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can you live a normal life aftet a sleeve surgery?



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I am two weeks before a surgery and scared to death about my quality of life after a surgery. Sleevers with some experience, please share your experience:

All my questions are about the steady-state phase, not the first few weeks:

1) when you eat and get full, is it the same feelling as today, just without the big food quantities? Or is it a different feeling?

2) are you handicapped for life? Like the need to avoid certain foods and certain drinks.

3) can u ever drink a whole cup of Water, or will you need to sip slowly for life (sounds lile a torture).

4) just tell me about ur day to day life. I dont know if u had the same feeling, but I sometimes think to myself that I might be crazy to be cutting an organ that functions 100% right.

Would love to get your input.

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I'm 3 months out from gastric bypass so my experience might be a little different. I would say you're probably freaking yourself out more than you need to be.

At this point my life feels relatively normal I just don't eat and drink as much as everyone else. If I'm really thirsty or dehydrated I can still drink a cup of Water fairly fast. Sometimes I can only get down a little bit, sometimes I can get down a lot. I feel full like I did before, but sometimes it a heavier fullness and I feel full much quicker. For the most part, I've been able to eat whatever I want, I just have to watch how much I eat. My pouch doesn't like bread and grease, but those are things I don't need so I avoid them for the most part anyway. The key is moderation.

Once the weight starts coming off and you're all healed, you'll be so glad you did it. It's easier once you know what your body can handle and once you're all healed and can tell when you're hungry and when you're full.

Edited by Wallflower7522

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How is it working at 100%? Your stomach is making you hungry when you don't need to eat and umis allowing you to over eat. That's not working....

I can gulp down Water and I'm at 12 weeks out. I feel like. I have a new normal. I waste a lot of food at restaurants but its not my fault that portions are sized for four or five people.

It depends on what your definition of normal is. Is it normal to be in pain, to have your mobility limited, to have multiple diseases and die early?

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I am almost 16 weeks post sleeve. I can honestly say I am SO Happy to have made the decision to have the sleeve !! I can eat pretty much anything, greasy foods aren't great, and breads and potatoes fill me up fast, but I can eat a little if anything! Fluids get easier too, sips at first, but you will learn how much you can drink at a time. My best investment was 1cup size storage containers. I make whatever sounds good for a meal, then freeze the leftovers for another day. Way better than eating the same thing day after day. I am down 85 lbs and feel awesome!

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I am almost 16 weeks post sleeve. I can honestly say I am SO Happy to have made the decision to have the sleeve !! I can eat pretty much anything, greasy foods aren't great, and breads and potatoes fill me up fast, but I can eat a little of anything! Fluids get easier too, sips at first, but you will learn how much you can drink at a time. My best investment was 1cup size storage containers. I make whatever sounds good for a meal, then freeze the leftovers for another day. Way better than eating the same thing day after day. I am down 85 lbs and feel awesome!

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Try getting on the sleeve board. I know lots of people have the procedure so they would be helpful.

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      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.
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      1. LeighaTR

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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. 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.

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        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.

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