NerdyMHC

I got my period two days before surgery. They made me wear a pad with my underwear and when I woke up from surgery, I was wearing a pad and the mesh panties. After my surgery, my period pretty much went away, but what was there was the really dark brown you get at the end of your period sometimes. Just small streaks. That went on for the rest of the day after surgery and then my period completely disappeared, a couple days early. Since surgery (5 months ago) my periods have been super light. No complaints here!!

I am with Susan. If I am going to drink any sodas, I tend to let them get close to flat. That being said, if they are not flat, the excess carbonation comes right back up in the form of a burp. It isn't in my stomach long enough to cause any stretching. I don't drink soda often, but it has become my treat to myself every once in a while, and I thoroughly enjoy it!

I find that the worse thing for me is that I have no urge to be creative in meal making so I end up eating the same thing everyday. I know that is my own fault, but it still sucks. I eat eggs and spinach for Breakfast, tuna and carrots for lunch, and chicken or beef with some kind of green for supper. If my husband and I go out to eat, I get that old excitement that I used to get about eating all the food I can, and then I have a little bout of depression realizing that I can't and that I have to have grilled chicken, or a salad because while I could eat all of things that are bad for you, I don't want to fall back into those habits. So yeah, I guess the biggest negative for me is that I feel stunted in what I can eat. I do splurge every once in a while and get the burger that looked good and eat half of it or a slice of pizza, but for the most part it's the same thing everyday.

There's a lot less padding down there now, meaning that he is able to go deeper. He's probably hitting your cervix, which can be quite uncomfortable! I've had this experience and it can hurt!

My husband was talking about how skinny I was looking today and I told him that I didn't feel that skinny. I then told him to take a picture of me so that I could compare it to pictures from my pre surgery pics. I almost cried at the difference! I still have 80 some pounds to lose, but I am am surprised about how good I look now! The before picture was taken at my highest weight of 290 and the after picture was taken today at 236.

Thanks everybody! That really is the picture that made me realize what a difference 54 pounds makes! I'm looking skinny now, so I can't imagine what I am going to look like at my 150 pound goal!

I have this concern as well! I am almost 4 months out and feel like I can eat too much compared to what I used to be able to eat. For example, I used to be able to only eat half a chicken breast, but now I can eat a full one and a small side of veggies. It worries me because I don't want to fall back into old, overeating habits. I still stay under my calorie limit and carbs and eat well, I can just eat more. I am going to try weighing and measuring my food more consistently and try to put all of my food into My Fitness Pal on a regular basis to hold me accountable.

I paid 1200 upfront to the surgeon and a total of 2000 to the anesthesiologist, hospital, pathologist, and labs in bills after the surgery.

I have been sleeved 3 and a half months. I am 5'8" and my highest weight was 290. I have lost 53 pounds. It's kind of slow, but I don't mind as long as I am losing!

I was on the pill and stopped taking it about a month before surgery because of the risk of blood clots. My husband and I used condoms for that month and then for a month after. I then got the shot and am hoping to get implanon next month. Just be careful! I know I am scared to death of getting pregnant at this point because I want to get to goal before considering children. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

I was the same way! I felt restriction when drinking right away and because of this, it took awhile to get all of my liquids in, but I took little sips and never felt sick or over-full. I asked my surgeon at my one week check up if they really did surgery on me because, besides the restriction, I really had no pain and no complications. I had seen nothing but people getting sick and not being able to get their liquids down on here so I thought that maybe they made my sleeve too big, but I am losing slow and steady and couldn't be happier! I am 3 and a half months out now and have never felt sick (from eating) and I have never thrown up. I know that everybody is different, but I count myself lucky for having no problems whatsoever! I hope your recovery is as successful!

