sasicas

WOOOHOOO!!! You look great!!

Before surgery in my mind I kept thinking I was taking the easy way out. Now that I have had a 4 hour surgery, 3 days in the hospital, followed by 5 weeks of nausea, gagging, and intense pain, followed by a nearly 2 week hospital stay, scopes, swallow studies, numerous other tests while unable to eat or drink anything, I am POSITIVE that I did NOT take the easy way out. I went the hard way and paid for it with plenty of pain. I also have friends that have had crappy reactions to my surgery. My best friend supported me up until days before surgery. I did have to hear her constantly tell me how she needed to start losing weight now during the time she supported me though. Obviously I became competition which is complete crap as far I am concerned. AND NOWW, she won't even talk to me!! She just up and decided to not call or text or anything, she has nothing to do with me and I am only 7 weeks out. UGH!! You just never know what you are going to get from people.

I'm finding that eating is just a necessary chore now. I don't have a desire to eat and even if something sounds awesome I end up not even wanting it once I've tried it. I realize my taste buds have changed in a big way. So many things I did like, I no longer do and things I didn't like, I now eat. Even if something tastes awesome, like this orange chicken I had earlier today, I found eating it to be just something I had to do to make my body function. I do not have the hunger feeling, just the empty feeling like so many others here. Ugh. At least I am now a cheap date, normally nibbling off the hubbys plate. Or like today, we went out to lunch and dinner. At lunch I wanted the orange chicken, had to order a normal portion and brought 90% or more of it home for meals later this week. I didn't even enjoy being in a restraunt anymore *sigh*

Like the others have said, take your time. If it doesn't work, step back. I had started puree'd foods, had issues, went back into the hospital unable to eat or drink. I do have some complications but the doctors also believe there was just too much inflamation still in my sleeve, then as of Friday I went back to real food again. If I puree, I find taking some sort of casserole or chili works best. I add lots of stuff to thin it out to really bring it down. LIke this chicken casserole we had. On the top of the chicken I put a mixture of cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, and sour cream on top. I had to add a lot of the sauce to make it work well. It looked awful though. If I try plain chicken, picking up a rotisserie from the store is the most most and I add lots of BBQ sauce before puree'ing it. The last day in the hospital I tried lasagna, they used a TON of sauce before blending it up to make sure it broke down enough for me to eat. Just make sure to use LOTS of sauce and eat slowly. Using a childs spoon take a bite, put the spoon down. Chew it still, swallow, then sit for a minute before trying again. It's all trial and error in the beginning. YOu might be able to think you can eat that last bite to only throw it up because you simply got too full. There is no shame in having to step back some and try again later/

YAY for the little card. Used mine for the first time tonight as well so I could order off the kids menu at IHop. The portion was still HUGE. I ate maybe 1/8th of the kids omelet and none of the fruit lol

I think you look fantastic!! And I hate the BMI chart, its a load of crapola as far as I'm concerned. We can't just pick some numbers and shove a bunch of people into it and then deem them obese or normal. Drives me batty. I'm still really new to the sleeve so I don't have much experience, but stay off the scale. Forget the numbers. Go by how you feel. Or take your measurements or pull out a pair of old jeans and remember how far you have come. The scale can be such a pain. And as we get older and have kids our bodies change. Thats why I don't have a set in stone goal. Even my "goal" weight that I think I will look good at will likely change as I have had 4 kids since I last weighed in at 150. My only real goal was to get under 200 lbs which I did, sure I am excited to lose more but the end number is just a number, its more the feeling of being comfortable in my own skin is what I am going for. Anyways, hopefully I made some sense, oxycodone just kicked in and I'm a little out of it now lol.

Yes I have had regrets, I do believe one day though I will look back and be thrilled with my choice. I have lost quite a bit already and am only 7 weeks out. However I have had complications that landed me in the hospital for 12 days, I actually just got out yesterday. There is also that part of me that is still angry that I could not just lose the weight on my own without surgery. But I am still new to the sleeve and like I said I think months down the road it will be worth it when I am wearing non-fat girl clothes, when Im healthier, when I'm not so worn down. Right now my body is very tired and I am feeling the affects of it in a major way. The compilcations are rare and really took me by surprise. I was a really good candidate for the sleeve, being in my 20s, done having kids, starting out relatively low on the weight side compared to most WLS patients, I had no co-morbidities other than sleep apnea yet I still struggled and ended up hospitalized. Its a scary situation to be in and thank God it was not as bad as others I have seen. Just make sure you are really ready for this surgery and the possibilities of complications.

LOL Griselda, his brother is not near as awesome as he is and hes married anyways I am so thankful to be home, it was so miserable in the hospital. Now Im still having some issues but its better to deal with them here than sharing a room with people you dont know and being miserable. The family is taking great care of me, I just need to get some strength back. Right now my body is incredibly weak and I'm easily overwhelmed by too much noise, hopefully it will only take a few days to readjust.

