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Hello Bari Friends, my surgery is on August 18th and currently on a two week medi-meal (optifast) diet. Three shakes a day and 1 or 2 sugar free jello. Surprisingly doing well- no headaches thankfully. Watching mukbangs tend to help me. Best of luck to everyone :)

I'm having a lot of the feels about things and I don't even have a date yet! I think that's normal. Navigating the changes with other humans around is hard. My partner is diabetic too and very, very emotionally attached to food. And while they are very supportive of my choices and willing to change things around a bit, I think there may be some rough spots because food is a control issue and a comfort issue for them. I've had so many problems with food over the years that I'm pretty detached about it now. But I'm still sure these upcoming changes will be hard on us all. I did manage to quit vaping by just packing it all away. Out of sight, out of mind actually works for me for most things. I tend to eat out of boredom or vape out of boredom so putting things away and substituting other habits has been effective. But having conversations with my head hunger is still pretty hard. I'm not looking forward to the liquid phases of this experience. LOL I've fasted on liquids for days before for other procedures and the first few days are always the hardest, but I have never had to sustain it for weeks! I bet most of us are afraid of screwing things up. I had this whole panic thing the other day about possibly having the DS and then a world catastrophe happening and me not being able to get my vitamins and me dying of malnourishment---when my brain panics it does so EPICALLY! I finally reassured myself I could stockpile vitamins for a year once I find what works, you know, kind of like preppers do? I could be a vitamin prepper! 😂😂😂

Thank you so much. I was thinking the same thing about the estrogen. I was surprised the surgeon didn’t have any insight as well. I even asked was this normal after surgery and he basically said I should discuss it with OB. I have the mirena iud. I didn’t have any issues prior to surgery. I’m just hoping for a week of no bleeding, just a week.

Hello! I had my 18-year-old lap band removed because it was causing problems, including pain when I ate. My question is about the pain recovery time. The surgery was August 7th and the little info I could find on the surgery indicates I should be much better off than I feel after a week. I also read that removal would be easier than putting it in. I'm still in quite a bit of pain and I don't have a follow up appointment until August 25th. Does anyone have experience with removal of an old lap band that share your experience?

It’s the right choice, especially if you have come this far. I have two co-workers who have had bariatric surgery, one lost 200 lbs the other 140. A week or so after surgery, things really start to improve. I have heard there are some tough times the first few days after surgery, but those moments are fleeting. Just stay busy, and keep telling yourself pain is momentary, victory is forever!

Hi, I am 8/17 and 3 days into the liquid diet. First day was a little rough, but I’m doing well now. No real side effects, other than I am super hydrated and pee a lot..lol. I went and got pho broth and have been surviving on that and protein shakes. Hope it gets a little better for you!

I have been on mounjaro now for about 5 weeks now. I'm 10 months out now and down 151lbs. Not sure how long I'll stay on it but also pre diabetic. Still not sure what I think about it, but decided to see if I could tell a difference. So far, not really.

So, I’ve posted in this group before about being uncertain about Bariatric surgery but knowing it’s a tool to literally save my life. I had an initial appointment booked with surgeon Dr. David Brandon Williams at Vanderbilt (where all my specialists are), but canceled it again (5th cancellation). Well I’m back in the medical hospital again with erratic blood pressure, severe headaches due to my IIH, and off and on chest pain and today the internal medicine doctor seeing me point blank said “you’ve got to get this weight off you or you may not survive the full life you want to live. This weight is killing you”. So I’ve rebooked the appointment and it’s on 9/18. I’ve got to do it, no matter what. I’m almost 33, 5’1” 271 pounds, BMI of 51.2, (I’ve gained about 5 pounds in 2 weeks). My current co morbid conditions are Right Heart Strain/Heart Failure (just diagnosed), labile hypertension, severely high cholesterol and triglycerides, fatty liver disease, Type II Diabetes that is not well controlled, past history of PE, Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, widespread arthritis, frequent shortness of breath, Sleep Apnea, PCOS. My mom died at 50 of a massive heart attack and lung failure, maternal grandfather passed at 76 of a massive heart attack. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension run rampant in my family. I don’t want to be next in the line of deaths in my family due to weight related conditions. So I’m finally ready to start this.

