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Hey everyone!! 👋 😀 So they decided to give me the Sleeve instead, because they realized my liver had not shrunk enough to do the gastric bypass. I was a bit upset upon the realization, mostly because I was set on my decision. Also I battle with acid reflux so my concern is the sleeve will make that worse. Let's hope not. My surgeon did say that down the road we can discuss doing the gastric bypass if the sleeve does has that negative affect on my acid reflux, but he assured me all went really well and he was very happy with it. When I came to, I will admit I was ROUGH. They kept me in recovery for hours as I could not keep my eyes open, and I was in quite a lot of pain. Eventually they took me to another room that was just temporary as my room was not ready yet. No dimmed lights and more pain medication was needed. I was moaning and groaning by the time they got me to my room for the night. Eventually pain became less and less and by 5am yesterday morning I was up and walking up and down the hall by myself. Going to the bathroom on a regular, and starting to relieve gas build up. They eventually discharged me at about 4:30 pm yesterday. Last night at home was rough, woke up every hour and decided to take the time to walk since I was awake anyways. Rough sleep, sore belly and back. Eventually moved downstairs to the living room couch lol. Rested a bit but not much. It is now nearly 1pm and I still feel quite sore, tired, and slow, but feeling somewhat better. 😅

I am 2 weeks post op now from gastric bypass.. I am doing ok on the pureed diet but really ready for some food. I am thinking I am going to love the soft food stage when I can add more things.. went back to work yesterday but I am so tired from the long days. This has been a little harder then I thought it would but I am making due.. my husband is starting to notice changes in me and I am noticing clothes are starting to fit weird. it is not often I get to say that me clothes are getting big.. off to see how this week goes..

Hi guys new to page I need help I had the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on the 2nd December and 11 days post op and I haven’t kept to the diet of only fluids and shakes and I’m eating more such as mushy peas and soups with chunks no pains or anything just have 1 or 2 spoons and I’m filled….. I’m not sure if I’m doing wrong or not because I’m having no issues doing this…… I need advice should I stop maybe I’m pushing myself and should I go back to fluids? any advice please

I am preop and was just reading through the folder my surgeon's office has given me. There's a section called keeping the weight off where they talk about portions after you've gotten past the honeymoon period. They say that a meal should be 3-4 oz of lean protein with 20-25g protein, 1/2 cup of whole grain or starchy vegetables, and then half of the plate is leafy/non-starchy veg and fruit. The most important part for me was where they said: Sometimes portion sizes increase over time. If you feel you are able to eat more at meals, increase the portion of non-starchy vegetables. I would start there, because I think the tendency as appetite increases is to grab a bigger plate and increase everything proportionally. So now you may be eating 5-6 oz protein and 3/4 to 1 cup of starch or grain. And maybe adding in more sauces, more fats, a piece of bread, some alcohol, juice, some sweet treats, a daily snack. My surgeon's plan emphasizes keeping to 3 meals per day without snacking once you're past the first few weeks where you need to supplement with protein shakes just to meet minimum protein goals. But if you can regularly get 20-25g protein at a meal, plus 1/2 cup starch or grain and some veg/fruit, you don't need to eat more than 3 times per day, 4-6 hours apart. This is something that isn't always made clear. When I started this journey, I was certain that gastric bypass would mean having to eat lots of small meals all throughout the day, which is exactly what I'm being told not to do! But you do need to get at least 64oz of water or more all the time, and you can add as much veg and fruit as you need to feel full. I think that is where I would start in your position. Go back to measuring your meals, setting timers to remind you when your meal times are if you need to, eating only food you prepare yourself and/or know exactly what's in it. Check your cupboards for temptations and get rid of them. Pay attention to the urges you have to do something that isn't part of your plan, because that's probably going to show you the problem areas and help you figure out how to change. And most of all, give yourself a little bit of grace, because this isn't easy (no matter what people try to say). Take care of yourself. Get enough sleep. Get fresh air and exercise. Be kind to yourself.

