Jump to content
×
Are you looking for the BariatricPal Store? Go now!

Near death experience



Recommended Posts

I was wondering if anyone here had a near death experience after they got the surgery? I’ve been having a hard time dealing with mine and just wondered if anyone else had any complications or issues post op.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did not have a near death experience after my surgery. However, I did have one when I was younger. Why is happening to you?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Similar to the other two posters, I had one at a previous time during my last pregnancy. I ended up speaking to a therapist about it since that pregnancy was so rough, I almost lost my daughter twice, and both of us at one point. I found it difficult to let go of the anger. Not necessarily anger directed at anyone, but the situation itself. That I had to go through it, that to this day women suffering with HG go unnoticed. Even if it's just here, its good and healthy to speak about it. Will you share with us what thought regarding it is weighing on you?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did not have a near death experience after my surgery. However, I did have one when I was younger. Why is happening to you?

I ended up getting the flu and I got so dehydrated that I lost the Fluid around my brain and I almost died. I got toxic metabolic encephalopathy. I’m doing better now but it was very scary and very intense


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had a near death experience but mine brought me into deeper peace, and anchored me for the rest of my life. Mine happened when I was 16.

I won’t share the details on this forum but to me, considering the grave circumstances, it was a miracle.

There was also a very spiritual aspect that I can only describe as a collective conscience, as I basically died.

Without getting too philosophical, I think the fear happens when we have not made peace with the idea of death and/or the leaving behind of loved ones. It’s akin to crying when a loved one dies, we are really crying due to our own loss. They are not suffering. Two opposites of the same coin.

Once I was in a plane headed from Arizona to California and the thing took a nose dive that left the cabin screaming. I sat quietly with my hands folded on my lap just after a mild panic, and thought, ‘well, it’s a moment in time if I die.’

I’m a realist. To the point I examine all facets of living and dying.

At sixteen I was already acquainted with death and was objective about it. Yes it still makes me sad but not really. I feel sad I won’t see them alive again but my experience when I was sixteen makes it hard for me to not see death as a transition, much like birth is. And the experience forever remains my guarantee that death is just another journey for us all, a really exciting and peaceful, wondrous journey.

Maybe time to examine your heart and ask yourself what it is you haven’t made peace with or what frightened you? Was it the idea of pain, of your family grieving, or something else? Or all of it?

I hope you will be ok. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers.






Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If a near death issue is still haunting you...talk to a therapist.

Post traumatic stress is real and it can mess with you.

I nearly died in a tornado. Only time I've ever experienced the strong copper taste in my mouth from adrenaline...it was pretty crazy.

I was in a van, driving down a country road on my way home. It was raining...but it rains a lot here...thought nothing of it. Pretty dark and sinister looking...but again...common here.

Hail hit very suddenly and just as suddenly there was zero visibility as the air filled up with leaves and insanely strong winds.

Pulled the van off the road and watched little windows of visibility out the window in all that opaque green wind. Huge tree bending over one second....then a Broken pencil stub left, the entire tree carried away. Flying crap from God knows where. The van was pushed all over the road. I was fairly sure it was going to roll, and it did get up on two feet...but it didn't roll. Wind let up and it banged down and woke the baby. If it had rolled, it would have rolled into a deep swamp...which would have been problematic.

Everyone asked...what did you do? What were you thinking?

Honestly? I sat there with my seat belt on and hoped for the best. You're supposed to get out of vehicles and find a ditch. Yeah...right. No way to find a ditch with no visibility. Happened so fast, no way to get the baby out. The debris outside was incredibly dangerous. power lines were falling.

I remember thinking..."Huh. This is a surprise. What a weird way to die."

And then it was over. BOOM. Sun came out. I drove the van over a downed power line...(not smart...did it before I realized it was there) and made the first tracks through a road covered in golfball sized iceballs with a broken windshield. Had to drive around many down trees.

Home was just a few miles away and I decided the thing to do was to take the baby home and see if our house was still there.

