Shorty5

At least for me, right after surgery, any feelings of hunger were more related to acid production and some heartburn. Do you have a PPI to take? (Nexium, Prilosec, etc.) Or Mylanta? Definintely ask your doctor's office. DO NOT eat anything substantial, follow your doctor's orders to the letter! And call them with questions.

First came Onederland, then I have been waiting for the triple digit weight loss total. TODAY WAS THE DAY!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! I'm going to go today and get measured for and buy a new bra in celebration. (I have no idea what size I am now and none of my old bras fit.) Did anyone else do something special (that didn't involve food ) when reaching milestones? And OMG, I just noticed that by my BMI, I am no longer classified as obese!!! Whaaaaa? Best. Day. EVER!!!!!!!

Thank you everyone. I love how supportive of each other everyone is on this site. I also had another realization today as I was walking through the mall, headed towards Victoria's Secret. It was the first time I had been in the mall since surgery .... But it just dawned on me that I didn't have only 2 stores to choose from (Lane Bryant and Torrid) if I wanted to buy clothes. I could buy clothes that fit at ANY STORE IN THE MALL!!!!! My mind is just blown today.

The wrapping the bath towel all the way around me with no gap and some to spare is the best. It's a great reminder every morning. Oh, and... uhm ... intimacy is sooo much better, too. (someone had to say it!!)

As a mother of 2 younger kids and phobic of anesthesia, I was terrified, too. I did it anyway. Has it been completely smooth, absolutely not. I had many of the potential complications. BUT. They are temporary and life on this side of surgery has settled down - 9 months out and I couldn't be happier with the results. Take the leap. Don't listen to anyone else. DON'T worry about not reaching your goals, that will be OLD news after the surgery. Trust your surgeon and medical team and the folks here. Best thing I ever did for myself.

Hi. I was sleeved April first. I've had kind of a rough go of it, but I have lost 95 pounds. Size 22/24 to a 14 in pants. 27 more to go, but I'm not sure that goal is realistic because it is what I weighed in my 20s and I didn't have all the extra skin. So it might be a little too skinny for optimal health. Weight loss has definitely slowed down lately, but still coming off without me really trying. I NEVER feel hungry anymore. I eat because I know I need to and because I want to. Anyway, it's nice to finally be all the way healed and know what I can and can't eat. And I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. I had a closet full of smaller clothes that fit me, but are all out of style now - shoulder pads & pleated pants? no - time to donate. But it's hard for me to justify buying any new clothes right now because I don't know where I am going to end up. The thrift store is my friend right now! I still haven't wrapped my head around the new me and frequently do not recognize myself in the mirror and am ecstatic when I can tie my shoes without holding my breath.

I can understand your frustration! My insurance also didn't cover my surgery. I was so mad because even MEDICARE covers it. Plus, I was SAVING them money in the long run, drastically reduced risk of developing diabetes, possibly getting rid of my CPAP, less arthritis, etc. I am convinced that in a few years, insurance companies will be required to cover it. But something had to be done, so I just paid for it out of pocket, took out a line of credit at the bank. Because I paid out of pocket for the surgery, I got in almost right away - they only required blood work, ECG, cardiac ultrasonography, EGD, (all of which my insurance DID pay for), which I got out of the way as quickly as I could. No 6-month diet, no psych eval required. I'll be paying on it for a long time, but it has been worth every penny. Best of luck to you, please try to hang in there.

I have lost 80 pounds since April I find I am having some anger directed towards men. It comes from the way they treated me before (mostly ignoring or avoiding me) and they way they treat me now that i am more "normal weight" (like they treat every one else, some even flirting with me). I'm still the same person I was before inside, why the difference in treatment? Kinda makes me mad. Anyone else have that issue? How did you deal with it? Do you eventually get over it?

Yes, I do understand and accept all of that as far as dating goes. I guess what I am wondering at the root of all of this is, then: WHY does whether or not a man is attracted to you affect the way he interacts with you in public (non-dating) situations?? I mean, I am no more deserving now of a "good morning" greeting from one of my kids' classmates' married fathers than I was last year at the higher weight. I may not be attracted to men that are hundreds of pounds overweight, but in public, non-dating situations, I certainly don't ignore them or treat them as if they are invisible. And to be honest, I didn't realize that I was being treated that way until it changed for the better. And now I'm kinda ticked about it.

