JanetF

Hi, Kmbrlycool! I have had similar problems, but without having taken any Milk of Magnesia. I asked my surgeon about it and he suggested that it may be a reaction to the artificial sweeteners in the sugar-free jelly. If you are having S/F jelly and Crystal Lite, which I have never had, but which I think is artificially sweetened, and S/F Popsicles, you're having quite a lot of artificial sweeteners. You could try cutting back on them and seeing if that makes a difference. I hope it will!

Hi, Lismivel! Don't be discouraged! Others here who are further post-surgery than I am will be able to give you good advice on how best to keep up your intake, as my experience is limited, since I am still in the clear fluids stage. Just so you know you aren't the only one worrying about your weight loss, when I was weighed at my first follow-up appointment last Thursday (9 days post-op) I was one kilo more (yes, more!) than I had been on the same scales two weeks previously - after four days of no food while on the IV, six days on clear fluids only and a huge portion of my stomach having been removed! Of course, I had read the average weight loss statistics and was therefore doubly disappointed. The surgeon said (from what I can remember between my tears!) that all sorts of things could be responsible, but that in days of yore I would have been ideally positioned to survive in periods of famine, as my body is so good at hanging on to what it has accumulated during times of plenty! He warned that it could also mean that I can expect long stalls as I move through the weight loss process, but for both of us, if the loss isn't showing at the moment, once it does show, it should be well worth seeing! Keep your chin up and all the best!

Hi, Carla! Congratulations on successfully vaulting your first hurdle on the path to VSG surgery! It's a long path and of which I am only in the early stages (I was 'sleeved' on April 17th). I had fought against the idea of bariatric surgery for many years, but finally decided that it was the best way - in fact, realistically the only way - to deal with my huge (in every sense of the word!) weight problem and many co-morbidities, and since I decided on it, I have never wavered in my conviction that it was the right thing to do. I have had a few complications and am still in pain from intramuscular bleeding at two of the incision sites, but I know that it's only a matter of time before I start feeling better and seeing the results. I wish you all the very best!

Hi, Jani! Sorry to hear about the pain. I am 11 days post-op and still having significant pain over the belly button and around the right incision site due to intramuscular bleeding, which has caused two large haematomas. The removed portion of my stomach was taken out through the belly button incision. I also had a hiatal hernia repaired during the surgery. It could well be that your pain is related to the umbilical hernia repair rather than the sleeve procedure, but if the pain is still significant at this stage post-op, you really ought to check it out with your surgeon. Best of luck!

Hi, Little bits! Thanks for the congrats! I have had various problems since the operation, including intramuscular bleeding (huge haematomas around two of my incision sites) and weighing one kilo more at my 9-day follow-up appointment than I had done two weeks earlier pre-op - after four days of no food while on the IV, six days of clear liquids and 75% of my stomach being removed! So the diabetes going into immediate remission was a double joy. Fasting BG figures the last few mornings have been 80, 74 and 76 - unimaginably great!

Hi, Bellatrix! So glad to hear that you are OK to be discharged. Let's hope all this will soon be little more than a bad memory. Best of luck with your recovery.

Any update, Bellatrix? I hope you are feeling much better by now. I brought up a load of dark brown foamy stuff and blood when in the recovery room (all over the poor nurse's arm - he was remarkably sweet about it!) and then some clear acid on day 2, but nothing since. You also need to talk to your surgeon about painkillers. Even if you are a private patient in an NHS hospital, they can't be rationing painkillers and if you're in a private hospital, well... . Your surgeon needs to lay down the law! Do let us know how you are.

Love it! That alone makes it worthwhile, doesn't it?

If you are buying packs or tins of commercially made broth, you could always try making your own to see if you enjoy that more. I couldn't stomach the broth they gave me in the hospital (it looked like dirty washing-up Water without the bubbles but with dubious looking bits on the bottom and tasted just as good). I am now staying with a friend and when the commercially made broth I had brought with me turned out to have been made by the same fair hand as the hospital stuff, she set to and made me an believably delicious broth, boiling a whole chicken with veggies, spices and lots of tasty bits and pieces. She strained the wonderful broth for me and after I had had some for lunch and some more for dinner, she and the children ate the rest of it with the chicken and all the other goodies. I'm looking forward to another batch tomorrow! So you could have a go at making your own if you aren't already. If you live on your own, as I do, and don't have anyone to enjoy the chicken once you have removed it from the broth, you could shred it and freeze it for when you are eventually able to eat solids. It should be tender and palatable, since it's been cooked in liquid.

In the past, I have always rushed back to work after operations and other bouts of ill health and on occasion have worked while in hospital. When I haven't been well enough to get into the office, I have worked at home. Not this time! My health is the most important thing at the moment, so I am planning to take one month off from the date of the operation. My boss has made it amply clear that she doesn't appreciate the commitment, so why kill myself? I have never taken this attitude before and I can't be sure that my professional commitment, work ethic and habitual attitude will allow me to see it through, but that's my intention. That said, I know I am very lucky to be in a job where I won't be fired and where there are generous sick leave arrangements (which hasn't always been the case in the past) and I honestly wish it were the same for everyone.

