I'm on day 1 (5 hours and 51 minutes of day 1, but who's counting?) of my 14 day pre-op diet before my surgery on Aug 20. I'm getting pretty nervous and anxious about how I'll feel after recovery and have been reading about everyone's experiences.

What I'm interested in hearing about is if anyone was pleasantly surprised with how they felt after surgery or with their recovery? I've read so much about pain and complications, I'd love to hear about those that may have had a breeze!

I know that everyone is different in terms of their recovery, but i think I'm psyching myself out and for some reason think that this may make me feel better about things (if that makes sense). I'm also having my surgery done as a single incision (just through my belly button) so wondering if that has made a difference. Thanks, all!

My recovery was pretty easy. I'm 5 weeks out and I didn't throw up once. No complications at all. Thank God. My only issue was the incision and trapped gas every once in a while but I expected that. You will do great!

Good Luck!

I had it real easy. No gas, no real problems at all until about 4-6 weeks out. Then some trouble getting back on solids. All in all - I would say it was a non-event. I got the bottle of pain medication and used it for two nights mainly to get to sleep. Then no more. Still have 3/4 of the bottle and never did refill for the 2 tmes I could have. Probably should have refilled for April 15th or some other such day.

I am excercising, eating pretty good and enjoying being slimmer. I think it is hard to compare it with anything else. Having never given birth (thank God) I can't go there. I have had an abcessed tooth and it was way worse than this. Also with the exception of the giving birth comparison, it is hard to come up with an event that has pain and discomfort but has such an upside down the road. I did not have much of a problem, but for those that did, there is that new you coming down the road that has to make things a bit more bearable.

My recovery was a breeze. The day of the surgery was the only tricky day, because I was still drugged up! After that, I just followed my doctor's advice about foods and liquids to a "T," and sipped, sipped, sipped Water and walked as much as I could.

By the end of day two, I was walking around the block, and be the end of week one I had more energy than I could ever remember feeling. The only hard part was remembering that I was still freshly healing inside, so to be gentle with myself.

It was a walk in the park

Remember that on the internet, you tend to hear more from the people who had a BAD experience than you do from the people who had a GOOD experience, because who gets online to say "everything's fine, nothing happened, smooth sailing!"

You all are amazing - thank you so much! I'm so appreciating the "smooth sailing" nonupdate-updates! I'm on day 8 of my liquid pre op diet and I won't lie, I'm hating every second of it. 7 more days to go until I hopefully have a boring smooth sailing recovery story.

You all are amazing - thank you so much! I'm so appreciating the "smooth sailing" nonupdate-updates! I'm on day 8 of my liquid pre op diet and I won't lie, I'm hating every second of it. 7 more days to go until I hopefully have a boring smooth sailing recovery story.

I can truly say that I think the pre-op diet is the absolute hardest part of this journey physically. There's a huge mental component afterwards, IMO, that can trip us up if we aren't careful, but that liquid diet is killer. However, the liquid diet does a couple of great things for us. It helps us detox from soda, sugar and caffeine and jump-starts the weight loss. It also, incidentally, shrinks our liver and makes it easier for the surgeon to do his/her job.

You'll get through these next few days and it will be a distant, blurry memory soon.

I also had a relatively easy experience with my surgery and the post op recovery. I woke up feeling a little nauseous from the anesthetic, but it was only a few minutes later they gave me an anti-nausea med via IV and it took care of it immediately. I stayed in the hospital overnight and was released the next morning. I felt well enough to walk the halls that evening, and only used the morphine pump to make sure I would sleep comfortably. In the morning I did not use the pump at all, and was given about 10 little 1 oz cups to drink Water from within one hour. If I could manage that I would be released, and thankfully, it was not a problem.

Once home, I allowed myself plenty of rest and followed the doctor's recommendations, clear fluids for 3 days, then full liquids, then puree, mushy and finally solids at six weeks. My energy level was great, although after eating I would have to rest and allowed myself plenty of naps. I was out walking everyday after I got home and continue to do so as well as now doing strength training and workout DVD's.

