Search the Community

Yes about the fourth day it got easier I don't know if you have kids and such but for me, I planned meals that where easy as not to suffer to much making food for them. And I also stocked up for after surgery for easy dinners that my husband or kids could make so I didn't have to look at food for a week or so..

I guess the high calcium is a risk as far as anathesia, what ever they would have given me could interact with the high calcium and cause my electrolites to go wacky. it was a risk to my heart,and uncontrolable muscle spasms. it was the anathesia dr that actually canceled it.So I have to take care of this calcium level before I can be banded. from what my primary Dr. can tell, it is probably hyperparathyroidism. Which would probably result in surgery on that. Removal of the BAD parathyroid/s. I am going to try and maintain low quanity of food, and also be very careful on what I eat. No pop, no snacks,no bread,potatoes ect. Of course when I get ready for the band, I will have to do the two week liquid diet AGAIN.... keep me posted on how you and hubby are doing. and feeling. Lois

Hi everyone - I am three weeks post op and live in Ontario, CA. I have been looking for support groups around my area, but haven't been able to find one. I feel a little alone - other than people online of course. I keep thinking it would be great to meet others who have just started their journey, who are already into their journey, or who have marked their paths for us to learn from. I have no idea how to even go about this, so I thought I would just post something here and see if anyone else is near me. Its better than posting on Craigslist - haha! For me, it's hard to explain to my significant other what I am going through, because he does not fully get it. He wants to understand and be involved so that he can help, but on the other hand I know all the research I am doing online, and me being on the computer bother's him as well. The friends I currently have either live really far, or I haven't seen in quite a while. I think it's time for me to make some new friends, and if that can be someone who is going through, or has already gone through what I am going through how perfect would that be.

Hello there! Thank you and Congratulations on your surgery date! You are going to be sooo happy!! I remember pre-op, I was on the liquid diet for 7 days, and it was hard at first, but by day 5 I was getting excited that my surgery was almost here and wasn't hungry any more. I am doing really well post-op - thank goodness. I am a little sore now and then, or if I move too quick in an odd position then I feel a little pinch, but other then that I am good. I am waiting to see if I experience the dreaded three week stall, but the truth I am not really dreading it if I do. I already feel so much better, and have lost 32 lbs in the last 26 days, that if I have to wait a minute for my body to catch up, then it's worth it. Are you excited? Are you nervous? Temecula is really nice - Wine Country!!

I wish I would have known about Bandster Hell and the fact that the first fill may not give me the restriction I want to lose weight. I'm 6 weeks post op and I feel virtually no restriction. I'm still losing or maintaining my early loss of weight but only because I'm paying attention to what I eat. Still waiting on the band to be a tool. C

I wish I had done it sooner. There is a lot of mental regulation involved in this process. It also takes a while to find the "green zone". In addition, weight is not going to melt off. It is going to come off at a very healthy pace of 1-2 pounds a week. This was the best decision I ever made. Also realize it is not a cure all. It is a tool to help you. Certain foods will go down easy and slow your weight loss (Cookies, crackers, chips, etc...stay away). As I look back over the last year and a half of this journey, I can tell you I am happy with my results. I deprive myself of NOTHING. I eat everything I did before just a lot less of it. The one thing I do have a mental issue with is that I don't see myself as being thin. I am now a size 4 but I consider myself overweight. This isn't a good thing either. It is definitely a problem. This is something that can happen with significant weight loss so please keep this in mind. I have talked to a counselor about this and see her regularly to keep myself in check. I want to be healthy physically and mentally.

