RedDirtRoads

Hi, everybody. I was sleeved on 11/18. I've been on my tablet since then and I'm not comfy with the application, but I've been updating on FB in a Sleevers Group, so I thought I would copy my posts from there to share with you all.
11/17 - T minus 1
I had a stressful day before surgery which had blame shared equally between myself, my surgeon's team and the hospital. Sharing so maybe someone else won't have the same issues.
For preop, i needed to have a CBC, CMP, type/screen, PT/INR, chest xray and ekg. My insurance (Aetna Open Access) will only pay for blood work done by Quest. The director/nurse at my bariatric center told me that the type/screen and PT/INR both had to be done at the hospital and they would be included in the surgical bill so no worries. She gave me this information on 11/11, my pre-op appt with surgeon. I was still working, so planned to do all the tests on Friday, when I would be working from home and more flexible.
Friday I went to Quest and had the CBC and CMP done. I was feeling really lousy though, and decided to have the other tests done (in the hospital) on Monday (the day before surgery). My mistake. I should have pushed myself, asked my bf to drive me to get the others done. I should have called the hospital and asked if they did this testing over the weekend! (They did. Stupid of me not to ask, really.)
I go to the hospital Monday and register, and am told that they do not have to do the PT/INR there (my surgical team's mistake), so my insurance will not cover it. I had to find a Quest that was open and did STAT blood work (40 minutes away), drive there, and then get back to the hospital for chest xray and ekg. Exhausting and I was still my pre-op not well self. Driving back to the hospital, got a call from them saying they looked at my records and my last xray and ekg were still valid, no need to come back (their mistake).
All's well that ends well. I got it all done. Lesson: Leave much more time than you think is necessary to get all your stuff done, because you are dealing with many people's, um, lack of competence or just lack of knowledge perhaps of a change to a rule, etc.

Hi all, finally updating . . . I was sleeved on the 13th. I spent one night in the hospital. The first night and second day at home were horrible. I was nauseous and I couldn't handle the nausea medication. So, I didn't get fluids in like I should have. Tuesday morning I went to the ER and asked for IV fluids because I was dizzy whenever I stood up. ( JUDGEMENT CENTRAL- several nurses asked me "why did you do this? would you do it again?) Anyways, found out at the ER that my potassium was low and my EKG actually showed implications of a heart attack . . . they did lab for cardiac markers and they were positive. NOT GOOD. So, I ended up spending the night. Troponin went down and they let me go home the next day. Left there, went to the surgeon and had my drain removed. Now I don't want to see a doctor for a loooong time!
I feel better and I am so ready to be done with liquids. I still have another week of full liquids. On a bright note, I weighed today I am down 15 lbs. Awesomesauce!
Glad to see that everyone is doing well so far and the weight is coming off.

Hi all, finally updating . . . I was sleeved on the 13th. I spent one night in the hospital. The first night and second day at home were horrible. I was nauseous and I couldn't handle the nausea medication. So, I didn't get fluids in like I should have. Tuesday morning I went to the ER and asked for IV fluids because I was dizzy whenever I stood up. ( JUDGEMENT CENTRAL- several nurses asked me "why did you do this? would you do it again?) Anyways, found out at the ER that my potassium was low and my EKG actually showed implications of a heart attack . . . they did lab for cardiac markers and they were positive. NOT GOOD. So, I ended up spending the night. Troponin went down and they let me go home the next day. Left there, went to the surgeon and had my drain removed. Now I don't want to see a doctor for a loooong time!
I feel better and I am so ready to be done with liquids. I still have another week of full liquids. On a bright note, I weighed today I am down 15 lbs. Awesomesauce!
Glad to see that everyone is doing well so far and the weight is coming off.

Hi all, finally updating . . . I was sleeved on the 13th. I spent one night in the hospital. The first night and second day at home were horrible. I was nauseous and I couldn't handle the nausea medication. So, I didn't get fluids in like I should have. Tuesday morning I went to the ER and asked for IV fluids because I was dizzy whenever I stood up. ( JUDGEMENT CENTRAL- several nurses asked me "why did you do this? would you do it again?) Anyways, found out at the ER that my potassium was low and my EKG actually showed implications of a heart attack . . . they did lab for cardiac markers and they were positive. NOT GOOD. So, I ended up spending the night. Troponin went down and they let me go home the next day. Left there, went to the surgeon and had my drain removed. Now I don't want to see a doctor for a loooong time!
I feel better and I am so ready to be done with liquids. I still have another week of full liquids. On a bright note, I weighed today I am down 15 lbs. Awesomesauce!
Glad to see that everyone is doing well so far and the weight is coming off.