I AM HOME!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! They still fought me to stay but I really just need to be home, I forced myself into eating some awful looking pureed foods today and I was able to get more fluids in. The glue we were waiting on still wasn't in on time for me to get scoped and glued today so I will get it done at the GI's this upcoming week as well as followups with surgery. I am just praising the Lord I am home. To hear my 7 year old tell me how much he missed me was breaking my heart. The girls are younger, they said it too but the way my little man said it just made me know I had to get home ASAP and be here to really heal. makes me all teary eyed thinking about it. SOme of the surgeons still suggest a revision to RNY might help but forget that junk. I chose the sleeve for a reason and somehow, someway I will make this work out. One dr today said he wasn't hanging up his hat but he is hopeful that things will just get better from here. Came home with more pain meds, more heartburn meds, more nausea meds too so hoping everything stays in check and gets better. And boy was it nice to get home to a nice clean house wiht dinner in the crockpot, all ready to be pureed up tonight I couldn't possibly even describe how great my husband has been through this whole thing. So glad to be home and thank you all for the support!! Heres hoping this Water weight comes off quickly too so I can really get back into the game again

Hi again everyone. Thanks for all the support and prayers. I'm stil in the hospital. Hoping to be discharged today or this weekend. Today we are doing a calorie challenge to see if I can get down enough to go home. This is the first real meal I'm eating in awhile and its just cream of wheat. I have a PICC line in now and have been getting nutrition through that. Ive since had another scope and there is a tiny hole at the top of my sleeve. My surgeon and the GI dr decided to glue it during my next scope. They have done enough tests that they felt it's not leaking so that is why I can start purees today. Nausea had been ahuge issues, lots of throwing up so hopefully purees stay down. I'm still on nausea meds so I'm hoping. No idea on why the sleeve went into an L shape. They did use the fr bougie (i think that's the name) during surgery to guide. It seems that's just how my body healed. Anyways, I hope to be home soon. Thanks again for all the support.

Thanks for the support. This whole thing had taken such a toll on me. I miss being home with my family so bad. My kids are little and don't understand why I'm here. Listening to them today asking questions just tore me up inside. My poor nurses have to keep dealing with my break downs. I'm so home sick. I know people never expect a complication to happen to them and I sure never expected it. I know there is nothing I can do to change the past but boy do I wish I had walked away on surgery date and refused to go through with it. I feel so defeated, I know I'm supposed to stay positive but its so hard to do that right now after almost a week in the hospital

So I'm still here. I still have the same pain. I had to do a leak test and swallow study yesterday. The swallow study was awful! Horrible, horrible test. The barium was bad enough but they made me swallow these little things like poprocks. You swallow 10 times to try to get it all down. horrible! I was gagging terribly. It hurt so bad. I was crying and finally threw up before they could finish. On that test they saw that things are emptying too slow and my esophagus was too narrow and they said my sleeve all together is too narrow. And instead of being shaped like a banana, its got a part in it that makes it more like an "L". They again suggested surgery, either trying to fix the L or converting to RNY. My surgeon will be back Monday so I will wait to discuss it with him. I'm tired of this all, of not eating, drinking, not being with my family most of all. I'm tired of the meds and feeling so crummy. I just want my old stomach back. I feel defeated.

I'm almost 6 weeks post-op and the hospital right now and having similar issues. I have a stricture and found out yesterday after a swallow test that I have narrowing in my esophagus. I'm not sure what is normal post-op so I suggest calling the doctor to ask.

Thanks everyone for the support. I gained another night here because I stil can't eat and drink without the same pain. The doctors said it might just be because ballooning the area aggrevated the area. Ugh. The hernia confuses me too. My surgeon said if I had one he would fix it in surgery. He never mentioned it. He is on leave so I should see him when he gets back to figure out what to do next. I'm just worn out physically and emotionally.

fatBgone-a stricture is basically an area that gets too narrow, so anything trying to get into my sleeve was getting stuck and causing pain. Strictures are more common with rny from what I've seen at my support group, the reason this doctor I saw suggested it was to deal with the heartburn. He said ryn has less issues with acid production. Im anxious to see my surgeon once I get discharged to see what he wants. I have no intentions of converting. I would rather just suck with taking the nexium and zantac.

Thanks! The pain was figured out too, I've been hospitalized since monday and I have a stricture and hiatal hernia. hopefully I will still be in ONEderland once I get home, been pumped full if fluids.

Congrats!

