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I had Gastric Bypass on Oct 23rd ♥️

Hey all! I had a sleeve in 2020, and am having a revision the end of this month to a bypass for severe GERD. I also have a gum obsession, always have. It is only a short time you can't have it (or straws which is my other obsession lol). Hoping everyone who has had surgery is feeling okay and on the mend! My doctor does a 2 week diet but unlike last time (different surgeon) they allow solid food, which is a plus. I'm not complaining. I'll eat soup and chicken for 2 weeks. The liquid was tough, after day 4ish it got better though. I was so hangry the first time around, I thought I'd lose it on my husband. He knew to tread lightly LOL

Wow 10 days post op , 4 days post op and your already allowed to eat? My DS surgery was November 9th and I’m instructed to still follow a liquid diet. I’m dying here I want FOOD! All I have is broth, water sugar free jello decaf tea water and more water, oh and sugar free ice pops.. my mouth is dry and my tummy is empty I want solids.

Here is a video I watched before my first pre-op appointment by the well-known Dr Pilcher. He is well versed in the differences in Gastric Bypass and Sleeve procedures based on more recent long-term study results for WLS. It helped me decide between the two before I ever went in for my first consult. Of course, the doctor will help in that decision based on medical history like reflux. smoking, past surgeries etc. I just wanted a better idea of what to expect and what science has shown to be a better fit for me. GL and congrats!!!

Hey! I haven’t gone yet. Surgery is set for the last week of November. I’m a little nervous, but still excited. My dr’s preposition diet only requires the day before surgery as a full liquid day 🤷🏻‍♀️ but I’m starting to make changes on my own - I’ve eliminated carbonated beverages, caffeine, alcohol, and Monday I’m saying goodbye to a. Obsession I didn’t know I had… gum!

Hi November 21 guys!!!! Exactly 2 years to the day since my sleeve so I need to post something to mark the date. I've lost exactly half my body weight since my surgery. I can't believe that - way beyond what I ever expected and I know it's just the luck of the draw but I feel so blessed to be in this position. The figures tickle me, LOL. My maintenance calorie intake has settled around 1500. I don't think I'll ever be able to exceed that without regaining. That's fine - a small price to pay. I still track absolutely everything I eat and I think I always will. I can chug about 7 or 8 swallows of a drink (strangely this is the thing that bothered me most NOT to be able to do over the last 2 years). I am running 2 or 3 times a week. Short distances but my aim when I started this process was to get back to that so - win. Please could you share your experiences of the last 2 years? Good or bad.

I fully agree with you!! I have other medical conditions that have required treatment insurance has decided not to cover. Not for any good reason, just because they don't feel like it! I think one of the greatest tragedies in the US healthcare system is we let insurance companies make medical decisions that are supposed to be made by doctors and their patients. No corporate entity should be able to override my doctor when it comes to what I need for care. But, that's what you get in a capitalist society that thinks healthcare is a privilege. 🙄 If it is any consolation, there are a number of RNY patients on here who have lost an amazing amount of weight, DS levels of weight!! My doctor said that the sleeve usually takes off the weight, while the intestinal bypass in a RNY or DS is what keeps off the weight long term. You will still be getting some of that in the RNY. I wish you so much good in your journey!! Please keep us posted!

Dumping is an interesting phenomenon. I had a good friend about 20 years ago who had an old school bypass and she would dump all the time. She'd sit there with a pack of candy, eat some, breathe through the dumping symptoms, and continue to eat it! This was my first exposure to someone with weight loss surgery. I thought she was insane. She also refused to use protein powders so her hair was brittle and falling out. And she didn't take her vitamins so her calcium was low and she'd get heart palpitations. It scared me off of the surgery for a long time. I didn't want to turn out like her! I'm so glad I learned there are better ways... DS patients aren't supposed to get dumping but I drank too much water too fast once and got all the classic symptoms of dumping, including the bathroom runs. It was VERY unpleasant and I will never do it again! LOL I also had a mushroom soup the other night that turned out to have 33 carbs in it (which I didn't realize until I went to log it). Holy cow I thought I was going to die. Same symptoms. I don't have to imagine what will happen if I try to eat a piece of pie!

I am officially in the pre-operative bariatric program through Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic! I met with the surgeon yesterday and we determined that it was better to do the bariatric surgery before the ventral hernia repair. She set a pre-surgery goal weight of 264 and we will decide on the type of procedure (sleeve or bypass) in January. Surgery will be in April or May. I've already made my first nutritionist, lab and psychologist appointments, with the dietician being the first one next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving! I'm motivated and ready to change my life and it finally feels like I will have to tools to do it.

