joatsaint

Good luck with surgery. I wasn't nervous when I went in for surgery either, but then again I was in denial!!!

My #1 question for my surgeon was how long was the surgery going to take? I had already researched him online and knew quite a bit, but I'd want to know how many years/surgeries he'd done for the Sleeve. How much pain to expect and when to expect to be released from the hospital. Ask him for a realistic expectation for weight loss too. Also, I'd get to his office early and see if I could get into a conversation with some of his patients coming in for follow up appointments. They were the best source of info for me. They were happy to share their stories. When I went in for my 1st appointment. It was a mixture of 1st visits and post-op patients. We were all up tight cause we all knew why we were there, we were nervous, and didn't know how to talk about it. But we wanted to. Luckily I was able to make a joke about all the pages and pages of paperwork. That got the ball rolling and soon we were all talking.

When I'm in those situations, I try to pick foods that are mostly protein. Say they have breakfast Cloches, I tear off almost all the bread and leave just enough to protect my fingers. Same thing with sandwiches or breakfast burritos. I leave just enough bread to hold things together. If there's no other option than to eat junk, then I eat just a few bites, enough to keep me satisfied, but not full. And I drink lots of coffee or Crystal Light, both tend to fill me up.

To paraphrase a line from, "It's a Wonderful Life" - everytime a person gets a Sleeve, a diet pill Marketer cries.

Even before I started losing a significant amount of weight, I was anxious. I had been overweight for 40 years. I knew how to be fat. Now I had to learn to be thin. I don't know how to be thin!!!!!!! But I'm working on it. Plus, after being overweight for so long, losing weight was a dream I had given up on. So for the longest time, I kept expecting something to go wrong and I'd gain the weight back. It took me many months to embrace the idea that my weight was finally under my control and I was finally at a normal weight. Take it a day at a time and eventually the dream will become reality. Good luck on your weight loss.

That's incredible! Congrats on your success!

I've been overweight since grade school. I can still remember going to Sears to buy Husky jeans. To save money, Mom made my shirts... so I don't know what size I wore. Years ago, I found an old picture of me at 5 or 6 yrs. of age. I was actually thin! But I can't ever remember not being fatter than the rest of the kids.

Hope everything went well with your surgery. I was in no shape to post anything online for the week after surgery, but update us when you can.

11 days post op and 20lbs down is way ahead of where I was 11 days post-op. I think I lost 25 lbs in the 1st month. But since it sounds like you're a fast loser, your body may be going into starvation mode faster. Just hang in there and let your body get used to the new situation. I found that I would hit a plateau at least once a month, but as long as I stuck to my eating guidelines, the weight would start falling again.

Congrats, sounds like you've had your 1st NSV... even before surgery. Good luck on your surgery.

I don't know about the 20 grams of Protein, I stuck with the guidelines from my doc. He wanted me to eat 60 to 80 grams of protein a day. And a mix of 75% protein 25% vegetables in my total calorie intake per day. During the 1st few months, I never made it to 60 grams of protein per day and focused on getting enough Water. I had no complications or problems. So I recommend sticking with the eating program your physician or nutritionist recommended. They are in the best position to have 1st hand, long term experience with what works for their patients.

The main thing I wish I would have known was - be prepared to sleep propped up like in a hospital bed. I had to roll up a comforter into a big log so I could sleep propped up. It was at least 2 weeks before I could sleep laying flat and a few more days later before I could sleep on my side without feeling a pulling sensation in my stomach.

Congrats on your first NSV! The dreaded plateau! And yes, you can expect to see several of them in your future. In the past 18 months, I've gone through so many I lost count. It's a normal part of the process as your body adjusts to your new way of eating. One thing I've learned, if I just stick with my eating plan and walking, eventually the weight loss will start again. And yes, it is frustrating as Hell to have to wait it out!

If the incision area is getting irritated, I'd get some of the big square shaped bandages, big enough to cover the incision plus a little. My doc never told me anything about keeping the incision uncovered, to just let the bandages fall off by themselves. He was more concerned about water leaking into the incisions from taking baths or showers.

If you find your energy, look for mine too! I'm 18 months post-op and down 150 lbs - still haven't had that mythical leap in energy levels so many people claim to have experience after losing weight.