House was fine, save some missing shingles and siding. Power was predictably out.

The garden was weird. I'd just planted the whole garden in little foot tall plants....and they were all missing. Ripped out and gone. Some rootballs were left, some were blown away with the plants and the entire garden had a million little craters from the ice balls.

BBQ grill was in the pool.

Dog was hiding in the basement. Smart dog.

I expected nightmares and stress about it...but I mostly just felt shocked and happy to be alive.

I did have some post traumatic stress from some other events....but the tornado just made me feel grateful and stunned.

Edited by Creekimp13

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had a near death experience but mine brought me into deeper peace, and anchored me for the rest of my life. Mine happened when I was 16.

I won’t share the details on this forum but to me, considering the grave circumstances, it was a miracle.

There was also a very spiritual aspect that I can only describe as a collective conscience, as I basically died.

Without getting too philosophical, I think the fear happens when we have not made peace with the idea of death and/or the leaving behind of loved ones. It’s akin to crying when a loved one dies, we are really crying due to our own loss. They are not suffering. Two opposites of the same coin.

Once I was in a plane headed from Arizona to California and the thing took a nose dive that left the cabin screaming. I sat quietly with my hands folded on my lap just after a mild panic, and thought, ‘well, it’s a moment in time if I die.’

I’m a realist. To the point I examine all facets of living and dying.

At sixteen I was already acquainted with death and was objective about it. Yes it still makes me sad but not really. I feel sad I won’t see them alive again but my experience when I was sixteen makes it hard for me to not see death as a transition, much like birth is. And the experience forever remains my guarantee that death is just another journey for us all, a really exciting and peaceful, wondrous journey.

Maybe time to examine your heart and ask yourself what it is you haven’t made peace with or what frightened you? Was it the idea of pain, of your family grieving, or something else? Or all of it?

I hope you will be ok. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers.








Thank you a lot for sharing your story. I think mine thought process on why I’m not okay with death is merely the fact I had no idea what was going on and leaving behind loved ones. I’ve been trying to heal from it and I haven’t had anymore crying episodes which is really great.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If a near death issue is still haunting you...talk to a therapist.
Post traumatic stress is real and it can mess with you.
I nearly died in a tornado. Only time I've ever experienced the strong copper taste in my mouth from adrenaline...it was pretty crazy.
I was in a van, driving down a country road on my way home. It was raining...but it rains a lot here...thought nothing of it. Pretty dark and sinister looking...but again...common here.
Hail hit very suddenly and just as suddenly there was zero visibility as the air filled up with leaves and insanely strong winds.
Pulled the van off the road and watched little windows of visibility out the window in all that opaque green wind. Huge tree bending over one second....then a Broken pencil stub left, the entire tree carried away. Flying crap from God knows where. The van was pushed all over the road. I was fairly sure it was going to roll, and it did get up on two feet...but it didn't roll. Wind let up and it banged down and woke the baby. If it had rolled, it would have rolled into a deep swamp...which would have been problematic.
Everyone asked...what did you do? What were you thinking?
Honestly? I sat there with my seat belt on and hoped for the best. You're supposed to get out of vehicles and find a ditch. Yeah...right. No way to find a ditch with no visibility. Happened so fast, no way to get the baby out. The debris outside was incredibly dangerous. power lines were falling.
I remember thinking..."Huh. This is a surprise. What a weird way to die."
And then it was over. BOOM. Sun came out. I drove the van over a downed power line...(not smart...did it before I realized it was there) and made the first tracks through a road covered in golfball sized iceballs with a broken windshield. Had to drive around many down trees.
Home was just a few miles away and I decided the thing to do was to take the baby home and see if our house was still there.
House was fine, save some missing shingles and siding. Power was predictably out.
The garden was weird. I'd just planted the whole garden in little foot tall plants....and they were all missing. Ripped out and gone. Some rootballs were left, some were blown away with the plants and the entire garden had a million little craters from the ice balls.
BBQ grill was in the pool.
Dog was hiding in the basement. Smart dog.
I expected nightmares and stress about it...but I mostly just felt shocked and happy to be alive.
I did have some post traumatic stress from some other events....but the tornado just made me feel grateful and stunned.

