greensthings

I am 5 months post surgery and never had any hair loss. In fact if you look at my before and after pics, my hair looks better now than pre surgery!!

Find a water aerobics class and join! It is not as stressful or as painful as going to the gym, but burns twice the calories! I did just water aerobics 3x a week for about 2 months after surgery, now I am up to 2 hours a day at the gym plus the water aerobics 3x a week!!

I am 5 days post-op. As long as you are staying hydrated, the rest will follow. A day or two of limited Protein intake is OK, just get more in when you and sleevie are ready for it. I can now roll on my side. A tip that helped me roll on my side and generally feel better was: I put on a stretchy exercise support belt and it not only helped feel like I was "smoothing" out my belly, as it was so lumpy and swollen from the procedure, but it helped support that "hanging watermelon" feeling I was having. The support also enabled me to get up and move better, as well as roll on my side easier. I found my belt at Walmart by Gold's Gym and it was under $10. You are right the Liquid Lortab is horrible! But each day that passes I find I don't need it as much. Today I the bruises are coming to the surface and my tummy looks all black and blue, but the only place I have pain is on the right side around the liver, where my DR told me that he pulled the excess stomach out through the laprioscopic hole, and that only hurts now when I bend over too far or when my bladder is full.....

When I decided to start the program back in April, the only people that knew were my Husband and my Doctor. Then in May I had two of my cousins move in next door (sisters). I figured they were family and since they lived next door I could not hid it from them. So I told them...one was EXTREMELY supportive, she goes with the gym with me daily and between the 2 of us in the last 6 months we have lost together over 150 pounds!!! She helps keep me motivated, has gone with me to DR appts, Dietitian appts, Physically Therapy appts, we talk about menu changes and eating right etc. (Did I mention she weighed over 450 pounds when we started and without surgery, she is down to 360 pounds just by working out with me!) She is MY inspiration! Now her sister.....the first thing she said when I told them about me getting a sleevie was "Thats cheating!!" That is when I closed down on telling people what I was going through. She has since seen her sister and I lose weight by working out and the closeness between us and decided she was going to get with the program too. She has lost 3 pounds (her weight started at 325 pounds). I am only 5 days out from surgery, and she told me yesterday, that while I was in the hospital, she called my surgeon and made an appt to get started on the Bariatric program herself! Once I started losing weight pre-surgery and people started to ask me about it, I tentatively told a few (I wasn't ashamed of the surgery until my cousin made the comment about it cheating BTW), and all I have received is support from everyone I told (besides my cousin). I started to lose my embarrassment over talking about the surgery, the closer I got to my surgery and the more weight I lost pre-surgery. I discovered through Facebook, that by talking about my surgery that I have 4 people on my friends list (including my bestie from High School 30 years ago) that have had surgery in the last year, 8 more that have been thinking about it and 2 that will be having surgery in the next few months! So by showing courage, and talking about it, you will find more support than you ever knew as well as changing people's minds about WLS being "cheating" once they find out how much work REALLY goes into it! I have been averaging a pound a day weight loss since surgery BTW!

Divorced the fat lady inside Best thing I've done Hope for the future

I had several upper endoscopy scopes that diagnosed a "Gaping Hiatal Hernia". The last one was about a week before surgery to double check how involved my surgery was going to be. I had also had a Bravo monitor done about 3 months before I started the Bariatric program. (A Bravo monitor is where they sew a small device high up in the esophogus and and you wear a monitor around your waist and it measures how much acid reflux is flowing up your esophogus. Mine was quite high, and was one of the reasons that I decided that if I needed a hiatal hernia repair, then I might as well go full bore and get the VSG as well....)

