Please take care of yourselves, I almost literally died.

[LaurenKorea 1]

It has been 4 months and 10 days since I was sleeved. I had surgery on June 26th of this year and my hospital stay was 2 weeks. Due to my horrible lapband incident 3 years ago: the doctor used a band too small for my stomach and I couldn't even drink a drop of Water for 2 weeks-my body and brain was literally frying from lack of water, electrolytes and other nutrients, my new doctor who was actually the first and only one to help me prove what had gone wrong with the band performed my VSG. On the day of the surgery, I was scheduled to come out 4 hours later but I woke up 2 days later. My family thought that I had died or went into a coma. My doctor did this intentionally because I suffered from PTSD since the lapband incident. I woke up with a tube down my throat, nose and all kinds of devices stuck to me, to make things worse, my period came but I could not wear underwear because of the urinary bag or whatever they call it. I ended up using 12,000 US dollars, which is alot of money in Korea.

I am one of those people with Iron clad sleeve. 2 weeks of follwing doctor's orders to the letter, I started to eat chewy,spicy whatever I wanted. I never had to take the PPI because I never even slimed or threw up or uncomfortable. I even gulped my water by the 2nd week.

On the 3rd week of September, everything changed. My whole life was shattered.

It began with a cold, escalated into pneunmonia.For some reason, on the doctor's note for work it says pneumonia of unknown causes. The doctor told me to rest, have fun, relieve stress, forget about weight loss for a while and actually cheat. (Now that it's all over, I realize why. From the 1st day of post op until this incident, I had cut off all carbs, sugar and oil.) Something was messed up. I could feel it. I came home with the meds. My symptoms were quite serious and painful. It did not even seem like pneumonia which I had before. Blood clumps were coming out from my nose and throat. When I felt the fever rising, it was so bad I felt like I was going blind. Luckily, the meds were great, 10 minutes after taking them, I felt so good like I walking on air. As soon as I took the first dose of meds, I could not drink or eat anything without violent vomiting except for hot water. This continued for 2 weeks. During this time, I started to faint, foam at the mouth and stop breathing for a minute or two. (This happened about 7 times a day for a week.) My head would drop, then comes the foam and I would stop breathing.

I got so scared and consulted with my surgeon but he'd left to the U.S for work and I was in Korea. We had kept in contact almost on a daily basis so he recommended some tests to be done. I had many, expensive tests done and spend thousands at the ER from fainting. Now, this is what puzzles me, Everything turned out to be normal.

I had lost 40kgs in 3 and a half months but not in a healthy way. 15~20kgs were from the 2 week period. By the beginning of October which is my 4th month, I was able to drink and eat a little and by doctor's orders, I ate and drink whatever I wanted.

All that I was able to keep down were the stuff that I had been dying to eat but had cut off completely hoping for a fast weight loss like chocolate, coke, rice and Korean food. Today, it is 150 days since the surgery, I still cannot eat rice or any type of noodles. I was fired from my job and ended up spending thousands of dollars in hospital bills which was saved for a trip to home which is in Guam.

Compare my food diary

3 weeks post-op

Breakfast: 1 egg

Snack: fat free milk

Lunch: chicken breast

Snack: iced coffee/some jerkey

Dinner: beef chili

Water: 2 liters+Vitamins

150 days post-op

Breakfast: nothing

Lunch: 3 tiny pieces of chocolate

Dinner: nothing

Water: 1 liter+vitamins

What I am trying to say is.....please take care of yourselves. Even a cold can do tremendous damage to us due to the sleeve. I beg you, take care of yourselves.

However, I still love my sleeve!

[putasleeveonit 16]

Wow! I hope things get better for you. Hang in there, and thanks for the tip!

[lisajxoxo 11]

OMGosh, what a story. Hoping you feel even better very soon.