aren't on one, tell your doctor you want one. If you are on one, it's possible it isn't working, you may need a higher dose or a different medication (some people metabolize omeprazole too quickly). In addition to this, it takes a while for our new tummies to heal the nerves that were cut and our fullness cues and stomach sensations can be different than they were before. Fullness may feel completely different and very uncomfortable. After I eat I feel pressure at about the middle of my stomach and a feeling of heaviness sitting there. It is my signal not to eat anymore. If I persist, I'll start hiccuping and sneezing aggressively, and sometimes vomit. I am very careful not to get to that point. But I can eat a normal bariatric sleeve portion for 3 months out... Sometimes heavy proteins like meat sit very heavily in new stomachs for the first year. It isn't unusual to not tolerate beef or chicken breast. Proteins should be moist (like chicken thigh in a sauce), with small bites and very thorough chewing. You'll probably eat a smaller portion of them than you would yogurt or eggs. Fish and other seafood are the easiest meat proteins for us to digest because they are lighter and softer, so try that if beef and chicken are too heavy. If after a few weeks on a PPI you are still not able to at least advance to moist fish without pain or vomiting, I'd be requesting an endoscopy or other imaging to ensure there isn't a stomach stricture or scarring getting in the way of you eating. Strictures aren't super common in sleeves but they do happen.

I had issues similar to yours where I started with a sleeve in 7/2020 my body started going through severe issues that I couldn’t even hold down a sip of water causing me to vomit uncontrollably in the end of 8/2020 I went to use my restroom and I collapsed. My surgical team had me enter a rehab to try and help me build up my strength and put in a PICC line. I was in the rehab for 6 weeks and the team started to work with my insurance and got permission for a revision to a bypass.(my brain started to have issues with retaining short term memories due to lack of nutrition) Had the revision to bypass done in 3/2021 My body took forever to start to regulate and start to work the way it is supposed to. I pushed myself to do as much work with my brain to get back to “normal “ as much as possible and I’d say I am about 90% recovered. Physically I’m back to “normal” most days occasionally I’ll still have a nauseous day or some dumping but I was just at my dr last week and I am down just shy of 200lbs stay strong you will get through this Family members ask me if I could rewind time if I’d still go through with the surgery and I say I may have opted for the bypass instead of the sleeve but absolutely because if I didn’t get that weight off I know without a doubt I’d be dead within a few years so even with all these issues the surgery was worth it.

We all need to be a drama queen some times. 😉 But it’s pretty common & understandable that you might have some trepidation. As you said you’ve never had this surgery or any major surgery before. Fear of the unknown. Perfect opportunity for some drama & attention seeking - LOL! Write down any questions you may think of & ask when you have your appointment next week. Hopefully that will help ease some of your nerves & clarify what you should/might expect. All the best.

Most meals are between 300-500 calories each except the sushi was like 250. I’ve been eating a lot of eggs the past week but am definitely not doing the egg fast diet again! And most of these “meals” are things I pick at for a couple hours. Today’s lunch (the last picture) I made at 3pm and finished around 630pm. It’s roasted butternut squash with sautéed kale, garlic, onion, and shiitake rice.

I'm another 40 pounds down or so and it's... bad. I don't have to stretch or flex, you can just count my ribs all the way down, except for where there's a fold of loose skin (I think these are technically called breasts?). This isn't "I'm so used to my obese self I don't understand what healthy is" type skinny, this is "I can play the xylophone if I wear a low-cut shirt", tabloid speculation about drugs and anorexia type skinny. On some level, I'm stoked, my ED self is absolutely thrilled to be able to see every bone, but I just don't understand how I can have so much hanging fat on my lower body and look like a skeleton on top. I do have a small frame by wrist size, but my rib cage apparently did not get that memo. Because, again, I'm still overweight. My bodyfat percentage was assessed at over 30 a few weeks ago. Where the #%@! is it? My weight loss also hasn't plateaued, or even significantly slowed. I'm still losing around 1.5-2% of my bodyweight per week. I am absolutely not following the diet plan given to me, eating much larger portions of much more calorie dense food but I continue to diminish. On one level I'm thrilled, but on another I'm worried this won't stop and I'm going to have to wear turtlenecks to stop birds from nesting inside my torso.

I agree. If it works for you it’s ok. Understanding what I eat & when I eat was an important learning for me. Learning & understanding what’s best for me isn’t necessarily what others do or recommend. If having a protein shake in the morning as your breakfast is fine if it works for you. Personally I’m an eat real food person & haven’t touched a shake since week 3 & started purées but that was what worked, & still does, for me. We always say follow your plan, but if it doesn’t work for you, negotiate alternatives or substitutions with your team. As long as you meet those nutrient goals. (BTW BCAA isn’t a complete protein & can’t be counted towards your protein goals. Fine to drink & count as a fluid during or post your workout but not as a source of your protein.) What & when you eat may change as you progress through your weightloss & learn more about nutrition, your body’s needs & what works best to support how you want to live & enjoy your life. All the best.

