pataroony

Hi There: I went back to work after 2 weeks...I was feeling quite lethargic but didn't fight it...I missed my coffee but had to accept I wasn't super energetic...GET ENOUGH PROTEIN and eat/drink regularly...have 3 oz sips of protein shake every hour. It's weird when everyone around you seems to be eating or talking about eating...distract yourself - read inspirational stories...once you're a ways along, you will be eating normal foods but in very small quantities and no one will notice and you'll feel great...and get enough sleep.

Hi There: I was sleeved in October, 2011. It was right before Thanksgiving (in Canada) and I was cranky as hell. I was doing okay but then got teary at feeling so excluded from the feasting. My general irritability was a good indication of how much I was using food to sooth crankiness, boredom, anger....etc. I had to keep busy, relaxed, get lots of sleep, and just suck it up sometimes. There were times when I'd eat too much and up the food would come. I also got big into thrift store shopping...a bit of an addiction situation. You need to watch out for that. All in all, you'll tough it out and gradually, the moodiness will not faze you as much...becomes normal. Practice saying 'no' to yourself and quickly distract yourself with something else to do. It definitely gets better. The weight loss didn't seem as fast as I expected so I stopped weighing myself, stopped 'dieting', and 'got on with my life'. If you focus too much on weight loss and food, you will naturally think about it all the time. I am a year and a half post and weight a little more than 100 lbs. less. I no longer obsess and think much about weight (I'm 145lbs. 5'3") and go about my day. I have the odd cookie, occasionally eat too much popcorn etc. but don't let it get me down.

Hiya: I can sooo relate...I started off just using thrift stores to save money as I was losing weight so quickly. Now I am losing more slowly (158 lbs. from top 249lbs) and I am so pumped with being able to buy smalls that I keep going back and spending a few hundred every couple of months...now starting to sneek clothes into the house. I have also started buying shoes like crazy because my feet are smaller and slimmer...I am having fun, though but husband and teen girls are scolding me constantly and I feel guilty. I cannot fit another thing into my closet (probably two 5 feet lengths of rail). I guess it would be worse if I switched to drinking or gambling..lol.

Hi all: I had the painful incision site at the end of my second week...thought it was an incisional hernia and freeked. I went to emerg and they did an ultrasound and confirmed it was just scar tissue formation. Now at the beginning of my forth week, it's totally fine...from sharp pain getting out of bed to totally fine so hang in there. What seemed to help for a few days is a lower back brace that goes around your middle and supports your abdomen - I wouldn't recommend it for long or your stomach muscles will get weak. Ab exercises aren't supposed to be done until after 6 weeks if I'm not mistaken. Hang in there...it all gets better. I don't take any acid reducer...I wasn't advised directly to and I figure the smaller stomach won't produce enough acid. Honestly, I don't know about this.

Hiya: I had the anti-nausea patch on and was so dry I couldn't swallow - was told it was the patch so I took it off...kind of a vicious cycle to dehydrate self with patch. Get some other anti-nausea med.

Hi: I'm 3 weeks post and sometimes I feel a vague hunger sensation but most people tell me I won't feel true hunger for at least a year. So if I'm to believe that, I chalk various sensations up to gas, impending bowel movement (could be hour away), or thirst. Any feelings such as this, I'm usually able to ignore.

Hi: I want surgery for the sleeve in Mexico but my husband is fearing crime, such as car jacking, kidnapping, etc as a huge risk. There are travel advisories. Anyone want to comment on this? Pat

Thanks Everyone. I might have done it in Mexico if not for my husband. I have to go to Coos Bay for follow-ups regularly, which is doable. All that said, there are so many happy people who've done it in Mexico that it can't be that much of a problem...I, myself, probably wouldn't hesitate (gotta keep hubby happy but cost $7K more).

Hiya: I had surgery on Oct 3/11. They first start a 'line' in your left hand for administering anesthetic; I also got some sort of antianxiety med through that. Then they wheel you into the operating room. You scoot yourself from the rolling bed onto the operating bed. You won't remember much after that. You wake up in the original room with a bunch of nurses, maybe hubby, looking at you waiting for you to wake up. You're sortof groggy, of course and feel like sleeping. Not long after that, maybe 15 minutes, the nurse helped me get dressed. I was asked to try to pee, which in retrospect, I should've taken more time to try. Anyway, if you don't pee, they insert a cathre in your peehole, which doesn't really feel like anything. Mine was day surgery so I went to my hotel room with hubby with the peepee bag and another drain out of my gut. This was afternoon...the rest of the day I slept, emptied my peepee bag into the toilet, slept some more. I had clear surgical patch on the 5 holes in my tummy. The holes were bruised around them-ugly. No pain because I had a drinkable narcotic. The next day I went to the hospital (so far only ice chips) and did the swallow test...no biggy...the stuff is blah and they don't make you drink more than a mouthful. Then they hooked up saline to my iv line left hand and I sat and read/TV while they gave me fluids. Then back 'home' to the hotel. While you're on heavy pain meds you'll feel nothing much. Now I'm weaning off, 6 days later, and I feel the bruising around the left lower hole where they did the most work through. My bruising is turning yellow/fading...my tummy, some people name it, feels odd...hard to tell fullness or hunger. If your tummy is hurting, you'll feel the pain in your left middle back/shoulder blade. I've been slowly walking more, now taking a 5 minute walk. I have a little bit of gas and diarhea (hardly anything comes out).

I also had surgery monday 3rd. I'd already been drinking Protein drinks for two weeks, clear for 2 days, the operation, then clear for two more. I've been trying to slowly drink 20 oz of skim with 2 scoops of protien (74 g protein in all). It's harder to get the Water in...I should focus more on that. I confess I did have some watery oatmeal 2 T and yog 2 T for the last two mornings (free breaky at hotel) , I also had a couple of tablespoons of potatoe bacon Soup (just the fluid) a couple of nights ago. I just had about 2 T of pancake and 2 T scrambled egg because the diarrhea bugged me...mucho gas. I don't h ave nausea and I'm really full after...but then forget for a few hours. I need to have a 30 minute timer to remind me to drink water inbetween 3 oz of protein shake. I'm not recommending you do what I've done...it's hard to be away from home with hubby going to restruarants. OOPS, WAIT A MINUTE! Okay, as you read the above, I sounded so confident and since then I've tried to figure out how I'm going to progress. HOWEVER, this is just me thinking that I can do things my way rather than following advice. I threw up a tiny bit of rice/chicken today...just came right back out. I WILL NOW CONCEDE TO FOLLOWING MY SURGEON'S INSTRUCTIONS ON EATING /DRINKING WITHOUT MUCKING AROUND WITH IT!!! I said that loud so I can hear myself. total loss since surgery: 11 lbs. in 7 days.

Hi Folks: My husband is insisting I have the surgery stateside so to keep him happy, even though it's more money, I'm having surgery on the Oregon coast, at Bay Bariatrics. Thanks all for your replies. Pat