Search the Community

Hi, I did have my surgery in November. It has not been a very positive or successful experience for me. My issue is not with the surgery itself (maybe), but rather with the follow-up. Allina has been seriously lacking in that department. My questions and concerns go unanswered and unresolved. I am now consulting with a long time bariatric surgeon out of state to make sure I am doing everything right to maximize my loss during this one time only window. I’m not losing much and I get different and contradictory responses from different nurses and dietitians - I don’t even see the same people anymore. I’ve given up on Allina and don’t recommend to those who ask. Ugh - sorry about that. This still upsets me. Dr Svendsen is great. Unfortunately, you don’t see him after your surgery. You follow up with nurses, dietitians, and bariatricians. He’s only the salesman and surgeon. I wish your BF the best. I’m sure he’ll be successful, most are. 💕

If you sign up for Kindle Unlimited, you'll find so many books with recipes for bariatric surgery patients! I've already tried a few meals and they're actually tasty (parmesan-crusted cod, for instance)! Most of them have few ingredients and short cooking times, which are right up my ally. I also created a weekly meal planner with a shopping list section in Excel to help me plan better (I basically found one that I liked online and modeled mine after it). So I'll sit down, pick out recipes that I want to cook, write them in the days that I'll eat them, jot down the ingredients, then go through my pantry and mark off what I have. I just picked up a few things today, in fact. One thing I've learned while trying to diet in the past, is that it's much easier to stick to it when you plan it out and set aside a day to meal prep. The first image is the blank planner, the second is one I filled out for next week. I put the page numbers of the recipes to find easy and the circled numbers on the right represent how many servings I'm at from that recipe (most of them make 4 servings). Sent from my SM-G975U using BariatricPal mobile app

Hello, Is anyone familiar with the Bariatric blogs for Kaiser Permanente for this area? I have heard about them a few times but I cannot find it anywhere! Thank you

Iron deficiency can cause hair loss and dry brittle hair. Sometimes it will NOT show up as anemia. It is VERY common in bariatric surgery patients, particularly women who menstruate. (or are vegetarian, or give blood regularly) Make SURE your doctor is testing your Ferritin level and not just your hemoglobin. You can be incredibly low on available iron and not be anemic. Non-anemic iron deficiency could explain your hair loss. And make sure you're taking your iron supplements separate from your calcium. Also, taking it with vitamin C helps.

This is such an interesting discussion, and we don't talk about this. My first goal was to just be under 200, too. That seemed like enough. Just to be pretty regular sized and not need special accomidation...not have to worry about weight limits, fit in normal auditorium seats.....and maybe get some good health benefits. I reached 200 and thought I could do a little more. I remembered feeling and looking my best at 170 in my youth...back when I could run five miles and work all day and not get too tired. So I thought...ok, I'll try for 170. I'm a muscular person. My feet are size 11 and my shoulders are broader and stouter than many men's. My body style isn't willowy. So I worked hard for 170....got there and felt incredible. Then, I went on a really rugged cross country camping/hiking trip and without realizing it got down to 160 and weirdly....just didn't like how I looked as much. I looked older, my wrinkles were more prominent, I prefer more curve and less prominent muscle on myself. I like eating a few more calories. I like getting 10,000 steps a day...and doing active things that I enjoy....but I don't enjoy constant training schedules and work outs. In the end, it's all a balance. Figuring out your best you...is a balance. Catwoman, I'm glad to hear that your team, like my team....had realistic information available for you and encourage realistic goals for their clients. My team was all about long term results, long term habits, therapy to figure out the bad choices, little changes that add up. Sometimes I feel like the teams that do super restricted calories for super rapid weight loss....are treating their patients more like walking advertisements for their "miracle fix" than patients whose futures they're invested in. I see my bariatric team once a year now. How long will I do this? Forever. They want to see me once a year. If my nutrient levels are stable...this can extend to once every few years...but they want a long term relationship to track my progress for research. I think this is so important.

that's often due to low blood pressure (although you might want to check it out with your PCP or surgeon, as there are other things that can cause that - like low glucose level, inner ear issues, etc - but it's usually a blood pressure issue). The medical term is orthostatic hypotension, and it's pretty common in the early weeks after bariatric surgery. If that's what it is, just get up more slowly. It'll usually resolve on its own, but as an above poster said, if you're on blood pressure meds, check with your doctor as they may need to lower your dosage (or even take you off them).