I was released yesterday morning and have been recouping at my parents house. Kinda nice having mom baby me again. Lol
I'm feeling pretty good but still pretty sore. I've only taken one small dose of pain meds and that was right before bed last night.
Weirdest post-op issue... I couldn't wear my contacts into surgery so I wore my glasses. They put a motion sickness patch behind my right ear and she said that it might effect my vision. And it did! I have to take my glasses off to read my phone. But far away stuff is fine. Such a weird reaction!
I'm still not getting in a full 64 oz of Water but I'm getting really close. I never expected it to be such a struggle to drink water! I was used to guzzling down 3+ liters a day, easy!
The only things I've had besides water was chicken bullion in the hospital Tuesday evening, a hot chocolate Protein supplement and some strained chicken and dumplings broth yesterday. I definitely like how the warm liquids feel in my little tummy.
Good luck to everyone still waiting. Can't wait to hear your stories and start sharing our "after" pictures!!!

I can't believe people are suggesting you to get counseling, that is hilarious. Real quick to diagnose someone. Sheesh.... I think the girl was craving pizza and did the right thing instead of SWALLOWING it, just chewed it and spit it out. I remember when I was 10 days post op, I wanted anything and everything. When I was not eating food during the first few weeks, all I could think about was food. I was miserable. You will be so happy when you can have soft food. Try the Ricotta Bake. It is amazing and satisfies my pizza cravings and i LOVE pizza! Just try to fight off those urges and take each day at a time. That's what I kept telling myself, one day at a time. Now, if you really like to torture yourself like I did, I would go on pinterest and different blogs looking for recipes to try when I got to solids. It was like food porn for me. Lol But now I have lots of recipes bookmarked and excited to try! The time will fly by and before you know it, you'll be at Solid Foods! Hang in there!

@@Shell88 I just wanna wear shorty shorts! Lol nah! I'm just kidding! I look forward to all kinds of things but mainly just feeling good and being more active in my daily life...outside of school, work..ect..shorty shorts!!!

I do find myself trying to compare my body to others in a store or on the street. It's not out of trying to compete with people. It's out of I have no idea how I look. I want to see If I'm a normal size compared to others.
Great find on the cups. They are now so mine...... Off to Walmart

@@mizzjaejeff I was shocked by how anxious I got about 72 hours before surgery. In retrospect for me it started with a "Jimmy Johns" commercial. I thought that I never had one of their sandwiches and now I never would. Then I mentally made a list of placed I never ate, followed by why am I voluntarily allowing myself to have major surgery done on my body. BUT THEN I THOUGHT ABOUT WHY I AM DOING THIS AND MY GOALS FOR A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE (I was yelling at myself not you :-)) I was relaxed the night before and day of my surgery, but I still had some concerns. However, I knew in my heart that when I looked at the risks vs rewards, then I had to move forward. There's a saying, "Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being fearful and anxious, but still doing what you know you have to do." You will be fine and we'll be waiting to hear the good news about your new life. Good night....
New Jeffrey

Thanks for all the well wishes and also good luck for those having the surgery.
I had my surgery at 11am today and I am finally starting to feel a little better. I was SUPER nauseous after surgery, but then again this always happens to me. They gave me meds for it and the pain is now tolerable. I felt sore but when I first woke up and like my new stomach pouch was on fire, but I feel so much better. It's just soreness and a little bit of naseau. Thank goodness for medication!!
Oh yea, I am sooooooo thirsty and I can't have anything - no Water until tmw. My lips are so dry even with lip balm and I am wetting the inside of my mouth/tongue with a wet hand towel.
It all feel so surreal. I wasn't scared or anxious. Just really happy that I finally did the surgery and I still feel like I dreamed this. I waited so long that it felt it would never happen lol
Tomorrow will another day, tomorrow will go smooth sailing as well
Again good luck to those having surgery and quick recovery for everyone. We are so strong for doing this right before the holidays lol

I'm one week post op tomorrow. I'll be interested to see how much I've lost since I started my 2 week liquid diet before my surgery. If it's as much as 25 lbs. I'll be jumping for joy.....well maybe not jumping.
I want to chew something too!!!

