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Hi, my name is Krislynn, Kris, or just K., I'm new to this forum. I found it researching more about the duodenal switch. I turned 42 in July this year, and my highest weight before my first surgery was 536. I had the gastric sleeve in June 2017. The first year was a great learning experience in learning about healthy foods, changing my mindset, and what I needed to do to get healthy. That first year, I lost 221 lbs. But, then when I went back for the 2-year check-up, the surgeon that took care of me, had left the hospital and program and they informed me they had no one for me to see. But, then Covid hit shortly after that-- then I lost my job and ended up sitting home 2 years and gained close to 200 lbs back of what I lost and that was crippling to me because all my old health problems came right back. during all this happening, my mom and I chose to move from California to Indiana to be closer to my sister, I decided I couldn't take care of my mom who has declining health because of her weight too, has been type 2 diabetic for more than 20+ years at this rate with my health starting to decline again too. So I reached out to the weight loss doctors here, I spent 6 months Feb-Aug '24 taking off 70+ lbs by following their 1200 calorie diet, getting back into a healthy mindset. It's a struggle at times, and sometimes I take two big steps forward, and then I end up taking a big step backward, it's a daily walk. once I completed the mandatory 6-month medical weigh-ins, things moved quickly, I got approved by the psychologist, and then the insurance approved me to have the Duodenal Switch or SADIS surgery quickly, within a week I heard back. My new surgeon who's great, got me scheduled quickly after I finished all the required testing, and preop classes, this Monday, the 11th at 7 AM. I am feeling nervous because even though every test they've made me do has come back normal and negative, I am 7 years older and worry that something might possibly happen. I keep reminding myself, that I've already had the sleeve, so I won't be under that long, just long enough for him to do the switch. so basically, I'm going to go to sleep and then wake up on the other side of it. Can anyone who has had this surgery, give some advice or maybe just let me what to expect after this kind of surgery? The last time I woke up the only thing I remember is the immense pressure I felt on my chest from them feeling my stomach with gas to do the surgery. And The surgeon told me unfortunately I would be dealing with that again because it's something unavoidable. So, I'm prepared for that. Love to everyone, Krislynn☺️💜

That's an amazing gauge; before my surgery (Sept '23), I had to use the last hole, and it was...snug. Here we are now, a week short of 14 months post-op, down 135lbs and I use the 4th hole unless I'm working out, when I use the 5th hole to tighten it up a little to keep the sensors away from the bottom of my (tattoo) sleeve.

well, i sort of had the opposite issue, as i wouldn't eat enough & and needed a reminder to eat.... but my M.O. would work for you as well i think: i would set a timer on my watch for a certain amount of time (i.e., 2-3 min earlier on, and like 1-2 min as i got further along). i'd take 1-2 BITES of whatever i had prepared for myself, put my fork down, and set the timer, it goes off, i take 1-2 BITES again. rinse and repeat. yes, it took me FOREVER to eat a meal, in the early months: like 60-90 mins omg. after a while (like 3-4 months) i was able to do it without the timer. in your case, if you feel you are eating more and/or faster than you should, i would suggest focusing on putting your fork down, and maybe, if it helps, maybe even physically remove yourself (i.e., walk away) until your timer goes off again. after a few weeks/months, you will form a habit and not need the timer anymore, it will become muscle memory. it may take weeks/months, but if you stick to it, you could totally do it. ❤️

Three weeks out from brachioplasty and reverse tummy tuck. Some swelling and bruising down. Not cleared to drive or be out and about quite yet. Remain on Tramadol 50mg and Arnica 30X to manage the burning, deep tissue and nerve pain in arms. Tylenol remains ineffective, but will keep trying to wean off narcotics. Doing some light cooking and housekeeping. No heavy lifting, but practice reaching to second kitchen shelving. Utilizing silicon cream, paper tape and wraps on sutures + arms daily. I suspect another two weeks for initial recovery. Personally, unless your arms were as heavy and problematic as mine, I would not recommend this surgery. The recovery and downtime has been arduous.

I wish I could say from experience but I never made it to the maintenance phase with my sleeve and I’m early out from my revision. From being on the boards though it seems what most people do is to add like 100 healthy calories at a time and wait and see if that makes them gain and keep upping it until they find what their body is happy with. Of course if you level of activity or type of calories changes you may have to adjust so I think if you don’t choose to log your food daily you may want to at least spot check it like once a week just so you can see if your habits change gradually and keep on track for what works for your body. Congratulations on nearing maintenance!!

I did! I was able to get my mail-in vote sent off last week! I was up all night watching the election but tapped out just after they called Georgia, (4AM or so) Crazy close edge-of-your seat type stuff!

Hi everyone! Is anyone still around in this group? Its been 4 years since my surgery, and what a ride it has been. I have had ups and downs, and now I am trying to work on myself a little mor and loose some more. I had my tummytuck done in April and in three weeks I will have my inner tight surgery. To keep the weight down I have used Ozempic and Wegovy. Would be fun to hear if anyone is still around and how have your been since surgery!