I just found this forum board! Hi everyone! I had my VSG with Hiatal Hernia Repair on Nov 10th, released from hospital on Nov 11th by 7pm (Thank Goodness or they were going to kill me!) The ride home was over an hour and I cried the whole ride home, even though I was doing amazing in the hospital (despite the oopses they were making). I am still on Clear liquids, tomorrow I should progress to full liquids. I am walking, and tolerating clear fluids well. Where I hurt, is not my stomach, or the 4 out of 6 puncture marks from my laprioscopy. The 5th puncture (the one over my liver) hurts the most. My Surgeon said that is where the deep muscle stitches and where he pulled the excess stomach material after reducing my stomach in size. I lost 65 pounds pre-surgery (Starting weight in April was 287 pounds) surgery date I was down to 232 pounds. I work out in the High School Gym 5 days a week (Free and open to the public from 4pm to 7pm M-F), Water exercise 2 days a week (Sundays the High School pool is open and free, Tuesdays for 2$ we have a water exercise teacher. I do the exercises she teaches us and do them for free on Sundays). My Surgeon told me absolutely no exercise (not even walking) and no lifting weights over 5 pounds for 3 weeks. Yet my Bariatric program (They are more geared to the RnY/Lapband group) said I needed to start walking on the treadmill as soon as possible. I am confused. At this point I figure my surgeon knows best, so I am listening to him. The Hospital I went too, within an hour after getting to my room after surgery, they wanted me to start drinking clear Protein drinks, and juices (every "meal" they would have pineapple juice in a cup and that BURNED so badly!!), one medicine cup full every 15 mins (that hurt like He**!!), the next morning they brought me in a multi Vitamin (full, regular non-chewable that was the size of my thumb) and insisted I take it. I protested saying it should be a chewable, the RN (who had just got done boasting that I was her first VSG since she had been in the hospital and was getting one herself in 2 weeks, should have known better). Argued with me for several minutes, before yelling at me, "Just take the damn pill, its only a vitamin and can't hurt you!" So I took the "damn pill" and within 15 minutes I was throwing up and in major pain! Between throwing up, I was walking the hallways, and that is why they let me go home so early, because I was walking so much. They sent in a CNA to remove my IV (Since when is THAT allowed? I was an LPN for 20 years and CNA's weren't allowed to do things like that!). I had an red allergy tag that clearly was marked I am allergic to tape and the CNA tried to put tape on my several times. I was super glued closed on the holes to my laprioscopy so that no tape or bandage had to be applied to my belly. Long story short, I am glad my surgery is behind me, and that I am at home where I can get tender loving care!

Thank You! The hospital I was at does have a Bariatric program, and I started walking as soon as they took my catheter out (I was an LPN for over 20 years, so I knew what I needed to do to get better and out of the hospital...It also meant I was on to every mistake the Staff made....)

[quote name=Lisa ' timestamp='1321242758' post='228876] Welcome!! Sorry you had such a rough time in the hospital. I was lucky to be at a hospital with a bariatric program and all the nurses and CNA's were understanding. I was sleeved on the 9th and I also had a hiatal hernia repaired. I wish I could move to full liquids now...the Isopure is killing me and I can't move to full liquids until after my post-op appt on Friday. Anyway, welcome!!...there is a lot of great info and support here!! The Hospital I was at DOES have a bariatric program!! They were full and I was overflowed onto the onocology floor

Items I took to the hospital, that made a difference in how I felt: My favorite pillow My favorite fuzzy blanket My favorite robe Comfy slippers 3 pairs of fuzzy socks (cause my feet are always cold) chapstick my laptop my favorite body & face lotions A size bigger than you would normally wear fuzzy pants or sweat pants for the ride home, as your belly is going to be tender. a "wife beater" heavy T shirt to wear under baggy shirt instead of a bra for the ride home, as a bra might be too uncomfortable. Baggy soft sweater to wear on ride home as it was cold and snowing here. Of course all of these things were left in the car until my surgery was over, then my husband brought them in. *Except for one pair of fuzzy socks that I was able to wear through surgery, they were the only clothing from home I was allowed to keep on, I explained my feet get cold and I was told I could keep them on*

