joatsaint

Congratulations, you look fabulious. Keep pimpin that sleeve. I hope to be in twoderland by March.

I look at it from a different angle. I have convinced myself to be happy that it takes so long to finish a meal. I use to eat so much and even though I hated eating, my hunger would just drive me to eat and eat. It makes me happy when I go to a buffet with my friend. He piles his plate high and I fill about 1/2 my plate (and I can't finish it!) I am so happy that I can't finish that plate and don't have to go back for 2nds. I have more time to talk and people watch. I use to never look up and sit in the back. Head down, hunched over the plate, just thinking about what I was going to eat on the next trip to the buffet. Now I eat a little here and there and watch the freakshow file past my table.

To get through the pre-op diet and the surgery, I asked myself 2 questions (and I had to remind myself about the answers several times!): Was I lying to myself when I said I'd do whatever was required to be successful this time (I chickened out on the 1st attempt to go through with the surgery)? Do I want to fail again and be the same or worse off a year from now?

Welcome to the forum. How far along are you towards surgery?

You didn't say how long since your surgery, but all I ate the 1st 6 or 7 days all I ate was sugar free Jell-O, sugar free popsicles, and Crystal Light. So I ate virtually zero calories. After that I was eating a bit more, about 1 can of soup a day. I didn't feel any ill effects. Just take it one day at a time, it will get better.

1. I can tell my pouch is full when I start burping. I have to take small bites - about a teaspoon - to keep from getting overfull. I don't have a warning sign that I'm getting "close" to being full. It's take a bite, I'm okay, take a bite, I'm okay, take a bite, I'm full. 2. I don't know if you can get full on fluids, I haven't ever felt that way, but I am sure it can be done. Everyone's different. 3. It is normal for me to go 4 - 5 days and the scale not move. I don't worry about it. At 7 weeks out, I've gone through it enough times that I know it's just my body readjusting to the reduced calorie intake. 4. It might be okay to eat marinara sauce. Everyone's stomach is different. I still can't eat anything with sucralose or sugar alcohols - sugar free Jell-O, sugar free popsicles, G2 Gatorade. I created my own stomach test for new foods. I take a bite, about 1/2 teaspoon, wait 5 minutes for any signs my stomach doesn't like it, take another 1/2 teaspoon and wait another 5 minutes. If my stomach isn't rumbling in that 10 minutes, I can eat it. 5. I haven't had an pains around my incisions, but during the 1st week I could feel a pulling sensation inside when I lay the wrong way on the bed. 6. Didn't experience that, sorry I can't help with that one.

I had just turned 46 when I was sleeved back in Dec. I thought I might be too old to get sleeved, but the alternatives was to live a shorter life and have a lower quality of life. I knew that I couldn't keep on going the way things were and at this point in my life, if I hadn't lost the weight on my own, I needed help.

Should this thread be made a sticky?

Congrats dude! Keep on pimpin your sleeve.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do well. I was #2 on my surgeons list on surgery day, so I didn't really know when he'd get to me. So I know how you're feeling. I lay on the gourney and just did a lot of deep breathing exercises. Fortunately, the hospital allowed my friends to wait with me in the pre-op waiting room until I was wheeled in.

Thanks MrsGina for your post. I read lots of posts to get a feeling for what to expect, but I still went in with blinders on. Hoping that I'd be one of those that breezed through surgery and recovery. I didn't have any complications, but I wasn't prepared for the pain I had for the 7 days post-op. My pain meds didn't do a thing to relieve what I was feeling. But I'd still do it all over again, as long as I didn't know what kind of pain was coming my way.

I guess I got lucky on the 1st try. I bought some of the EAS dutch chocolate carb control drinks at Walmart and liked them, but they are a little watery for my taste. I had a bag of chocolate Meal Replacement already and just tossed in 1 scoop of that. It made a very thick great tasting shake. You might try something similar.

I haven't had any hunger feelings in the 6 weeks since surgery. I do get grumblings from my stomach that tell me it's empty, but I don't have that old feeling of my head saying, "Hey we need to eat, hey we need to eat." Sometimes I catch myself eating out of habit, but it's just that a habit, not head hunger. And with the sleeve, I don't eat more than 4 oz. or so over a 15 - 20 minute period.

Thanks for the updates. Posts from long term sleevers like you really help keep my spirits up when the scale isn't moving for me.

Don't worry about asking these kind of questions (just visit the ladies or men's sub-forums and you'll see :-P). I can guarantee you that someone out there is wondering the same thing. And I can tell you I HAD the same kind of bumps. They were like a swollen pimple that wouldn't pop. About the size of a green pea. I'm only 6 weeks out and mine have gone away.

For the 1st week post-op, I kept having the same post-apocalyptic dream. I was taking some kind of psychological test. The group leader was testing to see who would fit into his team that was trying to rebuild society. There was a 2nd one where I was uploading videos to some site like Youtube, but it was taking forever for the upload to complete. I knew I was in the dream, but I couldn't make it stop! I hated that dream. And I was very uncomfortable during the 1st week. I had to basically sleep propped up like in the hospital bed. If I lay down, I would feel lots of pulling internally.

I only told 3 people. My best friend - because it was going to effect our eating out at buffets on the weekends. And my parents - because I eat lunch with them on Sundays and mom is going to wonder why I suddenly started eating less than my dad. Other than that, I don't feel the need to tell anyone.

I found your 31 lbs and introduced it to one of the brooms the Swiffer replaced, he's a chubby chaser. They are very happy together.

You go girl! Lookin great.

Congrats on doing so well.

Congrats on your loss! Sometimes it just takes patience. Keep rockin that sleeve.

Good luck. I was nervous and excited as well, right up to the time they rolled me into the operating room. Although I think I was in some kind of denial right up to the point when they put me under.

I have a CPAP and get dry mouth almost every night. But it has been happening since I started using the CPAP machine 3 years ago. I just figured it was normal.

I didn't have one last pig-out. The food is what got me where I am now. One of my biggest joys was my 1st post-op trip to the buffet. I was so happy that I could only eat 1/2 of a small piece of steak, 3/4 of a slice of pizza, and a couple teaspoons of mashed potatoes, while my friend (who's thin) was piling up his plate (twice). In the past, I'd weigh as much as 3 lbs more, the next day, after a trip to the buffet.

I'm happy to hear about your success and becoming one of "them" - the skinny people :-P. Thanks for you post. It's good to hear about what it's like for long term WLS patients and how their lives have improved.