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I was in Eygpt at 8 weeks post op for a couple of weeks and was totally fine!

I feel you, three weeks out and I have lost that joie de vivre, nothing taste's good, I have sn awful taste in my mouth, can't stomach purees or protein drinks, when I eat something it's painful, water tastes horrible to me, but then again this is why we lose weight I can honestly say I am not having cravings more of a repulsion, hanging in there since everyone says it gets better.

Yea I am at week two going on week three i misunderstood my diet and was eating soft foods a week early lol but I do find it hard to swallow the most annoying part is not being able to drink water comfortably really anything ive tried hot drinks and for some reason its better for me to take warm drinks. I got sugar free hot cocoa bc its been cold so far so good also caffeine free spearmint tea has been great. I’m down 16 lbs so far im hoping for a good 10/12 lbs moving forward per month but we shall see! I’m going to start my walking routine tomorrow and im excited for that. Happy loosing 🥰

Right now, I'm back to walking/stairs and some aquafitness twice a week. I bought a recumbent bike and it was awesome for a week but because of the body positioning, I've been told to lay off until I stop straining this one particular area lol. And some light stretching with a resistance band that avoids my core as much as possible -- I mean, I can't avoid it completely because everything's connected but I focus on arms and legs until I feel my core start to open up / stretch gently out and call it quits while I'm ahead. XD It's good to establish a 'new normal' for yourself in terms of blood pressure, so I'd suggest using your mum's machine a couple times a week just to get a new baseline. I've been lucky/unlucky that my post-op care-team, my personal PCP/GP and my endocrinologist have all been scheduling follow ups and tests for me with just enough of a gap that I feel like I've been seeing someone every 2-3 weeks -- and my official 3mo follow-up is in another week. (Even my local pharmacist is great, and prods me to use their blood pressure machine whenever I'm in to pick up prescriptions, questions how I'm reacting to such-and-such.) Hormones were definitely kicking my rear all last week, concentrating all my normal-level reactions into heightened states. Less than fun, I've had better weeks but eh.

I thought FMLA was up to the employer, not whomever did your surgery. Or did the surgeon's office have to sign off on something verifying that they expected it would take x-number of weeks to recover (??). It's been several years for me but I don't really remember - but it could be that my clinic had to state that I would require so many weeks to recover. My employer was the entity that granted the FMLA, though. But as far as the rest of your post, yes - I would think it might take more than two weeks to recover from the DS. The surgeon's office probably should have said that you might need up to (however many) weeks... although sleeve2bypass is correct - two weeks seems pretty standard. Although the vast majority of people have sleeve or bypass, which aren't as extensive.

I'm almost 4 months post op from the MDS and I've been asking myself that question, "am I overeating", on and off for the past 2 months. I've been able to figure out 2 body cues so far: feeling full to me is a pain in a specific part of my chest and feeling hungry is a intense pain in my abdomen. But other than trying to avoid those, I feel like I spend a lot of time grazing or snacking. Because of my morbid curiousity, I weigh myself pretty much every day. I didn't experience the "3 wk stall", but my weight has bounced around a bit. Dealing with pain and nausea has made me lose both pounds and inches, which scares me more than it makes me happy. The stress of school made that worse recently, in 4 days I lost 6 lbs. At my last follow up, my dr and dietician said to slow down my weight loss by adding in some carbs. I have been doing that for the last 2 weeks and I've been able to gain/maintain a range of 2-3 pounds, so I agree with @SleeveToBypass2023's advice about the rice and such.

At the beginning of my fitness journey, I joined a national chain gymnasium for a little over $10 per month. It rhymes with Janet Witness, and had a variety of low impact and muscle building machines to try out. Pushing towards 300 pounds, I had to work up the courage to be there but soon found that everyone was in their own little zone, paying me no mind. I took advantage of their membership benefit that allows one to meet with a trainer to plan a custom routine. Three years later, I am still a member of this gym and am grateful for the healthier lifestyle seeds that they helped me plant.