Hi Everyone. I'm sorry I didn't respond. I only just got a notification in my mailbox that there were replies to this thread! Thanks for your feedback. To the person who doesn't understand the connection between the surgery and my pains - I don't either. I should be feeling amazing, right? I had an x-ray of my hips as the pain in my left leg is getting worse. Basically what's visible is "normal" deterioration of the joint. I am doing physiotherapy to strengthen the muscles in my butt and legs but it's rather disheartening. My diet isn't fantastic. I would love to be low carbing but can't seem to let go of the carbs (mostly the sugar!). My physiotherapist said to work out on an exercise bike as this is non weight bearing for me. Also Water aerobics is good for me. This week I walked around supermarkets for a couple of hours and I was in major pain. Sheesh. I decided to take a supplement with MSM and glucosamine and also Curcumin which is a major anti inflammatory. Regarding the fish oil that you guys have been advising - I wouldn't take fish oil for all the money in the world. The cold water fish are loaded with mercury and I wouldn't take the molecularly distilled stuff either. All fish oil is heated up to very high temps in order to "remove" the poisons (which is impossible, really) and all oil becomes toxic at those temps. I DO take Omega 3 in the form of Sage - capsules of Chia oil (cold pressed oil), which are very, very high in omega 3. Yesterday, I walked quite a distance because my husband had the car and it was ok. I took it slowly. I don't want to act like an invalid!!! A neighbor is lending me her exercise bike and I hope to get more fit. It's depressing not being able to work out and go walking (real walking). It's so frustrating to feel energetic and able to exercise but not to be able to. I hope the food supplements I started taking start to kick in soon. I really can't believe it's coincidental that my body suddenly started to fall apart right after Vertical Sleeve Surgery. There's got to be a connection.

So I went from 218.5 to 217.8 after three weeks, does that mean I broke my stall or am I getting my hopes up? Lol

I am 4 1/2 weeks out and I am soooooo overwhelmed. I am scared to death that my surgery won't work. I am scared to death that I am going to mess this up somehow...I know everyone is different, but I see so many stories of people having problems that I kind of expect myself to have problems, too. I need to go read success stories I suppose...I just need some reassurance that I, too will have a success story and I know there are no guarantees and no promises. Some people seem to get through it effortlessly while others struggle from day one. Which one will I be? It's absolutely too soon to know, and for some reason I am having trouble accepting that today. Any suggestions for how to just trust it? If I do what I am supposed to do, this can work for me, right? This is an emotional roller coaster for sure. I am looking for promises where none exist, I know...I just want to know that I am not alone. Please comment if you had doubts in the beginning, and how you coped...?

I can't eat anything. I seem to be going backwards with my eating. I could more 2 weeks after surgery then I can now. I get the bubbles in my throat and my stomach makes all these weird noises when I do try and eat. Cutting out dairy definitely helped I'm losing dramatically but the only thing I can eat that is solid is fish and occasionally veggies. Sent from my SM-G935V using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi I was sleeved Oct 18, 2017 ..I’ve also stalled, unsure why. Perhaps it’s cause I’m struggling to get my water in ( im lucky if I can get 20-24 oz).

With some things, mostly chicken. They put me on acid reflux medication. Are you on that too? Our tummies are still healing so keep that in mind. Have you tried mashed potatoes? About a week and a half ago that was the only thing I could keep down. Now I'm bad and eat a few French fries now and then lol

Two weeks out here. What symptoms do you have when you're not tolerating a particular food? What have been your experiences?

At three months I was still on soft foods and could eat about 1.5 oz of dense protein or 2 ounces of very soft food like yogurt. I remember going out to dinner and ate one medium-large sized scallop and could not take another bite. At six months I could eat about 2 ounces of dense protein such as chicken breast or turkey burger, Maybe 2.5 ounces of slightly moister meat such as grilled salmon. At a year out I could eat 3 ounces of dense protein. At 3+ years out I can eat 3 ounces of dense protein + 1.5 oz green veggies. High carb slider foods I can eat almost unlimited amounts, which is why I try very hard to just avoid them and not start -- because there is almost no stopping point. You cannot count on this surgery to restrict how many cookies or crackers you can eat -- at least not for long. Some people do keep that type of restriction, but many don't -- so don't count on it to keep you in line after the first several months.

