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I am three days post-op (May30th), and I am excited to see where this journey will take me!

Ok so I’m now 3 weeks post op and today everything taste like metal. 😑 why does this randomly happen?

not everyone loses hair - and some don't lose enough that others notice (like me). Some do lose more - but it's more like shedding - not big clumps of hair like people on chemo lose. And it grows back. I lost hair from about month 5-9, and again, it was pretty minimal so no one else would have noticed. In the end, it's a small price to pay for what you get from the surgery nausea/foamies - not uncommon in the early weeks out when you're trying to experiment to see what your stomach is going to tolerate (and often things you can't tolerate early on you CAN tolerate later). I really don't deal with that at all anymore would I do this again? HELL YES! In a heart beat. I'd go back and have it done every year if I had to. Totally worth it. One of the best decisions I've every made.

I have all three of your nightmares. I knew all about them. I did not know I would get GERD too, I hoped to swerve it. My hair is growing back very slowly but I have begun to love the new me in a pixie cut My Nausea and GERD are under control - ish, I still get bad days and nights where acid wakes me Throwing up foam is called the foamies. Eat too fast, eat too much or eat a wrong food and yep that's a pain in the a--chest until its either vomited or it works its way through my stomach. So knowing what I know now about all that and the frequency that I get it, would I have this surgery? Hell yes, in a heartbeat. My life has changed dramatically. I feel as if I have lost 25 years. I have a life. I don't hide away anymore. I am super confident. Now what you must decide is - if the pendulum swings your way and you get these side effects, is it time for your surgery ? You are always going to mess with your insides, you are loosing most of your stomach. For lots of us with lots of medical problems its a no brainer and last ditch effort to save our lives. This surgery is not an easy option. I hope you work it out

One reason I challenged myself to the C25K was after carrying 500+ extra pounds for a lot of years my knees weren't going to hold up for long. I never intended to do much more than just accomplish the goal (by running 5k 4 times a week for a month) and move on. But I came to really enjoy what I got out of it and next thing I knew I was binge running. It was surprising my knees held up for as long as they did and I may have pushed it a bit far. My knees and other medical issues conspired to end my running right after marathon #5 which was 18 years ago. Good luck, Tek

So I went to see the doc 2 days ago as my cramps weren’t getting better. She prescribed a CT scan to make sure I wasn’t suffering from an intestinal hernia. I did the scan yesterday and the results are in: no hernia, thank Goodness, however, an enlargement of the gallbladder duct, which could cause all my cramping, nausea, vomiting and overall pain. My doc prescribed some buscopan and some meds against nausea and diarrhoea… if nothing gets better in 2 weeks time, I’ll have to do a cholecystectomy to remove my entire gallbladder. I know people live perfectly fine without their gallbladder, but I am so scared of going through yet another procedure of which I won’t know the consequences of… already this enlargement only happens rarely. Has anyone gone through this already? I’ve lost another couple of pounds recently and I can barely walk up the stairs without feeling exhausted 😩

I have already reprogrammed my brain a bit just doing the Optifast for 4 weeks. I detoxed in a sense with all the foods I was addicted to and I don't really crave them now. What I crave is just eating solid foods and not liquids and soft foods. When I do have some of those "bad" foods again, it won't be in the huge amounts that I used to it - because A: I will feel full sooner due to my stomach size now and B: I am learning a whole new way of eating in general. I am never going back to what I used to be.

I saw my doctor today and got weighed just to see if the scale is different there than at home. I am 380, which of course I am happy about - but like I said, much of that was from the Optifast prior to surgery. I am not going to focus on the scale, but like I said before I was expecting a bit more of a woosh of weight loss since having the surgery. As I said before, I lost 20 ponds in two weeks just doing keto and moving a bit more - again I know that is water weight and also that wouldn't continue, but it was a great feeling nonetheless at the time. I agree with your points about nonscale victories and a month from now, I may be singing an entirely different tune on here. I was just thinking outloud and giving my initial thoughts per this thread. Thanks for the support. HM

Thank you. I am on week 2 right now doing purée foods and so far so good. I feel like I am eating and drinking too much. It’s weird since day one I’ve not had trouble eating or drinking liquids other than making sure I go slow, I feel like I’m taking in 4oz of purée at a time. Other than that the incision where the stomach was removed is still sore but I am able to bend and walk. Hope everyone is feeling better this month as well!