I have had Type II for the best part of 20 years (probably 10 undisgnosed and certainly 10 since diagnosis) with a variety of complications and was sleeved last Tuesday. By Thursday my BG levels were at non-diabetic levels and I was discharged on Sunday (yesterday) off my diabetes meds. My fasting BG this morning was 83. To me that is little short of a miracle!

This is a fascinating question and discussion. My immediate reaction was that for me it was pretty much 100% health, with 0% mental/emotional or vanity, but after reading what everyone else had to say, I wondered if that really was the case. I have given it lots of thought and honestly believe that for me it really was 100% health. I have been big almost all my life (the year I was 11-12 was the only time I was a really normal size) but until recently it had never stopped me doing anything I wanted to do (not wanting to run a marathon or do 50 star jumps in 10 minutes ) but recently it has started restricting me more. For my 50th birthday last year, for example, I bought a round the world ticket and had a whale of a time, but there were certain things I would have liked to have done and places I would have liked to have been that I couldn't because I simply didn't have the energy. I hold down a high-level, demanding job and work very long hours, but it is completely sedentary (in fact, it's so portable that I can work pretty much anywhere, including on the sofa, on the bed, in the restaurant...) but the new post which is waiting for me in Kenya will involve lots of travel to conferences across Africa and Europe, working late into the night, and lots of standing and walking, which I know I can't cope with while I am this big. My health also restricts the choice of duty stations where I could work, as I have to consider access to decent quality medical facilities and availability of all the specialists I need to see on a regular basis. Over the years, I have accumulated a variety of health problems, most of which are caused by, exacerbated by or simply not helped by my weight, including, but not limited to diabetes type II (with neuropathy in my lower legs and early retinopathy in my eyes), myxoedema, polycystic ovarian variant, hypertension, dislipidaemia, fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnoea, GORD/GERD... I have finally reached the stage where, after fighting the idea of bariatric surgery for many years, it has become the best solution, if not the only answer. Mentally/emotionally, I have never really had problems with my size, even when I was younger. I suspect that is as much the luck of the way I am by nature than anything, for which I am grateful. Vanity-wise, I have thought about it and I really don't think that it has entered into my decision to have the surgery. I am not doing this to look good in a bikini (yikes! - the very thought of me in a bikini!!) and I shall miss lots of my nice size 28/30 (UK sizes) clothes, although of course I am looking forward to finding some nice new ones as I gradually shrink. I know I am huge, but I am also - due modesty aside - a jolly good-looking woman, and living in a culture at the moment where (to my enormous surprise on arrival here four years ago) most men seem to love large, luscious, lovely ladies (OK, perhaps not luscious, but big!), I have the unexpected pleasure of being reminded of that pretty much every day! So overall I would stick with my initial thought of 100% health and zero or very close to zero% emotional or vanity, even if losing the weight will undoubtedly give me an emotional boost and more of an excuse for vanity!

When I saw the anaesthetist this morning in preparation for my op tomorrow, he said that it's quite common to feel dizzy in the first few days following surgery, especially (but not only) if you are taking medication for high blood pressure before the operation. I hope it won't last too long for you. If you don't feel better soon, though, you ought to give your doctor a call.

I understand exactly where you are coming from on this. It's such an enormous step for us to take - after all, it will change your life forever and things will never be the same again - and it takes us so long to get to the stage where we are ready to commit to it, then other people weigh (no pun intended!) into the decision, which just drives us wild and can all too easily make us feel wobbly about whether or not we are doing the right thing. Underneath it all, it's that they love you and care about you and are worried for you, but even though you know that, it doesn't necessarily help. They may also worry that as your weight changes, so will you and thus their relationship with you. It's the worry of the unknown, as much for them as for you. That said, if it's got to the stage where it's undermining you and making you doubt your decision, you have to talk to them about it, listening to their concerns, trying to help them to keep them in proportion and standing firm on your plans. When you develop diabetes, you suddenly find that everyone around you has joined the Diet Police as far as you are concerned. Everyone thinks they know best, when they rarely (if ever) really know anything about it. In many ways, it's similar with the decision to go for WLS. Everyone has their own ideas on it. I am having the VSG surgery on April 17th and because I don't want everyone at work, for example, feeling that they have the right to tell me what they think about what is, after all, a deeply personal matter, I have chosen not to tell everyone there about it yet (the rumour mill will fill many of them in on it sooner or later and once I start to shrink, it'll be obvious anyway) although I have told a couple of people I trust at work and I don't think the news has got out yet. My family are several thousand miles away in the UK and I told my cousin and my best friends when I was there at Christmas, then I told my brother by phone last weekend. My cousin is going to tell her parents and sister today, having been wonderful about keeping it to herself for the last few months. However, although she is delighted and relieved that at last I have decided to do something about my weight and health (I have a list of co-morbidities as long as your arm, assuming that you have a very long arm!), she has been going absolutely wild with worry over the last few weeks (I have had several big health problems over the last couple of months and a few last-minute medical panics last week) and she, like everyone else I have told, is very worried about how I will cope with moving to Kenya to take up a new job a few months after the operation. I am worried, too, but other people panicking really doesn't help! I am doing my best to try to keep them calm, which I have found actually helps me to keep calmer than I would otherwise be. It's not a naturally calm time! So talk to your family, do your best to reassure them, tell them that you need their understanding and support, but keep at the forefront of your mind that this is your life, your body, your health, your decision. All the best!