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yes, it can. It says on the bottle to not use it for more than something like 10 days without checking with your doctor, so check with him/her - but my doctor said that it's because some people might actually have some serious problem (and constipation is just a side effect of) that really needs to be addressed by a doctor. In my case - no serious problem - so my doctor gave me the go-ahead to take it every day.

I am scheduled for March 31, just set the date last week. I have like 10 appts for different tests and meeting with surgeon, it's very overwhelming maybe because it's happening so fast. I've had a lot of "stuff" happening in my life recently and found myself trying to catch my breath last night. I finally realized that it was either stress of everything or the fear of the surgery. And the insurance denied me so I have to pay for it out of my own pocket. I'm a single mother so I guess I finally just started feeling overwhelmed. Has anyone faced major anxiety yet?

Hi Cara Mia, I had the band and converted to Bypass in Dec 2019. The "full" feeling will never be the same. I'm actually really glad about that as with my band I had all types of issues. I would get food stuck or throw up on just a small amount when I was filled. Then, I had terrible reflux and had to be unfilled for years, and even then, would wake up choking on acid. With the bypass, I rarely get either hungry or full if I eat according to plan (for me, 3 meals a day). If I'm off plan, I can get full, but only if I eat more than I need. I am able to measure my food and don't need more than about 6 ounces (over a year out) as long as I eat 3-4 Oz solid protein as part of that. If I am eating something carb heavy I can eat a lot more so I try to focus on protein like the program says. Lori

How is everyone this weekend. Anyone having trouble staying motivated to exercise. Any tips or suggestions? My tip that I'm having trouble with. I was at a wellness retreat for three weeks. The trainer gave me a very simple total body workout 4 exercises in a circuit 4 sets with 1 min rest between sets 10-20 push exercise( push up or shoulder press) 10-20 pull exercise( some kind of back row pull ups) 10_20 ab exercise( twist or crunch) 10-20 leg (squats or step back lunge) 1 min rest repeat It only takes 10-15 minutes gets some strength and some some cardio all in one.

Hi so glad I found you. I converted from 10 years of a lap band (lost 130 pounds) to bypass late January. (Medical necessity to remove lap band - eroded esophagus/lung aspiration). Lap band stops one from eating too much and I always felt full. Does the feeling of “fullness” (not dumping) ever exist with bypass??? I was told that I may not be losing ANYTHING and even have days when I gain because I am on purées and EVERY calorie/food I eat goes down. It was suggested that when I take the plunge to “real, chewable food”, my body will only take in a small amount (like the said in all the brochures “that you may not be able to eat more than a fistful of food at a time”) and so I will lose weight instead of gain. Does that sound remotely right??? I am starting to wonder if this was worth it. I would love some suggestions from people are “getting it done”. Hugs to all - Cara Mia

I know exactly what you mean. I am 2.5 weeks Post-op and I get the same sharp pains as well. I also did Robotic surgery (Duodenal Switch). When I went for my first FU appt the pain was excruciating (Pain Level 9-10) the Dr said it was normal and it would take about another week before I start getting pain relief and I did. But now today my pain level has gone up a bit. I can only assume because I am being more active. I don't have another FU appt until March 30. The Dr told me it's the Muscle Fibers that is hurting me and it would take some time for it to heal. It sucks cause supposedly doing Robotic is supposed to be less pain Post-op, guess not :/ How are you feeling now? Any pain relief? Sent from my GM1915 using BariatricPal mobile app

Finding it hard to go back to the gym. I had a routine prior to COVID-19 and stopped working out at all. Have been at a weight plateau for almost a year. How can I budge it? Any suggestions will be taken ;)

Tummy Tuck, Breast Lift and Arm Lift for me in Dec 2019. Yep, I have scars, and yep, I was hurting. Still one of the best things I've done, though 😎

So yesterday I had my blood work done. Of course as results are coming in online I'm looking and I see some things I expected like the high cholesterol. I see under the COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL my Glucose was 121, high of course, but when looking online it says between 100 and 125 is considered prediabetic. So I was still hopeful. But then my A1C test came in this morning and the Estimated Average Glucose was 146 and my A1C is now 6.7!!!! In 2019 it was 6 and in 2017 it was 6.1. I have been in tears all day cause one, I didn't want this to happen and two, I worry this will prevent me from getting the surgery (is there a certain number you need to be at/under beforehand?). Fear of becoming diabetic was a HUGE factor in why I finally decided to get the surgery and yet, here we are. Sigh None of my doctors have called me yet to discuss these results so, not sure what's gonna happen now. Just sick over this.

Can't speak for Maine, I'm afraid. My surgery was 6 months after initial consultation, but it didn't feel like a long time at all because we had a massive checklist of things to get done before we were approved. This will vary a lot by surgeon. My surgeon wanted 10% weight loss through diet with the help of monthly PA and Dietician appointments. We had to take a fitness class, attend a support group meeting, take classes that covered our pre surgical liquid diet and our diet after surgery. Had a whole bunch of medical tests and stuff, two therapy visits, and healthy cooking classes were also strongly recommended. Lots of appointments, lots of hard work on your diet to get ready. But again...some surgeons will just schedule you and that's that. My experience was pretty involved, but I'm really grateful I had that much support and preparation. It has been invaluable. Your first visit, you'll likely get measured and weighed, talk about your BMI and comorbidities, talk about which surgery is the best fit, get an outline of your program and get a feel for the timeframe.

