PuraVida37

I felt weak too for several weeks afterwards, but I added a sublingual B12 and that helped alot. I also sipped apple juice to make sure my sugar stayed up.

I'm 14 months out and my surgery involves a sleeved stomach. I never really had to worry about eating too fast because I have EoE which is an autoimmune disorder that causes narrowing of the esophagus and choking issues. So I've been a suuuuuuper slow eater since 2015 when I first started choking on almost everything I put into my mouth. I had to learn to chew my food to absolute mush or choke and end up in the hospital with them trying to give me medicine to relax my throat so that the food could go down naturally. By the time I had my surgery last year I was already used to taking an hour to two hours to eat a meal. Nothing really changed for me in that respect except that because I eat less sometimes it only takes me 45 minutes to eat. I just take a bite and chew it slowly and then wait about 30 seconds before taking another bite. Then I take another 30 seconds or more to chew so that it's around a minute in total between swallowing each bite so I'll know when I'm full before eating too much and feeling like I'm going to vomit (not gonna lie, I HAVE eaten a bit too fast a few times and it's not pleasant. I get nauseous for a good hour or two and feel uncomfortably full for around two hours. Considering I can count the number of times I've done this on both hands and still have fingers to spare... it's rare. Eight times in 14 months is really not too bad imo.)
With Protein you can either add in a pre-made 20 or 30g Protein Shake (or clear protein) or two and then try to eat the rest in your diet. Or, you can buy Protein Powder and add it to your food or drinks. Fluid itself is a hard one. I get around 55-65 oz of fluid a day but early on it was a struggle for me to even get in the bare minimum my surgeon wanted of 48oz (half the time I was lucky if I could get in 32oz). The beginning is always the hardest. Trying to get into a routine that works for you, and getting used to a new way of eating. It's a lot to adjust to at once. Just do your best to meet your goals and if you don't then just try harder the next day. Eventually, you'll find a way to get there! (it worked for me, anyway)

Whew - That's a loaded question really. The first couple of weeks can be pretty rough to get in everything you're "supposed" to get in. Everyone is so different in what they tolerate with regards to eating and/or drinking. Personally, I've never been sick from drinking too fast (just felt really full). Mostly just listen to your body. Get your fluids in, even if it's an ounce or two an hour. It DOES get easier. In about two weeks I was able to drink normally (I couldn't down a 16oz bottle of Water in 10 minutes, but I could fairly easily do it in 30). DON'T compare yourself to others. If you need to do an oz at a time, just do that. BUT, if you're only doing very small amounts at a time, make sure you always have something in your hand to keep hydrated. Protein water is a good option at this stage - Also, changing the temp of your fluids make make it easier or harder - Try something room temp, warm, and cold to see what your body tolerates better.
I was sleeved in August 2020 - I can more or less now eat at a normal pace (just small amounts) - DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT try to eat fast - You WILL regret it - trust me on that one... It's a mistake you'll only make once or twice (and again, trust me... you WILL make it...).
Bottom line, listen to your body, especially at first until you know what does and doesn't work for you. We're all different and tolerate things differently.

I ask GOD to heal your body.

Just saw my surgeon this afternoon to sign my consent papers and we spoke about spring break. I asked him again if I get sleeved on March 26th would I be able to return to school on April 5th and he was like "Yes, sure, absolutely." That made me feel so much better!
I'm scared but I have every confidence in his abilities and I'm excited to start my new chapter.
How is everyone else doing lately?

Doing pretty good. My surgery was outpatient so they sent me home last night at 11p. Trying to get these gas bubbles out is no joke. No pain yet except for that, and some soreness on y upper abdomen. (Also had hiatal hernia repair)

I’ll check in again later- so sleepy!

I teach HS and also plan to get sleeved the Friday before Spring Break. That will give me 9 full days to recover (I'll see where I'm at after that). When I had my lap band, I had surgery on Monday and was back at school teaching on Friday (yes, I kind of regretted that), but like @billho I didn't want people to notice. I had fibbed and said I was getting a hernia repair. I don't know what my fib will be this time, but I don't plan on telling. Some teachers are gossipy and judgemental that I just don't even want to deal with them. Do any of you feel that way? I don't want anyone's pity, and I don't deal well when people are too nice either. Just let me do my thing.

Outstanding. Seriously.

Outstanding. Seriously.

I'm a month out and none of my family knows outside of my husband and son. Only a few friends and co-workers know. I regard it as none of anyone's business and my mother will just take it personally as failed parenting (I'm 48) and I refuse to coddle my mother's neuroses anymore. She's great, but she takes any failure of mine as a reflection of her failure to be a better parent.

