Finding_Stacy

I've only told a few people. I don't know why since I'm pretty much an open book, but just a handful of people know. A few of them probably have already forgotten. Actually, it's a lot of pressure when people know, at least for me. I'd rather get a handle on this before I have to answer anyone's questions. I figure by the time they really start noticing, I'll have my handle on it by then.

Hi there, lizard. I'm sorry this happened to you. I had a similar experience back in December. I went into my surgeons office so excited to get the sleeve. I watched countless videos on YouTube and read so many testimonies that I was finally sold on weight loss surgery.
But when I met him and his nurse practitioner, I couldn't have been more deflated if you stuck a pin in me and I popped. They said the sleeve would still leave me obese with a high bmi. They urged me to have the DS procedure, which is like the bypass, but they sleeve your stomach then move onto the rearrangement of the intestines for the malabsorption aspect. It would leave me with a 90% total weight loss for life. And hey, that sounds great, but whenever I have to make a hard life decision, I base it on one thing. Don't laugh. I always ask myself, if I had to live in apocalyptic times, what would be my quality of life afterwards if I had no means for support with this procedure?
For instance, I have a chipped front tooth that happened in high school. I have a cap on it that has served me well for over twenty-five years. Every now and then, there comes along a dentist who wants me to put a crown on it, in place of the cap, because it lasts longer. To do a crown they would have to shave my tooth down to a little pointed peg just to fit a crown. The crown isn't permanent. What if something happened tomorrow where dentistry was just a memory and I needed a crown? I would walk around looking like a cannibal, scaring the masses, opposed to just having a chipped front tooth.
What does that nonsensical little story have to do with wls you ask? Well, with a DS surgery, I would have to take Vitamins to survive. Sure, with the sleeve I take vitamins too, but if something happened tomorrow, I'd still be ok without vitamins on the sleeve. The ds and bypass are malabsorption surgeries. That means even though you are absorbing less calories, you are also absorbing significantly less vitamins, and with the ds I could die without my vitamins.
So, that's a no go, no go.
Like I told the doctor, if I could get to 200 or 170 on the sleeve, I could get to 135 as well. I've seen it done. You know why? Because no matter the surgery, the hard work will always be up to you mentally to overcome, even on those darkest days when you forget why you did this at all. You're the one who has control. If you eat right and follow the plan, there's absolutely no reason you can't lose 100% of your total weight with the sleeve. So do what inherently feels right for you. What helped me snap out of my mini depression after my appointment was watching more YouTube videos of people losing 130,150, and even 250 pounds on the sleeve. It works if you do, so again, do what's right for you <3

Just think, you're going to be a pioneer in this subject for many people. There may come a day when someone in your exact same situation will also be afraid and embarrassed and you will be that person for them. Good luck and I wish you the safest surgery and recovery on your road to a healthy new you

Thank you for the support guys I really appreciated 🤗,with my family and friends I can't really talk about my status because as soon as I say something they start crying. I appreciate they love me but I need them to act normal lol. Ok but back to my surgery I called my Dr that's going to do the sleeve and they said no solid pills for 2 weeks to crush them after you could take regular pills. My HIV provider called me and said is safe to be off medication around 2 days and it was safe to crush but as soon as I was able to swallow pills to start taking them regular. I was so nervous and Google in every thing lol. But finally got my questions answer.

Not yet, but I'm going to!

But remember, "Those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind".

What friends? Lol!

Has anyone lost friends before or after they had wls? I read somewhere that said, 'prepare to lose some friends'. Anyone have experience with this?

My mistake is that I wasn't recognizing the difference between pain and nausea at the time. One of the nurses kept saying I needed to use the pain meds and looking back I would have been better off without it. It's something you may want to discuss with your doc in advance. They did start giving me another med to help with the nausea and it helped. My favorite was some sort of Tylenol drip that they gave me. That helped out more than anything else.
I'm an oddball statistic so don't let my trials and tribulations scare you. The first few days are challenging, but with the right attitude you'll get through it just fine. Honestly you'll look back after a few weeks and be like "meh, that wasn't so bad".

Gosh, I'm afraid this could be me. I do have a problem with pain medicine. It always made me throw up after my c-sections. Good thing I have a high pain tolerance, so I'm going to keep (try to) a positive attitude towards the surgery, because I'm really looking forward to the restriction of the stomach and surgery is just something we have to go through to get those amazing results, right?

No idea. Doc said the spleen is a funny organ and sometimes just brushing against it, even without something being sharp, can cause a minor bleed. My pain meds made me really sick and the wretching bouts I had probably didn't help matters. I really think it was a fluke thing. All the weird stuff happens to me.

