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Yes, stupid Graves ..... I saw my Endo 3-4 weeks post op, then blood tests every 6 weeks, next Endo appointment was 3 months later. Still have 6 weekly blood tests, and still see her every 3 months. She also communicates with me via phone and email. I finally sleep better, my blood pressure and heart rate has come down. Prior to that, I had to go back on beta blockers and sleeping tablets, as the hyper state kept me awake at nights for months! As Thyroxine is so very weight sensitive, each significant drop in weight was bringing hyper thyroid back for me. Now, even though I sleep much longer and much better, I am still tired, still have awful headaches and really bad allergies. All hypo symptoms. So, this next med adjustment may finally do the trick ...... I hope so! Got to keep an eye on the thyroid post op, that's for sure.

Awesome @@Killian ! Glad you are doing well, and that your surgery will be at a convenient time for you. Must be great feeling to look forward to retirement next year This will be so beneficial for your recovery! So, best of luck for July 2017! I've had a pretty smooth recovery. I am almost 8 months post op, unbelievable how quickly the time flew! The only major issues I had were/are my thyroid disease, Graves. Because I was losing lot of weight, I had to keep having dose adjustments, as I ended up hyper-thyroid few times. Not pleasant ..... Recently my Thyroxine has been halved, 6 weeks ago, and I was told today that my TSH and labs are normal. Well, I have not been feeling well in the past 6 weeks, and had many hypo issues. TSH at 3.4 seems too high for me, so this now will be the 4th adjustment, to bring it to 1.0 One day, hopefully it will get stabilised. Good luck with your thyroid too, Killian. Thanks for the update! Cheers, Margo

I do find that snacking leads to stalls and or weight gain for me. I have to be very careful because I also get reactive hypoglycemia so i pretty much eat very small meals all day long. That is a slippery slope and can feel much like grazing which is the worst thing i can do. Early on while in weight loss mode my nut had me drink milk for a snack. it gives you added Protein, turns to a solid keeping you full for quite a while. And.....best of all you can add different types of tea to it. My favorite all time snack especially in the winter is chocolate chai tea. I use the loose tea version from teavanna and steep it for 3 minutes. It is especially delicious, hits the spot with NO added sugar other than what is in the milk. I use lactaid because i still have a lactose intolerance. If i dont have that, i will eat full fat cheese, pepperoni, shrimp, almonds and sometimes bariatric pal hot chocolate or bariatric pal vanilla capacciono.

So my sleeve surgery is Monday but my very limited pre op diet of seven days gas been awful. I knew aspartame gave me mugraines so avoided that ingredient but got primere with sucralose and popsicles with the same as well as crystal light pure made with truvia which is stevia and a sugar alcohol My tummy has been hurting every day. I finally ate a bite of my mom's veggie omelette and was told if my blood sugar went hypo I could eat yogurt so my blood sugar wasn't quite hypo and I had nonfat Greek honey yogurt. Sure felt better but felt so guilty for cheating and like hope I'm not messing up my stomach prep for surgery Last night after crystal light pure, I threw up once with six episodes all this foamy stuff. Sorry tmi. Number two s been all the runs as well so called weight clinic nurse and they are having me quit all artificial sweeteners as they and I feel they are the culprit and allowing me Protein powder...found one with 25grams of protein and sweet with stevia which is a nature made plant and I can have it in skim milk!!!! Yay So stomach is already way happier and tge Protein Powder taste good not chalky Anyone else with similar problems... cheating, malabsorption??etc??