So I am better prepared now! I completed the list of suggested items, I got my protein shakes for my preop weeks, got my water flavoring, and I got myself a two week starters kit from celebrate vitamins. It is a protein powder with the vitamins already included so at least that first week I won’t have to worry about everything. Then for the following week I got a vitamin starter kit that has what I will need. I figure by week three I will be better about getting things I need. I am feeling a bit better going into this whole thing now.

Hi Tynisha! I don’t focus much on carbs, but I try to not go overboard. I eat crackers or a tiny PB&J as a snack most days and may have some oven roasted potatoes with protein for dinner. And I drink whole milk. What has been really important for me is making sure to eat three balanced meals a day, hitting my protein goal (around 110-120 grams daily). I have to have a protein shake or two with milk to get there. If you find you are eating too many carbs, it’s probably because you are snacking too much. If you focus on balanced meals and up your protein goal, you won’t be hungry/want to snack. Veggies and milk aren’t a big impact on carb intake, and help you feel full. Another good way to sneak in more protein is Greek yogurt. I like Oikos mixed berry. Fairly low on carbs/sugars and 15 grams of protein. Basically make sure you are getting enough protein, focus on feeling full from good food, and try to limit snacking. Has worked for me, and I’m still slowly losing weight almost 9 months later. Oh, and work out with weights. Since working out 3 days a week, my body composition has changed quite a bit. Best of luck! Dave

Chinese yum cha lunch with girl friends yesterday & a part way through my meal pxt. Half of the Moreton bay bug spring roll & one of the three prawn & scallop siu mai. Took about 45 minutes to eat it all but I was sipping a glass of Louis Roederer champagne & the bubbles were giving me a bit of trouble. Was still worth it though. Lol! PS - Bugs are a local lobster variety. Very yummy: sweet, rich.

@Alix2050 You're almost there! Fingers crossed you make it below 200 this week!

Hi, friends! I had the traditional duodenal switch on 04/24/2024 with Dr. Joshua Roller in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My surgery experience was fabulous and I have had zero complications following surgery. I haven't even so much as vomited since surgery. I am 5 weeks post-op and feel great! I wanted to let folks know, though, that it is their "company policy" to only provide FMLA/short term disability coverage for 2 weeks. I had done a lot of research on this surgery prior to having it and was expecting 4-6 weeks for recovery. I had previously (in 2019) had a surgery to remove my gallbladder and 2 weeks was so unbelievably inadequate for me to recover. No one asked me about my FMLA or disability paperwork until my group dietician appointment the day before my surgery (as I was an out of state patient from Ohio). The nurse said, "If anyone has FMLA paperwork, we will take it now. We provide 2 weeks off work. Any longer and we need documentation of complications to extend it." Since I was in a group setting, I felt uncomfortable contesting this. I spent a significant amount of time in distress over this, as I wouldn't even be home a full week or on solids for more than a day before they said I should return to work. They would not budge on this policy. Thankfully, my employer allowed me to take 2 extra weeks of leave, but that was a privilege extended to me and my job was not legally protected during those extra two weeks. Additionally, I was not paid at all for those extra 2 weeks because according to Dr. Roller, I only "needed" 2 weeks, not 4 weeks. I am struggling a lot financially post-op because of this, as my short term disability company has a waiting period and I only got paid for a few days of work while being out for 4 total weeks. Roller's office is phenomenal in every other way and like I said, my hospital stay and my surgery itself have been everything I hoped for and then some, BUT I think that this issue is a pretty big one for some folks. I was in no shape to return to work at 2 weeks post-op and genuinely feel that Dr. Roller's office needs get rid of this policy where they paint every patient with the same brush. I am chronically ill in other ways and I should not have needed to have complications from surgery to qualify for more than 2 weeks off from work. This disappointed me greatly.

Best wishes to you. Please let us know how you’re doing in the coming weeks!

I had my surgery on Sept 14. I'd lost 20lbs during my two week pre-op liquid diet, and another 22lbs up to Oct 19 (5 weeks post-op) and had no change the next week and this week actually gained three pounds. Not impressed!

