GinaCampbell

We were only told that carbonation is not our friend and that we can become drunker quicker. Obviously also, alcohol has calories in it that we don't need. And once you have a drink, food choices may not be as good as they should be. In future (if I am ever well enough lol), I wouldn't be afraid to have watered down drinks. But so many alcohols can cause stomach acid issues. Red wine is really low in calories, A flattened slimline (diet) tonic with a bit of vodka in it is low in calories. But my bet though, is that alcohol is the last thing on your mind in the first three months. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

And sometimes even that doesn't work so just be mentally and emotionally prepared for the time you might need to recover from the surgery itself, any further treatment you might need and getting used to your new life. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I wish you hadn't just sent him a message and posted your response here. I am looking forward to what vets have to say. His life is my life. Travel extensively all over the world for work, love my wine, eat out a lot, worried about personality change. I hope others who reply do so here on the forum. He asked questions I have wondered about but haven't asked. My surgery is in 10 days I sent a message as my response was specific to post op treatment via the NHS system in the UK e.g. prescription costs. Things that won't have an effect on most I dare say. I am not a vet and because my story is not typical, I had surgery via the NHS, talked about my grandchildren and because I don't want to hijack this thread with a long list of what happened to me, I sent him a message. I told him I sent him a message because he only joined two hours before Instead of worrying about what I said privately to him, why not do a search on the keywords of your questions? Or search for a group in your area etc. Lastly, you can message me with direct questions if you wish. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

It is down to 3 cm now, thanks for asking. Have a cyst on my kidney that now needs treating, no decision about the gallbladder yet but having a colonoscopy on Thursday for the severe abdominal cramps (not sure how that will help as the cramps are where my stomach meets my small intestine) and bleeding. So still many more weeks of recovery for me ! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Maybe don't read my journey my friend as I am the poster child for both unexpected complications and the after the fact realisation that vsg was not the right choice for me. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Complications made me emotional, being so ill made me emotional, my family being upset made me emotional. Not being able to use my routine comfort go tos (nice cup of coffee in the morning, tea and toast, eating a picnic with my granddaughter) made me emotional. Watching my body change at 54, was sad. My sagging thighs, calves, arms and hips, made me emotional. Not understanding what my body needs was confusing. Knowing I need Protein but not being able to take it in was upsetting. Now though, I am learning that as long as I get my Fluid in each day, I will be okay. Believing that I will eventually heal and figure this all out comforts me. My friends comfort me, my prayer partners comfort me. I have a counsellor who helps. My family try to be supportive but of course they are frustrated and worried because I am still so ill. I thought that I was mentally and emotionally prepared. I wasn't. But everyday is a school day for Gina! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Costing me double at the moment! Having to buy pre made Soup for when I can't cook. Trying new and different Protein sources. I waste alot. The supplements, chewable Vitamins, dispersible paracetamol, Protein drinks etc are expensive. I have ordered a new protein to try from a bodybuilding place through Amazon just last week. Expensive. Buying supplements to replace minerals for the diarrhea also costing. But once I get well and in a routine, I think it will be much cheaper overall. So expensive now but cheaper later! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Sent you a message! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

My bariatric team contradict themselves constantly. My surgeon wanted me to take antibiotics the size of horse pills at two weeks post op. The ward staff refused to issue the tablets and I got a frantic call from the nurse telling me not to take any tablets until I was six weeks out. Just an example. I won't bore you with the other thousand. They "forgot" that I was still on fluids (8 weeks out), so I needed to experiment with foods. Using my discharge booklet as guidance, I also looked here to see what other people found successful. I have asked questions here at 2 in the morning when no team was available. I have asked questions here to see what others have actually experienced. None of my bariatric team have actually ever had bariatric surgery. They don't know how it feels. And once you don't trust your team, other humans can be helpful. I have to have a colonoscopy on Thursday which means a massively strong enema solution. At 8 weeks out, I am worried that my new stomach won't like this. Asking my surgeon is not helpful (remember the horse pill?), my nurse is on holiday. The colonoscopy team don't know. My GP says that is "beyond her". Who will I ask? I will research as much as I can, then decide what to do myself. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

oh no! That's awful! No wonder you are distressed. It will take some time to recover from all of that! Please be kind to yourself and rest, rest, rest!!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hopefully the tests will come back with some answers. You can't carry on like that! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