tomorrow morning, i am getting my excess tummy skin removed and my boobs reduced and lifted. i had rny gastric bypass in september 2022 and lost more than 200 pounds, highest weight 410, and my weight has been stable at 190. i saved up enough money to get plastic surgery in tijuana, mexico, and my work, school, and holidays lined up to get it done! im getting 360 lower body lift, tummy tuck with fleur de lys, and breast reduction and lift. i also want to get an arm lift and inner thigh lift sometime in the future. im nervous for my surgery tomorrow morning, but i’m confident in my decision to have plastic surgery now, and trust my surgeon and medical team. ive done everything i can think of to best prepare for surgery and make sure it’s as successful as possible: i have SO MANY medical supplies; i’ve been taking SO MANY vitamins and iron to make sure my hemoglobin levels are high enough; i’ve had iv infusions of iron, vitamin c, and ozonized (definitely not the correct term) 120 ccs of my blood and pumped it back in; i’ve done too much research; and i’ve saved up thousands of dollars and dragged myself all the way to mexico and tomorrow’s the day! ill update as i drag myself through yet another surgery and recovery! 😅 i also will take any recommendations for healing, post-op recovery, pain management, and expectations. ~kukui

Oh no I'm so sorry to hear that. That is definitely upsetting news. I don't get why they wouldn't make the contact first with a phone call and explain before posting it on MyChart with no further information. I hope you get to find out sooner than later and that there is a revised plan. 🤗

The thing to watch out for when doing a minimally malabsorptive RNY is the prospect of bile reflux instead of the acid reflux that you had with the sleeve. When I was looking into this for a non WLS reason (it's has long been used for maladies such as gastroparesis and gastric cancer,) was that one of the most common problems reported on the patient sites such as Facebook was bile reflux. Talking to the surgeon about it, he said that as long as he keeps that roux limb at (IIRC) 80cm or more, it's not a problem; it seems that many surgeons going for minimal weight loss for such patients go overboard on shortening things. The extreme of this would be the "mini bypass" that attaches the pouch directly into the intestine without the roux limb, and that is well known for bile reflux (and why it was never adopted here in the US as a mainstream approved WLS. However, there are also definitions and standards of care wrapped into the CPT codes that the docs use for billing, that define these things depending upon usage. I know this came up in one of the support groups with my wife's surgeon, and he noted that when he did the RNY, which he rarely did preferring the DS, he liked to make it as malabsorptive as the codes permitted. So there are standards that the surgeons are obliged to follow if it is to be a WLS procedure, and it doesn't seem to be a problem with most RNYs that we see as WLS, but could have been for what I was contemplating (but never proceeded with.) There's always an up side as well as a down side with anything we do.

Hoping to hop on the train too! I had a revision to a bypass on 11/28 for severe GERD, as well as a hiatal hernia repair. Almost my entire stomach was up in the chest wall he said. I am feeling pretty decent 4 days post op. I did lose 85lbs with my sleeve, and had gained a little back 10lbs. They did a full bypass but didn’t not take out as much bowel so that I don’t lose too much more weight and be malnourished they said. Any way, glad to find others in similar situations just like last time. :) Hope everyone is doing well!!!

I am turning 50 in a few months, and I've struggled with my weight most of my life. At 26, my BMI was probably around 30, but I didn't have the health issues so it was just a nuisance to me. I tried dieting and healthy eating for years, but my weight increased steadily in typical yo-yo fashion. Post-pregnancies, I spent my late 30s and early 40s in the 35-39 BMI range and started getting co-morbidities. By the time my BMI hit 40 this past year, I was aching in my feet and joints, had high blood pressure and cholesterol, and was prediabetic. So it's not about weight or appearance at this point but getting control of my health now, while my body can still bounce back and hopefully age more gracefully. I feel like I'm at that tipping point where if I don't act, the next decade will not end well and I will not have a good time of my senior years. This is despite all my best intentions and 7 years of actively going to a weight management doctor. All of that is to say that trying hard and knowing the right things to do rarely leads to success if you are prone to obesity. It's a disease, not a moral failing, no matter what people tell you. Unlike dieting, weight loss surgery provides lasting metabolic changes, as close to a cure as you can get. And you still will have to make all the lifestyle changes you would need to do anyway to lose weight, but they will actually work (instead of spending the next 24 years getting bigger and less healthy like I did). I have posted frequently about what a huge fan I am of Dr. Matthew Weiner's books, YouTube videos, and new podcast. Honestly, his books were life changing for me in terms of my perspective. I highly recommend starting there. He has 3 books, one is called Pound of Cure and gives great, scientifically sound information on what a healthy, set-point lowering way of eating looks like and how to get there. The second is a book that explains exactly how gastric bypass and sleeve surgeries change your metabolism and why they work (it's not just a smaller stomach and eating less!). The third is a cookbook with bariatric friendly recipes and serving sizes for different stages. These books are super fast reads. You can probably get through all three in a week (minus making all the recipes, of course!). With three months to go, my suggestion is get these books and start implementing the diet changes in a deliberate way. Start exercising in a sustainable way, working up to it little by little. See how you feel. Don't do crash diets. Don't start anything, whether food or exercise, you don't think you can basically do 90% of the time for the rest of your life, because there's no such thing as doing it for long enough to lose weight and then getting to "go back to normal." This has to become your new normal, with or without surgery. In three months, if you really aren't sure about the surgery, don't do it. It'll always be there. But know that it's an additional tool that will make the hard work you have to do either way in order to keep your health for the rest of your life more likely to stick. Without it, there's a very high (but not impossible) chance you will not be able to keep your weight in a healthy range.

