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I am on day 2 post op as well however I am still in the hospital. My bladder has decided to become quite lazy after the anesthesia and is refusing to begin work again quite yet so am having to be straight cathed every few hours u til it begins to respond to its own signals to empty when I am ready. Other than that, water and my shakes (Orgain plant protein) is going down fairly easy without too much difficulty in 2oz medicine cups every 15 minutes that I am awake. I do still have considerable bloating due to the CO² in my abdomen/torso and have not been able to pass any but my body is absorbing it slowly. I am walking the unit almost every hour while awake however at times I really do feel exhausted but I still feel it is worth it not to lie in the hospital bed. I still have a very sore throat and am very hoarse from the tubes down my throat during surgery but I have been gargling with warm salt water which feels good and should speed up the healing of this area. Regardingvpain after VGS, (laparoscopy) I can say that I am uncomfortable but not in pain. It is tolerable knowing day to day is is going to ease and all be worth all of the struggles when I reach my goal. It will only be a memory. I am thinking of all of the others who have had surgery this week and those who have their's coming up rapidly and offer encouragement to not be anxious. It is not horrible, nothing to fear. Just ve diligent about working your program and following all of the recommendations put to you from your surgeon and / or your WL clinic to stay disciplined wirh your diet, walk, walk, walk, and use your support systems. Do not be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Allow your body to heal. Bless you all. 🙏 20230311_002443.heic

My surgeon required two 20 minute walks per day and allowed further activity as soon as I was feeling up to it. I played tennis one week post op. I played in a tournament 2 weeks post op. My main issue at that point was balancing activity and hydration. Some days I literally could not afford to sweat… I would say about 3 months post op my hydration became sufficient enough for me to do intense workouts without feeling lightheaded.

Your welcome! I tried apple sauce, I found out I don't like apple sauce with cinnamon anymore. I have to be on this phase for 4 weeks! I need ideas because I'll get burnt out haha. I can't stomach protein shakes anymore lol.

Honestly at the pureed phase I literally just pureed whatever my family was eating with some extra gravy or sauce! Honestly the most delicious meal I had - possibly ever - was the pureed roast lamb dinner with veg that I ate a few weeks after surgery. I still remember that flavour explosion after 2 weeks of liquids. Never had another protein shake EVER after that. Proper food FTW! Best of luck!

hey yall!! Hope all is well. Well as far as me I been back in the hospital since Wednesday. Still vomiting etc. I had a procedure done yesterday. laparoscopic diagnostic, endoscopy and adhesion. removed. The adhesions took 2 hrs to remove. My surgeon said i'm a rare case. Just two weeks ago she removed scar tissue that was causing my stomach to twist. Now this procedure she considered to be extensive and was very complex. She said my stomach keep twisting and is very tender. She said I had accumulated more scar tissue and a bunch of other terms she used. She had to use special tools to lift my liver bc my sleeve was tethered to my live. In which my liver had dense adhesions attached to it as well. She believes that she got most off but states there was a section that was more difficult. For this she will have to go back in to attempt to remove more and dilate my sleeve again because there is a portion that showed a stricture. Oddly she said none of the showed up on the upper gi or endoscopy that I had done two weeks ago. Trying to remain positive and hope for better days. I dope hope that I get discharged soon as I'm very exhausted and mentally drained.

I was encouraged to walk the first 6 weeks post op starting with 15min and building up to 30min to 1hr (granted I was not consistent), I just started doing strength training at almost 3.5 months post op

I started 4 weeks post op as suggested by my surgeon. I did not do chewable and was fine with the capsules. I was given my BP medicine while in the hospital in pill form with a sip of water, pain meds etc and started an acid blocker the next day. I had ordered free samples from a few websites prior to surgery and chewables made me nauseous so I knew before hand they were a no go

I started vitamins one week post-op. The instructed me to take the chewables. I have the bariatric pal chewable multi with 45 g of iron. I think the flavor is mixed berry. It tastes okay. They also advised me not to take capsules. So I have to open up the Prilosec gel cap and pour the medicine on applesauce. All my other medications are pills and I cut them in half. I've had no problems with nausea. Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

We started them again within the first week. Never had any particular problem with tolerating them, though some do, The only chewables I used were for calcium as those tend to be horse pills (though some brands do have petite versions), but the other pills worked ok when taken one at a time with a sip of water (as opposed to taking them all in a handful as before, and later after things settle out in time.)

My team instructed me to start vitamins at 3 weeks post op. The chewable vitamins with iron didn't really upset my tummy, they just don't taste that great. I recently (at about 4 months post op) switched to the one-a-day capsule that Bariatric Pal sells. I've had no issue with them at all.