Do you have 10% of your previous stomach or 20-25%. That is the premise.

So I got some of my lab work ups back and there are a few things I'm outside of "normal" range on. Some of the stuff that was just out of range I am not super worried about, and turns out I'm low in Vitamin D which I could have guessed (I almost never go outside). However, one of the numbers seemed alarming and I wanted to check in here to see if maybe it's common for overweight people and I'm currently stressing over nothing? As a side note, my doctor's office did call yesterday to discuss labs but left a voice message cause I couldn't answer at the time. I have not yet been able to reach them, so this is just an attempt to help me maybe ease my anxiety over it in the meantime. Anyway, my CO2 levels were low on the BMP. Normal range is apparently 22-32 mEq/L and I'm at 19 mEq/L. I googled it (mistake, I know) and I guess this can be associated with Kidney Disease. My concern comes in cause with my CBC, the Red Blood Cell Count, Hemoglobin, and Hematocrit were all slightly juuuust above high normal range, and those being high could also be a sign of Kidney Disease. Has anyone else had similar numbers and all? The blood pressure medication I'm on can damage kidneys, but they did have to run labs yearly to make sure that wasn't happening, and with those I haven't had a problem before (last one was about 6 months ago).

Hi! I am in your same boat. My original bypass was 11 years ago, and I am having a revision on Tuesday. It is a much more risky surgery because less is known about modifying a previous bypass. My doc is making a smaller stomach pouch and POSSIBLY distallizing (moving the anastamosis between stomach and intestine) further down the line. He tells me that after this process I will likely lose 10-20% of the excess weight. We shall see! Surgery 11am Tuesday. I should add that I see a bariatric team and they are very particular about candidates for revision; I'm not sure I would trust a surgeon who is not specifically doing WLS to make a revision recommendation. The science/data is just not out there yet. So! Good luck! See a doc who knows what they're doing! Let me know if you have questions - I'm happy to update along the way.

You are losing about as fast as I did. I started preop 135 days ago and have lost 85 lbs. It was ~1 lb a day for quite a while at the early stages of our journey. In the last 2 months, it has slowed to under 10 lbs a month now, but is still steady but slower as I approach my maintenance weight already. As far as if I feel my stomach is too small or too large, I believe it is just the right size. I was never hungry or full before this journey and now I feel full at about 3/4 cup of food. I am not sure I am getting hungry yet but can tell when it is time for me to eat.

There's so many things that I could talk about in this response for one thing I typically gain 5 to 10 lb when I get my period. It's the bloating for sure you definitely retain water. I chew definitely get hungry every 2 to 3 hours for a meal not a snack. I tried to eat healthy like cottage cheese or some kind of cheese or meat or some kind of protein. I eat a lot of eggs. I also struggle with being under hydrated however I feel like all I do is drink water I am constantly thirsty and the doctor's say there's not really much of a reason for me to be constantly thirsty. Except that my enzymes are high but they said that is normal for the surgery that I had. So I am consistently thirsty so there's no reason for me to be dehydrated because I drink all the time. Even though I still am dehydrated

What an amazing story I'm so happy for you. My fiance suffer with cellulitis and gout and it can be very painful. He would get the edema with that as well. He was also diabetic. he passed away in November of 2019 from complications of his weight loss surgery unfortunately. But when he died his diabetes and his CPAP prescription numbers were down to a healthy amount. ironically enough when he died he was the healthiest he'd ever been and he had lost 140 lb in 4 months.

All of this. I'm very proud of how far I've come, relieved that I don't get gawked at when I go out in public now (when I was almost 400 pounds people would stare. I hated that), and being able to fit in something that I buy off the rack without having to actually try it on and it looking GOOD! (that was rare before my weight loss. I'd try on a dozen things and be lucky if I like even one of those dozen things. Now everything fits and my problem is deciding what I want and since I'm still losing to try to not buy too much because I'm likely to go down at least 1 or 2 more sizes. I figure with the way my clothes are fitting right now if I lose another 5 pounds I'll be in a different pants size and another 10 for a different shirt size)

Thank you! I also ended up wearing the Binder as well that the Hospital provided and it helped a little but not much. It took about 10 days for me to finally start feeling some pain relief finally. I'm currently 15 days post-op and my pain level will reach like a 5-6 at times but nowhere near the 9-10 I had last week. Sent from my GM1915 using BariatricPal mobile app

Yeah i just realized that you said 2019 lol sorry about that

Just looking to see if I have any surgery birthdays out there. it would be so cool to compare and see where we started out at and where we're at now

