I'm scheduled for VSG on 7/17 and I've read everything I can get my hands on and feel generally prepared, but I wonder what they don't tell you or what no one ever talks about.

What, if anything, do you wish you had known before going in to surgery? What was the biggest surprise for you?

1 minute ago, sleevedshereen said:

lol i'm laughing because the same exact thing happened to me and I can relate....I didn't collapse but I threw it back up immediately. I was crying and throwing a tantrum like a kid because I didn't want to drink it lol. It was bad. I will never forget the smell and taste of that and how thick it was! Thinking about it makes me cringe. It was the worst. With all the advancements in the medical world, you figured they would be able to make the contrast better lmao.

I was shocked. When they had me take the Pilori test, the liquid they had me take tasted like sprite ? I was hoping for a similar situation.

So weird! I didn't even have this test!! So glad I didn't, apparently! [emoji12]

I never expected it would be that hard to manage an eat/drink schedual....u cant drink 30 to 45 min before or after a meal so i had and still have such a hardtime drinking all my fluids...everytime i remember i should drink its either a meal or snack time!

Little update: The stomach virus post VSG is not fun. I got hit with it last Friday and it was awful, I had to call my surgeon and they said sometimes it's worse after bariatric surgery because the body is trying reject what's in the stomach but with our smaller stomachs there is less in there. I vomited 10 times in 7 hours and after the 3rd time there was nothing left to come up. I lost 10 pounds in 1 day.

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 10:00 PM, sunmeadow said:

I was thinking the same thing. How can we only sip Water, but be expected to drink contrast stuff down?

It's less than a gulp.. more like "small sip" ...tech takes pic... "small sip" ..pic #2 taken.. then you're done. I had no issues.

The gas pains! Everyone told me that they would be bad but oh boy! I'm 3 days post op and have been walking a lot. And the bloating. None of my pants fit which can be discouraging but it will go down!

I am 7 days post-op. I'm very surprised about the insomnia that has hit me. I'm very tired and pretty weak--returned to work yesterday, (desk job). But I've barely sleep at night since 3 days post-op--and not even napping.

Not being able to lift my babies. It was so hard. But, they came up on my lap because of " Mummas Booboo"

I had my sleeve on June 20th. The one thing I wish I would have known was that I would have a JP drip for a week after surgery, and more detail on how to take care of it. It seemed to be the worse. Also right after surgery you can not have any thing to drink, so you will have major cotton mouth. I couldn't even have mouth swabs.

Hi... What's a JP drip

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I wish I knew how much I'd be able to eat after the initial healing time! I'm still disturbed by it and I need to watch myself. It kind of seems now that I'm like a "normal" person who gets full after eating. Before I would have to have a truckload of food to be full. I get full now, but can still have a full sandwich with a side of popcorn and some fruit in one sitting, no issue. Very important for me to track all my food.

Pros:
The whole thing was shockingly easy. The surgery was fast and almost painless. The recovery was easy.
2 years later I still barely have an appetite.
Lost weight without much effort.
Cons:
Everyone talks about addiction transfers and alcoholism and compulsive shopping. No one addresses identity, and body image issues post-op. Not nearly as much as they talk about alcoholism etc. I felt I was very unprepared for the emotional issues that come with massive weight loss.

What kind of issues did you have? I'm 5 weeks out, and I feel different mentally. I can't really explain it, I just feel different.

I was shocked by the drain, I was never told I would have one and all my pain came from the drain while in the hospital.
I was shocked that I could not start any liquid until after my leak test which was almost 24 hours later, my mouth has never been so dry.
I didn't expect to regret it so much at first. The first month was hard and I constantly questioned and second guessed myself.
I had a ton of muscle pain from the large incision that popped up weeks after surgery. It was hard to sleep for over a month.
But most importantly I never expected, at 6 months out, to feel so normal or to have lost so much weight. I'm 97 pounds down and 67 from surgery and it's the best feeling ever.

You couldn't drink for 24 hours after surgery! Omg! I would have choked someone. Congrats on your huge loss!!

I wish I had known how big of an IV they used for Bariatric patients (since we have reduces drinking capacity after) . Any iv's I've had in the past were no problem. But when they brought in that 18 gauge spear, I wanted to run. Now I understand why so many patients wrote about needing 4 tries before it was successful. It only took 2 tries in me, but the first one blew, then the 2nd one blew and was just not a fun experience.

Oh, they gave me two IV meds as they wheeled me out of preop. I don't remember what it was, but apparently a common side effect is an itchy crotch, lol. I complained to my hubby "my coochie itches!" and the nurse said, "oops, I forgot to tell you that part".

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51 minutes ago, ToSleeveOrNotToSleeve said:

I complained to my hubby "my coochie itches!" and the nurse said, "oops, I forgot to tell you that part".

Lmao

4 hours ago, ToSleeveOrNotToSleeve said:

I wish I had known how big of an IV they used for Bariatric patients (since we have reduces drinking capacity after) . Any iv's I've had in the past were no problem. But when they brought in that 18 gauge spear, I wanted to run. Now I understand why so many patients wrote about needing 4 tries before it was successful. It only took 2 tries in me, but the first one blew, then the 2nd one blew and was just not a fun experience.

Oh, they gave me two IV meds as they wheeled me out of preop. I don't remember what it was, but apparently a common side effect is an itchy crotch, lol. I complained to my hubby "my coochie itches!" and the nurse said, "oops, I forgot to tell you that part".

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This is the single most terrifying thing I've read about this surgery. I have no fears about the actual surgery--but getting IVs put in can be a horrible ordeal for me. Four tries? I've had that happen and it produced tears. And I'm NOT a crier at all.

Oh, well. Still gonna do it on the 28th!