I had a Gastric Sleeve performed one month ago after repeated failures at diets and exercise. It was causing great strain in our marriage. I had heard so much positive feedback on Gastric Sleeve - even my own personal Physician had had it done.
98% of people get through with only minimal discomfort, and manageable pain and nausea. I was one of the 2% that didn't. I can't be totally sure in what order things happened, but I think I was given a minimalistic version of the truth. My surgery started out as laparoscopic. Firstly, I went into anaphylaxis from the anti-anaesthetic med in recovery. They had to do CPR till they could reverse it. I went off to ICU, where after some hours they said my stats showed I was haemorrrhaging. Another LAP prodecure - "nick in spleen', stitched, glued. (This is where I have my doubts - I'm inclined to think the CPR and cracked rib caused a spleen rupture - not a "nick" because I have now been told 25 % of my spleen will atrophy. Back to ICU. A few hours later - she's still haemorrhaging". Back to theatre, this time open surgery right down abdomen. Vein on back of liver nicked, tied off etc, back to ICU. Next day a whole lot of packs removed from my abdomen. I spent a hellish week in ICU. On drip till I could tolerate a tiny bit of liquid. Another week and a half in ward. I do believe they cracked a rib doing CPR as I have a 40% collapsed lung on that side, cannot breathe in without pain, and one particular rib hurts like crazy. I spend most mornings in bed feeling nauseous till lunchtime. The pain is subsiding but I am bothered about that lung.
I know it's only a month out, that I had an unfortunate series of events, but I'm hoping like crazy in 12 months I'll be able to eat without feeling sick. I have anti-nausea wafers but they don't do a lot. At the moment I cannot drive, cannot work, and don't know when I will be able to.
i'm kind of glad it's done, and I have lost 16kg (mostly because I can hardly eat anything), but if I'd known in advance how bad mine would be, I definitely would have said no. I nearly died several times. Is being skinny really worth it? I was trying to improve my health, my blood pressure, stave off Diabetes. As it is, I don't know how long I am going to be out of action.
However. As I said, I'm one of about 2% who have such nightmare complications, so listen to the people it worked for. After six months most of them are grinning like Cheshire cats at how great they feel having lost do much weight.
In case you're wondering, the surgeon I had has one of the best reputations around.