yerawizardamy

Ask for Lactulose, it really helped me I think. I can't be positive because of everything I was taking at the time, but I think it did.

Things I didn't expect: I didn't expect my recovery to be so hard. Pain mixed with the worst constipation of my life made me honestly wish I were dead. The exhaustion. I am SO tired now. I know this is partly because I haven't taken any Vitamins since my surgery (they made me vom once so now I'm looking for alternatives), but the thought of getting out of bed to take a shower is probably the last thing I can handle right now. The weight loss! In 4 weeks (including pre-op) I've lost 38lbs. Pretty good if I do say so myself. How hard the puree food stage is. I honestly preferred the liquid stage! How easy it is for me to drink Water. I saw so many posts about how hard it is, I expected the worst! Thank goodness that's one thing I'm able to actually do.

@@NewNewMe - how did the patches work for you?

I'm 5'10" and my first real goal is 250lbs, then 200lbs. If I continue to lose from there, great! If not, oh well. 250 will be the smallest I've been in 13 years so I will consider that a huge accomplishment. As long as I'm healthy and happy, I'll be fine with whatever weight!

That would've left a bad taste in my mouth for sure. I mean, my surgeon is clearly very much a Christian Man™ with lots of religious paraphernalia all over his office, but luckily he never said anything like that to me. However, he did say that, "Sugar put here by God is good sugar" which was annoying enough for me. I had to physically restrain myself from scoffing/rolling my eyes.

I also made that bargain "I'll believe in you again if you just let me crap!" Didn't work. Or maybe it did, but I'm more inclined to believe that the overdose of laxatives, suppositories and enemas are what did it.

I was horribly constipated and it was pure hell. Mine started the day of surgery due to my pre-op Atkins and liquid diet. It only got worse afterwards. Start taking Colace immediately and I don't suggest stopping any time soon. For me, I tried everything: Milk of Magnesia, Colace, suppositories, enemas, magnesium citrate, and finally my NP prescribed me Lactulose. I almost had to go to the hospital to have it "manually extracted" which would have been so humiliating. Between all of that, I finally got things moving. My point is, if it's not improving, talk to your surgeon and ask about a prescription laxative. It is hell on earth to deal with, I would have rather gone through surgery again. I too thought I would be one of the (seemingly many) lucky ones who had a quick and painless recovery. It was the complete opposite. I'm still struggling (1 &1/2 weeks later) and trying to take it easy. I'm barely managing a 20 minute walk with some breaks in between, I think scaling back the walking and increasing the Water intake will help you a lot. Water also helps with constipation. Hope you feel better!

Not at all! I am just a week post op so my stats aren't the greatest right now lol.

I was 470 at my highest, and 440 day of surgery. I have my one week post op appointment tomorrow so I'll update with any loss since surgery. As a side note, I'm convinced that 30lbs pre-op weight loss is wrong. I must not have been on the scale properly. I only did the Keto/Atkins diet for 2 weeks and a 3 day liquid diet. Most people on a 2 WEEK liquid diet barely lose that much! I guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow. ????

I wonder if there will ever be a time in history when the "younger generations" aren't considered whiny crybabies? It's very possible that the OP had some regrets and is externalizing the blame on to her mother. I don't think that is a "generational" issue. Just because you, as an older adult, always (I'm assuming) accept the blame or your regret/mistakes, doesn't mean that ALL of your generation is able to do the same.

I had a cath that was put in while I was under. Barely even felt it when I was awake. I personally loved having it! I pee constantly so not having to get out of bed frequently after serious surgery was awesome. I was actually sad they had to take it out! Lol! Slight sting when taking it out but it's like "ow." Done.

I wish my bowels would! I have severe constipation it's the worst of my life I would rather be right out of surgery again than deal with this!!!