I consider myself an expert when it comes to autoimmune rheumatic diseases. First- let's talk your prednisone: See an endocrinologist. Pronto. I was taking 60 mg of pred a day for years. There was no weaning off, because any time I got down to 20-25mg, I literally could not function. In any capacity. Enter the endocrinologist. Because the prednisone does just as much (if not more!) damage than good, my adrenal function was gone, I had prednisone induced glaucoma as well as prednisone induced diabetes. I needed off the meds ASAP. She prescribed me ORAL hydrocortisone. It mimics- and tricks- your body into believing it is prednisone, and is MUCH easier to wean off of than the prednisone. It took a total of 2.5 months vs over a year or longer if it were the prednisone. Do this. Again, ASAP. Ask for it. Second- methotrexate, either by pill or injection: pills made me sick, puking, typical chemo side effects. The shots did not, and they actually work much more effectively than the pills, so if given a choice, it is a once a week teeny tiny needle. Side effects- don't bother paying attention to them. The benefits far outweigh any possible adverse effects. You will need regular blood work to monitor your liver enzymes. Again, I have been on a very high dosage, so mine were often screwy. Third: I can't imagine any surgeon doing WLS or ANY elective surgery while you are on either of these meds. I had to "wash out" before I could have my surgery, meaning get all traces of the meds out of my blood system and stored reserves. Both drugs make you more susceptible to infection and the prednisone especially makes healing hard. And keeps weight on. Again- seeing an endocrinologist will get you off the pred by using oral hydrocortisone pills. Usually PMR goes away after a year or so. I wonder if you don't have true rheumatoid arthritis? The tests- a sed rate and C-reactive Protein screen are used for PMR as well as other autoimmune arthritis diagnosis. Just a thought. So- don't worry about side effects of the methotrexate and get off the pred!!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App Hi am just seeing this now. Thank you for responding. I did get off prednisone about 8 months ago. But it started to come back and about 2 months later I couldn't take it and went back on. My rheumatologist says cut down till I feel pain. Then start methotrexate. Shots. So I can continue to get off prednisone. I did have all the testing done. They did suspect fibromyalgia ms. Lupus RA etc Till all tests were done. I will look into seeing an endocrinologist. I did tell the dr about prednisone. He said it was fine and I may lose slower. I am now 9 weeks out and lost 20 pounds. 10 more the week before surgery. I was "only" 201 day of surgery. I would like to lose faster but. I really want to get off the prednisone. Thank you and why doesn't my rheumatologist k ow about this? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hi, I'm having my surgery on the 24th as well. I'm in my preop diet stage. Have you tried many liquids or have you just stuck with the Protein shakes and Water? Sent from my SPH-L720 using the BariatricPal App I start my pre op Monday and I'm allowed 3-4 Protein Shakes a day, pkus no fat broths, sugar free popsicles and Jello tea drinks. I plan on utilizing everything except jello. I'm insulin dependent diabetics so they are concerned about hypo attacks but we have a plan in place.

I haven't eaten any of the Jello mousse either. Was just sharing the recipe. But I am equally terrified of dumping syndrome! Nothing is worth that feeling in my book! But, with this mousse being very low fat & sugar free it's a nice option. I have many diabetics in my family and instead of cakes for birthdays, we typically have fresh fruit and the jello mouse as options. I actually have low blood sugar - reactive hypoglycemia. So, I kind of know what dumping feels like. Don't ever want to do that to myself intentionally! I wish you luck with your surgery! I'm thrilled I had it done! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT DJHOHR. I LIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA, AND LIVE ON A DISABILITY GRANT OF R1500 EQUIVALENT TO USD 109. I NOW HAVE ABOUT 5 DIAPERS LEFT FOR THE MONTH. I HAVE TO SAVE THEM FOR WHEN I HAVE TO LEAVE THE ROOM I LIVE IN. I CANNOT JUST GO BACK TO THE HOSPITAL, THEY DO NOT ALLOW IT. MY OP WAS DONE DUE TO NON ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE. I WILL SEE MY DIETITIAN IN 2 WEEKS TIME. IF I HAVE ANY PROBLEMS SHE WILL CONTACT MY DR. I WILL ONLY SEE HIM IN 2 MONTHS TIME. THE HOSPITAL I HAD MY OP IN IS A STATE RUN FACILITY, A VERY GOOD ONE AT THAT. BUT DUE TO THE MASSES OF PATIENTS YOU CANNOT JUST WALK IN THE FRONT DOOR. INKOSI ALBERT LUTHULI HOSPITAL IN DURBAN. MY SURGEON IS VERY GOOD, BUT OVERWORKED. DUE TO NOT HAVING MONEY FOR DIAPERS, I AM RUINING THE CLOTHS THAT STILL FIT ME. I CANNOT GET THE STAINS OUT OF THEM OR EVEN MY BEDDING. THEY FOUND POLYPS IN MY STOMACH TOOK A BIOPSY OF THEM AND MY LIVER BUT THE RESULT ARE NOT IN YET. I ALSO HAVE REACTIVE LYMPH NODES IN MY GROIN THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN BIOPSIED. I AM HAPPY ABOUT THE WEIGHT LOSS, BUT THE PROBLEMS ARE PILLING UP AND TAKING THE JOY THAT I SHOULD BE FEELING AWAY FROM ME. I AM BECOMING VERY DEPRESSED.

