Courtnay

Hey all 🤗 Sorry I've been MIA for a while. I had my gastric sleeve surgery on December, 13th, 2023. Pre-op I didn't lose too much. I went from 381 to 365.5 the morning of the surgery. I just weighed myself and I am now 299.6. I am worried I am losing too slowly? I have a lot of weight to lose so I thought I would have lost a lot more by now. Still happy with any success I do have, but I am worried I am losing too slowly. Thanks everyone and much love.

Thank you so much for your response ChunkCat. Truly you make me feel so much better anytime I read your responses. I truly am sorry that happened to you too, I'm so glad someone stood up for you. I should of said something, but my anxiety kicked in and so I kept quiet and tried not to bother the nurses. I guess the surgeon felt I was already open so better something than nothing haha. Least that's what I feel happened when they saw my liver. I'm not mad at them just emotional. The surgeon visited me the next day and expressed he was sorry that he couldn't do the bypass. He also said he was very happy with the results and that he feels I will have just as much success if not more as the bypass. He also said that once I lose weight my liver should shrink more so we could discuss bypass down the road if I still feel strongly about it. I been on a waitlist for months to see a psychologist actually. This is because I have a lot if underlying trauma, C-PTSD, severe Anxiety, major depression disorder, etc. They also believe I could have more mental health illnesses, so they want to investigate so they can help me more. I think searching for a therapist also would be wise, but I struggle with opening up to people. I am very guarded. I also don't remember chunks if my past because I believe my mind blocked some out as a defense mechanism. I know there is bad stuff there but I don't remember it all if that makes sense? Sorry if I'm being a downer. 🖤 Also thanks for the suggestion of trying protein water!! I heard about those but I was nervous that they may affect my IBS too, but knowing you battle IBS too makes me feel more comfortable giving them a go. My IBS is so painful when it happens. It almost seems more frequent and even more painful now. I hope as my body heals and adjusts that this will not be as much of an issue. Thanks again for your input. Truly appreciate you.

I have spoken about it with him while I was recovering in my hospital bed but he wants to see how I do with the sleeve first. He said we can discuss gastric bypass long down the road if I still want it done. Not sure why I was on optifast for 5 weeks prior since my anesthesiologist told me they didn't really care to have me on it that long anyways. I slipped a few times to which I told them and they seemed rather unbothered by it. So I'm not really sure how my liver had not shrunk enough in all that time. I was 365 going into surgery. Yes heavy, but no health issues thankfully. They knew gastric bypass was all I wanted and not the sleeve due to my gerd. It is what it is, just I now can't have this reversed. My emotions are all over the place which I hear is normal, but I'm feeling really miserable and regretful. I hope this changes for me because I feel like my entire life is now ruined permanently. But I also know that I couldn't keep digging my grave with a fork and spoon either. Hopefully my mind will change as this new lifestyle becomes more second-hand nature. Not sure at this point if I'll go through another surgery at this point unless absolutely needed. The whole experience was traumatic in my opinion. The nurse was mean to me. I was in so much pain and I felt the nurse I was left with was very cold. She kept getting mad at me for asking for help to go to the bathroom. I kept apologizing for bothering her when she rushes in with an ultrasound to look at my bladder. She then says it was not possible I needed to go as my bladder only held so much liquid and she told me not to ask for help again unless my bladder was fuller. Not to mention when she took blood from me she used the same needle twice and dropped it all on the ground. I was so loopy but I saw it happen and was mortified after she left. Thankfully another nicer nurse took her place to help me after. Not saying this would happen again and all the other people were great and so kind to me, but she really made the whole scary and painful experience so much worse. Sorry venting a little.

They told me they would only give me the sleeve if for emergency reasons like I was in the 1% who could not have the bypass. I didn't fall in that 1% only liver bigger than they wanted so I am not sure why they didn't just close me up until my liver was small enough.. I was adamant I only wanted the bypass. Unfortunately I can't do anything about it now. So I am trying to make it work as I have no choice but to.

Sorry tech challenged, I meant to answer you lol. I was on a 5 week optifast pre-op liquid diet only. Also water of course. I was honest to my team as I wasn't perfect the entire time time. Probably why it didn't shrink enough... I don't know.

It was 5 weeks on optifast 4x daily, nothing else besides water. That said I was honest about not being fully strict on it. I did slip up a few times.

Hey everyone 👋😊 I hope you all are doing well. I had my surgery on December, 13th, 2024. I went in expecting the gastric bypass but woke up with the gastric sleeve due to my liver still being a bit too big. This news has sent me into a spiral of emotions as I wanted the option to reverse the surgery if needed and now I can't, and because I battle GERD so I did not want the sleeve for this reason as I heard it can make it worse. I already battle IBS before this, but now it seems almost everything I have triggers it. So I am finding less and less things I can have. Even fairlife shakes sets it off. I'm now on the pureed stage and so far everything I've tried has also set it off. The good news is I've lost 39 pounds. So that has made me happy. Trying to see the positives. To be honest I have been miserable. I hope things get better.

