Shanny

I have 3 of them. None sleeve related and none on stretchy parts. I know I have pics of them. If I find them, I'll post them.

For me it's the embarassment of letting my life and my weight get so out of control that the only thing I could do to manage it again was to have surgery. People usually think that I have everything together. I'm always the caregiver and the fixer, but in my own head and my own life everything was falling apart. I was trying to make myself invisible. How can I explain to people that I was so low and hated myself so much that I want to disappear and by getting fat and making myself ugly so people would be repulsed by me and leave me alone I thought I was doing myself a favor. THat's crazy, right? For years it made sense. I can't explain that to people who know me now because I'm not that other woman anymore. I watch these other people go to gyms or do these diets and have these great results, but it didn't work for me. To know that I had to do this, something so drastic, just so that I could start over makes me feel inadequate in some ways. I'm still going to therapy to cope with it. I hope in time it'll change, but that's why I kept it a secret for 90% of the people in my life.

So, the first question I asked my doctor was, "When can I have sex?" Before surgery I had a pretty active, and regular sex life, and now that I'm 7 days out, I think that enough time has passed and I don't see why I shouldn't be going back to my regular life. I have some incision pain but it's mininal. I stopped taking pain meds 4 days ago. My doctor said that as long as I don't have pain, and I don't do anything that will hurt that there's no reason why I can't have sex. Granted, there will be no swinging from the chandeliers or anything, but with some creativity I think I'm ready. My girl on the other hand, thinks I'm going to break and is totally against it. She's all, it's too soon. You just had surgery last week and you're not ready. Trust me, EVERY part of me except the incision on my navel is ready! Even with a doctor's note she's not trying to hear it. If this is a TMI question, I understand, but how long did you wait?

I'm pretty new to the site. I was sleeved 7 days ago, and I am...wait for it...a lesbian! Ha! I know that I wouldn't be able to go through this without the love and support of my girl. She's amazing. I look forward to meeting people with this, too, in common.

Today makes 6 days post op, and I'm having a bad day. I was never a binge eater, or an overeater, for that matter. More of a Pasta, bread, cheese eater and no excercise type. I'm still on the full liquid diet, so my choices are still pretty limited. However, I have been craving everything under the sun today! I want Chinese food, or pizza. My son had pizza last night and all I could do was look at it. I don't even like sausuage on my pizza, but God it looked so good. I'm hoping this is because I've been on liquids for 2 weeks now and I'm dying to taste real food, and not because I'm having some kind of bassackward reaction, where I'm going to start craving food after having surgery! Help?!?!?!?

I need to make a list! I forgot for 2 days while I've been home getting sick because I drank too fast, or hating Clear liquids and medicines. You just reminded me to remind myself why I did this. Thank you!

I had my surgery on Thursday at GBMC. Dr. Liao. The staff there was fantastic. So far, I've been sleeping so much better since I'm home! Good luck to you!

Hi, I'm Shanny, and new to the site. I got sleeved 5 days ago - at GBMC Hospital, Dr. Peter Liao, and I've been home for 2 1/2 days. So far it's strange as all get out. Between my stomach making all of these weird bubbling, gurggling sounds, and not being able to tell hunger from nausea pains, the choronic diarrhea, the indigestion pains if I take too big of a sip - I think I may just might think this procedure was worth it. I'm finally on full liquids. Thank God, if I had to drink broth one more day I think I might have had to take a hostage. This may be TMI, but I noticed as long as I was on Clear Liquids I kept having these watery stools. I couldn't even tell when I had to go. I would think I had to pee, and when I tried, I would end up with diarrhea. That's not a good look. I've been on full liquids since yesterday, and having yogurt, and cream based Soups, and Protein shakes hopefully are firming things up. I can't wait until next week when it's puree food. I want to put everything in the blender! Also, I think I just figured out when I'm hungry. It doesn't feel like a hunger pain, but more like a gas bubble. I weighed myself today and I've lost 8 pounds since the surgery. In total, since I started this journey that makes 22 pounds all together over the last 7 months. My goal is to lose another 75 pounds. After trying countless diets and being able to keep the weight off for a few months, I finally got tired of the rollercoaster and the feeling of failure. I researched the surgery for 5 years and finally decided on the sleeve. I'm a little nervous because I didn't tell people at work that I was having it done. They're going to know that i did something because I'm losing so much weight. I mean, over 7 months, it's not that noticeable, but I lost 8 pounds in 4 days. THat's pretty quick, ya know. I guess I'm embarrassed, or I don't want to answer a bunch of questions. I don't want to explain to my coworkers that I'm a survivor of an extremely abusive relationship, where my son's donor tried to kill me on a regular basis, and I thought by gaining almost 100 pounds, I'd make myself ugly and that way no one would want me and therefore no one could hurt me. 13 years and thousands of dollars in therapy later I'm not in that place anymore. I don't want to be invisible anymore. I don't know if the people I work with are ready for that, or if they can understand that. Hell, people in my family have been telling me that "you don't need that" regarding the surgery, or "that's not normal" well, being 5'1" and 247 pounds isn't normal either. I may not have "looked" like I needed to do something drastic but I did. If the majority of my family wasn't supportive, I don't know what I think my coworkers would say. My son and my girlfriend have been so supportive, though. My girl, (we've been together for 2 years) adores me no matter what size I am. She came to the hospital with me, slept in the hospital room next to me, got up in the middle of the night with me whenever the nurse came in the room and called them if I was moaning with pain. She's taken off work this week to take care of me. She's been blending and straining, and giving me meds and protein like a Nazi - but that's because she loves me and she wants me to be happy. She bought me swanky tennis shoes for exercising, and the Zumba Fitness DVDs for Valentines Day (that's what I asked for). I've never had support like this before, but I can tell you it makes me all warm and tingly inside. Okay, so I'm going to wrap this up. This is an introductory post, so it's long. I just want to know, how long did it take for you to be able to drink without sipping? For your stomach to stop gurggling and making loud noises? For your bowels to go back to normal? For you to start feeling "normal" again? I'm hoping most of this is because I'm just out of surgery - but I'm scared this may be how it is for the rest of my life. I look forward to meeting you all! SW: 247 CW: 215 GW: 135