VJSlim

Dont worry MsDebi! Everyone goes through the same. But you will find that this tool, unlike all the others that you may have tried for weight loss in the past, will never fail. It will push you towards your goal each day. Of course there are all sorts of degrees of success - some lose faster than the others. But your goals would NEVER be 'unattainable'.

I suggest you ask all your questions to your surgeon : post surgery diet plan, medication, how long he/she thinks you may need for recovery etc. Be prepared. Follow his/her instructions strictly. All will be well.

That is great!! I hope I get to onederland soon!

Good luck with the surgery and recovery! Hope everything works out fine for you..

Cute!

Congrats!! You look amazing. If you dont mind me asking - what is that tattoo ?

AWESOME!! you look so good in the pics

Wow! Congrats on your success!! And thanks so much for posting this -- it is such an inspiration for 'beginners' like me.

Congrats on your decision. You are making the right choice to live healthy.

I'm in the 6 week post-op and will try to answer your q's from my perspective.

1. The sleeve was my first surgery so I had nothing to compare it to. And my surgery was in India so the process is quite a bit different. For example, it took me one and a half days for the anesthesia to wear down. And then I was on paid meds till mid of day three so I had no pain at all. Again, this is just my perspective. You may feel a bit diff based on how you react to anesthetics.

2. I took a one month vacation. I felt so much better after the second week, but I still had to take small naps in the afternoons for atleast two hrs. So I used the whole month's vacation for recovery. I too have a desk job and its not physically demanding

3. As I said before, I'm just 6 weeks post op. But from my experience, I can say that if at all you feel any discomfort, it will get better by the day. Sticking to your diet plan may feel very hard at the beginning but PLEASE stick to it. Concentrate on getting in the required Proteins and fluids and any other meds that your doctor prescribes. This is very important. If you get in the required amounts of Proteins and fluids, there should be no problems. The whole point of the low calories is that your fat will get burned and converted to calories so that your body remains energetic. If you feel very tired, you can try having a small nap in the afternoon, atleast thats what I did. If it gets too uncomfortable, consult your doctor -- they may revise your diet chart to fit you better.

4 & 5 -- can't help with these, sorry -- coz I did not have any nausea.

6 -- can't help with this either, sorry -- I'm not very familiar with the insurance system in US as I'm from India and I was a self-pay.

7. Hmm not exactly difficult - but you'll have to get used to not gulping it at one go. The first week I struggled to finish of 50ml Water in 30 minutes. But now, I can drink more than 125 ml in less than 5 minutes. It all depends on how well your sleeve reacts to the kinds of fluids you take in.

8. I thought I'll miss food the most, but surprisingly not so much. The thing that I miss the most is sleeping on my sides. I have had asthma from 15 and have never gotten used to sleeping on my back, so when I came back from the surgery and was forced to sleep on my back, I just couldnt have a peaceful sleep for more than a week. My back hurt a lot at that time. Then I got used to it, but I still miss sleeping on my sides. I posted on this forum and got a great suggestion today -- pillows under the belly when sleeping on the sides. I'm going to try it tonight :-)

I agree with Pookey - I had very little real or head hunger. I mean, I do have cravings, but I dont feel it like a hunger. Just a big sigh! :-) Probably because I know that I cant tolerate those foods that I crave for right now. So my cravings just vanish.

The hardest time will be when you have meals with your family or friends. That is when the cravings become too hard to resist. I just make a really tasty Soup for those times and avoid looking at the food as much as possibe :-(

I too was on a liquid diet for one month. My doc said two Protein shakes a day is compulsory. Apart from that I used to have clear vegetable Soup, skimmed yogurt, fully strained apple and orange juice (fresh).

I also had some tender coconut Water daily and it is soooo tasty and cools my system.

We have something called 'kanji' in India -- it is nothing but a rice broth. This is the Water that is used to boil rice. To prepare this, we boil the rice in large amounts of water, then strain it to get the liquid broth and then add salt to taste. It does have carbs. But for the 2nd week post-op I became very weak and my doc wanted me to have this 'kanji' once every day (100ml). I still lost 22 pounds in the first month so I think the carb did not pose any threat for me then.

_{Thanks for all your replies. I'll try the pillows soon.}

I'm 6 weeks post op and still not able to sleep on the sides. The largest of the four incisions on my stomach is on the left side and whenever I try to sleep on the sides, I start getting an uncomfortable feeling.. not exactly pain but I still get very uncomfortable and have to sleep on my back.

I'm not used to sleeping on my back -- I've had asthma trouble from my early teens and have not been sleeping on my back for nearly 15 yrs.

So I just wanted to ask you guys about when it started to feel comfortable for you to sleep on your sides..

Absolutely! I have VST as my homepage! :-) this is a bunch of very inspirational people.. and someone like me who is not very good at 'hardwork' I need all the help to work hard to make my sleeve a success story! lol

8 miles! WOW that is awesome! I'm 6 weeks post-op and can barely do 5 miles... You are my inspiration!! :-)

I can't believe they wanted you to have mushed food on day 2!! I was moved to mushed and soft foods only on week 4!! Consult with your doctor again and let him know that the food is not sitting well with your sleeve. Hope everything works out fine for you..

Glad to hear you are feeling good! The biggest problem for me during the first week post-op was the gas. My shoulders hurt like H***. I couldn't wear anything but very light tunics for 3 days coz of it. And my doctor had to give me some medicines to help me sleep peacefully. I'm so glad you did not have to go through that!!

Is it okay if I have watermelon juice daily? I love watermelons and I figured it would mostly have just Water. I saw the nutritional chart of watermelon in wiki and found that every 100g of watermelon has 6.2 gms sugar and 7.55 gm carbs - is this a safe level to consume daily?

PS: I do not add any sweeteners to the juice.< /p>

Thank you all very much for your responses - you guys are very encouraging and motivational. I've been visiting this forum for nearly 3 months. Your success stories played a major role in my decision to go through with the surgery.

Thank you very much, Holly!

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and just wanted to say Hi !

I'm from India and just got sleeved on the first week of Jan. I weighed 261.8 pounds on the day of surgery and one month post-op I weigh 239.8 pounds. Just wondering if this is average or too-slow in terms of weight reduction. Any thoughts?

I also wanted to say that I have read so many success stories here and am hoping to jot down my own entry soon.. can't wait for the day I reach my goal (143 pounds -- looks too far away right now, but I'm hoping I get there :-) )