This is actually very common in people who have had weight loss surgery. I am just going back to work today after having been off for a week because I had my gall bladder out. Instead of constant pain, I would have gall bladder attacks where the pain was so intense that it would lead to a hospital trip. I had about 4 major attacks and after the last one, they did a ct scan to find out that my gall bladder was full of stones. My understanding of what happens is that when you are losing weight so rapidly, you are making your gall bladder work harder, which can cause stones. My husband is a nurse and he warned me to be prepared for my gall bladder to go and explained to me in detail why it happens, but I forget all of the details. Taking a PPI, like Nexium, doesn't do anything to stop something like this from happening, rather it stops you from getting ulcers in your newly healing tummy. I was more than willing for them to take it out and, besides having a sore tummy for the last week, have not had any problems. I hope that the doctor is able to help you!

I wrote about my gall bladder being naughty a couple of weeks go and I am here to give an update. This last Wednesday, I woke up for work and felt extremely nauseous. I was in my kitchen, adjacent to my bathroom, and I felt some horrible gas making it's way down my GI tract. I let it out, going against the cardinal unspoken rule of over trusting a fart...Let's just say it wasn't my brightest hour...lol...I had the worst diarrhea and nausea. I cleaned up and then went and sat on the couch because every step I took made me feel sick. Then the pain began. It started under my right rib cage and spread all over my back and abdomen. It was the worst pain I have ever experienced. I could barely stand. My husband, a nurse, told me it was my gall bladder and had to put on my shoes for me so he could bring me to the ER. I writhed around the car in pain, like I was possessed. We only live about 2 minutes from the hospital and my husband ran the two stop lights on the way there. I was hyperventilating and my limbs started going numb because I was about to pass out. I thought I was going to die! We got to the ER and the pain had begun to subside, and I was shivering violently because it was cold and because my adrenaline was high. They took blood, urine, and I had an ultrasound, which showed "biliary sludge" and gallstones. The ER doctor called my surgeon, who told her that gall bladders are notorious for going bad in WLS patients. I had an appointment with my surgeon yesterday and I have surgery to get this bad boy out on Monday morning. I am so happy that it went so smoothly. I have been having gall bladder attacks for a month and I was told by several people that there were tons of hoops to jump through and I would have to experience several bad attacks before they would take it out. So yeah...That's my story about how my Gall Bladder went bad! Maybe it'll help somebody out there!

I have been sleeved 11 weeks and I haven't really experienced a stall yet. There have been weeks where I have lost only a pound, but I consider that fine...As long as I am losing, I feel good!

If you look at food addiction as substance abuse, as I do, the dreams that you are having may make more sense. When substance abusers quit their drug of choice, many tend to have "using dreams" where they are using or thinking about using again, or they dream about triggers that cause them to crave using. Food is my substance, as well as most people on these boards. Within a week after my surgery, I had a dream that I ate a whole pizza, buffalo wings, some donuts, and a couple of other things. I had eaten them so fast that I didn't think about my sleeve until after I looked at all of the carnage in the form of wrappers on the floor. Then I realized I was sleeved and my stomach started hurting and I woke up. It was so real that for a couple of seconds after waking up, I thought that I had actually eaten all of that food! Have you already started dieting and limiting your food intake? That could have triggered those dreams too! You are not crazy!

I hail from a family of very large breasted women, unfortunately! I am at almost 50 pounds lost and my boobs are still 42DDD...I was hoping that they would be the first things to go, but it seems like my genetics just don't want to give up my family's big-breasted legacy. They are definitely getting droopier, though...I am hoping that after I get to goal, I can look into a breast reduction as the strain on my back only seems to be getting worse with more weight loss. This is probably because I am losing all of my weight in my mid section (getting nice and curvy!) and now my waist can't support my boobs...lol

That's awesome! I am hoping everything shrinks up well, but I know I probably will end up having plastics, too. Are you in the United States, Sid_and_Reagans_Mommy? If so, did you use insurance for the plastics?

I know the craving feeling! Surprisingly, my surgeon and WLS nurse both have told me several times; if you want it that bad, have a bite or two! If you keep yourself from having it, you are going to obsess and eat the whole thing eventually. I have followed that somewhat and it has really worked to keep any cravings in check. I take one bite of whatever it is, chew it for a really long time and enjoy it, and I don't want the second bite! Sometimes I take the one bite and realize that what the flavor I remembered pre surgery is not the flavor post surgery! I was never a big sweets fan, and some things are way too sweet now! I wouldn't recommend this technique for everyone, especially if it is really hard for you to stop at one bite, but it was some advice that I found to have helped me a great deal! Oh, and using MFP to keep yourself accountable for even the smallest bites is critical as well!