I think it's fine to be prepared, but on the other hand, death and major complications with these surgeries are VERY rare. These aren't the same surgeries that they did 30 or 40 years ago, which WERE very risky. Mortality rate on the modern bypass is 0.3%. It's even lower on sleeve (can't remember the stat on that since I didn't have sleeve, but I do remember it was lower than bypass). So you have at least a 99.7% chance of sailing through just fine. And you will. Those odds are actually excellent - better than those for a knee or hip replacement surgery, and they do those all the time. I read all those horror stories, too, and almost talked myself out of having surgery. I suppose it's good to know what kinds of complications are possible, but at the same time, you need to keep in mind that very few people have those. Most of us have no complications at all or only very minor ones that are "fixable" or preventable. A friend of mine who'd had her surgery a few years before mine (and served as my "mentor") said she was at greater risk of complications and early death by staying morbidly obese than she was by having the surgery, and she was right. there is a slight risk of death from any surgery. I'm remembering the girl in California who died from a tonsillectomy a few years ago. But that is exceedingly rare - and death from WLS is exceedingly rare, too. It's fine to prepare, especially if it gives you some peace of mind, but I'm sure. you'll be fine and we'll be seeing you on the forum again once you're a couple of days out of surgery!

I had the sleeve surgery 9/26/16 and did well with it till I had my gallbladder removed in 2018 then I developed severe gastric reflux. My surgeon found that my bile duct got stuck open after they removed my gallbladder. With the bile constantly running in my sleeve it eroded it causing some precancerous changes. Once my insurance approved for a second surgery we went with changing over to a bypass in June of 2020 to fix the problem. I was very happy that we ended up doing the revision because I no longer had to sleep sitting up and my stalled weight loss finally started back up again and I was able to continue my weight loss journey. Fast forward to the present of this year I have been holding a good weight of between 137 to 145 lbs and no health issues really I just still struggled with dumping a lot cause my new pouch didn't always like food but I maintain weight with the help of shakes. Then in August of this year for some reason I just started getting where I didn't feel well and I dropped like 17 lb like it was nothing. I contacted my surgeon because I was concerned because of how weak and tired I had felt and I've noticed like vision changes my muscles or shrinking rapidly I was becoming dehydrated and all kinds of new things that I wasn't prepared for. My surgeon ordered a upper scope and a lower which come back very good. My lab showed that I did have a couple vitamin deficiencies so I increased my vitamins I actually have to go redo my labs here because I also ended up getting sick and went in the ER in my liver counts were high and they never been high before so we're checking those this week. But now I'm having a harder time eating and getting my body to absorb my nutrition even the protein shakes aren't helping maintain my body weight I am dropping weight still pretty rapidly I'm down to 124 lb now and my immune system seems to have been weakened because I get sick super easy and I try to stay away from other people otherwise that makes it harder on me and I guess get wiped out. I am currently waiting for my surgeon to call me back because I'm getting more concerned about how we come getting it's getting harder to do every daily things such as washing my hair folding my clothes and putting them away my muscles hurt and they're tired and weak and they get all cramped up. I'm blessed to have this surgery but I was never expecting that I would get this new very weird complication of just not being able to eat very well and to maintain weight. I trust my surgery team he's wonderful I'm hoping they can figure this out I'd really do not want a feeding tube or a PICC line I work with the public and that's even getting hard to do and I've almost thought about applying for disability until I get this figured out so I can quit losing weight by exertion. I'm just wondering is anybody else going through something like this or they just out of nowhere started losing weight again and they just can't seem to get it to stop. I'm worried not only for myself but for my family because my kids are still pretty young and I'm not ready to leave this world yet I still have a lot to live for. Hw: 268 SW 221lbs LW 124lns Height 5'2