I love wall pushups. Been doing them for almost 2 years now almost every single day. I stand about 1 metre away from the wall (which is almost 2/3s of my height - lol!) and do 35 ordinary pushups & 35 with a clap. Should do more but I am ultimately lazy. I have distinct deltoids, triceps & biceps. Don't know how much stronger I actually am but my arms are toned which is what I wanted & not muscle bulk. My 14yr old competitive swimmer niece complemented me on my arms last week & was comparing them to hers. I’ll take that. Though she did point out they’d look better if I had the loose skin removed. Aah 14yrs olds, they give & they take away. 😂

https://a.co/d/5efMT0T The old one I have no clue what the care instructions are I just tried it thinking if it didn’t come clean then it was garbage anyways. That link above is the one I bought recently. They have really good reviews and they are cheaper than the Manduka brand. It’s really pretty and very vibrant colors in person. I have washed it in the machine three times now in a front loader and it still looks fine but who knows after a while. I take it out immediately and hang it up to dry (over my bar stool). Mine doesn’t have any kind of guarantee, though, that I know of anyways and no it’s not very thick at all. In fact when I went to the other gym that uses one mat I learned that my knees hurt when I don’t have that second layer where they cross one another so I guess i will be stacking two on top of one another for that class now. I quickly grabbed my towel and put that under my knees last time because they were hurting and that worked but it was a little awkward. I agree it sounds like a money thing them expecting you to use their brand specifically. If you buy their cleaner you basically end up paying for a second mat anyways and if you don’t they can say that you voided the warranty and not replace it. Either way they save money.

i use a diy spray (1 part distilled white vinegar, 3 parts filtered water and and several drops of tue essential oil du jour...currently it's peppermint)...fill up a spray bottle and bring with me and some disposable "dry" wet wipes. i spray (both sides) of mat when done and wipe down. then once a week i soak it in the bathtub with some dawn dishwashing soap and warm water for an hour and dry (first with a towel and then hang). BUT i use my mat 2-3 times a day every day. 80% of the time doing hot yoga so my mat gets pretty sweat soaked. also...this is the first time ive heard of putting a mat in the washing machine!. i looked up the care instructions for the ones i have and none say i should do that? maybe because mine are on the thicker/heavier side?

I had to do the liver shrinking diet pre-op for 2 weeks. 2 shakes a day then I ate a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables with 3 ounces of lean chicken or beef season fried in soy sauce for my evening meal. It was delish. I lost weight. High volume, low calorie. I'd enjoy the food while you can. JS

I'm about for weeks post op (Monday) and I will be cleared to start soft foods. I recently invested in a 1qt (1.5Litre) slow cooker as I'm just cooking for myself, but I don't really know where to start using it. My mother's old stewed beef recipe is calling to me as it's always been a favourite and soft, melt in your mouth beef sounds perfect for this stage. But she didn't write it down so I have to remember what she taught me. Does anyone know any good stewed beef slow cooker recipes?

I'm back in the US for two weeks at the end of this months (I'm a Montana girl no matter how long I've lived in the UK) and I'm hoping I can hit all the thrift stores while I'm there. There's a few thrift stores here, but not so many that have plus sizes. I'm guessing I'm a UK 20 (US 18) now so still a plus size.

I agree with this. I'm about 4 weeks post op. According to my plan, I can start soft foods on Monday. But I've struggled with purees and eating too fast so I've gone back to liquids and protein shakes. I'm honestly kind of scared of moving to soft foods and even more scared of moving to solid foods. I think if you're going to use shakes and things to supplement your diet, Meal Replacement shakes are a better alternative to protein shakes as they also have more vitamins. While on my LSD, I would mix the chocolate slimfast with some chocolate protein powder and little skimmed milk to disguise the taste of the slimfast, but also to give it a little more protein. I would not WANT to live on those long term, but occasionally, I think can still have a place in the diet if you're in a rush or not feeling well enough to cook.

I'm about 4 weeks post op so I don't have a lot of smaller clothes. I'm trying to go as long as I can without buy new clothes because I don't know what size I will settle at. But I really like these jeans because they are skinny cargo jeans. I might just buy these in 2 different sizes just in case. I also find leggings not being tight annoying. My problem has always been that I'm too short for standard leggings so I would need a size 22 leggings but they would be too long. Now they are baggy and too long. But I've always been able to wear legging a size smaller than jeans or trousers because of the stretch.

Thank you so much. I am actually feeling a bit more positive this morning. I stepped on the scale and I dropped over two pounds to finally get into “onederland”which I kinda hoped was going to happen sometime next week but had assumed that wouldn’t happen with no activity. Well 199.6 but still under 200. So maybe that’s a sign that I need to just stay positive and that I can still handle this.

I'm also really sick of wearing compression socks, but two more weeks to go.

I'm now 4 weeks post op. I'm not really in any pain except my hip which is unrelated. I'm about to start the soft foods phase,. I'm nervous about when I will start solid foods because solid foods are what helped me get big in the first place. I have my ne month review with my surgical team in the 7th of November.