You have a tough regime. Most of us have 2 weeks of each phase. The liquid phase is the hardest because we naturally want to chew. You are also getting over really tough surgery. Its a hard learning curve and you will be so sore. Your hormones are doing summersaults just now. Its a full on smack in the face. You have to white knuckle the liquid part that your team has set for you. You need to let your stomach heel. It will all pass very quickly. We all got passed it and we got fed up too. I couldn't do puree but I could do strained soups. Just do your best. It would not do any harm to contact your team and ask if you can have a little leeway with your diet. Try hot cold and frozen clear liquids just for a little variation

Hi, So I’m 10 days post op and in liquid diet phase and it’s dreadful. My plan as per my dietician is 4 weeks of clear liquid 4 weeks of puréed phase and 4 weeks of soft foods before real food.I am fed up with my food now and want to have some real food. How do I overcome this?

I've lost a similar weight to you in roughly the same time span. I did lose more post op than pre op though, 7kgs vs 10kgs. In the infamous 3 week stall now. Plus I'm backed up and working on fixing that issue. Taking a break from the scales. You need to be patient. This isn't the 100 metre sprint, it's an ultra marathon. If you do a bit of googling you'll see that the first 6 weeks isn't a time to expect anything much. You're body is adjusting to its new way of life. Hang in there, I'd anticipate you'll have weeks of great losses given you're starting a bit higher. It will come off nice and steady. Join our May Surgery thread, we're all there for each other.

The only thing I ended up taking out was my tablet and charger. I wore the same clothes home. I slept all day after my surgery, just waking up for small periods. The next day I had a 2 hour nap and went to bed at 7.30pm. I focussed on drinking so I could go home! Good luck next week!

I barely lost in the first two weeks post surgery and promptly stalled at the end of week 2, where I proceeded to stall frequently throughout the entire first year. My rate of weight loss post surgery was the same as my rate of loss doing calorie counting pre-surgery. I never had the big-loss-numbers some others have. But it still worked, I reached goal at around month 13/14. Despite not losing fast, it worked. It's done what I needed it to do, it stopped me self-sabotaging and continues to be the adult in the room when it comes to me and food. Losing slowly and steadily is ok! So long as you stick to the plan, the weight comes off. If you're an emotional eater, get yourself a bariatric therapist who can help because the primary thing this surgery does is help with portion control. Everything else is down to us, the calorie counting, the staying on plan, and getting on top of any mental issues that have contributed to obesity and may cause trouble down the line.

Ok, is painful intercourse a part of the changing hormones from losing weight, or should I talk to my doctor about it being another issue? It's not really dryness, though there is some. It is mostly pain during, not after.. I thought increased estrogen would help. It's only been in the last few weeks that this has been going on.

I've lost 20 since surgery (4 weeks) and 15 lbs during the preop diet for a total of 35 pounds. That's about what you lost, right? I stalled around 2.5 weeks in that lasted well over a week. Hang in there. It will come off. And like someone said, make sure you're tracking everything, and I'll go farther and say, before you ever eat it. What if you focused on some nonscale victories. For me it was a smaller size piece of clothing or getting my shoes on without huffing and puffing. Just today, I put on a shirt that didn't fit prior to surgery. Your body is doing a lot of behind the scenes work that may not be reflected on the scale.< br>This is not an easy process, and you don't have to do it alone.

When I got down to about 100 pounds overweight I challenged myself to run 5k just to prove I could. I did a program similar to Couch to 5 K (C25K). It took about a month. I discovered I enjoyed running. I could use to time to put the day in order and ponder life's challenges. I started adding distance, then worked at improving time. At some point I decided on running a marathon, so got a book (Idiot's guide to Marathons) and followed the program there. The more I ran the more I enjoyed it. I lived in Las Vegas at the time and decided I would run in the Valley of Fire Marathon which was out in the desert near Lake Mead. A couple months before the marathon I had a business trip to Long Beach and as it happened the Long Beach Marathon was that weekend. I decided I would sign up and use it as a training run. I didn't really intend to finish, but as it turned out I did. It was wonderful. So my second marathon was Valley of Fire, which was up and down a hill. Very challenging. My third marathon was Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach. 4th was San Francisco Marathon where I got to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. This was a tough one for me. I tripped at about 1/4 mile from the start, landed hard on my chin. I new there was an aid station about mile 4 on the other side of the bridge, so I said I'd get to there and call it a day. By time I got there I didn't feel bad at all, the bleeding stopped and the aches were subsiding, so I continued knowing I could cut to the half marathon if necessary. The half marathon cut off was about mile 11, and I was doing well so I just stuck with it. At about mile 13 was the first sustained uphill where I finally needed to take some deep breaths and realized I couldn't. I trudged as well as I could to the end, where they diverted me to the hospital tent then the hospital. Turned out I had a broken rib and required stitches in my chin. My 5th and last (as it turned out) was Long Beach Marathon, a year after my first. I was way past goal at this point, and couldn't eat enough to stop losing weight. For the year of marathons I ran about 90 miles a week, went through a pair of shoes every 6 weeks. I'm prouder of my marathons than I am of losing 500+ pounds. To your questions: I never worried about fuel during a run that was less that 15 miles. Over 15 I did a "goo" every 5 miles. Hydration is where I focused. That and breathing. I had to be careful as most "fuel" is heavy on sugar and I dump on sugar. I did dump a few times until I learned my tolerances of different products. I did yogurt before and after. Building stamina is what the C25K and other programs are about. Keep a running log & journal so you can see your improvement, which is extremely motivational. Be patient. Good luck, Tek

