JanetF

Hi, Sr910 and everyone else following this thread! I am a Brit living in Beirut, brought here by my work (I work for the UN). I have been here for four and a half years, enjoying Beirut, Lebanon and the broader region. I was sleeved four months ago today (April 17th) and things haven't gone well since then (some of it sleeve-related, but most of it gynaecological hassle) but I finally seem to be on the mend at long last and have found my way back to VST today for the first time in a few months. Hope you are all doing well!

Hi, Kmbrlycool! I have had similar problems, but without having taken any Milk of Magnesia. I asked my surgeon about it and he suggested that it may be a reaction to the artificial sweeteners in the sugar-free jelly. If you are having S/F jelly and Crystal Lite, which I have never had, but which I think is artificially sweetened, and S/F Popsicles, you're having quite a lot of artificial sweeteners. You could try cutting back on them and seeing if that makes a difference. I hope it will!

Hi, Lismivel! Don't be discouraged! Others here who are further post-surgery than I am will be able to give you good advice on how best to keep up your intake, as my experience is limited, since I am still in the clear fluids stage. Just so you know you aren't the only one worrying about your weight loss, when I was weighed at my first follow-up appointment last Thursday (9 days post-op) I was one kilo more (yes, more!) than I had been on the same scales two weeks previously - after four days of no food while on the IV, six days on clear fluids only and a huge portion of my stomach having been removed! Of course, I had read the average weight loss statistics and was therefore doubly disappointed. The surgeon said (from what I can remember between my tears!) that all sorts of things could be responsible, but that in days of yore I would have been ideally positioned to survive in periods of famine, as my body is so good at hanging on to what it has accumulated during times of plenty! He warned that it could also mean that I can expect long stalls as I move through the weight loss process, but for both of us, if the loss isn't showing at the moment, once it does show, it should be well worth seeing! Keep your chin up and all the best!

Hi, Carla! Congratulations on successfully vaulting your first hurdle on the path to VSG surgery! It's a long path and of which I am only in the early stages (I was 'sleeved' on April 17th). I had fought against the idea of bariatric surgery for many years, but finally decided that it was the best way - in fact, realistically the only way - to deal with my huge (in every sense of the word!) weight problem and many co-morbidities, and since I decided on it, I have never wavered in my conviction that it was the right thing to do. I have had a few complications and am still in pain from intramuscular bleeding at two of the incision sites, but I know that it's only a matter of time before I start feeling better and seeing the results. I wish you all the very best!

Hi, Jani! Sorry to hear about the pain. I am 11 days post-op and still having significant pain over the belly button and around the right incision site due to intramuscular bleeding, which has caused two large haematomas. The removed portion of my stomach was taken out through the belly button incision. I also had a hiatal hernia repaired during the surgery. It could well be that your pain is related to the umbilical hernia repair rather than the sleeve procedure, but if the pain is still significant at this stage post-op, you really ought to check it out with your surgeon. Best of luck!

Hi, Little bits! Thanks for the congrats! I have had various problems since the operation, including intramuscular bleeding (huge haematomas around two of my incision sites) and weighing one kilo more at my 9-day follow-up appointment than I had done two weeks earlier pre-op - after four days of no food while on the IV, six days of clear liquids and 75% of my stomach being removed! So the diabetes going into immediate remission was a double joy. Fasting BG figures the last few mornings have been 80, 74 and 76 - unimaginably great!

Thanks to Madison for creating this thread and keeping it updated, and to and everyone else for sharing their experiences. I have had PCOS for many years and was sleeved on April 17th. Despite the fact that have been enormously overweight all my adult life, my main worry all along has been my excess hair. If the long-term effects of having the sleeve can release me from the daily burden of dealing with the facial hair - about an hour a day, every single day of my life - it will have been worth it for that alone. It was one of the first things I asked my surgeon about. More recently, and only slightly joking, I asked him if there was anything I could do to ensure that I keep all the hair on my head while losing the hair on my face and body. Sadly not, apparently!

Hi, Kiki! I've just had a quick look online, as I thought they may be the same thing, but it seems that they aren't quite the same. Laban or ayran is a yoghurt drink (yoghurt, water, salt and a few other ingredients which vary depending on personal preference), while kefir is made from milk fermented with kefir grains. Both drinks seem to be of Turkish origin and I suspect that they taste pretty similar. Hope you're doing well!

Hi, Carly! I have just got back home after staying with friends since I was discharged, and the driver stopped on the way back and bought me another dozen bottles of laban, so I definitely have to find a way of making it more palatable! I will try making it more savoury by adding some salt as you suggested. When I can officially have full liquids (starting on Monday) I thought I would try adding a sachet of chocolate protein powder to it. I've never tried protein powder before, but I bought a big pack of it before the operation ready for afterwards, so it's worth a try!

