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I GOT THE APPROVAL!

Thought I'd give everyone a little peek into my life over the last few weeks... it's long, but I hope it helps anyone considering this surgery to look at all sides of it. Sorry I'm a rambler... I went to the initial seminar right after Christmas of 2016. Was a bit wishy washy on whether or not I wanted to move forward with surgery, but did agree to set up my initial appointments: group nutrition, individual nutrition and history / physical with the nurse practitioner. Everything went well pre-op, though I wasn't terribly impressed with the nutritionist at my practice. Not that she wasn't a good resource, just her personality got under my skin a bit. History: I've been overweight my entire life -- my highest weight was about 275 lbs about 7 years ago, and I've gone up and down a lot throughout my life. I realized that I have an inappropriate relationship with food, and needed a drastic intervention to stop spinning out of control. Luckily I had not developed any comorbidities and aside from my weight I was relatively healthy. So I wanted to keep it that way. So, decided to go forward with the sleeve. Everything moved along nicely, my entire process was less than 4 months. Pre-op liquid diet was only for the day prior to surgery. Surgery day: Everything went as planned, spent a little time in PACU then went to my room. I was so wiped out and the pain was insane, but I was very well-medicated! I was less than impressed with a good majority of my nurses, some of them just weren't nice. As a nurse I hold other nurses to a high standard :-) But they kept me hopped up on morphine so that's a winner! I had a lot of trouble urinating initially. Got up to walk and go to the bathroom, and I was shocked that I couldn't go! I'd had tons of IV fluids. Finally about 10 hours after my surgery I was able to go. That first day, I was not allowed to drink anything ... I can't even describe how dry my mouth was, I had never experienced anything like that before. Anesthesiologist put a scopalamine patch on me to help stave off nausea which made the dryness worse. I was given pain and nausea meds IV around the clock the first day and a half, which was helpful. I never felt nauseous thankfully. With the surgical pain I couldn't have imagined the added insult of vomiting. Got up and walked the halls a lot, which felt good. Went home 2 days after surgery with oodles of pills and the fear of failing! I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing but realizing the emotional challenge I was about to undergo. The day I was discharged home, I had family come from our of town for my daughter's birthday. I was exhausted, in pain and having to watch everyone eat all of the party snacks and birthday cake! It was way harder than I thought. While I wasn't truly hungry, I had a lot of head hunger, and like many others, I never realized the food advertisements are EVERYWHERE! When my out of town family left for home, I found myself with a bit of an empty feeling. I had them as a distraction for the weekend, and while I still had the hubby and kids to distract me, I felt that was the first instance since surgery that I really needed to face what I had chosen to do. 5 days post op I developed a rash starting on my abdomen and eventually spreading everywhere but my face. Raised, welty, hot to the touch, I had never seen anything like it (which is saying a lot considering the work I do!). I called my surgeon who said to stop taking all meds for 12 hours and take benadryl. The rash worsened over the next 2 days. I went to see my allergist who took one took at me and said "WTF". So it was initially attributed to the omeprazole prescribed post op so they discontinued that. I had also stopped taking the Norco they prescribed post op as my pain was relatively manageable. And the rash started to get better. 9 days post op I was feeling pretty good. Then I coughed, felt something "pop" in my belly. The pain was worse than anything I had experienced thus far, the surgeon's office wasn't calling me back, so I went to emergency. They did a CT abdomen / pelvis to make sure everything was intact (it was) and sent me home with the direction to start taking my pain medications again. So I did, and a few days later the rash came back, much less severe, but back. So now I imagine that's what I was allergic to. As I write this I'm still trying to avoid setting myself on fire from the itching. In the meantime, I have been working, walking just about every day, started doing yoga and trying to deal with the emotions of the whole thing. The regret, hormone dump and head hunger are very, very real. But I feel empowered when I stick with it. Thus far I'm down 18 pounds since I went home from the hospital. Clothes are looser and I don't tire quite as easily when doing physical things. Tidbits and conclusion: The surgery itself: Yea, it's laparoscopic. That just means they're small incisions... they really wrangle your insides. Give yourself time to heal. Don't be afraid to take the pain meds (as long as you can tolerate them and don't have to be anywhere). Work: Take as much time as you can afford. I think for me 3-4 weeks would have been ideal, and I have a desk job. I can say a lot for the distraction that working provides: forces me out of the house and lets me forget about obsessing over food for 8 hours each day. Libido: Absolute. Freaking. Zero. Exhaustion: I have never felt so tired and useless. Netflix is my new BFF and I have watched about 400 episodes of Forensic Files... That adds to the emotion, as I feel guilty that I'm not doing more around the house, not doing more to entertain the children. But between my youngest and the dog ... I've almost always had a cuddle companion in bed! Breath: Dragon breath. For real. Doctor says it's normal, but I'm buying stock in Crest because I'm brushing about 12 times a day. I imagine I won't have long term regrets, I am already experiencing positive changes and know those will continue as long as I continue to do my part. Thankful to have this board to come to and look at others' experiences.

