Folly

Everyone has a different recovery experience. My pain and discomfort lasted for about 4 months but this his highly unusual. Everything I ate or drank (in any quantity) was painful. It wasn't such a bad thing though. It reminded me to be mindful of everything I put in my mouth. I'm pain-free now and even though I insisted I regretted the (VSG) surgery, now on the other side of the pain I feel good and have no regrets. Most people who are carefully following the suggested diet plans tend to start feeling better within a week or two and can eat and drink without pain in appropriate quantities. The main thing is fluids, then Protein, then supplements. Hang in there, the hard part is over.

I've struggled with that as well. People who don't understand often view any kind of weight loss surgery as a cop out. My weight loss began May 1, 2013 and I had surgery on Sept 23, 2013. In that time frame I lost a lot of weight. Whenever it came up I would tend to defensively point out how much weight I lost before surgery - like I wanted credit for doing it "the right way" or something. There was an element of shame about it that made me uncomfortable with sharing. I think this was more about me feeling good about myself than anything. Now I find myself being a bit more reasonable about who I tell and who I do not tell. I usually share important things with people who are important to me and usually do not share important things with people who are not important to me. The public (co-workers, neighbors, friends of friends and causal acquaintances) has no need or right to know. With important people in my life we mutually share successes, failures, hopes, disappointments, medical conditions and important life events. There is no shame in doing what you need to do to live a better life. We all, however, have a right to privacy and to live without the unwanted opinions of others being forced upon us because tmi has been casually tossed about.

I found drinking warm vegetable broth and increasing Clear liquids very helpful. You get a lot of your hydration from foods. Sometimes "thirsty" can feel like "hungry" for those of us who have misused food for a long time. You're going to be hungry but increasing liquids may take the edge off until you adjust to the pre-op diet. Good luck to you!!!

My Dr put her foot down about me telling her staff my weight and actually came out and made me get on a scale. I knew I had put on more weight but was astonished when the number came up to 449 lbs. Then I was horrified. Nothing could rationalize that number in my head. She offered me a referral to the "Options" program (Kaiser) and I began within a couple weeks. My first class was on April 30, 2013. On September 20th I had a final weigh-in with my surgeon (382 lbs) and I was sleeved on September 23, 2013. I'm down 100 lbs from that horrible number and just want to get back to living a normal life - slowly it comes into focus.

I was sleeved on 9/23/13. Starting weight was 449. Day of surgery I weighed 382. Last Tuesday I weighed 349 (not sure exactly how accurate the scale at home is. My husband swears it adds 10 lbs.) I weigh in once a week. Things are mostly going well.

I had to go through a 12-week program and lose 10% before surgery. During that time the biggest thing I learned was how to budget calories the way I budget time and money. Occasionally I could "afford" a little bit of something decadent and it was nice. Just knowing I COULD have it whenever I wanted to budget for it sort of took away the "forbidden fruit" mystique. I feel the same way about it now - if an occasion comes up I'll budget for it and have a little birthday cake or whatever it is - if I ever reach a point of wanting such things again. My tastes are changing and I would rather have raw vegetables and grilled, lean meat than anything else. I'm 2 months post-op so we'll see how it goes.