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The 1st Day Of My Gastric Sleeve Surgery Journey



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Hi. I just joined this site :0)

I was approved by my insurance this week (Bluesheild CA PPO).

I have my Pre-op apt this week.

I will hopefully have my Gastric Sleeve surgery in 2wks.

I have been so nervous now that this is becoming a reality and have not slept in nights reading posts. This site has helped a lot so far.

My main concerns are healing, pain, vomiting, and possible leakage, etc.

I'm in my 30's and weigh 252. I'm 5.3ft

I plan to continue to post followups on this same thread as I go through this, so you can check in :0)

I'm in Southern CA

Thank you for your support.

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Hello TeddyBear!!! :) Welcome to VST! Yes, you will find tons of information and even more support here. This is like my second home - even though I've been trying to scale back a little bit... :D

All of those concerns you've mentioned are possible, as there are no guarantees - but the incidents of them are very slim. I myself experienced nausea for the first week, and yes I even tossed my Cookies (no not really Cookies, but still...) one time in the hospital. It's ok though, because I would do that all over again if I could still live my life as I do today!

Wishing you all the very best on your journey and especially in the next few weeks.

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Thank you. :0)

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Good luck, before you know it, you will be on the losers bench. Welcome!

Hi. I just joined this site :0)

I was approved by my insurance this week (Bluesheild CA PPO).

I have my Pre-op apt this week.

I will hopefully have my Gastric Sleeve surgery in 2wks.

I have been so nervous now that this is becoming a reality and have not slept in nights reading posts. This site has helped a lot so far.

My main concerns are healing, pain, vomiting, and possible leakage, etc.

I'm in my 30's and weigh 250. I'm 5.3ft

I plan to continue to post followups on this same thread as I go through this, so you can check in :0)

I'm in CA and having surgery done by Dr Ninh Nguyen at UCI.

Thank you for your support.

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Thank u!! My surgery date is Oct 28th. Now I have to start eliminating certain foods from my diet and practice chewing and eating slower. I can't believe this is actually going to finally happen :0) I'm excited!

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Hi TeddyBear! I'm in So Cal too and was just approved this week as well. My surgery was scheduled today for November 9th.

Good Luck to you!!!

:party:

Thank u!! My surgery date is Oct 28th. Now I have to start eliminating certain foods from my diet and practice chewing and eating slower. I can't believe this is actually going to finally happen :0) I'm excited!

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Yeah!!! U too!!! Kit!!! Good to hear from u!!Thank u!!

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Today I bought my Vitamins and pre op Protein Shakes. I will start taking the vitamins to get my body used to them and in one week I start my preop diet :0) I got banana flavor from Bariatric Advantage. I hope it's yummy cuz that'll b my meal 6 times a day for 14 days. :0/ cheers*

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I am not having an easy time with the taste of the Vitamins (chewable) and the shake!! I do not even know if I'm putting the right proportion of mix to the h2o!! It's only day one n I feel so hungry, have a major headache n nauseous!! Blah. Only 2.5 more weeks of this :0/

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I am not having an easy time with the taste of the Vitamins (chewable) and the shake!! I do not even know if I'm putting the right proportion of mix to the h2o!! It's only day one n I feel so hungry, have a major headache n nauseous!! Blah. Only 2.5 more weeks of this :0/

Nausea is very normal. I had it too... it will pass in time. Just do the best you can! You'll see your way through it. :)

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I do not even know if I'm putting the right proportion of mix to the h2o!!

Give Bariatric Advantage a ring or send them an email. Sorry it tastes so bad. I just went to GNC for the first time and bought a small package to taste. I usually dislike this kind of stuff. ugh! We can do this though, I'm right behind you.

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Thanks u guys! As I'm literally gagging trying to drink it. Blah ;0) I feel like it also has to much sodium. I'll email them 4sure! Anyhow, eye on the prize!! ;0) u guys r great support!!! Thanks again.

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I posted this on another gals site, but wanted to post it for you too.

Hi! I just wanted to reply and let you know what you have to look forward to. I am 14 days post-op today. I am 45, just turned, and was 241.5 pre-op. I had my surgery on 9/27/11 at the University of Minnesota. It was a 3 hour surgery and all went well. I had previously had my gallbladder out and they also cleaned up some scar tissue, so they said. I was admitted about 11:00 a.m. and surgery was to be at 1:10. Surgery ended up finally being about 4:00, I was about going crazy... I got to my room about 8:00 p.m. and was pretty out of it the rest of the night. I do have high anxiety and was pretty nervous the whole night with all that anesthesia on board. They said it takes about 18 hours for all the anesthesia to wear off. The next day I pretty much laid in my hospital bed, got up for a couple of walks and to go to the bathroom. They took my catheter out in the morning. I was then able to order some broth, Water, juice and popsicles. I couldn't eat much and was just sipping on stuff to see how it felt. It gurgled a lot, but really wasn't any pain. That night I was up a little more and my family came to visit and I pretty much still just laid around. By the 2nd morning I was ready to move a bit and get a shower. All went well. They had a chair in the shower and it felt nice to have the warm Water run on me. I had quite a bit of stomach pain with 5 little incisions, 3 were 5mm and two were 15mm, the bigger were about 2 inches above my belly button. Those are the two that hurt for pretty much 5-6 days before the pain decreased by half. I also had a cough and it hurt very much to cough. Be prepared. I finally took some Vicks 44 cough Syrup all day and evening for 3 days until the pain lessened to help subdue the cough! It went down just fine. I was discharged on the 2nd day then about 2:00 and came home to hit the couch for another 2-3 days and also slept on the couch as it has recliners on each end and was much easier to get in and out of.

By about 6 days out I was able to lay in my bed, I didn't move much and couldn't really get on my side for another 2 days, but was able to sleep well in my own bed. On day 9 I was able to wear my CPAP again, I might have been able to wear it sooner, but I didn't try til this day. I put it on and thought if there was extra air going in with pain, I would remove it quick, but I must have fell asleep as I woke up in the morning and still wearing it!

I am now on day 12, drank Clear liquids and Jello for 6 days and then added in some cream Soups, pudding, mashed potatoes etc... I have been trying a few other things, just really chewing it very well. I am to be on pureed for 2 weeks now, and then have my 4 week follow-up on the 26th of October. I ended up taking 5 weeks off of work, wanting to be good and ready to go back and know about my new diet, plus I love this time of year!

Well as of today I am down about 24.5 pounds, 14.5 of that post-op in 12 days. It is amazing. I was really feeling sorry for myself the first few days in the hospital thinking what the heck I had done, but now am feeling better and have more energy already and feeling so good! I was very lucky also that my insurance covered this procedure.

Good luck to you and I hope that all this information helps you! If you want to know anything else, feel free to ask me. You can use my private email too: peines4@comcast.net.

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Thank you kindly for sharing your experience!! I'm so so happy for you!! I will keep In touch!! :0)

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I am not having an easy time with the taste of the Vitamins (chewable) and the shake!! I do not even know if I'm putting the right proportion of mix to the h2o!! It's only day one n I feel so hungry, have a major headache n nauseous!! Blah. Only 2.5 more weeks of this :0/

Hi there! I'm day 9 on my pre-op diet. Try Isopure Low Carb Dutch chocolate or Zero Carb unflavored. They mix really well. I add some crystal light to the unflavored so I can vary the taste and not be too bored! lol

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      1. Selina333

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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