October Surgery Date

[Jyoyonomore 319]

Hospitals are notoriously cold to fight germs. I may find a robe in my closet for my overnight stay & leave my sweats for traveling to & from. Picking up the Gas Strips & Sippy Cup today.

[layknee 357]

Less than 24 hours.

[Beni 1,484]

@dc520

I'm sorry you had to suffer a dumping incident so early on. From my doctor consults (doctor interviews really) I was lucky to get a RN with 15 years experience in WLS that spent an hour with me and gave me the scoop on dumping. There are somethings you can do. This is what I learned:

1. For the majority of patients dumping evolves to a state of exhaustion were you have to lie down for a few minutes maybe 1/2 hour after a meal. It's not as bad as early in the first few weeks and months were you feel like you are dying.

2. If you lay down after eating you will slow down the process. We have an opening from stomach straight into intestine. In our old stomach that opening was controlled by a valve. We will no longer have that. Gravity is not our friend as stomach content will move into intestine too fast. Consider drinking Protein shake reclined, with people fanning you with great big palm fronds all along, of course. At least do not start running around after drinking a shake. The key is to do anything you can to keep it in the stomach as long as possible.

3. Once we move to mushy foods they don't slide into intestine as quickly and we should do better.

4. Many patients have issues with milk products early on after surgery. The stomach enzymes are not present that break down milk products. It is usually a temporary situation. But some people have no issue at all. But be mindful of this, if your shake doesn't agree with you, consider alternatives.

Of course I am not a doctor, please rely on your NUT as doctor first and foremost. I am just sharing what I learned.

What milk shake did you take when you had the dumping? Even though it is not likely it's fault I would love to know just for reference.

A better day, and yes the dreadful meal time planning. Must work on it myself, yesterday I did terrible. I get distracted!

[layknee 357]

I'm hoping two c-section have prepared be for the abdominal pain. Afterwards I always felt as if my inside we're going to fall out any minute because of the transverse incision.

[Beni 1,484]

C-section is a very good trial run for WLS. I knew you were a planner. Way to go on going for two, got to love an overachiever. You are ready!

I had a c-section as well, not fun, but we do get better. All in a days work.

[Beni 1,484]

Oct 13th two more gladiators go through from our little group

layknee and Bronxmerci

All the best, go get them, tell us how you did and yes we will be thinking of you at 7:00 and 8:00 AM

[Bronxmerci 312]

@@Beni I'm nervous! And a little disappointed in myself, I broke my 2 day diet again. I was feeding my son who is 1 and he wanted to feed me back and I gave in, it was a little bite but I still cheated. I had a c-section as well, that was the worst ever, and I had kidney stones removed along with my appendix- spell check! That was even worse than the contractions during child labor, also my son was 10lbs and got stuck inside me while pushing him out so the doctors had to push him back up, I felt all of it. I hope that the wls pain is friendlier than the above mentioned. I'm going to use my sons sippy cup since he doesn't lol, maybe it will motivate him to use it if he sees me doing it. I am also getting gas x strips today. I haven't told his father about the surgery, because I don't think he needs to know, we are so disconnected these days, we don't live together and I break up with him every day. I broke up with him on friday just so that I could get my surgery and have a reason to not speak to him. Immature I know but whatever. That was random but the point of it was to include, how am I going to hide it from him while he's watching our baby and sees me in the recovery stage?

[Beni 1,484]

You have a plate full my friend. I feel for you

I am writing another post but wanted to send this one STAT

[steeb 6]

I was sleeved on Oct 6th, I'm down 15 lbs already. As far as recovery, no issues. The biggest pains I dealt with were a head ache for two days post op and then being so tired and weak. I am going back to work tomorrow for at least half a day. Living off of Protein shakes and SF popsicles. The hardest obstacle was learning to drink all over. Sip by sip. Now I can take a little more than a sip. Tea helps quite a lot in getting in liquids. If I drink too much my stomach punches back though. Good luck to everyone.