Letting go of addictions is hard.
I'm a food addict. Meaning, I will use food for purposes other than what it is meant for...to the detriment of my quality of life. I medicate myself with it when I'm stressed, bored, sad, want to Celebrate, when I'm angry, when i'm facing a huge decision, when i'm excited....there is always a self-justified reason to eat. And eat again. And again. (and have a little snack) And eat again.
What does using food this way do to my body? A self injurer told me that my use of food was almost exactly like his use of cutting himself. It gave him relief, but it leaves ugly scars. My stretch marks used to look like a bear used me as a clawing post. Big ugly purple lines. Using food this way deteriorates my health and can cause serious illness that can threaten my life. Someone I loved died young of Covid because they used food like I used to. It could have been me.
Sex starts and ends with food, right? A romantic dinner, an aftercare snack. Honey, go get me ice cream.
A bath should have a cup of something and a little something sweet to eat with it. Might as well live it up, I deserve this home spa treatment.
Woke up in the middle of the night? Better have a litttle snack to settle back down so your stomach doesn't keep you up.
Got done doing the shopping...the crowds were awul, I still have to drive home, haul stuff in and put everything away. Who wants to cook? Easier to bring home KFC, and you know what goes great with that? A lemon cake and some Coke and look at the 60% off holiday candy! That's a great deal...lets buy 8 bags for the pantry! Kids will eat it! (they didn't need it either, so I would eat it to spare them)
Speaking of holidays, lets make Grandma's favorite holiday treats...it's to remember Grandma! (not feed my addiction shamlessly)
We're going on a 100 mile two hour car trip? Lets stop twice for fast food, and bring a box of Snacks, too.
Going to the movies? Lets stop at the dollar store and pack our pockets with snacks for $5...instead of paying $20! See how smart that is? We're clever!
Lets have McDonalds for Breakfast, Cracker Barrel for lunch and Chinese for dinner. it's healthy, it has vegetables.
I get on the scale and if I've gained..... I go on a shame spiral and eat
I get on the scale and if I've lost a pound I think....yippee! I bought myself some room in my diet, Let's eat!
Let's be healthy and go apple picking....turns into....let's pick apples for a beautiful artisan homemade pie from the recipe book I found in their gift shop. And while we're at it, lets get cinnamon fried donuts and hot cider. We need to stop on the way home to buy ice cream for the pie.
To hell with it, I bet I can eat an entire bowl of Halloween candy before the kids wake up.
Make bargains that don't make sense. This homemade fresh bread has chia seeds in it. Clearly it is now healthfood. Four servings of healthfood is fine.

When you are addicted, you have this complex pattern of behavior triggered by a million different things. You constantly need to evaluate if you are using food to medicate, cope, escape....or are you using it to build and maintain a healthy body. Am I eating for the right reasons? Am I eating the right foods? In the right amounts?
And the worst part? You can't quit food. If you do, that's another deadly disorder.
You have to make peace with it, get painfully honest about it, and forgive yourself a lot for your screw ups.
You work on breaking the patterns every day. For a long, long time. Maybe forever.
You have to wake up the next day and make the choice to get back on the horse and be accountable. If things start to get out of control, you get to the therapist before it gets worse. You don't obsess about your pride, and you don't beat yourself up over your screw up. You just go to therapy and get back on track.
And you just keep doing that.
If you're lucky, you eventually see all this crap clear enough to get ahead of it most of the time and make better choices. If you work hard, you can beat it. But it's not easy, it's not easy, it's not easy.
Fixing your stomach does NOT fix your head.
But it makes it just a little easier to get to where your head eventually needs to go.
If any of this sounds familiar, I'm rooting for you in your daily fight. I hope you're rooting for me, too. We got this.

@PuraVida37 and @Cyt thanks for sharing your experiences. I have taken 2 weeks off so far and I will see how I’m feeling at my 1 week post op with my surgeon. Being a high school teacher, it is kind of nice because I can stay stationed in one area of my room and have my kids come to me for stuff or help me pass things out. I have been fibbing to some colleagues as well; I’ve told people I’m having a ulcer removed and they seem to believe it.

