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YAY YAY! I love hearing " I met my goal" stories. It gives us newer folks hope. Congratulations!!!

I did not have any drains after surgery. From what I understand, they are RARELY used for VSG - more common for RNY or SADI.

That is so exciting. Congratulations

The restriction has physical symptoms. It’s a tightness across your chest. I find myself thumping my chest as if that will help move the food through my digestive system & ease the tightness - it doesn’t. The goal is not to feel the restriction as it is generally a signal you’ve eaten too much. Sometimes, though, I find it sneaks up on me. Stress, eating denser food or foods that sit heavily in my tummy (bread, pasta, rice, cous cous, potato, & such) can set it off early when I’ve eaten very little. You wont start to feel it until you’re more healed & on solid foods. It does fade over time & as you get better at recognising when you’ve eaten enough - not full but enough that you don’t need the next bite. Learning to recognise the difference between needing to eat & wanting to eat is some of that head work that gets talked about. Vomiting can occur but generally you’re more likely to experience the foamies. You may feel your restriction at the same time because food is ‘stuck’ because it’s too dry, too coarse or you’ve eaten too big a bite or too quickly. You’ll spit up slimy foamy saliva & may regurgitate (not the deep muscle cramping of vomiting) the last bite or so of what you ate. My nose often runs with it. Often after you bring up that bit of food you can continue to eat after a short break. Another one of those learning things & getting to know your body’s idiosyncrasies. It’s not a common or frequent occurrence. You may not get a drain after your sleeve surgery. I didn’t & no one I knows did, though seems more common in the US.

I picked 75kg, because I vaguely remembered that being my weight back in 1998 when I was at my thinnest and wearing a size US 8/ AUS 12. I set that as my goal, as I felt confident at that weight. My surgeon's goal for me was 80kg, but I was just fixated on being the 1998 size again. I've well surpassed his, and even slipped under mine. Beyond this I'd like to get to 73kg for that bit of wiggle room, but I don't want to lose too much more as I'm already quite skinny looking.

haha not me. i lost a grand total of 400g (<1 lb) after plastics. BUT the visual difference was quite dramatic (for me, at least).

Yeah my gallbladder symptom was simply never ending nausea and inability to eat or drink. And ultimately after the scans it did have to come out. So gallbladder issues don’t always involve the awful painful episodes everyone talks about. But to be fair that is the trademark presentation. I’ve personally always had to be different and extra though ;)

Your surgeon or doctor can always first order blood test a Liver type panel that involes your gall bladder... Then they can do an ultrasound, after that a HIDA scan which they inject you with a radioactive tracer which gets absorbed into your liver/gallbladder then they inject you with a hormone to get your gallbladder to empty and do its thing and they can see on the gamma camera to see if there are any issues. I have my HIDA scan next Friday.

Not even sips but it's natural from the beginning. Meaning that physically in the beginning, you'll eat so little that any additional water will make you feel uncomfortable anyway. Before you know it, it becomes habit. It still makes me so uncomfortable that even now I wait over an hour after I eat before drinking anything. I understand your concerns about vitamins too. If you hate swallowing pills, many of us have been using patches successfully. You'll have to see what works best for you. In the end, the weightloss will be worth with it and you will see how very little you eat, and will want to keep your body healthy by taking supplements. For months, I ate less than 800 calories. Even years later, many of us still do not eat enough to be well nourished. I totally get the fast food with our significant others as a bond but it is totally doable. My mister doesn't care what I order but I think he feels more comfortable as long as I order something. So let's say Taco bell ... I order a side of black beans with onions (50 cal). I don't think it is what I eat but that I have a meal with him regardless what it is. IF he ever insisted on me eating what I used to eat, then there is something really wrong with the relationship in the first place.

The way I found my "limit" was to start with 1 sip from a 1 ounce cup every 15 minutes. See how your body tolerates it. If it tolerates it well, then move to 1 sip every 14 minutes, then 13, and so on and so forth. It is a process but you will find your limit within a day or two. One of the one ounce cups should probably take you 2-3 sips to get through, although everyone is different so test that out. If you feel a new pain after your sip, stop and let it fully go away before taking another sip. I think these steps should help anyone with their water intake. Using those steps I was able to find my limit, then I would gradually increase it to my comfort level. I'm just about 3 weeks post op and I'm able to drink about 10-12 ounces an hour or so. It's really important you listen to your body though. The good thing is, as of week 4 your stomach should be healed up and your chance of it bursting/popping is significantly reduced at this point.