My surgery date is December 20th as well! My Preop Appointment is November 27th. I start my 2 week liver shrink diet on 12/6. Two weeks of one protein shake for breakfast, one for lunch and a high protein low calorie dinner consisting of 6 oz or less of a nonfried meat and unlimited nonstarchy veggies. Unlimited clear fluids, aiming for at least of 64 ounces per day. Let's do this y'all!

scheduled bypass 11/27

I had gastric bypass on October 17th. I had a lot of complications. I woke up in extreme pain immediately and was vomiting blood. After 2 days in ICU and 2 days in a regular hospital room, I ended up being discharged from the hospital. A little over a week later, I ended back up in the ER and another week in the hospital. I was unable to keep any fluids down (not even thinking about food). I would vomit immediately and I became so extremely dehydrated that I started having heart papilations. It was very scary. Come to find out, my stoma to empy the stomach into my intestine was so severly inflammed (and also sewn extremly tight) that my stomach was not emptying causing nausea and vomiting. Also a lot of fluid was pooling around my esophagus. I had to get fluids in me, potassium IVs and a banana bag of nutrients and I was unable to eat or drink anything during my hospital stay. I am not trying to scare anyone from having surgery--just sharing my experience. I am feeling much better now, I am home and I am down 40 pounds! I am holding down liquids and starting to eat soft foods like pudding and mashed potatoes.

I have been on the road to getting Gastric Bypass, I even got my approval! But of course, I was waiting for my insurance, then they were not getting back to me so I switched insurance companies which will save me lots of money. Once I got my new insurance in place, I contacted my Surgeon's Financial Advisor to see if I needed to redo the process or if I am still good to move forward. Tell me why I didn't hear from her for a couple of months (usually she replies quickly). I emailed her one more time explaining that I am paying lots of money for this insurance plan just for this surgery, she immediately contacted me. She told me that the hospital is closing the practice, but she reassured me that they are moving to a different hospital, and he won't see clients until the second week of January. I am finally happy that I have some answers, but I am still worried that now that my surgeon isn't at this hospital, will my insurance plan still cover me? I have been waiting for what seems like forever for this surgery, but I know it will be worth it in the long run.

My weight loss has stalled since November 5th. I know this is normal since loads of other people have mentioned experiencing a week 3 stall, but it is still disheartening to lose nothing for 11 days when I know I'm following the diet, focusing on protein, drinking fluids and keeping my portion sizes appropriately small. I hope this plateau breaks soon because it is demoralizing.

Yup. I scared myself! I was on tik-tok and boom! Came across a lady who had sleeve revised to bypass (like me) and had a horrible complication a few months out. Hernia Bowel I believe. Then she needed a vaccum on her stomach. It freaked me out and now I’m spiraling! I’m 5 days post op, thinking wth did I do! Someone give me some relief! That bypass will be ok! It only sounds scary. Ugh I hate when I do this! I had sleeve 2 years ago - also had fears early on. But I was good! But then I had a baby, wls stopped (although no regrets! I lost 130 in 1 year! ) and acid reflux.  Anyone else get revision? 

Apologies for the novel I'm about to write, and thanks in advance if you bother to read it all! 😂 TL;DR it took me ~7 months total to go from first appointments to surgery. I went through my local university's health system and am using insurance, so my timeline will likely differ from those who are self-pay or outside the USA! My program is roughly 5-6 months, with 4 group classes and two check-ins with Nutrition & Psychology where they determine if you're approved to move to the next part of the program (or send you for additional counseling or nutrition, if not approved). I also had to do 2 extra appointments with Nutrition & Psych to keep insurance happy, as mine requires that you have some sort of contact or follow-up every month until you get surgery. Here's what my personal timeline looked like: April 27th, 2023 - First appointments with Dietitian, Psychology, Surgeon May 2nd - First group class May 16th - Second group class June 6th - Psych check-in June 15th - Nutrition check-in July 5th - Third group class July 27th - Fourth group class August 1st - Nutrition check-in August 10th - Psych check-in **CALLED IN LATE AUGUST TO SCHEDULE! (see below) September 19th - extra Nutrition & Psych check-ins to keep insurance happy October 3rd - GP visit for physical and approval for EGD (the hospital mandated this due to high BMI requiring monitored anesthesia for the EGD) October 4th - EGD (scope of esophagus, stomach, upper bowel) November 8th - Started 2-week liquid only liver-reducing diet (LRD) November 9th - Pre-op Readiness Visits (basically meeting w/surgeon again, nurse practitioner, coordinator, etc. to make sure I have all the pre-op information, etc.) November 22nd, 2023 - SURGERY DATE! **So, they DID call me in late August to schedule my surgery. At my initial appointment with my surgeon, he wanted me to get an EGD to make sure I don't have silent reflux or anything funky going on, as I get occasional reflux with certain foods. When I scheduled my EGD back in April, they were scheduling out into OCTOBER 🙃, so I scheduled it for October 4th. In late August (after finishing all my classes and check-ins), my surgeon's office called to let me know the surgeon reviewed my file and was fine with skipping the EGD since I don't have a history of chronic GERD and asked if I wanted a date in September. Well, at this point I was used to the idea of having surgery towards the end of the year, AND I already had a big ol' wedding planned for October and wanted to be able to at least eat solid food for that and have my dress fit properly, so I told them I was fine with keeping the EGD appointment just to be safe and that I'd prefer a date in late November, as I had a HUGE thing scheduled at my work for this week (11/13-11/16) where I pretty much had to be there. They had no problem scheduling me out that far, so if you need a particular timeframe and need to push back for life reasons, I've heard the majority of programs have absolutely no problem doing so. Just know that your insurance (if you aren't self-pay) might want you to make an extra check-in visit or two so you have some kind of contact monthly.