Hi all. I haven't posted since the morning of my surgery. Unfortunately I was one of those where things didn't go oh-so-smoothly for me. This isn't meant to be a discouraging post but my tale and where I am at.
I had my sleeve done on the morning of January 25th. Everything up to the point of surgery had gone swimmingly. When I awoke in recovery I was in a tremendous amount of pain and nausea. I do not do well with anesthesia so waking up was doubly difficult. While I do not suffer from sleep apnea my breathing was irregular and if I would start to drift off to sleep I would stop breathing. I ended up being in recovery for probably 6-8 hours. As to the surgery itself my doctor said things went perfect. Liver was tip top and the time of surgery went quickly.
When I got to my room the discomfort continued. What complicated things further was that the pain meds seemed to be making me nauseousness all the more. Getting fluids down was really difficult. My stomach must have been seriously swollen because any amount of Fluid seemed to sit at the top of my stomach and gave me terrible heartburn. Thursday continued to be a difficult day. The nausea continued and got so bad to where I wretched a few times although there was nothing to come up.
By Thursday night things had started to improve slightly, but on Friday things went downhill yet again. I had fallen asleep in my reclining chair and awoke around noon with terrible pain and cramps in my left side and shoulder. Then suffered another wretching bout on top of it. As time passed the pain increased and moved to the center of my chest. Breathing became difficult and painful. The concern was a leak or internal bleeding so they took me down to do a CT scan. Scan showed that it appeared my spleen had decided to spring a leak. Good news is that it was not a continual bleed but I had blood in my abdomen. By the time I got back to my room the chest pain increased and breathing was rapid and shallow. At this point the pulled me out of my room and sent me down to ICU to try and stabilize me.
The next 18 hours were scary and painful. By Saturday I was starting to feel slightly better with a reduction in chest pain and breathing became easier. I got the all clear to go back to my original room, but by that time the floor was full and they had no bed for me. So I was essentially stuck in ICU for almost a day longer than I needed to be. By the time I got into a room on my original floor it was Sunday evening. My luck seemed to be on a crash course as the heating was malfunctioning and all of the rooms were well over 80s degrees. Sleep Sunday night was minimal and miserable. Come Monday morning my doc told me that he wanted me to stay yet another day for observation. At this point I was ready to jump out the 12th floor window of my room as being in the hospital was taking its toll on me.

On Tuesday I felt the best I had. Sadly my heartbeat was still elevated and temp was over 100, but my hemoglobin was showing normal again which pointed to the internal bleed being gone. At the last second I thought they were going to change their minds and keep me again but my doc gave me the okay to go home. Total time was 6 nights and 7 days in the hospital.

I'm now home and doing better, but far from being out of the woods. My temp continues to bounce around at 100 degrees and heartbeat is about 100-110. I wanted to give myself a solid day of rest at home as the hospital stay was making me a wreck, plus the heat problem made the last 36 hours all the worse.
Getting fluids down is now a piece of cake. Still have no appetite at all, and cool drinks are all I want. I've actually gained weight but that's due to being pumped full of so may fluids while at the hospital. At this point in time weight loss is the last thing I'm worried about. Still having some pain but it's bearable, and the meds I'm on aren't causing nausea which is a Godsend. Still pretty scared about the temp/heartbeat and that it could be a sign of infection. The wretching bouts I had left me worried that I had done some damage, but my stomach seems to be happy at the moment. Put a call into my doc this afternoon to update but haven't heard back from them yet so I'll follow up again tomorrow. Hoping another decent night's sleep will help get me over the hump to a full recovery.

Could definitely use some well wishes right now. Was feeling horribly discouraged at the hospital but so thankful to be back at home.

Through Memorial Hospital's bariatric program. Their office is technically in Granger, but it's right around the corner from UP mall.

I don't know why, but I never looked around for other clinics, especially those closer to me. Chicago's 45 minutes away but expensive since I pay for tolls and parking. I think it's because I read a Graham Elliot article on how he had his surgery at the UoC and that was it for me. Where did you have yours done?

Just to clarify I'm down about 70lbs since first starting my journey, which started last May. I have lost 35lbs since surgery though which has been amazing!
I do feel different this time although I still have the same fears as you that I'll find a way to get around it. One thing that kind of woke me up was seeing quite a few people on here asking questions about when can I go back to eating this/that unhealthy item. Essentially it was trying to find a way to get around the limitations of the sleeve. It made me realize that isn't the right approach to this. If I choose to go back to eating fast food, or decide I'm going to start having ice cream every day then chances are I'm going to eventually find other bad things to work into my diet to cause me to gain weight back.
It's easy to fall back into what they call slider foods and lose track of how much you're eating. Despite having a smaller stomach now if I choose to eat all day long I could easily get back up to over 2,000 calories a day making unhealthy choices. Different foods will go down easier than others. As an example I can eat a Oikos Greek yogurt in a shorter period of time compared to others foods. If I tried to eat the same portion size of chicken salad in the same amount of time I would feel like crap. Last night I took a few bites too fast at dinner and felt terrible. I hadn't eaten that much but because I didn't pace myself properly I had to walk away from the table and finish later.
As to the physical appearance it's something to consider but having a healthier life matters more to me. I know there's always the option of plastic surgery down the road if it comes to it, but at this point I'm not that concerned. That's one of those areas where there are some cons but the pros definitely outweigh the bad.

Ha! That's cool. I actually lived in Laporte for about a year back in the early 2000s. I had somebody message me yesterday that is looking to go through the same clinic that I did in South Bend so it's nice to have some fellow Hoosiers around!

