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I'm 7 weeks post op today, so happily losing weight with pain a distant memory. However, my recollection is that my worst pain was horrible back muscle spasms as I woke up from anesthesia. This lasted for a few hours. Nurses told me I was on the surgical "board" for quite a long while due to complications elsewhere and I believe it. I struggle to lay on any sort of flat surface due to my "curves." Just doing the dexa scan was torture and I was deep breathing the whole time just to get through it. The tech felt sorry for me it was so hard for me to get up afterwards. Told her hopefully the 6 month post op scan will be much better since my butt will be so much smaller! Anyway, while inpatient they gave me tordol IV for the pain which has always been my favorite for incisional pain - but you can only have so many doses. They sent me home with hydrocodone which I took very little of.

The salty food is a great suggestion but also maybe eat whatever foods are your favorite right now. Stress can lead to weight loss so try to relax by changing your mind set from weight worry to celebrating getting to this point. Eat the food you might not get to eat for awhile. Also have you weighed yourself? You said maybe they looked at your numbers wrong, so maybe you haven't lost too much weight and you are ok. If things get too close for comfort they probably can push the surgery date back to allow you to gain some weight to be sure that insurance coverage isn't something you have to worry about.

Me too. Surgery was 15/8. Now on liquids probably till my next appt on 1st Sept. I am sooo hungry. Not losing weight either for the past 5 days. Sent from my SM-N986B using BariatricPal mobile app

My husband of 17 years is just really driving me CRAZY!!!! I've made a lengthy post about some health stuff I have going on right now (reflux, esophagitis, gastritis, esophageal spasms, and esophageal dysmotility which they think is caused by a hernia...waiting for appt for scope) and he's using it as an excuse to just stop working out, stop eating right, stop everything. None of what I have going on is from my surgery. I don't have any leaks, strictures, blockages, nothing. BUT, this started after I did an insanely intense workout, so everyone is thinking that's the cause. ANYWAY, he has a pattern of quitting stuff when he starts, as soon as it gets hard. College, 3 different side businesses, working out, keto, vegan, low/no fat, calorie counting, bariatric surgery (had 1 consult, set up the nutritionist appt and backed out. Did this 3x before they said he couldn't come back), etc etc etc. He's always been like this, but it's gotten worse over the last year or so. He literally follows through on NOTHING. Not one single thing. OH, unless it's involving wrestling or gaming. Oh THEN his follow-through is on point. Can't let his guild down!! Can't let his buddies down!! Can't miss wrestling (he literally watches Mon - Fri, and if there's pay per view on the weekend, he watches that, too). I work full time and pay all the bills. The deal we have is I will work and he is to take care of the house, grocery shopping, etc (I have a much higher earning potential than he does, and I love what i do, and he doesn't like to work, and I hate household stuff, so in theory the deal works) but he's been slacking on that, too. I'm cleaning up behind him, doing chores, grocery shopping. He's sleeping or gaming or whatever. We've argued about it and I told him if I have to take care of the house AND work, then he needs to go get a job too. If I have to work full time, do the cooking and cleaning and shopping then what the heck is he even here for? He's not supportive anymore, we don't do anything together, we argue a lot, and he has NO FOLLOW THROUGH ON ANYTHING. He gets all excited "I'm gonna start a youtube channel" or "I'm gonna start streaming on Twitch" or "I'm going to design websites for a living" or "I'm gonna go to school and get my degree in Early Childhood Education and work as a teacher online" etc. And he ends up doing NOTHING. "I'm gonna work out and get healthy so we can lose weight and have better health together" and "I'm gonna eat right and make sure we have healthy food in the house so neither of us are tempted to cheat" and then he goes to Burger King and buys 2 double whoppers with fries and eats it all. I'm just so sick of it all. I hate even being around him sometimes. He's just so LAZY and has zero motivation for anything at all. It's infuriating!!!

unfortunately, there are women who can only eat 1300 kcal a day in order to maintain. I know women who have to eat even fewer than that to maintain (1000-1200-ish) - and others who can eat 2000 (lucky bums!!!). It's such an individual thing. and yes -- it's possible that your body has settled in at its new setpoint. You can always go lower by cutting more calories, but that's up to you. I kind of gave up the ghost. Trying to take off more and maintaining at that lower weight was a struggle that I decided wasn't worth my effort anymore (even though I struggled with that for a couple of years and would still have days I'd like to be lower!!) on the other hand, it's also possible that your body might NOT be at its set point. I do know the last 20 lbs or so was a real bear for me to take off. We're talking like two pounds a month. But I eventually got there...

