Surgery yesterday, discharged this morning. I'm super excited to see what success is going to look like! My clinic staff said that my recovery while under their care was much better than most (but of course we all know they've got the good drugs there!) . Drugs at home, not quite so good, but still feeling really good considering I'm only 29 hours out from surgery. I have some minor soreness along the line of my incisions and some muscular soreness around my diaphragm. No nausea, no vomiting, little gas, a little heartburn sensation when I'm not sitting up straight or standing, and it's slightly difficult to stay focused due to the narcotic. The only other thing I 'm not cheering about is trying to get all my meds and fluids down due to the swelling and uncomfortable sensation, but that's all it is, fortunately, "uncomfortable sensation". No complaints here and I can't wait to see what awesome things are awaiting me in my future!

Best of luck to you all! At this point, so far so good and I'm really pleased!

Wow that is so great to hear! I am having surgery tomorrow and am getting more nervous every minute. Keep thinking what the hell am i doing! I know it is the right choice, but am getting nervous. HOpe i am lucky enough to have the same experience as you.

I'm happy to hear that you're doing well, mine is next Tues and I am just so ready to get the surgery over. I want to recover and get on with my life

Congrats on your surgery!! Glad to hear everything is going along the normal path! Keep us posted with your progress.

So glad you're doing well!!

I just had ibuprofen after surgery, but my belly button felt like he beat it with a sledge hammer.

Wow that is so great to hear! I am having surgery tomorrow and am getting more nervous every minute. Keep thinking what the hell am i doing! I know it is the right choice, but am getting nervous. HOpe i am lucky enough to have the same experience as you.

Thank you! I had my emotions in lockdown the day before and the morning of the surgery. I was really nervous and just had to maintain forward momentum. I was very settled with my decision being the right way to go. I had considered wls nearly a decade ago, but I wasn't ready and the only option available to me was bypass, which didn't appeal to me because of the rerouting of my system. I also wasn't excited about the band because I didn't want a device, and now that I've read here that there seem to be a lot of revisions to sleeve from the band, I'm really glad I made that decision.

I'm sure you will do great! Just make sure you follow all of your doc's orders. I know there are a lot of differences between docs, but we trust and pay the one we've chosen to know what they're doing, and I'm not going to be the one that plays armchair quarterback with my surgery.

Sending you lots of support for tomorrow!!

I'm happy to hear that you're doing well, mine is next Tues and I am just so ready to get the surgery over. I want to recover and get on with my life

Thank you! I felt the same way, at the same time as feeling generally anxious. Best of luck to you on your surgery and recovery!! Sending supportive thoughts your way!

Congrats on your surgery!! Glad to hear everything is going along the normal path! Keep us posted with your progress.

So glad you're doing well!!

Thank you so much for the support and well wishes! I plan to keep updating here as I lose! I just can't wait to see what I'm capable of as I finally lose this weight that has been crushing me my entire life!

I just had ibuprofen after surgery, but my belly button felt like he beat it with a sledge hammer.

Yikes! I have to admit, I could probably get by with just ibuprofen, but I would not be very happy about it! Why be forced to tolerate pain if it's unnecessary? Good thing recovery time is fairly brief with laparoscopic procedures.

Just the belly button hurt everything else was just fine. My doc said the belly button was where the stomach came out.

Ah. I get it. Glad that you just had that one sore spot!

My date is August 5th and I am getting scared. I am self employed so I have no vacation pay to fall back on. Even without taking 7 to 10 days off in August, August was going to be an extremely tight month for me. My work includes sitting for about 10 hours per week tutoring so I am hoping I can go back after 1 week. I am 62. For a minute I thought about having the surgery in December instead when schools are out anyway. Maybe it is just an excuse to chicken out. When I was waiting for a green light in order to cross the street yesterday, the computerized signal kept repeating " wait wait wait." or maybe it was "weight weight weight "