I am 11/10 and hit week anniversary tomorrow. Fully expect to be at 25 lbs lost in two weeks.
I think I'd about kill for something crunchy right now! HAHA

I had similar fears but it was because my deductibles for insurance start over in January. I hope they call you soon. Once my information was submitted it took about 9 days to get a letter in the mail saying I was approved. I was like "aaahh, why didn't they just call/ email me?" it would have been so much faster . . . lol.

Today is the day! On the way to the hospital now.

Today is the day! On the way to the hospital now.

I am looking forward to your follow up post, best of luck.
My big day is tomorrow . . .

I bought a couple of outfits in the "regular" woman's department. It was so exciting to not have that W or X attached to the size!

My project for this year was to build an underground storm shelter. There was some physical labor involved. I had to move 100,000 pounds of gravel by hand and 50,000 pounds of concrete blocks. I took my time and it didn't seem to be strenuous. I am 66 years old but thanks to the surgery, I have the stamina that I had when I was 35 years old.

Mom taught me the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned:
Self-acceptance and the desire to change are not mutually exclusive propositions


I hit 300 pounds by the age of 18. Dating back to early childhood, all my efforts to diet had failed, and always left me heavier than I’d been when I started.
In my 20s, I decided to accept my body - fat and all. No more diets. No more wasting time feeling bad about my size. From now on, I was gonna work on loving the body I had. If I remember correctly, about 10 minutes later, my mother broke the news:
“Sweetheart, I’m having weight loss surgery.”
A chorus of ‘No!’ started singing in my head. Every reason why surgery was a bad idea tried to elbow its way to the stage.
“It’s dangerous!”
“It’s expensive!”
“It’s a cop out!”
“It’s society that needs to change, not you!”
“You’re beautiful just as you are!”
“It’s their problem, not yours!”
“NO!”
My mom had gone through periods of consistently eating nourishing foods in nourishing ways, exercising every day, and sleeping well. And as a result, she knew what it felt like to be more comfortable in her own skin, and to move through the world without the burden of 150+-pounds of excess fat.
I, on the other hand, was young, and had always been overweight and out of shape, but I wasn’t gonna let that stop me from believing I knew what was best for my mother. I was an idealistic feminist college student who’d just stumbled upon the solution to suffering: loving myself just exactly as I was.
To my mind, by choosing to have surgery, my mom was being a narrow-minded, self-hating fool.
“Mom, you need to love yourself! Don’t let society tell you how your body should look!”
“I do love myself," she said. "That’s why I’m doing this. I want to be comfortable. I want to be able to do things I’m not comfortable doing at this weight. And I want to be alive and healthy for when you have babies.”
I could hardly believe the depth of her ignorance.
“There’s a support group for post-ops that’s open to the public. Please come with me,” she said.
Fine, I thought. There was bound to be some post-op there who’d almost died, or someone that couldn’t swallow...All I needed was one flesh and blood person to base my argument on, and then my mother would have no choice but to come to her senses.
“I’ll come on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“I want you to listen to everything that gets said in that meeting. I’m not going if you’re gonna ignore the truth.”
“It’s a deal.”
My mom drove us to the meeting in Englewood, NJ. There was a facilitator, and just under 50 people in the room, mostly women in their 40s and 50s. Some had had surgery already, some were scheduled to have it, and some were just thinking about it.
I sat against the wall in silent protest. While waiting for the meeting to start, I invented a life and a personality for the facilitator, compared her to me, and decided I was superior. She started with some house-keepy details and then launched right in.
“Welcome, everyone,” she said. “First we’ll hear check-ins from the post-ops, and then, if there’s still time, we’ll take some questions.”
The post-ops shared personal stories ranging from the straightforward: ‘I had surgery, I lost a lot of weight, I feel better, and here I am,’ to the gripping: ‘I had surgery, had a bunch of post-surgical complications, and here’s what life has looked like since.’
Everyone’s story was a little different, but one thing was universal: these people hadn’t gone under the knife to get hot; they’d undergone surgery because they wanted to live as fully as they could in the time that remained, and for them, that meant being a healthier weight. Dieting had failed them, like it fails most of us, but surgery felt like it might be the answer.
The facilitator called a break. I watched as my mother got up and introduced herself to a post-op who’d shared that losing weight meant getting her blood pressure, cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes under control. The woman was older, she was not meeting any popular standards of beauty, and appeared positively vibrant. I hadn’t realized how down my mom looked until she started to brighten up talking to this woman.
The moderator called us back. People were smiling and whispering, quietly exchanging cards and phone numbers. She thanked everyone for their shares, and opened up the floor, as promised.
“Does anyone have any questions for the post-ops?”
Now was my chance. I raised my hand.
“How many of you wish you hadn’t had surgery?”
Not a single hand went up. Maybe they’re embarrassed, I thought. Surely the ones who’d had complications felt foolish for having had surgery, but maybe peer pressure was keeping them quiet.
I needed to ask a better question, get them to talk about the danger.
“Uh...can I ask one more?” the facilitator nodded.
“What’s the biggest, scariest risk to having surgery?”
There was a tiny pause. My brain fired off all kinds of answers: Vitamin deficiencies! Pain! Death!
“Judgement.”
What?
“Being criticized.”
Wait, what?
“When people think surgery’s the easy way out, or a sign of weakness, or just a stupid idea, and they never stop letting you know." Huh.
According to a roomful of WLS post-ops, having to deal with my criticism might be the biggest, scariest risk my mom would face if she had surgery. Compared to daily, holier-than-thou judgement, even post-surgical complications might seem trite and manageable.
My mom do go ahead with her surgery. In under a year, I watched her regain much of the health and livelihood she’d lost. A little over a year later, I went to the same surgeon.
Ever since I opted to have gastric bypass surgery myself in 2003, I can tell you that the folks at that meeting were right.
I’ve worked my tail off to get well, to get an honest handle on my relationship to food, and to create a body I love. I became a personal trainer, coach, and educator to help others do the same. As a wellness professional, I’ve been judged for having had surgery in much the same way I was judged for being the fattest kid on the playground, except now, it’s often by other fitness “professionals.”
I’ve since apologized to my mother for the grief I tried to give her when she first started exploring surgery as an option. And I’ve thanked her for sparking the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned - the lesson that I’ve dedicated my career to teaching to others:
Self-acceptance and the desire to change are not mutually exclusive propositions - they can co-exist. In my experience, and that of countless clients and students, the only way to make lasting, sustainable, positive change is to begin from a place of love.