So, I’ve posted in this group before about being uncertain about Bariatric surgery but knowing it’s a tool to literally save my life. I had an initial appointment booked with surgeon Dr. David Brandon Williams at Vanderbilt (where all my specialists are), but canceled it again (5th cancellation). Well I’m back in the medical hospital again with erratic blood pressure, severe headaches due to my IIH, and off and on chest pain and today the internal medicine doctor seeing me point blank said “you’ve got to get this weight off you or you may not survive the full life you want to live. This weight is killing you”. So I’ve rebooked the appointment and it’s on 9/18. I’ve got to do it, no matter what. I’m almost 33, 5’1” 271 pounds, BMI of 51.2, (I’ve gained about 5 pounds in 2 weeks). My current co morbid conditions are Right Heart Strain/Heart Failure (just diagnosed), labile hypertension, severely high cholesterol and triglycerides, fatty liver disease, Type II Diabetes that is not well controlled, past history of PE, Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, widespread arthritis, frequent shortness of breath, Sleep Apnea, PCOS. My mom died at 50 of a massive heart attack and lung failure, maternal grandfather passed at 76 of a massive heart attack. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension run rampant in my family. I don’t want to be next in the line of deaths in my family due to weight related conditions. So I’m finally ready to start this.

Doctor's offices are often very particular about when they give vitamin/mineral shots/infusions because they don't want to overload the body and have strict protocols to adhere to. Also because often insurance will only pay for them at very specific intervals. A week early could be the difference between it being covered or not. But it is frustrating to go all the way there just to be turned away! I'd call and make them double check the timing next time.

Yay!! That's great news!! The body doesn't like to let go of weight when it is sick or traumatized (like with a surgery) so that stall was probably inevitable. I wish you smooth sailing now and some extra weight loss juju!

I was required to be on a PPI for the first 3 months after surgery. I'll reduce my dose for months 4-6 and after 6 months, I think I'll completely go off it- with my doctors blessing, of course

todays brunch was leftovers from yesterday's brunch, ha! ordered a smoked salmon benedict and shared one of the "benedicts" with the Kid and brought the other one home (i asked for another plate to put the extra one on before we dug in to keep it pretty lol). anyway, wasn't sure how a smoked salmon eggs benny would hold up after 24 hours, but i ate what i ate today and im still alive and have no stomach issues (so far!)..so its all good (i think!) 435 calories for the before pic (including the tsp of pesto i put on the side) ate all the egg, about 2/3 of the english muffin, and about 1/2 of everything else, looks like. no one wanted the rest so its in the bin.

Oh this is another area where surgeons seem to differ substantially! It will also be influenced by what procedure you had and when OP. I was not told to restrict fruit in any way post op - food was only restricted by consistency/texture for the first 6 weeks. So I could have pureed any fruit at all if I had fancied it 2 weeks out (I didn't fancy it though - was too busy grubbing away at my lovely blended baby food-like dinners, LOL). After that I could eat as much of whatever fruit I liked, and I do. Usually 2 or 3 portions of berries a day as snacks. In fact I like to get those in early before I start my protein/'proper' meal eating. I think they have useful micro-nutrients - for the same reason I eat a small handful of seeds and same of raw nuts every day. And cheese - couldn't do a day without it (although the micronutrient thing may not apply, it's just THE best) 😂

no - mine completely went away. But...do they have you on a PPI, like pantaprazole (SP?). My surgeon had us all on one, regardless of surgery, for a year - but that was back when they didn't know the side effects of long-term use of those. Most surgeons nowadays have people on them for 3-6 months, which is supposedly safe.. I would definitely let your clinic know. If you're not on a PPI now, they'll probably put you one on for at least a couple of months, until you heal. And if you ARE on one, they may increase your dosage for awhile. It may go away after you're healed up, but in any case, you should be on something for it. For one, that acid can't be good for healing - and for another, no one wants to deal with severe heartburn, and you don't have to!

Day 2 when I got home. I had a heck of a time trying to swallow my giant horse-pill like calcium pill. after about 1-2 weeks (i can't remember exactly) of struggling (had to take 3 a day!) i moved to a calcium chew. at first i still hated them cuz they were too sweet and i actually hated to chew at that time, but after a couple. months i started to actually like them. then i would only buy the chews when they were on sale (they have short expiry date), and take the pill form other times. (i had no issues with my multivitamin, nor the other ones i used to take...Vit B and Vit A i think...) P.S. full disclosure, i stopped taking all my vitamins around the 1.5 year post op mark. my labs were all satisfactory up until that point and stayed way throughout all my labs since then, so me and doc are not concerned. P.P.S. also i'm a sleeve

