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Hi everyone! I'm brand new here, and just found the forum. I am scheduled for my VSG on October 19th, so next week. I'm already on my two-week pre-op diet. Excited and scared and also ready to go! I'm 5'2 and weigh 200lbs. I have Type 2 diabetes and High Blood Pressure and I'm ready to change my health for the better.

I cant say for everyone but I was not able to eat beyond my stomachs capacity. I did not try the slider foods. Still can not. When you are healed enough to get the full signal, about 6 - 8 weeks out, if you have one mouthful more it will sit in your chest like a brick. You will probably become very nauseous and will be unable to drink for hours till you have got rid of the extra food. It will be a very unpleasant feeling. There is no way that I can eat when I feel this way. As for worrying if it was the right decision ? yep I did. Its lots of money to take away from the family. It cost me over £12.000 so that would have been lots of holidays they would miss. It was a huge leap into the unknown for me. All I knew was at my age and size my heart was struggling with the most simple household tasks. Then they told me I was diabetic .... no brainer anymore. I booked a appointment with the surgeon the same week. Everything has failed for all of us before. Doctors now believe that Bariatric surgery is the only way to keep weight off. I am not at maintenance yet so can not say if its easy to do it but I know it takes work and regular monitoring. I am overjoyed that I was able to do this. I am a different woman now. TBH I feel blessed

Way to go! Thanks for sharing this part of your journey. I hit One-derland last week, and it doesn't seem real to me, either ☺️

Since we all started at different weights, heights, etc., I find comparisons to be best evaluated by percentage of body weight lost. At 6 months, I had lost 28.5% of my body weight. Now at 7 months and one week, I have now lost an additional 4%, for a total of 32.5% of my starting weight. Comparisons are a gauge but be careful when comparing yourself to others. We may all be vying for the same destination of better health and slimmer selves but our journey is uniquely our own with hills and valleys.

I wasn't told how to sleep, either. I've always slept on my side but it wasn't that comfortable to do that immediately after my surgery, so I slept on my back for a couple of weeks. I've slept on my side ever since.

