Justinh125

That's what makes forums like this great. We can come on here and ask honest questions and get honest answers from others who have experienced the same thing. According to my doctor, one of the most common things he hears while people are on the liquid diet is, "you forgot to do the surgery!" He says his concern at that point is the people will start eating solid food before their stomach is ready. I wasn't concerned after hearing that, and sure enough, once I was allowed to eat solid food, I realized that he most certainly did the surgery, and I can see the results when I tighten my belt buckle.

Are you diabetic? Have you been checking your blood sugar regularly? What is it? If it's low, by all means have something sweet to bring it up. Fluids are the best to get it back to 100mg/dl quickly. If you're not diabetic, and eating didn't help, you might want to see a doctor. If your blood pressure is dropping, and especially if you're on blood pressure meds, it might also be orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure too low.)

Still some mild bumps at about 5 weeks. Nothing serious, and the wounds seem to be healing well. On the other hand, I'm kind of a hairy guy, so as my chest hair grows back, it's "hiding" the scars so in a few weeks I doubt anyone will be able to notice anyways. I suppose one of the good things about having all this Russian genetics

Yep, it would be a very slow, very gradual process. And even then, your stomach will never get back to full size. Not even close.

Not silly to be worried. It's normal. This is all new, and it will take time to get used to these different sensations. If anything, it's a good thing that fluids move well--it probably means there's not excessive swelling and clearly the path from esophagus to sleeve to intestine isn't obstructed. That's good, you want things to move in that order. For the first few months after surgery, and especially the first few weeks, your sleeve is going to be swollen and your body is going to be working on healing it, and forming scar tissue around the staple line. For most, this reduces the volume of solid food you can eat (once you get there.) Over time, the swelling goes down and you can have a bit more. But fluids pass very quickly, and there's no way to "stretch" your sleeve out this early in the process. As my doc. explained when I was noticing how easily fluids went down, he said that some patients do so well with fluids that they tell him they think he "forgot to do the surgery." I was wondering that myself until I was allowed to eat solid foods. I promise, once you switch to solid foods, you'll quickly learn that there's not much room in your sleeve. If anything, that you can get fluids down well is a good sign that there's no stricture for the time being, and that's healthy. Just keep following your doctor's advice and recommendations, and I'm sure you'll be fine.

Please don't worry! I had the exact same experience a few days after my surgery. Fluids will go right past the valve at the bottom of your stomach, so they just go right into your intestines. Therefore, you won't feel particularly full just drinking fluids. Sure, it's extremely important and necessary as your sleeve is healing. But it's only been a few days, and your new stomach is still healing...I can assure you 100% that no "stretching" is happening at this point. As soon as you start with more solid food, you'll find that the feeling of "full" comes right back, and you won't be able to eat all you want, even if you can drink more Fluid than you might expect. It's largely a matter of the valve at the bottom of the stomach.

Looks like you also subtracted 10 years!!! Congratulations on your wonderful success! Here's to your continued good health.

I can't do much more than on egg at a time, unless I just eat the egg whites. If I do that, I can get closer to about 3 eggs of just the egg white. I can do about one piece of chicken sausage (sometimes 3/4 of one) before I'm full. So I can't imagine trying to fit both a piece of the sausage and an egg in one meal. It would be too much for me.

Hey, my surgeon's "first assist" had clearly stepped out to smoke a cigarette before my surgery then tried to blame it on me. I haven't smoked in years!!! No big deal. You'll be fine. People lie about smoking all the time apparently.

I got bored with the fluids too, but remember that soon it will be a distant memory, and you need to do it to help your body heal. Broth was probably the best at killing hunger for me.