Just so you know a little more about me, besides my VSG/Hernia repair... I am a 3 time cancer survivor (age 10, brain tumor[Menegeoma], age 21 Uterine Cancer [discovered when I was 6 months pregnant], age 36 skin cancer), as well as a Service Connected Disabled Veteran (US Army 6 years). I Garden and give the produce to my local food bank, I do charity sewing (cancer hats, preemie onesies, homeless sleeping bag kits, blankets for Project Linus and much more), I am very active in the DAV as well as performing Honor Guard duty for Military funerals along side of the VFW, American Legion and DAV. My Husband has lost over 30 inches of intestine due to Crohn's disease and has not worked in over 3 years and is waiting to be accepted on Social Security. Our oldest son at home is bi-polar. We are living on my very small VA check. To say that things are tight is an understatement, but we always manage to squeak by. My car doesn't go into reverse unless it has been running to warm up for over a half an hour. This means anytime I park, I have to find a pull through spot, just in case I can't back up. It may be a beater and all rusted through but it is paid for and the only transportation I have. Which since we have so many medical problems in our family and we have to drive over an hour one way to get to the various Doctors, we pray every time we get into the car, that it will make it to our destination "just one more time". My life's motto is, Nothing is so bad, that you can not over come it. Laughter goes a long way to making yourself, and those around you feel better. I try and make the most out of every day. I have done so much in my life. I lived in Europe, I sang in a band, I play Cello and Bass, and you know, I don't think I would have done so much if I had not had cancer. My personal philosophy about life reflects the Tim McGraw song "Live like you're dying".

I just found this forum board! Hi everyone! I had my VSG with Hiatal Hernia Repair on Nov 10th, released from hospital on Nov 11th by 7pm (Thank Goodness or they were going to kill me!) The ride home was over an hour and I cried the whole ride home, even though I was doing amazing in the hospital (despite the oopses they were making). I am still on Clear Liquids, tomorrow I should progress to full liquids. I am walking, and tolerating clear fluids well. Where I hurt, is not my stomach, or the 4 out of 6 puncture marks from my laprioscopy. The 5th puncture (the one over my liver) hurts the most. My Surgeon said that is where the deep muscle stitches and where he pulled the excess stomach material after reducing my stomach in size. I lost 65 pounds pre-surgery (Starting weight in April was 287 pounds) surgery date I was down to 232 pounds. I work out in the High School Gym 5 days a week (Free and open to the public from 4pm to 7pm M-F), Water exercise 2 days a week (Sundays the High School pool is open and free, Tuesdays for 2$ we have a water exercise teacher. I do the exercises she teaches us and do them for free on Sundays). My Surgeon told me absolutely no exercise (not even walking) and no lifting weights over 5 pounds for 3 weeks. Yet my Bariatric program (They are more geared to the RnY/Lapband group) said I needed to start walking on the treadmill as soon as possible. I am confused. At this point I figure my surgeon knows best, so I am listening to him. The Hospital I went too, within an hour after getting to my room wanted me to start drinking clear Protein drinks, and juices (every "meal" they would have pineapple juice in a cup and that BURNED so badly!!), one medicine cup full every 15 mins (that hurt like He**!!), the next morning they brought me in a multi Vitamin (full, regular non-chewable that was the size of my thumb) and insisted I take it. I protested saying it should be a chewable, the RN (who had just got done boasting that I was her first VSG since she had been in the hospital and was getting one herself in 2 weeks, should have known better). Argued with me for several minutes, before yelling at me, "Just take the damn pill, its only a vitamin and can't hurt you!" So I took the "damn pill" and within 15 minutes I was throwing up and in major pain! Between throwing up, I was walking the hallways, and that is why they let me go home so early, because I was walking so much. They sent in a CNA to remove my IV (Since when is THAT allowed? I was an LPN for 20 years and CNA's weren't allowed to do things like that!). I had an red allergy tag that clearly was marked I am allergic to tape and the CNA tried to put tape on my several times. I was super glued closed on the holes to my laprioscopy so that no tape or bandage had to be applied to my belly. Long story short, I am glad my surgery is behind me, and that I am at home where I can get tender loving care!