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For the first several months after my surgery, I really felt like I was mourning the loss of food. I used to love watching cooking shows like Top Chef, The Great British Baking Show, etc., and after surgery, I couldn't stand to watch shows like that, or even restaurant commercials, because I was so sad about these foods I could no longer eat. But eventually, I got to a point where I can (and do) watch and enjoy those shows without feeling that emotional loss. I can watch people make deep-fried pastries and not be sad that I couldn't eat them. I don't seek out that kind of food, though -- I actually kind of enjoy digging through Pinterest to find recipes that I can eat. It kind of feels like a win to find healthy recipes that taste good. I guess I would say I'm in maintenance. I didn't expect to lose as much weight as I did, because I started off bigger than most. I wasn't even sure I'd ever get below an obese BMI. Don't get me wrong -- I'm thrilled with my weight loss and grateful for this second chance at life, but It is such hard work, and the thought of having to keep working this hard for the rest of my freaking life just to not get fat again is exhausting! I feel like I can eat too much in terms of portion size, so I have to make sure to stick to really low-calorie foods, because I can't eat just one bite of something decadent and be full.

I don't know where you are in Arizona, but I recommend Banner Estrella Weight Loss Center in Phoenix (101 and Thomas so West Valley but he also sees patients at Banner Gateway in Gilbert). I am 8 years post op sleeve from a surgeon in another state. Dr. David Podkameni is who is treating me. He is doing a hiatal hernia repair for me tomorrow. He is very knowledgeable.

Hi! I’m so sorry about your obstruction!! Holy moly! My surgeon said my sleeve failed me, as well, so I’m having the revision 8/8. Im not on clear liquids but I did start my liquid diet today! Im looking forward to moving on with my weight loss and getting rid of this horrible acid reflux!

That’s amazing. I am trying to gather documents from previous visits to doctors. I tried phentermine and glucophage for weight loss but didn’t lose much. Maybe that can show how I have been trying over the years.

Same here. My PCP put me on 6 months of Actigall and it seems to have done the trick. I'm 10 months out now, 4 months off the med, and no issues. From what I've read, it is VERY common to have gallbladder issues post-op, usually in the first 6 months to a year, during the most active loss. I haven't seen anything that indicates it impacts or inhibits weight loss, but it is often incredibly painful and if removal is necessary, it obviously requires another surgery.

Elevated cholesterol immediately post-op and through the most active weight loss period is very common. Mine went up as well, and my PCP is not at all concerned. If it were still elevated once I reach maintenance, which she highly doubts it will, then we can address. Do some research on it, there are several peer reviewed studies out there about it, and then decide. Adding in a prebiotic fiber supplement like Just Better Fiber can help, as can exercise and time.

I'm scheduled for Aug. 2nd. My Birthday is next week and our state fair is a week and a half after surgery. So I 100% feel your pain there. I've decided I wasn't going to let that get to me though because I know it will all be worth it "sacrificing" all the delicious food for this next chapter of my life. My pre-teen daughter had a group of friends over this past weekend and decided to order in pizza, I made sure to order enough that they would eat every last bite and no leftovers sitting out. Cake is gonna look like sugar-free popsicles this year and as far as the state fair I think I'll be ok. I'm not really craving sweets or any "bad" food really... I'd honestly really like some grilled chicken or something other than what I'm continuously eating in the last week. This has been such a mind game. But thankfully I have my daughter to help me laugh it off and humor my way out of and food-loss depression I may have.

My surgeon automatically puts us on Gallbladder medication to help prevent gall stones while going through rapid weight loss. I am on it for 6 months post-op. He says your gallbladder has a hard time keeping up with the rapid weight loss (surgery or not) and gall stones can form causes you to have to have your gallbladder removed.

I didn’t feel hunger for more than a year so I ate to a routine because I wanted to ensure I got in all the nutrients I needed. I didn’t want to rely in shakes, vitamins or supplements. Doing this didn’t affect my weight loss at all and it helped me refocus how I looked at food. Three years out & I still have times I’m not hungry. Actually been going through a hungry but not hungry stage for a good month now. I’m not eating all my usual portions &/or dropping snacks (I snack to add to my protein &/or calories). I always try to be close to my protein goal though during these times so eat protein first & will reduce vegetables, etc. If I’m not hungry at lunch I’ll have a high protein yoghurt which isn’t as heavy to digest as meat. I should explain I’m a do I need this next bite or want it eater. So I don’t eat until I feel full but until I’ve had enough & don’t need anymore. I don’t feel too full to eat but more I don’t want to eat but I know I have to have something. I also still eat slowly - like a tub of yoghurt takes about 45-60mins. As @The Greater Fool said it comes down to habits & these were the ones I established which carry me through.