P.S. don't chase the full feeling - for one thing, most people don't feel restriction to around the time they start up on solid foods - or until the nerves that were cut during the surgery regenerate (which also tends to be around the time we move to solid foods). Plus the "full" cue is often different after surgery. I don't feel full the way I did pre-surgery. Now, it's more like a discomfort in my chest. when I feel that, I know it's time to stop, or I"m going to be sorry. Others have reported weirder things like runny noses when they're full. For now, you're better off measuring out what you're supposed to eat and just eating that. and no - your surgery is not unsuccessful. You're losing weight at a normal clip. And you'll continue to as long as you stick to your program.

I *only* lost 16 lbs the first month, and I started out at almost 400 lbs. At your low starting weight (compared to most WLS patients), 16 lbs is on the high end of what I would expect. Most of us (unless we're the size of people on "My 600 lb Life) seem to lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the first month. Of course, you'll find people who lose above or below that range, but most of us fall somewhere in the range. And with your low starting weight, I would expect you'd be on the lower end of that. did you say you're taking "the PPI" AND Prilosec? Prilosec IS a PPI - it's generic name is omeprazole. If your surgeon prescribed a PPI as well, then you don't need to take store-bought Prilosec.

WOW. All I can say is WOW. ***In a VERY positive way*** First: Absolutely awesome you were able to donate a kidney period, but to your daughter is amazing. Good for you, good for her! So glad to hear she is doing well! Second: Good for you killin your weight loss journey! You have to end where it makes you happy. Forget the numbers, the recommendation charts etc. Just be happy and healthy! Third: I love hearing stories where someone's spouse took the WLS plunge. Even better when they are having a great experience. I would love to be going through this with someone at the same time. Common goals, common life style. Seems good to me. Again. CONGRATULATIONS!

Ignore the number on the scale. What's important is how you feel about where you are. If you absolutely must lose those 10 pounds, and keep those 10 pounds off, get comfortable with dieting for the rest of your life. Sounds horrible to me, but lucky for you, you're not me. If you find you are happy and comfortable where you are, welcome to your new goal. Congratulations. You still need to eat and drink mindfully but it doesn't need to rule your life the way weight loss diets do. Go off and enjoy your life. Those numbers we have in our heads are crazy makers. Yes, you were at your best when you weighed that wonderful weight when you were younger. That's the weight you want. But your body has changed. You now have a larger frame which dieting won't change. That larger frame requires more muscle to move around that dieting wont change. If you get to that perfect number you will not look or feel like you think you will. Whatever path you choose, make sure it's what you-now want, not what you-then wanted. You-then was young and stupid. You-now are experienced and wiser. Good luck, Tek

Eat lots of salty foods? 😁 I say that only half in jest. Since you just have to maintain a certain overall weight and not actual body fat, water weight will work just fine for you to "maintain".

Hello everyone! I am 20 months post VSG and for the most part I would say its been successful! I was able to donate a kidney to my daughter in January and she is doing GREAT! My hubby is 3 months post VSG and absolutely killing it! I am very happy for the most part. I have changed my goal weight a couple times and really wanted to get at a 125 or 130 but my body is just holding on to the last 10 pounds! I have tried all the tricks to get things rolling, upping my calories a tad, more exercise, less exercise and even did a three day protein shake restriction just to see if that would bump me out of this. I have a tummy tuck with muscle repair scheduled in November. My team told me this is just where my body is comfortable, he called it my new set point. Has anyone been able to knock off that last few pounds without a super crazy calorie deficit. Now that I only have the one kidney I am very aware of what goes in and out of my body and I don't want to do it any harm. I am keeping my protein at 100 grams per the nephrologist and nutritionists request and my calories run about 1300 a day. The math tells me I should still be in loss mode, but clearly I am not. I also keep telling myself that I am no longer overweight and I do not need to hyper focus on that damn scale!!!! BUT watching my hubby drop so many pounds makes me really really want that end goal! Anyway they set me up for my tummy tuck (flur de les with muscle repair) for November and I am excited for that :)

Hello, I am Laura from London. It's been more than 5 months since my Gastric Sleeve operation in Turkey with Surgery TR. I chose Istanbul for my surgery, the hospital was nice, and everything was so smooth. All the nurse don't speak English however, there is a guy with me who speak English very well, and help me in all process. They gave me a diet list and supplements before I turn back to London. They are still checking on me weekly and following my weight. There is personalized care because they know me, they know my child and ask about him.

