Sunnyer

15 hours ago, RaisnHL said:

I’m so thankful to know that I’m not the only one! 😘

Today was much better, and I've been getting better every day. The nausea is mostly gone, and heartburn is minimal. I tried lactose free yoghurt yesterday, but while it was really good and I loved it (just a couple of teaspoons), it did not agree with me, so today I'm back to Tomato Soup and thin oatmeal.

You will get better every day, maybe with.a few setbacks, but at least for me the recovery has been way better than I expected. Today was my third day at work and I felt okay most of the time. So hopefully you too can look forward to feeling a little (or a lot) better every day.

4 hours ago, RaisnHL said:

I’m not going to lie, I’m slightly jealous of those of you already returning to work/feeling great postop!

I’m officially 1 week post op and I feel like I’m never going to be the same 😩 I have a constant feeling of something being “stuck” in my chest/throat and it’s driving me crazy! I’m also struggling to get in the recommended amount of Protein each day, shakes are disgusting to me now, and I feel awful after finishing one.. I also am having a reallly difficult time getting in all of my meds, taking Horse pills with a SIP of Water is making the “stuck” feeling even worse.

I honestly thought that I was so ready for this and it was all going to be a breeze, but I wasn’t even close to prepared… I don’t regret it, yet, but boy am I close.

I feel exactly the same way, most of the time. Like something is stuck in my chest. That is, when I don't feel nauseous, hungry or with heartburn. My stomach is this bloated, bruised and bloody mess.

I can't stomach the Protein Shakes and I'm not getting neatly the Protein I'm supposed to. I went home for lunch today and yesterday, because I couldn't eat anything in the cafeteria, and I really, really didn't want to go back to work in the afternoon. But I did, because I had to.

On the plus side, I'm getting enough liquids or close to what I'm supposed to, and I'm tolerating Tomato Soup and very thin oatmeal reasonably well. So that's something.

6 hours ago, SuziDavis said:

My date is similar, and I know that I am not going to be able to do pureed meats... so Protein Shakes it is. Luckily I found a company with some really different flavors.

So, why exactly will you be doing the puree stage for so long?

The hospital I went to has the general rule of a liquid diet for two weeks and one week pureed food. If that goes well, you can start eating regular food, but in small amounts. I wonder why it's so different.

4 hours ago, tranquil_chaos said:

I'm a teacher too and I totally get what you are saying about it being more stressful to take more time off vs going into work!

I'm a teacher so I have to be there when school starts. I hope I get stronger every day, but if not I can have my teaching assistants do a fair amount of work for me for a couple weeks. I think I may have overestimated my recovery rate, but this was the earliest I could get the surgery done, so 2 weeks will have to do!

If I was feeling really poorly, I could just give them my doctor's note and take the whole four weeks off, and nobody could say a thing,

But, since I'm not doing that bad, and I'm asking for reduced in-person hours this year due to going to school as well as working full time, I stand a much better chance if I'm there from day one and showing the department head that I'm willing to work.

7 minutes ago, tranquil_chaos said:

I go back to work next Monday and I'm scared!!! My surgeon wanted me off work until Sept 12th and OMG would that have been amazing! Mostly I'm worried about the fatigue. I am almost 1-week post op and I'm pretty much exhausted all the time. I had my post-op checkup today and by the time I got home I was dragging and needed a nap.

Most likely you will feel better and get stronger every day. I was winded after just getting dressed last week, and I'm still a bit winded going up the stairs today, but I'm still heaps better than I was two days ago. So, you may well be perfectly up to going to work in a week's time. If not, is there no way you can get more time off?

1 hour ago, heartofmercury said:

Yes! I had mine on Monday, Aug 8th and I was back working remotely from home by Friday. By 3pm I was really tired, but I feel like I have much more energy this week.

I had my surgery on the 9th, and I went back to work today.

