Catherine Davis

Hi Hannah, I have a few questions for you. How much pain did you have after surgery? I was surprised with how much pain I had from the incision in my navel (much more pain than I expected). I'm feeling quite apprehensive about further surgery at the moment. How did you cope with starting to drink? Did that hurt much? Do you have any regrets at having the surgery? If you have to cook meals for the rest of your family, do you have trouble doing it knowing you can't eat what they are eating? Are you back at work yet? How much time did you need off, and how did you go when you were back at work? Anything you didn't expect, or wish you had been warned about? Sorry about the "20 questions"! ???? Cheers, Catherine.

Hi there. I haven't been sleeved yet. I am way too addicted to soft drinks (especially to Pepsi max) and I think cutting them out of my diet will be one of my big challenges. Is it better to cut all fizzy drinks right out? I'm worried that allowing myself a small amount, even flat, would open the door to my drinking too much of everything.

Congratulations! I hope it goes really well for you ????

The problems that you are having now are part of the reason I am reconsidering having WLS. I was supposed to have already had the surgery but I suddenly started having gallstone problems, and my Bariatric surgeon decided to remove my gallbladder first. The surgery was a lot more painful than I expected (I found it worse than past surgery- 2 caesareans and surgery to remove a nerve tumour) and I had some complications which have affected my healing. I'm scared to go through it again. But my greater concern is that my eating patterns will not change enough in the long term to sustain and maintain weight loss. I have had a truly terrible relationship with food my whole life, veering between obese and underweight (I was 45kg at my lightest, over 110kg at my heaviest). In the past my greatest loss at any one time was about 50kg. Since I had my kids though I have not had the energy to give to my health and trying to get back to a healthy weight. Things started to go wrong with me and food at ten, when I was sexually abused by a family member while my grandma, who was my primary caregiver was in hospital for two months being treated for cancer. Food became my coping strategy for everything. Even when I was skinny food was always in my mind. Even when I am hating food or denying myself food I think about food all the time. I hate the way I think about food, but even when I'm being "good " for extended periods of time, even years at a time, I know that deep down my attitude to food is seriously screwed up. I don't know if I can really change enough to make this work. My prime motivation is to improve my Diabetes and cut down on my meds so I will be around to look after my family (i have 3 kids in primary school) . I am afraid if I can't succeed at this I won't be around while they grow up.

I feel really sorry for you guys in the US with all the running around you have to do for your insurance to pay for WLS. I'm in Australia, and all we do is select a level of health insurance with Bariatric surgery cover, and if it is a higher level of cover sit through the waiting period (usually 12 months). You need a referral from your gp to the Bariatric surgeon of your choice. Then Medicare pays part of the cost, insurance pays part and you can get a medical loan or early superannuation payout to pay the gap (in my case approx $5000-$6000). So much easier ! ????

Hi! I live in a country town in southern NSW near Canberra. I am planning on having gastric sleeve surgery at Canberra Bariatric in a couple of months. I would be doing it now, but I just had my gallbladder removed two days ago by Dr Mosse (who is lovely) and it has to heal first. Dr Mosse, Dr Peake (anaesthetist), and the surgical/nursing staff at Calvary John James have all been awesome so far. Would love to make contact with anyone else in the region who has done it, will be doing it, or still thinking it through. Best wishes, Cathy.????

Thank you to everyone for your replies. As an update to my situation, after a sleepless night I saw my surgeon this morning. He said he had to do a lot of pushing around with the scope in the incision to get it into the right position and it will likely be sore for about a week. I had my procedure at 9 am yesterday, but was still in post op till about 3 pm, and since the op my blood pressure and oxygen levels have been lower than normal. During the night I was given three endone tabs and some Panadol after a lot of asking for pain relief. I was sent home from hospital this morning with a pack of OxyContin and a pack of panadeine forte. It is still extremely painful, and as we live in a country town an hour away from Canberra, the car trip home was not good. Luckily the other three incisions are fine. But it feels like I have been ripped apart behind my belly button. I wouldn't normally consider myself to have a low pain threshold, but this was so much worse than I expected. Thanks for your words of encouragement and advice. I'm thinking carefully about what I should do next. Best wishes, Catherine.

Hi everyone. I've been planning on getting sleeved in about 8 weeks. BUT my bariatric surgeon removed my gallbladder about 15 hours ago as treatment for gallstones (he didn't recommend doing it at the same time as the sleeve, so two operations for me). In the past two of my kids were born by caesarean and I coped with that ok. But I am in such pain tonight, especially from the incision in my naval where the scope went in, I'm beginning to think I won't be able to handle the sleeve operation. What if it is even worse than the gallbladder surgery??? I'm not sure if I should go ahead with the sleeving. Does anyone have any advice or experience to help me? Cheers, from Cathy in Canberra