Recidivist

I'm going to a high school class reunion in August 2019. It's not the reason I'm doing this, but I will admit that I'm pretty excited about great I will look by then! 🙂

I am three weeks and two days out. At two weeks, I was always dizzy, passed out several times and had a seizure once. The doctor told me to drink more Water, but I simply couldn't drink more than I was because I was always full and it wold hurt to eat or drink. The good news is that in the last week and a half I have improved dramatically--no more dizziness, and it's gotten so much easier to drink. Hang in there!

I've lost an incredibly 32 pounds since surgery 3 weeks ago, which absolutely blows my mind! However, I'm trying not to weigh myself very often, because I know it will ebb and flow and I just want to focus on eating right.

Good for you! I'm finding it very difficult to get all the Water and Protein I need every day, and I feel perpetually full.

You can look at it that way. But what if you do not lose the weight. It could lead to heart attack or other health issues if we continued going down the same road. I do agree that it is a huge change mentally and physically. I am 40 years old. We have eaten one way for so long and now we have to do it another way.

I get it. I completely do, but let me share a story.
So as a lot of heavy people do, I have lots of friends with not so healthy lifestyles and body sizes.
I have these 2 friends that are sisters. They are in their early and mid-40’s. They are somewhere in the high 300’s and they’ve both had health issues for awhile. I’ve not told either of them about what I’ve done because they are both very anti-diet, exercise, health,etc....
They lost both parents due to obesity-related issues within the last few years and if I ever talk about the latest diet or fitness kick I’m on, it is met with extreme negativity.
They live together and honestly we don’t hang out much, our friendship is more text, social media and special holiday type events. All of those activities of course are involved with food and drink.
We used to co-host monthly book clubs with tons of food and beverages, but we all got busy during the holidays and I haven’t seen them since maybe November.
Never said one single peep about what I was planning, because I wasn’t in the mood to be lectured on how society shouldn’t be able to dictate self-image to us and all that bull crap.

Anyway, I found out through another mutual friend that the older sister is in cardiac ICU because she had blot clots in her lungs, her blood pressure is uncontrollably high, and apparently now her kidneys are failing.
While honestly not surprising that she was going to have some major health issues down the line, this news still shocked me. It brought home exactly WHY I’m doing this.

This is the same girl that went with undiagnosed uterine cancer because she was afraid to go to the doctor and be weighed and “have everyone there judge and lecture” her.
She literally almost died from cancer because she didn’t want to get on a scale.

Honestly I don’t expect even this will change her mind about the consequences of extreme obesity, but I wanted to post about it to remind every single one of us that THIS IS WORTH IT!!!

Tonite I’m taking my mother out for her 75th bday dinner and I’m not going to be able to have a cocktail and an appetizer and then dinner, and yeah.... that totally blows. but I by-God am not  a cardiac ICU patient who might not live to see April either.

I'm feeling better today as well. Not great, but better. I have been obsessed with getting at least 80 oz of Water a day, and the dizziness seems to be subsiding a bit. I've also ventured outside to go shopping, but 30 minutes absolutely exhausted me. One step at a time.

Let us know what happens with your appointment please. That’s crazy and very dangerous. I had never realized that dehydration could have those results. They did not advise you to go to the ER I guess?

I am sorry to hear that you are having these issues. It must be scary. I have read a lot of stories from people who had varying issues after their surgeries and most do look back and see it as a bump in the road, hopefully your story will mirror theirs. In the meantime I truly hope you can get your blood pressure up soon and that you don't black out or have another seizure. I also hope that someone who has experienced what you have will see your posts and maybe have some helpful information for you.

I'm feeling better today as well. Not great, but better. I have been obsessed with getting at least 80 oz of Water a day, and the dizziness seems to be subsiding a bit. I've also ventured outside to go shopping, but 30 minutes absolutely exhausted me. One step at a time.

I'm sorry to hear that! I knew something had to be wrong. Will the procedure be something like an endoscopy so you won't have to go through another hospital stay? Or is it a stricture in the esophogus and might it help to be on acid reducers? I'm definitely not a doctor, but I hope that any procedure you have will be minor. I'm sure you are very tired of all the misery. 😥

There will be answers for all this, may you both find the right person to help. Watching and waiting to hear good news, got to feel it may be right ahead😝📖👍

I have to admit that I feel slightly guilty because I have zero regrets and have had basically zero adverse effects.
I mean, I’ve had nausea when I do things like take my Vitamins on an empty stomach or tummy cramps when I accidentally eat too fast, but those are very minor and only last an hour or two.
Today I got a little light-headed while out shopping with hubs today and we cut our errands short so I could come home and drink Water and rest.
Well I can tell you why. I only got about 5 hrs sleep (thunderstorms all night) had an early Pilates class, then we did yard work and I only ate 1 egg and half a piece of Canadian bacon.
So yeah.... my stupid butt got tired and woozy while doing more running around.

I don’t blame this on the surgery, I blame this on me still needing to take time to relearn how to juggle all the things I need/want to juggle while going through this process.
All of it is an opportunity to learn and try not to repeat “mistakes”

I'm hopeful I have turned a corner... I felt it last night. Suddenly felt my energy come back and something was different. I have kept my food down for 24 hours. The weird thing is, my Seroma healed up, finally, yesterday too. Not sure how that can be linked, but I just feel better today.