Ya I am speaking to a therapist that was one thing I talked with my loved ones about that I wanted to do because the kind of stress I was under they wouldn’t understand. Therapy has been helping and I had the support of my boyfriend helping me as well. I’m really sorry about your experience. I’ve only heard the tornado alarm in Michigan the one time and they gave me such bad chills down my back.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites


I ended up getting the flu and I got so dehydrated that I lost the Fluid around my brain and I almost died. I got toxic metabolic encephalopathy. I’m doing better now but it was very scary and very intense



I get it. It’s so intense, and what’s worse (at least it was for me) was that I chose it. It took a long time for me to come to terms with the experience, but I’ll be honest I still wake up sometimes terrified that I’m pregnant or that all that I went through somehow came back. I still sometimes have to remind myself that I made it through, that my daughter made it through. I will say that when I have those moments, I come through with a stronger sense of joy and relief.

Sometimes those experiences will stay with you, but they also serve as a reminder of what you did: you survived.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If your trauma comes with a side of PTSD, don't beat yourself up about suddenly having mood swings or crying jags. There are tons of insane little cues that your brain remembers from the time you were terrified and it hard-wires them into reactions (which makes sense evolutionarily, I guess). For me, the click of a door behind me or the sudden realization that there was someone with me in an enclosed space would instantly throw me into high-adrenaline reaction mode, even if I was in the safest environment in the world. It took a fair amount of EMDR therapy to rewire me.

So don't be too harsh on yourself with involuntary reactions like crying. Sometimes your unconscious brain and chemicals just hijack you after trauma.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I tried to kill myself more than once, in my teens and 20's and struggled with self-harm, as well as binge eating disorder. It's only been recently that I realized how deep the roots of trauma socially were (I have High Functioning Autism) I was diagnosed when I was 19 years of age. I just have come out of a fog of depression and medication adjustment wasn't absorbing fully because it was time released. Now all the spokes on the medication wheel are turning just fine. Perhaps it was my grieving over the years that I didn't allow myself to cry but instead bled the tears? Or ate my pain away? I am glad you are in therapy (as am I) talk therapy works wonders. (soft hug)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did not have one with surgery

However

My near death experience (car accident) left me with more questions than answers and a fear of leaving loved ones behind to sort my affairs

So prior to surgery I did it all myself

No clue if there is a right or wrong way to go through it but I hear therapy helps

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sending a hug to you Hannah, we are Spectrum[emoji130] Sisters, at least they admitted to your diagnosis, imagine growing up in the 50s-60s, no one admitted autistics hardly existed let alone a female [emoji68]one. I overheard a neurologist tell my parents if I had been a boy[emoji67] then they would have a tenative diagnosis. They didn't seem to realize I could hear, I sat crying back and forth trying to ",stim" the pain away. I was maybe 8? But I have come to the terms-- We may be wired differently, our motherboard isn't quite the same, but we are wonderful worthwhile people, not flawed but perfect in our way. At 72 I have finally learned to love me and since I do love me, I will give myself the gift of surgery so that I may live and live healthier from now on. [emoji13]

Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sending a hug to you Hannah, we are Spectrum[emoji130] Sisters, at least they admitted to your diagnosis, imagine growing up in the 50s-60s, no one admitted autistics hardly existed let alone a female [emoji68]one. I overheard a neurologist tell my parents if I had been a boy[emoji67] then they would have a tenative diagnosis. They didn't seem to realize I could hear, I sat crying back and forth trying to ",stim" the pain away. I was maybe 8? But I have come to the terms-- We may be wired differently, our motherboard isn't quite the same, but we are wonderful worthwhile people, not flawed but perfect in our way. At 72 I have finally learned to love me and since I do love me, I will give myself the gift of surgery so that I may live and live healthier from now on. [emoji13]
Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

[emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490][emoji1490]


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Trending Products

  • Trending Topics

  • Recent Status Updates

    • BabySpoons

      Sometimes reading the posts here make me wonder if some people just weren't mentally ready for WLS and needed more time with the bariatric team psychiatrist. Complaining about the limited drink/food choices early on... blah..blah...blah. The living to eat mentality really needs to go and be replaced with eating to live. JS
      · 1 reply
      1. Bypass2Freedom

        We have to remember that everyone moves at their own pace. For some it may be harder to adjust, people may have other factors at play that feed into the unhealthy relationship with food e.g. eating disorders, trauma. I'd hope those who you are referring to address this outside of this forum, with a professional.


        This is a place to feel safe to vent, seek advice, hopefully without judgement.


        Compassion goes a long way :)

    • Theweightisover2024🙌💪

      Question for anyone, how did you get your mind right before surgery? Like as far as eating better foods and just doing better in general? I'm having a really hard time with this. Any help is appreciated 🙏❤️
      · 2 replies
      1. NickelChip

        I had about 6 months between deciding to do surgery and getting scheduled. I came across the book The Pound of Cure by Dr. Matthew Weiner, a bariatric surgeon in Arizona, and started to implement some of the changes he recommended (and lost 13 lbs in the process without ever feeling deprived). The book is very simple, and the focus is on whole, plant based foods, but within reason. It's not an all or nothing approach, or going vegan or something, but focuses on improvement and aiming for getting it right 80-90% of the time. His suggestions are divided into 12 sections that you can tackle over time, perhaps one per month for a year if a person is just trying to improve nutrition and build good habits. They range from things like cutting out artificial sweetener or eating more beans to eating a pound of vegetables per day. I found it really effective pre-surgery and it's an eating style I will be working to get back to as I am further out from surgery and have more capacity. Small changes you can sustain will do the most for building good habits for life.

      2. Theweightisover2024🙌💪

        That sounds awesome. I'll have to check that out thanks!

    • BeanitoDiego

      I've hit a stall 9 months out. I'm not worried, though. My fitness levels continue to improve and I have nearly accomplished my pre-surgery goal of learning to scuba dive! One dive left to complete to get my PADI card 🐠
      I was able to go for a 10K/6mile hike in the mountains two days ago just for the fun of it. In the before days, I might have attempted this, but it would have taken me 7 or 8 hours to complete and I would have been exhausted and in pain for the next two days. Taking my time with breaks for snacks and water, I was finished with my wee jaunt in only 4 hours 😎 and really got to enjoy photographing some insects, fungi, and turtles.
      Just for fun last week, I ran two 5Ks in two days, something I would have never done in the past! Next goal is a 10K before the end of this month.
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
    • Teriesa

      Hi everyone, I wrote back in May about having no strength. I still get totally exhausted just walking from room to room, it’s so bad I’m using a walker with wheels of all things. I had the gastric sleeve Jan. 24th. I’m doing exactly what the programs says, except protein shakes. I have different meats and protein bars daily, including vitamins daily. I do drink my fluids as well.  I go in for IV hydration 4 days a week and feel ok just til evening.  So far as of Jan 1st I’ve dropped 76 lbs. I just want to enjoy the weight lose. Any suggestions or has anyone else gone thru this??  Doctor says just increase calorie intake, still the same. 
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
    • Stone Art By SKL

      Decorative Wall Cladding & Panels | Stone Art By SKL
      Elevate your space with Stone Art By SKL's decorative wall claddings & panels. Explore premium designs for timeless elegance.
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
  • Recent Topics

  • Hot Products

  • Sign Up For
    Our Newsletter

    Follow us for the latest news
    and special product offers!
  • Together, we have lost...
      lbs

    PatchAid Vitamin Patches

    ×