It’s probably time to visit your primary care physician and discuss your new reality. Are you on blood pressure meds? Other meds? Those might need adjusting. I went through the lightheadedness and my PCP reduced my blood pressure meds, with the goal of stopping them in another month or so. I think you get a different perspective and information from your PCP. The first time I saw her my hair had started falling out and she gave me a prescription for a shampoo. Didn’t know that was available (all I had gotten from the Bariatric center has the advice to take biotin). I’m not sure if the shampoo helped, or if it was the biotin, or just time, or all three but my hair is now growing back like mad. As an added benefit, I love seeing my PCP because she raves about how much healthier I am becoming.

Interesting read. I can't help though but think about how much weight people gain during a time period of 11 years who never were obese in their whole life, maybe not even overweight. I just need to look at colleagues and friends. Weight gain (sometimes really significant) between the age of 35-50 seems to be quite common. So while I definitely don't want to dismiss weight regain over a time span that long, one should maybe also take a look outside the realm of the bariatric world and be careful what to label as "failure" or not (though this usually seems to be more of a patient-problem than a doctor-problem). If "goal" is BMI 24.9 or less you're definitely right. Now I'm going to talk about something that is really rarely talked about in the WLS community (we seem to have exactly one moderately active thread about this): eating disorders or disordered eating. When one takes a look at "failure rates" of treatment of patients suffering from eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, bariatric patients don't seem to have worse outcomes so we don't seem to be exceptionally "bad patients". Too many patients seem to only change gear and develop overly restrictive eating habits, starve themselves and compulsively exercise, all too often encouraged not only by the scales showing less weight, but also by their environment and even their treatment teams.

I don’t really know. That was what my bariatric team told me to do. Different practices do different things. I fully expected two weeks but glad there wasn’t!

One thing we don't talk about here....because it's negative and not motivational....is that for lots of people, this surgery DOESN'T work. Not because it doesn't do precisely what it's said to do....but because people who have it are sometimes not yet ready to change their habits and address the causes of their poor choices and what drives them. The surgeries are a tool. They absolutely help. But they are not the cure. They fix your stomach, not your head. If you don't fix your head and your habits, the weight loss won't last. The surgeries will NOT prevent you from regaining weight. It's not even that hard to regain. Go to the veterans page...notice that not a lot of people hang out there....and that most of the posts are about...OMG, i'm regaining everything! Most folks don't reach goal. Most folks lose about 50% of their excess weight. This is STILL a really good thing, and WORTH having the surgery. Tons of health benefits in that 50%....and that 50% gets you that much closer to your goal weight when your head is ready to do the work and get disciplined enough to get there. https://www.mdedge.com/diabeteshub/article/150969/obesity/weight-recidivism-after-bariatric-surgery-what-constitutes?sso=true

Kinda reminds me of the time I started dreaming about BREAD of all things. About four months post op I started having vivid dreams about bread. Sandwiches, toast, cinnamon bread, etc. I told my nutritionist about it and she thought it was hilarious! 😂 Then she told me low carb bread would be fine to add to my diet and I tried some low carb wheat bread (not knowing at this point that I have a wheat allergy) and I DUMPED! I felt like I was dying it was so bad! 😭 My bariatric surgeon had told me you didn't dump with my surgery and I complained so loudly at my 6 month check up for that. They said it was weird and asked me what my symptoms were and I told them it was the WORST nausea of my LIFE (and I had brain surgery, for reference), diarrhea, stomach cramps, sweating, shaking, dizzyness, lightheadedness, etc. and they were like: 'yeah that's classic symptoms of dumping syndrome, but that shouldn't have happened'. So they did an allergy test for wheat and it came back positive. How a food allergy mimics dumping syndrome, I don't even know... Anyway, I was so scarred by the incident that I actually had bread that I haven't had it since. On one hand I miss it, but hey, wheat is in like almost EVERYTHING and it gets annoying when you look at labels and see wheat on it and then I can't eat it... why do they friggin' use wheat flour in so many things?! 😡 Anyway, yeah, it's normal. Hilarious and weird, but normal to have vivid food dreams.

