My Gastric Sleeve Journey

[TRClark23 41]

1 hour ago, MarisAthena said:

I had the same surgery as you did on 6/5. The pain is from the hiatal hernia repair surgery. It will get better with time. You should do research on the hiatal hernia repair surgery, it has slightly different requirements than the gastric bypass. The fact that they did both at the same time for both of us makes me think it is quite common, but they should have spoken to you about it because the pain I had was excruciating for me and my surgeon was very clear that it was due to the hiatal hernia and not due to the roux en y.

That’s a good tip, I’ll look into it for sure. When I last talked to my surgeon he told me that it should help with acid reflux and I’ll be honest, knock on wood, I haven’t had any yet.

[TRClark23 41]

13 minutes ago, LookingForward22 said:

My progress has been slow but steady. Sometimes I get a little frustrated because my loss isn’t as fast as others, but then I remind myself this isn’t a race and I’m working to a life long change not just a quick fix. I was over weight for most of my adult life, that change is going to take some time.

I met a new “mini” goal today (I broke my weight-loss goals down into 10 mini phases/goals) so that felt pretty good. From my highest weight… I’m down 135 pounds! (57 of that was pre surgery loss, 78 since surgery). I’m hoping when I go for my 1 yr check up… I will be down 100 ponds post surgery (which will make 157 pounds lost if I hit that goal).

Best of luck - hope you’re recovery is going well! You’ve got this. 🥰

Congrats on your success and reaching your mini goal! That sounds like a great idea.

I’ll be honest, I’m hopeful to be around the 100lbs lost mark by Halloween. It’s a pretty big goal but I figure I’m already down almost 40lbs, so 60lbs in 4 months should be doable.

I’m excited for the future, which if you asked me two weeks ago, I was nervous and apprehensive, lol.

[TRClark23 41]

Quick update…

I had my first post-op appointment with my surgeon yesterday. Everything has been going extremely well. No nausea, no problems with the liquids, nor with the soft foods like hummus, cream of wheat, or grits.

I had the staples removed from my surgical incisions, thankfully!

My surgeon was kinda vague though. Told me that as long as I had no problems to keep progressing according to the handout and that he’d see me in three weeks. He told me to proceed to eggs and foods that I could mash with a fork, so I bought some instant potatoes and I’m looking forward to that.

I bought the original Sabra Hummus and after about a month on liquids only, it’s been amazing!

I weighed in at 339lbs, so to date I’m down 46lbs since starting my journey and down about 22lbs since surgery. I’m not going to complain about 11lbs a week since surgery, though I know it’s not going to last.

[TRClark23 41]

Double post.

Edited July 7, 2023 by TRClark23

[loras68 8]

Had my VSG about 6 weeks ago. I really want to maintain, maybe build muscle. I have had good muscle mass until about two yrs ago. I am now 55 and post menopausal, so it’s a whole new world!!😩. I would love to learn Any supplements, exercise routines or any kind of tip/ trick people have discovered, stumbled upon. I know we are all different, but I love hearing about new things to look into, learn about. There is so much out there now!! Get hormones! Use EEA’s!! The wellness world has exploded and there is a lot of BS out there. Every now and again you find a gem. We are aging so much differently than our parents!! We aren’t taking it lying down! 50 is the new 30!!

[loras68 8]

On 07/07/2023 at 01:08, TRClark23 said:

Quick update…

I had my first post-op appointment with my surgeon yesterday. Everything has been going extremely well. No nausea, no problems with the liquids, nor with the soft foods like hummus, cream of wheat, or grits.

I had the staples removed from my surgical incisions, thankfully!

My surgeon was kinda vague though. Told me that as long as I had no problems to keep progressing according to the handout and that he’d see me in three weeks. He told me to proceed to eggs and foods that I could mash with a fork, so I bought some instant potatoes and I’m looking forward to that.

I bought the original Sabra Hummus and after about a month on liquids only, it’s been amazing!

I weighed in at 339lbs, so to date I’m down 46lbs since starting my journey and down about 22lbs since surgery. I’m not going to complain about 11lbs a week since surgery, though I know it’s not going to last.

When I went to puréed foods, refried have never tasted as good!! I ate cans of it. Nobody wanted to be around me, but I was in heaven!!

[TRClark23 41]

2 hours ago, loras68 said:

When I went to puréed foods, refried have never tasted as good!! I ate cans of it. Nobody wanted to be around me, but I was in heaven!!

😂 yeah, the hummus is the same way! I need to look into refried Beans too!

[TRClark23 41]

7 hours ago, loras68 said:

When I went to puréed foods, refried have never tasted as good!! I ate cans of it. Nobody wanted to be around me, but I was in heaven!!

My wife and I were out tonight and stopped by a “Gringos” restaurant, she got a taco salad, I got a side order of refried Beans.

They were amazing!

