Bariatric surgery thread 4

[HangerLaneGyratorySystem]

I'm not the OP but I just accidentally took the last post on thread 3 and some people including me were in the middle of conversations! Hope you can find your way over here!

Hi HangerLane I've just caught up with the last thread. I'm booked to have a sleeve abroad at the end of March but after reading your posts I think I might go for the MGB. What type of things have you been managing to eat with the sleeve? I'd be so disappointed paying £5K to not have it work. Quite worried now that I'm not going to lose most of my excess weight.

I eat everything with the sleeve sadly @ItWasTheBestOfTimes - struggle with mushrooms and too many potatoes and/or rice combo but I can eat a whole sandwich and a few crisps, have a big glass of wine. Then if I wait 30 minutes I can do it all again .

I felt some pain initially, bit uncomfortable, but nothing to "deter" me from doing my worst. I noticed the other day I was dealing with something stressful on my laptop and I leapt up in the middle of it and went to the fridge; same way I used to get a cigarette at first hint of something vaguely difficult years ago, now I use food and still do. I didn't resolve my issues before the operation so I still have them - I'm not sure how many people realise that is going to be part of the process. With the NHS I had counselling beforehand which I found quite helpful, but as I say, still have disordered eating, compulsive eating I'd say.

I had a GS 6 years ago abroad

but I’ve recently had a mini gastric bypsss
to stop reflux and to lose some more weight
i had my orginal GS abroad 7 years and it’s only since sept last year I started to put a bit of weight on
however I wasnt massively overweight to start with

just under the 14 stone
lost 3.5 stone so
now gone up to 11.2
so I will lose more weight as the bypass is much more restrictive than the sleavr
for me it’s 100 percent worth it
another lady I know had a GS lost 7 stone but put back on 3 stone
so she is now having a bypass

Thanks for new thread. @HangerLaneGyratorySystem in your last post you had mentioned scar tissue how do they propose getting around that this time? X

They propose hoping for the best …!!

Seriously, they think that having lost 4 stone it will make access easier. I’m not so sure.

Thanks for the new thread, just checking in after a bit of a break. Hope everyone's doing ok, I'm 4 months post sleeve now x

Hi, jumping on this. Tried reading through previous posts but 3000 was pushing it 😄

I am working myself up to go and see the GP about bariatric surgery. I have a BMI of 55 and think I can request referral straight onto tier 4 - is that right?

Wondering if anyone else with a bmi over 50 has done this recently and what the wait times were like - or if you didn't go straight on to T4 what the process and timescale was like?

TIA

Hi everyone I was on the last thread

Ive now had my sleeve

Hi @bellac11 how are getting on?
@SzeliSecond sorry I can't answer your question but hopefully someone will be along soon who can! 🙂

A mixed bag to be honest. No pain, no sickness no nausea.

But terrible time of it trying to get my fluids in and protein in. I had it Friday so perhaps Im expecting too much too soon but really cant face what Im expected to have.

I cant bear the sweet protein waters I spent a fortune on. Cant face the protein shakes I spent a fortune on. Cant stand milk or milky products anyway so thinning yoghurt down (Im drinking this now) with milk is sickly and disgusting

Awful discomfort in my gullet (or whatever its called) Im spending a lot of time banging my chest like a lunatic to try and get wind up but it never comes!!

Its uncomfortable sitting down so Im marching round the living room.

Had one night in hospital because I was doing so well so that was nice.

I didnt lose hardly anything on the liver diet though, probably only 4lbs over 2.5 weeks, this worries me reading other accounts on the other thread of people saying they're not losing weight, is this going to be me? I didnt break past 800 cals over that 2.5 weeks, its impossible that I only lost so little.

I lost just over 2 stone prior to the LRD though on very low cal diet, perhaps thats why. It was part of my prep

@bellac11 dont panic - it’s way too early to get everything right. Concentrate on hydration. It sounds like you have some internal swelling so it’ll be a while. Can you have soup?

@SzeliSecond it used to be the case but it might vary by area? My GP had known me for years so she was well aware diet and exercise weren’t going to cut it.

Water is absolutely fine but Im worried about the protein thing as I know its good for healing and obviously trying to maintain as much muscle as I can

I bought some soups today, its on the list of the things I can try to drink thinned down and with skimmed milk powder (yuk) added to it for protein. I will try later

Still halfway through my awful yoghurt concoction

Hi @bellac11 sending lots of healing vibes your way!

