Leaderboard

I slept till after four am! Better than I thought. Today is the day! I gotta be at the hospital at 8:30 a.m. (45 min drive which isn’t bad for my rural area). I got nerves! My life is already better by loosing 90 lbs this calendar year, over 100 in less than 18 months. Good things gotta be in store for me. It’s my time to live life and be happy and not embarrassed about my size all the time. good luck to all going through pre op, post op or surgery today, or even just preparing… we are all in this together.

YAY!! You have done so much self care and preparation for this you will NAIL IT! I look forward to seeing your progress! Best of luck, wishing you a fast safe recovery!

Totally agree with everything you said. Loved your analogy, too. It is amazing how WLS helps with health issues. I have a diabetic friend that lost about a hundred pounds through diet but still had diabetes, gained some weight back, then had the Sleeve Surgery and within 2 months is totally off diabetic meds as well as his other meds. My experience has to do with gastric problems. For over 4 years I have had gastritis and colitis causing, vomiting daily and severe diarrhea to the point of not being able to leave my house. After many tests, 2 colonoscopies, 3 EDGs, and many, many meds it was finally discovered I had developed a hiatal hernia, ulcers and a damaged pyloric caused by having about 5 times too much stomach acid that was destroying my stomach lining and allowing the acid to seep throughout my digestive system causing severe intestine problems. I was sleeved on 9-1-22. From day 1, no more gastric problems at all! And have lost 30 pounds so far. Congratulations on making a decision that is best for you and continued success in your journey to better health. As stated, it is not a "cheat', or the easy way out. It is what is best for YOU!

How far post-op are you? What restrictions do you still have from your surgeon? I am pretty disciplined about avoiding carbs during my day to day life, but I do make an exception for Thanksgiving. I will have turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. But instead of creating a heaping plate (and then going back for more), I'll have a plate that looks like it will feed a 4-year old.

I want to clarify something here for those that are following along at home. A random blood sugar test can be used to indicate diabetes, but just because your blood sugar is less than 200 mg/dL, does not mean that you don't have diabetes. An analogy would be this: if you weigh over 600 pounds, you are definitely obese. Just because you weigh less than 600 pounds does not mean you are not obese. I'm diabetic, but my blood sugar was never over 200 mg/dL any time I checked. As I mentioned, it's much more common to use A1C and fasting blood glucose tests to diagnose diabetes. Fasting is good because blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day. It should be at its lowest point after an 8 to 10 hour fast, so for most people, this is first thing in the morning. The other common test most diabetics are asked to do is "postprandial". This means after a meal. Now timing after that meal is subject to some debate, but typically 2 hours after eating is used as the "standard" for diabetics. For everyone, even non-diabetics, your blood sugar will start going up roughly 10 minutes after starting to eat. While this is heavily dependent on what and how much you ate, in a non-diabetic, your postprandial blood sugar should peak within about an hour of eating and should be back to normal in 2 to 3 hours. For diabetics, this normally does not happen as fast, so the peak blood sugar concentration is typically closer to 2 hours after eating. In short, most type 2 diabetics are asked to take a postprandial reading 2 hours after eating. Both fasting and postprandial readings are used to determine how well the disease is managed. For example, a high fasting blood glucose test might indicate that your diabetes medication needs to be adjusted. Another example might be if the post prandial reading is actually lower than the fasting number. If this is a consistent trend, it might indicate reactive hypoglycemia.

Thank you for sharing this with us. I hope you're well through the operation and out the other end now. I wish you a speedy recovery and a great result. You've done such a good thing for yourself. 😍

Thanks!!

@ShoppGirl - I understand your frustration, but hang in there. No one wants diabetes, but some answers would be nice. My Thyroid showed fine for several tests and across multiple years, but it wasn’t working properly. Also my body wasn’t processing insulin efficiently - but it wasn’t consistent. Sometimes it worked ok (my numbers/labs were fine) sometimes it didn’t. I don’t have a diabetes diagnosis, but I do have an insulin resistance / Metabolic Syndrome dx. I’m glad you are going to follow up with an Endo just for clarification. Hopefully they can help you look at what might be going on and either find some answers or help treat some of symptoms you have, lessening the overall impact. I’ve been where you are and it isn’t fun. I hope that you are able to get some answers and make some progress soon. It’s very frustrating when our body’s are fighting against us, despite our best efforts. Hang in there, you’ve got this. If you need to chat or anything DM me. Keep up the good work, you can do this!

They tell people that because they are the ones that are there when people come back in for emergency surgery and sometimes even die when things go horribly wrong from that one little cheat. The doctors are there for you, to help you. They aren’t just advising you to do something to be mean. You clearly have your mind made up about what you are going to do and that’s fine you are a grown adult but for others reading this please listen to your doctors. Just because one person has been lucky doesn’t mean everyone will be. Their advice is to keep you safe and the consequences of cheating on the staged return to eating are not just a few pounds on the scale. They can be very serious.

I was so embarrassed to be the biggest person wherever I went. I made excuses and stayed home. Now I go out and feel so normal it's a joy. My confidence is soaring. I didn't know how the other advantages of this surgery would shape up for me, I was so unhealthy, newly diagnosed Diabetic, high BP, Water retention and walking made me breathless and my heart thud in my chest. Then a whole new world opened up for me. I have been taken off all those meds, I walk everywhere. I go in shops that I have never been in ever; I try on their clothes but don't buy. If I want them, I buy them from auction sites, my revenge because they never stocked my size before. I fit on public transport and aeroplanes, people come and sit next to me. All this is really new to me so I believe there will be more huge rewards to come.