I was just thinking the other day about how long it's been since I was sleeved. It has been so long I rarely think about it any more. I remember in the early days almost all of the posting was from people who were either pre- or within a year or so post surgery. I decided to register here and see if anyone has any questions they'd like from an oldie Up front:

360+ was my high. I lost down to 200 "on my own" but when the weight started coming back I decided I HAD to have surgery if I was going to have a fighting chance at staying down. I am older so I do have a lot of loose skin. Due to having been so heavy, I will never be under 200 w/out skin removal which I cannot, for medical reasons, have. And I don't mind much. It would be great to not have to deal with the flapping arms and gut, but it's not the end of the world.

10 years a sleeve: The only real negative I can think of it that is is very unpredictable. One day I can eat almost a "normal" small plate of food. The next day, if I ate that much it would come back up. I am sick about once a quarter due to overeating. I really try not to have that happen but it really is hard to predict. So when I am eating in public, I go very light. At Christmas parties, I grazed. I would pick up a carrot or celery stick off a tray, dip it and nibble away. No one pays that much attention to detail, only that I was eating. I picked up one sugar cookie and at it. I nibbled at it, it took a good 20 minutes to eat. Really, I don't think anyone gives it a thought. Here at home I just stop eating and wait to see how I feel. "Full" for me is now a pressure. If I feel that pressure, I am done. If not, I take another bite or two.

When I read back here in the old days, I read some pretty crazy stuff. My favorite was a woman who swore up and down she knew someone who had to be sleeved three times because she drank diet soda. No. That is not what happened. But if you want to believe it, that's fine with me. But that will not happen. For the first few years I drank diet coke. I absolutely follow the rule of no Fluid w/ my meal (unless it's part of a soup). I wait the full 30 minutes, often a bit longer. I thought it would drive me nuts, but it does not bother me at all. I have switched to unsweet ice tea for my "passion" drink and I have come to love it more than the diet soda and absolutely know it's better for me. But had nothing to do with the sleeve.

My surgeon was an absolute tyrant. (He retired the next year.) He felt you had to "earn" being sleeved. I thought that by losing over 160 pounds on my own, I had already earned it. His point was that I was gaining back (I think I was back up to about 260 at surgery but it's been so long ago I don't remember the details) so he made me do a 3 week liquid fast prior to surgery. I was stupid to do it. He had no real way to know. I wish I had done low, low carb for 10, then shifted to the liquid for the last half. The reason I say this is because the one mistake I made was eating solid food too soon. I was about 7 weeks out from surgery and with the 3 week liquid fast, I felt like a prisoner. So I ate. I look back on that moment and wish I had handled it differently. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt like a fail. It felt like I had let food win again. And I felt like it all happened due to emotions and feeling bullied....a lot of which got me to where I was to begin with!

So anyway, your experience may be very different. But I'll check here every other day or so and see what's up. If anyone has any questions, ask. I will try to answer. Of course, it will only be my perception. I wish us all luck on this journey. And I wish this surgery had been there for me in my youth but we get what we get in life.

Take care all -- Decade

@AdecadeLater I just found this post. Thank you for your confirmation that this procedure really does work long term. I will have my surgery around October, and I will think of all your success while I go through my journey. I too am a little freaked out about the not drinking during and after food.

Not sure if anybody still checks in here but really, what a rare treat to read the 10 year out perspective. So no regrets? I seem to be going through a "let me look at all the people who regret their decision" phase in an effort to cover all basis but I'm happy to report that I've not really found anything to report so far.

I did the same thing!!! (Looking for regret posts when I was preop). I never found much of anything other than the occasional person who misses a particular food.

What was interesting was that I found that Google directed me to some really old forums of sites that aren't popular anymore. It was so interesting to see people freaking out about stalls/mistakes just to see that their profile shows they ended up losing a ton of weight.

Best of luck! I don't think the will regret it.

Sent from my XT1585 using BariatricPal mobile app

I can't imagine not having restriction. Honestly, I think that if you lose restriction, your doctor made a surgical error. I am going to be very honest here. No reason for me to lie. I have totally "tested" this sleeve. In those bad times, I have tried to eat more than I should so it's not like I've been perfect with it and it still stays tight as a drum. It is about learning to eat quality food, and pass on the junk. Because your sleeve will always control your quantity. Do NOT allow yourself to fall into the habit of grazing. That is the only thing that will defeat the sleeve. But the good news is that you can fix that and the sleeve will still be there to help you control your weight.

Thank you. I needed to hear that.

HW 420
SW 347
CW 321
Sleeved April 10, 2017

If there is anything this site has taught me, it's that literally every single surgeon and nutritionist has a different plan The no carbonation thing I can see making some sense. I don't think it would stretch your sleeve, but I can see how it could cause gas and be uncomfortable, so more of an "as tolerated" sort of thing. I also think a lot of nutritionists tell people to avoid carbonation just to keep them from drinking soda, which is a bad habit to have whether you're sleeved or not. The sleeve just gives them a way of putting the fear of God in us about drinking it. Luckily I gave up soda many years before I was sleeved, so that's been a really easy rule for me to stick to.
I think you are right that not eating and drinking at the same time is one of the real keys to success. I noticed early on that as soon as I felt "full" my very first instinct was to reach for a drink. That's when it REALLY sank in that all those years that I had been eating an entire pizza in one sitting or whatever, what I was doing was washing food out of my stomach to empty it faster so I could eat even more. I used to go through 4 glasses of Water during a meal at a restaurant. Sure it was great for getting all my water in, but it was also great for getting POUNDS of extra food in. Not drinking while eating lets me get the full benefit of my restriction and it is something I definitely plan to stick to forever.
I have found that I can take NSAIDS occasionally with food, but I wouldn't want to take them daily for any period of time. I usually only ever take anything if I have a migraine. A couple of times I've had some sore muscles or strains and it's been tough to resist taking naproxin, but I've managed so far.
That potato thing is weird. I don't eat potatoes or an anything starchy post-op just because it takes up so much space and makes it harder to get my Protein in. But I can't imagine a valid medical reason for not have potatoes occasionally.

Ive never heard it explained like that. I knew I was using diet coke to wash stuff down but I hadnt made the connection to not eating/drinking after my sleeve. Now that I know WHY I am going to totally up my game there!

HW 420
SW 347
CW 321
Sleeved April 10, 2017

On 5/22/2017 at 10:40 AM, Sosewsue61 said:

@AdecadeLater I just found this post. Thank you for your confirmation that this procedure really does work long term. I will have my surgery around October, and I will think of all your success while I go through my journey. I too am a little freaked out about the not drinking during and after food.

I am a bit of a hypochondriac so I was inspired to read this as well! I have hope that a revision won't be needed and that I can keep my weight maintained!