My doctor recommended that I take at least two weeks off, and I have a doctor's note for four weeks, but I'm a teacher and this week is the only time we have to prepare before school starts next week. So I went today (at 9, thankfully not at eight) and I ended up staying until 3:45 or the same as everyone else.

I was a bit nauseous after lunch (very thin oatmeal) and I had to stand up sometimes during our meetings because I was uncomfortable, plus I was pretty tired when I came home, but in all I'm doing much better than I anticipated. Sure, it would have been nice to have another week to heal, but it would be more stressful for me in the long run to turn up next week unprepared.

12 hours ago, Dogmom68 said:

The only things I know to do are to sip on Swansons chicken (or beef) Bone Broth (9 grams protein) and/or to add unflavored Protein liquid or powder to your drinks/ broths. You can order protein liquid from Amazon and it will really boost your protein intake. Maybe incorporate some Pedialyte in your Water or no sugar Gatorade or Powerade to help with the dehydration. My dietitian told me Soups, broths, and Powereade all count towards my Fluid intake. I’m so sorry you’re having nausea. That is so miserable. If it gets really bad and uncontrollable then call your doctor for sure. I hope you feel better soon. 💕

I already have some sugarfree gatorade, but it makes my heartburn worse.

Today I tried some thin Tomato Soup, and it was pretty good and went down well. I'm doing better with liquids today, with the Soup I've managed to down almost a litre of liquids (33 oz) and the day is not over yet.

I know I'm not hitting either the liquid or the protein targets yet, but I tried a different Protein Shake, a banana/pineapple one that's not as thick and sickening as the one I had before. So at least I'm doing a little better.

I'm having real problems with nausea today. I can't stomach another Protein pudding or shake.
Last night I tried some clear Soup and it went down fine.

I've been using myfitnesspal to keep track of my Water and protein. I've only been able to get 8-25 grams of protein per day, and around 1 liter maybe of water and drink (33 o). I'm supposed to aim for 1.5 l of water (50 oz). I can tell by the color of my urine (hope that's not TMI) that I'm dehydrated, as it's more orange than yellow.

It's just so hard to get more down with constant nausea. Do you have any tips or tricks for getting more fluids and protein?

25 minutes ago, RaisnHL said:

I’m struggling to get in my Protein, all the sweet/thick Protein Shakes make me so nauseous… I’m drinking Bone Broth now, and it’s going down much easier! It’s only 9g Protein which isn’t much, but I figured something Is better than nothing 🤷🏼‍♀️

I completely agree that I think the Protein Shakes I've tried so far have been pretty disgusting. I have been drinking chicken broth for the three days, and that goes down the best. Water on its own makes a bit nauseous at times. I'm having fantasies of greek yoghurt and oats that I will (hopefullyI be allowed to have next week.

4 hours ago, LibbyAbby said:

I have not tried kachava, but I never was a big coffee drinker. I was a diet coke addict. 4 months ago when I started this process I was told to lay off the diet coke. I drank about 10 to 12 cans a day. It was literally the only liquid I would drink. Now I drink crystal light or herbal teas. I do allow myself one cup of regular tea in the am. I am trying to get off that too. The herbal teas are nice I think. Lemon zinger is one of my favorites. I think those are a good choice simply because of the many flavors. It is hard for me to drink straight Water unless I'm super thirsty. I need flavors.

I was a big diet soda drinker, too. I wish I could have herbal tea or something, but we're not allowed caffeine after surgery. And we don't have crystal light over here. So I'm drinking mostly Water and some gatorade, but I feel the gatorade makes my heartburn worse, so I drank less of it today.. I've also had some broth, which is ok but it makes me hungry.

I'm also allowed Protein drinks, but the ones I have are kind of gross. I did make some sugarfree Jello yesterday, and I'm trying to have a few teaspoons of it here and there, but I don't love it. I am so ready for this part of the liquid diet to be over. Right now I'm dreaming of oatmeal, which I will be allowed to have next week. This liquid diet is hard.

