New to the Forums! Just Saying Hi!

[OpsMatt 21]

Hi all!

I'm a 32 year old guy from Michigan who has struggled immensely with weight all of his life. In my adult life I've been as low as 190 at times and as high as 379 which is my current highest. I spent the last eight years living in Florida working a hectic job with a chaotic schedule that did not lend itself well to a healthy, active lifestyle and before I knew it between 2015 and 2018 I had ballooned up to my current weight. I knew that my previous methods had not been met with success and I decided it was time for a real change. After my husband got a new job in Michigan we relocated and moved in with my parents (who had acquired a much much larger house than the one I grew up in) so we could save up to buy a house and pay down some of our student loan debt without as much stress involved. This also gave me a chance to really focus on my health and take care of all this weight. Thankfully I have really solid medical insurance and due to my BMI I only needed to have a psych evaluation and PCP approval before I could have the surgery.

I opted to go with gastric sleeve as I find the fact that it doesn't completely change the route of my digestive system appealing, I have multiple friends who have gone through the surgery and have had great success with it, and the fact that it helps reduce the hunger hormone in your system as constant cravings even when I know I'm not actually hungry (as in like I just ate an hour ago) is one of my biggest issues.

I had my initial consultation in June followed by a psych evaluation in July. I attend my 3 hour pre-surgical class next Tuesday and my surgery is set for October 17th. I would have liked to have had it a little sooner but I also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea and just recently obtained a CPAP and I need to be on it at least a month before I can have surgery per my surgeon. I'm looking very forward to my life post surgery: being able to fit into smaller sizes and have more clothing options, being able to fit on all my favorite rides at theme parks again (I'm a coaster and adrenaline junkie), being light enough to sustain a solid workout again, and adding as many years as I can on to my life to spend more time with my friends and family. My only big fear is that I have not handled anesthesia well in the past and have a tendency to vomit immediately after waking up. I've told them this and they just recently did an upper endoscopy on me that I woke up from just fine, but I still have the fear that whatever they give me to combat the nausea and vomiting after the anesthesia will not be enough and the vomiting spasms will do damage to my stomach.

Some questions I have for you all:

1. Is dumping syndrome a thing as much for gastric sleeve patients versus gastric bypass? I'm in the process of weaning myself off of soda but I would like to use Mio in my Water to add some variety but it contains sucralose (Splenda) and I've heard that artifical sweeteners can still cause dumping syndrome.

2. Was loose skin a thing?

3. What was your first holiday season like post surgery? Was it rough having all those high-carb high-fat foods around? What kind of strategies did you use to work around that?

Looking forward to chatting with you all and continuing to use this forum as a support group!

[Matt Z 4,138]

9 hours ago, OpsMatt said:

Some questions I have for you all:

1. Is dumping syndrome a thing as much for gastric sleeve patients versus gastric bypass? I'm in the process of weaning myself off of soda but I would like to use Mio in my Water to add some variety but it contains sucralose (Splenda) and I've heard that artifical sweeteners can still cause dumping syndrome.

2. Was loose skin a thing?

3. What was your first holiday season like post surgery? Was it rough having all those high-carb high-fat foods around? What kind of strategies did you use to work around that?

1. It is, for some anyway. For both surgeries. For me, I don't have any problems with any sweeteners (or sugar really for that matter) Only real dumping I've had was from Tomato Soup made with fat free milk, still not sure what caused that, but, I haven't tried again (yet). Only way to find out if you will be effected, is to try out what you think you might be effected by. I found out that I can eat cake, cheesecake, chocolate, etc without any issues (which sucks actually because I wanted that negative response)

2. Loose skin is most certainly a thing. My highest weight was 370, check my profile for photos, I'm not overly concerned about loose skin at the moment, Down the line I'll more than likely get it removed, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

3. My first holiday after the Band was Thanksgiving... followed quickly by Christmas and New Years. I just stuck to my diet, didn't really have any issues. I haven't had a major "food" holiday since being revised to Bypass, but I've had cookouts, parties, etc. I just eat what I can, I don't worry what anyone else thinks or says. Burgers turned into salads, not eating bread, only eating a few bites of something. No one seems to care really. ESP if you've told your family / friends already.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Welcome to Bariatric Pal from me, a gal in Central Ohio. I have 11 days to go until my RnY surgery, I've worked 👣so long towards it, 3 years ,so I can hardly wait for September 5th.👍😛

[Deemar007 244]

Welcome!

1- Dumping. I haven't experienced dumping after the surgery, however, since I don't have a gall bladder, I'm no stranger to " dumping syndrome ". I think I don't dump because I stay away from those types of food.

2- Loose Skin. Since I actually was the size of two people, yes, I have loose skin. The worse was/ is my upper thigh area. When we were about a month out from our Maui trip in May, I was upset that my bathing suit skirt was so short, I didn't feel very confident in it. Thankfully, swimming bike shorts are a thing! So, I just bought a couple pair and could wear all my swimming tops. Since I'm older, I will most likely not have any skin repair. However, I guess I will keep an open mind about that.

3- Holidays. I had my surgery October 10th, 2017. I will have to say the food was not an issue for me. My husband and I went to a really fancy restaurant for Thanksgiving and had the Turkey dinner. I just had a bite of a few things. I think I was most excited to get out of the house and eat normal food again! Christmas was a wonderful day with the entire family. Me cooking all their favorite things. Including all the Cookies, fudge, candy ect that their Grammy used to bring. (She passed away a year before, so I wanted to surprise the kids with all the things she would bring for Christmas).

All in all, I have had a great experience. I feel so much better!

Good luck with your journey. I look foarward to hearing how you are doing.

Di

[J San 1,071]

Havn't had any issues with my sleeve. Have been able to eat everything I have tried without any issues. I avoided barbecues this summer because of being on the pre op diet or being so early in post op. As far as loose skin I can see having it on my belly for sure. But who know maybe my amazingly youthful skin will pull back to it's younger tight self.

[BlueCrush 408]

1. I've had zero issues with dumping. I've been able to eat anything I've tried, but just limited to how much I can eat.

2. Oh yes. After losing 182.5lbs, loose skin is there. Mostly around my stomach and chest. I plan to get skin surgery next year, but even if I didn't, the loose skin looks and feels 100000x better than the 182.5lbs of fat did.

3. I started my prep diet the week of thanksgiving last year and had my surgery right before Christmas on 12/11. It was ok, but a little annoying with family members always questioning why you're not eating all the junk. You don't realize how much life in general (not just holidays) revolves around food until you're forced to have a different perspective.