.:princesszelda:.

One of the creams/ointments was to help prevent infection. Two of the ointments/creams was to help with dryness and irritation of the skin. Two of the creams/ointments was to help with pain and inflammation. So, out of the creams and ointments I was given, the only one that helped the most was the lidocaine cream/ointment; that helped numb the problem areas. Another one that helped was this one cream/ointment that was pretty much diaper rash cream and moisturizer in a bottle (I think it was called dimethicone protectant). I don't know why I was given so much stuff. My surgeon goes through this 3rd party company that fills and mails your prescriptions to you and everything is covered by my parents insurance. Plus, it saves a ton of time for my parents as they don't have to run out to the pharmacy and have a lot of prescriptions filled and pay a lot of money. In the beginning, all of this sounded like a good idea and it is still a good idea. However, I found out today that my surgeon is no longer doing business with this company as a lot of people were having problems with these creams/ointments and having problems with other things as well (I don't think it was with the company itself).

I had my post op follow up appointment today. We did a lot of stuff during this appointment. I showed my surgeons' physician assistant my incisions/wounds and the physician assistant told me that all of the creams and ointments I was putting on could be irritating my wounds/incisions and causing them not to heal correctly/the right way. So, the physician assistant told me to stop using all of the ointments and creams all together and she gave me this silver nitrate antimicrobial gel to put on the wounds/incisions twice a day (once in the morning and once before I go to bed). I have never used any type of ointment/cream/gel that contains silver nitrate, but my parents and the physician assistant says that stuff really works, but I'll see what happens. The physician assistant also said that my skin is super sensitive right now. So, that could be a reason as to why my abdominal skin looks irritated in those areas right now. It is possible for me to keep my stomach covered with a clean cloth. I kind of do that in a way now (I take pieces of paper towel and cover the wounds/incisions with those pieces; I use tape to keep the paper towel pieces in place).

Congratulations on the 86 pound loss! You should be extremely proud of yourself. I'll be two months out at the end of this week and I have only lost 32 pounds since I had surgery. I haven't really lost any hair. I may have lost a few extra strands of hair than normal, but it is not like clumps of hair like most people have told me that hair loss would be like after surgery.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have been getting anywhere between 50-100 grams of protein, all of it through food. I have protein powder to make protein drinks, but every time I drink it, I get really nauseous. The thing that is getting me is I have one incision that has completely healed up. How come I have one incision that is completely healed up, but 4 other incisions that almost look like skin ulcers. My surgeon wants me to get at least 60-85 grams of protein and 48-64 oz of water. I have been getting 60-100 oz of water each day and 50-100 grams of protein each day. However, my carb intake is a little high, but I have been trying to decrease my carb intake. At this point, if I can have the remaining unhealed incisions glued, steri-stripped or stitched, I would get one of those three things done, if at all possible. I have used up at least 5 box of bandaids and my skin has started to become sensitive to those bandaids and has even took some skin off. I do have gauze pads, but they don't really stay on and the tape I have does work, but not really well.

Hey everyone, As the title says it, this week will mark 2 months since I had my duodenal switch bariatric surgery and most of my incisions have not healed up. I have 5 incisions that my surgeon made on surgery day: 4 incisions that are pretty much on the same level as my belly button and then 1 incision that is located where my bra band is situated at. I have one incision that closed up nicely and can't even tell that it was even an incision and then there are 4 incisions that seem to not want to heal up at all and almost look like skin ulcers. A week or 2 ago, I showed a lady at my church my incisions (she is a pre-op nurse at the hospital where I had my surgery) and she told me to clean my wounds with an equal mix of saltwater and hydrogen peroxide. She also mentioned that a reason as to why the wounds may not be healing correctly is because when I sit down, the skin "rolls" and hits my clothes and the clothes and skin rub against each other. Anyways, my surgeon had given me at least half a dozen different creams and ointments to put onto these wounds (I was given these creams and ointments a few days before surgery through a third party company that delivers prescriptions). Despite using over half a dozen creams and ointments, the wounds are still not healed up, but at least they are not gaping holes. Look up skin ulcers and that is almost what my wounds look like. Has anyone experienced something like this? If so, what did you do? How long did it take for them to heal up? I go to see my surgeon's physician assistant tomorrow, so I will most definitely show her the wounds that are not healing. I know I probably should have gone in sooner, but I wanted to see if the wounds would start to heal on their own and they do look a TINY bit better, but they still look kind of rough. I just want everything to heal up as the areas were my clothes hit (bra band rubbing against skin making it red and raw and then the area where the elastic band of my underwear hits my skin is also red and raw) is really sore and hurting and probably just making everything worse.

So, as the title of this post says, I had a few questions about that "time of the month". I just had duodenal switch surgery on February 22nd, 2018 and I was on my 4th or 5th day of my period. A month later, I got my period on time and by on time, I mean a day late. That only lasted 5 days as usual. I'm due to get my period some time next week. For all of the females out there that have had surgery already, did your period get irregular after surgery because of the quick weight loss or did your periods stay relatively the same despite losing weight so quickly? How long did it take for your period to be back to normal?

My name is Cathy and I thought I would make a little post introducing myself. I'm 23 years old and I'm currently in graduate school getting my master's degree in Biotechnology with a specialization in Biodefense and Biosecurity. I have a blue belt in karate. My family considers me the family historian as I do A LOT of genealogical research on my ancestors and I have 1-3 book shelves just filled family history stuff (documents, pictures, etc.). Anyways, I recently had bariatric surgery on February 22nd, 2018. The type of bariatric surgery My highest weight ever was somewhere between 359 lbs-360 lbs and that was during the 6 months of supervised diet and exercise I has to do because of insurance. When I first started this process, my weight at my first consult ever with the surgeon was 342 lbs. My weight at my last consult with surgeon was 349.8 lbs. When I started to do the special pre-op diet (for me, they had me do two weeks of eating really small and healthy meals and then I had to do the one week of the liquid diet), my weight was 348.2 lbs. On the day of surgery, my weight was 333.2 lbs. So, I lost about 15 lbs on this specialized 3 week diet. My weight right now is 308.6 lbs. So, since I had the surgery, I have lost a total of about 24.6 lbs. Can't wait to meet everyone on here!