My dietician wanted me to get at least 90g of protein a day and 30g or less carbs. My energy has been sapped as well. But I also work 55-60 hours a week. So that doesn't help much along with getting in some exercise daily. So, I've been getting in 40-45 g of carbs and that seemed to help some. But I've also had no more than 100 grams.of caffiene every couple days. I use the baritastic app and log everything. It's helps a lot. My dietician can log in and see what I've been doing. She hasn't said anything, but I also don't have an appointment with her until next month. I think my issues are getting enough vitamins and minerals. My hair used to grow very fast, now it doesn't. I take three multivitamins a day and two B-complex vitamins. Along with calcium chews. I also have an appointment with the bariatric center where I had the surgery. I'm certain they will have another round of blood tests to see if I have any deficiencies. Sorry this was a book. 😁

Seems pretty standard. I had 2 weeks off when I had my sleeve and when I had to have the revision to bypass a year later, also had 2 weeks then. I think they tend to only give longer if you have complications. Otherwise I think 2 weeks is pretty typical. Some doctor's offices will give longer if you specifically ask for it (not mine) but I don't think that's typical.

Your feelings are valid @Nan CC, surgery is stressful and the idea that we have done so much for so little loss in the beginning is discouraging and depressing!! I have some thoughts to share about your experiences... 1. That hunger you are experiencing is normal. It doesn't go away for everyone. I woke up in the recovery room ravenous which pissed me off because all they kept saying is I wouldn't be hungry! And I ended up more hungry than I'd been in years!! The first two months I was hungry all the time. True hunger. I think it is because the body is panicking and trying to figure out what is going on. Plus we've been lied to, that growling sound is often not hunger, but just our system digesting and moving air and fluid through our system. After surgery our internal digestive process sounds louder to us for some reason. Maybe because we are paying more attention?? I don't know. But I had true hunger constantly. One thing that will help this is a PPI (proton pump inhibitor). Our tiny tummies are still making enough acid for a normal tummy and that can irritate it as it heals. That gnawing hunger can often come from this and gets worse at night... 2. No, you aren't supposed to automatically feel full with 1/4 cup of food. A lot do, but not all by any means. The reason for this primarily is because all the nerves that communicate fullness to us were cut during surgery. It takes at least 3 full months for those to heal enough to accurately communicate again. The 1/4 cup portion size is to keep you from inadvertently overeating and stressing your healing stomach. At about 8-10 weeks you may notice you can eat more, that's because the internal swelling has gone down. By then you should be able to start gauging your fullness signals. They are often different post op and can look like sneezing, a congested or runny nose, hiccups, pressure in your breastbone, nausea, etc... By 3-4 months out you may be eating more like 1/3 to 1/2 cup of food at a time. Not everyone progresses that way, some have high restriction all the time and have to stick to smaller portions. But the key here is to start building that relationship of listening with your body and learning that the feeling of hunger does not mean you are starving. If you are eating 1/4 cup of food 5-6 times a day, you are getting enough nutrients for your stage in the process. As @AmberFLmentioned, I suggested Millie's sipping broths (you can get a sample pack of all the flavors on Amazon) they help a LOT when you want something, the warmth and savoriness can really soothe the extreme hunger until it balances out on its own. 3. Stalls are normal and can happen early and often. I lost about 15 lbs in the first 3 weeks and then proceeded to stall for 6 weeks and gain and lose the same 4 lbs!! I was horrified and really worried my surgery wasn't going to work. I lose weight VERY slowly, my body is resistant to losing, and I have diabetes and such like you, which I think makes losing hard too. This stall was normal, even though it didn't feel normal. DS patients are known for losing dramatic amounts of weight and my surgery weight was 307, there was no good reason for the stall. But my body needed to take a break and recalibrate and heal, so it did. Finally after those 6 weeks I SLOWLY started losing again. Then at the beginning of February the weight loss finally started to pick up! A lot of people lose a ton at the beginning, I didn't. Apparently my body needed 3 months before it felt safe to start dropping weight steadily... All you can do is get good movement, good sleep (sleep is crucial to weight loss), good hydration, eat every few hours, and stay off the scale for a bit...it will break when it is ready to. 4. Hunger does eventually return to normal, or whatever is normal for you... I'm almost 4 months out and mine is back to what is normal for me. I still have to eat every 3 hours, if I don't I feel drained and irritable and my weight loss slows... I drink plenty of fluids during the day, it helped with the hunger. I feel my fullness signals clearly now, I think all that healing is finally done. I just have to eat slow enough to allow those signals to get to my brain (it takes longer than you think!). Broths, milk, coffee, tea, flavored waters, all these will ease hunger pangs, but the best cure is time and learning to heal your relationship with your hunger so you can feel it and not feel stressed about it. The great thing about eating every 3 hours is the next meal is around the corner, so I can drink something and tell my system to wait until mealtime. This helps heal the insulin resistance too by allowing your body to go through the full insulin response cycle post meal. I'm sorry this feels so hard. I hope your stall breaks soon! And I hope it helps to know you are not alone. ❤️