I posted this on another thread about revision, but I had a hiatal hernia and bad GERD so it applies for this thread too. I want to preface that this is about to be a long message, but it's my journey. Thanks for reading. My 1st Bariatric journey started in 2009 (I was 26 years old). My heaviest weight was 250 lbs. I did a month liquid diet as my preop diet and got down to my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I had a sleeve done in Sep 1, 2009. I got down to around 175 lbs from my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I got down to a size 12. I did regain some weight years later, but that was my doing (not eating the best, not exercising as I should). In addition to gaining some weight back, i developed a 5/6cm hiatal hernia and had really bad heartburn and reflux. I started taking Nexium for years. Finally 14 years later (now 40 years old) in April of 2023 I decided to ask a doctor about taking daily Nexium (after hearing constantly from family that it wasn't good). My surgeon gave me 3 options. 1. Continue taking Nexium daily 2. Fix my hiatal hernia (but he did warn me that hiatal hernias are known to come back) 3. Fix my hiatal hernia and do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. Before any of that to make an informed decision I had to get an upper GI with contrast and an endoscopy with a Bravo study. I had the endoscopy done and the Bravo capsule placed on my esophagus. After the 1st endoscopy my GI doctor said she didn't even need to see the results of the Bravo study...seeing my esophagus alone was enough to see how inflamed my esophagus was and she confirmed the bigger sized hernia. Either way, the Bravo capsule was placed in and I did the 3 day study. The results came back and like my GI doc said...it was bad. The acidity in my stomach and esophagus was ridiculous. I use to take generic Nexium 20mg but my GI doc said that wasnt enough for how bad my esophagus was. I was told to bump it up to 40mg 2x a day. So I did that and it helped to heal the massive amount of inflammation I already had in my esophagus. To confirm that I had a 2nd endoscopy done. The Bravo study, the upper GI scans, the endoscopy was all completed so that I could make an informed decision on how I wanted to proceed. Which of the 3 options discussed did I want to proceed with. I decided option 3 was best (revision from Sleeve to RNY with a hiatal hernia repair). For me my insurance approved the procedure and it was fairly a quick process because I went the general surgical route vs the Bariatric route. I could have had the revision in July but I had a cruise planned in August and I wanted to be able to drink and eat and ENJOY my vacation so I opted to wait and had the revision 2 weeks after I came back from my cruise on September 11th. I was 215 the 1st day of my preop diet. I got down to 206 but then mother nature decided to show up the week of my surgery so as women we gain water weight during our cycle and the day of surgery i weighed in at 209. I was so pissed. I knew it was water weight because of my cycle but still nobody wants to see the number on the scale go up. Surgery went well. I had no complications. My recovery was A LOT smoother. I had BAAAAAD nausea and gas pains after my sleeve becauseof the anesthesia. With the RNY I had 0% nausea. I had a little bit of shoulder pain because of the gas and I did have another pain when I inhaled big because of the hernia repair, but it was all normal and pains of that nature were expected. I was just sooooo glad that I didn't wake up extremely nauseous after the RNY like I did after my sleeve. So now I'm 31 days post op. I've been at 195 since like September 26th. I hope that I've HOPEFULLY lost at least 1 pound now since I've been stalled at the same weight for 2 weeks. Btw I'm 5'4 for reference. My size 14 clothes button again and my 16s are getting a little loose on me now. I'm not swimming in my clothes or nothing but it's a small progress. I was wearing XL shirts and now Large shirts fit me a lot better. I feel less like a sausage in them lol! Oh and tonight I tried on this bra that I know for a fact a couple of weeks ago could not button or even come close and today it fit. So now a 38D will fit. Great non scale victory! I can tolerate all food and as long as I don't take huge bites and I chew my food well and eat slow, I'm good. Otherwise I've already had my 1st reminder of what it feels like to throw up because your food feels stuck. I had that happen after the sleeve sometimes too and it sucks, but it's a process learning how to eat again and reminding myself that I can't inhale my food. I am taking a daily vitamin with iron and then 3 calcium citrate chewable daily. My doctor also still wants me to take 1 Omeprozole daily for 6 months post op to give my esophagus and hernia repair time to truly heal. 1 month down....5 months to go. Then I'll be able to see if I don't have any GERD or heartburn without any medication. The weight loss is a perk and I definitely want to lose more weight and get down to 150 or at least my best sleeve weight of 175, but I always have to remind myself that my goal of this entire revision surgery was to not deal with heartburn and reflux anymore. So yeah...thats my revision story so far. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Hello there! I want to preface that this is about to be a long message, but it's my journey. Thanks for reading. My 1st Bariatric journey started in 2009 (I was 26 years old). My heaviest weight was 250 lbs. I did a month liquid diet as my preop diet and got down to my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I had a sleeve done in Sep 1, 2009. I got down to around 175 lbs from my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I got down to a size 12. I did regain some weight years later, but that was my doing (not eating the best, not exercising as I should). In addition to gaining some weight back, i developed a 5/6cm hiatal hernia and had really bad heartburn and reflux. I started taking Nexium for years. Finally 14 years later (now 40 years old) in April of 2023 I decided to ask a doctor about taking daily Nexium (after hearing constantly from family that it wasn't good). My surgeon gave me 3 options. 1. Continue taking Nexium daily 2. Fix my hiatal hernia (but he did warn me that hiatal hernias are known to come back) 3. Fix my hiatal hernia and do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. Before any of that to make an informed decision I had to get an upper GI with contrast and an endoscopy with a Bravo study. I had the endoscopy done and the Bravo capsule placed on my esophagus. After the 1st endoscopy my GI doctor said she didn't even need to see the results of the Bravo study...seeing my esophagus alone was enough to see how inflamed my esophagus was and she confirmed the bigger sized hernia. Either way, the Bravo capsule was placed in and I did the 3 day study. The results came back and like my GI doc said...it was bad. The acidity in my stomach and esophagus was ridiculous. I use to take generic Nexium 20mg but my GI doc said that wasnt enough for how bad my esophagus was. I was told to bump it up to 40mg 2x a day. So I did that and it helped to heal the massive amount of inflammation I already had in my esophagus. To confirm that I had a 2nd endoscopy done. The Bravo study, the upper GI scans, the endoscopy was all completed so that I could make an informed decision on how I wanted to proceed. Which of the 3 options discussed did I want to proceed with. I decided option 3 was best (revision from Sleeve to RNY with a hiatal hernia repair). For me my insurance approved the procedure and it was fairly a quick process because I went the general surgical route vs the Bariatric route. I could have had the revision in July but I had a cruise planned in August and I wanted to be able to drink and eat and ENJOY my vacation so I opted to wait and had the revision 2 weeks after I came back from my cruise on September 11th. I was 215 the 1st day of my preop diet. I got down to 206 but then mother nature decided to show up the week of my surgery so as women we gain water weight during our cycle and the day of surgery i weighed in at 209. I was so pissed. I knew it was water weight because of my cycle but still nobody wants to see the number on the scale go up. Surgery went well. I had no complications. My recovery was A LOT smoother. I had BAAAAAD nausea and gas pains after my sleeve becauseof the anesthesia. With the RNY I had 0% nausea. I had a little bit of shoulder pain because of the gas and I did have another pain when I inhaled big because of the hernia repair, but it was all normal and pains of that nature were expected. I was just sooooo glad that I didn't wake up extremely nauseous after the RNY like I did after my sleeve. So now I'm 31 days post op. I've been at 195 since like September 26th. I hope that I've HOPEFULLY lost at least 1 pound now since I've been stalled at the same weight for 2 weeks. Btw I'm 5'4 for reference. My size 14 clothes button again and my 16s are getting a little loose on me now. I'm not swimming in my clothes or nothing but it's a small progress. I was wearing XL shirts and now Large shirts fit me a lot better. I feel less like a sausage in them lol! Oh and tonight I tried on this bra that I know for a fact a couple of weeks ago could not button or even come close and today it fit. So now a 38D will fit. Great non scale victory! I can tolerate all food and as long as I don't take huge bites and I chew my food well and eat slow, I'm good. Otherwise I've already had my 1st reminder of what it feels like to throw up because your food feels stuck. I had that happen after the sleeve sometimes too and it sucks, but it's a process learning how to eat again and reminding myself that I can't inhale my food. I am taking a daily vitamin with iron and then 3 calcium citrate chewable daily. My doctor also still wants me to take 1 Omeprozole daily for 6 months post op to give my esophagus and hernia repair time to truly heal. 1 month down....5 months to go. Then I'll be able to see if I don't have any GERD or heartburn without any medication. The weight loss is a perk and I definitely want to lose more weight and get down to 150 or at least my best sleeve weight of 175, but I always have to remind myself that my goal of this entire revision surgery was to not deal with heartburn and reflux anymore. So yeah...thats my revision story so far. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Week 1 of pre op is done… just protein shakes (mixed with water) and veggies. Surgery date is 10/16- VGS. Any suggestions for vegan/plant based shakes? I’ve been using Planta and it’s pretty tasty but at four shakes a day it’s getting old and I need to change it up. I can get my required water intake in easily- love love love those sugar free A&W rootbeer packets.

