New to forum and have tons of crazy feelings.

Recovery - 9 days before I was off pain pills, 14 days before I returned to full time work, 6 weeks before abdominal soreness eased up, and three months before I felt like my old self.

Recovery issues? I had an allergic reaction to the steristrips and/or Lortab...... got hives over my whole body (not common) and had to take steroids to stop the progression (it was beginning to close my airway and antihistamines didn't stop it)

I'm NOT a typical RNY person .... I eat LESS than typical. My normal day recently --- been home recuperating from back surgery --- is MORE than my typical work day..... let's compare the two

Typical work day:
3 protein shakes, two to three protein/snack bars, two small meals, and a before-bed snack... calories range from 700 to 1100

Typical recuperatoin day (with nothing to do but eat and drink)
3 protein shakes, a lite-chocolate almond breeze beverage, a one-cup serving of Fage Yoghurt with berries, a 1/2 ccup serving of WLS-friendly lasagna, a one-minute muffin, two to three snack bars, including one before bed ..... that's about 1500 to 1700 calories

I'm in "maintenance mode" and consider that as long as I don't gain significant weight I can eat whatever I want. Normally I'm too busy to worry about eating, and have to make myself do it.

I kept my surgery to myself, hubby, and my side of the family (hubby's side of teh family do not know)

I dump quite often.... but only 30% of people dump.... .and I have both types of dumping, both early dumping ..... happens within 15 minutes of eating, includes sweating, elevated heart beat, feeling of doom-n-gloom.... and late dumping which is really reactive hypoglycemia. so if I eat something like a tiny slice of chocolate cake, an hour later I might have my heartrate elevate, shaky, sweaty, muddled thinking.... this one is dangerous because extremely low blood sugar can lead to coma and death. That's part of why it might seems like I eat a lot. I eat a little something (usually on the order of 100 calories) every couple of hours.

Problems with malabsorption? Not sure what you are getting at here. We ALL malabsorb a lot of vitamins and have to supplement for life or we WILL: have problems, and some people have to be more aggressive in their vitamin routines than others. I malabsorb the pain meds I'm taking for my surgery, and that has been a real bummer.