[Bronxmerci 312]

Tell me about it lol, but its not that bad, the worst thing to me is that I won't be able to lift my baby up for a while . Congrats @@steeb keep up the good work! I hope my surgery is painless too.

[rscaggs22 60]

Question?? Is the gas from having your abdominal wall inflated with gas or is it actually in your stomach/bowels? Like do you actually pass gas for relief or does it just have to dissipate on it's own as with other laparoscopic procedures?

[steeb 6]

Tell me about it lol, but its not that bad, the worst thing to me is that I won't be able to lift my baby up for a while . Congrats @@steeb keep up the good work! I hope my surgery is painless too.

Thanks! I was lucky. No pains or vomiting. I hardly used the pain meds in the hospital and the rx the Dr wrote, I only used half a pill to help with the head ache on day 3. I hope everyone has a breezy surgery like I have had.

[layknee 357]

@@Beni I'm nervous! And a little disappointed in myself, I broke my 2 day diet again. I was feeding my son who is 1 and he wanted to feed me back and I gave in, it was a little bite but I still cheated. I had a c-section as well, that was the worst ever, and I had kidney stones removed along with my appendix- spell check! That was even worse than the contractions during child labor, also my son was 10lbs and got stuck inside me while pushing him out so the doctors had to push him back up, I felt all of it. I hope that the wls pain is friendlier than the above mentioned. I'm going to use my sons sippy cup since he doesn't lol, maybe it will motivate him to use it if he sees me doing it. I am also getting gas x strips today. I haven't told his father about the surgery, because I don't think he needs to know, we are so disconnected these days, we don't live together and I break up with him every day. I broke up with him on friday just so that I could get my surgery and have a reason to not speak to him. Immature I know but whatever. That was random but the point of it was to include, how am I going to hide it from him while he's watching our baby and sees me in the recovery stage?

i didn't tell my kids' dad either. He knows I'm having surgery but doesn't know what. I bought chewable gas-x because I was choosing the one with the most simethicone. @@Bronxmerci it's not cheating if you stay under your calorie goal. I've discovered with me not eating, I watch a crapload of cooking shows. Masterchef, kitchen nightmares, snack off, hell's kitchen, chopped, etc.

[steeb 6]

Question?? Is the gas from having your abdominal wall inflated with gas or is it actually in your stomach/bowels? Like do you actually pass gas for relief or does it just have to dissipate on it's own as with other laparoscopic procedures?

They blow up your stomach and and your abdomen. The gas passes through burping. It feels like a pressure pushing from the inside out. Mine was gone through hiccups.. painful but it got rid of all the gas within 10 minutes!

[Beni 1,484]

Okay, I am a big believer in acting on problems as they are. So, a plan is all you need.

1. The breaking the diet - not the best. Please remember, they are going to operate on you and your insides have to be clean. Think about getting out of the house or do anything that will distract you away from food. This is the time to pull out the nuclear weapons. In other words anything that will help is fair game. No holding back baby.

2. Coming back home after surgery. Do you not want your baby's daddy not to know about this ever (A) or your okay once it happens (? Ask yourself.

A - you will have to think this through. It is likely that you will be very tiered and in significant discomfort. There's no way he can't tell something is up if he spends a good amount of time there.

B - You may want to sit with him (After surgery) and basically level. Tell him something like-Please don't be mad, this is not the best moment. but I did get, blah, blah, blah. The reason I didn't tell anyone is because I was afraid I would be talked out of it or that I would be judges (what ever the motivation is for you) this way you can start with a clean slate and ask for his help and support through a most difficult time. If he knows why you did what you did he will be much more understanding. Hope it makes sense.

On the not being able to pick up the baby there are ways to cope. I was very sick with one of my pregnancies (miscarried) when my son was 1 year old. I was basically horizontal and nauseated 24/7. Baby lived in diapers/blankies -house was warm - no laundry. Paper plates and disposable spoons. We crawled a lot around together. There's no need to pick him up he will come to you/ sleep with you and you can cuddle just the same, right. Trust me you can cope.