Any problems with concentration or memory after surgery?

[pomeerin 44]

Hi everyone, I'm going to be scheduling my surgery soon, but I'm not sure when to do it! I'm a full-time student and I also work part time, and the soonest time I could do it is spring break when I'll be off school for a whole week. My fear, however, is that the extreme low calorie diet after surgery and liquids only for several weeks will affect my brain and my ability to learn and focus at school.

So, did any of you have any experiences with this? Will I be setting myself up for failure in school if I try to put my body through this mid-semester?

[TheGamer 406]

Always allow time for the unexpected to happen. I know a lot of people are able to bounce right back in to things, but I ended up with some minor complications about a month after that interfered with my recovery.

Overall, I found that I had much more energy after surgery, even on reduced caloric intake. I did feel a little deprived when I had to go back on all liquid about a month out because of esophageal constriction. Now that everything is healed, though, things are great.

I'm very watchful of getting my Protein, Water, and Vitamins, though.

[pomeerin 44]

Well that's really encouraging to hear that you had more energy rather than less. I'm really hoping it will be the same way for me.

What you said about trying to prepare for the unexpected kinda hit home for me because I am indeed scared of complications. I'm trying to prepare for this as best I can, so I enrolled in the online version of as many of my classes as possible for this semester. And if everything starts to go to **** and I'm failing out of school because of whatever WLS reason, my last ditch fail safe plan is to get a note from my surgeon to allow me to get an "incomplete" rather than an F. That's totally plan B...or rather plan F, lol, and I'm hoping it won't come to that. A gamble, but hopefully a smart one. My work is sedentary also, so I'm hoping I'll get back to work in only one week. Thanks for the input!

[aggiemike74 25]

I had my surgery in the middle of the semester with 15 hours of senior level honor science courses and for me the first week back was the toughest. After that I got a surge of energy and wanted to study. I could study longer and it seemed I understood the material better. I finished with all A's and one B so you can do it. Just listen to your body and stay hydrated also you might want to let your profs know that your having surgery and if there are complications you might miss school all my profs understood and made online videos for me even though I didnt have any problems

[clk 3,519]

Vitamins are the biggest thing that can help you with this. I could keep up with my normal life (hectic and busy chasing two year old twins) within a week to ten days post op.

But I was tired and sluggish for a while due to the lack of calories. That was nothing compared to how I felt around roughly one year post op, though. I was seriously deficient in B12 and Iron - my supplements weren't doing the trick for me, despite that I took them starting immediately post op. Once I was on B12 shots and a prescription Iron supplement the forgetfulness and overall zombie feeling went away completely. I felt better than I had in a long while.

So, long story short: nobody can really do anything but share their experience with you. How your body handles it is going to be totally individual. But focusing very hard on getting in liquids, drinking Protein shakes (keep trying new ones until you find one you can drink every day) and taking good quality Vitamins, not to mention getting panels done more frequently than I did, will help you recover more quickly and keep it together.

I spent a few months in misery not even really realizing how beat down I felt until I finally went in and had bloodwork done. If I had known an inexpensive shot that I can give myself and an inexpensive supplement would improve my life so much, I never would have gone through that. Learn from my mistake.

~Cheri

[Reality Strikes 25]

I got my pre-op blood works in yesterday -- everything good except B12, its stuck at 150 when the reference range is 211 - 946 pg/ml.

Its been almost a year, i felt extremely tired and couldnot concentrate on things & blamed everything on being fat ...this is when i am 5'4 and 94kgs... Now i know why it was so

So, how will the B12 rise, i am having sugery on Monday so what after the surgery?