Haven't posted in 2 yrs....Need some help/advice.

I'm almost 3 yrs post op. Surgery was 11/11/03. I've gained 39 lbs back, about 1/2 of which has been within the last 4-5 months. I'm not really doing anything different with my diet or exercising. I ocassionally have a pain (kind of burning sensation, but not always, just hurts) in the right side of my stomach and I'm worried that I may have a staple line rupture. I am able to eat more than I think I should. Has anyone ever had a staple line rupture and what are the symptoms? I know what I need to do in order to get back on track as far just losing weight again, but can't seem to get motivated to do it. Any advice on how to get myself motivated again. I'm very depressed about my weight gain, which doesn't help because I'm the poster child for emotional eating. It's a vicious cycle! I hate the way my clothes look on me and I'm constantly worried about it. I'm a mess. Please, ANY help/advice would be greatly appreciated! Leah

Leah - hi, Please go see your dr...don't wait, no matter what is going on with the weight gain just having the pain in your right side is enough to not wait to see your dr. I am only 19 months out and I have had different pains in my right side - let me tell you - I am glad I went back to my surgeon to have it checked out.It gave me peace of mind and it has allowed my Dr. to check things out further and if I had not listened to my body I would be in big trouble. We are different than other people who have not had the surgery - so we have to be our number 1 advocate for good health. I was not this way before surgery but I am learning to step up and speak up. Take care and I hope you get to feeling better. deb k

Hi Leah, Do go to the Dr. regarding the pain. Try hard to turn your depression into complete motivation. It's so hard and frightening, I know. All of us have been there. Join our food log check in, it has been an enormous help for me, everyone is great and so understanding. Let me know how you make out with your pain. best wishes, Linda

Leah, where you transected? If not, it's possible you could have a staple line disruption, please call your surgeon to get checked out. He can scope you and see if that is your case which does cause a regain since you can eat more. He can also check the size of your pouch and the stoma opening. This should be your first step, once you know what is happening you can go forward and decide the best route to take, if all is well then it's time to get back to basics. Re-read the pouch rules for dummies, go back to your beginning of your journey where your first choice was always protein and lean vegetables, getting rid of the carb cravings. I wish you the best. Dana

Definitely see your doctor about the pain. As far as motivation to get started exercising I can tell you what helped me. About 9-10 months out I found that I was doing less and less exercise and was having a hard time getting started again. I'd been going to the gym 5-6 days a week faithfully until I started to get busy at work. It became less and less and I was lucky if I went 2 days a week. I started to see the same old pattern starting again. The exercise was the first to go. Eventually I knew I would stop completely. In the beginning, I swore to myself that if I ever had the chance to lose this weight, that I wasn't going to blow it. I was really disappointed with myself for not exercising. As luck would have it, at the next support group meeting, one of the successful gals asked me if I would be a participant in an upcoming relay race (she's into half marathons). I said yes before I had the chance to talk myself out of it. Long story short, due to family obligations, I couldn't be in the race but I told another gal at the group that I would help her train for it. You cannot believe how much that motivated me. I did not want the other gal to fail because of me. I didn't want to slow her down in any way, so by pushing her I was also pushing myself. It was all I could do to walk 2 miles at first. This was last March. In July, I went to Portland and I got up early one morning and walked 13.5 miles (jogged about 1/3 of it off and on). And, just recently, for the first time in my whole life, I jogged an entire 3.1 miles at one time without stopping. One of the best things that has come out of this is I've become friends with other WLS people. I only talked to them before at the meetings and rarely outside of those meetings. Now we get together often to exercise and some of us are even doing things besides exercise. It's really a different kind of friendship because we've all battled the same battle and we know what kind of challenges each of us have or are going thru. So, maybe you can sign up for an upcoming 5K (3.1 miles) walkathon and maybe get another WLS person to help you train for it. If that person also signs up for it, your motivation can be to help the other person train. HTH Linda