July 2020 Surgery anyone?

[Ozzy79 9]

My op was on the 2nd of July and after a month of Lansor/Lansoprazol, I was prescribed Nexium. I am going to see my doc in a couple of weeks but I feel anxious about reflux after VSG. Have you been prescribed with sth similar? What will happen when we wean off?

[BigSue 1,373]

I was really tested today... My boss bought lunch for the whole department to Celebrate a successful project for my team. I don't want anyone at work to know I had WLS, so I couldn't tell him that I didn't want any of what is usually my favorite meal. He got individually packed meals since that's the company's policy during the pandemic. I figured I'd just be "busy" during lunch and not take a meal and no one would notice since he got extras anyway, but my boss personally brought my meal -- which did not include anything I can eat at this point -- to my desk.

So not only did I not get to partake in the celebratory meal, and had to watch my coworkers enjoy food I love but can't eat, but I had to sit next to the delicious-smelling food and stress out about what to do with it (all while contemplating what exactly would happen if I just gave in and ate it anyway). I couldn't bring myself to throw it in the trash, so I brought it to another team's office and told them we had an extra one (hope that didn't arouse too much suspicion; their boss was there and is friends with my boss). My boss wanted to do something nice for my team, but it was just sad and stressful for me. It's such a stupid little first-world problem but it ruined my day.🙁

[IWantTheDream 179]

On 08/21/2020 at 15:37, BigSue said:

I was really tested today... My boss bought lunch for the whole department to Celebrate a successful project for my team. I don't want anyone at work to know I had WLS, so I couldn't tell him that I didn't want any of what is usually my favorite meal. He got individually packed meals since that's the company's policy during the pandemic. I figured I'd just be "busy" during lunch and not take a meal and no one would notice since he got extras anyway, but my boss personally brought my meal -- which did not include anything I can eat at this point -- to my desk.

So not only did I not get to partake in the celebratory meal, and had to watch my coworkers enjoy food I love but can't eat, but I had to sit next to the delicious-smelling food and stress out about what to do with it (all while contemplating what exactly would happen if I just gave in and ate it anyway). I couldn't bring myself to throw it in the trash, so I brought it to another team's office and told them we had an extra one (hope that didn't arouse too much suspicion; their boss was there and is friends with my boss). My boss wanted to do something nice for my team, but it was just sad and stressful for me. It's such a stupid little first-world problem but it ruined my day.🙁

I feel for you . I had something similar a few weeks ago and I was a hungry and my coworkers got my favorite Breakfast sandwich’s from my favorite bagel store and it just sucked but I grinned and just worked and real does mess with your emotions. So I’m sorry that happened to you but you got through it and your stronger for it. So great job! 🙂

[WishMeSmaller 1,273]

Last Wednesday I had a work meeting with sandwiches and chips. I took one piece of sandwich and ate the meat, cheese, and tomatoes off of it. I cannot tell you how much I wanted the bread and chips. I did eat a very tiny corner of bread, but resisted anything else. Thankfully, most people were not paying attention to what I was doing as we practice social distancing when we meet. Sorry you had to deal with that. These tests are hard. I also went out to Mexican food with a family group (they all know about my surgery), last weekend. It was so tough to just get a side of refried Beans and only eat 4 tortilla chips. Thankfully no one was having margaritas! 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️
I guess this is all part of the process to become who we are meant to be. Stay strong!

[Double_Me 133]

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks since I had my bypass surgery. Over this period of time I've lost about 15 lbs, including a 10-day stall in the middle where I lost nothing a week after surgery. This corresponds to the 3-week stall, as I started shedding pounds at the beginning of my pre-op diet which was two weeks long. Glad that it's over- I've been steadily losing since then. Here's some stats:

I've found that I still struggle to tolerate eating more than 2 oz of food at a time, so introducing vegetables back into my diet has been limited as I'm full up on my Proteins. I average anywhere from 550-650 calories/day, which has usually included three 100-150 cal meals and a Protein Shake. Protein is about 55-70 grams/day. Go-tos have been ricotta or cottage cheese with salt & pepper, sliced ham/sliced prosciutto, smoked salmon with a little bit of lite cream cheese and everything bagel seasoning. Getting used to tossing those 1 or 2 bites of food left on my plate was hard at first, but became much easier after I stopped throwing it in the trash and switched to scraping it into my dogs bowl. Feels like I'm not letting good food go to waste!