But I am NOT a different person. I act exactly the same way I always have. I was never not confident. I never had low self esteem. I did the surgery for the health benefits, not the looks. It is not my insides that have changed. It is only my outsides and it is making ME angry to be treated differently. So I ask again, has anyone else had this experience and how did you handle it? Did the angry reactions eventually fade away?

I act exactly the same as I did before. No matter what size, I have always been confident, outgoing, and very fun to be around, all my girlfriends would tell you so. So I am convinced it is just the weight. I know that the anger should be directed at society in general, but that has always been there for me. This new anger is more personal than that. These are men I have worked with for years, male acquaintances at my kids' school suddenly saying hello to me instead of looking right thru me, when I have known who they were for years.... And I know many women are shallow, too. But I am not and I am just posting about how I am feeling. I can try to reason myself out of it all I want, but I still get that feeling of anger when an incident happens. Like "Oh NOW you say hello to me. NOW I'm good enough to say good morning to..."

Hi all. I had my sleeve on April 1st. I have had my ups and downs and am mostly doing well. Lately (in the past 2 weeks), I have hardly been able to eat anything. I get really full really fast - like after 2 or 3 small bites. Is this just my sleeve finally healing? Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks guys. Your encouragement means a lot.

It's so nice to be able to come here and just be happy about this, rather than worrying about which of my friends will take me being so excited the wrong way (some of them wanting to lose weight, too)!! So thank you, everyone, for being here and being you! My life has been so busy since surgery, I hadn't really had a chance to stop and reflect about how far I have come. I started preop diet at 262, had surgery on 4/1/14 at 252, and today I weigh 203. Soooo close to the hundreds! That's 59 pounds in 4 months. Do I feel like I could have lost more by now? Yes. Has this been easy? Not at all. You all know the drill, we each have our challenges. Mine biggest ones are persistent serious heartburn, lots of hair loss, difficulty taking pills and supplements, and inability to get enough Protein in (still). I hadn't bought any new clothes because I had gone up and down so often, I had smaller sizes. But today, I was wearing my size 20 capri jeans and they were ok, but kind of hanging some. So I went to WalMart over lunch break and bought a pair of size 16 capri jeans (different brand, but still). So I assumed they wouldn't fit just yet, but would be an inspiration to me to lose these last 4 pounds before the hundreds really quickly. I got back to the office and tried them on....and they FIT! I cried. Happy happy. Thank you for letting me post here, again, not sure who else would understand.

Hi all. I was sleeved 4/1/14. Switched to solid food about 3 weeks out. Felt great, was getting my Protein in and learning how to drink. I am now 4 and a half weeks out and for the last week or so, I have not been able to eat much at all. I have reverted back to Protein shakes to try to up my protein levels, but I am falling drastically short of the requirements. I am struggling to take my daily pills (chewable Multivitamin, sublingual B12, sugar-free chewy Calcium and D, a small capsule of a prescription medicine, and a large prescription pill that I cut up into fourths. I can't take the 2 prescriptions ground up, they taste HORRID!!). It takes me at least an hour to get them down in the morning and I have to drink Water to do that. I drink a chocolate Protein shake combined with coffee after that, then don't eat lunch until about 1:30. Then I don't drink. I go home, try to eat dinner about 5:30 or 6 and feel turned off and faintly sick. So then I go back to drinking water. On days like that, I am lucky to get in 500 calories. To top it all off, my weight is just creeping down. Somedays I don't lose anything at all or put ON a half pound or so!! I'm also never truly hungry anymore, I don't enjoy really any food taste, and I am really really afraid that all my hair is going to fall out in a couple of months!! I have my 1 month check up soon and I'll ask the doc about it then, but I was wondering if anyone had something similar? Thanks for reading.

