When do you start to have energy come back?

7.5 weeks post op and still tired, it is almost 1am here now and I should be in bed because I get up in 4 hrs to get ready for work.

Anyways, I am taking a short 20 min nap at work the last few weeks on my lunch break and ready for bed when I get home and sometimes I am fortunate enough to have someone watch the baby while I close my eyes for an hour.

I don't know if it is just my bad sleeping pattern for the last month or if it is still too soon to have energy.

I know I have been following a missing girl case for a month now, just yesterday they announced they have found a body and today they confirmed it was the missing girl. I have been so wrapped up in this case that I read and read for hours in the evening when I had a chance. I was just so hoping she would be found safe and sound and this is so depressing today. I didn't know the girl personally but it touched me in so many ways. I was in the area for Thanksgiving and drove around with her missing flyers and stopping to talk to people that were out walking the back streets of the area to make them aware of the missing girl. My heart is heavy today, tears have flowed a few times just thinking of what this young girl had to go through. I was so hoping that she would be ok, now all I hope is that they get this monster or even better, the public gets him/her first. The girl's boyfriend is a person of interest but the law enforcement has not been giving out any information at all so mostly everyone believes it was the boyfriend. I am not going to worry about this until they make an announcement.

Re: the energy, are you taking b12? Taking other vitamins? Getting plenty of water?

I get my water in daily, I take b-12's, multi and calcium for now. I will be taking vitamin D soon since our hours of sunlight are short in winter months. I will be taking vitamin C probably next year since it is really too late for starting it for the winter cold and flu season.

Like I said my sleep has been off so generally just wondering when others seem to notice an increase in their energy. Maybe if my sleep was normal I would notice by now? Just wondering when people started to notice the increase. I was always tired before surgery too.

At the 1 month mark I got sick with a cold, last week I started taking tylenol 1's to suppress the lingering cough, as suggested by a Dr friend of mine since I couldn't sleep at night with the cough waking me up to a point where I was almost vomiting. I hit the two week stall and since then still not much coming off in the weight but clothes are getting very loose so I know I must be losing inches.

I generally get the 64 ounces of water in
500-600 calories a day
under 40 carbs a day

walk about an hour a day, increasing it lately an extra 15 mins all up hill

I was very weak for a good month, easily fatigued for several.. started really feeling better by mo 4-5.. I was in bad shape going into this, and since it's major surgery.. it does take time. Despite all my vites, iron etc., it still was several months before I had energy to burn!

Thanks Jo, basically what I was looking for to make sure I was normal. I shouldn't have had that long nap today because I am not tired yet and need to get my butt to bed to be able to wake up soon.

I was just so use to napping before I returned to work it is hard to get out of the habit especially when you desperately need that nap. I am pretty good at work and they know my energy is down. A Dr friend of mine agrees that we are still in starvation mode at this stage. I was told not to do the iron vitamins unless my blood work shows that I need it that it is hard on the stomach.

Just a heads up, Vitalady's Tender Iron is far from hard on the stomach, and you may likely need it at some point.. iron stores you have (unless anemic) tend to tank at 1-2 years out or so.. it's a good idea to supplement with it at least a little bit as it's far easier to head off a deficiency than bring it back up.

At your three mo labs, make sure they pull everything including ferritin.. you can go from there- but Tender Iron capsules with C is super gentle, no stomach issues/constipation or anything.. Just remember to take them correctly (away from caffeine, eggs, dairy, grains, other meds, and calcium..)

Good advice on the 'easier to head off a deficiency than bring it back up'. I go in at my 3 month mark for blood work. Hopefully I will have a family dr again by that time that knows what a VSG is. I will probably come on here to get a list that I should suggest that they mark off to be tested for.

My family dr left my area while I was post op and no announcement to patients. I had a fill in dr for my first visit that had no idea what a VSG was but thank goodness I just wanted a note to return to work.

Your Dr will likely not know, keep in mind, if you were self pay (?) some of these labs may be on you to pay, or may need to be creatively coded to get your ins to cover.. this is the list complements of Brandilynn.. All of these need to be monitored, as even though we do not have a "malabsorptive" surgery.. with the little amounts we do eat.. we do have a higher than normal chance of developing deficiencies in a year or two, especially if not supplementing correctly! Unless you are living close to the equator, your D will likely be low (not good).. mine was 36 or 38, should be above 80.. without D, your calcium isn't going to help your bones much and your PTH will likely be higher than it should be (meaning your body is pulling from your bones..) MOST people are low in D.

Edited to add: get copies of your labs, learn to read your labs.. do not listen to the doc if they just say everything looks "fine".. many don't pay any attention as long as you are in "range" even if things are slowly tanking, they will generally not catch this..

Hold vitamin supplements for 3 days prior to lab draw – have them drawn fasting

 

CBC

Pro time, PT/INR

Iron, TIBC, ferritin, transferrin

Copper, Zinc, albumin

Comprehensive metabolic panel

Folate, Vitamin A (DO NOT EXPOSE TO LIGHT), *vitamin B 1, *vitamin B6 (*also do not expose to light), vitamin B12, vitamin D (Dhydroxy 25, 0,25 – NOT 1,25)

 

PTH (for use with calcium and vitamin D levels, where is calcium coming from)

 

Lipid panel, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL, HDL, cholesterol total.

This is what I was given, minus the PTH and the light information on the B1 and B6, this I learned after my first set of labs and asked for help.

I was self pay in Mexico but Canadian health care is free including the blood work so will take that list with me. Thanks so much. I have a few Dr friends that will go over my results with me a bit closer though if needed.

I was pretty tired by late afternoon every day for about a month, maybe a little longer. Starting about six weeks out, I noticed I seem to have more energy than before surgery, and have been tackling some major household projects lately. I think it's becauseI'm not dragging around 50 extra pounds all the time.