Today i Celebrate my one year surgiversary! I am so proud of everything that i have accomplished. I started at 257lbs and am now dow 98 pounds in total. My current weight is 159lbs. I am still a few pounds away from my goal but i am happier than i have ever been in my life. I have struggled with my weight since i was a little girl. I had such an intense loathing for the way i looked most of my life. I feel like this surgery has changed me so much mentally and physically. before i had pain all over my body, Migraines, depression etc. I would refuse to even look at people. Now i have gained so much confidence and it feels so good! i chase my kids around the park for hours while before i was only able to go for about 30 mins. i wouldnt exercise at all and I was treating myself horribly by gorging myself on food. now i feel like i actually know what real NUTRITION is. its not just stuffing my face. its all about giving my body fuel, and using that fuel for energy. One of the best parts is that i can go about my day and not have to think about food every second. Before i literally felt like i was that little boy in the movie d**k Tracy, all i could say is "when do we eat?" I wouldnt trade my sleeve for anything. So for the first time here are my before and after pics.

@@RedDirtRoads my surgery is scheduled tomorrow too. I'm nervous but I know that God is with us.

Good Luck. I'm 8 days post-op and feeling great. Best decision ever. You won't regret it.

Getting ready to head to hospital today I finally get sleeved. I can't believe it's finally here. Feeling lil nervous but so ready to start this new chapter in my life.

Had my surgery 6th November. Some pain in the left side but only happens when I walk to much. Not hungry drinking enough Water I hope. Off my high blood pressure meds and my lantus insulin has gone down 20u so all going good.
2nd night in hospital I kept have hot flashes but seems to have gone down now.

My two hardest adjustments so far has been the gas pains and trying to get my liquids in without getting nauseous and/or painfully full. I've been walking a lot to relieve the gas and its worked, along with the "joy" of several bowel movements :-). However if I drink my fluids to fast, then the abdominal pain comes back. I'm getting close to 50 ounces a day, but that's due to drinking Water from 5:00am - 11:30pm. I get tired from walking so that includes a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. Tomorrow will be one week out from surgery and I can definitely notice that each day gets better!! :-). I hope this helps and feel free to ask anymore questions.