I had PCOS for decades which involved several surgeries; I eventually had a hysterectomy. I chose the sleeve and due to the amount of adhesions I have from previous abdominal surgeries the bypass is not feasible. That being said, I would probably have chosen the sleeve over the bypass anyway.

Hello I know everyone is different, but I would really appreciate any comments as to when you finally stopped losing weight after your surgery? I am nearly 8 months post gastric bypass, but have at least another 2st 8lbs to lose before I hit my goal (my goal is to be outside of the obese category for my BMI). Whilst I would love to lose more than this, as long as I lose another 2st 8lbs I will be happy as my reason for undergoing the surgery (other than for my own health) is because I want to undergo IVF. The further out of my surgery I get the more I am consciously limiting my calories and food, because I am just so scared of the weight loss stopping and I am finding it a struggle to shift 1lb a week. Which is making me worry that soon my weight loss will stop. I would say I am eating maximum of 800 - 1,000 calories a day. Any info would be much appreciated.

These are street taco size so perfect bypass size lol. 25 cals for 1 - 7g carbs but 7g fiber so it equals 0 net carbs. They have them in whole wheat version as well as a sundried tomato version. In due time, your food palette will expand again. It’s just a matter of portions and balance. I’ve definitely had a maduro and a mini pastelito, but they aren’t things I have often or have in the house.

Totally worth the stress and worry of it. I'm 7 weeks post op so those hard, early weeks are very fresh for me and I'd do them over every year if I had to. I've already been able to stop my diabetes meds (my blood sugar is in the 80s!), they also took me off my blood pressure meds (it is now normal!), and we expect my labs to have improved when we draw them in January. Truly, I think it is a modern medical miracle that a surgery can do that and do it so quickly. My biggest wish is that I'd had it sooner. I let a lot of fear and misinformation get in my way for decades. I knew a woman when I was in my 20s who was an old school bypass patient and non compliant with her vitamins and protein. The health issues she had from not complying with good treatment were scary and I didn't want to be like that! I also didn't understand that these surgeries have a METABOLIC effect as well as the effect of making our stomachs smaller so we eat less. Those metabolic effects are something we can't get from a medication. Can it make things worse? There is a small chance it could. But there is a much bigger chance it will improve your life by leaps and bounds. WLS is about as risky as gallbladder surgery and you don't see many people having a cow and panicking over a loved one having their gallbladder out. Educate yourself on the facts, read all you can, talk to the surgeon, have them talk to the surgeon, and really think over what you are willing to change in your world to make this work for you the way you need it to work. It is YOUR body and your quality of life being impacted here.

Hi there! I just signed up on this forum and have a surgery date of January 30 for gastric bypass. My sister had it done about a year and a half ago and has had great success so I decided I was ready to make some big changes in my life. im currently trying to keep my required 10-lb weight loss on the books. I officially achieved it in October and I meet with my doc each month. In November I had lost an additional half pound but ended up in the ER after my appt because I was so dehydrated from fasting to make my weight goal. So embarrassing ugh. Now, thanks to the holidays my next appt is January 2, but I’m up eight lbs and they will cancel my surgery if they see that. I have 18 days to lose that weight again and I’m scared I won’t make it. I’m mad at myself for being lax after my last weigh-in. I know that part of losing weight pre-op is to start making changes gradually but I’m struggling. I guess that’s normal for many of us. I’m really excited about getting the surgery but also a little depressed because it will force me (and is now forcing me) to completely change my relationship with food. That’s scary. But I see how happy and energetic and positive my sister is and I want that in my life too. Anyway, I didn’t mean to get depressing lol but I’m trying to be honest about my feelings which are all coming at me at the same time! Its crazy.

