Confused!!

I am 14 days out from surgery. I had some issues right after the operation and had to remain in hospital 3 extra days. I'm home now and doing better, but it is still a challenge to get all the required liquids in. I've had to return to the hospital for out patient hydration twice. And I am utterly exhausted. And I do mean exhausted. Just heating up some soup or feeding my cats wears me out.

Here is my current issue - I had my two week check up Monday and had lost 18 pounds since surgery. I was 284 at the doc's office Monday. Today I got on the scale and I am 289!!! How can this be when I am still on liquids? Nothing has changed - how and why would I gain 5 pounds almost overnight?? I am menopausal (20 years post) so it's not from "my time of the month". Anyone else have this happen? I knew I would have stalls and I was prepared for that, but a 5 pound GAIN when I'm just a few days over two weeks out?!?

You're two weeks out. You should stay off the scale. Your weight can go up and down based on fluid retention, lack of bowel movement and lots of other reasons. Just sip, sip, sip. Slowly and steadily all day. For now make that your main priority. I have had the scale do some goofy things and I am only just under 6 months out.

You are way too early out to be worrying about that right now. You are 2 weeks out from major surgery. Your body is still trying to determine what they hell happened and how it's going to fix everything. Your weight will flucuate.

You are going to get tired easily. Especially since you are struggling with fluids.

Right now take it easy and focus on healing. Make yourself really work on those liquids. That is the most important thing right now. After that is protein. And some walking. That's what you need to concern yourself with currently.

And some scale advice. Pick one day a week to record your official weight. I use Tuesday as it was my surgery day. That's the day your weight is official. Try not to weigh on the other days but if you can't stop yourself just remember that it really doesn't count on those days anyway.

Settle down. You'll be fine. You can do this.

Yeah. I am about 11 years post surgery, and trust me, you are supposed to be feeling this way right now. Just do like the other said. Sip, sip, sip tha****er. Follow the diet guidelines that your surgeon laid out for you religiously. You have just had your stomach stapled and your intestines rewired. It takes TIME for your body to adjust. And yeah, stay off the scales for now. What you are going to find is that you will lose a ton 1 week, and none the next. On the weeks you lose none, your body is busy trying to shrink back up, so measure those inches. I promise you will be losing one or the other. Just keep the faith. This surgery hacks me off at buffets and the holidays, but it is still the BEST thing I have personally done for myself.

Hi, I'm real new at all this as well so I am not the voice of experience. But just wanted to say I was having the same issue for the first few weeks after surgery. I had lost a few pounds from the pre diet but was pretty much maintaining after surgery even though I had drastically reduced the amount I was eating and the amount of calories/carbs I was taking in. My scales also showed gains on some days which mortified me. My nurse consultant said my body was probably in starvation mode and it might take some time for that to pass before I started to steadily lose. I finally began to lose and it's coming off slowly but getting there. I agree with all the other responses. It takes time for your body to adjust to the huge change you just went through. Sooner or later your body will start to let go of stored fat and retained water and you'll see the scales start to move the direction you want.

Your body is swollen and healing. While the incisions are small, the work done inside is major - and this is your first inkling.

As recommended in an earlier comment, don't weigh yourself yet It's mostly fluids from the hospital and fluid retained by your body due to swelling.

Pace yourself as far as energy goes. Be gentle with yourself, rest a lot, and let your stamina come back gradually. It will. You're not "gaining" weight at all, it's just all working its way out.

You really, really need to do better with fluids. Burning fat requires a lot of extra fluid, healing requires extra fluid. You will be constantly exhausted until you drink more. There really is no rwason at this point to have to go to the hoital to get hydrated. Try hot, cold, flavored. Popsicles, jello. Make it your number one job. Everything else will follow that.

I'm working hard on getting the fluids in. The thing with me is that when the surgeon went in to do the bypass, he said I had massive scar tissue from some other surgeries that he has to remove before he could do the bypass - then he said because of that, he didn't like the way the staple line was looking so he put in some extra sutures. That made everything inside really tight. For the first week after surgery, everything was so swollen inside that I could not even hold down my own saliva - I vomited non-stop for 5 days. On the 6th day I was able to hold down some water. On the seventh day they let me go home but told me flat out I would have to return to the hospital for hydration as needed because I was still extremely swollen inside and unable to get much fluid down. This was verified by two upper GI's I had while still in hospital. My surgeon said it might take weeks and weeks for the swelling to subside, making it hard to get anything down. I'm sure this is the case because try as I might, it is almost impossible to get the 72 ounces of fluid in that I'm supposed to be getting. It takes me over an hour of sipping just to get a cup - 8 ozs - of water or anything else down. Also I find I have a real aversion to anything sweet. I bought all these flavors of jello and Popsicles, not to mention juices and Miso soup - and all I can tolerate at this point is plain water and the Miso soup. Anything sweet and I start dry heaving just looking at it, let alone putting it in my mouth. But, today is a new day and I'll begin again, trying to get tha****er in there, with maybe a little cream of mushroom soup too, since I'm now allowed strained, creamed soups. Here's hoping for a better day each day cause I HATE the way I'm feeling right now!

Hydration is very hard on the body. Really hard.

DRINK and stay off the scale.

Deb T.