Hi there. I'm 3 and a half weeks out and I started solid food almost a week ago because I could eat a lot of soft/pureed stuff and actually put ON weight in that phase. With that said, once I switched to dry solids and ate like they told me to (tiny bites and sloooooow with no liquids or lubricants or condiments) the restriction kicked in. Do you think it's possible they used too big of a bougie on you?

Pepcid, Tums, Rolaids, Mylanta, and Prilosec. I have to say that I tried Pepcid and Tums first. They quelled it for about an hour, but then it was back with a vengence. Prilosec tabs and Mylanta liquid turned it off like a switch and has kept it turned off ever since. Good luck.

Hi all, Even though I know that every place is different, I am wondering how much of this is "normal" or standard. I am 2 weeks post-sleeve today. I had a terrible reaction to the surgery, almost uncontrollable vomiting for the first 24 hours. My doc said that about 1 in 20 people have that physiologic reaction to the surgery, and the only plus to it was that in her experience, those people tended to lose the most weight. The next morning, they finally thought to put the compression stockings on me, but never turned them on. They didn't squeeze once. So Zophran did NOTHING for my nausea, but promethazine (Phenergan) help immensely, but it knocked me out. They gave it to me through my IV in my hand. They sent me home just over 24 hours after surgery, not having kept hardly any liquids down, but thankfully, they did prescribe promethazine suppository and fentanyl and scopalamine Patches. And that was it. My left hand, the hand with the IV in it swelled up and the vein is hard now. I spoke with 2 of my nurse friends and they say that promethazine should never be used in a peripheral vein and that I was lucky I didn't get gangrene and need an amputation. It's real, look it up. I will likely never be able to use that vein again for an IV. One and a half weeks after surgery, when I was trying to start the full liquids and some pureed stuff, I got HORRIBLE heartburn. I called in and they said take Pepcid at twice the dosage and Tums as needed. My friend who had had VSG last year couldn't believe that they hadn't put me on something preventatively. It was so bad that even the day after starting Pepcid, I woke up spitting up blood. I tried Prevacid and Mylanta and the heartburn turned off like a switch yesterday, thank the good Lord. So then yesterday, I called them and asked how long before I should start using my BiPAP again, they had told me to quit using it after the surgery so I wouldn't get gas in my pouch. They told me a month after surgery. Yesterday was my routine recheck with my pulmonologist and she said that they were "trying to kill me." That the likelihood of getting air in the stomach was minimal and that it was even MORE important to use the BiPAP after surgery because of the lingering anesthetic effect in the body. Since the heartburn is being treated, things are looking up for me, a little better every day, but I am wondering how much of this was preventable. Did you go home on antacids? Did they give you promethazine IV? Did they have compression stockings on you during surgery and after? And did they tell you to keep using your BiPAP or CPAP? Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for your encouragement and information. I should clarify. Promethazine saved me. It was the ONLY thing that kept me from turning my GI tract inside out. So I was very grateful to have it. I am just worried about my hand. It swells a little each night, like the veins aren't working right anymore and it is still tender to the touch in some places. But I am getting better every day. 2 nights back on my BiPAP and I feel like a new woman. I am eating some green bean baby food and a small bit of tuna salad at the moment. First time for both. It appears to be sitting well. The heartburn disappeared once I started the Prevacid twice daily. Not sure I will ever quit taking that. And I wish I could refuse to pay any of it. I was self-pay and they required payment up front. I negotiated paying $14K (They wanted $15.5K) and the week after mine was done, I saw a promotional price at another place, of $12K. Grrrrrrrrrr. Oh well, just happy to be recovering. Thanks again, y'all!

Newbie here, surgery was 4/1. Had terrible mostly uncontrollable retching and vomiting for 24 hours after surgery, spooked me. I'm back to full liquid diet, but after 10 days pre-op liquid diet am looking forward to pureed food soon. But I am also still spooked from my recovery period. Any good (bland?) suggestions for right off the full liquids?

Mine was April 1st. I am soooo ready to move to purees, but kinda scared to. Posted and hoping to receive suggestions from longer-term VSGers on what is good pureed. I had an absolutely horrible 24 hours after surgery. Almost uncontrollable vomiting and retching, so I am a bit spooked. :0 Everyone else doing well?