My stall hit a couple days before I was 2 weeks post op and lasted a solid 2 weeks. But the scale is finally moving downward again, much slower pace, but it’s going down! I’m a month out today!

I'm pleased to report that my surgery is now scheduled for early next week. I've been following all the pre-op guidelines to the letter- including the diet. I actually feel pretty good- way better than before and the surgery has yet to happen. Today, I did the pre-admission process at the hospital and the folks there --they have a specialized unit-- could not have been nicer. They use some method to reduce pain that does not involve opioids and the fact that I will be on a liquid diet for the first several weeks after the procedure will no doubt lead to some immediate weight loss. But then the real work begins, and I'm looking forward to it-- walking (something that has been more difficult during the last year due to weight) and eventually getting back to the gym. I am eager to get back into good physical condition. Mentally, I'm psyched. As to food and eating, I've found that even apart from the pre-op diet, my taste for a lot of food and my ability to eat large portions has already diminished due to gastric problems so I'm not going to be disappointed that I can't carve into a big honking' slab of steak. We'll see if my attitude changes over time--I never obsessed over food though I was always a good eater. It's just that all the tumult of gastric pain and reflux made it unenjoyable. And I'm really looking forward to fitting into some clothing that I've not been able to wear for a while. I know this is going to take time, but I feel like I'm fortunate to have explored this path and want to take full advantage of it. Will report back post-surgery and may have questions. The surgeon's office has been wonderful and seems to be very well coordinated with the bariatric unit of the local hospital here. I've been very impressed, having had some terrible hospital experiences in NYC when I lived there.

OP we all second guess and over-analyse immediately after our surgery. If you stick to your plan you WILL lose weight. Significant amounts of weight. You cannot not do that. However - you will NOT lose weight in a linear fashion. There will be many weeks (or even the occasional month) where you will lose virtually nothing despite knocking your socks off. What matters is that in the long term (18 months or so) if you do what you are asked to to use your sleeve to the max then you will lose LOADS! Welcome to your journey - it's quite the ride for lots of us!

Yep my surgery was 5/15, I am at a stall. Only 19 lbs so far. So now on soft blended food. I mix up casserole dishes for hubby, family, add everything I can eat , take out a couple cups, blend if necessary and half fill 4 ramekins. I then go forward with fixing the casserole for the family, bake as directed. Freeze 3 of the ramekins for me later. So far everything tastes good. Look up noodless tuna noodle casserole also cauliflower mushroom risotto

Yes I am running 18 months after my sleeve. Many years ago I did much longer distances - lots of half marathon type runs. Then I got properly fat and couldn't run any more but missed it hugely. Since I have got down to a normal BMI I am running again, but much shorter distances, and only with the aim of maintaining weight loss and general fitness - I have nothing to prove to anyone these days distance wise. I can run 3 or 4 miles easily and I do that (or less) a couple of times a week. I could push it and extend that but I have no inclination to. If I can keep this up as part of my maintenance regime I will be a VERY happy bunny.

I used to hate running but when I experienced the runner's high I changed my mind. LOL I worked up to 5 miles doing interval training. Basically alternating shorts bursts of walking/ jogging to eventually jogging/running. Times vary but the goal is to slowly increase running time with less recovery time. I haven't done any running yet after RNY. Just walking and TBH not sure I will push myself to do anything long distance related anymore. Reason being, I knew many marathon runners when I worked in the health clubs. They ran miles every week. Were in great shape and could eat anything they wanted. Years later I saw alot of them and they aged horribly. Looked way older than their age. Google free radicals and exhaustive exercise. Not trying to discourage anyone to get in shape but moderation is key and more is not necessarily better. Too Much of a Good Thing? Cellular Health and Exercise (wondriumdaily.com)

Thanks for the encouragement. I have been reading a lot on here. Yes I have to do a 2 week liquid diet. So it wills tart July 3rd. That has me worried the most since I have a physically demanding job. I am not sure how I am going to make it through the day with so few calories. I am going to talk to my nutritionist about it next time we meet.

Does it really say that? I went through the program once before, but at the time decided it was not right for me and bailed. Got back on the horse and did it 3 weeks ago.