Hello, I am Laura from London. It's been more than 5 months since my Gastric Sleeve operation in Turkey with Surgery TR. I chose Istanbul for my surgery, the hospital was nice, and everything was so smooth. All the nurse don't speak English however, there is a guy with me who speak English very well, and help me in all process. They gave me a diet list and supplements before I turn back to London. They are still checking on me weekly and following my weight. There is personalized care because they know me, they know my child and ask about him. You can ask all questions to me,

I do have to have the Psychiatrist visit to see if I am a good candidate for success. The therapists (not Psychiatrists, who are MDs, but Psychologists and certified therapists) will be ongoing to help me with my eating disorder(s) that have resulted in 50+ years of being overweight and being unable to keep weight off after one of my many weight-loss diets. I think therapy is going to be a huge help, giving me the mental tools to help me overcome my bodies need for the dopamine hit that comes with eating. And it will help me keep the weight off--ever little tool I can find to help me win this war is welcome. But OSU Bariatrics did not even give me a list of therapists that they recommend for eating disorders and bariatric patients. A little disappointing.

Almost 100% sure I will get the bypass. I keep playing mind tricks with myself, maybe I can lose the weight and keep it off if I try hard enough. But after 56 years of life I know me, and know when I'm lying to myself. The surgery will help me for sure. I know it is not a cure-all, and I still need to work on everything else. But I believe the surgery will give me the edge I need to actually succeed this time for the rest of my life.

Hi Everyone, LONG POST, I apologize in advance. New to the group although I’ve been watching for a month now. Never posted, because it just didn’t seem real enough, I thought it would never get here. I just had my consult and got my surgery date for Sept 13th. I had no prerequisites that my insurance requested other than the norm: psych, only 1 nutrition, and labwork which I completed in 5 weeks(I was extremely lucky for all of that). Some personal trips with husband slowed the process. I think I probably would hv been done on a week otherwise😂 I was told by surgeon today that I will also have NO PRE-OP diet. So now I’m petrified. Not due to the surgery, but due to the fact that I cannot lose ANY weight prior. I am so close to being under 35 BMI from just 3 weeks ago of 39 BMI. I am a 36 BMI as of today. How the heck does that even happen? I think someone read something wrong. Surgeon said HE would not cancel the surgery but the hospital may, due to afraid insurance won’t pay. Only co-pay I will hv is the overnight at the hospital So I’m stuck with HAVING to eat to hold on to this weight. It wouldn’t be a problem but my biggest obstacle is I don’t eat enough…getting 3 meals in a day is a huge struggle for me. It’s like when I’m not hungry my body won’t let me eat. I literally get nauseous trying to force it down. I’m hoping my nervousness now due to that won’t make me lose additional weight. Guess I just need someone to say it will be okay Everyone seems so supportive of one another here. I hv chronic back pain and hv fought too hard for insurance approval to get on the table and hv them say “oh sorry, we can’t bcuZ you’re 34 BMI now. I’m going crazy with worry right now 😫😖. I don’t eat red meats, sweets, etc. don’t exercise due to pain and discs. How can I hold on to this weight for 3 weeks. Protein shakes? along with the food I do eat. I’m at the point today where I just want to chew and swallow and hope it results to some extra pounds

Should have also mentioned a consideration is that losing weight is pretty hard on the liver. Plus as we lose weight cholesterol is released into your blood stream from your fat. It is quite common to have poor liver function results & to see your cholesterol levels rise while you are losing weight. (It settles again once your weight settles.) A high fat diet would put even more stress on your liver & increase your cholesterol levels further. Just something to consider & discuss with your surgeon & dietician.

You can include bone broths & cream soups during the post surgery liquid stage @LookingForward22. That way you don’t have to rely on shakes. Add in some protein powder to help with meeting your protein goals. Or make your own shakes using a non dairy milk, yoghurt, protein powder. There are some flavour powders about that don’t contain sugar or artificial sweeteners - saw a peanut one recently. Congrats on your weight loss so far too.

I weight every day now and use the Happy Scale app which gives me a running average of weight loss so it smoothes out the ups and downs. I have a history of going for months conveniently "forgetting" to weigh and fooling myself into believing that I've only gained a little then when I get the nerve up, well you know the story. I even tried the Shapa scale which did not show a number, just a color based on the direction of your weight. Gained 30 pounds while I had that thing. I totally get the reasons to not weigh often, however with the app averaging the weight for me I'm actually doing a good job learning to accept those ups and downs that used to sabotage me mentally. Living with my reality instead of putting my head in the sand like I used to do. So for me, daily weighing is working.