I can see what you mean about searching this site. I've found it easier to look up topics using Google. I search Google this way - site:bariatricpal.com "keyword" Example: site:bariatricpal.com Protein powder Doing a search this way makes life easier. After I ran the search, I saved the Google search results page as a bookmark, it will save the entire search phrase and I don't have to type it in again. All I have to do is replace the keywords to run a new search.

I treat the topic of my weight loss surgery same way I treat talking about my college degree. If it comes up in conversation and someone asks me a direct question about it, I answer. I tell them, "Yep, I had the WLS surgery" and leave it at that. I leave it up the them to ask me more about it, if they are interested. As an example: I applied for a different position within my department - I'd have the same boss, just different responsibilities. I'd worked for him for 3 years. In the interview he remarked that he didn't realize I had a bachelor's degree. I replied, "Well, it's not like it is an everyday topic of conversation." It's not often that we discuss our education during the course of of doing our job. And that's how I treat my WLS. If it comes up, I'll answer questions, otherwise I don't talk about it. It's like discussing religion and politics in the workplace, the less I say, the fewer chances I'll stick my foot in my mouth! And as I've said before, "You can always decide to tell them later. You can't un-tell them."

You may not want to stock up on post-op foods just yet. I remember my taste buds being out of whack for a few weeks and things I liked pre-op just didn't taste the same. Pre-op, I bought a case of chicken Soup - 6 months later, I gave it away. I never want to see chicken soup again! :-p You will also be surprised at how little you are going to eat post-op. I had to keep reminding myself of that when I was planning for post-op eating. My 1st 10 days, post-op meals consisted of sugar free popsicles, sugar free Jello and Crystal Light. If I were to do it over again, I'd buy a few bottles of my favorite Protein shakes, sugar free jello, and sugar free popsicles and maybe some chicken broth.

I agree with Chelenka, it all depends on the food. I can easily eat more than a cup of popcorn/salad and some vegetables. Meat/pork/chicken fills me up much quicker, maybe 6 ounces at the most. If you're asking how much food it takes to get satisfied, then I'd have to say only 4 or 5 bites of anything. When Frankensleeve is growling at me, I can eat 4 or 5 bites of anything and not feel hungry again for hours. Eating is still a battle for me - how much I need to eat to survive vs. how much my head is telling me I want to eat.

I set my goal to have a target to shoot for. Once I reach it, I reevaluate and decide if I'm happy there or want to set a new target. My doc told me to expect to reach a weight goal of 230 to 235 lbs. I reached that and decided I wanted to be at 220. I've reached that and now I want to shoot for 210, with the ultimate goal of 205 lbs. As I reach each goal, I look at the changes I had to make to reach the goal, how I physically look and decide if I'm happy where I'm at. Then I decide what to do next. I don't reward myself for reaching a goal. The reward is in the doing and reaching the goal.

Me too, I've felt the cold more intensely since losing weight. The first areas I lost fat in were my arms and legs. Now the cold feels like it just cuts right through the skin on my arms. I have to wear long johns when the temp drops down into the 50's. Pre-surgery, my problem was staying cool enough, now it's almost the opposite. The upside is, I'm going to have lower utility bills since I won't need the AC as much to survive the Texas summer!

Taste was never an issues, although my taste buds were messed up for a few days. Flavors had to be very strong for me to taste them. My throat was never sore. It was all about the swelling of my new stomach and getting it used to processing food again. For about the 1st month, just a tablespoon full of food would send Frankensleeve into knots and I'd couldn't take another bite for 15 to 20 minutes. It took about 6 months to work up to being able to eat 1/4 cup of food in about 15 minutes. From day 1 post-op I never worried about getting in enough food. I focused on Water. I figured I had 150 plus pounds of fat stored on me and I could live on that for a few months before ever coming close to malnutrition!

My 1st week post-op, I was PISSED at the world and wanted to fight! But the feelings passed around day 10.

The few times it's come up, I tell them I had a big snack a little earlier and was still full.

Congratulations on your success. Can't say that I enjoy walking, I'd skip it if I could. For the past 6 months, I've been walking with a weighted vest with 30 lbs and averaging 3.2 mph for 3 miles. Decided to go for broke on Monday and didn't wear the vest. Averaged 3.8 mph for 3 miles and even managed to jog a few hundred yards. Now my walking partner wants to go that fast every day.