2 hours ago, heartofmercury said:

Wow, I didn't realize how hard it would be to sleep through the night. The most I can sleep is 3 hours at a time. My doc prescribed gabapentin (spelling?) and said it would cause drowsiness. Maybe I need to try taking it before bedtime.

Gabapentin definitely helps with falling asleep and staying asleep. I have fibromyalgia, so I took gabapentin at night for almost a decade. People often take it one hour before bedtime, but for me it was best to take it right before bedtime, to help me fall asleep. So maybe you can start by trying taking it one hour before, since that's the most common method.

The first night after the surgery I only slept for 1-2 hours at a time, but last night I slept for 6,5 hours. I do take phenergan at night, which does the same thing as gabepentin, so that helps.

1 hour ago, RaisnHL said:

Don’t want to scare anyone but my recovery has been ROUGH… I had my surgery on 8/9 and surgery went great but the nausea has been awful! I’ve been vomiting constantly! And the anesthesia has messed with my bladder so I haven’t been able to pee on my own. The doctor finally has a catheter put in, and hopefully my bladder will wake up tomorrow.

Oh, that sounds rough. I did have nausea yesterday, but not at all today. Hopefully your bladder will be ok tomorrow. This has happened to me before after surgery, but not this time, thankfully.

1 hour ago, Muffinman1119 said:

Many people will have to complete a portion of their pre-op diet on liquids. I had to do two days, but I've seen others who did multiple weeks of liquid.

Do you think it makes it easier for them to do the liquid diet afterwards, since they have practice, so to speak? I'm doing ok, but as I said I do feel somewhat hungry and I also have heartburn on and off. Right now, I can only drink Water, as everything else gives me heartburn.

Hi everyone, I hope it's ok for me to be here. I just had my gastric sleeve yesterday. I had it done locally, so I'm back at home already. Trying to adjust to the liquid diet.

Did everyone have to do a liquid diet before surgery? I did not. I just had to lose seven pounds before the surgery, which I did without going on a special diet. They suggested that people could do low carb or a diet with mostly crisp bread and lean, Protein rich toppings, but that was just a suggestion and liquid diets were never mentioned.

So, I'm trying a liquid diet for the first time today. Yesterday, post surgery, I drank Water and gatorade at the hospital. Today, at home, I have had gatorade, water, chicken broth and propud. I have occasional pain, but I haven't thrown up since yesterday. I've read that people don't feel hungry after bariatric surgery, but I do feel hungry and I wonder if it's because I didn't do the liquid diet before the surgery.

I did take all of the advice I've gotten here into consideration, so thank you all for that. One thing I did do yesterday was to reach out to an acquaintance who had gastric sleeve three years ago in a neighboring country. Apparently, she did go through a local doctor who sent her to have surgery overseas but closer than Poland or other countries in Eastern Europe. And it was all paid by the national health insurance.

This doctor is an obesity expert and runs one of the two programs in the country that's recognized as adequate preparation for weight loss surgery, if you want to try to get the national insurance to pay for your operation. It's not on an inpatient basis, which is a plus. When my acquaintance did it, the wait between the prep course and the surgery was only three months, but it may be longer now.

I did email the doctor to ask for an appointment, but I have no idea if they're accepting new patients or if they have a long waiting list. If they're like other doctors, they'll be going on vacation soon and I may not get an appointment until the fall or later. And I may not qualify for surgery paid by the national health insurance, since their general rule is that they operate on people with BMI 40 or higher, and mine is 37.

As I understand it, they may approve surgery for someone with a BMI under 40 if they have enough co-morbidities. I have high blood pressure and the slightly elevated blood sugar test. I don't know if that's enough, but I guess I'll find out. If I don't qualify I probably won't be able to go to the hospital in the neighboring country that my acquaintance went to, since It's not a private hospital. At least, that's what she thought.

15 hours ago, Arabesque said:

I’d look into surgery in a neighbouring country. There are a few Europeans on the forum who may be able to make some recommendations.