I took a month off work, but I probably could have gone back at 2 weeks, but I was elated to have the time off to focus on my nutrition and healing.

I have no regrets...even now, I am losing slow but steady and am able to tolerate small meals, but many of the things I loved before. I can go out to dinner and enjoy a meal with family and friends, but of course I usually have a to go box for lunch the next day !!

I love my sleeve!!

I was pretty active before surgery and I think that does make a difference with recovery.

I had surgery in Mexicali on a Wed. I spend my time during the day walking outside, around the neighborhood of the hospital. There really was nothing to do in the hospital. I came home on Saturday, and went back to work on Monday. I really could not tell I had surgery, other than the post op diet.

Bump

great to see a thread telling pre-sleevers, newbies - that sleeve experiences, recoveries go so well. my situation was great

no nausea, gas, vomitting - not even super tired - walking around and drinking - things went smoothly

people do need to see both sides of the stomach, I mean coin

there are sleevers that unfortunately have bad outcomes from WLS - and their stories are important to hear. we shouldn't act like ostriches with our heads buried in the sand - its ok to know what "possibly" could happen.

the % of these serious problems are far and few between

IMO most surgeries go smoothly, well, with out any complication - the normal side effects, nausea, vomitting, gas, all that good stuff - small price to pay for such a wondersul surgery and great outcome for the rest of our longer healthier happier lives

good luck to all pre-sleevers and newbies

you are in for the ride of a lifetime

Overall i had a fantastic recovery like i expected. I had nausea for the first few hours which was managed pretty quickly via meds. Only the first 2 days were what have i done to myself moments. No vomiting and zero pain. I slept on my stomach after 3 days. I even had enough energy to do a 6km event run 10 days later. 8 weeks out now and 50lbs down. I feel great. I'm a happy customer

I had a great recovery! Not much pain, I have never been nauseous. Never vomited.

Follow the guidelines of your Dr and you will do great! I have lost 45% of my excess weight in less than 4months!

Getting sleeved was the best decision I have ever made!

The only exercise I have done is walking my dogs. I am going to start some toning exercises now. The bat wings need a little attention! Lol.

I'm sure I already posted in this thread cos the sleeve surgery and process has been a total breeze for me, LOVE it. But I thought I'd also mention I have two friends who've also been sleeved and they both had a quite easy time of it too. One had a hard time with certain foods, but no actual complications. The other one is having an easier time of it even than I did.

I was sleeved 12/10 and for the most part had a fairly easy recovery. In the hospital for recovery i didn't suffer from some nausea. That night in my room and early into the morning the next day. Also the leak test I had done the next morning I failed due to the swelling in my tummy. The liquids wouldn't go down and stayed in my esophagus.

So i was in Monday surgery at 2pm un my room at 6pm and then checked out on Thursday night around 6pm.

Didn't really have any pain. Once the pain pump was taken away I didn't use any pain meds. I had single site gastrectomy so only two incisions which I think helped my recovery.

As far as tolerating foods. I just started purees and so far I haven't had any problems with food. I do have trouble getting all my liquids in but I'm getting there.

No complaints here!

I had pain and I was tired in the beginning, but it got better very fast (improving every day) and after 5-6 weeks I was 100% back to normal. I had ZERO complications. I have never been nauseous/irregular/emotional/whatever- nothing!

Honestly, it has been SO EASY for me, I must be a freak, because all I ever see written about on here are horror stories. I have nothing negative to say!

I was sleeved 12/26 and have sailed through I started the process at 257 pounds, 248.8 the day if surgery and 235.2 this morning. My surgery was un eventful, I used the morphine pump for about 10 hours and then stopped using it. I never had severe gas pains, I was up walking about two hours after surgery. I went home the following morning and I'm still cruising. I sip water all day, eat my SF jello and manage to get in about 20 grams of protein a day. I am a little tired but figure that's to be expected. This is the best decision I have ever made. If you are scared because of the horror stories you may read on here- take a deep breath and dive in. It's not all wine and roses but its bearable Good luck to everyone.