Hi everyone! ... This is my first post to our community ever. I didn't think I'd be doing this but it feels good to have others to turn to when curiosity comes.. Anyways im scheduled for surgery 02/21/17 I have my final appt. With my surgeon on 02/13/17 ... I've saw many ppl start their liquid diet 2 weeks prior because that's when they were told by surgeon however I meet with mine 1 week prior... I'm considering just starting it myself at least 2 weeks prior to my surgery... Any thoughts/suggestions ? All is greatly appreciated ????????

DON'T get your scars in the sun or under a tanning bed for 1 year!!! You will really regret it - it makes the scars turn very dark, permanently I think. I went tanning three times a few months after surgery, that was over 5 months ago now. And my scars are still completely discolored from it.

Your stomach muscles have been cut open and, at 2 weeks post-op, are only just healing. You probably need to take it pretty gently for the next couple of weeks. I found that while I felt mostly healed within a couple of weeks, there was a residual soreness whenever I did anything that pulled those muscles. Give it time and all will be well in a few more weeks, meantime, softly softly :wink_smile:

Hi all. I'm a 34-year-old mom of 2, dd is 10 and ds is 7. I was banded in August of 2006. Immediately after my port flipped and needed to be repaired. THat should have been my first clue I made the wrong choice! I managed to lose almost 100 pounds with the band in the first 2 years, but it was s-l-o-w. At the end of 2008, my band surgeon said I should get a consult with a plastic surgeon about my huge apron of skin. It was horrible, hung down past my girlie bits, made me look a lot heavier than I was, my skin was constantly tearing and it gave me rashes. So, in Feb of 09 I had a tummy tuck and breast lift. Holy crap what a difference! He took off 16 pounds of extra skin and the surgery took 11 hours. The recovery was horrible. Because of the band, I've had problems with medication working right and it took a bit before we found an oral pain killer that actually worked. I was off work for 6 weeks and the recovery was horriblle. I managed to mess up my knee the day after surgery so it was always going numb and giving out on me. No one knew why. Then I got a stomach virus and puking after a tummy tuck, with a lapband, is it's own special kind of hell. Just as i was starting to feel human again I got scarlet fever. Which I thought went out of style with hoop skirts and mutton chops! Evidentally not though. My pcp said because my system was so screwed up due to the surgery, a strep infection just went haywire. That took another 2 weeks to recover from. I'd finally gotten to a weight that, while it wasn't as low as I wanted, I was happy with my body. I looked good, felt normal for the first time in my life and liked the way I looked in the mirror. I no longer walked into a room and got that horrible feeling of "Oh no, I'm the fattest person here". I felt like people noticed me and not my weight. A couple months ago I started having restriction problems, bouncing between too loose or too tight, and waking up at night with horrible reflux and choking on my stomach contents. Yuck! Had an upper gi done last week after an unfill didn't help matters and surgeon says the band needs to come out. It is extrememly tight, which he said makes no sense because it's empty and I don't feel like I have any restriction (which is why I've gained some weight back ). So, now we start the process of getting insurance approval for the band removal and revision to the sleeve. He said he'll push for the sleeve instead of bypass because bypass does not appeal to me. I'm already deficient in B12 and vit D and take injections and supplements for that. I'm afraid of what would happen if I had the malabsorption issues to deal with too. If insurance (Anthem Blue Cross) wil only cover the removal but not the sleeve, I'm hoping it will be cheap enough for me to self-pay for the sleeve. And I really want to get this done soon! The idea of being on a liquid diet over the holidays is not at all appealing. I've been reading all your stories since finding out I might lose my band and have gotten so much help from them! Thanks for sharing your stories. :001_smile:

I had my gastric revision operation one the 1st of Jun 2015 and until now I lost almost 28 lb. my problem now start after almost two month from operation, I feel the my appetite is high and I want to eat every two to three hours and sometime less although I try to drink Water when I feel hunger but after one hour I feel hungry again. Also, I feel I can tolerate to eat like one sandwich contain ham and cheese within 10 min without pain or diarrhea. I can swallow meat, chicken and all the solid food and I was wondering within this short period and my small pouch I should vomit if I can eat those staff. I asked my surgeon and he said that it’s different from people who had the RNY for the first time from the people who did the revision in weigh losing, I can understand that but how about the ability of eating and the appetite toward eating. Actually I am an emotional eater so I am freak that my RNY will not success I have done enough with gastric endoscopy and I don’t want to try it again. So is anybody had a conversion? And how was the eating portion? How often they feel hungry? I hope somebody can answer my question and give me the support because really I am leaving in a nightmare.