Our brains do play tricks on us, don't they? I took 2 weeks off from work, mostly because I was afraid of going back too soon and I don't have a desk job. I'm a solid waste inspector, so I have to go around to all sorts of unsavory properties telling people they need to clean up. I didn't want to have to run away from a dog or a tweaker with fresh incisions... I was sleeved on Tuesday. I'm feeling really good, with only minor discomfort. If I had a desk job that allowed me to move a little slowly for a week, I could have gone back yesterday when I quit taking my pain meds. I would feel pretty comfortable going back on Monday if I had too, so that would have only been 4 days off of work, since I worked a full day the day before surgery. I certainly can't guarantee that you'll have the same experience, but for me it has been way easier than I imagined. Fear and anxiety is totally normal and to be expected, but if you're truly not ready, or it's going to be too much of a hardship to do it at a specific time, there is no shame in rescheduling. This whole thing is all about taking care of yourself. Don't feel like you need to sacrifice one type of self-care (making sure that you can earn the $ you need to live and managing your stress levels) for another type of self-care (having surgery to improve your health).

Best of luck, there is no "right" decision here...

Daydra, Ah, a voice of reason and sanity! I'm making myself insane! Huddling under the covers today. Feel trapped in a fat body yet feel trapped by fear as well. I keep praying for the "light bulb moment" when it all becomes clear. I do not think I can stay on the pre-op diet of 1200 for another 4 months successfully. I wonder if that means I won't be successful after surgery when the nerves in my stomach are cut and I won't be hungry? Or, is pre-op hunger different from post-op hunger? I've been working at this since March 2012 and still have doubts.

Today I had the idea of looking at my finances, making some phone calls to clients to see if I can book them next week, check my savings account and my expenses through September. Then set the intention for the clients to find me. I am a mess today LOL

Post Script: I spoke to my sister-in-law at length, answered her questions and concerns about the surgery, and was moved to hear would would try to arrange a trip up from LA to see me after surgery. The pieces are coming together and I am feeling more centered!!!

Edited July 28, 201313 yr by K33

Daydra, Ah, a voice of reason and sanity! I'm making myself insane! Huddling under the covers today. Feel trapped in a fat body yet feel trapped by fear as well. I keep praying for the "light bulb moment" when it all becomes clear. I do not think I can stay on the pre-op diet of 1200 for another 4 months successfully. I wonder if that means I won't be successful after surgery when the nerves in my stomach are cut and I won't be hungry? Or, is pre-op hunger different from post-op hunger? I've been working at this since March 2012 and still have doubts.

Today I had the idea of looking at my finances, making some phone calls to clients to see if I can book them next week, check my savings account and my expenses through September. Then set the intention for the clients to find me. I am a mess today LOL

Post Script: I spoke to my sister-in-law at length, answered her questions and concerns about the surgery, and was moved to hear would would try to arrange a trip up from LA to see me after surgery. The pieces are coming together and I am feeling more centered!!!

Good work! It's all about preparation, that's for sure!

My experience was that post op hunger didn't even exist. I fortunately only had a 1 week pre-op diet of 870 cal, but I found that extremely difficult, particularly for the first 3 days. After surgery, I have "wanted" to eat, but I wasn't hungry. If I can't smell food, I'm not really even thinking about it. I don't believe for a second that difficulty pre-op on a 1200 cal diet has any bearing on following the post op diet. I have to admit that the fear of doing damage to myself is a big part of sticking to the post-op diet. Not wanting to create a leak for not following doctors orders is a really strong motivator. The vets say that it gets more difficult the further from surgery you get, but we've got about 6 months to rebuild healthy eating habits to depend on the further out we get. And even if we're not perfect (because let's face it, we're not going to be), as long as we aren't eating constantly, or eating ridiculously high calorie foods, or 800 calorie drinks or smoothies every day, we would have to work hard at getting in a similar number of calories that caused us to gain weight (assuming there aren't medical issues creating the excess weight). Research tidbits I've read show that even at 6 years out, average excess weight loss is within about 5% of average weight loss after 1 year, so though I know it will take effort to be successful for life, it will likely not be the epically difficult experience we have had to date. I know that we can get it done, if we can just get out of our own way! :-)

I have to admit to having some tough days before coming to the decision to have the surgery, and I have spent many a day hiding under the covers myself, but setting some forward momentum on resolving some of the issues that were bothering me and giving myself goals to work toward did wonders for picking myself back up and putting one foot in front of the other!

Best of luck to you. I know there is a way for you to structure the things that you need to take care of whenever you decide to be your final schedule.