Mentally, I've had some tough days, but now I don't even think about eating to distract myself. Recently I've been unable to prepare a meal for myself without trepidation and discomfort. My stomach physically gurgles and turns as if I'm already going to experience rejection... has anyone else felt this? Its the worst when I'm heating up something hot... smelling food that used to appetize me causes this reaction. Usually as I begin to eat this feeling passes, but there is always some anxiety at the beginning. The most crazy thing about this is my mind still loves good food and cooking and I think about meals often, only to find that I'm repulsed by the idea of eating them. I've spoken to my therapist and hopefully we can find strategies to help, but so far this has been my primary source of concern post-op.

I've been reading all of your posts and the comfort that they bring me as we go through this journey together is invaluable. Hoping for the best for everyone

[catwoman7 11,212]

45 minutes ago, Double_Me said:

The most crazy thing about this is my mind still loves good food and cooking and I think about meals often, only to find that I'm repulsed by the idea of eating them. I've spoken to my therapist and hopefully we can find strategies to help, but so far this has been my primary source of concern post-op.

I pretty much hated eating the first four or five months after surgery. Unfortunately, it didn't last.....my hunger and interest came roaring back at about five months post-op...things become more of a challenge then.

[Pandemonium 515]

So bear with me on this one.

Back in February when I had my first appointment with the Holyoke Medical Weight Management program, I met with one of the two physician assistants that handle the intake of new patients. In that meeting, I went in looking into the medical weight loss program since I was under the impression that I was not eligible for further bariatric surgery. One of the first questions asked of me was what my goal weight was. I was told not to overthink it and to simply give her a number that I wanted to get down to. I said "225 pounds", which seemed like an unachievable goal, but it was what I weighed 20 or so years ago and while still overweight, was a comfortable weight for me. As that would involve losing 116 pounds, she informed me that I would be unlikely to achieve that goal in the medical program, but that it would be much more achievable in the surgical program. She quickly cleared up my misconceptions about my eligibility for revision surgery and sent me home to think about how I wanted to proceed.

A couple of weeks later, I was back in for my official intake into the surgical weight loss program to start the journey to removing my lapband and revising to a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. From that point, you've pretty much seen my progress and success.

So I only weigh myself once a week and it is on Tuesday mornings (used to be on Fridays, but once I had my surgery, I moved it to Tuesdays to align with the day I had surgery). Here's this week's update:

Starting Weight: 341.1
Surgery Day Weight: 262.8
Pre-surgery Weight Loss: 78.3

Current Weight: 225.2
Weight Lost in Past Week: 3.8
Post Surgery Weight Loss: 37.6

Total Weight Loss: 115.9

So, a couple of things:

1) I weighed myself 5 damn times this morning to see if I could get that .2 to go away. It didn't. My scale is too accurate to indulge in my shenanigans.

2) I am going to end up breaking my rule and will end up reweighing myself on Thursday or Friday, just so I can see that .2 disappear.

3) I have now lost more than a third of my body weight. 33.98%, to be precise.

4) Next goal is 190lbs. But first I have to get rid of that annoying .2lbs

[Rose57 7]

When was your surgery ? You should be EXTREMELY proud to lose 78 lbs BEFORE surgery. That is great ! Don't worry about .2 lbs. Our body weight fluctuates all day. Good luck ! You're doing great !

[WishMeSmaller 1,273]

1 hour ago, Pandemonium said:

So bear with me on this one.