You can develop gallstones for many reasons including high cholesterol, menopause, high bilirubin levels, diabetes, losing weight quickly. For many of us, losing weight also releases extra cholesterol into our bloodstream causing our levels to temporarily rise. Some also have gallstones before surgery which were never picked up. I had to have my gallbladder removed 25 months after my surgery. I had high bilirubin levels, am menopausal, & saw my cholesterol go up while I was losing & of course had lost weight. I had one stone which was discovered about 6 months after surgery during a liver scan. We don’t know how long it had been there. The stone never caused me a problem until one night & oh boy! I was maintaining when my gall was removed. After it was removed I stopped absorbing protein as well as I had been - it can happen. My nails became weak, started losing hair again, things were taking longer to heal, etc. & my three monthly blood test showed why. I had to up my protein intake (from 50-60g to 60-70g) which did result in a small gain of 2kgs in a month but I’ve maintained that for a good 7 months. (Also upped my HRT meds at the exact same time so both contributed to the gain.) I was also prescribed Creons, pancreatic enzymes, to help with protein absorption.

It is a not uncommon result of rapid weight loss (not just from surgery, but that is the most common means of accomplishing rapid weight loss,) maybe 10% have that problem, give or take? My surgeon routinely removes it when doing the DS as he doesn't want some other surgeon going in there and getting lost in the altered anatomy (which is weird for them, not so much for the bypass folks.) With the sleeve, he leaves it alone unless he feels stones in there when he is doing the surgery. So, I still have mine, but my wife, with her DS, doesn't, and we haven't noticed any great difference beyond what the WLS is already doing (there's always changes when you alter the body's default condition.)

I have CareFirst! Needed 6 months of medically supervised weight loss (I didn't lose weight, though) and I had to produce medical records from the last 5 years showing that I'd been very overweight for a while. Here's what I remember it looking like: October - initial consultation, determined I would not need a sleep study which I think is unusual November - dietician visit 1 December - dietician visit 2, endoscopy January - dietician visit 3, psychological evaluation February - dietician visit 4 March - dietician visit 5, mandatory life after surgery virtual classes Mid-April - dietician visit 6 -- submitted to insurance -- was approved in about 72 hours Late April - final check up before surgery to get sign off, got May 20 date Early May - pre-op appointment May 20 - surgery

Did anyone end up having a gallbladder taken out after they had weight-loss surgery and how did it affect their weight loss good or bad

Mine was pretty fast, shorter than I expected for insurance - from what I am hearing from my friends who went through this already. My insurance did not have any weight loss or education requirements. I met the criteria of BMI which was enough to move forward. My first class, informational & weigh-in was May 16th 2022. I was put on a 3 month program - since I didn't have insurance requirements, that is the shortest duration the program I am in does (mainly because of medical clearance testing & scheduling). In June I had 2 virtual zoom classes (they were spaced about every two weeks) My second one I was the only person on her schedule - so I got a private class with the nutritionist. It is normally a group class it just worked out that way. If I was in a 6 month program or longer - they would have covered the same information - they just would have been more classes of a shorter duration. During June I was able to schedule my psych evaluation, PT evaluation, upper endoscopy, labs and cardiac clearance. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication about wanting an echo done along with my cardiac appointment - so I had to go back for that on July 1st. My final weigh-in and class was July 7th. Unfortunately they had not reviewed and signed off on my cardiac echo yet, so I couldn't schedule my surgical consult appointment that day, as planned. A few days later they called and were able to get me in on July 21st. The surgeons do their own scheduling - so I was able to schedule directly with her, and her first available opening was August 16th I have an 8 day liquid fast starting the 8th... and a covid test on the 13th yet. So from first appointment to surgery day will be exactly 3 months to the day. I got very lucky with scheduling to get everything in as quickly as I did. I had the flexibility of taking what ever was available (I am not working) and I asked to be put on cancelation lists for anything that scheduled out further than June 30th and was lucky to have get called for availability. I was in a little of a time crunch because I have driving restrictions, my program and hospital are about an our away and my husband was trying to be at as many appointments as he could. He is a teacher so he is off for the summer - so we were trying to get the surgery done before he starts back to school. He actually starts back in-service on the 15th but thankfully school is willing to work with him and he shouldn't miss anything more than possibly the morning of the 16th (if I am scheduled first possibly not even that).