I had my RNY procedure last January at 52. So far so good. 2 days in the hospital, I managed my pain at home with Tylenol instead of the hydrocodone I was given. No complications, I did have a bout of dumping when eating peanut butter for the first time post-surgery. I can tolerate it now. I lost a total of 85 pounds. I had a 3-week stall last March. I am off CPAP. My A1C is at 5.5 and I am feeling great. I love my new body. I am working on minimizing the scars with silicone scar and tretinoin via the advice of my dermatologist. My asthma is way under control so need for my maintenance inhaler. I feel that this was a reset in my life in many ways. I do Zumba, walk, and use dumbells to stay in shape. I make sure to stay hydrated per my surgeon's instructions. I follow my surgical team's advice to the letter. I'm just feeling blessed. Best of luck in your journey.

Really interesting to read about the “starting weight”. I booked my surgery on January 30th and was 96kg (my highest ever weight - stepping on the scales and seeing I was closer to 100 that to 90 was a real shock - I dug out some insurance papers from February 2020 - I was 58kg then and allready heavier than I like to be). My surgery was 3 weeks later because I had to stop smoking first. The day of surgery I was 91.1kg so I lost 5.9kg in the three weeks prior ( I basically did a broth fast and didn’t eat anything solid, only clear broth and tea and coffee). Im now 70kg so since January 30th I’ve lost 26kg (57lbs) in 16 weeks (average of 1.6kg or 3.6lbs a week) so I’m very very happy with the weight loss even if I’m over the weather! I do have a goal weight which is my pre pandemic weight of 52-55kg (114-122 lbs) because I know that that is the weight at which I function best and that feels the best for my legs ( I mentioned earlier in the thread that I have very minor cerebral palsy - I have the impression that the extra pain I have for every gram I weigh over 55kg just isn’t worth it and really impacts my standard of living and my mobility. Because of the CP I have very minimal flexibility so being even slightly over weight just makes moving so so much harder for me as I can barely bend my knees as it is and have no upwards ankle flexibility what so ever. I’m easily out of balance and I fall over often ( the best way to picture it is to imagine the mobility of someone who has had about 3 beers too many), I’m used to it and my physiotherapist always says I’m a very good « faller », a part from bruises and a bruised ego I’ve only ever seriously broken things ( shoulder, wrist and double arm fracture all in one go!) once since being an adult. But being heavier has meant having more issues getting back up after falling over and more and bigger bruises. So my goal isn’t an esthetic one ( even though it will be nice to not be the fattest person in the room anymore - and because I live in Paris where the average female BMI is 21.3 the bar is low!) but a functional one. So I have 15kg (33lbs) left to loose, I know the rate of loss will slow, but I’m hoping to be at least nearly there in September when I take a new position, I really want to do my transition speech feeling ( and looking) like my old self ( just with some extra wrinkles and grey hair). My handover is September 16th - that leaves 17 weeks so I’m not sure I’ll be at 55kg by then because it would mean continuing to loose an average of 0.9kg ( 1.95lbs) a week which is a lot given my current weight. However if I manage to loose an average of 0.5kg (1.1lbs) per week ( which seems a more attainable bar) I should be 61/62kg by then, and I can live with that! ( I’m an unapologetic numbers girl - I don’t track what I eat because that’s not sustainable for me long term - I try to eat protein but other than that - YOLO - but I do track my weight every day if I have a scale and my steps and my activity) A very long post once again. Thanks all for being here. And here is a picture of a Greek island morning! That’s the 9.30AM light!