I haven't been here in five years, but I thought I should share what I've learned on this journey...
1. My sleeve was a very minor surgery. Less than 30 minutes passed between being knocked out and the recovery room. Quite frankly, I think this option should be more widely available for marginally obese people. Unlike the other bariatric surgeries - which change your plumbing, this is simply the removal of the stretchy part of the stomach.
2. Think long and hard about who you tell. I told a handful of family members and I think that was a mistake. I suggest you either tell everyone, or just the absolute minimum (spouse or care giver). Within the first year I was sure everyone knew and I felt I was being dishonest.
3. The honeymoon is real. For 18 months it's virtually impossible to gain weight, but after that, you most certainly can. My smaller stomach can hold 8-10 ounces of food and get refilled after about an hour. If you fill it with sugar or fat and keep refilling it, you can certainly get back all your weight. I initially lost about 90 pounds and that was too much. People kept asking me if I had cancer. I've since put 25 pounds back on and while I wish it was 15, it's fine. My weight is what it was when I was an athlete in college. I have used my reduced weight and energy to excercise and I think that has helped. I generally do 100,000 steps a week. Again, eating/drinking the wrong stuff and not exercising would surely lead to more weight gain.
4. I no longer count calories, but I do have a few tricks to keep things in check. I have designed a menu with a lot of 200-500 calorie meals and I have 3-4 of these every day. I burn enough EXTRA calories a day exercising to offset the calories I drink (I only drink 100 calorie cocktails - nothing sugary).
5. There's a lot of good and bad information on alcohol on this site. I waited 6 weeks (the European guideline) and the eased in with weak cocktails and wine. I don't think it hits me harder, but since I'm likely to have less food in my stomach, the effect is to be hit harder. I can see no reason to wait 6 months or a year other than minimizing caloric intake. The Sleeve is a timeout from your bad lifestyle, but it's not a permanent timeout. At some point you'll create a new lifestyle that will include birthday cakes, pizza, French fries and booze. You need to manage around all of these risky consumables. You should think about it ll as you enter your journey, never stop reevaluating, and constantly adjust.
I hope this helps someone...

I like it! I used mine to make Protein Jello shots!

My nutritionist said that any liquid counts as Fluid. I was kind of surprised.

Happy for you ladies! Congratulations!

You're so welcome! 👍🏾😊..I use Creamy Cocoa Butter by Assured. The most interesting thing is it's from Dollar Tree and it works so great for my skin.

The day after my surgery I was running a fever and couldn’t keep anything down so they took me off of liquids. I’m going home today but this gas pain is horrible.

Hi all had my surgery yesterday and I must say I am feeling pretty good. The gas pain is not as bad as I thought and other pain in pretty tolerable. I am so happy it is done and over with now I’m on the road to recovery. I am having a problem with peeing, they took the catheter out and want me to do it on my own but I can’t yet. Hopefully I will before I get discharged tomorrow. I’ve been sipping on Water and Jello so I hope that will help.

if it's caused by a hernia you may be OK. They can usually fix those when they do the sleeve.

actually, a lot of people worry that this is going to be really difficult (I did as well), but once you get used to it, it's not at all.



complications are pretty rare, actually. The most common one with sleeve is GERD, but that happens to about 30% and can often be managed medically. So 70% of sleeve patients DON'T have it.



although some people do have issues with diarrhea with sleeve (and bypass, too), Constipation is WAY more common. You see diarrhea more with duodenal switch patients.

Could you tell me more about this? I've never heard of it, and when I googled it, I got an assortment of photos of swimwear! LOL

I am... STRUGGLING!!!

My surgeon said if I lost 60 lbs within a year, he would consider me a success. Anything over that was just gravy.
I wanted lots of gravy.

I had this fear as well. After a lifetime of being heavy and not being able to permanently lose weight, I wasn't convinced the surgery would work for me. That fear was compounded by the fact that for medical reasons I was forced to have the sleeve rather than the bypass. The surgery doesn't correct the psychological factors that lead to emotional eating or binging. That takes self-reflection or therapy and finding new ways to cope.
However, it does address the physical aspects. The surgery will reduce the amount of ghrelin your body produces (one of the hormones responsible for making you hungry). For most people, this results in a reduced appetite (at least for a while). It will drastically reduce the amount you can eat before feeling full and make it physically difficult to overeat. In my case, the surgery even blunted the intensity of my cravings. I may want something I shouldn't have, but it's much easier to just tell myself no post-surgery.
In the end, the surgery worked for me just like it does for most people. I lost all my excess weight and so far, I am maintaining the loss. It will work for you too (just be willing to put in the work of figuring out WHY you overeat and addressing those feelings).

Well it’s been 24 hours since surgery. I’m a little sore, exhausted but resting. I just took a shower. I’ve gotten about 24oz down but it a struggle. So far no need for pain medicines. The gas pain is real but walk, walk, walk! It helps!! I’ll try to update regularly. By the way not hungry at all.