It happened to me tonight and I thought i was very planful. Since having RNY 2 years ago I get episodes of reactive hypoglycemia. Today I had my normal Breakfast which was a Protein shake and knowing I would be going to my granddaughter's volleyball game decided to eat my lunch later than normal. I ended up having lunch at 2:30pm - I had a lunch that had great protein and veggies but also had more than normal carbs as it was a ground beef pasty. Then about 2 hours later I had a handful of almonds. I knew her game started at 6:30 and would like run until 8:30 but honestly thought i would be fine until then. Well, while on the way to the game I started to have the very low sugar crash and when it hits me, it hits me fast and it gets pretty scary. I start shaking, Sweating and getting very confused. I have learned the early signs (which come usually about 5 minutes before i end up in big trouble). Like an idiot, I did not bring anything with me. No glucose, no meter nothing.....So I looked at hubby who thankfully was driving and said you need to find either a walgreens or a gas station and find it fast. Well, we were in hicksville, USA and so the only thing we could find nearby was a gas station. I knew I needed some sugar but not alot and then i needed something with protein which would keep it from coming right back in an hour. So, I grabbed some dark chocolate and a protein bar. I ate 4 small squares of chocolate and then followed up with about 1/3 of the protein bar. Within 10 minutes I was fine and was able to hold off for a very late dinner at Stir Crazy where I had delicious chicken breast and veggie stir fry from Their fresh market bar. I really really need to be more careful with this! And going forward, a ground beef pasty clearly had more carbs than i even realized or it would not have happened to me. UGH!

From a past post it appeared that you had surgery on September 26, almost a week ago. The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. In part not meeting these requirements can cause you to be tired. Tiredness can also be a side effect of some medication. It might also be due to low blood sugar. If you were diabetic prior to surgery and took prescription medicine for the condition, it might be time to reduce your medication. Also some people who had no signs of diabetes prior to surgery also developed reactive hypoglycemia after surgery. But all in all, you are only one week out and your body may need a little extra time to mend.