So sorry to hear about what has happened to you! I have not heard of that sort of surgery. I do totally understand your feelings about having had an elective surgery that was life altering for you and your family. I pray for peace for you and your loved ones. How was your stomach left? Did they have to do a conventional sleeve? Or has your stomach been repaired but not altered? How is your physical health now? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Where is your pain? Did they do blood tests? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Sleeved 31st May. Down 70 lbs (through illness mainly). But still down and losing 5lbs a week on average. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

If it is C diff, I won't know for several days as the results won't be back until then. The scary part is that I will be on an open communal ward, using the communal toilet and shower, during the time that we don't know why I have severe diarrhea because I have IBS-d. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Wonderful! I hope they can figure this out and get you on the road to recovery. Hopefully you will no longer regret the surgery (as much) once you regain your health. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App Thank you but I will always believe that this was a bad decision for me as it is not the complications that make me feel that way. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you! I am being re admitted tomorrow to the hospital because of these ongoing bowel issues so I can see no end to all this anytime soon. Prayers would be much appreciated! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

My GP phoned the surgical assessment unit because she didn't know what to do. So back on the ward tomorrow at 8 am. I didn't have C diff three weeks ago but I did have IV and oral antibiotics for four weeks. I have no idea what is "normal" IBS-d following vsg but I know that these cramps and spasms in my lower bowel hurt too much to ignore. My stomach itself doesn't hurt. I can drink and eat if I want but once my stomach empties (I can hear it), and fluid/soup etc hits my bowel, they cramp until everything is ejected. No nausea, no vomiting, no fever, doesn't wake me up at night. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hi all, nearly six weeks out and still very ill from a post op abdominal abscess. Was told yesterday I have to have my gallbladder out too. I can only get in around 100 cals a day and 500 ml of Water so I have dropped almost 60lbs in six weeks. I am so frightened that I won't survive another surgery. Having another CT scan Wednesday to discuss a guided aspiration of the abscess. The surgeon has already told me that he thinks that it would be too dangerous. Will I ever get well? All I can do is go from the bed to the couch and back everyday. Even showering is hard. I live alone so have to take care of myself. I pray all the time because that is all I can do. I have a counsellor who phones me on a Friday morning. She says that I have to keep fighting but I am so tired, so ill and in such despair. I keep reading about all these people eating this and that, drinking Protein etc. It makes me feel so sad and so scared. I just want to go to sleep but my circulation is so poor that I have to keep moving. If I do sleep for an hour or so, I wake up in agony in my hips and legs as if no blood is moving at all. I don't think I can take much more. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Please just let me be clear. This surgery was not right for me, period. The reasons are because it has caused more problems (uncontrollable diarrhea, constant monitoring of Fluid intake, lactose issues, weakness etc) than I had before. And for me, so many foods are restricted that preparing food (I am disabled) and keeping my energy levels up (I have fibro and CFS) is difficult. The complications that I have experienced are a completely different issue. Obviously, parts overlap. I had an elective surgery. I saw the positive side, asked the right questions about the negative stuff and felt informed. I wasn't and that makes me sad. I won't go through it all again. I don't feel that I am biased against the NHS but I do feel that I would have gotten a different level of care in a private hospital afterwards. Our local bariatric system is admittedly overstretched. Even today, I had to ask to be squeezed into a clinic as I am in so much pain. I may have C diff from antibiotics and/or colitis which my GP is concerned about. She wants my surgical team involved but they don't want to see me as "they did not touch my bowels". As for complaining about what is going on, I said to them all that I would love to speak at one of their seminars. A few faces went white. I joked about being able to clear their waiting list for them, faces went even whiter. They know my feelings on the issue. I sat there, fat. Thinking that this sounded relatively straight forward. My issue has always been quantity and never feeling full. This sounded a great solution. Because I didn't have all the info I needed. I will take responsibility for my part, I should have dug deeper than just my hospital and surgeon's statistics, researching forums etc. I should have drilled down deeper in the UK WLS issues, NHS issues on the ward, upcoming industrial actions prior to my surgery, my own blood test results and what they meant etc. I hope one day, my team will take responsibility for their part. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I am being seen in clinic tomorrow on an emergency basis. Will be probably be admitted. This isn't gallbladder but could be C diff or some sort of post antibiotic colitis. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you! I want everyone to do what is right for them and they can't do that if they aren't given adequate information. I too hoped that I would get some relief from fibro, and was told that I would never lose weight because of fibro so this was my best option. I am more housebound and bedridden now than before. I know that people don't want to hear me say that this was a bad idea for me and my friends. I understand that people want to hear the great parts. Do they think that I want to suffer? Be housebound and sick? I simply want everyone to be armed with the right questions and to give themselves the best chance for success. You are right, none of us really were heavy enough to alter ourselves for life simply to lose weight. My weight loss has occurred through illness, not from the vsg. Thank you for seeing what my point is. If people here want to shun me, I can live with that. Especially if it means one person asks a question that helps them give informed consent. This isn't about bashing the NHS. I could have had the perfect surgery and recovery and I would still regret having done this to myself. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