I felt the same! But it does get better. Give it three weeks and you'll forget the pain as if you never felt anything.

It done (at 7am)! I'm relieved it's over but I have to say that I feel a truck ran me over!!! This is absolutely terrible. I would rather give birth...twice! I've been reading this forum on the recovery and what to expect for weeks now, and I never read ONCE anyone feeling like this. I think I'm a strong person, and can handle pain well...but THIS is too much. I know we all heal differently but there's no way NOBODY has felt that way. Maybe this won't post as it may change the mind of someone, idk. I still don't regret it, but wish I would have been prepared for this! So, everything was smooth, very kind staff, promptly admitted and given the IV, met with the Dr. and anesthesiologist and wheeled in. Then the "shit hit the fan"! I woke up in tremendous pain, moaning for help. I was given dilaudid which wasn't strong enough but my options were limited. Because of the gas, I felt like I was going to explode! They had put a catheter in while in bed OR (thank you!!) but yet I felt like I had to Pee so bad but yet had no control of that. That might have been the pressure of the gas. Then... the nausea hit me like a ton of bricks. O-M-G!!!!!!!! It was the worse felling ever to not be able to throw up for 2 reasons . 1) I had nothing TO throw up. 2.)the pain of the gagging and dry heaving felt like I was going pop off some staples inside! Now...it's almost 930pm, I haven't had Water since 7 pm last night and wont able to either until they do the swallow test to ensure there's no leaks. If anyone, please...ANYONE send me some encouraging words of advice...it would be greatly appreciated😩

Hi there, lizard. I'm sorry this happened to you. I had a similar experience back in December. I went into my surgeons office so excited to get the sleeve. I watched countless videos on YouTube and read so many testimonies that I was finally sold on weight loss surgery.
But when I met him and his nurse practitioner, I couldn't have been more deflated if you stuck a pin in me and I popped. They said the sleeve would still leave me obese with a high bmi. They urged me to have the DS procedure, which is like the bypass, but they sleeve your stomach then move onto the rearrangement of the intestines for the malabsorption aspect. It would leave me with a 90% total weight loss for life. And hey, that sounds great, but whenever I have to make a hard life decision, I base it on one thing. Don't laugh. I always ask myself, if I had to live in apocalyptic times, what would be my quality of life afterwards if I had no means for support with this procedure?
For instance, I have a chipped front tooth that happened in high school. I have a cap on it that has served me well for over twenty-five years. Every now and then, there comes along a dentist who wants me to put a crown on it, in place of the cap, because it lasts longer. To do a crown they would have to shave my tooth down to a little pointed peg just to fit a crown. The crown isn't permanent. What if something happened tomorrow where dentistry was just a memory and I needed a crown? I would walk around looking like a cannibal, scaring the masses, opposed to just having a chipped front tooth.
What does that nonsensical little story have to do with wls you ask? Well, with a DS surgery, I would have to take Vitamins to survive. Sure, with the sleeve I take vitamins too, but if something happened tomorrow, I'd still be ok without vitamins on the sleeve. The ds and bypass are malabsorption surgeries. That means even though you are absorbing less calories, you are also absorbing significantly less vitamins, and with the ds I could die without my vitamins.
So, that's a no go, no go.
Like I told the doctor, if I could get to 200 or 170 on the sleeve, I could get to 135 as well. I've seen it done. You know why? Because no matter the surgery, the hard work will always be up to you mentally to overcome, even on those darkest days when you forget why you did this at all. You're the one who has control. If you eat right and follow the plan, there's absolutely no reason you can't lose 100% of your total weight with the sleeve. So do what inherently feels right for you. What helped me snap out of my mini depression after my appointment was watching more YouTube videos of people losing 130,150, and even 250 pounds on the sleeve. It works if you do, so again, do what's right for you <3

I can only imagine. I've been doing my low carb for two weeks. My surgery isn't for another 41 days but my doctor doesn't require any type of liquid diet, before or after. But from what I read, it's still hard to go through once we're sleeved. We only need a few bites to nourish our bodies, but five times that to nourish our souls. I guess that's why it's called soul food .
Time to find something else that doesn't revolve around food, becoming a raging alcoholic, or turning to street drugs to fill that void .

I will see the doctor on Friday and get a list of everything I need to take...I'm just taking it one day at a time or shall I say one nap at a time

Yes! I have dealt with this issue every day since my surgery. Many days are filled with crying at the loss. Having said that, it is getting better day by day. For me it is the reality of dealing with food addiction.

I can only imagine. I've been doing my low carb for two weeks. My surgery isn't for another 41 days but my doctor doesn't require any type of liquid diet, before or after. But from what I read, it's still hard to go through once we're sleeved. We only need a few bites to nourish our bodies, but five times that to nourish our souls. I guess that's why it's called soul food .
Time to find something else that doesn't revolve around food, becoming a raging alcoholic, or turning to street drugs to fill that void .

I'm doing it til Monday. I never expected to feel such a loss. And it definitely is an addiction.

Hang in there. How long are you doing it for?