i went through stages. 1st month: looking or thinking about food and eating made me sick. i was like REPULSED. month 2-3: didnt want to eat (but no longer REPULSED) though i forced myself to eat because i was getting weak. i had a very strong restriction so wasn't able to eat much anyway. month 4-7: there would be days that i wanted to eat and days that i didn't. i stopped forcing myself to eat on no-hungry days at this point and just ate when i wanted to because i started to develop this thing where i felt like eating was WORK and i didn't like that. my restriction was still doing its job though, so i still couldn't eat much anyway. month 7-12: struggled to up my calories to ease into maintenance and i think my not-wanting-to-eat phases during this time period had more to do with a mental block than anything else. i had a bit of a time when i had a challenge "allowing" myself to eat higher calorie foods and carbs, ha. fear of weight gain and all that. though in hindsight i needn't have worried, as my restriction kept me in check. 1 year and onwards: i still get the odd don't-want-to-eat or oops-i-forgot-to-eat days here and there. not as often and regluar as before, but they show up every once in a while. i don't sweat it, as i know there will be hungry days too. my restriction is still very much in play, even at 5 years out, and i have learned over the years what foods and what amounts i can consume before i hit my full mark. i was/am a regular food tracker so its second nature. i tend to only eat things that i really want because, why fill my valuable limited real estate with something meh? luckily the list of things i want does not comprise of just junk. while i do enjoy a bite of dessert and a bowl of chips, i love me a salad just as much. though personally, my fave kind of meal is when there are an abundance of different things to take a bite or two of (like hors d'ourves at a cocktail party, or a tasting menu, or dim sum/tapas/izakaya, or when i go to a restaurant with a large group and get to have a bit of everyone's meal!) anyway, i think i may have gone on a tangent there, lol. but yeah, you are not the only one that gets the food aversions, and while you will get differing advice on this topic, i would say go what works for you. if you are getting worsening physical symptoms from not eating, or if your labs are not coming back satisfactorily, of course, please speak to a medical professional. otherwise, if you are losing weight, AND suffer little to no angst, then in my non-medical opinion, you're golden.

Catching bronchitis and having my first stall at the same time had me bummed out especially since it was only a month after surgery. 2 months of feeling bad and on top of it watching the scale stall was so disheartening. What kept me going was reading about all the successful losses from people on here and cheering them on ! Now it's finally my turn My motivation is back ! The bronchitis is nearly gone and I'm starting to walk again (even in the damn heat ...gggrrrr ) and the scale is once again my friend . I just thought I'd share my good news with you !!! I'm so happy I found you all !

I had my initial consult in October, and my surgery was done in December. My health insurance was going to switch on January 1st, and even though the new insurance would have also covered WLS, both myself and my surgeon thought it would be easier to just push everything through quickly and get it done under the 1st insurance. If I didn't have the insurance issue, it probably would have more like 3 months, but they bumped me up a month, which I loved of course!

Hello. I am 2 1/2 weeks post op. It's been a rough couple of weeks - severe allergic reaction on abdomen and a bad UTI. But I really didn't expect to have almost constant heartburn. I might have expected it with a sleeve, but this is horrible. Anyone else have persistent heartburn with gastric BYPASS? What have you done for it?

I have a vitamin B12 shot every 3 months too. I notice that I am super energised when I have it and a little tired when the shot is due. They call me when the shot is due

Day 1 after surgery - 2 weeks I could have unsweetened applesauce. 2-5 weeks I could have canned fruit packed in water or if packed in juice drain and rinse before eating (no skins, peels, seeds, dried fruit or fruit juice). 5 weeks on I could have raw fruit. No restrictions on type.

Food aversion are quite common so your so not the only one. I love vegetables & couldn't wait to have my first meal with my favourite vegetables. Nope they were awful. I found the only ones I could tolerate were cauliflower, green beans & cabbage. The oddest thing was smoked salmon. Before surgery I rarely had it as I found it too rich. After surgery it was fine & I often had it with cream cheese rolled around wedges of cucumber but a few weeks later it was a nope too rich for me again. So you can never tell what your tummy will or won’t like like fir the first couple of months. It’s a good opportunity to try foods you never enjoyed before. You may develop a real taste for them. Personally I embraced the aversion to sweet and never really introduced it back again. Don’t really miss it either.

It depends on the fruit. 6 weeks, typically, but some fruits are off the table. In moderation, you can do strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Apples and bananas are a no go. Blueberries are healthy but should be very limited. No pineapple, peaches, pears. Mango, papaya, grapes are also no. Coconut is ok but should be in limited quantities. This is all according to my nutritionist. I tend to stick to strawberries, coconut, and rarely I add in some blueberries. But mostly strawberries and coconut. And I don't have those all that often, either. In general, fruit has a lot of carbs and sugar, so there's not a lot that are technically ok for bariatric diets.

I have one every 3 months .I got called into have mine and they wouldn't do it because they said there had been a mistake- it was 10 days too early .I asked her to double check with a doctor but she wouldn't so I have to go back next week .Would my body really know it was a bit early ? I couldn't see the harm .