I had the bypass on November 10

Hi @texasmade88 Welcome!! Congratulations on the 22lb weight loss!! is that after your surgery? Currently, I have been stalled and I am trying not to get stressed out (although there is a small thought of omg what if I did this surgery and nothing changes for me). I won't be a month out until November 27th so I am just telling myself to chill. How are you feeling about the upcoming holidays with food and stuff? I am actually glad I will not be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner this year, it takes a lot of pressure off of me to hang out with the family.

Hello All! I had Surgery on 10/18/23 😊 I am usually in Facebook support groups, but lately they are too busy being negative and quick to tear others down. So, I am here for new scenery. I also noted most the talk and experiences are VSG, and less RNY Gastric Bypass. They are always talking bad about Bypasses until they need a revision to Bypass from VSG. So far I am doing really great! there's some hard moments, such as post op pain, gas, and one episode of dumping. (I think i ate too fast. Eating and talking). I am down -22 lbs. I will be one month post op on November 18th!

I was sleeved in 2017. In hindsight, bypass would have been better given my history of GERD. Fast forward years later, COVID piled the weight on (working from home, lockdown, job stress (worked in healthcare during pandemic) and I'm up 65 lbs. That i can deal with though. I know the bariatric lifestyle, and I know what I need to do to lose the weight healthily and such. It's the GERD. I'm up to 60-80 mgs of Prilosec daily, plus antacids and other H2 blockers as needed. I sleep elevated and just always generally feel like I have a pit in my sternum. I've subsequently relocated to a new state since my surgery, so I feel like I'm starting all over. I have an appointment with my PCC this week to discuss the GERD issue. Given what people are stating on this board, it seems like that a RNY may be an option. Honestly, I just want to know why it has escalated so bad over the last several years. It doesn't matter what it is; it comes up. I drank some unsweetened almond milk two hours after dinner, and about 10 mins later I literally burped it up like a baby. No warning, nothing... All over my bed. Other times, it's that hor burning awful acidic in my throat and chest. Makes me cough. I try to eat crackers to help absorb the acid, which is not healthy. I'm really quite scared that's something serious. What have your experiences been like? Will I go through a whole program again? I just want relief. What questions should I bring up with my doctor. What tests will they run? This is still a fairly new PCC relationship and several thousand miles away from where I first was treated/sleeved.

My date is November 21!! 8 days!

I don't know how much this will help. My highest weight presleeve was 283 pounds(p) in 2014. When I got to the table, my weight was 243p. My lowest weight postsleeve was 181p. 2017 started gaining weight and really bad GERD. It took until 09/25/2023 to have revision. I am now GERD free and losing weight. I have no regrets. Fight for your health like your life depends on it, and that's what I did. Yes, sleeve to bypass. Sent from my SM-G996U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

I don't know how much this will help. My highest weight presleeve was 283 pounds(p) in 2014. When I got to the table, my weight was 243p. My lowest weight postsleeve was 181p. 2017 started gaining weight and really bad GERD. It took until 09/25/2023 to have revision. I am now GERD free and losing weight. I have no regrets. Fight for your health like your life depends on it, and that's what I did. Yes, sleeve to bypass. Sent from my SM-G996U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

I feel pretty awful now if I guzzle water so be careful with that, it hits our tummies hard to take in that much fluid in one go. I know it sounds weird because I'm not a bypass patient but I get dumping symptoms (nausea, pressure, dizziness, fatigue) if I take in too much water too quickly and it leads to wicked diarrhea if I'm not careful. Remember to slow down... If you are drinking too fast it is possible you are eating too fast too. This could cause all the issues you are describing. I've found that what I thought was slow was not slow enough. Take your slow and double the time and try that!