Try not to fret about exact numbers. Staying calm and focused will help. I am not getting enough Protein yet either. I also had a prolonged period of "starvation" mode. Trying tiny amounts of all sorts of foods can help boost your protein input. And might help with the hypos. Once your liquid diet is finished, and if your team allows it, concentrate on just nibbling things that your sleeve likes. I could tolerate some broth so continuously had the slow cooker on with beef and bones in it. I then slowly started adding tiny amounts of lentils. I also put carrots in as I can tolerate them. I always have some of that broth handy. It has both good protein and carbs in. Even if I can only drink the broth throughout the day, my body is getting nutrition. I also nibble on anything that might help boost my protein. Crackers with slivers of hard cheese, cheese crackers with cottage cheese, tiny apple (no skin) slivers dipped in Peanut Butter. Crispy (which turns mushy) textures seem to be tolerated by my sleeve. But as ill (with c diff) as I am, I still push my body to try different Proteins often. Even minute amounts of different foods will add up over 24 hours. I also found that I was in the routine of not eating anything from 6 pm to 9 am pre op, quite normal especially as I have reflux issues. But post op, it was so easy to become both dehydrated because of that routine and that I was going too long without anything going in on top of only a 300 calorie daily intake. So now I make sure that I have something as soon as I wake up (I keep Lucozade beside my bed just in case) and that I have something just before I go to sleep. I hope that helps. Hang in there. I do really understand how you are feeling. Stay calm, breathe, drink Water, nibble, sip broth. Even bone broth has protein in it. Push your food boundaries every day. Protein can come from a myriad of sources, think outside the box. It is now your sleeve, we don't all fit inside the regular sleeve "box" so explore (with caution), what works for you. If a food offends your sleeve this week, it's okay. You can try it again later. I keep trying with egg because I know it is valuable in protein. Egg drop Soup will work for me but I know that I must push my texture boundaries so I try deviled eggs. I really hate the waste so am learning to only prepare minute quantities where possible. You will be okay. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I consider myself an expert when it comes to autoimmune rheumatic diseases. First- let's talk your prednisone: See an endocrinologist. Pronto. I was taking 60 mg of pred a day for years. There was no weaning off, because any time I got down to 20-25mg, I literally could not function. In any capacity. Enter the endocrinologist. Because the prednisone does just as much (if not more!) damage than good, my adrenal function was gone, I had prednisone induced glaucoma as well as prednisone induced diabetes. I needed off the meds ASAP. She prescribed me ORAL hydrocortisone. It mimics- and tricks- your body into believing it is prednisone, and is MUCH easier to wean off of than the prednisone. It took a total of 2.5 months vs over a year or longer if it were the prednisone. Do this. Again, ASAP. Ask for it. Second- methotrexate, either by pill or injection: pills made me sick, puking, typical chemo side effects. The shots did not, and they actually work much more effectively than the pills, so if given a choice, it is a once a week teeny tiny needle. Side effects- don't bother paying attention to them. The benefits far outweigh any possible adverse effects. You will need regular blood work to monitor your liver enzymes. Again, I have been on a very high dosage, so mine were often screwy. Third: I can't imagine any surgeon doing WLS or ANY elective surgery while you are on either of these meds. I had to "wash out" before I could have my surgery, meaning get all traces of the meds out of my blood system and stored reserves. Both drugs make you more susceptible to infection and the prednisone especially makes healing hard. And keeps weight on. Again- seeing an endocrinologist will get you off the pred by using oral hydrocortisone pills. Usually PMR goes away after a year or so. I wonder if you don't have true rheumatoid arthritis? The tests- a sed rate and C-reactive Protein screen are used for PMR as well as other autoimmune arthritis diagnosis. Just a thought. So- don't worry about side effects of the methotrexate and get off the pred!!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

It's 4 hours long so be prepared for that lol however it went by quickly for me because I was so interested. I was reactivating and have gone through orientation before so I knew most of what they were saying but I was still intrigued. You will get weighed and then a surgeon will speak and show video of the surgery, as well as Dr. Z (psych), and Liz the case manager who is also taking over for the dietician while she's on maternity leave

I was reactivating into the program so the process for me was a tiny bit different. I got my referral July 13. I had a health education class July 27 that covered general details about bariatric surgery and the program. After that you need to talk to doc again and say you're interested they then refer you into the program. August 4 was my orientation (4 hours long!!!!!) This where they weigh you and only this weight and their scale will be the one that matters. Since I'm reactivating I had to take 4 bariatric lifestyle class (extremely helpful). They are every Wednesday. On my 4th class day I called to schedule my psych eval, I was SO lucky I called when I did because it was either the next day September 8 or all the way until October 4, I took the 9/8 because I would be on a trip for the next available appt. Dr. Z (psych) cleared me and scheduled me for my surgeon appt w/ Dr. Mostaedi October 11 (where I'll get my goal weight) I've already lost 23lbs so that must be why Dr. Z cleared me quickly. I have to wait till December for surgery because of school but I would have to wait anyway because I was a vaper. If you are a smoker you will have to be 3 months nicotine free before surgery. If I wasn't a vaper and didn't have school I would probably be having this surgery in October.

