eriadne

The first month kind of sucks -- after that, it's all good. :blushing: I'm not even 1/5 of the way to goal and I wouldn't go back to my old stomach ever. I feel so much more in control and better about myself that the weight loss almost is just a side benefit! Take care of yourself during the first month or so -- stick to your surgeon's recommendations, stick to your post-op diet and try to work through the mental stuff that comes along with making a big change, facing our weight problems and having major surgery. Being in control of my hunger & eating and having actual limits that I can reach and FEEL is such a nice change from the bottomless pit I used to feel like! I have more energy, I'm cooking great healthy meals, my husband is losing weight too and everyone is always excited to see me and find out how much I've lost. Going through all the pre-op hoop jumping, surgery, recovery and post-op diet restrictions is truly a small amount of time to invest in improving the rest of your life.

If they want to start carrying around your extra 150 lbs for you, then they can call the shots -- otherwise it's your body, your decision. They can't step into your body and feel what it's like to be you, so don't take their reluctance to heart. They are probably speaking out of love, concern and fear for you -- but they do not realize that it is much more dangerous to continue down the path you feel you are on. Stick to your convictions and hang on to your excitement. You are making a great decision and the right decision! Part of this journey is coming to terms with your own feelings of remorse, disappointment, fear and self-image, but another part of it is learning to have people comment openly about your weight in both good and bad ways. Personally, my friends and family hardly ever brought up the subject of my weight with me... everyone was usually quite considerate but in the back of my mind there was always that "elephant in the room" feeling -- and I felt like the elephant! Talking with my mom, sister, grandma, husband, in-laws, friends & even strangers about my morbid obesity was uncomfortable at first, but knowing that I had made a really good, healthy decision and was getting a tool that would help me change for the better made it a lot easier to come at it from a positive place rather than the old negative one. I know my family was worried about me and didn't want to be attending my funeral or something -- but I knew that they would be at my funeral for certain if I didn't get my surgery. Educate your naysayers on the real risks of obesity versus the much lesser risks of surgery and let them know that you need and want support -- hopefully they will come around, but even if they don't, do what you know is right for you. Surgery isn't the easy way out. It's not cheating. It's not "too drastic" -- if it was, your surgeon wouldn't be agreeing to operate on you. Diets and exercise don't work for us. They don't work for 95% of people. This surgery is safe, and it works. We want to live longer lives and healthier lives. You'll still be able to eat normal foods. Nobody is going to be adversely affected by your decision, except maybe your local grocers and restaurant-owners. :blushing: Will the naysayers come around? Hopefully, but even if they don't, you're the one that has to live the rest of your life in your body, whatever shape it's in, whether it's a regular stomach or a sleeve. You're not doing your family or friends any favors by feeling unhealthy, tired, sluggish and disappointed with yourself. I say go for it and let other people figure out their feelings for themselves.

My surgeon cleared me to swim at my 2 week appointment, although I didn't actually hit the pool for another full week since I was still a bit sore and worried about my incisions (I am majorly infection-prone).

I've been exercising intermittently. I've been swimming whenever the weather is good for the past week and a half, walking on the treadmill whenever I felt up to it since I came home from surgery, even tried jogging a bit now that my incisions no longer hurt. Nothing structured or scheduled, I'm sad to admit, but I've got a weird body that likes to act up on me and keep me from exercising whenever I start to get into a routine. One of the reasons I decided to have surgery is that I tried for over 2 years to make the diet and exercise thing my "full-time job" but with my screwy health, it was impossible. At least now my stomach is no longer working against me. :thumbup1: I am not giving up on exercise though, I just have to accept my limitations and exercise as much as I can when my body cooperates. The good news is that it is getting easier as the weight comes off, and maybe some of my migraines, autoimmune issues and crazy fatigue will improve or go away as well!

I never did the last supper thing, because I knew it'd only make the first month of liquids & mushies harder if I was thinking back to when I recently deliciously gorged myself silly. I sat around wishing I had a few times during my grumpy liquids phase, but it definitely wouldn't have helped any! I will say though that my surgeon didn't require a pre-op diet, just 1 day of clears the day before surgery, so maybe that made it easier not to indulge. I was also trying very hard to reach a personal goal of being under BMI 50 and under 300 lbs by the time I had surgery, so I was working hard to count calories and behave. I also tried to avoid eating anything that would be a dietary staple during the first month, like Protein shakes, Jello, pudding, cottage cheese etc. so I wouldn't be burned out on it as fast. I figure that gave me an extra few days before I wanted to chuck all my protein samples into the disposal and just sleep until the first month was over. :thumbup1: Having a concrete goal for surgery day and knowing from reading these boards that the first month would suck but after that it gets so much better really helped me stay focused and get through the surgery and the first month. Everyone was right, too! Take it one day at a time and then one week at a time and focus on getting through your first month with staple line intact and tissues hydrated. After that, you'll be back to trying out old foods and new foods alike with a new freedom that you never had before.