I gained 20 pounds because I was ill for a few weeks and now I'm recuperating. Feeling better today. I get neuropathy in my legs and arms. Due to me not being able to exercise with my daily walks, I have gained the weight. I eat the right foods. Just no exercise. I see why my surgeon told me that I must exercise at least 44 minutes a day. If I don't exercise than I start to gain there weight back. So today I'm back on the treadmill if it's raining outside. Or just go out for my morning and afternoon walks. I need to get those extra pounds off. So good luck. Just get back into exercising.

No yo yo dieting; instead, eat a healthy diet with real food, not processed. Protein first then vegetables.

U should b good hunny. Ur having surgery to better ur life how can they to take that away from u ... , if worst comes to worst then have your doctor give u the paper stating u will b out of work for so many days. Good luck have a good nigt Sent from my SM-S120VL using BariatricPal mobile app

If you aren't ready, then don't rush into it. Try some more controlled eating and exercise. If you can do it on your own, then great. I personally know I cannot do it without the tool of WLS. This is a major decision, so take your time and don't rush.

Everyone has these issues and concerns. This is serious stuff! Your family is concerned about something drastic but they have not walked in your shoes. My wife was really against it at first but over time has come around and is just concerned. I personally have waffled on the decision but in the end realize there are three things that impact my decision. First, if I do nothing different I will continue to be overweight. I've lost weight in the past (a lot of it) but it comes back. Hunger is powerful motivator. It is primitive emotion, just think of the animals around you. They will always eat if given the opportunity. What keeps wild animals thin is not metabolism but rather lack of excess food. Hunger will always drive you. Yes some people can eat as much as they want but we ain't them! The first year hopefully I will be able to divorce eating and hunger from each other and learn there is a difference between the two. I will learn to not eat all the time. I am a diabetic that is weight controlled for now but I know it will slowly become a problem if nothing is done. The second factor is volume. I know I will not be able to just anything I want at the volume I want. Our stomachs are designed to expand to work in a feast/famine world. The problem is now there is no famine for us, just feast. By severely reducing the volume I can eat at one time I will not be physically able to consume, consume, consume. If I try to consume to much it will come back out. I imagine the is not pleasant so I will naturally try to avoid it. It is not worth shoving food in to throw it back up. Third is dumping. My research is that the things that cause dumping are those food you want to avoid anyway, RNY or not. My sister has the sleeve (so not as likely to dump) but certain foods disagree with her. For her it is just not worth the discomfort of those food. Cakes and bread are a problem for her. Much more than a bite or two she knows she will have a problem. Just not worth it for her. I guess a forth one for me is the type of surgery. I am not really a good candidate for a sleeve since I have GRD but the success rate of the RNY is so much better. I always look at the average (not the best case, not the worst case) and the RNY weight loss is significantly better at getting close to ideal weight. My last thoughts are these. Give your family time to come to terms with it. It has taken me months to resolve this in my own head and just as long for my wife. I was able to articulate that I wasn't doing this look or even feel better. I am doing this for my health. I want to have a higher quality of life for longer.

I was banded in 2013 and it slipped. Most like due to the fact that I continued bad habits like bread, rice and other junk. I had the band removed and revised to a sleeve on jan 23rd. I feel great. 1st week was the worst. Pain from where the port was. My surgeon was excellent. He said there was a lot of scar tissue but he was able to it. Weight loss is slower due to this being my second surgery but loss is a loss and I will take it. Not screwing up this time. Good luck!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Age 62 had surgery last year in Feb. when I was 61. Best thing I ever did. Had the sleeve lost 100 lbs. feeling GREAT! Good Luck!!

I had outpatient surgery. I was in an out within 9 hours. I was in recovery for about 45 minutes, wheeled back to my room and immediately asked for assistance to get up and go to the restroom. They filled me with 4 bags of IV fluid! I wasn't super steady so I went right back to the bed then to sit down for a moment, got my bearings and walked up and down the hall. I was released about 30 minutes after that. It was my first ever surgery so I was super nervous but it all went off without a hitch. My pain levels were really low. I only took the pain meds for about 24 hours after surgery. I went back to my docs office the next morning to remove the draining port thingy and back home for a nap. All was well. Best of luck to you!