When did you restart your vitamins after surgery & did they cause any nausea? I purchased chewables for all the vitamins and supplements on the doctor's list. The only one which is not chewable but in caplet form is the multivitamin w/iron. The doctor preferred chewables but said pill form could be taken but if larger than an M&M to cut in half. Having only consumed clear liquids for the past week, I am wondering what to expect with the chewables hitting my stomach.

3 weeks and counting until I smoke after this demonos sleeve. I've read a lot about calories carbs getting protien. Some of the stuff I've read are from 2010 to 2014...nothing really updated but in all those post not once did I read about working out. I thought the sleeve or any weight lose surgery go habd in hand with working out. Getting your body back on shape..getting rid of the flab. Hence needing calories and carbs as well as protein. Granted our eating habit will change due to the sleeve but its not a diet. I will nit treat it as such. So do anyone work out as well.

On week 4 , I'm allowed shrimp so I had shrimp cocktail with cocktail sauce the other night! It was a nice treat. I'm also allowed chili, so I bought organic canned chili by Amy. Paired it with shredded Mexican cheese and sour cream. I also eat the foods other people mentioned except ricotta bake. I don't know what that is. Also, I added shaved deli ham to my scrambled egg and cheese on week 4 .

I just ate it plain since none of the usual things you dip in it would have been allowed the first few weeks.

Iron deposits need a while to drain. Some people are not able to resorb oral iron supplements after bypass. However, a fast drop over the course of some weeks isn't really explained that way. What about the other parameters? Ferritin, transferrin, hb?

Hi, all. I had bypass surgery almost exactly four years ago. I've taken bariatric vitamins religiously and my bloodwork has always been perfect. Now, all of a sudden, I have iron deficiency anemia. My most recent bloodwork showed an iron level of 24. Then, after five weeks of iron supplements, it had dropped to 14. What?? (I'm not exactly sure what those numbers mean, but my doctor says they are concerning.) I know that bypass causes absorption issues. However, nothing has changed in terms of my diet or vitamin intake. You would think this would have shown up long before now. Even my doctor is perplexed and is running tests to see what the cause might be. Has anyone else experienced this issue years after surgery? I'd be especially interested in hearing from other men, as we are less prone to iron deficiency than women.

I had the lapband, and at first it worked well and I reached my goal. I had it because it was reversable. Then I experienced the complications that so many others have, and had to have it removed. I gained all the weight back. I have 2 friends that also had the lapband and also had to have it removed. I was happy to be thin, but at the expense of constantly throwing up, really bad GERD, and landing in urgent care twice because I was so dehydrated. I would highly advise against it! I am now 2 weeks post op with the sleeve, (at 62) and finally optimistic again.

I am 2 weeks post op (sleeved 2/23/23). Overall doing well, but I get sharp cramps on my left side, mostly if I take too many sips to close, and also closer to the center, I guess heart burn, but didn't have an issue with that before. Anyone else with that issue?

I had one of my consultations with Dr. Shifrin. He's very well-known, that's probably why his prices are a little higher. Although Chicago prices in general are going to run high. I had the full lower body lift and none of my three consults would do more than that in one surgery. There are a lot of surgeons who don't like having patients under anesthesia for more than six hours, and you can't really do both a lower body lift and something else in that amount of time (I figured a tummy tuck wouldn't take as long as a lower body lift, since with the latter they do front and back, but i think my LBL was also about four hours). I had my breast and arm lift in a second surgery, and then about 18 months ago (long after my other surgeries) I had a face and neck lift by a different surgeon (one who specializes in facial plastic surgery) P.S. I also didn't like the fact that Dr. Shifrin did his surgeries in his office suite - or one other place in the area (can't remember where it was - somewhere in the Loop, though). He said I could stay at the hotel across the street (I was an out-of-town patient), but I really wanted to be monitored that first night, *just in case* something happened. That was the deal breaker for me.

For the abdominal piece you may be able to use sick leave/take FMLA. Diastasis recti repair is considered medical. I was able to take 3 weeks of sick leave for mine.

I didn’t exercise & I lost all my weight & more. No running or cycling miles or hours at the gym for me. It’s not that I can’t I just dislike it … a lot. All I do are a few resistance exercises & stretches. (I did add some sit-ups but as I do them I tell myself I’m crazy.) I do a series of exercise combinations over three sessions each afternoon & evening. They take me about 25 minutes in total & wouldn’t burn 30 calories. I do them more to better support my back & my oozing discs & a little toning. There are a variety is simple exercises available on line for people with a variety of mobility issues. You could give them a try too & see if any work for you.