Hi everyone I’m new here 🙂 I have decided to go ahead with the esg despite being scared of the procedure I’m desperate to reduce my weight mainly for health. I have such a love hate relationship with food, I like eating healthily and am an reduce my weight but then have periods of time where I just eat everything in sight and these periods last weeks or months and I gain it all again. I've completed hypnotherapy and done so much work on why I do this. I do think if I can reduce my weight and exercise again this will help, my biggest fear is that I spend this money which is such a huge amount for me, then I feel I can eat through the full feeling, is that possible? As long as I feel really full I think I won’t do that. I just really really hope I can do this and feel nervous as everything else has failed eeeeeek i hope this makes sense but it was really a big old waffle of what’s in my head. did anyone else worry that they would mess it up but it was ok?

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I’m in the uk and have my consultation for the ESG next week. I wondered if there was anyone else in the UK who has had this? I’m deciding between dr Kelly at spire and dr bansi at the Cromwell. Just want to say hello

Considering there are a multitude of thyroid disorders, without a specific confirmed medical diagnosis, it would be impossible to offer an opinion as to how WLS could affect your prognosis. As someone who has dealt with the extreme swing from stroke-level hyperthyroidism cause by the autoimmune disorder of Grave's Disease to a partial thyroidectomy during the early weeks of an unknown pregnancy which placed addition stress on my remaining thyroid causing the destruction of all thyroid function; I have run the gambit of thyroid crisis scenarios including a couple of life threatening emergencies with myxedema comas. I am closely monitored by a team of endocrinologists who specialize in unique cases. How WLS could affect your particular thyroid issue would be best answered by an endocrinologist who specialize in thyroid disorders. As far as my 40 years of experience dealing with the thyroid roller coaster, my tsh, uptake, t3 levels and thyroid medication dosage were never affected by my weight. Good luck to you!

I’ve been in maintenance for a couple of years now, so like @catwoman7 can’t really answer your first question. Mind you I don’t eat all that differently. Just larger portions (& probably a little more good & bad fat 😉). Don’t be afraid to widen your meal selection & food selection. It may need you to do a little work to make a recipe healthier, lower in calories & to complement your plan (ingredients, cooking method). Don’t forget to check the nutrient content too. And it’s working towards how you’ll eat in the future. As to the stall issue - you can’t break those. It’s your body’s reaction to your weight loss. It’s the time your body needs to takes to assesses your current needs & adjusts things like your digestive hormones, metabolism, etc. Your body will take as long as it needs to do this. Stick to your plan. Don’t stress your body more by making changes to what you’re eating or your activity. Your stall will break when your body is ready. Still is frustrating I know.

I'm several years out so I probably shouldn't answer the first question since I've been in maintenance for a long time.. but for the first, I just made sure I was sticking to my program, weighed, measured, and logged everything I ate, and backed off on weighing myself - from daily to about once a week until the stall broke.

Write what YOU eat in a day. I'm nosy and would like to know. Also, maybe it'll give me some food ideas. I'm almost 8 months out. Getting bored of some foods. If you've had stalls, what do YOU do to break those stalls?

