Ray92

The band is painful and does not give the same guarantee as the sleeve, at least for me! It is different for every person but I am merely reflecting on my experience. My band was very tight but I could still finish a big mac meal for example provided I ate slow enough. Eating was painful because it was tight and it would give me mad hiccups when I laughed. I am pretty sure that I cannot eat a big mac now and I no longer have to deal with having a foreign object in my body. I used to stay up some nights seriously worrying about the fact that it was inside my body. I am a very anxious person by nature and I get paranoid about everything so the band was not a good choice for me. I just wish I did the sleeve all those years ago.

I am far from having some of the great wins you guys have as I am only 10 days post op. But waking up in the morning with clear skin, no pimples popping up out of nowhere due to messy hormones and bad eating habits. My skin used to be oily but lo and behold 10 days out and it cleared up.

@ Thank you for the nice message! I fortunately do have a lot of support and I feel very grateful. The one thing I would just like to say is that I am not sure that fast track WLS is a brilliant idea. While I had the idea planted about 6 months in advance and took the leap with a fairly made up mind, I do feel like I didn't give myself enough time to process the complete lifestyle change that I have to adapt to as of after the surgery. Thankfully, due to my support system as well as the help of this site, I am settling in well. The only thing is that it is a major lifestyle change and if you are a food addict like me and also used food as an emotional crutch in life, the sudden loss of all of it can be very uncomfortable. Now I am 11 days out and I am slowly getting over my food addiction.

The band is painful and does not give the same guarantee as the sleeve, at least for me! It is different for every person but I am merely reflecting on my experience. My band was very tight but I could still finish a big mac meal for example provided I ate slow enough. Eating was painful because it was tight and it would give me mad hiccups when I laughed. I am pretty sure that I cannot eat a big mac now and I no longer have to deal with having a foreign object in my body. I used to stay up some nights seriously worrying about the fact that it was inside my body. I am a very anxious person by nature and I get paranoid about everything so the band was not a good choice for me. I just wish I did the sleeve all those years ago.

Good luck great story

That's definitely weight loss surgery on the fast track. One thing you definitely don't have to worry about is a support system, as you have that in spades. I'm happy for you and best of wishes for your sleeved future!

definitely can get it in Canada so I assume the same in the US. Go to the international food sections at your grocery store or look for a middle eastern grocer in your area and they are guaranteed to have it. Orange blossom water is different from Rose water so be careful to get the right one. In Arabic its roughly called "Ma'a Zaher". Another tip, it is quite strong so make sure to add a drop at most at first to see how you like it! Wikipedia has a good coverage on what it's all about.

I am far from having some of the great wins you guys have as I am only 10 days post op. But waking up in the morning with clear skin, no pimples popping up out of nowhere due to messy hormones and bad eating habits. My skin used to be oily but lo and behold 10 days out and it cleared up.

My brother went to the mall today to watch a movie. I had a good cry about it because I cannot sit for too long at a movie theater since I am 10 days post op. Plus the smell of the popcorn and then watching him scarf down a burger would probably do me in. So I stayed at home, cried a bit and watched Downton Abbey, it did make me feel better. Once I am back to feeling normal, I will venture to the movie theatre.

Awesome- hello surgery buddy! Are on the Oct 19th Surgery thread that has been going on for a few weeks now? I don't buy hummus, I always have just made my own Yes, my surgeon said we are allowed to have sugar free popsicles in the early stages for a few reasons (1) they count as your liquid intake [each one is almost 2oz] (2) because you eat them slowly, it helps so you aren't gulping etc... (3) Eating them so far has been really soothing on my stomach, which often times gets upset when I eat different temperature foods (4) They just taste good, and are like getting a special treat. I have been using sugar free drink mixes (like Crystal Light) to flavor my water. I love water and the taste- and thankfully still love it after surgery, so that part isn't a big deal for me.
Optimally, my goal is at 6 months to be completely weaned off Protein drinks and the "crap" like the drink mixes, jello's and powdered Protein smoothies. I really much prefer to eat more fresh vegetables than anything. So I am excited for that
p.s. I am jealous you are in the middle east right now! I am in Michigan in the States, and we always joke we might as well be Canada sometimes- we have similar enough weather that's for sure! LOL

I am 7 days post op sleeve. So far I went to the grocery store with mum, bought my veggies to make Soups for the next 17 days. Then we mega stocked up on candy for all the kiddos coming by to trick or treat. After that there will be a Halloween party for the adults in the neighborhood!! I am very much looking forward to seeing all the kids in their costumes. I don't really care about the candy but I was apprehensive at first about going to the party considering I can't eat. But then I thought that it would be ridiculous to hold myself back from social events over some silly food so I am going for the fun! Not the the food