Even though plans are fundamentally the same, surgeons will have their own requirements many based on you, your health and your needs. Best advice is always follow the plan you have been given. Of course, if you are struggling with the plan, contact your team and discuss alternative substitutions you may be able to include. As for the pre surgical diet I was one who put on a keto diet for those two weeks. (I did about 2.5 weeks.) But I know a friend with the same surgeon, who had a higher starting BMI was on 3 shakes a day. Another, again same surgeon, was put on 2 shakes & one meal (protein & vegetable/undressed salad) a day. If you are concerned speak to your team.

No! No! No! Besides why would you? Let’s be honest. We enjoy eating. The smell, the textures, the flavours, the look and sometimes the sound of food ( like the crunch of an apple) is appealing & gives us pleasure. We celebrate with food. We share food with loved ones. We give thanks with food. Why would you sacrifice that to drink a protein shake for every meal? Yes, you may be prescribed shakes in your pre surgical diet and you will be prescribed them for usually 2 weeks after surgery. The pre surgery shakes are to increase your weight loss to improve your surgical success odds & to shrink your liver so the surgeon can see the surgical field more easily. Post surgery it’s to support your healing & not strain your digestive system (remember all those sutures & stables holding it together). Short term reliance on shakes. The goals of the surgery include you changing your relationship with food and establishing a healthy, nutritionally dense, sustainable way of eating. Drinking shakes for any extended period of time is simply not sustainable. It’s not nutritionally sound, only gives more power to cravings, creates new bad relationships with food and will highly likely result in weight regain & poor health. Key word here is supplement. If you are struggling to get your protein in via the real food you eat, sure a protein shake can be beneficial as a supplement to your earring. Same with any vitamin or supplement. If your body is lacking in specific vitamin or minerals, sure take a supplement but they should never be what you totally rely on to get the nutrients your body needs to function unless you have a specific medical condition that means you can not eat real, solid food. I never touched another shake after I began purées (start of week 3). My goal was always to get all the nutrients I needed through real food. And I do. I don’t even take vitamins now (except in winter when I have a dip in my vitamin D - I feel the cold so hibernate in winter & rug up if I have to go out so little sunlight for me then). Ask your nutritionalist, surgeon & GP. I bet they agree with all of us.

As others have said, absolutely not. Fruit, veg, and lean protein is essential to good health. I had protein shakes for the two weeks before surgery to shrink my liver, and for the first few weeks after as my insides healed. I would never want to rely on them beyond that. I can't even imagine how horrible and unfulfilling that would be. I've continued to have maybe one shake a day as a supplement when it's difficult to hit my protein goals. Tonight I'm having a protein hot chocolate from Premier Protein because it's chilly outside and a nice treat. But mostly I eat real, minimally processed foods. It's important to remember that supplements and vitamins and minerals are only able to provide the nutrients we know about, the ones scientists have discovered are directly responsible for diseases and disorders if you don't get them. But there are countless thousands of compounds in natural foods that we need and that are absent from shakes and supplements because they haven't been studied. The only way to get that is to eat a wide variety of real whole foods.

I am asking for your help/advice. I am a physical therapist and I underwent my own bariatric surgery in 2022. I am looking to develop a unique bariatric program that provides exercise programs and support to people undergoing rapid weight loss whether from surgery or from medication. If you guys could answer a few questions for me it would be greatly appreciated and would help me build my practice! 1. Did you exercise before surgery? And what was your biggest challenge? 2. Would you have benefited from a preop physical therapy appointment to develop a customize strength training program that took into consideration your current limitations and orthopedic issues. 3. how were you educated on post operative activity and physical restrictions? Would you have liked a week by week guide on what activities you can return to and when? 4. Were you educated on exercises to maintain muscle mass through your first year postoperatively? 5. What kind of exercises did you do postoperatively in the first year? Did you hire a personal trainer? Join the gym? Search online? 6. Did you develop any new or worsening musculoskeletal pain as you were more mobile and your body composition changed? 7. Let me know if you have any other ideas on how having a physical therapist on your bariatric team would have benefited you both before and after surgery. Thanks so much everyone. I may be piloting this program with a few patients. Email me if you’re interested (I’m licensed to treat in N.C.) contact@localpointpt.com

Hi I'm currently three days into my liquid diet I've been googling about things I can have so my question is Egg Drop Soup would it be ok to have I figured I could get an accurate answer from someone who's been through this process before

hmmm...maybe because CAMH is high demand/high level cases? 🤷🏻‍♀️ back in 2016 i was able to get an appt with one at Markham-Stouffville hosptial within 1 week of refferal. last year, my daughter was able to get an appt with Mackenzie Health (in Richmond Hill) within a month...and this location is probably the CAMH equivalent in york region (my words, not anyone elses! lol) neither of us would i consider to be one of the "most severe cases of mental health" (but we did each get a referral from our family doc). anyway, maybe check it out...IF YOU WANT TO...i don't want to come off as pressuring you to do something you don't really want to do! whatever you decide to do (or even if you don't do anything at all), hope you find a way to get some peace.

to this question: i was told to have 3 protein shakes a day for two weeks (and that was all). that said, i HATED the protein shakes they told me to drink (too sweet, omg), so i maybe had 2 shakes a day for the first maybe 8 days, then went down to 1 shake a day until the end. (btw, after surgery, i found a less sweet protein shake, thank goodness).