I’m also 10 days out and feeling better than I expected! Up and walking a few miles a day. I’m also tired like Shotputqueen said, some days more than others, but reminding myself I had major surgery basically a week ago and my body is still figuring out that the heck happened! Just one of my incision cites still hurts but I can adjust around it mostly. So far so good! Should get cleared to go to purée on Monday 🤞🏻

Hi, kinda new here. I'm 11 weeks post op gastric bypass & I'm about 55-57 lbs down to be exact. In the last few weeks I've been feeling what is kinda like experiencing a numbingness feeling or "falling asleep" "tingling" feeling in my legs from the front part of my stomach down to the top part of my things to my knees. It comes & goes, doesn't always stay! Is this normal? Am I the only one experiencing this? Please tell me this goes away?! [emoji28]🫣[emoji848] Sent from my SM-S908U using BariatricPal mobile app

Aah the how often to weigh debate. The responses seem to swing from very rarely/never to daily. I weighed every day for the first two years or so but now weigh 3 or 4 times a week. In the past if I thought I was putting on weight I wouldn’t go near the scales. If I didn’t see the number on the scales I could believe I wasn’t putting on weight even if my pants were very tight or bought the next size. So me weighing as I do now is about what I need to do to keep myself honest. I say you know you best & weigh yourself as you need to keep yourself motivated & on track. Has my hunger returned, yes. It did so slowly. Has it increased since it fully returned, no. There are still odd days or times I’m not all that hungry at all. (Wish that happened more often 😁.) I try to eat very much to a routine & not eat outside of that. If I think I’m hungry I consider if it’s real hunger or head hunger. Such as when did I last eat? Did I eat a smaller portion at my last meal? Is it almost time for a meal? How am I feeling - bored, sad, annoyed, stressed, etc. It can be an ‘interesting’ discussion I’m having with myself. 😁 This helps most of the time. I’m sorry about your injury @huskymama especially after achieving so much. But you didn’t have to go back to shakes to lose your weight just go back to how & what you were eating before your injury though smaller portions as you can’t be as active at the moment. Meet your fluids & protein goals. Eat your protein first then vegetables & last any carbs you’re allowed if you are able. Return to lower fats, carbs & sugar. Check with your dietician for ideas & guidance. Focus on upper body exercises because of your injury. Search for some exercises for those with limited mobility online. You can do this.

I'm 6 days post-op. I got my surgery in Iceland. We were originally told to be on a clear liquid diet for 4 days then 2 weeks of full liquid diet and then 2 weeks of purred diet. After that, we can start solid soft food and experiment with different types of food to see how our stomach responds. My doctor told me to start my full-liquid diet the day after my surgery. I had apple juice and a broth the evening of the surgery. Every doctor is different.

strictures happen to about 5% of bypass patients. I had one, too (actually, two - one at four weeks out and one at eight weeks out. I was told they are super rare after the third month). As you said, easy fix. I felt better immediately!

Oh that's no fun... I've heard of people having various issues from too much biotin. It is why not everyone advises supplementing it. I think it is unlikely to be the shakes, mostly because a true allergy comes from reactions to a protein IIRC? For the shakes that protein would be in the whey. That means you'd react to ALL whey, which means essentially all cow's dairy products. It is possible to develop an adult true allergy to a protein, but they are rare... However, we can develop intolerances to things and it is possible some additive in the shake is doing it. The reaction you are describing sounds like eczema, it causes that textured skin feeling and sometimes pigment changes. I have a friend that gets it every time she eats cheese! But if it is hives taking benadryl should help noticeably. I'd quit the biotin, give it a week or two for everything to calm down, then try the shake again. If the rash shows up from drinking it again you should go be tested for a dairy allergy by an allergist. I'm not a doctor, but that's what I'd do...

Hey All I've been having a time as stated in another post. I would have updated in the same post but couldn't find it. I haven't been able to proceed to soft foods due to vomiting. Yesterday was my 6 week check up. As far as weight loss I was informed I am on target with 35% of excess weight gone which means I have 21 pounds to go for the doctor's office my personal goal is 33lbs BUT getting the 21lbs off will be great with me. I was also informed "Yesterday" due to the radiology report and the fact I was unable to eat, the doc wanted to do the baloon dialation next morning which was today. All went well and they saw that the opening was narrow & Initially, the scope could not pass through. The balloon was used to stretch the opening to 10 mm. I am now to progress through today liquids, puree, by dinner soft foods then in a few days to move into more dense (soft) foods etc. I feel good just sleepy! The meds should be out of my system by tomorrow. Now the work continues to get into a healthy BMI. No gerd as of now and that is truly a relief!

So exciting!! Congrats brandycsiz!! I was scheduled for December but we had to change things due to a shoulder surgery. So I'll be having the duodenal switch done on November 1st! I started the pre-surgery diet today since the surgeon wanted me to do 3 weeks if possible...