Congrats!!!! I know how bad the waiting sucks but getting that approval sure makes up for it. :thumbup1: The hard part is not celebrating with food :biggrin2:

No, I managed to squeak under 300 just in time for surgery day. It took forever. When I hit the table I was about 298 (and no one was more surprised than me, I had been yoyo-ing around between 305 and 310 for months.) So my VSG weight loss is about 23 lbs. It has slowed down for a couple of reasons, but still there's nothing like knowing those pounds are gone forever for a change!

That is wonderful!!! Congratulations, and thanks for sharing your goal with us, it's so inspiring!!! :thumbup1:

I hit BMI of 54 during my insurance hoop-jumping phase which is what led my surgeon to dissuade me from the band. At the time my only alternative was RNY, so I was planning on toughing it out with a band -- luckily VSG was added as an approved surgery by my insurance a few weeks later, so I did not hesitate to switch. High BMI patients (60+) often undergo a 2-stage procedure, having a sleeve gastrectomy first and then having a duodenal switch or formal gastric bypass after losing weight (80-100 lbs and/or 6-8 months later) to make the operations safer. Of course, there are always people who do well enough with just the first-stage procedure that they never need the second intestinal rerouting surgery! I felt really confident getting the VSG because I knew there'd still be option if for some reason I couldn't get close to goal. Granted, my insurance currently doesn't cover revision surgery for VSG, but options are options. I couldn't do RNY because I just was not at all comfortable with the rerouting and the malabsorptive effects, plus it was a bit risky for me (I have tons of issues with my blood so neither my surgeon nor I was very comfortable with RNY as an option.) Everyone is different of course, but for me VSG was just the perfect solution.

Like most things, just take it slow at first to make sure you tolerate it well. :001_tt2:

I've read several threads on here where people had some serious loss of appetite several months out, so it doesn't sound out of the ordinary to hear you're going through the same thing. I'm sure some of those people will chime in and let you know how things went for them, but by all accounts it is temporary and will pass! Maybe in the meantime try looking through the awesome post-WLS food blog called The World According to Eggface (theworldaccordingtoeggface). Her recipes, pictures and tips combined with her open and honest commentary on her own post-WLS journey really got me excited for the idea of "eating to live" now that I'm no longer "living to eat". I've tried a few of her recipes already and even my husband loves them.

The sugar is bad for you, caffeine can stimulate your appetite and the gas bubbles can put undue pressure on your new stomach. I've seen many people say it can be painful too. Plus there are much better ways to get your hydration in, like Water. Some surgeons ban it, some say only do soda that's been left out to get flat, some ban it immediately post-op but say you can have it if you tolerate it... it really depends on the surgeon. I personally gave it up several months before my surgery and haven't missed it yet. I also gave up drinking straws at the same time and when I tried drinking through a straw a few weeks ago, I was surprised how it hurt like the dickens so I'm definitely not that eager to test soda.

Skim milk all the way, although it took me about 2 years of stepping down from 2% to 1% and then 1% to skim for me and my husband to get used to it. Now that I'm used to skim milk, when I get 1% or 2% somewhere, it tastes so awfully rich to me now -- like there's just a coating of fat in my mouth, ugh.

Took me about 14 days to be able to lay on my stomach and fall asleep. I was sleeping so horribly on my back that I tried it from about a week out until I was able to do it. I slept on my side from about day 10. I'm about a month out now and my stomach and incisions all feel fine, no pain, pulling or burning at all. Just listen to your body -- if it hurts, you probably shouldn't be doing it yet :001_tongue:

I ate fat-free Oscar Meyer ones pre-op and hope to be able to still enjoy them on occasion once I get further out post-op. I could see how the casings on some of them and/or the high fat content of some types might give us trouble though.

I know I'm weeks away from being able to try it, but I was also curious about how long people waited before trying popcorn. A big tub of popcorn during the A-Team movie was the only real "last supper" I did for myself.