Make sure to hold onto the awesome book they give you. It's got a ton of great info, including some really good recipe ideas for the various phases. Not to mention a food log that I copied and made so I can keep a daily log...helps me make sure I'm eating the Protein, etc., that they want. Also, the nurses there are all nice, but if you see a British nurse named Helen, tell her Justin with the beard said "hi" and he's doing well

The thing that helped me the most with gas pain (by far) was just walking. The more you can "walk it off" so to speak, the better. I was constantly hanging my i.v. cables around that hanger on wheels and doing laps around the "bariatric" floor. Funny story: the gown I was wearing was one-size-fits all, including patients whose starting weight was at least double my size. Therefore, I didn't notice that the back was completely undone, and ended up showing the entire floor my butt as I did my first set of laps! The nurses were cracking up when I inadvertently "mooned" every one of them!!!

At my fattest, it was frustrating to have to "take breaks" because I was so out of shape. As you get in shape, that sort of thing probably won't be an issue anymore.

Unless he has a thyroid problem or is leptin-deficient (see my earlier post,) I'm also confused as to how his parents weren't able to restrict his eating. I'm sure it's tough to deny your child food when he's hungry, but certainly the parents would have known that it was in his best interests, from a health perspective, to restrict his calories. Especially given how young he is/was, don't the parents basically call the shots about food then? I don't remember having much autonomy about what I ate until I was older....for the most part is was "eat what mom and dad put in front of you." As as a younger guy, I was fine because mom and dad only gave me reasonable portions of healthy food, plus I was growing, and that process requires an enormous amount of calories.

Not a doctor, but I worked in metabolic physiology research labs for many years, and I disagree with this idea. Children grow. It takes enormous amounts of calories to grow, especially during times like puberty. Not to mention nobody has studied the potential long-term consequences of this surgery on children. It's possible he had a genetic mutation that prevents his body from making the hormone leptin. If this is the case, injections of leptin would have been just as effective (if not more so) than any bariatric surgery. Note: leptin injections are extremely effective for people that are truly leptin-deficient. The results are usually more robust than any weight-loss surgery. Turns out that most obese people actually do make leptin, so the shots wouldn't help most of us.

Fred, you are in good hands with Dr. Pop. He's done thousands of bariatric surgeries--it's all he ever does. He took good care of me and I haven't had any complications. Except that I have to keep changing my wardrobe because my waist is shrinking so fast!

I'm sorry you're feeling lousy right now. But 5 days might be a little quick to determine this isn't for you. I wouldn't be surprised if once you start feeling better, you're thrilled with the results.

Your sleeve will "teach" you portion control, because you'll feel really lousy if you eat too much. So even if it takes some learning in the beginning, you'll figure it out.

I know it's hard, but give it some time. If you keep doing what they say, you'll lose weight. You are probably only eating less than 1000 calories a day, right? Your body undoubtedly has to burn more just to keep you alive. So by definition, your body must be burning its own fat to keep you alive or you'd be dead. In time, this will all be reflected on the scale/your clothes. Sometimes the number on the scale can go up because of levels of Fluid, but Water does not equal fat.

Every year I got a flu shot, I got the flu. Then I quit getting flu shots and I haven't had the flu since. So now I just don't get the flu shots anymore.

It's nice to be able to enjoy food and not feel like I'm depriving myself

Honestly when I get hungry I just eat a little something, and then I'm not hungry anymore, and my waist keeps shrinking. Even when I have one or two "snacks," I'm still getting less than 1000 cal/day, so I've been able to snack and remain in a negative energy balance anyways.

It's normal to be scared. Medicine is the "family business" so to speak, and back when I worked in research science, I personally conducted a variety of surgeries. Still, I was nervous--I think it's part of the human experience. Just remember that modern surgery is extremely safe, and complications are low, and healing is fast. Better to have the surgery now and hopefully avoid having to have some other surgery later in life due to weight-related complications.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/portion/portion2.cgi?action=question&number=1 For people interested, here's a second one with more "20 years ago vs. today."

Don't worry. Modern surgery is probably less risky than the drive to the hospital. And just think, by doing this now, you probably won't have to go back to the hospital later for some other serious problem like a heart attack or something. When I thought about it like that, it made it easier for me to get there. The night before it was kinda like when I used to be a kid waiting for Santa Claus though.