Almost 5 Years Post Op and I Need Help

I had my RNY in December 2007. My highest weight was 328, and on the day of surgery it was 319. I lost the weight fast and adjusted to the new diet and lifestyle easily (aside from the exercise, I didn't work out once). By January 2010 my weight reached its lowest at 162 --- a grand total loss of 166 pounds. But being a new mom, having my husband and I both out of work and living with my parents brought about a whole new world of stress and depression for me. I was able to maintain my weight for most of 2010 at around 180, but that didn't last the following year after my husband decided to join the Navy.

The experiences of his boot camp, A-School, and first deployment proved to be just too much for me emotionally. I found myself alone in a 1 bedroom apartment with no car, no TV, no friends, no family and nothing to do for months. The stress, anxiety, and depression proved to be more than I could handle and I ended up being hospitalized twice in less than a year's time at a psychiatric hospital. My only comfort was food - and I ate.

As of this past Sunday I weighed 259 -- up almost 100 pounds from my lowest -- and I am miserable. Things have settled down for me emotionally, but the scars have remained from the past 2 years. I have completely isolated myself... aside from the socialization I receive from my husband and my daughter, I don't get out of the house -- at all -- and I have no friends within 2000 miles. Physically, aside from housework, I do nothing. I sit on the couch all day watching TV, always too tired and exhausted to do anything... including playing with my daughter. I'm back to hurting, having aches and pains, should I do too much of anything, having difficulty breathing when climbing the steps to our apartment, my heart pounding by the time I walk out to the mailbox and back.

Diet wise, I can eat anything now that I did pre-surgery... except in smaller quantities. My biggest problem is that it feels like the food passes through my stomach quickly, and within 30 minutes after a meal I feel like I am starving again. I'm never full, never satisfied... so I am always grazing, looking to make that hunger go away.

I'm at a loss as what to do. What should I be eating? How often? And how much? When it comes to exercise what should I do? What should be my goals?.....and all in all... how can I be happy again?

I'm stuck --- and confused.

Someone please help.

I'm sorry you have gone through such a tough time!

It sounds like there are 2 problems contributing to your weight regain: 

1. depression. I'm sure you already know this. While things have improved for you somewhat, it sounds like you are still depressed, which would explain the tired all the time, not feeling like getting up off the couch, etc. If there is any kind of psych help available to you, perhaps through the military, it might be very helpful. There are lots of good drugs for depression these days, and talking wiht a therapist also benefits many people.

2. you might also have an enlarged stoma. This is a frequent cause of weight regain or poor weight loss with gastric bypass, and would explain the food passing through your pouch very quickly. It used to be thought that as long as the pouch was small, that was what mattered. But you can have a nice small pouch and if the food just falls through an enlarged stoma into the small intestine, you will never feel full. This anatomy can also cause reactive hypoglycemia.

Can you get an upper GI x-ray study done? And if you do, make sure the radiologist knows to assess the size of the stoma and not just the size of the pouch.

Larra

Sounds like depression is an issue for you.  Many times, life traumas from years ago caused you to seek food for comfort.  You lost the wt with surgery, but unless the trauma issue is professionally dealt with, you may seek comfort with food again.  This is a strong possiblity.  Often hungry?  You may be eating a lot of "slider foods". Soft foods that go through pouch easily can be a problem for some post ops. You may also have resorted to drinking a lot of fluids with meals again. This will wash out your pouch and you will be hungry in a very short time. DAVE

 I look at the photo of you, such a happy young girl. Your story is heartbreaking. I will let others reply to the medical aspects. But here is my advice. I see that you are a Mormon. Your religion is full of support groups, or groups that help other people. Talk to your bishop or (I forget the name of the Head Woman, I'm a Catholic). Let them pull you back into your faith, and provide you with the community where your life has meaning again. Do NOT stay alone the way you have been doing. It's suicidal. Please turn to the strength you were provided with at birth, talk to people in your church. 

Bless you.
Lee

Hello khaupt!!:

How are you doing since your last post here??

I would have responded to you sooner, but I am new to this site. Since reading your post, I have been thinking of you and sending you lots of good thoughts and prayers for healing.

You have a lot going for you, you know. You have a record of successful weight loss, of consistent posting to OH (a wonderful source of support and interaction, which I think is critical for us), the tool of your WLS (other posters here are absolutely correct that you need medical evaluation right away to make sure that your post-surgical digestive system is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing to help you to lose/maintain), and, as drleelee has very wisely pointed out, you have the enormous resources and social support of the Mormon Church!

Does the surgeon who did your WLS have support groups/dieticians connected to his practice? Can you access those resources? Or, if you are no longer geographically close to those resources, how about through your local hospital? Can your primary care physician refer you to bariatric resources in your local area? Do you get your health care thru the military? -- there may be some resources there, as well. I am also thinking of things like Overeaters Anonymous or Emotions Anonymous -- in addition to face-to-face meetings, these organizations often have online support available. I have found the support of Overeaters Anonymous to be very helpful to me.
 
You can always find out what resources are available in your community by dialing 2-1-1 (this is true throughout most of the USA).

Also, I so "get" the emotional eating problem! In addition to psychotherapy (the hospital where you were hospitalized for depression -- do they have individual counseling or support or therapy groups available to you??) and/or social support resources such as Overeaters Anonymous, I have found a fantastic online resource that has is really helping me to get a handle on the emotional eating -- this is a website created by a physician, Dr Michelle May, (she has an article on OH about portion control) -- her website is amihungry.com -- her book "Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat" -- I have it on Nook, downloaded to my phone! -- has helped me so much! On her website she has a new workbook designed especially for bariatric surgery patients, the workbook is designed to go with the Eat What YOu love book. The basic idea is about mindful eating. Another very powerful book about mindful eating is "Mindful Eating" by Jan Chozen Bays, MD -- I have also found this to be helpful.

Right now it seems like you have several avenues of attack:

1. clarifying any medical issues going on with your surgery
2. getting nutritional advise from a registered dietician
3. social isolation -- this makes depression worse, as you know! -- get in a support group, go to church, go to meetup.com to see if there are any interesting things going on in your community, whether or not they have anything to do with weight management!
4.lack of exercise -- I know that you realize that exercise is an important part of managment of depression -- now that the horrible heat seems to have (finally!!) abated here in California, you could do gentle exercise things like going for short walks with your daughter. Maybe meetup.com will have a group in your area of mothers who would like to get together for brief walks, with their children and strollers, and enjoying the crisp autumn air...
 
I hope that this helps! You have so much going for you -- you have so many resources available to you, and an important resource is your own desire to get better, which you clearly have expressed and shown! Please of course also consider that your child has much to benefit from you feeling better -- she loves you and wants to play with you and go for walks with you to look at the autumn leaves!

I send you a BIG shot of support, Khaupt! Please let us know how you are doing! Hang in there!

==Swizzlequeen

Google intestinal adaptation after rny. Today, bariatrics surgeons are finding out that caloric absorption is very high with rny. Your intestines are working harder to compensate what was bypassed.