There are always negative stories & a friend of a friend stories. You can find them about anything. I recently read a story about the prevalence of fungal infections in people who to go to the large nail salons so … People who have good experiences don’t always shout it from the roof tops. We do here though. 🙂 Sure, there can be hiccups & things may not go perfectly to begin but generally everything settles & works out in the end or can be remedied rather easily. Some issues arise because of complications from pre existing conditions too. Talk to people who actually had the surgery (like on here) if you can.

You also get negativity from people who think the surgery is an easy way out. It is so NOT easy. They think if you just diet harder & be more committed to exercising you’ll lose weight. If it was as easy as just dieting & exercising you’d be thin now. We all would have been. The negative comments from family &/or friends are why some of us don’t tell people we’ve had the surgery.

"They think if you just diet harder & be more committed to exercising you’ll lose weight." I guess that's right, and what's more I kind of think that too, even though I know it's not necessarily true. It kind of feels like failure. Like I'm giving up and I should just try harder. Never mind that I've basically been on a diet since I was 15 or so. I was never overweight until I was thirty after an injury, when I couldn't exercise, so for the first 15 years I dieted without actually being overweight.

I did mention the possibility of bariatric surgery to my mom today, and she was pretty negative too.

An old classmate of from primary school mine shared the interview with the food addiction lady on social media, and wrote that "you couldn't cut the food addiction out of the addicted person, any more than you could cut alcoholitsm out of someone by cutting their liver in half."

She went on to say that she weighed her three meals per day and abstained from xugar, dairy products and refined carbs. She has done this for 13 years and has lost 100 pounds and kept them off. I briefly thought about contacting the food addiction clinic, or Noom, since one of my friends lost 50 pounds least year with Noom. ,

But then I remember that I did try OA once, which I didn't like that much, and also I didn't lose any weight in spite of adhering to their program. I also tried Noom last year, but I didn't use it. Writing everything down and weighing is so annoying. Still, I feel like I'm failing and thinking of using a crutch when I should be doing this on my own.

Also, after this discussion with my friend, I came home, opened the website of a local newspaper, and at the top of the "most read" articles today, there was an interview with a woman who runs a food addiction clinic, the only one of its kind in the country.

The headline was that up to 60% of those who had gastric sleeve ended up with an alcohol addiction instead. She didn't give a citation for her claim, so I don't know how accurate that is or if it has any basis in reality at all. She said that alcohol goes into the blood stream faster when you have a smaller stomach and so people developed an alcohol problem, swapping food addiction for another addiction.

IDK, I drink alcohol maybe five or six times a year, and most often it's just a glass of wine at dinner. I googled this a bit and found a US study that said that around 20% of all people who underwent bariatric surgery in several centers in the US during a certain time period had developed problematic drinking. That correlation was strongest for people who had gastric bypass, where 20% of people had, according to the study, developed a full blown alcohol addiction. So, it looks like she exaggerated the risk.

The headline shocked me a bit, but diving into the studies risk factors included being male (not me), younger (nope), smoking (nope) and drinking regularly (I don't know if a few times a year can be called regular) and having less social support (less than what?). Have you heard of or considered this risk factor? One of the articles I read said you should avoid alcohol altogether for the first year after surgery, is that something you have done or heard of?

I did tell another friend today, and she was a bit negative. She mentioned that someone she worked with had gone under the knife at the local private clinic that's still operating, and that she had complications and had to have surgery two more times. She didn't know if this person had a gastric bypass or sleeve, but it was a few years ago.

She also mentioned another friend of hers who had weight loss surgery in Poland, everything went well but my friend said that this person had never looked worse in her life and that the surgery had aged her terribly. She mentioned wrinkles and Hair loss, and that her friend still had very thin hair although it's been two years since her surgery.