It can be done - it is called a total gastrectomy and is usually done for cancer, gastroparesis or other severe gastric problems - but it is something of a big deal to do. The long term functional difference to your RNY is small, but healing time is the big issue - the esophagus (eating tube) is only a two layer structure compared to your stomach pouch which is four or five layers (depending upon how you count things) so the direct attachment to the intestine is trickier than the stomach to intestine. This was an option I looked into some years ago on a cancer issue, and the partial gastrectomy (basically an RNY) had a normal RNY post op healing and eating progression. The total gastrectomy would have required several months on a feeding tube to let things heal before any food could be introduced. So, this is not something to go into lightly. (And, no, I never had either procedure done - second and third opinions indicated that they weren't necessary, at least for the time being.) Something else to look into - have they determined if the GERD is acid, or bile? That's a big difference in treatment, as if it is bile reflux, the basic RNY structure is already somewhat predisposed to that, and taking out the pouch will no help, and likely make it worse. A possible clue here is that the anti-acid meds aren't working, and they wouldn't if it was a bile problem. It sounds like your problem, or a good part of it, is a weak Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES) which is the muscular valve between the stomach and the esophagus. That can be weakened by your obesity history (though that was a long time ago), by over eating - over stuffing your pouch can put pressure on it and weaken it, or by some other disease mechanism. There are procedures available specific to this problem that may solve things without having to go through the gastrectomy. Do some research on surgical treatment for GERD. You need to research and find a surgeon who is very experienced with bariatric problems and revisions to figure out what exactly is going on, and then what the proper solution would be. The RNY (or any procedure, for that matter,) does occasionally cause significant problems so you need someone experienced with that. Good luck in working this out! Note - there are some Facebook groups that cater specifically to people with total or partial gastrectomies, so that would be a good place to look to get a better idea of what living with that procedure is like.

The BariatricPal Store carries a HUGE selection of Bariatric friendly Calcium at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium. Check out the newly released BariatricPal Sugar-Free Calcium Citrate Soft Chews 500mg with Probiotics at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/brand_bariatricpal+vitamin-form_soft-chews . They come in 4 AMAZING flavors: French Vanilla Caramel, Belgian Chocolate Caramel, Strawberry Watermelon Twist, and Wild Grape. You can get Calcium in many different forms: Soft Chews: https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/vitamin-form_soft-chews Chewable: https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/vitamin-form_chewable Powder: https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/vitamin-form_powder Liquid: https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/vitamin-form_liquid Tablets: https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/vitamin-form_tablets

Hi all! I am scheduled for revision of my bypass on March 16! Original stats : 260lbs pre-op RNY Bypass : November 2009 Lowest : 135lbs Plastics - Abdominoplasty; Panniculectomy; Thigh Lift : June 2011 Divorce - Remarried - Regained Sept 2020 : Re-entered Bariatric Program at 279lbs Current : 245lbs I will have my pouch resized and reconnected distally for a little bit of malabsorption. Hoping for ~ 70lb weightloss and then to maintain.

the only time I've had to fast before labs is when they're testing glucose, which I don't think they've done with my bariatric panel in quite awhile. Although I've sometimes been asked before a "surprise" blood test (like when I go to my PCP for some issue and she orders a blood test) how long it's been since I've eaten -- they can still test glucose level, evidently, but I'm guessing they do something different if you haven't fasted. the PA at my bariatric surgeon's office once recommended that I stop taking vitamins a couple of days before my annual bariatric panel, but honestly, I'm not sure why he recommends this since I take vitamins every day and have for almost six years. So whatever my vitamin levels are on any given day is my "norm". The only vitamin I take that's not a daily thing is B12 - I take a megadose every two weeks. So I try to schedule my labs in the middle of the two-week cycle, since having labs done a day or two after I take my B12 could show that I'm really high in B12, which may not be my "average", if that makes sense.