I'm thinking about seeing my gyn to switch to Nuva-Ring since I'd prefer a non-oral birth control method. I'm currently on Ocella which is the generic form of Yasmin, and while it works as well or better than other oral BCPs I've been on, I still get very bad migraines before and during my period. My acne is much improved but my skin still isn't as nice as I would like, or as nice as it was when I took another BCP (I forget which one it was now...) Now I'm really anxious to check out Nuva-Ring if it can help with the migraines!

Hope you get to feeling better soon zephra, and let us know what if anything works!

I have had a bad day with my big left incision, similar to that. In fact, most days by the end of the day the big one on the left is usually hurting a bit and my side is a bit tender. The large one by my belly button is also rather tender, but just the incision. All the other incisions haven't really bothered me at all. If it continues to bother you or if something just doesn't seem right, definitely let your surgeon know. That's what they're there for

I second the Sonic ice! I'm on my 2nd bag (I'm constantly using it plus my husband loooves their ice too for his sodas). It's not even $2 for a big bag of it around here, and it's so fresh and with a nice texture perfect for sucking on when you're thirsty.

Since surgery my nose is super-sensitive like a bloodhound too, I can smell things way way way before my husband can. I've had perfectly innocent smells also make me feel really nauseous. It hasn't seemed to be as strong the last few days, but my first week was definitely smell-overload. I can smell some of my Protein drinks and it does make it difficult getting them down for me.

I've been craving meat and cheese like crazy for about a week now too, and I cannot wait for my surgeon to advance me to mushies. I had dreams about meat. I even tried thinking about other things that I used to crave incessantly like donuts, cake, pizza.. the only thing that stuck was pizza, and that was thinking about a big meaty cheeseburger pizza or something. I have been getting in my 90g of Protein or at least very close to it every day (within 3-5g) and I try to do stuff like sf Jello or sf pudding to ward off the meat hungries, but it's just not working. On one hand, I am really glad that my cravings are for the good dense protein-rich stuff I'm going to be eating first now for the rest of forever, but on the other hand I've felt rather crazy for having cravings this intense when I haven't been physically hungry since surgery. I really don't think it's head-hunger because I don't feel hungry or even fake hungry. Rather, it's more like an extremely strong mental drive to seek out protein-rich food... which could just be my brain rewiring itself and getting ahead of my surgeon's schedule for mushies. I dunno, but I definitely do feel for you, mommytoethan! I'd be calling to cry at my surgeon and nutritionalist every day if he tells me on Monday to do liquids another week! I'm starting to have to force myself to choke down each sweet smelly Protein Drink... blegh. I have plenty of variety because all I got was sample packs from just about every whey protein isolate kind out there, but so many are either vile or borderline tolerable. Blegh again :lol0: Just wanted to add that I also started taking Prilosec about 5 days ago because my stomach was very gurgly and starting to feel rather "empty" all the time. My doctor doesn't require a PPI but since I'd read on the board about PPI's helping with weird hunger twinges, I was hoping that reducing the stomach acid would take away the meat cravings and pseudo-hungry feeling in my stomach. I am not sure how long it takes to fully start working but the gurgling has definitely come down and I no longer feel twinges... but the meat cravings are still pretty strong.

Congrats! Hope the time flies by for you :thumbup:

I've had 3 surgeries since November '09 and they've all been spaced a few months apart to where I've been constantly shedding hair since February. My hair was already much thinner and lankier than it used to be because of my PCOS, but I definitely noticed more coming out. I don't have any bald spots, I just have thin coverage. I am not happy with it, but my husband has been adamant the whole time that my hair looks "fine" so I'm not too concerned that it's unsightly or something! I've been taking Biotin the whole time, which I feel is important so that when my hair does start growing back, it can grow in healthy, full and quickly. I know it's not going to stop it from shedding in the first place because of the physical processes occurring (see Tiffykins link about telogen effluvium), but 1) it does give you some sense of control over a somewhat distressing problem and 2) it's a good investment into the awesome hair you're going to wind up with. I've had lots of people at my doctor's office who had WLS themselves say their hair wound up growing back so much nicer than it ever was before since their hormones and diet were under control. I'm definitely looking forward to that. I haven't been happy with my hair for at least 5 years and it used to be so thick and nice. Keep a positive attitude and try not to fret too much. :thumbup:

I hope you're feeling better today, delawaregal! Hang in there, chica :thumbup: