Littel_Urchin

Thanks, Letsgetgoing2018 and Frustr8! They're really peaks and valleys, I post on here about my dark days, thought I should also post about sunny days Day 2 of back to work now, my colleagues still can't shut up about how much smaller I've become.

So this is kind of a non-scale victory for me. Nobody knows about my surgery except my SO. I've also been on self-imposed lock-down ever since I started my pre-op liquid diet and the only person who knows me who'd seen me after surgery before today was my landlady, who sweetly but carefully asked if I'd lost some weight because according to her, my clothes had been getting looser and that she could 'see' my face now. Today I went back to work after being gone for 1.5 months. I've lost approx. 22 pounds since my colleagues last saw me. I know I've definitely lost weight but I did not anticipate how my colleagues just FREAKED when they saw me. They echoed my landlady's sentiment, they said my face has slimmed down a lot and that my dress looked much looser now. They all came by my cubicle one by one to see me and compliment me on how 'skinny' I've become, joked that I was my own younger sister or an intern, all in all being very encouraging. I hit some kind of stall a week ago so this definitely boosts my motivation. So happy.

Fair warning, this post is part rant about period but also, I'm genuinely looking for advice / suggestions. First of all, can I just say I hate it that as a woman who's trying to lose weight (in my case, at least), I only get 2 good weeks out of every month where my body and my weight loss can be quite predictable and reliable. I hate it that even if I can find the motivation to get my weight loss momentum going psychologically, physically my body can only sustain that momentum for 2 weeks before PMS hits and everything goes haywire that makes it very hard to stay on top of things. I am currently in the middle of one of my worst PMS weeks ever especially when it comes to weight loss. It's the kind that induces fatigue, bloating, constipation, and cravings, so it's a quadruple whammy. A week ago when the PMS set in, I was knocked out for 2 days due to the fatigue, which was unusually extreme. And I have been very constipated and bloated ever since, the kind that even laxatives don't help as much (I've been taking the maximum allowable daily dose of senna every day since the constipation set in and I only have one bowel movement every other day). On top of that, my appetite has increased and I just want to cry every night because of how much I want to eat even though I've already met my daily caloric goals. It has been very discouraging because it throws my exercise and diet for a loop, not to mention all the bloating and constipation make you feel fat as hell. And the most frustrating part is, it seems like there is nothing you can do to ensure that your next cycle will be a good one. You just have to roll with the punches and ride it. I'm sure many women can attest to this but you'll never know what kind of PMS you'll get each month. PMS and period can be very arbitrary. I've had months where my PMS was literally non-existent and the period was a breeze, and there were months where the PMS set in a full week and a half before the period with a vengeance, and for the life of me, I can't seem to see any correlation between my PMS and my eating habits / lifestyle choices. I've been doing a lot of research and I know all this is due to hormonal changes but none of the articles says anything about how to prevent / at least keep the hormonal changes in check so your PMS won't cause much disturbance. Anybody has any advice? Please help, this is horrible.

You have a point. Thanks for sharing, it’s a good reminder!

I'm aware of this. I certainly am not looking forward to gobbling down a bucketload of onion fritters, I just miss the taste and it's hard right now because you can't even have just one bite. I also miss pastries, both the flaky and the doughy types. I went by a bakery selling Cornish pasty today and they look so good!

Yeah, bringing a pillow is a good idea although (in my case) it was only one night out of your life. My first night I stayed at the high dependency ward and the pillows were good. Then they transferred me to the general ward and they were the most pathetic, flat, foam pillows that offer no support at all.

Hello! My experience may not be applicable as I am not in the US but here's what happened to me: I packed a hospital bag (change of clothes, toiletries, body wipes, phone + charger, breath spray, my journal + pen) but when I was admitted, I was not allowed to bring the bag with me so my friend had to bring that back with her. When she brought it back to my ward that afternoon, I realized I didn't need most of the stuff I'd packed so I only took a few things and my friend ended up having to take the bag back with her again (God bless her!). Here's what I ended up using during my hospital stay: - Hair brush / comb (very important to make yourself feel good again) - Small perfume oil roller (same as above - to make yourself feel good again, and in a safer format than a spray, what with oxygen tanks and everything) - Lip balm - my lips were dry during my stay. - Flushable feminine wipes (I like to feel clean down there, and can be used as body wipes in a crunch. It turned out my hospital also provides personal cleansing wipes, so I didn't need to bring one). - Breath spray (I didn't feel the need to brush my teeth because I was only allowed plain water during my stay. Also, my hospital offers mouthwash in the morning). - Phone + charger (very important for staying entertained) - 1 set of clothing to change into on the day you're being discharged. - Eye mask + ear plugs (the eye mask especially was very helpful as I am a light sleeper and very sensitive to light) Hope this helps ETA: I was given slippers by the hospital so I didn't bring any with me. I asked my friend to bring me shoes when she picked me up.

it'll be over before you even know it!

Was on a self-imposed lockdown until after my surgery, now I'm back Ooh, on the flip side, I've always wanted to try American Chinese food, especially moo shu pork eaten straight out of the oyster pail.

I'm pretty early so not expecting to eat any of those anytime soon. Just want to know other sleevers' experiences with similar food. For example, onion pakora are practically onion rings. Is it true that oily foods are hard to stomach now that we're sleeved?

This weight loss journey has taught me a lot about myself. One of them being that my vice is savory, carb-y, oily snacks. We've got a pretty good Little India neighborhood over here and authentic Indian street snacks are aplenty. Top three things on my list I want to eat as soon as I could: onion pakora, potato & peas samosa, and bhelpuri. I've been dying for these even if just a small amount. My question is, based on your experience, when were you able to stomach foods with texture similar to things I mentioned above i.e. fried, carb-y, not to mention spicy? Also, how uncomfortable is it to eat something dry? I read in another thread that eating cereal could be uncomfortable. Bhelpuri is practically dry cereal topped with spicy sauce.

What did I tell ya, jultrim18! Happy to hear that.

I love protein water for this purpose. I take something called Prowater, it has 25g of protein and 480ml of liquid in one bottle and it doesn't give me nausea. I develop gas if I take dairy (which feels like nausea), especially if I sip too fast. Not so with protein water.

I had to wait quite some time to get my surgery date (close to 1 year from the initial appointment) and was able to do what I call my "Food Farewell Tour". I managed to eat a lot of things but they were all nicely spaced out so I didn't put on weight. I live in a city with access to many ethnic foods. I'm 5 days post-op now and waiting for the day I could eat Indian street snacks again. And there's this Chinese breakfast item comprising sticky rice, boiled peanuts, and fried shallot that's high on my list, too. Probably not so soon, though.

Hi, kristennicole19! I think we both were sleeved on the same day. I am also 5 days post op. So sorry to hear about your experience. Did your med team tell you what caused all those things you were (are?) experiencing? My suspicion is it could be dehydration. Would protein water help? it contains good amount of protein and also liquid, both are said to be crucial in healing. If this helps, I remember when I first woke up from anesthesia, someone told me that the pain I was experiencing at that moment would be the worst and that it'd only get better. I've found this to be true.