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Hi All, I don't remember who posted her struggle with constipation, but I wanted to share what helped me. My surgery was 3 days ago. I was able to stop the pain med less than 48 hrs later. However the constipation and pain that went with it was real yesterday morning. I walked and walked and breathed through the pain. I called my doctors office after about 3 hours. Their advice was glycerine suppositories. I have never used anything like that, but I was desperate! Ya know, it worked in about 15 minutes! Sorry if this is TMI but I think it might help someone else. Sent from my SM-N920V using the BariatricPal App

It's called the 2 week stall. I'm going through it as well. From what I've read, it's a common thing.

It went really well. He was awesome! I am kinda a sarcastic jokester, and he was too so it was perfect! He told me all the pro's and con's, and asked if I wanted the sleeve (insurance won't cover it, so thats a no). Then he told me to schedule my surgery! He told me he was extremely confident that I would be at my goal weight within a year if I stay motivated with my diet and exercise. He thought it was funny that my children (3 & 5), exercise with me. They even keep me on track when I don't want to do it! He told me I should have my surgery now, and not wait until February, so I was all on board, but when I called the surgery scheduler, she said that he doesnt know how scheduling works, and she jokingly said that he just shows up, and doesn't know how it works behind the scenes! So February it is. Once my insurance gets accepted they are going to call me to schedule!!! YAY!

I was banded 3 years ago this month. The first year the weight just flew off me. I will say i was very strict with myself and followed every rule to a T. I lost over a 100lbs the first year. My mindset was this, i willingly had an elective surgery that i was fortunate enough to have had insurance pay for, i'll be damned if i was gonna screw it up. I kept having small frequent fills in order to keep feeling a certain level of restriction. I am filled to 9.2 in the large VG band. I did have one temporary set back. I needed port replacement, i struggled to maintain my loss during that time when we were trying to figure out where my fluid was going. Luckily i did maintain my loss but it was pure hell without restriction. I joined a gym when i got to the point where i was comfy enough to exercise with others. I go 4-5 times a week. I will be perfectly honest and say i still have food issues and most likely always will, i am a total food addict. That is why i MUST keep myself super restricted so that it is impossible for me to overindulge. I am still able to eat anything i want but i am only able to eat a very small amount. Thats what works for me.

I weighed 355 (Nov '16) Surgery weight 338 Current weight 283 (I didn't track very often before so I would disregard previous data points.) But you can clearly see sudden drops, weight gains and stalls. Rarely matching my consistent dedication to my plan. I know as I change my relationship with food and make good choices in each moment and day, the rest will take care of itself. Just not in a perfect line. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Tasharss yes I did. Really scared me but they said it was normal. Not everyone does it but it's normal. I lost 3 units of blood and had to have a blood transfusion. That made me feel so much better. Had to stop the blood thinners. I also started passing lots of blood through my stool.

Also try popcicles. . I was the same way with my Protein shakes, could not get them down . The smell and taste made me sick. I was told just to get what ever liquids I could. Popcicles was it for me.. finally I was able to drink different things. I'm 8 weeks out now and just now getting all my Water in. My protein is easy now. Good luck Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

No problems during or after my first puree today, but I'm with you on what I hope is just a mini-stall...3 days so far +/-.2

Sorry guys. TMI. But here goes. I am 8 weeks post op and have lost almost no weight. I lost about 5lbs right at first... Then nothing. I eat right... Lean meats and legumes mostly... A little oatmeal when i feel carb starved. I also have had severe constipation. I cant go without copious amounts of stool softners and mirolax and i have to resort to magnesium citrate fairly regularly. When i do go, its a very small amount and seems like it is just scootching around a big blockage. Im making a doc appt this week as im afraid im going to create a laxative dependency. In the meant time.... Could this lack of bm evacuation be causing me to not loose. I know the stool itself weighs alot when impacted, but i am wondering if impaction will actually keep your malabsorption from working propperly? Thanks for your thoughts on this

Thanks everyone, I didn't have a fever so I decided to see how I felt today. Since I'm a little better I think I might have just hurt my stomach moving furniture and lifting things. A pipe broke in my apartment so I had to move out for a week. Sent from my iPhone using VST

My doc gives fills when we're hungry sooner than 3-4 hours after a meal and/or if we're able to overeat...and do even occasionally. It sounds like that's what your doc is telling you as well. If/when you're hungry, he'll do the fill. The reality is that even when we get restriction, we'll have to use willpower and self-control to keep from eating the wrong foods, slider foods or even eating more than we should (even if that more is still less than we used to eat).

Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver charges $9975.00 and that is EVERYTHING!! No hidden costs and after 3 months, the fills are only $15.00

I am having mine out next week. Ill be s year out in October

You look wonderful!! And I agree, it is very important to focus on yourself. I can't wait to get back to the gym either, however I am 9 weeks post op from thighs and arms. Just taking my time and doing slow walking. I hope you continue to recover beautifully. Happy Healing:)

My meeting is next week, we don't have time to leave for meals. What do I do? Pull a jar of baby food outa my purse? I will only be 3 weeks post op then. I don't want to make a big deal about it in front of strangers. Any suggestions?

Hi there Spice, Did my Bandication (as someone referred to it once...) on July 14. I had a GB filled with stones for a few years and my doc knew that it had to come out; at first he did not want to remove it until months after the surgery after weight loss... Apparently it's a lot easier to remove it laparoscopically if you weigh less. I was ok with that except that my insurance did not cover any type of WLS & being broke and all I thought if the surgeries are combined, since the insurance will have to cover the GB removal part, it'll help me a lot. So I convinced him to do it. Fast forward to the day of the surgery now... Went in the OR at around 9:15 a.m., expecting to be out by 11 or so... When I woke up in the recovery room, it was 6:15 p.m. Later i learned that the surgery ended at 3:30... Almost 6.5 hrs of anesthesia... It was brutal indeed & I ended up staying at the hospital for 3 days as my heartrate was high & my potassium was low & some other things due to the length of the surgery and the GB. Surgeon later said the removal of the GB was to be blamed. It took him the most as it was "gigantic" but he still managed to do it laparoscopically, for which I was grateful. He had to fix a huge hernia which obviously contributed to the lengthiness of the surgery. It took me a good month or so to shake off the whole anesthesia and a bit more to just get adjusted to the new me--I had no nausea really and took very little liquid pain med; had 0 gas pain; but did have lots of what I want to call discomfort around my incision areas in general, but that was expected as I've always been in a wheelchair (rare birth defect totally unrelated to any of this), so transferring myself from bed to chair and other places was excruciating for a while... Look, I am not going to sugarcoat this... It wasn't easy FOR ME at all, but I'll do it ten million times over (except I'd wait on the GB removal until after the WLS surgery) again as the prize has been well worth the trouble... I've been losing an average of 11 lbs. per month. I've lost a total of 48.5 lbs. since I started this journey in June. I'm only 33 and still cannot remember the time I weighed around 204... Been fat all my life pretty much. I'm now so used to eating very little and also to avoiding carbs and all the nastiness they offer. My carb intake is never more than 30 grams per day. I try to drink plenty of Water and eat lots of animal Protein. It's been much easier than I ever imagined to avoid sweets, etc. and it's been so rewarding... Still working on my strength to be able to add more physical activity to my routine, but definitely getting there... Having said all this said, do not worry at all for good things (really good things) are in store for you and you don't even know the beginning of it yet... Put off the GB removal until after your WLS surgery just like your doctor suggests and I think you'll be good to go. Good luck and keep us posted please!

Well, i got my Firm express dvd's last week and they are great but kicking my butt!!!!!! I really like that they are only 20 min workouts and once you get started they keep you motivated and before you know it i was done with my workout!!!! If anyone has the dvd's please let me know what you think, or if we can create a challenge for ourselves!!! As you my know i am only 9 lbs away from my dr's goal, and these are the hardest lbs to get off. So if there is any one who is doing any excercise challenges please let me know also. Let me know!