Good morning everyone! I think everyone would agree, the two week pre-op diet and post-op diet requirements are TOUGH! Especially if you haven’t found a protein shake that you actually like. I want to share info about a company I found that has great options! Ideal Fit ( idealfit.com ) offers many options of whey protein isolate shakes and clear fruity drinks. I have tried several flavors and LOVE having a choice! Protein shake burn-out can happen so easily! They ship quickly and have 50% off sales all the time. Check out these flavors: caramel mocha birthday cake vanilla) chocolate brownie cookies and cream cold brew coffee white chocolate peppermint chocolate mint chocolate peanut butter red velvet cake And there are still several flavors I haven’t tried yet! They offer clear protein fruit flavored options that are delicious too! Strawberry Lemonade mojito passion fruit peach mango These are nice because they aren’t as heavy as the protein shakes and they are easy to get down. I AM NOT GETTING ANY KICK BACKS FROM THE COMPANY FOR SHARING THIS INFO. I just want to share my find with others because I think it makes this journey so much easier and enjoyable. I had the dietitian review the nutritional elements and she confirmed that these shakes have all the required nutrition for bariatric surgery patients. Now......does anyone know of any protein bars that actually taste good??? I’d like an option for those on-the-go days! 😃

Hello All- New Guy here. Confession: I am the spouse of the soon-to-be patient and recipient of a sleeve procedure. But we will be going through the upcoming changes together in 8 weeks time as she starts her process. I’ve been researching all the diet standards and recipes as chief house cook and trying to come to grasp with some of the upcoming permanent changes that will impact my wife/ best friend/ love of my life. Primary reason for undergoing the procedure is medical, due to both a sports injury in college and severe diabetes that got worse after each of our four children. She JUST qualified in the 36 BMI range with medical conditions and after tons of other attempts, her doc said this was a necessary last resort to avoid complications later in life. We’ve been married 14 years and together for just shy of 20! I would say our marriage is solid: we have been through times where we couldn’t rub two pennies together, a very difficult sickness and then death in the family, her 9 years of medical training and my “earning your stripes” years in my career and then most recently COVID and all the fears of having the wife/mom immediately at risk in one of the biggest hospitals in the city. We’ve always worked to take both time for family vacation as well as time away just for us with date nights or sometimes a big week away. Our marriage, intimacy and family, though right in the thick of crazy child-rearing (we have twins!), is probably in the best place it’s been in years. I guess this is where my real question starts: I fell down the internet rabbit hole about a week ago reading not about all the medical info and diet info, but about family and marriage impact. Personality changes, mood swings, emotional issues, depression, people acting like “a different person”, and the term “bariatric divorce”. My nights have now been basically sleepless. A year ago we were told we could lose our medical professional spouses to COVID and thankfully she never got sick. However, now I am petrified of losing her to bariatric surgery and her “new self”. She has very much assured me this would never be the case and worked to calm my nerves. Now, I am a numbers and research guy and much of the data out there says our relationship should be fine, statistically. We’ve been together for many years, there are not underlying toxic issues, and when we first started dating we were both very fit... Like I said, I think we are rock solid and I am committed 100% to doing this with her, including changing my diet and exercising more, as well. Sure, we’ve had challenges in the past, but nothing that has ever threatened our relationship and who hasn’t? We’ve always worked through everything together and come out the other side stronger (as best as I can tell). Still I am ashamed to admit I feel threatened, if not only for the many, many articles you can find online. She is primarily doing this so we can grow old together and get rid of her ailments and to be a more active individual with our busy kids. She joked and now I do too that she will look like she did when we first met and dated and that it will be a huge bonus just for me and she will love the way she looks again, even though it’s not the reason we are even doing this... That she’ll feel more confident also to dress more like the way she used to (prior to kids and wearing scrubs, she was pretty high maintenance- which I admittedly miss and she knows it). So, the endgame question is- has anyone experienced some of those threatening items about personality changes and shifts, life decisions out of nowhere and the like? I’m trying to do EVERYTHING right here and while I am a confident guy, my biggest fear in life is losing my wife or kids. She’s my best friend and I could never love anyone as much as I do her... I want her to get healthy, but for herself, she decided to do this and came to me with it and I initially went all in to support her. This could make our lives better and longer despite some of the permanent changes. And we actively are talking about “the benefits” regarding appearance and intimacy on a daily basis. So even though all of that is positive talk, and reassuring, I’m turning to the people with experience to ask- AM I JUST FREAKING MYSELF OUT??? thanks!