Good for you! I'm finding it very difficult to get all the Water and Protein I need every day, and I feel perpetually full.

Thanks, Gotta! Unfortunately, it's not getting better. This morning I blacked out and had a seizure, which has never happened in my life. I had already scheduled a 9:30 post-op appointment with my surgeon. She said that it might just be a case of severe dehydration and that i need to drink 80 oz of Water every day for the foreseeable future.
I'm feeling quite discouraged that the moment, and I'm actually regretting having done this to myself. I hope I will look back on this in a year as a mere bump in the road.

Thanks, Gotta! Unfortunately, it's not getting better. This morning I blacked out and had a seizure, which has never happened in my life. I had already scheduled a 9:30 post-op appointment with my surgeon. She said that it might just be a case of severe dehydration and that i need to drink 80 oz of Water every day for the foreseeable future.
I'm feeling quite discouraged that the moment, and I'm actually regretting having done this to myself. I hope I will look back on this in a year as a mere bump in the road.

I hope you get the low blood pressure issue resolved! I'm on my 5th dose of Miralex and no go so far. If it works for you, let me know how much you take and what form. I'm OK taking the powder in Vitamin zero orange or lemonade...don't even notice the taste and no grit.

Not to be negative because overall I feel good. But I feel you when you say you want to eat but can’t.... I started cooking again and made chicken enchiladas on Friday. Ate about 3 forkfuls. That was very good. Then I made a massive quantity of chicken salad on Saturday. I have been eating that too because there’s really nothing too bad in there. I use light Mayonnaise. I’m able to cut the chicken and really tiny pieces or shred it before I put it in the recipe and then I chew the hell out of it. The second I eat anything I can hear my stomach gurgling so I probably shouldn’t be pushing it but it doesn’t make me sick or nauseated anything negative just lots and lots of gurgling. I can live with gurgling I suppose.

I don’t think you should be discouraged. You had such a difficult start that I would assume you probably have lots of Fluid retention, swelling and adjustment your body is going to have to go through. Just try to stay positive. Are you having bowel movements? Not to get personal but just wondering if that could be part of the deal.
Also I found this article about a week ago that talked about the liver shrinking diet we do before surgery. Says that our liver naturally wants to return to its original size which means growing in size and weight. This happens week two- week three, according to this thing I read. Considering your circumstances I would definitely say your body has some healing to do.

Weigh yourself in the morning 😅

Whoa, that was a pretty close call! The admin person in my surgeon's office who scheduled the surgery had me down for a sleeve as well. At my next meeting with the surgeon, she said, "So, we are doing a sleeve on you!" Fortunately, I was able to get it straightened out before we were in the operating room.

Hi, all. Day 10 after surgery, and things are going extremely well. I have no more pain, I haven't vomited or had food come back up or have it get "stuck" as some of you have mentioned. I'm on purees now and am cheating a bit in the sense that I'm having soft foods and chewing them really, really well. Once this week I ate more than I should have, but there was no dumping. It was just discomfort as if I had eaten too much before I had surgery. I always feel full and am still having trouble getting all the Protein and Water every day, but I'm getting closer.
I have two big issues that remain. I'm still extremely dizzy and disoriented at times, especially when I stand up. I got up to go the bathroom last night and got very confused and crashed into a standing mirror that is nowhere near the bathroom. Thankfully, my wonderful partner jumped up and saved me.
The other thing is that taking ground-up pills is disgusting! I have tried many different ways, and I've found that the best thing is to just throw all the powder into my mouth followed by some water, which gets it over with quickly. (I'm on quite a few meds and it amounts to about a tablespoon.) I can't wait until I can swallow pills whole again!

Hi, all. Day 10 after surgery, and things are going extremely well. I have no more pain, I haven't vomited or had food come back up or have it get "stuck" as some of you have mentioned. I'm on purees now and am cheating a bit in the sense that I'm having soft foods and chewing them really, really well. Once this week I ate more than I should have, but there was no dumping. It was just discomfort as if I had eaten too much before I had surgery. I always feel full and am still having trouble getting all the Protein and Water every day, but I'm getting closer.
I have two big issues that remain. I'm still extremely dizzy and disoriented at times, especially when I stand up. I got up to go the bathroom last night and got very confused and crashed into a standing mirror that is nowhere near the bathroom. Thankfully, my wonderful partner jumped up and saved me.
The other thing is that taking ground-up pills is disgusting! I have tried many different ways, and I've found that the best thing is to just throw all the powder into my mouth followed by some water, which gets it over with quickly. (I'm on quite a few meds and it amounts to about a tablespoon.) I can't wait until I can swallow pills whole again!

I started the puree stage today and it's not nearly as much of an improvement as I had hoped. I experimented with shrimp today, and by the time it was pureed it was just a vaguely salty pile of sludge. And I'm supposed to do this for three weeks! I think my main goal in that time will be to wean myself off of Protein drinks and get more of my protein through food.