NovaLuna

My surgery technically has a sleeve stomach and feeling full feels the same to me as before the surgery. Now, anyway. For the first two weeks it was like my stomach did flips or something when I got full. It'd make my chest tight. Maybe it was lingering gas or something, I really don't know... but, I think it's different for everyone.

I told myself for YEARS that I was going to have WLS! I kept putting it off. I had a good reason in 2016 and 2017 due to massive TN flares that ended in me having brain surgery to (temporarily) get rid of it, but had no excuse in 2018, I just procrastinated and had no motivation even though I DID want to lose weight. Then my sister gave birth to my niece in 2019 and I realized that if I didn't do something I likely wouldn't be around to watch her grow up. My health wasn't the best and as the years passed it was like more things just got piled on and I had kept using those as excuses as to why NOT to do the surgery. But the birth of my niece was the catalyst that pushed me into doing something about it. I had to do six months of weigh-ins and although I didn't have to actually lose any weight I was just asked not to GAIN, I still dieted. I chose to start cutting out the foods that I wouldn't be able to eat any way like soda, rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, beans, etc. on a month to month basis. I ended up losing 64 pounds before my surgery. And I've lost 33 pounds more in the seven weeks since I had my surgery. Motivation is something you have to find for yourself. Look at those around you and look at yourself. Is your health good or is it declining? If it's hard to push for the weight loss for yourself then try to do it for your family or friends because they most definitely want and need you in their life! I hope that you can find your own motivation to push you forward, and I wish you the very best!

Oh, I have a weird one for you... instead of burping I hiccup. Ever since my surgery. It's bizarre as hell and it's not like constant hiccups, but like one or two and done. So weird! I don't know why it happens! That was how the gas was released following surgery too! The kept asking me if I was burping or... you know, and I'd always say 'no, but I hiccup' and they kept saying 'oh, that's good then'. -_-"

I'm in California and you hear about new cases confirmed all the time... there was just two cases confirmed a few days ago in a nearby town and everyone in that town comes HERE to shop even though they're in two separate counties, but since I live in the foothills there isn't many places to shop so the biggest town in our county ends up as the shopping hub for several nearby towns outside our own county. I've taken the last week off of work due to back issues and I have to go back on Sunday, so I'm hoping I don't catch it since I work with the public!

Started as a 54DDD and am now down to a 42C. I was rather sad with losing three cup sizes so fast because my goal weight is still a hundred pounds off so what am I gonna be left with? -_-"

Hi all! I was 385 pounds at my first bariatric appointment and my highest weight was 389 (could have possibly been higher, but I avoided scales like the plague lol). My insurance required six months of weigh-in, but they had too many surgeries scheduled in December so the put me in January which made my whole journey to surgery an eight month process. I had my surgery January 23, 2020 so I'm seven weeks out as of today. On the day of my surgery I weighed in at 321 so I had lost 64 pounds on my own. I weighed myself yesterday morning and I'm down to 288! So I've lost 33 pounds since surgery and 97 overall! It's been a tough journey, but hopefully by the end of the year I can maybe get under 200, which I haven't been since I was 13! If that's not possible I would at least like to fit into a size 18 lol (I'm a 24-26 depending on the brand right now)

I live a little over an hour from you and my support group only does monthly meetings every 3rd Wednesday of the month 5-6pm though the next one is next week and my general practitioner (FNP) is the guest of the week lol. She had weight loss surgery YEARS ago and her son had it last year. You're welcome to come if you want. It's a small group and we usually only have 5-8 people come. https://www.adventisthealth.org/blog/2018/january/weight-loss-surgery-support-group/ (The link is from two years ago so the time hasn't been updated, but we meet now at 5 instead of 5:30).

Thank You! And the first time it happened I did freak out lol. It was back in 2015 and I choked on rice. I tried to make myself vomit... it didn't work. I tried to drink something and discovered I couldn't swallow the fluid and had to spit it back up. I panicked and was crying and the ER doc had to give me Valium to calm me down lol. I just got used to it after a while. I've had my throat stretched twice and I need it again, but will have to wait until I'm more healed from this surgery before the doctor will even think about doing it. It's becoming more commonly diagnosed lately. People are developing allergies and this is the way their bodies are responding. It's been misdiagnosed as GERD for many people because the can look similar, however EOS is caused by eosinophils (white blood cells) which think your body is under attack and so they multiply, which creates the stricture and causes the choking. Sorry for the word vomit lol

And Vitamin C is water soluble so if you take too much your body just gets rid of it (warning: it's usually through diarrhea). I also recommend sleeping well. If you have issues sleeping at night it actually compromises your immune system so it's actually true that a good nights sleep will do you wonders!