My insurance (Highmark Blue-shield, I am in Pennsylvania) has no program specific requirements for education/classes or pre-op weight-loss requirement. My program put me on a 3 month schedule - the shortest duration they offer… because of getting pre-op clearances. I had the intro meeting plus three classes where we went over their program material & requirements. My first intro class was May 16th. Classes were spaced about every two weeks. I had two in June and a final appointment and weigh in on July 7th (my program required I not gain weight after my initial weigh-in). I managed to get all my pre-op testing in fairly quickly, but it was not all reviewed and signed off on by the July 7th class, so I had to wait a few more days to schedule to meet the surgeon. First available appointment to meet the surgeon was July 21st. She scheduled me for her first available surgery for August 16th, 2022. So my whole program from first appointment to surgery will be exactly 3 months … that is not typical from what I understand. Most of the people in my intro class were on 6 month schedules or longer, which was dictated by their insurance.

So this question really depends if you have insurance. Typically with insurance most have to do like 6 months of supervised weight loss attempts and such. I had no insurance.. So i saw my surgeon for the first time on December 14th. This is where he ordered all the testing like EKG, Chest Xray, Bloodwork, psychological exam. I did the testing pretty quickly. The psychological exam took 2-3 months to book. There were no openings before that so that was on March 1st. One of my test came back abnormal which was the EKG. So i had to visit my cardiologist to get clearance for surgery. This is when they ordered a nuclear stress test. after that i was cleared for surgery. Once everything came back normal my surgery was scheduled for 3 weeks later. So if it wasnt for that stupid psyc exam i could have had the surgery months ago.

Can you tell me your timeline. From start to end. I have CareFirst insurance. I did some research but still no clear. What were the steps you took from the day you first make your appointment? How long it took you to get to your surgery date? I’m in Alexandria, Virginia and just started to look into weight loss clinics and signed up for one seminar.

I somehow dodged that one but I hear about it from so many people on here. It’s very common. The consensus seems to be that there isn’t much you can do about it but wait it out. Taking your vitamins and getting in protein of course help some but my team says that those hair regrow products won’t speed up the process. For females, extensions would be a fun way to add volume.

Good morning July 2022 Peeps. Sounds like there's a lot of the group doing well. Hope to hear from the ones that just had surgery in the last couple days. I am at 10 days post-op. After losing 12.5 lbs in the first week, I stalled out for a couple days. Instead of losing my normal 2-4 lbs, I lost 0.0 and 0.4. This was a bit frustrating since I am only taking in about 500 calories per day. But it is what it is. From what I read, this is how this is going to go. I am happy that my plateau or whatever, may have been a small one and this morning I showed a 2.2 lbs loss. For those that believe a person shouldn't weigh themselves daily, I normally don't, but I wanted to record my first 4 weeks in a journal on my laptop.

The post op diet stages are pretty important. It’s not just about weight loss but about protecting your healing tummy. It sounds like you got lucky that nothing bad happened this time but depending on how that went down it could’ve cause some serious issues that landed you in the hospital. I wouldn’t beat yourself cause what’s done is done but definitely don’t do it again. It’s seriously NOT worth it.

I’m in so many bariatric weight loss surgery groups on FB, but haven’t heard about this at all. Which group are you in that talks about this, if you don’t mind sharing?

The loss slows to an absolute crawl the closer you get to your bodies happy weight. I wouldn’t give up though just yet.

My surgeon never focused much on my final weight. I think he asked me at my first appt. What I hoped to get to, but I think it was more to see if I was realistic about the amount of weight I wanted to lose. Even though I'm not a "normal" weight, he considers me a great success and is very happy with my weight loss. Sent from my Pixel 5a using BariatricPal mobile app

My surgeon did not exactly set a “goal”, but before surgery he only said that based on my height/weight/age, i would highly likely get down to 175 within a year (translate to a 60lbs loss as I started at 235), and that anything beyond that was “bonus”. Ended up losing those “expected” 60 lbs before my 3 month mark, and racked up a few more “bonus lbs loss” after that. At my one year mark i was maintaining a 120 lbs loss +\- a couple lbs (and still am today) I saw my surgeon and nutritionist and nurse for many follow up visits the first 3 years and they didn’t bring up any talk about my target weights at all. My surgeon focused on recovery and possible medical issues (i had none); and my NUT was more concerned about how much i was eating (not enough in her opinion, but let me be mostly because my labs always came back satisfactorily).

Hello! I’m scheduled for a revision on 8/8 as well! I had a VSG 18 months ago and have had terrible acid reflux and developed a hiatal hernia. I only lost about 40 lbs after my sleeve, too. I’m hoping the revision will not only take care of the acid reflux but that I’ll lose 50 more lbs! I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I hear that weight loss is much slower after a revision so I’m hoping I don’t get really frustrated. Maybe we can be surgery buddies and keep in touch! Keep us all posted on how things are going. I start my liquid diet on Monday. Good luck with everything!😊