**Update** Hey everyone! Sorry for being MIA for a while. I really appreciate all your responses and well wishes. I will be 2 weeks post-op tomorrow, which is kind of nutty to think about. My 9 day post-op follow up appointment went really well. Incisions are healing well, and they seem quite happy with my food diary. I started my bariatric vitamins about 4 days post-op as well and been doing great so far with those. I use Paravita bariatric multivitamin 3x daily and I take Vitamin D3 2500 IU one drop daily. Plus of course the medications needed temporarily prescribed by my surgeon. I got to say though that it's been HARD going through Christmas day and not being able to enjoy our traditional Christmas breakfast, or our amazing turkey feast. Least I got to smell it though lol. I feel a lot more strong, so I have been able to have a lot more normalcy in my life. I make my family their food, while also preparing my clear liquids and full liquids. Unfortunately I'll be on the liquids until January,10th as it is 4 weeks with the gastric sleeve. Then eventually pureed foods, then soft, then finally regular healthy eating for life lol. I am making turkey soup today with our turkey carcass, onions, carrots, celery, and some seasoning, so I can at least enjoy the broth of our Christmas dinner my spouse and out kiddos had yesterday lol. I hope you all are well. I am fighting my brain and always will, and I am still having some regretful thoughts over having this surgery. I am taking one step ahead at a time and trying to look towards the positives. As I've said in other posts I just was so set on Gastric Bypass for my acid reflux issues, and I liked that it could be reversed if needed, plus I hear it has a higher success rate. So when I found out they gave me the sleeve, I just been having mixed thoughts since, and now I can't go back even if I wanted to down the line. So it's been weighing on me a lot. Please know I am not trying to discourage anyone from WLS, and the sleeve can be just as successful, everyone is different. I also thoroughly did my research on WLS prior. Lots of great things about these surgeries. I hope you all are well and that you all had a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays if you celebrate. Much love. ✌

Birth control pills and eventually menopause took care of the PCOS for me. I went into vitamin and weightlifting mode in my 30’s to also manage symptoms and preserve child bearing abilities, and that was somewhat successful for me (I did have one child, yeah!) Others definitely have more serious issues and other solutions so there is only encouragement for you to live your best life. I was very undecided about sleeve or bypass but further testing in me confirmed severe GERD. Bypass was the only solution my insurance would cover. In a perfect world I would have chosen DS or mini bypass as a more reliable alternative for more permanent weight loss. I still keep an eye on how my clothes feel, and how my skin looks. I do not lift weights with the vigilance I used to, just a couple days a week to beat age related decomp. I still track vitamins because it’s easy to forget iron or the B’s, or proteins, then my hair falls out (not again!). I think of the changes and tracking I would have to do as a full blown diabetic verses now, and I chose the surgery and health every day. I am so grateful for bypass every, single, day! 2+ years now

I was recently converted from a sleeve (6-10-2013) to a RNY (11-7-2023) because of GERD. Getting insurance to cover it took 8 months. 4 appeals. And Multiple calls and emails all the way up to the VP of the company. I work in medical education so I fought and fought and fought and finally proved they had an immense amount of bias towards obese individuals. They kept denying me because I "gained weight" and "just want to lose more weight" that I "don't have GERD". In that 8 months of proving I have GERD I had to have an EGD, Barium Swallow, Stress Test, Colonoscopy, and a PH Monitoring study (that was the really crazy one).... and they were positive for GERD. They kept insisting that no they weren't positive and if I just lost weight I wouldn't have heartburn. When I had my first sleeve I was 380 pounds I got down to 170 pounds in 2017. In 2022 when I started the program to get the revision I was 220. So yes I had gained some weight but NO I hadn't regained all my weight. My entire experience has been very eye-opening how quickly someone in insurance will deny obesity as a medical condition and say it is a lifestyle choice. Especially when the entire point of the conversion was to fix GERD and not lose weight! If you seek to have the revision my advice is keep all the framing on GERD. Don't even reference weight or weight loss. It has to be for GERD. Study that insurance companies weight loss surgery policy and reference it often. It is best practice to convert a sleeve to RNY to fix GERD. And craziness I had the conversion and haven't had GERD once since! Don't let them tell you no. If the tests prove you have GERD get the conversion.