I'm pretty much okay. However the EOS won't go away. It's an immune disorder and allergic inflammatory disease. I know one of the triggers is my allergy to high fructose corn syrup so I avoid that and that's helped a lot with stricture issues, but the other triggers are seasonal allergies and things they can't pinpoint. Unfortunately I learned the hard way that the stricture has gotten worse as I currently can't swallow pills after I choked on a multivitamin -_-" So I'm stuck taking chewables for the foreseeable future until I can have my throat stretched again. As for eating... due to my EOS I have the doctors permission to keep liquid on hand in case I choke. I, unfortunately, need it for at least one meal a day as food gets stuck. Other than that I've been fine though. I figured the EOS would be an issue, but it's not been as bad as I thought. Once a day is better than every time I eat. It's usually lunch or dinner that I have issues though yesterday it was my evening snack. I haven't had any vomiting issues (blood or otherwise) since the hospital.

I completely understand where you're coming from because I was of the same mind when I first went to see the bariatric doc. But in the end you have to ask yourself what has the biggest chance of actually WORKING, because do you want to have ANOTHER surgery in a year or four to fix any issues you get with the Lap-Band? The success rate with the Lap-Band isn't that great. 1 in 3 have serious issues with it and 60% have to have another surgery. That was the reason I decided to look at the other surgeries. I had originally decided on the Gastric Bypass, but after discussing it with my doctor and my bariatric support group I decided to do the Loop DS, which is what my surgeons office had originally recommended to me. I have to take NSAIDS and I couldn't take that with Gastric Bypass. Though right now I'm stuck taking Turmeric since the doc office wants me to avoid the NSAIDS for the first six months, but I have to have SOME kind of anti-inflammatory due to back issues...so Turmeric it is! Anyway, just think about it and do your research. It seems scary, but the sleeve is actually one part of my surgery and I haven't had any issues with it. I wish you the best!

If it helps, I weighed myself four days after my surgery and had gained three pounds, yet at my one week check-up I was down 10 pounds since my surgery, which means in just a few days 13 pounds seemingly disappeared. Don't stress too much about it and ignore your scale for the first few weeks, it's likely just fluid gain from the IV's

Well... technically I didn't have any complications. But, I have EOS (Eosinophilic Esophagitis), which is an immune disorder that causes narrowing in the esophagus and leads to choking. Because of the narrowing I had to warn the surgical staff that they would likely need a pediatric intubation kit to intubate me (learned this hard way when I had brain surgery in 2017 and the surgical staff hadn't listened to me and they had to stall my surgery to hunt one down when they couldn't intubate me. they should have listened!). So, they give you those blood thinner shots before your surgery and so when they intubated me, even though it was the pediatric one, it was still a tight fit and because of the blood thinners... blood settled in my stomach. A couple hours after my surgery I started vomiting blood which freaked me and everyone in my family the hell out! The doctors and nurses were all "It's just old blood, you're fine" They told me it was probably a combination of my EOS and also having 80% of my stomach removed and the blood just sat there. It happened four times in those first 24 hours and it HURT! But it probably explains why I honestly couldn't eat or drink anything after my surgery. I struggled with getting more than a bite of jello or two sips of broth in my stomach and they had to keep pouring water into those little medicine cups that I literally had lined around the bed tray because I was sucking on ice rather than drinking. They took my ice away! T^T

Did you have diabetes for 10 or more years before your surgery? The way it was explained to us is that the surgery has something like a 96% chance of curing type 2 diabetes, but only if you've had it for less than 10 years. I don't really know how much truth there is in that, but that's what they told us in the class when discussing the pro's and con's of the different surgeries... If you did have it less than 10 years then just maybe you happen to be one of those rare 4%, which yes, sucks very much so. I hope the doc can explain what's going on with it and hopefully figure it out.

That's a HUGE pet peeve for me when they hand you one of those dinky little hospital gowns! I always look at the person like they're the stupidest person in the world. I do try to be polite when requesting a bigger gown though just so that I get my way with little complaint. They once told me to just wear two because they couldn't track down a larger size... I was like "I can't even get the damn thing all the way up my arms and you expect me to wear TWO?!" Needless to say it took them about 30 minutes to track down a plus size gown so I could do my damn X-Rays lol. It's ridiculous since most women are not tiny and NEED those bigger sized gowns so it's incredibly stupid to seemingly only stock the tiny ass ones that barely anyone fits into! Sorry lol You found a sore spot there!

My doctors office has one week of liquid foods, then one week of pureed, and then two weeks soft food, then basic general diet with some exceptions (no starches, no stringy fruits or veggies, no lettuce, no berries, etc.). Literally every doc office seems to be different so just follow what yours says. For my doc office the only reason people go over the set week(s) is if they can't tolerate the next stage. Then they stay a couple more days on it before trying to move up a stage again. Hope this helps...

