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Good Evening All! I am almost 3 years postop from my Duodenal Switch w/ Biliopancreatic Diversion. It has been a long 3 years but it has been worth all of the effort I have put into this. I recently had to have emergency surgery to fix a wall hernia/bowel obstruction and something with my mesentery. I am scheduled for my excess skin removal on July 8th 2024. I am excited and I am proud of myself for all of this hard work. Its not easy with this surgery and anyone who has gone through it or is about to, remember one day at a time and YOU CAN DO THIS!!

Hi Everyone! I’m having my VSG surgery tomorrow, april 3rd and i plan on documenting my journey here. I’ve searched and read countless threads to try and anticipate what tomorrow will be like so i thought i’d create this topic to document and be able to look back on how things went. I’ve been in the pre-op requirement journey since october 2023, my requirements were pretty flexible: 10 days of nutrition, psychological and art therapy as well as physical activity classes in a specialised facility - there were also mandatory support group meetings to attend during the past 7 months. I also did not have any pre-op diet as my surgeon doesn’t require any weightloss before performing the surgery. I’m happy with the team i have working with me, and the clinic has a great reputation. But, obviously nerves have started to kick in and for the first time i’m actually scared. What if something goes wrong during surgery ? I guess these are normal thoughts, just trying to get through the stress and get to the other side of the surgery so i can concentrate on the long road ahead :) I’ll report to the clinic at 8.30 am tomorrow, and my surgery is scheduled for 10 am. Hoping everything goes well !! Fingers crossed.

So you’re in your third week which generally is purée. Can you give us an idea of what you’ve been eating. Yes, some take longer to heal & therefore need to move through the stages more slowly so move back a stage for a few days. Like the purée you’ve eaten is still too thick for you yet. Try thinning them with water, stock, milk, etc. Some allowed foods can still be too heavy for our tummy yet & you may experience discomfort though I wouldn’t say pain as you’ve described. And yes, eating too quickly can cause again discomfort. You can even have the foamies if something is too heavy, coarse or you eat to quickly but you’ve haven’t experienced that. I’d still check with your surgeon or go to a hospital because you really shouldn’t be experiencing pain as strong as you’ve indicated.

Personally, I would put a call into your surgeons office just to be certain. Ask to leave a message for the NP or PA. They usually return calls quicker and If they don’t know they will ask the Dr anyways.

I never had issues with drinking fluids. That said, I still tried to slow it down a bit so I wouldn't hurt anything in my stomach - but I always drank faster than I was told we would.

yep - most of us lose our sense of hunger for up to a year. I know it seems weird at first, but honestly, I found it very liberating after a while. I was free of "food noise" for the first time in forever! I hoped I'd be one of the very lucky few whose hunger never comes back, but I was not. it came back at five months out. Anyway, yes, norrmal. and take full advantage of that!! It's never going to be easier to lose weight than it will be right now. when you're never hungry and don't give a flip about food!

so when i had my WLS, when i got home one the next afternoon, i was just under 2 lbs lighter. but when i had my plastics, 2 days later (i was in hospital longer) i was 5 lbs heavier...and i was like 115 lbs at the time so that was a lot considering my frame. like @nickelchip my hands where like inflated balloon paws...(i'll see if i can find a pic)

I couldn’t agree more! I appreciate your feedback so much.

I feel so defeated.... it feels like every time I try to improve my health I make things worse. A small bit of back story first.... I had my WLS back in 2000, and was never told a lot of what they tell people now. I was simply told to take calcium, stool softeners and a multivitamin.... not what kind or what it should include etc. I was then told years later I was anemic, but after 2 years with that (PCP) doctor she never addressed it even though I inquired. Due to an extremely large hernia and pain I was having, I went to the bariatric doctor and he said to fix the hernia I would need to lose weight. I was losing weight again (after many years) and was feeling tired all the time. I asked my team about the low iron/anemia and asked if should I address it. I was advised to take 18 mg of iron daily so I bought the multivitamin with it included.... I bought a year's worth.... several days in, I became painfully constipated. Nothing worked but suppositories. I also increased my water intake and fiber both in food and with Benefiber. I was finally able to go without extreme pain after 2 days. One day of not using the suppositories and I am right back to not able to go again. I don't know if this is something that my body just needs to adjust to or if I messed myself up with all the years of taking stool softeners (that I don't even know if I was getting benefit of because I took soft gels)... I did message my team to ask advice, but with so many here going through similar stuff I thought I'd rant here also! I hate to think I wasted over $100 on the multivitamins that I can't take now. I'm a retired teacher with limited funds.....lol....

I honestly didn’t notice it after my sleeve surgery but I was in hospital for a couple of days so it was day 4 before I think I weighed myself so had likely already peed most if not all of it out. I was out the next day after my gall removal & there was a good 2+kgs (5 odd lbs) on the scales (at my current weight so a lot comparatively). Yikes. I swear all I did was pee for the next few days. 😁