We didn't have any liquid only diet; we had puree and soft things (yogurt, scrambled eggs, etc.) in the hospital along with a lot of liquids, of course. The general rule the first month was to move between liquids, purees and soft solids as we could tolerate them; if we came across something that wasn't tolerated, then move back to proven foods and try that one again in a week or two. Some progressed more quickly than others. With protein shakes as a staple to ensure adequate protein, I started with broth, then graduated to thicker soups like vegetable or chicken noodle or rice with the chunks strained out, then just mashed the chunks as the next trial, then went unmashed and well chewed, etc. As the group had around twenty years experience in working with the sleeve (at that time), I wasn't about to argue with them being different than others online.

I found everyone's posts about which procedure and surgeon they went with to be really helpful when I was struggling to find the right surgeon so I thought I'd start a thread for mine too. I've lost over 170lbs total and am currently 16 months out from my surgery, and at a stable weight for over 3 months. I just scheduled an extended Tummy Tuck for this August with Dr. John YS Kim in Chicago at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. There will just be a single scar, and even though I do have a bunch of extra skin above the belly button too, he said I didn't need a Fluer de Lis which is great. I had also seen Dr. Shifrin who had recommended a circumferential lower body lift to get all my extra backside skin too, with "auto-augmentation" to make it rounder. Dr. Kim recommended to not try to do that at the same time since the recovery would be quite difficult with both front and back worked on at the same time. I was having a hard time understanding how I would even recover when it would hurt to be on my back, front and sides so it wasn't hard to convince me. I was really unsure of if I was "at weight" or not and as long as I was standing there naked in front of him, I asked if I had more weight to lose or not, or if it was just skin. I find it impossible to tell. He said that I actually don't have much fat, just some on my pubis and above belly button which he'd remove with liposuction at the same time. It's nice to just focus on being a stable weight and not wondering if I'm getting it done too soon. The surgery should take 4 hours, and I would go home the same day, and then see him once a week for the next 4-6 weeks. There will be 2 drains in place and removed 2 weeks later as well. Plus a binder/compression garments for 3 months. The surgeon fee was $16,000 with a non-refundable 10% down when I scheduled and the remainder due 3 weeks before the surgery. With hospital and anesthesiologist fees it came to $20,800. If I change my surgery date, I lose the the deposit so I can't chicken out. 😅 There was another surgeon there, Dr. Galiano, whose fee was $10k less which was tempting, since it was still a great doctor at Northwestern hospital, but I really liked Dr. Kim and kind of wanted "the best". Dr. Shifrin who performs the surgery in an outpatient surgical center at his office would have cost $22k. I didn't feel comfortable doing these surgeries outside of a hospital so that helped narrow down my choices too. I have BCBS and only one of the surgeons was willing to try to document skin irritation so that insurance would pay for some of the procedure. Everyone else was just like "lol no it's cosmetic" and that was the end of it. I get infections from time to time but they do respond to medication and don't happen all the time so I felt like it was really unlikely that I could go that route. Insurance said that if your pannus was below your public line AND you have infections that don't clear up, then they would pay for just the Panniculectomy. The entire experience really convinced me that you have to see multiple surgeons because prices are ALL OVER the place, even within the same practice/hospital, and everyone had a different idea of what work I should do, the combination of it, pain management, etc. After the first consultation, I learned that I suck at asking questions while in a paper gown, and gave the surgeon a printed copy of my questions and asked him to walk through each one with me, which also was a great way to way to feel out their personality and willingness to work with me. My plan is to also get a breast, arm and inner thigh lift but none of the doctors wanted to talk about surgeries that wouldn't happen for maybe a year or longer out. Once I'm recovered from the tummy tuck, then we'd discuss the next area to focus on which for me would be arm/breast combo. So this process is going to take a while, with having to save up all of my vacation for the entire year for each surgery.

I just scheduled an extended tummy tuck for this August with Dr. John YS Kim in Chicago. It's pretty far out but August turned out to be the best time for me to take off work anyway. I asked him how long before I would go back to work (desk job) and he was pretty confident that it was 4 weeks minimum. If I can go back sooner, I will but I managed to get the time off so if I need it I have it.

I was on full fluids from day 1 - the very first thing I was given post op was coffee and strained yoghurt (which I simply could not get down). 2 weeks of those, 2 of puree, then onto normal but softer foods progressing as I felt able. Surgeons really do differ a lot. I did like comparing my programme to others here though - still do! Best of luck, hope you do really well OP.