**update** Feeling much better today. Slept better last night, woke up 3 or 4 times, but at least not every hour like the night before lol. Pain has become increasingly less, and so thankful for that. I was having a wide range of emotions over this unexpected outcome and some regrets, but I feel stronger today to deal with it all. I hope you all are doing well. Much love and thanks for checking in on me.

Thank you for this. One of the reasons I'm rebellious about some of the diet rules is the nutritionist applies all the same rules whether you had a sleeve or bypass. I don't like the doctor on the nutrition team because she has static goals regardless of your personal abilities. I didn't get a "good job, you're getting closer to your goal of 80g protein and 800 cal." I got "It's been 6 months, you need to consume 100g of protein and 1200 cal." This was very disheartening because I told them my stomach would hurt from trying to force myself to eat the 3/4 cup portions she told me to eat and I felt like all I did all day was eat and drink and still wasn't reaching the prior goal. It passed me off and I just mentally told her to go to #&%$ and took it at my own speed. I found more help here than from her.

My pants still fit. A slightly snugger fit. I am adopting a different strategy. One that was mentioned of giving myself a week to incorporate one habit at a time. I get very impatient and want to do everything all at once which is great for the first day or 2 but very difficult to maintain. I am working on sleeping 2 hours earlier first. I also started taking Berberine. Let’s see how it goes.

I just had a revision from the sleeve to a bypass a week ago today. I'm already 16 pounds down. I had horrible stomach acid... the thing is, lifelong taking medicines for stomach acid is bad for you. Increases cancer risks, dementia risks, and accelerates bone loss. I did not want to be taking these meds for decades to come when science has proven how dangerous that is. I've had no vomiting or nausea while healing. This time around, the vitamins don't even make me sick which is a huge relief. They used to.

It’s breast milk. Specifically the first that is produced after giving birth though it can leak from the breasts in the weeks prior to delivery. It’s full of antibodies of benefit to the new born but very few nutrients: low carbs, low calories, low sugar, low protein. You can buy it in powdered form. Not sure how it would ease hunger?? Except it being a liquid it would temporarily fill your tummy like any other liquid but without getting the protein & nutrients you need. But if it works for you …

Sorry to hear you're dealing with all of this, it sounds rough. I know not all seasons of life can lend itself to it, but stress will cause the body to retain fat and prevent burning it. If there's any way to unload some of the stress, either by working out, meditation, going to a "rage room" where they let you smash stuff, anything that helps, it will help the weight loss process resume. I know its not always possible, having just come out of a season of life that felt like constant stress for 8 years with no seeming end. It was like I couldn't lose weight regardless of what I did, but I was always in a state of stress. I'm definitely not living a stress free life by any means now, but after years of therapy and practice, I guess I'm a little better at managing it now. That being said, my surgeon suggested a "reset" if weight regain happens 1 year+ after surgery. It was basically go back to the pre op diet to jump start things for a couple weeks, then slowly start adding back items from your normal diet, but keep watch to see if any of those are causing a stall or regain. Focus on hydration first, then protein, then unsaturated fat, then other fats, AND THEN carbs last. I wouldn't go as extreme as keto, but try to aim for single digit carbs per serving of something, or under 50-60g per day. Carbs are easy energy for our bodies, so it prefers to burn that first, and store any excess as fat, just as a survival mechanism. Everyone is slightly different, but some people's metabolism can be thrown off by certain imatation sugars and sugar alcohols. Even though they're 0 or low calorie, they can still trigger an insulin response like sugar or starches. You may want remove the biscuits for the time being and see if those may be the trigger for your body. Best of luck to you, and hoping things improve for you from here. Stay strong!

