Woodstock23

@UtahGirlie thanks for sharing your perspective on this. Do you mind if I asked what you did / said in the first few months when eating with other people?

This is a really useful article. I had surgery 5 weeks ago and am preparing to tell my parents this weekend. I told some close friends before surgery and they were all really kind and supportive, but I have a feeling it's going to be a lot harder with my parents. I think their position will be from a place of worry / concern, but it often manifests as anger or disappointment. I like the idea of writing down what I want to say as I think we might all end up upset and I want to make sure that I stay on track with the info I want them to have.

Hi all - I’m considering buying a bariatric recipe book, wondered if anyone had any recommendations? Thanks!

Congrats on your surgery! The first couple of days were tough for me too, the key thing is to take care of yourself, rest when you need to, it’s so important for your recovery. Don’t obsess about walking, as long as you are moving about periodically you’ll be great. Each day for me came with a little more energy, and it was easier to get fluids in, then it was easier to walk, which gave me a bit of an appetite etc, etc. I promise you it’ll get easier - keep the faith & trust the process 😊

I had my post-op check up appointment today (at 11 days post-op) and I’ve been approved to move onto purées - I’m so excited! Scouring this site and online generally for ideas; if anyone has any suggestions they enjoyed at this stage I’d love to hear them 😀

Go you! Sounds like you’re doing good - one step at a time, you got this.

Hey @Nikki@50 - delighted to say that surgery went ahead as scheduled on the 19th! I got home on the 21st and recovery seems to be going ok so far! I’m getting a good amount of fluids in, along with some thinned down protein yoghurt and thin soup but am craving more savoury options - cream of chicken soup has been surprisingly awesome but if you have any ideas for other thin savoury liquids I’d love to hear them! How’re you getting on with trying to up the carbs? Hope that’s helping with things?

Thanks! I’m sure there will be many bumps in this long road but I’m relieved to have had a smooth start! Good luck to you too for your journey, have you had your op?

I had my op on 19th (Thursday) and got home on Saturday morning. I struggled a bit with keeping fluids down on the Friday but thankfully that passed and I'm now drinking well, and have had some thin soup and protein yoghurts so feel I have some energy back. Remarkably I haven't had much in the way of gas pain - definitely some discomfort in the first 36 hours or so but it eased with some walking around. So happy to be home and that it's done - I have a feeling the next couple of weeks will feel long whilst I'm on fluids only but excited to be in this next chapter of my life!

@Nikki@50 - so sorry to hear that you've had a tough few weeks, but well done for staying positive, and also congratulations on a 34lb loss, that's phenomenal!! One of the things I worked on with my psychologist was keeping a food diary, but as well as noting down what I ate (or what I thought about eating but didn't) I had to note where I was physically (turns out I do a lot of my emotional eating standing up in the kitchen!) and how I was feeling at the time. By doing this we managed to identify some of my triggers and, as well as coming up with other things I could do until the emotions passed, it's also helped me to get ahead of the emotions a bit when I can see them coming, This article describes it better than I have! https://www.helpguide.org/articles/diets/emotional-eating.htm I appreciate it'll be trickier to do the food diary stuff following surgery, but maybe tracking emotions and thoughts when you do have those impulses might help? Thanks for the offer of support - I'm sure I'll have loads of questions over the next few weeks. Surgery is tomorrow and I'm a mixture of excitement and anxiety with full on butterflies in my stomach! Trying to keep myself occupied with working today, but clearly that's not working as I'm on this forum ;-) Keep finding the positives (34lb!!!!!!!) and hope that you can get the water and protein consumption up a little bit this week. One step at a time xxx

Hi all - I'm booked in for sleeve surgery on Thursday this week, so am currently on Day 12 of the liver shrinking diet. It's the third time I've been on the diet as my first two surgery dates were cancelled due to covid (my surgeon caught it, and then I caught it!) so I'm pretty used to it all by now! Just keeping everything crossed that there aren't any problems this time and it all goes ahead on Thursday! Congratulations to everyone on here who has had their surgery, and sympathy to all those who are still on the pre-op diets! So inspiring to hear all your stories, and hopefully I'll be sharing my recovery updates soon too! xx

Hi all - after two cancelled surgeries earlier this year, I'm now three days away from my gastric sleeve appointment! I've needed to stay away from this board whilst waiting as I was thinking 'what if...' far too much, but it's been great catching up with all the posts and seeing how supportive and helpful everyone is to each other. @Nikki@50 Hope your surgery went ok and that recovery hasn't been too tough so far? I'm a mixture of nerves and excitement; one good thing about the delay is that I feel more confident than ever in my decision to take this step. I've been doing some work with a psychologist for a few months about emotional eating and I feel stronger and more confident than I have in a long while. Look forward to continue reading about your experiences, and I'm sure I'll be asking loads of questions over the coming weeks and months xx

Thanks Nikki & Summerseeker 🙂 I'm also not great at waiting, so have had to give myself a bit of a talking to! I'm staying off instagram as it was making me do exactly what you said summerseeker - I was thinking, oh if my surgery had gone ahead, this or that would have happened by now! I'm giving myself a couple of weeks to chill out, then will get back into some good eating patterns for a couple of weeks and then it will be LRD diet time (again!!). Trying to stay positive, and hope for third time lucky😂.

Hi Nikki - sorry I've been quiet on here, had a weird few weeks! My original surgery date (10th March) was cancelled as my surgeon got covid, and then my new daye (7th April) has had to be cancelled as I tested positive earlier this week. I now can't have surgery for 7 weeks, so looks like the earliest I'll be in is mid-May. I'm absolutely gutted and having to try and re-set myself! Hope you're doing ok? Did your surgery go ahead as planned?

Exciting times! Good luck with it 🙂 I'm coming to the end of my pre-op diet, my surgery is scheduled for Thursday..!

Hello 🙂 There's a thread on the forum for those of us having (or who've had) surgery this month - it's called 'March 2022 Surgery Buddies' (I'm not sure how to put a link in, sorry!)

That sounds great - will do!

Great minds think alike :-) - I've already started a journal with my weight and measurements, my reasons for wanting to do this etc, and I've taken some photos just before I started the pre-surgery diet. I love the idea of including space for some NSVs so I will definitely add that in, thanks! With regards to isolation, I've been told to isolate for three days prior, and am going in on Monday for a covid test. Fingers and toes crossed for a negative, I'd be devastated if the surgery can't go ahead as planned..!

Hi Nikki - thanks for the kind words! I'm also concentrated on doing stuff around the house; even painted a bathroom today to have a project to keep me busy I'm definitely feeling better than I was this morning, so will aim to keep distracting myself for the next few days. My surgery is at the Spire Hospital in Edinburgh - they've been great so far, with lots of information which does help to calm me down. Where are you having your treatment? All the best for your last few weeks pre-surgery!

Hi all! I'm booked in for surgery next week, so I'd love to be a March buddy! I'm having a sleeve gastrectomy on the 10th, so only 5 days to go. Felling pretty anxious today about everything, but hoping that I get back to feeling as excited and positive I have over the last few weeks since I found out my date. I hope those who have already had their surgery are doing well and that recovery is going ok, and good luck to all those who are still to come this month xx

Hi all, this is my first post, but I've been reading lots on the site over the past few weeks and months - it's been so helpful! I'm booked in for a VSG next week, and up until now I've been really excited for it and feeling positive. However as of this morning I feel really anxious, have cried a few times and feel generally really unsettled. I think i'm scared that something is going to prevent me from being able to have surgery, and I can't snap out of it. I wondered if anyone else had felt like this, and/or had any tips to help me get refocused into a positive frame of mind?