Since surgery I have dealt with pain in my chest, the PA (he works with my surgeon) I saw figured it was heartburn. So I was switched to Nexium and told to add in Zantac if it didn't help. For the first week the pain wasnt so bad, I had the occasional sharp pain. Then on Saturday the pain started to increase, it got worse Sunday, then Monday even worse. Monday I are a gogurt and it hurt, I drank Water, it hurt. Everything did. Hubby got worried, came home and sent me to the ER. Because the pain is in the middle of my chest and radiates to the left under the left breast, they did an ekg and chest xray. Then I sat in pain in the waiting room for 4 hours. Once I was finally called back, labs were done and looked funky. Surgeons came to check on me and ordered a ct. Took me hours and lots of pain to drink the contrast but I got it down. At 3am I was admitted to the hospital and receiving pain meds around the clock. I needed lots of fluids and potassium again, started receiving nausea meds and heartburn meds by iv as well. My labs are still of so they are monitoring things and may need more tests. I had a scope done yesterday and sure enough I have a stricture and a hiatal hernia. They stretched the part of the sleeve and will watch the hernia, will start seeing gi to make sure I don't need another scope . One doctor suggested that I may consider converting to rny. No thanks! My throat is super sore from the scope too. Still getting meds quite a bit and back on Clear liquids. If I tolerate it better, they will advance my diet sand once I can handle that I can go home. At least now I don't feel like a big baby. So if anyone is feeling like something is wrong, trust your body and get checked out.

Woooohooooo! Hit ONEderland today and I am 5 weeks post-op today Weight was 199.8. Months ago, well it was probably more like a year or more ago I bought aprons as my mini-goal treats so today I will be opening one up FINALLY! Only 4 more lbs til I hit the half way mark and about 10 more lbs til I weigh less than my hubby More and more of my clothes are falling off, my size 20s just fall right off and I was able to comfortably wear a size 16 skirt to Church yesterday My 1x shirts are way too big too and many of my XL shirts are getting to be too big too I'm having some ongoing issues still, I was switched from Prilosec to Nexium and it seemed to be doing the trick til two days ago so I will be adding in Zantac today and if not better in 2 days I will go in and be scoped. Praying the pain just goes away. Also dealing with some major muscle pain in my legs from overdoing it the other day but I was able to be on my feet for a lot longer than I was 41 lbs ago Hoping I can get the hubby to take some pictures of me today too for comparison shots.

I have noticed hormone changes too. Im about 5 weeks out and was fine at first but this last week I have been on edge like no other. Ugh very frustrating. Ive noticed a huge change in my hair too, my hair used to get super oily, I had to wash it daily and now my hair is not oily at all. Its been 2 days since I washed it and its still fine. So crazy what this surgery does to us.

fatBgone-Thats a great idea. Maybe I will be able to eat something then. MelissaAnd-will have to try the activia, I forgot there was some of that in the fridge. Can you ask your doctor for the pills? Mine is a pretty small pill and it goes down much better than the way too big Prilosec I was on. I haven't dealt with any big stalls yet, I am weighing a couple times a week and twice in this last week the number was the same, figured it was the 3 week stall everyone deals with but still managed to lose the next time I weighed in. I believe Im down 24 from surgery day. Hang in there, Im sure your body is still trying to adjust. This whole process has been hard!

It says to take it 30 minutes prior to eating so that is what I have been doing. They also gave me some zantac to start in a few days if the Nexium isnt doing enough. And said Milk of Magnesea was ok to take as well. He said if it all continues they will consider scoping me this week too. I will have to look into other yogurts, maybe that will help. Right now Im living on gogurts and Yoplait light. I keep wanting to try egg/tuna/chicken salad but trying to get past the making it part, I know it sounds stupid but looking at stuff makes me nauseas, of course I refuse to breathe through my nose when near food now too lol. Stupid body. Didn't think of cream cheese in deli meat, going to have to try that tonight, thanks for the idea! Protein drinks are a no-go for me too. Thanks so much for your help. Oh and congrats on your pregnancy!!

Thanks for the advice on the sugary stuff too

I am having acid production issues. I was on prilosec and it wasnt cutting it, so I was switched to Nexium twice a day a few days ago. It does seem to helping much more with all the heartburn pain. I am extremely sensitive to smells right now, even the site of food at times can make me start gagging again. I'm trying to eat on a schedule, seems I cannot get much down, no more than a few bites down, even slowly and chewed very well to last very long. I just keep feeling empty, which brings on the gagging ugh. Guess my body just needs to keep adjusting to what I did to it. Truthfully right now, I wish I had never had the surgery. I know many say that too, its just frustrating. Burping up pickles sounds disgusting ICK! Might have to try pickle juice at some point though, sounds so good right now. Thanks

4 weeks out here and the left incision pain for me is still here, its indented too and has been since surgery. I did go in to get checked out, ultrasound was done too and nothing seen. The PA decided it was likely a stitch pulled internally. Thankfully its not near as bad as it was, but still uncomfortable and if I move too quickly, I get a very sharp pain.