I've struggled with my weight my whole life, but most of my family is overweight... I just happened to be bigger than all of them. I never had an eating disorder and I had tried several diets and nothing worked! They had done thyroid testing and it all came back normal. So, after my sister had my niece (who's a year old now) I got serious about my health because I wanted to watch her grow up and my health was only declining so I started to see the bariatric surgeon and followed a 6 month check-in per my insurance. They did that blood test the first month that tests your vitamins and your thyroid and low and behold! I had thyroid issues! -_-" Turns out your insurance only pays for a nominal thyroid test under normal circumstances, but they have to have a thorough one for the bariatric office (supposedly) so they were able to see my thyroid was underactive. I started thyroid meds and did a pre-surgery diet and was so excited that I literally told EVERYONE about the upcoming surgery, because I was actually losing weight and I was proud of myself! I lost 64 pounds prior to my surgery and a lot of people were really surprised that I was still going through with the surgery since I'd been able to lose all that weight without it, but I'm honest and bluntly told anyone who asked that it would take YEARS to do it without surgical intervention and I wanted the help that surgery would provide. I explained to any who asked that the surgery is just a tool to help the weight come off quicker. If I didn't work with it then it wouldn't work to the extend that I want it to and everyone has been really supportive! Likely because a number of my co-workers have had weight loss surgery lol. It's common where I work. My co-workers keep telling me that I'm looking more and more like my sister now, which is a HUGE compliment because she's about seventy pounds lighter than me (and two inches shorter lol). I have a lot more confidence now since I'm 96 pounds lighter in a nine month period. That's damn good imo! However, I can understand why some people keep it a secret. My advice though is, even if you don't tell people PLEASE wear a medical bracelet or necklace! My step-dad's mom had gastric bypass and she was rushed to the hospital and they intubated her not knowing she was a bariatric patient... the tubing went though her stomach and she bled to death. ALWAYS wear a med bracelet or necklace! Your life is important!

Opposite problem with the DS lol. I speak from experience! x'D

The only time that I can vividly remember getting ticked off about the chair arm thing was when I went to Stanford to see the Neurosurgeon in 2017 I remember complaining about their chairs lol. It was sooooo uncomfortable! I was 370-ish pounds at the time and you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork and then wait for like 30-40 minutes to see the doctor and meanwhile they have these really crappy chairs and if you actually want to be comfortable you have to go sit in the hall where they have couches, but chance not hearing your name called. Needless to say I stuck it out and was just irritated the whole time lol I was lucky enough with all my other doctors offices, the hospital where I live, and the bariatric doc's office that they all have a mix of armed and unarmed chairs.

I had my surgery at the end of January and I did need a little help, but not much. I was a little unsteady for the first week or so because I felt really weak and my Mom took time off work and helped me and followed behind me when I walked so that I didn't fall, but other than that I was pretty much okay. My Mom technically didn't actually have to take time off work, but two and a half years ago I had brain surgery and then ended up with meningitis following the surgery and could have died so... she's really over protective even though I'm 32 and an adult she always responds 'No matter how old you, your sister, and brother are, you're still my babies' so yeah... I think you'll be fine though!

I'm so sorry it's hurting you so much! Pain is never fun and I guess I'm lucky that I have a high pain tolerance because of my TN (Trigeminal Neuralgia) so the gas was just mildly annoying for me. I did pop Gas X though and walked and it wore off in about five days. I hope it goes away for you soon and I wish you the best!

I had the Loop Duodenal Switch and my surgery was about an hour and a half. I went in at 8am and my family came in to see me in recovery around 11. So it was pretty quick for me and I had no complications. Hope that answers your question...

So sorry you're going through that, but I totally feel your pain! My particular surgery causes excess... ehm #2 issues and it's not fun. At all. I'll be minding my own business and then suddenly it's like: "RRUUUUNN!" or you have an accident. And I learned that anything with sucralose or sugar alcohols upset my stomach. Stevia is the only way to go for sweetners for me. I hope you can figure out what's causing your issue. I'd suggest maybe monitoring what you're eating and trying to pinpoint it. Hopefully that'll put an end to it.

I tend to not throw out clothes. They just get boxed up and put in the shed lol. Because of my habit of not throwing away clothes... I don't have to buy smaller clothes because I have clothes four sizes down from my current size (I've also lost two sizes as it is so I guess technically I have six different sizes of clothes lol). Right now I fit into the clothes I wore in my senior year of high school (15 years ago, if you're curious lol)! Luckily my style is still pretty much the same and I fit into my favorite shirt now that I haven't been able to wear in like 12 years! I have no idea what clothes I have stored a size down though since I have yet to go through them, but at the rate I'm going I'll probably be in the next size down in a month or less so I guess I should start pulling them out! x'D

There's definitely a very noticeable difference so... maybe people are just really, really, really unobservant sometimes. I can understand the frustration though and hopefully someone will get clue and say something! You look great though! Good job!