I had exactly the same as you: complete aversion to anything sweet, yuck. The first few days, it would take me all day to drink a 500ml bottle of protein water! Honestly, try just a mug of stock from a cube with a couple of spoons of skim milk powder in. That was my saviour the first few days! That and peppermint tea. Remember, the protein amount is a target you build up to, not something you’re expected to achieve straight away. By the end of the first week, I could tolerate sweet things again, so had more protein shakes etc, but alongside the savoury liquids rather than instead of.

I’m coming to the end of week 4 purées, and I’ve settled into a bit more of a rhythm after struggling at first, particularly with timing eating and drinking. My personal optimum is having a gap of 20-30 mins between drinking and eating, then up to an hour afterwards. It’s tough, as I naturally drink loads of water throughout my waking hours (seriously, 3-4 litres was my norm!), but I’m getting used to it; well, I have to as this is for life! I’ve found my fave breakfast is 15g fine oats (normal oats whizzed into a powder in the blender), 75ml protein drink, scoop of skimmed milk powder, microwaved for a minute, plus some PB Fit powder and a squelch of puréed fruit from a baby pouch. Takes me a good 20 mins to eat, but tastes nice and fills me up. I’m less keen on the lunch/dinner options (puréed chicken is just wrong), so I’m looking forward to the next stage, I.E. soft foods.

This is very helpful

You should have seen me trying with the thinned down lentil soup earlier. Repulsive!!

Im also wondering about the puree bit, stupid question but how on earth do you puree chicken, just put it in the blender with stock or something?

Im doing well with the water at the moment. I think I will have some cup soups with my collagen powder/bovril with same and stick to that rather than shakes or thinned down soups etc

But Im already thinking about my puree regime. My plan is to puree up some chicken, fish etc, plus veggies and put those in the freezer ready, but how do you puree meat and fish?

@bebellac11
Try good quality baby food jars. Chicken dinner. Fish dinner. Vegetable casserole, that sort of thing. Small balanced portions of blended food.

I was wondering about this option. Do they have enough protein in them though, I suppose I could still add the protein powder to them

Well done to all that have had it done, good luck with the weight loss.

I literally emptied the contents of a tin of chicken in white sauce into the blender and ran it until it was nearly liquid! Mega gross! I sieved the can of stewed beef before blending that up, which gave a much more thick and meat-like texture. Big fan of puréed cauliflower cheese, too!

Yes cauliflower cheese is on my list, love that

And roasted cauli, with roasted broccoli and onion, blended up with some garlic or something, perhaps with some protein yoghurt or something

Then blended fish and chicken and I can mix and match each day. Pureed carrot too

I dont really eat carbs. Im thinking about those cod in parsley sauce things, I could use the liquid to blend it I hope

I'm thinking of getting surgery over the summer (still just researching it at the moment). This is a good time because I have family members who can help out with the kids then. My only concern is the extreme heat and dehydration with limited ability to drink and eat enough. My house hit 37 degrees last summer, it stayed like that for days and it was awful.

Did anyone go through with it during a hot summer?

I was talking to someone at work who was giving me a pep talk prior to my surgery, she had it done already. She mentioned that thank goodness she didnt have it done in the summer for that very reason. I would think carefully about that.

Here's my random update if anyone is interested.

My three month appointment with the dietitian went well. My weight lost (5 stone) is apparently when they expect to see at the six month mark. The only bad thing is I'm definitely not drinking enough water or pooing enough so I got a wrist slap for that. I'm never hungry so therefore I'm never thirsty!

They've advised me to stop the forceval multivitamins and change to two "normal" multivitamins a day. The forceval is knocking me sick to the point where I only take it if I know I won't be moving in the 30 minutes after I take it. I nearly vommed when I took it immediately prior to going on a long car journey over Christmas. It's leaving me feeling so gross that I've not been taking it at all.

Positive: I've lost over two dress sizes - I was hovering between 26 and 28 and my new size 22 jeans needed to be pulled up constantly yesterday. I can get off the sofa without feeling like a need a crane. My mega tight DM's finally fit without rubbing. No hair loss so far (touch wood).

Negative: I have nothing to wear. My back is a mess of boil like spots and incredibly unattractive. I can't remember the last time I pooed.

I sailed through the operation, recovery and beyond. I really regret not having done this sooner but I know that my experience isn't a typical one and lots of people have struggled.

@ThePastKnocks My experience is that you definitely need help with the kids after surgery, so if it's a choice between summer and having help, or not summer/less help I'd go with the first option personally. It depends how old your kids are and how much looking after they need - mine are teens/tweens and I still needed a lot of help. HTH x