Thank you everyone,yes I will keep you updated. My body is in constant overdrive and I have been on bp meds for years. I am hoping to get off of them but I guess not until I get my thyroid levels stabilized. I used to wake up with extreme night sweats but it has been better, but I'm always hot. I'm concerned about going hypo if I get on meds or gaining weight back and they have run all kinds on tests on me. They did a mri to check my pituitary gland, checked me for nodules, checked me for graves (though graves unfortunately does run in my family) and so far it's all been negative. Don't know what's causing the extra low tsh.

@@MissB1982 Glad you are seeing your Endo. I have Graves Disease (Hyper thyroid). It is genetic, but I was diagnosed with it pre Sleeve, as part of the tests pre op. I've walked around with it for decades ..... This put my surgery back for 9 months to get my thyroid stabilised. I tried anti-thyroid drugs but this was taking too long, so I was on Beta Blockers and had RAI done last year (radioactive iodine) to destroy my thyroid. 4 months later I went hypo, and was put on Thyroxine (Synthroid) 100mcg. After my sleeve early March 2016 I started noticing that I wasn't sleeping well again, and my bad headaches came back. In May my Thyroxine dose was reduced. I was OK for a while, but with continuous weight loss, the Hyper thyroid symptoms came back: bad insomnia, awful headaches, high blood pressure and racing pulse, sweats. My TSH was back to less than 0.01 again! I saw my Endo last week, and she reduced my Thyroxine to 50 mcg (half dose). She told me to have a week off Thyroxine, to stop it completely, and re-start it at 50 mcg this coming Friday. I also had to go back on Beta Blockers to lower down heart rate and blood pressure. She confirmed that with weight-loss, this affects the med dose. It is very weight sensitive. So far I am starting to sleep better, and my vitals have improved, rare headaches now and still bit hot at times. @@MissB1982 I hope you get your answers from your Endo. You sound quite Hyper thyroid to me. It can put a strain on the heart, and the whole condition is very unpleasant. There are anti-thyroid meds, such as Carbimazole, plus Beta Blockers to slower the heart rate, and there is RAI: Radioactive Iodine Tx. Good luck, and let us know how you went.

I'm hypo had half of mines removed due to goiter I take pills for it daily was just sleeved on 6th of September Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Apologizing in advance for the length of this post but here goes my 'deleting my online profile' story: So...I met a guy on Zoosk in the spring of 2015. No attraction on my part, and every time we went out, I said to myself that I would end it. Problem was...I really enjoyed spending time with him. Eventually we did become a couple and I hid my profile rather than delete it. Glad I did because after nine months of dating, he blindsided me and dumped me. We were not in love and I'm fairly certain in time, the relationship would have limped along till one of us made the move to end it. But because I wasn't prepared, it hit me like a ton of bricks and brought up all kinds of rejection issues for me and well.....you ladies know how this part goes...what did I do wrong?, why was I not good enough?, yada yada yada. What I did know when the relationship was over, was that I wanted to be with someone so crying hysterically, I resubscribed back onto Zoosk and JDate, which I had also shut down but not deleted my profile from. To my complete surprise, I met a man on JDate in June and we have been having a great time together. This relationship is nothing like with the other guy. This new one and I have so much in common and we enjoy talking about all kinds of things and doing so many of the same things. I wrote on another thread that he might be the lid to my pot and so far, it's going gangbusters. I know he deleted his profile from both Match and JDate a few weeks ago and knew that I had not. It wasn't that I was dating anyone else...I just wasn't ready to shut it down again. Last night I went onto Zoosk because I was getting email notifications from them and on a whim, went onto the site. Just for the heck of it, I looked up former boyfriend's profile...which he had not reactivated when I first went back onto Zoosk..and sure enough, he popped up this time. I looked at his profile..his new profile by the way...and the updated pictures on it. And that's when I knew...time to shut down my profile. It's not that I don't hope he finds someone...I'm not that petty. I just know more than ever now, that he's my past, and it's time to focus on my future..and with this new man in particular. Now...if I could just figure out how I managed to send old boyfriend a friggin' friend request on FB, it would be great. I swear I have no idea how I did that, but I did. I can't unfriend him now...not after sending that request...even by accident. Oh..and why he accepted that request is beyond me. But if I'm lucky, he'll see the pictures of me and the new guy, and delete me from his feed...