My insurance also changed from BCBS to Cigna during the process. It made things SO much easier. No supervised diet, no therapy. Had my surgery less than 3 months after my first bariatric visit which I was SO thankful for. I can't imagine being here 6 weeks out and still have months of waiting to go. I did have a letter from my PCP documenting his support and reminding the reviewer of my arthritis in weight bearing joints (which is already so much better). Other than that easy peasy.

VSG Surgery in scheduled for Sept 1, 2022. 4 years ago I started having a lot of gastric problems. Random and often vomiting, severe diarrhea, heartburn, indigestion, etc. I had 2 colonoscopies and 2 endoscopes. Finally, diagnosed with gastritis and microscopic colitis but no reasons why those happened. I took lots of different meds, changed when and what I ate, etc. Nothing worked. It was so bad I was afraid to even leave my house at times. I went to a bariatric/general surgeon about a VSG. He ended up being just who I needed to help solve my huge gastric problem. At first, he said I would probably need to get a bypass instead of the VSG because he thought I may have had GERD/reflux. He sent me for another endoscope and discovered from the last endoscope (a year before) I had newly developed a hiatal hernia, stomach ulcers, and deformed pyloric. Did some more tests and found my stomach acid was about 5 times too much. My pancreas was not able to produce enough of the necessary stuff to neutralize the stomach acid traveling through the intestines, which in turned cause the gastritis and severe diarrhea. The bypass leaves a still somewhat function stomach so I will get VSG instead since it removes a large portion of the acid producing fundus. I will also get a repair for the hiatal hernia and pyloric. I am so thankful to my doctor for finding my gastric problems and explaining to me in a way I could understand. AND lose the weight, too! I ended up not having GERD/reflux at all, even I develop due to the VSG, I think I can handle it! Thanks for listening to my story!

VSG Surgery in scheduled for Sept 1, 2022. 4 years ago I started having a lot of gastric problems. Random and often vomiting, severe diarrhea, heartburn, indigestion, etc. I had 2 colonoscopies and 2 endoscopes. Finally, diagnosed with gastritis and microscopic colitis but no reasons why those happened. I took lots of different meds, changed when and what I ate, etc. Nothing worked. It was so bad I was afraid to even leave my house at times. I went to a bariatric/general surgeon about a VSG. He ended up being just who I needed to help solve my huge gastric problem. At first, he said I would probably need to get a bypass instead of the VSG because he thought I may have had GERD/reflux. He sent me for another endoscope and discovered from the last endoscope (a year before) I had newly developed a hiatal hernia, stomach ulcers, and deformed pyloric. Did some more tests and found my stomach acid was about 5 times too much. My pancreas was not able to produce enough of the necessary stuff to neutralize the stomach acid traveling through the intestines, which in turned cause the gastritis and severe diarrhea. The bypass leaves a still somewhat function stomach so I will get VSG instead since it removes a large portion of the acid producing fundus. I will also get a repair for the hiatal hernia and pyloric. I am so thankful to my doctor for finding my gastric problems and explaining to me in a way I could understand. AND lose the weight, too! I ended up not having GERD/reflux at all, even I develop due to the VSG, I think I can handle it! Thanks for listening to my story!

Wow. Surgical regimes are so different. I had to inject blood thinners for a month even if I was running miles by then (I wasn't!) because of the serious risk of clots after bariatric surgery. I was prescribed a PPI for 4 weeks. I took it although I knew I was done with reflux within a few weeks of my sleeve, because my weight loss reduced my reflux symptoms so soon.

Yay, its finally real enough and close enough to fill out, congrats! I'm with you and I have no idea what a good goal for things like neck size is lol. I guess you can google average sizes and then I would be generous and aim on the high side. I've never taken any of those measurements of myself before but I do think it's an important part of this weight loss journey since sometimes the scale might not move but then a measurement will change and that can keep the positive thoughts going. I'm even having trouble thinking of goals for the next page. Just saying weight loss and exercise more don't seem specific enough. If you have goals you are willing to share for that next page, I would love to hear them so that I can come up with some better ones. I haven't started my journal yet but its coming up fast.

Thank you, I’ll double check my labels and the Baritastic App. I used members mark Canned chicken, good & gather brand non-fat Greek yogurt and used the gram weight of the eggs rather than large, med. I noticed there are some Protein gram diffrences between brands so I’m not sure if it is that or something else - but it’s a good point to verify those numbers. It really was yummy, I hope you like it!!