Hi all, I am writing this for the >1% of gastric bypass patients who have the unusual complications that I had and, like me, couldn't find any information about it online to ease your mind. I had my gastric bypass surgery on September 7, 2022. I chose gastric bypass over the gastric sleeve specifically after months of research because of the higher rate of successful weight loss, particularly in women. My first week post-op went great, but after day 8 or 9 when I tried progressing my food intake from full-liquids to pureed foods I began vomiting and feeling really nauseous at every meal. I let my surgeon and dietitian know immediately and stepped my food intake back down to full-liquids. Pretty soon, I couldn't even take in full-liquids and was limited to hydrating fluids and chicken broth. I could keep down hydrating fluids and broth about 80% of the time, full-liquids 50% of the time, and everything else came back up. My surgeon was very responsive and had me get an endoscopy. Under general anesthesia, the endoscopy explored my new stomach pouch and roux limb connections that make up my new tummy system. Typically, gastric bypasses can result in constriction of the connection between the stomach pouch and roux limb, and my gastroenterologist was prepared to use a balloon to inflate the area to ease that restriction. In my case, however, that area looked fine, but further down the roux limb there was a stricture that was almost impassable for the narrow scope. This is what was causing my problem. I had an external compression on my roux limb that was making it impossible for anything more viscous than water to pass through. My layman's understanding of what had happened is that my surgeon brought my small intestine / roux limb up to meet my new stomach pouch through the transverse mesocolon. This involved cutting a hole through the transverse mesocolon to put the roux limb through and then stitching it up a little on either side to make sure nothing else will slip through the hole and cause a hernia. Apparently, this is typically sufficient and there is space enough in the hole in the mesocolon for scar tissue to form but still allow the roux limb to operate appropriately. Not in my case! xD My body and over-active immune system saw a hole and decided that hole must. be. fixed! The scar tissue that formed to close the hole closed tight enough on the roux limb and it was tight enough that barely anything could get through. I had a second laparoscopic surgery on October 12, 2022 to remove the scar tissue and loosen the compression on the roux limb. My surgeon decided to remove the small stitches on either side of the hole in the transverse mesocolon to reduce the chance that any new scar tissue will close the hole up as completely again. Immediately after this second laparoscopic surgery, I felt tons better! I stayed overnight in the hospital and was put straight on full-liquids, which I was barely tolerating before! The reason I am writing all of this out is because, in the month-long interim between surgeries, I couldn't find anything in my online research to figure out what was wrong, or what I could try, or what the next steps looked like, or how long, or why this was happening. I went for more than a month on little to no substantial nutrition, and I found so little information on what to expect or how long I would have to live like this. I even looked in these forums to see if anyone had asked about symptoms that are similar to mine and I didn't find very much information. So, I'm writing about my experience and using as many of the keywords I can think of that I've been searching for over the past two months! So! If you had gastric bypass and you start experiencing nausea and vomiting after what seems like typical food progression, please speak to your surgeon. It could be an internal stricture of the roux limb or the connecting bits, or in my case an external compression of some sort. From the very few resources I could find online, my type of external compression of transverse mesocolon on the roux limb seemed to occur in 0.9% of gastric bypass patients and it seems to happen within the first month. My surgeon pretty much immediately knew what was wrong, and her PA said she had seen it before, but not often, and it was new for my insurance caseworker. The inability to eat made it very difficult to complete normal daily tasks like my job, housework, walking the dog, etc. I wasn't in pain, I just couldn't get enough energy to do anything! My doctors moved quickly to get me back in for surgery, but it still took 4-5 weeks from starting to vomit at each meal to waking up from my second surgery feeling much better. I am so thankful that my surgeon was able to fix what was wrong with the scar tissue compressing around the roux limb; it made a world of difference! I'm not out of the woods quite yet, however. Six days after the surgery to repair the hole in the transverse mesocolon, I had a bad food day and nothing stayed down. I immediately reached out to my surgeon's office and today went in for an upper GI in which I intake contrast dye while a doctor observes how it flows through my new gastrointestinal system with an X-ray. That doctor said it looks like the connection between my stomach pouch and roux limb looks stenosed now. I am grateful that they found something and that there is an explanation for why everything I put in my mouth makes me nauseous and that there's a reason why I don't want to eat anything. I will be having another endoscopy in the following couple of weeks and, as ever, I am hopeful that this will be the last surgery that I need for my gastric bypass.

My team doesn't focus too much on calories or carbs. They focus mainly on protein, at least 60 g a day and I've been losing up till a week ago. I always get more than 80g of protein in a day. Also, the calories I consume aren't crap. They've always been impressed with my weight loss every time I've been to my check ups. I absolutely need to do more exercise, so I will be working on that.

I'm going the self pay route with Blossom Bariatrics, but was given similar timelines when I spoke with folks with Dr Shillingford and the Nicholson Clinics, but generally scheduling could be done 3 weeks out with 2 weeks of pre-op diet for a Sleeve procedure. From first call to the surgery is generally 1 month, but sounds like it could be less in some cases. RNY, DS, and revisions required considerably more time to plan for. Far fewer hoops to have to jump through going this route, though. I'm only going this route because my insurance declines anything related to bariatric surgery. My previous employer's insurance would only cover a lap band, and it required a year of meetings. If I missed one, or gained any weight between sessions, I had to start over, which is ridiculous. Also they didn't cover any counseling, which I definitely recommend signing up for! It's just as much mental as it is physical! I'd rather not have the equivalent of a car payment hanging over my head, but my health has been declining significantly the last few years and I need a change. My job isn't forgiving with PTO either, and it was all I could do to take the 3 days off for the week of Thanksgiving to get mine done next Monday. It's a small business, so FMLA isn't an option, so I have to go back to work the next Monday.