I have a neighbor who had a gastric sleeve in Eastern Europe a year ago. She does have more wrinkles than before, but her hair is just as thick as ever, so I guess it varies. This neighbor of mine had more wrinkles than average before surgery, since she was both a smoker (recently quit) and an avid sun worshipper.

I have almost no wrinkles although I'm middle aged. None on my forehead or in my face in general, except for little bags under the eyes and crinkly lines in the corners of my eyes. I've used prescription retinoids since I was in my twenties, and I'm sure that helped. How likely am I to become super wrinkly if I lose 40 - 80 pounds? I understand that on the average people lose 70% of their excess weight with the gastric sleeve, so for me that would be around 56 pounds.

I weighed 46 pounds less than I do now nine years ago, and I looked a lot better at that weight with no noticeable extra lines. Is it likely to be that much worse if the weight loss is through surgery? What is your experience, those of you who have already had the surgery?

3 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

major complications and dying from surgery are VERY rare. That was more of an issue 30 or 40 years ago, but techniques have improved tremendously since then.

but yes - I had the same worries and went back & forth about having surgery for about 10 years before I did it. I think what decided it for me was the realization that I was more likely to die from complications of being obese than I was from complications from the surgery.

I've seen statistics from the US that show that death from gastric sleeve is very rare. However, I live in a small country and there are only two places that do weight loss surgeries locally.

One is a state run hospital, that has a very good track record and nobody has died from weight loss surgery there, but it's very hard to get surgery there. In order to qualify for surgery there, you first have to go to an inpatient program at a state run rehabilitation centre and the waiting list for that is measured in years, not months.

There used to be two private clinics who did weight loss surgeries locally, but after two people died from gastric sleeve in 2018 and one case of serious complications, on of them closed. In all, six people had died after a gastric sleeves performed by their surgeon. They had limited aftercare and the same applies to the private clinic that is still working. Also, I wouldn't be able to go this summer if I chose the private clinic locally, since it costs more and they have a long waiting list too.

We have socialised medicine, so if you have complications afterwards you are referred to the state hospital or public health clinics. In Poland, I would stay for at least two days after surgery at the hospital and up to five days, and they have an excellent track record. You can choose a trip that last for five days or seven days, and I would chose the longer one. It's similar in the other country I'm considering, which is Latvia.

Does it still seem unreasonable to go overseas for the surgery in my circumstances?

I have thought about weight loss surgery for a few years and seriously for a year now. I've been overweight for over 20 years, and in the last nine years I have gained around 44 pounds. Currently I'm around 80 pounds overweight with a BMI of 37.

Like so many here, I've tried so many things to lose weight. Meal Replacement shakes, weight loss club, exercise, different kinds of low carb eating etc., with diminishing results. The last time I lost any significant amount of weight was almost decade ago, when I was pregnant with my son. I lost about 22 pounds from before I was pregnant, but I gained it back double in the years that followed. I was at my highest weight in 2019, and since then I've managed to lose and gain the same 10-15 pounds several times.

Before I was a mom, I used to exercise regularly, but as a new single mom with a full time job, I didn't have the time. I started with a low carb diet four years ago and started exercising in a gym a year after that, but then covid came and all the gyms closed. I started having blood pressure problems at the end of 2019, and it has gotten worse since. I'm now on two different medication for blood pressure, plus Metaformin for blood sugar. I got covid last winter and after that my stamina is a lot worse, so I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle I keep losing.

I have the money to pay for surgery, if I go overseas to have it. I'm in northern Europe and am considering two private hospital in Eastern European countries. I guess I'm afraid of complications, of dying and of not getting the desired results. A part of me feels I should just be able to exercise and do Keto to lose the weight, but I've tried it so many times and failed. As I said, I'm a single mom and want to live a long and healthy life for my son, who does not have another active parent in his life. I've only told one friend that I'm considering this surgery, but I hesitate to tell my family. I'm the only overweight person in my family and I'm not sure they'll be supportive.

Did anyone else struggle this much with deciding to have surgery or not, and what finally helped you to decide?