Mi-Mi

i have not taken the time to read all the replies yet since i'm at work, but i can tell you that i felt the exact same thing as soon as i was fully awake from surgery. it lasted a while... just the permanence of it all freaked me totally out! i never voiced that feeling but i kept saying to myself... here i am 30 years old... and i have made this huge change to my body and i have to live with it the rest of my life! and i kept thinking i wish i could have done it on my own. now i'm a little over 5 weeks postop and about 37 pounds down... and it feels amazing! those feelings have gone. the worst of the "withdrawals" and anxiety is over and i truly savor and enjoy every bite i obsessively chew and chew and chew. haha! you will be ok after a while. once you realize that weight is not coming back and that you CAN still have a life WITHOUT all that food (i call it my personal "crack" addiction) these feelings will pass and you have less and less regret as time goes on. i just know you're gonna love it! just be patient.....

hahahah! i dunno but i mentioned that on another post too. my stomach is very vocal! i believe mine has something to do with air in there.

i have been told the gas is what i'm feeling.... but i don't think so because i do eat gas-x quite a bit. i just think i feel empty.... but no pain (unless i eat too fast or too much at a time.) i could be very very wrong though.

i did forget to mention though.... about a week or so post - op, i had a non-medicinally-induced, normal flow, 7-day period! i know that's alot to reveal publicly but it's such a big deal for me... it's been over 10 years since that happened! also, i notice that i'm more relaxed afterward... little things just aren't as big of a deal as they used to be anymore. i swear, this surgery has given my hormones a complete over-haul... and i'm LOVING it!

i am interested in hearing success stories as well. unfortunately once women get 12-18 months post-op, they aren't usually in need of support from a message board. but i hope i'm wrong about that! haha! i've been considering surgery for many years, but my infertility issues were the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed me to finally make this decision. so obviously one of my main goals in losing weight is to eventually try and start a family. i want to be smart about it and wait at least 12 months before "trying" again, so that's pretty far off since i'm only a few days from being 1 month post-op... but i could always use encouragement in the fertility department!

correction: if you can get the hormones to stop turning the peach-fuzz follicles into the kind that produce the black hair follicles, then you can have success at removing the ones you already have with laser treatment.

apprently once hair follicles turn into the black course type, they never go back to the white "peach-fuzz" type. i've researched this as well because i have severe hirsutism on my chin and down my neck and have to shave every day! i read that if you can get the hormones to stop turning the "peach-fuzz" follicles then you can have success with removing the ones you do have by laser treatment. i did have 1 laser treatment a long time ago. it did not prevent me from growing my "beard" but i did notice a difference for a long time in the prevention of razor burn and also it didn't seem to grow out as quickly. i'm so glad someone asked about this because i know once i reach goal and my hormones get completely straightened out (which i'm already starting to feel a difference) then i will want to have the full 6-8 months of laser treatments. thanks for bringing this to our attention!

i had my surgery on aug. 5th so almost a month ago. i had head-hunger and wanted solid foods really bad before i started eating them but i wasn't *actually* hungry. but about 2 weeks afterward i started having actual empty stomach hunger. i don't know if it is normal or not, and i was under the impression that the fundus, which is the part that gets removed, was where grehlin (sp?) is produced... therefore i thought i would never feel hunger again. but i do! i get that empty feeling usually within 2 hours after i eat a meal (which at this point is usually about 4-10 small bites, depending on what i'm eating.) and something funny... my stomach noises are LOUD now! haha! it's pretty funny... i'm glad i'm not an uptight person who hangs around with uptight people or i would be embarrassed about a hundred times a day! haha!

sorry for the typo there.... i meant " surgeon would send you home if you didn't lose a significant amount of weight"

wow i don't know what to say. first i think it's stupid that they would ask you to lose that much weight in such a short amount of time. it's not even healthy. i mean, i understand, shrink the liver, shrink the liver, shrink the liver. but even a few pounds should help with that... imho anyway. and to the other person who said the surgeon would send you home if you.... i suggest you remind him that your money doesn't HAVE to be spent with him. i mean some people just don't lose weight unless they starve... and you don't need to be starving. i mean, this is why you're having surgery after all.

dalyco.... just to let you know.... i only did a partial liquid diet before surgery. i did protein shakes, decaf coffee, soups, etc. during the day and at night i ATE....anything i wanted. admittedly this is not a good idea. but if you NEED something i'm thinking it won't hurt you. i lost NOT 1 POUND before surgery and i was fine. now, i'm not suggesting that's the ideal or best way to do this process... not at all. i'm just saying, don't get discouraged!!!

hey guys & dolls, i'm 4 days post op. i feel fantastic. a little sore but SO GLAD to be past the 1st couple days in the hospital! i just keep telling myself that there WILL be a time when i can have my cocktail shrimp again. there WILL be a time when i won't feel gas bubbles every time i sip Water or broth or Protein shots. there WILL be a time VERY SOON when i will feel like a normal person again, after about 10 years of not feeling very "normal" at all. i'm emotional today. not because i'm sad. but because while watching a movie at home with my husband, i actually WANTED to get up off the couch and move around. so i did. i stood up, i stretched a little (not too much for my incisions) i moved to left and the right, i moved my neck around. it was WONDERFUL!!! also... i saw the veins in my feet for the first time yesterday in a long time. i was so shocked and it felt so GOOD! i know that every time i get discouraged, God is going to give me a little something like that to help boost me a little along the way. thanks for so much support! i never knew strangers could help me so much! you're all very special people!

oh... almost forgot... for me pregnancy is a big issue since that's sort of what caused me to finally make the decision to have surgery. if you ever want to have kids, you might ask how the smaller stomach will affect the surgery. and do they have anyone who might be open to you emailing them and asking them about their specific experience with the surgeon or the whole experience in general.

i posted a similar thread and got no responses to it... so i'm determined to not leave you hanging on this! some things i wanted to know were: how many of this particular procedure has he/she done? what is the complication rate and what specific complications have they seen? how many deaths have they had as a practice and also for the individual surgeon? when can you get to a gym afterward? a list of things to get that you'll need after surgery, i.e. Vitamins, Protein shakes, etc. if i think of any more i'll get back to you.