orionburn

Prepare yourself mentally and take this time to really think about your relationship with food. Not sure if you have to do a liquid diet (obviously not 2 weeks like many of us did) but that was a period to make me realize the struggles I had with food. People react differently after surgery. Some don't feel any feelings of hunger for weeks, others the next day. Head hunger is something you'll have to come to terms with. Don't get discouraged if you start getting hunger pangs and think that your doctor forgot to do your sleeve...lol The other big things are not to freak out if/when you hit a stall. Don't obsess about the scale. Your body is going to be going through some major changes so be patient with it. Focus on the basics (protein/water/vitamins) and healing for the first few weeks and making sure you get off on the right foot. That will help out so much in the long run. Good luck to you!

All of this. Think the majority of us start to second guess ourselves at the last minute (myself included). As crazy as it seemed prior to surgery I can see how easy it would be start cheating and doing things that would easily cause me to gain weight again. The biggest eye opener for me was realizing how much of this is a mental fight. Head hunger can be a real s.o.b. and you have to come to terms with it. No matter how tiny a stomach we have head hunger will make you think that you need to eat when you really don't. Personally I think it's better for people to have this bit of freak out and second guess things. It's a good time to reflect on what you expect out of this surgery and the changes that come with it. I won't lie and say the first few weeks are easy (for some it is, others it's tough) but it was totally worth it.

From what my doc told me the ban on driving had more to do with being on pain meds than anything else. They didn't want you driving with meds that cause drowsiness. I drove about a week after surgery. I was fighting a lot of exhaustion so it had to be short trips.

Thanks for all the tips/suggestions. I suppose a big part of having to change my thought process is that yes, I'm not sitting down to a gigantic plate of salad that needs half a bottle of dressing to cover it. I'm only doing about a cup or so along with either tuna, eggs, chicken, etc. I've always loved salads but I struggle trying to shift into low carb mode and adding in some foods that normally I wouldn't eat as often.

I'm gearing up to get back to a low carb diet. Salads have become a staple in my diet (coming up on one year out from surgery). One thing I'm mentally struggling with is that shift from low/no fat dressings that have reduced fat & calories to regular dressings that have higher fat & calories but very low carbs. My salads can't do a back stroke in my dressings, but I also can't get by with only a single tablespoon either...lol For you low carb gurus is this something you simply have to adjust to mentally? In the early days post-op I was low carbing but was pretty limited on what I could have. I've had a normal diet but the past two months I've been stuck in a stall and usually low carbing is the only thing that helps me get things going again. Haven't gained any weight but have been stuck. Salads are one of those things that help keep me regular so it's important that they stay in my diet.

First few days can be tough, but rest assured it does get better! Focus on the basics and healing up. Congrats on getting to the other side! Best wishes!

The way my doc explained is is that as your stomach heals it basically heals "over" the staples. Something about the way the scar tissue forms it does so around the staples. Yes, there is risk of developing a leak down the road, but it's not a common thing. As with any surgery there are risks. With WLS you have to carefully weigh out the pros & cons (no pun intended). For many of us it was the risks that other health issues could cause by continuing to be overweight. It's good that you're already looking at it that way. Keep in mind that forums such as this can sometimes skew your perception of things. Lot of people may only post when they're having issues. In my experience however it's safe to say those that are happy with their choice to have WLS greatly outnumbers those that regret it. It's easy for me to say how happy I am with my choice when I haven't had the struggles that others have, and my heart goes out to them. Despite having some initial bumps in my road with a few complications it was worth it for me, and I'd do it all over again now that I've seen the results. This is a bigger mental challenge/battle than most people expect so it's good to be cautious and think things through completely.

I choose the sleeve. Main reasons were: - Less invasive - Was concerned about malabsorption - Seemed that vitamin requirements were higher or of bigger concern with a bypass - Struggled with portion size vs. sweet cravings (so I didn't want to deal with dumping syndrome) - Actually wanted a slower paced rate of weight loss so was fine that a sleeve may not take the weight off as fast and/or not lose as much compared to a bypass

I was in the hospital 6 days due to complications. I came home weighing 5 pounds MORE than I did the day of surgery. They pumped so many fluids into me that it took several days to get back to where I was prior to surgery. After that things kicked in. We all get anxious to see the scale start dropping but give it time. There are always going to be differences between people. Too many factors such as genetics, age, sex, how much weight you have to lose, etc. It's kind of like comparing gas mileage between 50 different cars. Some may be the same and others will be drastically different.

Wow. Sorry to hear that the surgery was cause for a break-up. It can definitely put some strain on relationships. But good for you on going through with it. I was a nervous wreck in the final week as well, but so happy I did it. Lot of support and info on here so welcome to the club. Good luck to you on your journey!

Figured you'd be more of a sausage person

Yep...it was the texture that I missed so much. As tough as the post-op phase was I'm thankful for it because it gave me a new appreciation for food.

The food cravings can be really weird. I remeber I would have cut somebody for a can of green beans...lol. I was more excited about eating a salad again than I was probably anything else.

Ugh....this! For the most part the only thing that has ever really given me problems has been chicken. Don't know if specifically it's been eating too quickly or not chewing well enough. Most other foods or meats haven't bothered me. All I know is that I've gone from "hmm...I don't feel so good" to "I'm going to throw right now" in a blink of an eye...lol. Luckily I've never actually had to throw up, but was bad enough where I hung out in the bathroom for a few minutes until it passed. In time you'll get a better feel for potion size and see the signs of when you need to slow down and/or stop eating all together.