Back in February when I had my first appointment with the Holyoke Medical Weight Management program, I met with one of the two physician assistants that handle the intake of new patients. In that meeting, I went in looking into the medical weight loss program since I was under the impression that I was not eligible for further bariatric surgery. One of the first questions asked of me was what my goal weight was. I was told not to overthink it and to simply give her a number that I wanted to get down to. I said "225 pounds", which seemed like an unachievable goal, but it was what I weighed 20 or so years ago and while still overweight, was a comfortable weight for me. As that would involve losing 116 pounds, she informed me that I would be unlikely to achieve that goal in the medical program, but that it would be much more achievable in the surgical program. She quickly cleared up my misconceptions about my eligibility for revision surgery and sent me home to think about how I wanted to proceed.

A couple of weeks later, I was back in for my official intake into the surgical weight loss program to start the journey to removing my lapband and revising to a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. From that point, you've pretty much seen my progress and success.

So I only weigh myself once a week and it is on Tuesday mornings (used to be on Fridays, but once I had my surgery, I moved it to Tuesdays to align with the day I had surgery). Here's this week's update:

Starting Weight: 341.1
Surgery Day Weight: 262.8
Pre-surgery Weight Loss: 78.3

Current Weight: 225.2
Weight Lost in Past Week: 3.8
Post Surgery Weight Loss: 37.6

Total Weight Loss: 115.9

So, a couple of things:

1) I weighed myself 5 damn times this morning to see if I could get that .2 to go away. It didn't. My scale is too accurate to indulge in my shenanigans.

2) I am going to end up breaking my rule and will end up reweighing myself on Thursday or Friday, just so I can see that .2 disappear.

3) I have now lost more than a third of my body weight. 33.98%, to be precise.

4) Next goal is 190lbs. But first I have to get rid of that annoying .2lbs

This is so awesome! Congrats to you! 🎉🎉💕

Are you going to revise your goal or just maintain? Nosey people, like me, want to know😂

[Pandemonium 515]

1 hour ago, Rose57 said:

When was your surgery ? You should be EXTREMELY proud to lose 78 lbs BEFORE surgery. That is great ! Don't worry about .2 lbs. Our body weight fluctuates all day. Good luck ! You're doing great !

I had my surgery on July 7th. So today is 8 weeks post-op. And thank you! Realistically I know I have ht my goal, but I just need the scale to actually say it. Which it will!

[Pandemonium 515]

48 minutes ago, WishMeSmaller said:

This is so awesome! Congrats to you! 🎉🎉💕

Are you going to revise your goal or just maintain? Nosey people, like me, want to know😂

Next goal is 190. That number actually came from my surgeon the last time I spoke to him. That'll still put me in the Overweight BMI range, but I think I need to see what I look like at that point to decide whether to push lower or not.

[IWantTheDream 179]

On 09/01/2020 at 10:16, Pandemonium said:

Next goal is 190. That number actually came from my surgeon the last time I spoke to him. That'll still put me in the Overweight BMI range, but I think I need to see what I look like at that point to decide whether to push lower or not.

Wow congratulations you have done so great. My surgery was on the same day and I have been struggling to loose weight it just doesn’t want to leave. I measure n weigh everything and it still the weight is moving at snail pace. I probably should not complain I am 43 pound down but my hips n back are stain a lot of pain n I really cannot wait for some relief. Great job Jersey!

[IWantTheDream 179]

Has anyone tried Bowmar Protein yet? Is it better with Water or almond milk?

[Pandemonium 515]

10 hours ago, IWantTheDream said:

Has anyone tried Bowmar Protein yet? Is it better with Water or almond milk?

I haven't, but now I'm curious as they've got some interesting flavors. Prices are a bit higher than the powders I use, but not exorbitantly so.

[BayougirlMrsS 3,934]

11 hours ago, IWantTheDream said:

Has anyone tried Bowmar Protein yet? Is it better with Water or almond milk?

I of course had to check them out.... i see that have "sample" that you can buy for like $2 each.... not bad. For me, my only concern is the 20g of carbs in each and that they are each about 230 in cals. And i still have trouble eating a Protein Bar.< br /> Did you have trouble eating and having them go down?