New to the group.

Thank you again. Were you sore or sick during the 8 weeks after surgery?

I had an amazing recovery. I had one or two very brief - as in a couple of seconds long - bouts of nausea the day after surgery. After that, nothing. I didn't even have any real soreness, although the incision sites were a little tender for a while. I did feel as weak as a baby kitten for a while, but once I got back to some more solid food and the ability to exercise, my strength came back rapidly.

Thank you, that is good to know. My wife and I travel a lot and I was really wondering how long it would be before I felt well enough to handle my 5th wheel RV.

So I'm less than a month out of surgery. I had a fairly fast recovery, my main issue is tiredness. I went back after a week and a half but find myself needing naps.

As others have mentioned, water after the meal causes digestion issues.

For me, I just use a pre-natal vitamin chewable (jamesons) and d3 drops so it's not that bad.

--Joe

1) Tips - in retrospect, probably the best thing I did for myself was to start following the diet I would follow long term in maintenance. I dropped a ton of weight (almost 50 lbs in the 6 weeks prior to the surgery) which was great to already have a good start on the weight loss, but also started getting me into the habit of how I would eat long term. Personally, this is a gift that keeps on giving for me.

2) Worst thing after surgery - establishing a new routine for food. Planning out my day, eating and drinking at the correct intervals to get all of my protein/liquids in. It was a pain in the but for the first few weeks, but it gets easier and easier.

3) What keeps you from going back to work - not much. I had a pretty easy recovery. I was a little tired the first couple of weeks, but the hardest part about going back to work was that schedule I mentioned above. Took me a couple of weeks to get that done. Other than that - no problem. I do work a desk job though, so YMMV.

4) Why do you not drink water with your meal - I do drink with my meals. My surgeon has no issue with drinking/eating together. The first few weeks/months I didn;t drink much during meals, but that was mostly because I didn't have room for both, and had to focus on getting food in during meals. Since then, I always have.

5) Vitamins - I used chewable bariatric vitamins the first few weeks. After that, I take 2 Centrum a day and 1 Iron pill. At this point, I can take them all at once, no issues.

wow....thank you so much. That is great to know. I am trying just what you said. Trying to get used to high protein and about 1900 calorie (even though I know it will be less after the surgery) Again, thank you so much for the advice. As far as work, I am retired now, but my wife and I like to RV. I was just wondering how long it would be before we could travel again. Thanks again. Mark

Great questions for your surgeon. From a purely technical medical perspective, as soon as you are off pain meds you should be able to drive. That being said, I know from my surgeon's perspective, the bigger issue is access to health care. I travel some for work, and his biggest concern was that I wasn't in a third world country, or some rural town somewhere in the US. As long as I was traveling to major metropolitan areas, he didn't have a lot of concerns about me traveling. You would hate to have some sort of intestinal blockage and be in the middle of Eastern Utah (for example) where you are 100 miles from the nearest gad station, let alone an high quality hospital. In addition, if you had some sort of emergency that prevented you from driving, it would be important that your wife was able to drive the RV as well if necessary.

Again, these are just my perspectives - I would definitely discuss a plan with your surgeon.