Hi, Carly! Thanks for your support! I'm not that keen on the laban - it's OK while it's still nice and cold, but if I don't drink it reasonably quickly and it warms up, I can't drink it. I feel pretty certain that it's doing me no end of good, though, and anything non-transparent is a real bonus at the moment! Thanks again for your encouragement and all the best to you, too.

Done! Phone screens can be so fiddly, can't they? I've been reading the VST forums on my iPad and for some unknown reason, the message box starts off the screen to the left and apart from the fact that I just have to hope that the beginning of the messge I have typed is properly spelled, I've no idea if there is a 'post' or 'send' button to hit, so perhaps the few messages I hoped I had sent haven't actually gone!

Thank you for your support, WillowsKnot. It's been an up and down day, but at least it's ended more happily than it started. It sounds as if you know the disappointment of the scales just as well as I do, but congratulations on your loss! You do give me hope. Incidentally (and slightly unpleasantly - apologies!) my bowels have hardly stopped moving since day 2. I'm hoping that they will calm down a little now. Like you, the surgeon thought that the IV fluids could have had something to do with the lack of weight loss, although I only had the IV in for two and a half days until my arm started to swell with phlebitis and they couldn't find another suitable vein in the other arm or my leg. On the bright side, at least I have had no problems in keeping my liquids down. I had my first little bottle of ayran/laban this evening and it wasn't too bad, so I think having some of that each day will help my nutrition. I'm looking forward to Monday, though, when I can officially move onto full liquids. Tomorrow I am going home at last, having been staying with a friend and her family since I was discharged on Sunday. Another little milestone! Thanks again for your support and encouragement. I know we will make it. A cyber hug back to you!

Thank you for that, Fanny. I will keep on keeping on, as you say - after all, there's not a lot of choice in the matter and, as you also said, anything that's good takes time! Hopefully not too much more, though!

Thanks, Amy! I know I need to keep it in perspective and that you are absolutely right - it is a race for distance and not a sprint, and the blood sugar numbers are amazing - but when your body has been through the wringer and you don't feel particularly well on a particular day, it's difficult not to be bitterly disappointed and upset. I'll bounce back, though! Thanks again for your kind words and encouragement.

Hi, everyone! I've had a bit of a hard morning and wanted to run it by you all. I had my first follow-up appointment today, followed by a stomach X-ray to check for leaks. Back in January/February, I had bronchitis, followed swiftly by pneumonia, which left me with post-pneumonia asthma (the first time in my life I had ever had any breathing problems), but to my complete and utter amazement, after the sleeve op, all the symptoms had gone! No more wheezing, no more night-time asthma - and all with no meds! Then last night I kept waking up coughing, then this morning I was wheezing while I had my (cold - water heater broken, brrrr) shower. So not a good start to the day, but that was just the beginning. When I got to the hospital, I felt really dizzy going up in the lift, but I was excited at the prospect of being weighed for the first time since discharge and seeing how much I had lost. Four days with no food at all, a massive portion of my stomach removed (which must have weighed several kilos, surely?) and six days of nothing other than water, a little apple juice, chicken broth and sugar-free jelly - that had to add up to a satisfyingly solid weight loss, surely? Well, no. The last time I was weighed on the same scales by the same nurse (two weeks ago today) I was 119 kilos and today I was... wait for it ... 120 kilos (264 pounds). How is that possible? I cried, embarrassingly, but I just couldn't stop myself. After all I have put my body through? I had calmed down a little by the time I saw the surgeon, but as soon as he looked at my weight on the form, it set set me off again. He couldn't believe it, either, to the extent that he got up and went to the nurse's room and weighed himself to check that the scales were working properly! Sadly, they were. He said it could be all sorts of things, but not to worry (easier said than done!) and that by the time I see him again next week there should be a really good loss to see. He said that the fact that my blood glucose levels are at non-diabetic levels (80 yesterday morning, 74 this morning - little short of miraculous!) was not only great in itself, but also a good omen for the weight loss. I am still having quite a bit of pain in my stomach and the bruising is still spectacular. You know how doctors are trained not to express shock when they examine you, but if you are watching their face, you can see a glimpse of shock just as they start to look? That's what happened. He said that it's intramuscular bleeding, which only occurs in less than 5% of sleeve patients and rarely to this extent. So that explains the bruising and the pain. It's just a case of waiting for it to disperse. As for the upset stomach which I have had since discharge, he said to stop the sugar-free jelly now, as he suspects that's causing the problem (which I was already pretty sure was the case) and to replace it with ayran (also called laban), a local yoghurt drink which contains a little water and some salt - my first non-clear fluid - hooray! So all in all a mixed first follow-up visit. The good news is that the X-ray showed no leak from the sleeve. As for the weight, I am trying not to get too upset now that the initial shock and disappointment are past, and will be strong and not weigh myself again until I see the surgeon again next week, by which time I hope I'll be moving my weightloss ticker well and truly to the right!