It's been a little while for me (almost 3 years), but I specifically recall my surgeon/bariatric coordinator telling me not to worry about vitamins for the first couple of weeks. After that, I went through about 2 months of trial and error with vitamins. I was less concerned with them tasting good than I was with how they made me feel because it seemed like every time I took them, I felt TERRIBLE/SICK. After trying several forms and varying the time of day, I settled on a gummy vitamin WITH a meal. Caution: some doctors forbid these. It was the ONLY thing I could take that didn't make me nauseated, so it was a matter of getting my vitamins or skipping. After about 6 months, I converted back to a standard "horse pill" tablet and haven't had any trouble since.

I never took bariatric-specific vitamins, but the advantages are that for a lot of them, you only have to take one a day, and also, you'll meet all of your requirements. I just took Centrum from the get-go (or the generic equivalent from Walgreens or CVS). You have to take two of those a day to meet the requirements (or at least the requirements for your multi - many of us also have to take extra iron, calcium, and B12). I started with the chewables and then switched to regular tablets when I was a few months out.

To answer this... I don't think it's possible to binge through your entire pantry/freezer in one setting. However, it is possible to graze your way through your day, and depending on what you graze on, you could theoretically get up to 4000 calories. I think the difficulty with maintenance is entirely individual. This is YOUR journey and your own habits/practices dictate the difficulty level. Since COVID lockdown, I noticed that I've reverted back to some old (aka BAD) habits like sweets/baked goods/etc. I'm struggling a little to eliminate those again. It's like crack or something... Fortunately/unfortunately, my husband was recently diagnosed with diabetes and we're getting back on track TOGETHER. So, I guess the point here is that it's easy to revert to old habits. If you have strategies in place to keep yourself on track, maintenance will be much easier. Side note: take advantage of your Bariatric TEAM. Consult your nutritionist as needed. If you need counseling, get it. I'm almost 3 years out and I absolutely cannot eat as much as I could before the sleeve. Can I eat more than I could in the 1st year? Yes, sometimes. That depends on exactly what I'm eating. Some foods fill me up much faster than others, but my typical meal fits on a small dinner plate (like the one you put under your coffee/teacup).

I also tried the Bariatric advantage and just cannot stomach chewing vitamins. I am the same with any chewable medicine (or liquid). Gross! My clinic doesn’t want you to do capsules until 3 months or later (9 weeks) so I switched to patches. They are awesome. I put them on at night. I haven’t had any issues with them. I do still choke down the b12 dissolving vitamin. Biotin and multivitamin patch, is what I wear.

My surgeon doesn’t have patients start for a full week after surgery. I definitely did not choose chewable for a couple of reasons. First, it wasn’t the clinic’s first or second choice, and second, I have major issues with taste/texture. Like I cannot take liquid meds at all without puking. The couple of times I had to take a prescription cough syrup medicine it was a...process, to say the least, that required crackers and holding my nose taking the medicine and then more crackers and water, and I still gagged. Give me pills any day. So I take calcium pills 3 x a day, and vitamin D and a bariatric multivitamin with iron at bedtime (which supposedly helps with any nausea, which I haven’t had). That being said, every surgeon/clinic has a suggested regimen and start date, so be sure to check with yours. Good luck!

I just ordered a 15 count trial sample kit of Syntrax Nectar protein powder so I can try most of the flavors before commiting to a large tub. My favorite so far is the fuzzy navel flavor. The chocolate tort was good too but I couldn't get past the texture (I used water.) The shop will definitely be my go to when I need bariatric related items. Sent from my SM-G965U using BariatricPal mobile app

Honestly, this is already the hardest diet I've ever been on. From pre-op until now... I've learned so much and tried a bunch of new "healthier" foods I would have never tried before. My previous diets were all about eliminating foods but because this is for the long haul, I have a different mindset now. People who haven't been through it, can't really understand. I have a bunch of smaller friends who have gotten liposuction, lifts and enhancements but I KNOW they would still judge me if I told them. Its funny that they think their surgeries are minor or not as bad because they technically didn't need it. But they look down on bariatric surgery because they think its a "cheat." They think people should just eat right and work out... 🙄 meanwhile they eat horribly. Its just the way some people are. I decided not to say anything to anyone.