Wiki-wls: Newbies guide to the galaxie - post-op

Wiki-wls: Post-op

Welcome. Here you will find useful information about post-op issues that will help you on your journey. Feel free to post your questions on this thread and someone further along in the process will hopefully provide you with an answer. Please keep the questions to general information that everyone can benefit from and not issues specific to your situation.

Anyone is welcome to copy and paste questions and answers from other threads, post links to older threads that have good information or post new information. In an effort to keep it as managable as possible, we would like to keep it very specific to the topic so please keep your posts to information and not comments or thank-yous.

If you post a link to another thread, just include a brief description of what it covers. If you think someone has posted inaccurate or incomplete information or something needs updating, in the interest of keeping posts to a minimum, try asking them first to edit their original post before posting yourself.

Here's a the links to this thread &  the post-op thread to bookmark & pass on to newbies:
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4070990/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-post-op/
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4070989/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-pre-op/
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4070739/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-food-amp-vitamin/
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4071433/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-OH-How-To/

As with anything you read on this forum, it is only someone's opinion and not to be taken as medical advice. If in doubt, check with your surgeon.

Thanks for your contributions

Will OHIP pay for plastic surgery?

Under some cir****tances, OHIP will pay for the removal of the pannus, the apron of skin that hangs below the navel. There has to be documented issues of infections and the apron has to be a certain length before approval. This procedure removes the skin only and does not include an abdomoplasty (tummy tuck). The other issue with this is finding a plastic surgeon who will work with OHIP and will do only the panniculectomy.

OHIP will also cover a breast reduction under certain cir****tances as well

Any other plastics such as removing excess skin from arms or thighs is not covered.

The plastic surgeon submits the request for approval to OHIP.

Things you are encouraged not to do after surgery.

These are not hard and fast rules and each surgeon has their own version but in general:

Drink liquids just before, with your meals or just after
Wny: primarily because if you drink before, you won't have room in your pouch/sleeve for food, secondly, you want the food to stay in your pouch/sleeve as long as possible to keep you feeling full longer, drinking washes the food into the intestines. Every surgeon has their own guidelines, for some it is 5 minutes before, half an hour after, and others it's 1/2 an hour before and an hour after.

Drink caffeinated beverages
Why: it can cause dehydration and irritate your pouch/sleeve.

Drink with a straw
Why: you swall too much air which can cause discomfort in your pouch/sleeve.

Chew gum
Why: you could swallow it and it could get stuck, and it cause your stomach to produce acid.

Take a bath or swin in a pool for 2 weeks (for laproscopic surgery)
Why: you need to give your incisions a chance to heal, at the 2 week mark, your steri-strips are ready to come off.

Drink alcohol for anywhere from 6 month up to when you have reached goal weight depending on your surgeon
Why: Empty calories with no nutritional value, secondly your tolerance for alcohol is greatly diminished, you are now a very cheap drunk and would be impaired drinking even half a glass.

Drive for 2 weeks (laproscopic) or until you are off pain meds & can comfortably manouver
Why: Narcotic pain meds can affect your response time and you need to be able to turn and twist your body to get in and out of a car or do shoulder checks.

Have sex for 3 to 6 weeks
Why: You do not want to apply unecessary pressure on your abdomen.

Any additions, corrections or updates, send me a message and I'll edit.

Both threads lead to pre-op I believe.

Lorraine, great idea and thanks for starting this.

Ontario WLS Support Group info

Please use this link to view an updated list of support groups.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/fiery/blog/2008/09/19/-pos t/

Hints to Help get your daily 64 ounces of fluids in

Remember, all fluids count towards the total - coffee, protein coffees, tea, ice tea, green tea, flavoured water, protein water, protein shakes, sf hot chocolate...

Many people can't tolerate water after surgery so finding something to add to the water helps:  SF syrups, lemon, mint, sf koolaid, crystal light...

Walmart in the states carries their own brand of crystal light, they have an apple flavoured one that you add to water, you can then heat it up, add a little Cinnamon and voila!
They also carry a product called K2O by Kellogs, it's like crystal light but has 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of fibre

Once you are finished eating, set a timer for 30 or 45 minutes, whatever guideline your surgeon gave you, to remind that you can start drinking

Use and online food journaling site to help track your water

Thanks alot for this Imfo. Very Helpful!!!

Probiotic use after RnY

(HealthDay News) -- Taking a probiotics supplement after gastric bypass surgery helps patients lose weight faster and avoid vitamin B deficiency, a new study finds.

Probiotics are the "good" bacteria found in yogurt and in dietary supplements that aid digestion.

The Stanford University School of Medicine study included 44 patients who had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery and were randomly assigned to either a probiotics group or a control group. Both groups received the same bariatric medical care and nutritional counseling and both were allowed to consume yogurt, a natural source of probiotics. Patients in the probiotics group also took one pill per day of a probiotics supplement.

After three months, the probiotics group had a 47.6 percent weight loss, compared with 38.5 percent in the control group. Patients in the probiotics group also had higher levels of vitamin B-12 three months after surgery than those in the control group -- 1,214 picograms per milliliter as opposed to 811 picograms per milliliter, a significant difference since B-12 deficiency is common after gastric bypass surgery.

The study appears in the July issue of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery

Is Yogurt something we should be eating after we allowed ?  I feel like I have no idea what I am doing for after surgery.

Yogurt is something I was allowed from day 1 on full fluids, as long as it didn't have any chunks in it (you can always puree it). Check with your surgeon, but it is something I ate a lot of post-op.