I understand that thought process because I went through it too. I bounced around with the idea of WLS for years and never actively pursued it for a good 10 years or so when the idea of WLS first popped into my head because of the whole permanence factor. For a long time I allowed myself to be uninformed about all it entailed and just dwelled on the permanence and feared possible bad outcomes if I ever did decide to pursue it. I was in my early 20's when I first started to even think about it and I was in the low 300 pound range. I think part of me also didn't want to even try WLS because I'd heard stories about people 'who knew people' who had WLS and who either tried and failed or who lost weight and then gained most or all of it back. I didn't think I'd have the willpower to keep to a strict diet to lose the weight and then learn moderation and self control during that weight loss phase to help me keep off what I did lose, and I feared I'd be one of those failures because of that. However, a lot of things changed as I got older. My weight ballooned up and as I kept getting closer and closer to 400 pounds I was honestly fearing that every day would be my last. I thought for sure I'd die of a heart attack or a stroke or something. I had so many ER trips due to raised blood pressure, chest pains, etc. Then, in 2016 my TN flared up and I was in a world of constant chronic pain with basically no break. I was so doped up on my meds that I couldn't walk straight and was slurring my words when I talked. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, my whole world was just... pain. This lasted for 10 months. I wanted it to stop so bad that I was willing to end my own life. I didn't, of course. I tried to be strong for my family and went and saw a neurosurgeon who told me that the best option to get rid of the pain was brain surgery as meds were literally doing nothing for me. Surgery is just a temporary fix as TN doesn't actually have a cure. But it worked. I was starting to honestly consider WLS after I recovered from my surgery, but then my sister had a late second trimester miscarriage and the idea of WLS ended up as little more than a thought in the back of my mind. My sister's miscarriage hit her HARD and she fell into a deep depression and blamed herself for the loss of her son. It was months of trying to help her deal with his loss, and then her buying a house and moving, and helping her plan her wedding (I was maid of honor) so time just got away from me. About a week before the anniversary of the loss of her son, my sister learned she was pregnant again. It was the birth of my niece that really did it for me. The first time I held my niece I was hit with the realization that I may not be around to watch her grow up if something didn't change. I'd done the dieting route and failed every time. Every pound I lost, I'd gain it back. Plus some. I KNEW I couldn't do it on my own, and so I actively started to look into weight loss surgery and to pursue it, because my biggest joy in life has been watching my eldest niece grow up, and the thought of not seeing her little sister grow up broke my heart. I was 32 years old and 389 pounds when my niece was born. That was my highest KNOWN weight (I avoided the scale like the plague. I'm positive at some point I was over 400, but I never saw that number on the scale because I was only weighed when I went to the doctor. And that was usually only when I was sick. And you tend to lose weight when you're sick). I had my first consult appointment at the end of May in 2019. I did the six month weight loss program for my insurance, but due to overscheduling I ended up not having my surgery until January 23, 2020. I lost 68 pounds during the months leading up to my surgery and was 321 pounds on the day of my surgery. In the 13 months since I've lost an additional 126 pounds and currently weight in at 195 pounds. My biggest regret, like many others, is not doing this sooner. I allowed my fear of failure to stop me from pursuing this sooner. I've found that I'm a lot stronger than I ever gave myself credit for. Now I don't fear that I'm going to stray because I have accountability and willpower and can pass on all those foods that I used to never pass on. Is it hard? Yes. But, it's 100% worth it when I look at my 11 year old niece, 2 year old niece, and my 5 month old nephew and know I don't have to fear anymore that every day is going to be my last, and that I won't be around to watch them grow up. My family has always been my strength and they are really what have kept me going though everything I've been through in my life. I did this for them just as much as I did it for myself, and I'm grateful every day that I finally made this choice. In the end, the option of surgery is a very personal choice. It's something that YOU have to decide for yourself because you are the one that has to live your life and live with whatever choice you make. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best!

7 pounds in the 10 days at 226 is GREAT !

@Slownstedy I've lost about 7 pounds in the 10 days I've been on it, I do feel a little down about it, but I started at what is considered a lower weight (226 lbs).

I’m on day 4 of the pre-op liquid diet. I don’t want to scare you, but to manage your expectations, know it’s hard. I have two Premier Protein shakes a day (sometimes I mix two flavors for variety). Jello I got tons of variety, all sugar free of course. I have 10 calorie Jello brand, 5 calorie Snack Pack, and 5 calorie Winky (40 minute trip to Walmart to find these). The nice thing about snack pack is you don’t have to store them in the fridge. I bought a case of them and put them in the fridge as needed. Winky has several flavors in each package which I like. Sugar free popsicles. Broth... lots of flavors! Low sodium chicken, vegetable, Trader Joe’s Miso Ginger (my favorite), Pho (tasted terrible but makes me nauseous and less hungry) Bone Broth: Swanson sipping broths are fantastic! They are easy to drink from their own package and how I get additional protein. They have lemon rosemary, Chinese 5 Spice, tumerick, etc. It’s a nice break from all of the sweets. Highly recommend. Yesterday when I was freaking out about being hungry the nutritionist suggested eating ice chips. I blended my protein shake with ice once so that I could eat it with a spoon like ice cream. That was more filling. But, then I had an idea... snow cones!!! I have a snow cone maker for shaved ice. I also have zero calorie, sugar free snow cone syrups which the nutritionist approved, I was in heaven!!!! im not a fan of Crystal Light, but that’s another option. Good luck!!!