Archives: September 2024
What To Expect Immediately After Your Bariatric Surgery
This article aims to give you a better idea of what to expect immediately after your bariatric surgery. This is not to say that preparations for surgery and the few weeks before surgery are not critical, nor is the longer-term bariatric recovery trivial. There are many important things to remember, the most vital of which is to listen to your surgeon’s instructions and any instructions provided by our clinical staff, including Jenny, our bariatrician. Similarly, postoperatively, we want to ensure you don’t have any vitamin deficiencies, so take your multivitamins and any other prescribed vitamins religiously. You also want to ensure you hydrate, which is crucial to losing weight and staying strong throughout the process.
Taste Changes After Your Bariatric Procedure
Many changes occur in your body after bariatric surgery; some are obvious, such as losing weight and your body composition changes. Some are psychological, like how you go about your daily life due to improved confidence and feeling better. Some are hormonal, with many patients feeling less hunger after a gastric sleeve, for example, or may experience a rebalancing in hormones that allow them to conceive. These changes are well documented in the literature – we understand them and can often predict them. However, one almost universal change is talked about far less, but it is also a big part of postoperative life. We’re not sure exactly why it happens, but most patients experience significant changes in their tastes after surgery. We know that transitioning from ultra-processed foods to more natural meals makes a difference. Many have experienced that when eating a fast-food meal after a week or two of “clean” eating. But why do some patients have an aversion to plain water after surgery? Why do some people love cilantro after hating it their whole lives? We don’t know why this happens exactly, but we know the mechanisms behind it.