**Update** Hey everyone! Sorry for being MIA for a while. I really appreciate all your responses and well wishes. I will be 2 weeks post-op tomorrow, which is kind of nutty to think about. My 9 day post-op follow up appointment went really well. Incisions are healing well, and they seem quite happy with my food diary. I started my bariatric vitamins about 4 days post-op as well and been doing great so far with those. I use Paravita bariatric multivitamin 3x daily and I take Vitamin D3 2500 IU one drop daily. Plus of course the medications needed temporarily prescribed by my surgeon. I got to say though that it's been HARD going through Christmas day and not being able to enjoy our traditional Christmas breakfast, or our amazing turkey feast. Least I got to smell it though lol. I feel a lot more strong, so I have been able to have a lot more normalcy in my life. I make my family their food, while also preparing my clear liquids and full liquids. Unfortunately I'll be on the liquids until January,10th as it is 4 weeks with the gastric sleeve. Then eventually pureed foods, then soft, then finally regular healthy eating for life lol. I am making turkey soup today with our turkey carcass, onions, carrots, celery, and some seasoning, so I can at least enjoy the broth of our Christmas dinner my spouse and out kiddos had yesterday lol. I hope you all are well. I am fighting my brain and always will, and I am still having some regretful thoughts over having this surgery. I am taking one step ahead at a time and trying to look towards the positives. As I've said in other posts I just was so set on Gastric Bypass for my acid reflux issues, and I liked that it could be reversed if needed, plus I hear it has a higher success rate. So when I found out they gave me the sleeve, I just been having mixed thoughts since, and now I can't go back even if I wanted to down the line. So it's been weighing on me a lot. Please know I am not trying to discourage anyone from WLS, and the sleeve can be just as successful, everyone is different. I also thoroughly did my research on WLS prior. Lots of great things about these surgeries. I hope you all are well and that you all had a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays if you celebrate. Much love. ✌

To be quite honest if I had known that the gastric sleeve was a real possibility for me I'm not sure I would of proceeded with the surgery. I really had not expected this outcome so my emotions are running wild. 😢 So worried it will increase issues with my acid reflux, as I heard it does cause that problem for many. I already have bad acid reflux so the thought of it being worse is concerning. Let's hope not though. I want to say though that things happen for a reason and maybe just maybe this outcome is what I needed and all I will need to be successful. I do worry about having to have another surgery down the line if this is not. I really do not want to go through with another surgery. 😩 But the good news is I stopped my pain medication yesterday! So I hope that means I won't need it anymore. I woke up a couple times last night, but I am not use to sleeping on my back. Always been a side and stomach sleeper lol. Please tell me that one day down the line I can return to those sleeping positions? 😴 Now this is tmi but I peed the bed last night. I read though that urine incontinence can be quite normal after a major surgery such as gastric sleeve. It thankfully only happened the once last night and that's all so far. Not sure if anyone else experienced this? but it scared me at first. My health anxiety started running wild. I will be letting my bariatric team know though just so they do. I already do have incontinence from my pregnancies, but I never peed the bed. Only with sneezing or coughing hard lol. I hope my experience does not scare anyone from having these surgeries. I was initially unsure about sharing as I did not want to scare anyone. It's been a wild ride lol but thankfully doing good otherwise. I even felt well enough yesterday to take my kiddos to get their hair cut, so things are looking up!! Thanks for checking in ChunkCat!! 🥰

**update** Feeling much better today. Slept better last night, woke up 3 or 4 times, but at least not every hour like the night before lol. Pain has become increasingly less, and so thankful for that. I was having a wide range of emotions over this unexpected outcome and some regrets, but I feel stronger today to deal with it all. I hope you all are doing well. Much love and thanks for checking in on me.

Hey everyone!! 👋 😀 So they decided to give me the Sleeve instead, because they realized my liver had not shrunk enough to do the gastric bypass. I was a bit upset upon the realization, mostly because I was set on my decision. Also I battle with acid reflux so my concern is the sleeve will make that worse. Let's hope not. My surgeon did say that down the road we can discuss doing the gastric bypass if the sleeve does has that negative affect on my acid reflux, but he assured me all went really well and he was very happy with it. When I came to, I will admit I was ROUGH. They kept me in recovery for hours as I could not keep my eyes open, and I was in quite a lot of pain. Eventually they took me to another room that was just temporary as my room was not ready yet. No dimmed lights and more pain medication was needed. I was moaning and groaning by the time they got me to my room for the night. Eventually pain became less and less and by 5am yesterday morning I was up and walking up and down the hall by myself. Going to the bathroom on a regular, and starting to relieve gas build up. They eventually discharged me at about 4:30 pm yesterday. Last night at home was rough, woke up every hour and decided to take the time to walk since I was awake anyways. Rough sleep, sore belly and back. Eventually moved downstairs to the living room couch lol. Rested a bit but not much. It is now nearly 1pm and I still feel quite sore, tired, and slow, but feeling somewhat better. 😅

ChunkCat thank you so much for sharing that with me, and your compassionate words. I am so sorry you have to live with that knowledge everyday, I can imagine that would be incredibly weighing to deal with. Also cancer?! My heart goes out to you!! You are an incredibly STRONG woman. I hope you know how amazing you are and I hope you are doing good today? Sending lots of love and big hugs to you!!

Lmao that is too funny, and thank you so much for the laugh. I needed that!! It is 10:40 pm here currently, and I was so nervous today that I only managed to gulp down one Optifast lol. Really did not feel hungry at all because I am anxious, but also so excited. Love your personality! 🥰

Oh no!! I'm so sorry to hear that sfugate89. I can imagine that being so disappointing and also worrisome to have found out. I'm so glad though that they found it prior to you going in though. That at least is a good thing. Hopefully once they found the source and treated it, then they'll do the surgery while you're still there. That is my hope anyways. My heart goes out to you. 🖤

Woo-hoo NJ-LV!! Congrats! I will let you know how mine went. Here's to a new year to us indeed. Much love.