Usually eating when it's not a snack? Today for example, I wasn't feeling well so I slept for awhile. I didn't eat breakfast and I didn't eat lunch. I made Tyson chicken nuggets and I fried them to make them extra crispy (bad I know, should have baked them). I had a serving plus one extra nugget with chic fil a garden herb ranch. I had some rice with butter and creo. A few sweet potato fries and a couple pieces of sliced beets. When I write it down, it sounds like a ton. I didn't finish all the rice or the beets. 2 to 3 hours later (I try to aim for 3 or 4). I had ramen soup. No problems eating that and I was able to eat it all. Gosh, I can't believe I'm able to. I had a candy cane about an hour later. Around 10:30pm tonight, I had a serving of mini marshmallows, sugar free dark chocolate pudding cup with sugar free whipped cream. One and a half Keebler Stripped cookie with a few sips of milk and a little after, a few sips of iced tea. Why am I like this? Why am I able to eat this much at once? Is my stomach stretched out? Should I ask to check my stomach? My 1 year appointment is February 21st. I really want to get back to tracking, it's definitely something that helped me stay on track. My weight was 3 ish pounds less than it is today. A few days ago it said I gained 5 pounds. So yeah, it's up and down and I know it's because of the poor eating. Does anyone use timer reminders to make sure you drink your water or to make sure you eat slowly?

Hi All, First Post I'm female in the UK and nearly 59 years old. I have been a fat toddler, a fat child, a fat teen and a fat adult. I have yo-yo dieted all my life, with each yo-yo lasting for a shorter period and resulting in a new high-point when I would inevitably bounce back. In July '23 I reached a new all time high 24st 9lb (345lb) I was about to start the diet again, about to go through the same loop but just couldn't face it. I made an appointment with a bariatric surgeon, discussed my history and options and agreed that a gastric sleeve was a good fit for me. I was told I was too heavy for their practice and I needed to lose 56lb before I could have the surgery. The surgery was booked for Jan 2nd '24 and I started dieting. As is the practice here I had an assessment with a psychologist who confirmed I was a suitable candidate and a dietician who again confirmed I was a suitable candidate but in the process managed to make me feel like I had already failed, in her words I was "Much heavier than most people who come to us" As she was a gate keeper and I needed her approval to progress I did not complain. That time will come. Following my initial consultation on the 8th Aug I started dieting to get down to the target weight. I have never had difficulty in losing weight I simply cannot maintain any losses. My normal pattern is if it takes me 6 months to lose the weight I will regain it and 10lb in the following 12-18 months. By the day of surgery I had lost 75lb and was already feeling so much better. I considered carrying on with just dieting and not having the surgery but I was already beginning to see my discipline weaken and I knew it would be the same old story. Surgery went well, I had very little pain or discomfort and by and large I cannot complain. I'm currently on the pureed stage of the diet and doing OK managing to keep protein and fluid levels up though I struggle with the fluids some day. I have lost 13lb in the last 21 days but have hit the dreaded 3 week plateau. Early days but I have no regrets - to be without hunger for the first time in my life is such a relief, I feel good and am doing more and more each day. I am already starting to live the life I want and i can see so many more benefits ahead and believe they are attainable and retainable. I wish I knew why I have struggled so much with my weight - there is no one trauma or set of childhood issues I can point at. It is not that I have a compulsion to eat everything in sight there are so many foods I can just ignore, I have no interest in sweet foods of any kind or greasy deep fried foods. But I cannot resist bread, pasta , rice etc and my down fall has always been the second or even third portion of these carbs. For this reason if no other I hope the VSG will not only prevent that behaviour but I also hope it will give me enough time to re gain control before considering a second helping. My parting thought for this post is that as I have gone through my journey thus far the one thing I have found is that my story is not that unusual, my problems are not unique and most importantly that they are not the result of some moral failing or fundamental weakness. There is more to life long obesity than can simply be solved with "diet and exercise" and having finally found medical professionals who believe that is the case I see this year and this journey as a new lease on life that I am going to grab with both hands. Koshk - newbie

I have to do two weeks pre op starting the 13th and two weeks post op, you have two days each pre and post op?. Let's all keep in touch