I was sleeved 1/13/16, so I'm just 4 days out. Recovery has been rough, lots of pain/soreness and a couple of days of nausea. But today I've finally turned a corner it seems, still sore, but not nearly as much as I was. Definitely had the thought, "What did I do to myself!?" more than once, but that's passing now. One thing I was so shocked by is the fact that I lost 30 POUNDS on my 2 week keto/3 day liquid diet. I still can't really believe it. I'll have to wait until my follow up to really see if that was the case, and I just wasn't standing on the scale incorrectly ???? If not, it must be because I started at such a high weight (470) that it came off much faster than normal. I'm starting to feel like my normal self again and feeling much better about everything. I'm excited to get the ball rolling! Got some pretty bad constipation, but that started with the keto/liquid diet so the pain pills didn't help. Took some milk of magnesia a couple of hours ago and hoping it does the trick. Word of advice: if your toilets at home are particularly low, do yourself a favor and get a seat extender/hand rails. I was in excruciating pain trying to get up without using my stomach muscles. I've been getting about 48oz of Water in spread out through 12 hours, but Protein shakes is another thing. It's too much sweetness. I don't feel any restriction so I'm wondering if that is normal during the liquid phase? Any one have any advice on that subject? Anyways, hope this helps people with surgeries coming up. It's not all roses and it's NOT easy or fun, but it DOES get better each day! ????

I'm only 4 days post-op, the first day wasn't too bad b/c I was on a lot of pain meds and anesthesia, that night and following morning were very rough. Lots of pain/nausea. Sitting/lying down isn't bad but standing up was very painful. I'm still very very sore but each day gets a little better. I definitely thought I would be better than I was, so don't be surprised if you have a rough recovery. Most people on here seem to have had it pretty easy so I was expecting that myself.

You can find a lot of 14/16 sizes in non-plus size stores!

I'm having the surgery on the 13th, I cycle between being really excited and really terrified. What makes me excited are looking at the before/after pictures, the success stories, when people talk about their NSV's and all the things they are doing now that they couldn't do before! There are lots of threads on here like that, check them out! ????

Great thread, I'm following!

I'll probably still wear all black, not because it's slimming, but because it looks bad ass. ???? The style I know I'm going to go for will be like this:

I know a lot of exercise enthusiasts argue that you don't need any fancy gadgets to work out, but I find that my Jawbone UP2 fitness tracker is really motivating! It's a lot of fun to see your steps and have duels with people. I hate working out, mainly because it's painful at my size, but having the activity tracker makes it a little more fun, and you see instant results with it. Not weight loss, but at least you can really see what you've just accomplished! There are tons of options out there, check them out!

It's common for eyesight to get bad after this surgery???? Why is that?

I am curious if having a smaller size causes further issues with getting the needed nutrition in (vitamins/nutrients - not just food). My surgeon mentioned removing 90% and I thought that sounded pretty high.

ALERT!! PANIC! I am freaking out y'all!! I am starting to get a COLD and my surgery is next Wednesday! As in, 9 days away! Stupid Florida decides to have a cold snap right before hand, and I always get sick when it goes from warm to cold overnight ???? I just bought Vitamin C chewables (1000mg) and started that and copious amounts of Water right away. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to kill a cold in its tracks, or at least shorten it's time span considerably? I am terrified they will reschedule me if I'm sick. I can't reschedule because my job has already hired someone to cover my two weeks, and she's ONLY available those two weeks! (My job is unique and this girl has done it before). I am serious I will do anything. If you tell me to stand naked in a bucket of frogs eyes under the full moon I will do it!!! Anything that can help, I would be super appreciative to hear about.

Thank you so much to every one that has commented, I really appreciate it. I'm going to try all the advice!!

Sigh I know ???? but I'm specifically wondering if there's anything that can help shorten the cold's life. I can't take any time off of work leading up to my surgery so unfortunately lots of rest isn't really an option, unless it's after work. Fingers crossed I'm just having an off day. I'll speak with my surgeon's office tomorrow.

Lots of Florida peeps here! I'm in Gainesville, FL Sleeve surgery date: 1/13/16