I had moderate sleep apnea, diagnosed about three months before surgery...I absolutely hated the CPAP! I wore it because I had to for insurance reasons, but that was it! I wore it at the hospital because they made me bring it (plus, the anesthetist drugged me so well that I wasn't efficiently breathing on my own right after surgery so the CPAP helped me a little there! I brought it home and haven't used it since. My husband says that I still snore, but that I am not gasping for air like I was before. I am almost 11 weeks out.

I kind of chuckle to myself when I see the amount of food I eat now and compare it to what I used to eat. The other day I made myself half a turkey sandwich for lunch and thought "I used to eat two full sandwiches like this, plus chips, plus a cookie and soda!" It's just amazing to me how that little bit fills me up now when before, it took an army of food.

Congrats! I remember when I got to 38 or 39 BMI and went from morbid obesity to just obese! I was telling everybody how happy I was to be obese! LOL

I am the quintessential binge eater. I would order two meals from a fast food restaurant, and get two drinks just so the person at the window would think the two meals were for me and another person. They weren't. I would eat one on the way home and have the other when I got there. If I made a meal at home, I would eat all of it in one sitting (boxes of shells and cheese macaroni never stood a chance!) I am actually surprised that I didn't weigh more than I did! I am 10 weeks out and I have had the crazy head hunger only a couple of times where I am not hungry, but I want to eat. It is usually at night so I will either have a sugar free Jello cup, a glass of Water, or I'll just go to bed. As far as the urge to binge eat; I do not have a problem stopping when I feel satisfied. In fact, I never knew what the "satisfied"feeling was until after my surgery. Like TheGamer said, the full feeling I knew was bursting. Now, I feel satiated and I stop. It is the greatest feeling in the world!

My surgeon and my husband (a nurse) warned me that my gall bladder would probably go bad after WLS. What is surprising to me is that I am only nine weeks out! I didn't think it would happen that quickly. It all started when I tried pizza at week 6. I only had 3 small bites, but I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to die! I must have suffered from amnesia because I took a bite of my husband's pizza a couple weeks later and woke up in the middle of the night again, feeling the same pain. I swore off pizza for the rest of my life! Today, I have been experiencing the familiar sharp pain under my right rib cage all day long...It will be there for several minutes, and then it goes away for a couple of minutes, and then it comes back...repeat ad nauseum! I took some liquid tylenol and feel a little better. I tried to eat some pear and right away, the pain came back. Now I am sitting here with a heating pad on my tummy, swearing off of food for the rest of my life! All I ever eat is Protein Cereal, almond milk, tuna, chicken, egg, and canned veggies and fruit (no sugar added). Anyways, for anybody who has had to have their gall bladder removed after WLS, how long did you have to endure this crap before they decided to take it away? I know that my friend, who did not have WLS, had to deal with it for 6 months and I don't know if I could do that! She finally just couldn't keep anything down and stopped eating for a couple of days before they would finally resort to surgery. Ugh! My husband said that they won't take it until you have experienced symptoms for a long time. I hope that this isn't true!

Thanks for all of the great replies! @Serendipity: Wow! That sounds like it was a horrible experience! I hope you haven't had any troubles since! I hope that if this continues, they won't make me wait to address it! I would rather have it out and move on with my weight loss! Thanks again!

Pizza has been my one food that I can't eat. I tried it at about 6 weeks out and woke up in the middle of the night with this pain all over my stomach and chest...My husband, who is a nurse, said it was probably my gall bladder starting to go bad...Yay! And then...I was stupid for some reason and totally forgot about this episode or something and tried pizza a couple weeks later...Again I woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain all over. I will never eat pizza again! I don't care if I am 2 years out and my gall bladder is gone; that pain is not worth it!