[TRClark23 41]

7 hours ago, loras68 said:

When I went to puréed foods, refried have never tasted as good!! I ate cans of it. Nobody wanted to be around me, but I was in heaven!!

My wife and I were out tonight and stopped by a “Gringos” restaurant, she got a taco salad, I got a side order of refried Beans.

They were amazing!

[TRClark23 41]

I had decided to only get on the scale once a week, I didn't want to be that person that gets on the scale every day and gets discouraged during a stall. My usual doctors appointments are on Thursdays (for some reason) so I decided that Thursday's would be the day. I have a lot of stuff going on tomorrow so I decided to get on the scale a day early.

Last Thursday, I had my first post-op appointment with my doctor and had lost 46lbs since entering the program and 22lbs since surgery. I got on the scale this morning and have since lost 9lbs! I went from 339lbs last week to 330lbs this week, bringing me to a total of 55lbs lost since entering the program and 31lbs since surgery.

This past week, I've focused mostly on trying to get my fluids in, mostly drinking Water and the occasional Gatorade Zero. I never really cared for water so it's shocking how much of it I'm drinking now.

For the most part this week, I've eaten scrambled eggs, grits, cream of wheat, hummus, refried Beans, and mashed potatoes.

I mistakenly ate the potatoes a bit earlier than I was supposed to, but I haven't had any issues with them, so figured they must be okay. I'm not 100% proud of it, but the mashed potatoes came from KFC.. 😬

I've still done pretty good though, regardless!

I'm still trying to get as much Protein from drinking the shakes as I can. I get roughly 20oz a day from the shakes which is around 2 whole bottles, so somewhere around 60g of protein. I'm taking my Vitamins every day as well.

As best as I can figure, my calorie intake is probably somewhere around 500-600/day (this is just a rough estimate, the Protein Shakes alone are about 300.)

I have gotten dizzy a time or two, which I've read is normal and at times, I get ridiculously itchy on my back and stomach, but it's not too bad. I tried to fix it with Benadryl but it didn't work. I did get one hell of a good nights sleep though, so there's that!

I feel a lot better than I did pre-surgery. I still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling really great and only have 30lbs to go until I'm back into the 200's!

[TRClark23 41]

I haven't posted an update in awhile, but there hasn't really been much to report.

I tried sliced deli roast beef last week and it was too soon, my stomach really hurt for about 45 minutes, then stopped. I guess I'm just not ready to digest beef at the moment. I had pretty good success with turkey though. This week, I tried a chicken quesadilla and managed to take 2-3 bites and was okay.

I had a bit of a stall "weight loss" wise from the 13th through the 20th, but got on the scale this morning and was at 325lbs, so I managed to lose 5 more pounds since the 12th, bringing my weight loss since surgery to 27lbs, 60lbs since I started this journey.

I'm probably going to avoid the other forums and topics as this page as they seem to be pretty cliquish. I'm going to continue posting in this journal because I enjoy it and think it's fun to keep a history about what I'm going through.

My next doctors appointment is in four days, so I'll probably post another update then.

[theProcess 13]

@TRClark23 so grateful for your updates, it’s keep motivated thru this little rough patch I’m going thru. My surgery was on July 11th, and I’m about to go to puréed food on Wednesday. My mouth is literally burned out from liquids, I’m barely reaching my intake goals. I can’t wait to try a quesadilla lol!

[theProcess 13]

@TRClark23 so grateful for your updates, it’s keep motivated thru this little rough patch I’m going thru. My surgery was on July 11th, and I’m about to go to puréed food on Wednesday. My mouth is literally burned out from liquids, I’m barely reaching my intake goals. I can’t wait to try a quesadilla lol!

[TRClark23 41]

7 hours ago, theProcess said:

@TRClark23 so grateful for your updates, it’s keep motivated thru this little rough patch I’m going thru. My surgery was on July 11th, and I’m about to go to puréed food on Wednesday. My mouth is literally burned out from liquids, I’m barely reaching my intake goals. I can’t wait to try a quesadilla lol!

Congrats on getting your surgery! I know what you mean about the liquids!

The best for me was the sabra hummus and the mashed potatoes.

It’s kind of a pain trying to keep up with the Vitamins, trying to eat 2-3 times a day (they told me to eat 5 small meals a deal, how am I going to get my fluids in if I eat 5 times a day and can’t drink for 30 minutes before and after, that’s 5 hours a day I can’t drink! 😂)

I’m glad that my information is helpful to someone!

[TRClark23 41]

Today was kind of a bittersweet day. I had my final regular doctors appointment with my surgeon. Every thing has been going really well and he basically told me that I’m free to start eating a normal diet again, but to use common sense.

I won’t have another appointment for three months.

Between my last appointment and today, I lost 14lbs and he seemed pretty happy with my progress. He told me to expect to lose about 10lbs a month or so for about the next year.

I think my next big adventure will be to go low carb and try to drop a little faster while I have this great tool at my disposal.