Hello all,
I would like to share my gastric sleeve story as it is a little bit of a bizarre one, at least for me it was. It feels like I have been riding a roller coaster for the past month and now I am finally getting off.
So a little about myself, I am a graduate student living in Canada and my family lives very far from me. Like Middle East far. Anyway, a very close cousin of mine got married on the 1st of October and since I hadn't visited my extended family in over 2 years, I decided I would make the long trip out to Amman, Jordan and pay them a nice, long visit. Little did I know that I would leave a part of my stomach behind in Amman. Over the course of university my weight kept ballooning from eating all the fast food, junk food and drinking. About 6 months before my visit to Amman I received a message from my uncle asking to consider getting the gastric sleeve. I was furious at his suggestion "how could he?" I thought. It was none of his business in my mind and after a failed lap band I was completely turned off by the idea of WLS.
I think it is important for me to establish a little background about my extended family. I have a huge family and we all have a nasty habit of being able to put on tons of weight. I guess it is a combination of genetics, environment etc. and it is very inherent in the females. While we all struggled with obesity at some point, all my cousins, aunts and mother managed to eventually control their eating and drop the weight. They now all eat very healthy. Seriously I have an aunt who probably hasn't had bread in over 5 years. My uncles were also huge players in this story. I have two uncles who happen to be doctors. The first one, the one that suggested the surgery six months ago is a pediatric cardiologist and is very famous in his field in Jordan. He has an obsession with healthy heart, exercises like crazy and eats very little red meat, hence his peaked interest in me losing weight. He was worried that at some point in my life, I would start to massively suffer from hypertension, cholesterol and god forbid, a heart attack. My second uncle is an obstetric and gynecology doctor and has helped treat my PCOS over the years. In retrospect, I should have anticipated that I was going to be bombarded as soon as I arrived with health, diet and surgery advice. Now I was very open to everything they said despite the fact that I would get annoyed from time to time but at the end of the day, I know they all love me and wanted the best for me.
So I was in Jordan for my cousin's wedding. My grandma would always harass me about my weight which was NOT fun but she is old so I didn't want to offend her. In the time that I was in Jordan I ate so much food by nature of a wedding coming up and because Jordan has a lot of good food. In the mean time, my uncle the gynecologist would keep suggesting the sleeve. Now I was at first apprehensive because I was worried about long term prognosis, risks and how much it would change my life. He managed to clarify all the information for me and I was starting to think about the surgery. While still being apprehensive, he asked me to just go in for a consultation with a bariatric surgeon that he was friends with. I went to the meeting and came out feeling confused about my feelings but a little more clear about the gastric sleeve. The next thing I knew, I was going down to the hospital lab getting pre-op blood work done but I still had not made my decision. EVERYONE and I literally mean EVERYONE advised me to do it and I knew in the back of my mind I really wanted to do it. The only thing holding me back at that point was how much of a scaredy cat I was being. So finally, my uncle told me that he would watch my surgery if I wanted to. I started asking around about the surgeon and found out that he is the most famous bariatric surgeon in Jordan, if not the whole Middle East. It was common knowledge that he had performed the most procedures in the Middle East and had a stellar record. This guy was a bariatric surgery beast and would perform up to 30 procedures a day. With that knowledge in mind, I booked my surgery immediately. A week later, I was laying down in a hospital bed, sleeved and my whole family (around 15-20) of them were around me. It was like they were throwing me a party for finally taking the decision. They were cheering and singing and literally everyone was ecstatic and this made me feel even more excited and comforted by my decision. I came to Jordan to basically attend a wedding and gorge on food and ended up leaving with a life changing decision. Now a lot of are you are wondering, what about the pre op diet?!!!? Well, my pre-op blood work came back with unbelievably good results and despite my weight, I was still relatively healthy because I had been trying to control my eating habits for the past year. As such, the surgeon felt more than comfortable performing the surgery knowing I didn't have any health risks.
So I just wanted to write this post and share my story as well as say Thank you. Thank you to my very large, loud family who in a way cared more about my health than I did. And also thank you to the amazing surgeon who did my surgery. He is a very kind, helpful doctor who answered all my questions and gave me all his contact info so I can ask him ANYTHING once I left Jordan.

@ I was sleeved 8 days ago so you are a little bit ahead of me but I am also looking for a friend/buddy throught my WLS journey. I would be down to chat anytime about food plans, surgery feelings, struggles, reaching milestones etc.

I'm 12 days post op and had my first weigh in since surgery on Saturday 10/17 (10 days post op) and I'm down 14lbs. I wasn't happy at first but I realize that I need to learn to appreciate any weight loss and need to quit letting the scale intimidate me or make me feel bad.
I am more than a number and that number does not define me!
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I made pureed lentil Soup today. Red lentils, onions, garlic (you need to sweat out the onions and garlic. I did so by adding Water and the teeniest amount of olive oil I could fathom). Make sure to pre soak the red lentils for a bit before starting. Add the red lentils, onions, garlic and water to a Large pot and enough water tocover all the lentils plus more. Lentils get thick as they stew so keep adding water and keep stirring. For seasoning I used salt, pepper, cumin, tumeric to taste. Once the lentils are quite soft, add water and blend it into a pureed soup. Sort of the consistency of pea puree soup or carrot soup. This is a middle eastern recipe and a huge fave of mine.

I made pureed lentil Soup today. Red lentils, onions, garlic (you need to sweat out the onions and garlic. I did so by adding Water and the teeniest amount of olive oil I could fathom). Make sure to pre soak the red lentils for a bit before starting. Add the red lentils, onions, garlic and water to a Large pot and enough water tocover all the lentils plus more. Lentils get thick as they stew so keep adding water and keep stirring. For seasoning I used salt, pepper, cumin, tumeric to taste. Once the lentils are quite soft, add water and blend it into a pureed soup. Sort of the consistency of pea puree soup or carrot soup. This is a middle eastern recipe and a huge fave of mine.

Thank you for the response, it makes me feel more assured. I desperately want this surgery to work so I am hoping that helps me overcome my food addiction. The good thing is that the thoughts have reduced in the past 24 hrs and have been replaced by planning out my wardrobe in 6 months.

Thank you for the response, it makes me feel more assured. I desperately want this surgery to work so I am hoping that helps me overcome my food addiction. The good thing is that the thoughts have reduced in the past 24 hrs and have been replaced by planning out my wardrobe in 6 months.

@@Ray92
You are 6 days out. Your feelings seem pretty normal to me. Give yourself time. Things change with the food progression. If you are finding your behaviors are still an issue. You might want to seek counseling. Old behaviors are something we all have to overcome to be successful. Without the struggle their is no change.