So relieved to report I finally dropped to a new "lowest weight" after my 2-week stall. Weighed in at 198.6 this morning, a drop of 0.6 since yesterday. I really hope that might continue a few days at least before I hit the next rough patch. The cravings for sweets and carbs are real! I'm fortunate that I do feel a lot of restriction, or at least I do if I am eating the right kinds of foods. I can only manage about 2-3 oz (60-85g) of heavier proteins, which include salmon, poultry, beef, and pork. I also get full at around 4 oz (100g) veggies. Sadly, if I do eat bread or crackers, they seem to go down easy. Same with ice cream or candy. I had really hoped that wouldn't be the case. It makes it that much more important for me not to keep those types of things in the house. I'm struggling with what to eat, especially for breakfast. Nothing sounds good. I'm tired of plain yogurt and cottage cheese. I'm tired of protein shakes and smoothies. I was enjoying smoked salmon with cucumbers on rye crisp bread until last week when it made me violently ill. I've become repulsed by eggs. Plus, I don't usually get hungry until later in the morning. Today, I decided to wait, and I finally started to feel some real hunger at 10:00am. So, I'm having a leftover big Italian meatball from dinner a few nights ago. Lunch and dinner options aren't much easier. Cooking is a hassle when you can eat so little, and my kids don't like the kinds of things I can eat. But I worry it sets me up for grazing when I don't have a plan. I'd really like to do some meal prep and have a list of maybe 10 go-to meals that are bariatric approved and easy to make any time of day. I'd like to spend a few hours roasting a sheet pan of veggies and cooking some chicken to store in the fridge for the week and incorporate into meals. I need to clean out the fridge and pantry. I just don't seem to have the motivation to do any of it. It's like all my energy has run dry, although my bloodwork came back good so it's not an issue of something being off. Just my attitude, I guess! I'm feeling stressed and a little overwhelmed, and it shows in my environment because my house is getting cluttered and I have a pile of laundry that is quickly going to consume me. What I wouldn't give for a housekeeper to keep the place tidy and my own cook to make healthy meals and deliver them to me at appropriate times during the day.

I would assume that your medical team will provide you with the stages they would like you to go through. everyone one here were given widely differing sets of instructions post op, so it may get a little confusing with all the differing accounts. best to pick one program (easiest one would be the one provided by your team) and follow that. remember they are guidelines, so if you are unable to do a stage or meet a goal or have issues, do something else. don't force it. and get in touch with your team with that said, here was mine (almost 5 years ago): week 1: clear liquids week 2-3: full liquids week 4: purees (i skipped this one, i just did full liquids for another week because purees were YUCK! lol week 5-6: minced ...after that i was cleared for everything/anything (just reminded to chew alot).

Yeah, agree with @ms.sss -- everyone seems to get a slightly modified version from their care team, and it's best to just follow what directions they might give you. Part of this is also because different care teams also encourage different types and dosages of supplements, but also because everyone's medical history and starting point on their WL journey can have different requirements that need to be met. (Some of us have various co-morbidities like Heart issues, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc...) For example, my schedule was: Day 1-2: clear liquids Week 1 & 2: Liquids & Protein Shakes Week 3 & 4: Purees Weeks 5-9: Soft Foods Week 10+: introducing more variety of healthy foods

do a search on this site for the "three-week stall". You will find over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding). Happens to almost all of us. stick to your program, stay off the scale for a few days, and it will break. I promise.

Good morning! I have officially joined the "stallers" club this week. It is sad to see the scale at the same place it was a week ago. But I have all of you going through it, too, and while we don't like it, it does help some. I guess I'm glad to be part of the club lol.

@Arendiva we are surgery date twins! How is it going so far? I did experience the 3 week stall, but the scale is moving again. I'm feeling pretty good, overall. I have thrown up a couple of times - either when something didn't sit right or I overate.