All you have to do is Google the adverse reaction rates in IV administered Cyclizine. I would put a link here but there are so many, choosing one would take forever. It makes shocking reading. I have registered a yellow card for this med officially. It should be administered with extreme care direct into a cannula for the first time. I could not speak, walk, read or write for nearly 24 hours. I could not make words in the right order and suffered stammering and spasms for two weeks. Clearly, the administering ward sister has had problems because the conversation about praying before she administers it and how many problems they have is not something I made up. Two doctors thought that I had had a near fatal stroke during the first six hours. I explained why I won't put in a formal complaint and as you read all my posts, you will know that. I have spoken to PALs about this matter and their advice was exactly as I said, I am still under these people's care for another two years, making a formal complaint at this point would achieve nothing good for me. It is people who bring lawsuits that will sink the NHS, not me pointing out truths about my WLS experience. Because you work for the NHS, you won't like what I am saying, obviously. IF my experience is rare, and not common, then how do you explain all of my other bariatric friends? My GP refused to prescribe liquid meds, my friend's GP's refused to prescribe liquid meds. My bariatric team said it was a common problem. You were lucky. According to these forums, the medication Ursodiol, Actigall, URSO etc can be prescribed (and is prescribed for six months after surgery for some) after WLS to try and protect the gallbladder. I am not frustrated, I am being honest. As I said, they are your employer, so you are biased. Anyone that wants WLS on the NHS will make up their own minds. But they might ask better questions, check if they are allergic to cyclizine, check out the care plan for their gallbladder, put in a plan for several re admissions to the hospital, not rely on Protein shakes etc and make a plan B. And I stand by my statement that the national incidence of mortality due to malnutrition and complications of WLS should be looked into by everyone considering this. Maybe the bariatric team, ward system, surgical team and hospital in your area is a centre of excellence. Mine clearly is not. Today I rang my bariatric team in agony with my 4th day of abdominal cramps, spasms and diarrhea. When I was asked why I was still on fluids, I reminded them that they told me to stay on them until further notice in case my gallbladder was a problem. They forgot. They asked if I was still taking lansoprazole. I said no because my GP had not put that on repeat. Apparently, they had not read the discharge letter properly. Then they tell me that because there is no team meeting for a few weeks (holidays you see), the results of my ultrasound won't be available for a decision on my gallbladder. However, I do have a significant cyst on my kidney. That information (what size? Inside, outside, treatment plan etc) will also have to wait. So what do I tell my GP tomorrow so she can help me effectively? Why is there not a better aftercare program? Wouldn't it be better to concentrate on all of us who have had complications rather than to continue with further surgeries? How much NHS money is being wasted in repeat admissions etc? I know that you work for the NHS. And that you are happy with your level of care. And that's great! But that isn't the main reason I (and my friends) regret my surgery. It was not the right decision for me. My medical issues and disability have been made worse by having this done. My friend with the abscess on her spleen and Fluid on her lungs actually worked on the ward where WLS patients recover. For the NHS. She may not be able to work again for many months. she tells me that she doesn't know if she or her family will ever get over what happened to her. So this isn't just me being "frustrated and upset". As you and I don't agree, perhaps you should simply contact me privately in future. The OP asked "Does anyone regret their surgery". I do. And I will continue to support my position. I am only urging people to make sure that they are giving informed consent. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App