@@WLSResources/ClothingExch Because after radioactive treatment my thyroid got destroyed and stopped functioning. I had RAI early August 2015, and by December 2015 I was Hypo thyroid, at TSH 17.3 (when I was Hyper, TSH was less than 0.01) Hence my now life-time thyroid hormone replacement. At surgery, my TSH was 1-1.5, few weeks later it went to 0.6 and I started feeling unwell again. Since the past 3 months, TSH has been less than 0.01 again, due to continuing weight loss. So I am back to Hyper thyroid symptoms, not all of them, but few troublesome ones. Hence dosage adjustments, but they take weeks to work. I nursed before, so I know a fair bit about different meds, and so I tried my anti-thyroid drugs again, and they certainly helped me, at least to sleep! Anyway, hopefully my Thyroxine will be lowered again. The Thyroxine/Synthroid is very weight sensitive, and I feel I now should be on 75 mcg. I'll find out on Thursday when I see my Endo again. Without the thyroid hormone replacement, we can't survive. So, either Hyper of Hypo thyroid can be life threatening. At least with Hypo, you only take 1 tablet a day. When I was very Hyper, I was taking up to 18 tablets a day! Carbimazole (anti-thyroid) plus Beta Blockers for my heart. It was just too much, so I decided to go with the radioactive Tx, then 1 tablet a day. One day, when my weight stabilises, so will my Thyroxine dose. And I finally should feel well/normal again. If not for my thyroid issues, my WLS recovery would have been easy and smooth ......

It's funny... I've always wished I was hyper rather than hypo.. That way, the weight would just fall off... make it a great day Hope you get stable soon, krakow! make it a great day

I've been hypo for about 14 years, but then had thyroid cancer 8 years ago. My thyroid was removed. Been clear now for 6 years, thank god...Thanks for asking... make it a great day

Hi @@judy vsg, few of us here with thyroid issues. Welcome to the club I have Graves disease, pain in the butt! However I am hoping for some stability in my thyroid once I reach goal weight. Have only been hypo for 1 month, 4 months after radioactive iodine treatment. Can't wait for my Thyroxine levels to be lowered and stay stable. How are you doing? Hope you are well.

I was never diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia, but when I was pregnant, my blood sugar would drop to the high 40's (normal fasting is 70-100). I managed it by eating several small meals - every 3 or 4 hours - making sure I had good amounts of Protein in each. Which also cleared up my all-day morning sickness. Outside of pregnancy, I've had a few times where I got clammy and shaky and knew what it was and got some sugar on board quick. You can get glucose meters and supplies without a prescription, but a prescription is required for insurance to cover the cost. But it's important to be working with your doc and team regardless. I'm not far along enough to see if it's better or worse after the sleeve, but I'm on the lookout for it. This is a great topic, thanks for posting it!!

I feel like shit I barley eat anything , I feel very weak and now I'm having trouble with very low sugars I don't no if I should of had this surgery I'm having dibetic hypos on a daily basis I'm just lost for words really no support out here where I live I feel all alone I'm off to the hospital for a suspected blood clot to can things get any worse ???????? Sent from my SM-N910F using the BariatricPal App

I should probably clarify what i mean by long term, 12 months is relatively safe, beyond that being at extremely low calories can cause the following: Fatigue Anemia Cardiovascular issues Gallbladder issues Increased cortisol Ferility issues Psychological Vitamin deficiency Loss of muscle mass Malnutrition Reactive hypoglycemia I know some of these are resolved with weight loss, but they can also be brought on by having extremely low calories for years.