Hi, Bellatrix! So glad to hear that you are OK to be discharged. Let's hope all this will soon be little more than a bad memory. Best of luck with your recovery.

Any update, Bellatrix? I hope you are feeling much better by now. I brought up a load of dark brown foamy stuff and blood when in the recovery room (all over the poor nurse's arm - he was remarkably sweet about it!) and then some clear acid on day 2, but nothing since. You also need to talk to your surgeon about painkillers. Even if you are a private patient in an NHS hospital, they can't be rationing painkillers and if you're in a private hospital, well... . Your surgeon needs to lay down the law! Do let us know how you are.

Hi, Amy! Yes, I did an enormous amount of research, too, and took a very long while to reach my decision, which I am sure helped me to feel both physically and emotionally prepared for the operation and - although time will tell - for all that follows. So sorry to hear about your crisis moment over the pizza! Living on my own, I can avoid those moments for now, although I'm pretty sure I'll be experiencing plenty once I am up to going out for meals with friends once again. It can't be much longer before you'll be able to try the pizza soup, though, so take heart and count those disappearing pounds as they fly by! All the best, Janet

Yes, thanks, Jimmy, for starting this topic and for bringing us all together in what has been an epoch-making month for us all. Wishing you the very best for your surgery tomorrow. It must have seemed a long month waiting for it while so many of the rest of us were having it done, but your starring moment on the operating table awaits! All the very best to you and to everyone else still to be sleeved this month.

Great! I'll e-mail you tomorrow.

Love it! That alone makes it worthwhile, doesn't it?

If you are buying packs or tins of commercially made broth, you could always try making your own to see if you enjoy that more. I couldn't stomach the broth they gave me in the hospital (it looked like dirty washing-up Water without the bubbles but with dubious looking bits on the bottom and tasted just as good). I am now staying with a friend and when the commercially made broth I had brought with me turned out to have been made by the same fair hand as the hospital stuff, she set to and made me an believably delicious broth, boiling a whole chicken with veggies, spices and lots of tasty bits and pieces. She strained the wonderful broth for me and after I had had some for lunch and some more for dinner, she and the children ate the rest of it with the chicken and all the other goodies. I'm looking forward to another batch tomorrow! So you could have a go at making your own if you aren't already. If you live on your own, as I do, and don't have anyone to enjoy the chicken once you have removed it from the broth, you could shred it and freeze it for when you are eventually able to eat solids. It should be tender and palatable, since it's been cooked in liquid.

In the past, I have always rushed back to work after operations and other bouts of ill health and on occasion have worked while in hospital. When I haven't been well enough to get into the office, I have worked at home. Not this time! My health is the most important thing at the moment, so I am planning to take one month off from the date of the operation. My boss has made it amply clear that she doesn't appreciate the commitment, so why kill myself? I have never taken this attitude before and I can't be sure that my professional commitment, work ethic and habitual attitude will allow me to see it through, but that's my intention. That said, I know I am very lucky to be in a job where I won't be fired and where there are generous sick leave arrangements (which hasn't always been the case in the past) and I honestly wish it were the same for everyone.

I have had Type II for the best part of 20 years (probably 10 undisgnosed and certainly 10 since diagnosis) with a variety of complications and was sleeved last Tuesday. By Thursday my BG levels were at non-diabetic levels and I was discharged on Sunday (yesterday) off my diabetes meds. My fasting BG this morning was 83. To me that is little short of a miracle!

Hi! What a small world! I am from the greater London sprawl originally, but my home address in the UK is my cousin's place in Bristol! I am doing well, thank you. The pain is controllable and far less intense than I imagined it would be six days post-op, and I am having no problems in keeping down reasonable quantities of clear fluids, which is great. I am having my first follow-up at AUH on Thursday, followed by a stomach X-ray to check that all is well internally. No, I'm not a teacher. I used to be many years ago (and an international credit manager, official guide to the Paris sewers, intellectual property barrister and lawyer-linguist inter alia - I've had what these days they call a portfolio career!) but I now work as a linguist for the UN. That's what brought me to Beirut and it's the UN health insurance that covers CMC. It would be great to meet up in July! I'm not sure how I can let you have my e-mail address without it appearing everywhere here, but we'll think of a way! I'm staying with a friend till Friday and only have my iPad with me, but once I'm home and have my laptop, I could set up a temporary e-mail address. That may be the best way to do it. All the best, Janet