Best wishes! I'm coming up on my one year mark and that morning (and view) seems like it was yesterday. It will be worth it. Good luck!

Felt the same way and had all the same doubts. The two week pre-op diet was a huge come to Jesus moment for me. It was an eye opener to how much control food had over me. I still recall the last day prior to having starting those 2 weeks. I was obsessing over what was going to be my "last meal" before surgery. Once I had that meal then I started to think "Oh, no, I should have went here instead." That made me realize that I could have went to another place and then I would have found somewhere else that I "should" have gone to. It was an eye opener of where I had gotten to. As to losing weight on your own, yes, you can do it if you put your mind to it. I was up to 400 lbs at one point in my early 20s. Lived at the gym for 1-2 years and got all the way down to 265. Then over the years the weight crept back on. Developed terrible sciatica that only got worse as my weight increased and my ability to exercise went down. Once I was back to 350lbs I couldn't walk for more than 5 minutes without being in terrible pain, leg/foot feeling numb, and then not being able to get comfortable no matter what I did even when I sat back down. In a few weeks I'll have my one year anniversary. Down to 235ish now. Back pain is about 10% of what it used to be. I've done more in this past year than I did the previous 3 because of how much better I feel. I used to think that Thanksgiving and the holidays would be terrible without being able to binge eat. Again, it takes food to make holidays fun? Yes, it's part of it, but I had just as good of a time this year as I did in year's past without making a pig out of myself. WLS is a tool. It isn't a simple fix. I still struggle with food issues and head hunger. No different than when I gave up smoking years ago. Same can really be said about somebody struggling with drinking. Addictions are addictions and food can control you like anything else. Ultimately it is up to you in the end, but do take some comfort that the majority of us all went through the same doubts. I know it seems cliche to say but honestly my only regret was not doing it soon.

It'll be worth it. My nerves were a wreck when I started my pre-op diet. After 6 months of prepping knowing it was down to the wire was hard to come to terms with. I have my one year anniversary this month. Haven't regretted it at all! It much better health and can do so much more than I could before surgery.

Probably water weight. Hell I weighed more coming out of the hospital than when I went in! I was so pumped full of fluids that I probably weighed 5lbs more when I left. I'm assuming you're using the same scale, same time of day, same clothes (or none)?

I opted to be open/honest with my boss. Mainly because if I had complications and/or needed some special requests once I came back I wanted him to know. I kept it to only a few people at work, however. I didn't just go around telling everyone about it. Not that I gave a crap of what anyone thought about. Normally I keep things pretty private about my personal life. That being said keep in mind that as long as you are covered by FML you can still get time off due to it being related to your surgery and still keep it under wraps. Being in that small of a work environment definitely has its own set of pros/cons with something like this.

Low carb/keto diets can really help shed the pounds. They can be difficult to do if you're a carb lover (like me). Many of us had to do 2 weeks of a liquid diet before surgery and it's essentially a low carb diet too. The upside is that you can drop a decent amount of weight in a short period of time. Downsides can be decreased energy, bad taste in your mouth and/or bad breath, and being hangry at times...lol.

The usual jibber-jabber - remember if you are losing weight, even if at a slower/reduced rate, that isn't a stall. And are you hitting your water intake with no problems? Still taking vitamins every day? When I hit my first road block it helped me to actually bump my calories up a bit. Obviously at 2 months out that isn't easy to do. I did little things like adding a spoonful of Greek yogurt to my protein drinks. Just getting it up by an extra 100-200 calories seemed to help. I did tweak my carbs a bit to try and get them a bit lower where I could. Don't get too bothered with it. It's frustrating but things will kick back into gear before you know it.

It was tough for me as well. Honestly I was more run down from lack of food and still healing. I was a caffeine junky prior to surgery. I did decaff starting out just so I could have my coffee fix. Eventually I started adding in regular coffee. Caffeine hits me harder now and I can get some really unpleasant jitters from time to time. When you do start drinking coffee again I do recommend easing into it. Try decaff first to see if having coffee at all bothers you. Then try doing a mix (like 75% decaff and 25% caff). Everybody seems to be different with it.

Same here. It was actually pretty miserable for a while. I have a desk job so it would murder me at times. Getting up and moving around helps, but it was a rough spell to deal with. At some point it just kind of stopped. I did start going to my chiropractor again around the 6 month mark to help get things back into place. Everything seemed a bit off in my back as the weight came off. That might have helped my pain eventually go away. It also depends on what/where I'm sitting. Our Jeep is miserable for me on long trips, but I can for a long time in our van. I did get one those special coccyx cushions and that helped out.

Had a lot of the same struggles. Eggs in general were tough, whether scrambled or deviled. Even though mashed potatoes don't have any decent nutritional value they're a nice "comfort" food at that point. Yogurts were a must for me at that stage. I wasn't allowed any sort of solid meats until 4 weeks. I could blend tuna after 2 weeks but didn't have much interest in that personally. The ricotta bake was a Godsend to be honest. That was one of the best things in the world at that stage. It was super tastey and felt like I was actually eating real food again. Definitely put that on your list.

I think groups are better served being set to private. There are a lot of things I belong to that have a public Facebook page for posting articles and such, but then a private group geared more for personal questions that people can ask. Personally I don't feel there is any secrecy or true anonymity to be had if you're on Facebook. You have to go in knowing there's always a chance somebody is going to find out. All somebody has to do is join the private group and they have access to all the member names in there. Don’t get me wrong – I think the idea of a Facebook group is a great idea. People just need to be well aware that there’s a world of difference between Facebook at the BP forum.