:whoo::faint::cry:DSomebody pinch me! I think I'm dreaming. :notagree I was at work today and the phone rings. It's Lori from Dr. Ehrlich's office (my surgeon)! I HAVE A DATE!!!!!!!!!! Well, two dates actually. I just got my CPAP machine today and have to be on that for at least two weeks. My first surgery date is August 14th to have my gallbladder out. Apparently, I have one large gallstone. And my Lap-band surgery is August 21st. WHOOHOOOO!!!!!!:clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::first: I don't think it's exactly hit me yet! :bounce::dance: A friend of mine at work is having the bypass surgery and she started her process at the beginning of April and is still waiting on a date for hers. I started May 21st. She gonna be so mad that I got my date first. Oh well, she'll get over it.:biggrin1: I guess now I need to take the dreaded before pictures and take my measurements. Thanks for listening! Sorry for all the smilies. I can't help it today!

As long as you take the pain meds you can't drive. When you are off of them then you will get the okay to drive again. I would say at least a week after surgery.

Mine says because of the meds, too. At my one week post op they cleared me to drive after being sure I was no longer taking them.

I'm just on the 3rd week post op but I'll tell you about the change after the surgery. I have no longer hunger but I know I MUST eat for energy and the amount of food that I can eat is 2 tablespoons. I have sleeved in France so the restriction post-op for diet is a bit different, my doctor said I can eat anything I want but blended. The first two weeks it has to be only Fluid (but I can eat yogurt) then the 3rd week I can start eating pureed food like potato smashed. Oh, yes, but no candies no soda, all sweet stuff. Eat a little at a time (4 times a day) on the fix hour, I'm not hungry but I just eat on the meal time. Eat very small amount and slowly and the most important thing is at least 1 L of Water everyday 20 minutes before and after the meal. After the research I'd done on my own, like you, I asked him about Protein shake and he said, no need, no supplementary diet of any kind is necessary at the moment. He told me to eat only small amount of natural food. Seems like he needs me to get used to my new stomach first and learn that I can live on a very small amount of food Personally I try to eat as much as protein as possible like eggs, purred fish, Greek yogurt with purred fruits, cooked brocoli purred, mainly protein, fruits and vegetable. One time I tried Pasta purred with salmon and I felt sick, so no pasta at the moment. My doctor said I have 3 years post-op to learn to eat right to maintain the weight for life. I guess that at some point the hunger will return, I will be able to eat more than 2 spoons per meal but at least the experience of being obese for 20 years and receiving the second chance should remind me to pick the best choice of food and move my (hopefully smaller) ass to exercise to keep this gift for life. And I know I can do it because during the pre-op I tried the low carb diet to see if I can make it after the surgery (my surgeon never asked me to lose weight before the surgery) and it worked pretty well actually, I wasn't really too strict because I ate small amont of carb only for lunch or Breakfast but not for dinner and I lost 13 lbs in 2 months before the surgery between my first consultation with my surgeon and the date of operation. What's different is I've lost almost 19 lbs in 20 days post-op woo hoo!

I've been swallowing pills since day 2 after surgery. They were small ones at first but now I can take normal sized and big pills without issue at 2 weeks out Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

I'm due for my period this weekend and I'm feeling/looking bloated. I also only lost 3lbs this week ( compatrd to 24 the previous weeks).I'm three weeks out. Everyone says I keep looking thinner but I feel yucky this week. Has anyone else experience slower weight loss with their period looming?