Finishing up my breakfast and then it's time to get ready to go back to work FINALLY!!! WooHoo!!! It's about time. I hate not working. So glad I was cleared yesterday to go back starting today. Oh, and I'm now down to 233 pounds. I'm 33 pounds away from my goal weight!!!! I started off at 421 pounds when this whole journey began. I've lost a total of 188 pounds from my highest weight. I've lost a total of 155 pounds since my surgery in May 2022 (I was 388 pounds on surgery day). Bariatric surgery, changing my relationship with food, changing my diet, working out and changing up my routines, all of it is why I'm here now. 33 more pounds to go, ya'll!!! I'm in a size 16/18 in clothes (down from 28/30), I'm in a size 6 1/2 ring (down from size 10), I'm in a size 10 shoe (down from a size 11), and I wear 18" necklaces (instead of the 22" and 24" necklaces I wore before). Yes, I've had complications. Yes, I've had several surgeries. But things were found that I never would have known about. Silent killers, they're called. Has it been annoying and painful and frustrating? ABSOLUTELY. Would I do it all again anyway? ABSOLUTELY. I've STILL gained so much more than I've lost. I have 1 more surgery (my hysterectomy) and then I'm completely done. And honestly, I'm still way way healthier than I ever was before. I only wish I would have just done the bypass to begin with and skipped the sleeve. But then again, like I said, the conditions I didn't know about wouldn't have been found without the complications from the sleeve that led to all my procedures. Everything happens for a reason. I firmly believe that. And I'm almost on the other side of all this, so I can speak into existence that nothing else will go wrong, things are looking up, and I'm getting my life back but as an even healthier and better version.

Hey 👋 new here. I have my gastric bypass surgery booked for December,13th,2023. I currently reside in Ontario. I am 34 years old and a mom of two. Current weight was 381lbs. Not sure what now as I have been avoiding my scale. Heaviest I've ever been, but I've always been a bigger girl who struggles with her weight. I am very anxious about surgery, and I stupidly have been reading horror stories about this surgery. I have health anxiety which does not help lol. I actually went as far as typing goodbye letters to my children and husband just incase... I cried like a baby while thinking of what all to say incase the worst did happen. How does one put all that on paper?! But that is my brain worrying about what if? Does anyone else share this surgery date with me? Do you have reservations due to possible complications or death? I feel I need someone who is going through what I am to talk to. Thanks so much.

My surgeon had a last minute cancellation so I had the gastric bypass on November 27th (my birthday). Day 2 was ROUGH but I’m home now and feeling pretty good.

I had a bypass on 11-6. I eat solid foods. It does not hurt. I can eat 2 whole cucumbers. I can eat a 4oz piece of tuna. Am I just doomed? I should hurt right? probably eat 500-600 calories a day. only eating fish, chicken, and cucumbers. I crave them ALLDAY. so I'm not concerned that I'm not eating health. But why can I eat so much. Oh, I can eat 2 large scrambled eggs.

While some doctors will tell you that you can never have NSAIDS again with a bypass. It's important to not just trust doctors because they are doctors. They too have biases, likely in the sense of being overly cautious for their patients. That may serve them to feel good but it's not necessarily pragmatic/ The most recent study [1] on this topic confirms that you essentially need continuous use of NSAIDS for around 30 days to create significant risk of ulceration for the post operation bypass patient. Non continuous use does not indicate significant risk. Sleeve doesn't have the same issues. [1] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35595650/ I can share that I did ask my surgeon about this and he said it's OK to take NSAIDS very sparingly. I took that to mean as little as possible.

constipation is a very common problem for both sleeve and bypass patients. I think it's a combination of the high protein diet and some of the supplements (calcium and iron are known culprits) a lot of us have to take daily preventative measures to keep on top of it - Miralax, stool softeners, Metamucil. smooth move tea, a few prunes - whatever helps. I've been taking a capful of Miralax every day for over eight years.