It's all about living life normally. When I go to Florida to visit family, I also know it will be alot of eating out and less than healthy choices. I do the best I can and I've never gained more than a couple of pounds....which almost always turns out to be more Water than anything else. In a week or two, those pounds are gone and that's the end of it. I go on my cruise in less than a month and I know I will put on a few pounds no matter how carefully I choose my meals. But I think of it in terms of the last cruise I was on when I couldn't get off the ship because I was in so much knee and hip pain. This cruise, I'm going on the underwater scuba reef tour with my son. That's the important thing...not the couple of pounds I may put on. It will come off again and more importantly, I am living my life again. Don't stress over the food...just enjoy the time with your son, and thank him from me for his service.

I initially had a big loss too and then stalled for a few weeks. Once I started increasing protein I was full longer so I didn't have a need so much for carbs. And the big thing for me was started an exercise program- that really got my weight loss going again. Are you exercising? I think our bodies also have to adjust for a while when we drop weight all of the sudden so fast, so it tries to hold on to calories for a bit. But is all evened out for me after a few weeks and I started to see the pounds drop again.

I'm one week out and I wake up every night because of horrible gas pains in my chest that radiate up and down my stomach. It feels like someone is ringing me inside out. I'm hoping it gets better too because it is seriously painful. Can't stand the spasms.

I go through some weird phases where one day I can get a portion down no problem, then the next day the same size portion would make me feel miserable. I'm a year out now and chicken still will get me from time to time like no other meat does. Haven't been able to figure out any rhym or reason to it. All I can guess is that I didn't chew a few bites well enough, or took a few bites too quickly. For instance, if I was eating a hunk of chicken I wouldn't be able to eat a whole one. However if I took that same size chicken breast and shredded it into chicken salad I could probably get it all down. Most of us get burnt out on protein shakes but try to keep them worked into your diet to hit your daily goals. At least until you can your protein in directly from food sources. My doc used to get "mad" at me for telling him I was eating 3 meals a day plus 2-3 "snacks", but those snacks were good protein sources. There was no way in hell I could get all my protein in from eating in the course of 3 meals. I had no choice but to have a protein shake as a fourth meal or a random Greek yogurt to hit my goals.

I went to a new exercise class tonight (kettlebells) and felt lightheaded during the class and had to sit down. The class is more strenuous than the other exercise i do (UK class equivalent of curves 3 x a week). The problem might be the timing of the class (7.30pm) and eating. I had not eaten before the class (plenty of water) so I think this might be the issue. If I did need to eat before class what should I have? protein, protein drink, banana? I am clueless so need your help. Thanks

Ok, so I am 3 weeks postop and have been told by my surgeon to avoid carbs and do Atkins. Most of the time it's not a big issue. The past couple days I have started working out. After my workout I get really hungry and crave carbs really bad. Anyone have any thoughts on why this would be and have any suggestions?

The gas is the worst! It is different for everyone like everything in this process. TMI but I didn't pass gas for about 36 hours despite all my walking (I was pretty convinced they used extra gas on me it hurt so bad!) the nurse told me it can take up to 3 days to pas gas and I was in so much pain at that time that I cried because the pain meds didn't do much for the gas! I have never been more elated about a burp/fart, but to be quite honest I still had gas pain in my chest,shoulders and back here and there until day 5. I'm on day 7 now so there is no saying I won't get more, but I'm feeling pretty good today. The only thing I know to do is walk as much as you can tolerate, the nurse also gave me an antacid on day 2 which she said would help and then day 4 I bought gas x strips-- but for me it seemed to make it worse... Like it mobilized the gas or something so I haven't tried it since then.

I was also, then I thought about my family, and my 2 precious boy's. I did this for them. I did it so I can live a healthy life, and see my family grow. I'm 8 weeks out, still a newbie, but so far I am happy I made the decision. I looked at it this way if I didn't do it now, I have 2 pages worth of medical condition's that are waiting to enter my life. Life will be more frightening if you didn't have surgery!