Bariatric surgery

[Becky]

My husband is having gastric bypass this week and I am super anxious about how his life and my life will change. If anyone has had weight loss surgery, do you have any tips on how I can best support him going forward? Realistic expectations? I don’t want to be the food police but I am the food preparer in our family, so I am going to have to balance his needs with mine and he is already a very picky eater, always has been. Luckily there are no kids at home so it is just the two of us but I feel like it is still a lot to manage. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Is he having a Roux-en-Y bypass?

[47of74]

I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy three years ago next month.

It's going to be about a month before he can have solid food again.  They will have him step up through the diet, going from a liquid diet to a pureed, to semi-solid, and then on to solid food.  He might only be able to have 500 calories at first.  They're going to want to watch to make sure he's getting all the nutrients and proteins he needs.  He'll want to be careful so that he doesn't have post-op complications, such as developing a leak in the sleeve. 

Even after the step up diet is done he's not going to be able to eat as much as he did before so you'll want to adjust the size of the portions otherwise you'll have a lot of leftovers that will take a long time to consume.  I'm three years out and still can't eat all that much without getting full.  If I do too much at once it still comes back up on me.  That's actually one thing I liked about buffets is that I could get myself very small portions of food and not be served giant plates of stuff that would either have to be worked on for several days or thrown out.  

One thing to be aware of if he consumes alcohol after surgery is that it will not take as much to get intoxicated as it would otherwise, due to the smaller size of the stomach and the fact that more alcohol reaches the brain than otherwise so he may want to think about that if he plans to drink alcohol at any point following surgery.

Pain wise I think generally the third or forth day after surgery is the worst.  After that day I was actually able to lie down all night and get some good sleep.  They'll likely give him a prescription for liquid opioids in case he has any pain after surgery but my pain never got to the point that I needed it.

Hope that all helps

Edited June 9, 2020 by 47of74

[Fluffles]

This is an interesting topic. I’m in the very early stages of thinking about getting it done. Is it worth it or will I have the same problems in a few years?