Hi I'm Jessy! [emoji2] I have my informational class coming up soon for the gastric sleeve and starting the program! Id like to see how others webt through the program! What steps did you take before surgery and what you were required to do!! What do you eat? Basiclly everything [emoji23] im 5'5 275lbs im quitting smoking tomorrow and excited to start this journey!!

Hi there!

This answer will vary from person to person, since our programs can vary wildly from what I've seen, but for me, I can tell you what I've had to do.

Back in 2014, I considered the surgery then, but ended up backing out due to fear and anxiety, plus I had (and still have) other undiagnosed health issues which I figured would be only made worse from doing a surgery. Ultimately, years later, I decided to go through with it again, because my health is getting so bad that it's now incredibly difficult to get around or do anything that I want to. I can't even walk the dog without a great struggle. So I started the process last year, I believe sometime around August.

I was required to lose a certain amount of weight before the surgery to prove I am committed, since here in Finland, most everything is paid for with very little cost to the patient. I did lose the weight and went through a period of waiting on a letter back from the surgeon confirming the surgery which was about 2.5 months. Then, I had to have an endoscopy to check the stomach and make sure there were no issues with it. That happened about three months back, as I recall.

Then once more, I had to wait for another letter to arrive with my surgery time and date, which I received at the end of November. My surgery is scheduled for the 15th of January.

Required from there is a 1 month pre-op diet (which I am on now) consisting of 5 special protein shakes per day (which are around 150 calories each, and each one counts as a full meal.) Aside from that, I am allowed a small amount of protein meat or meat substitute (or high protein cottage cheese or quark.) Also, up to 500g (or about a pound) of select vegetables that are not starchy. Additionally, I'm told to drink up to 2 liters of liquid a day, that should be mostly water (but can also be tea or coffee without cream or sugar as well as diet soda.) I have switched off soda completely now since I can't have it for a long time after surgery, and getting in the water has been.. incredibly difficult.

[Just as an example, my typical pre-op meal is the 5 shakes spread out through the day with water in between. For my meal, I usually have anywhere from 75-100 grams (1/5th a pound roughly) of vegetarian 'meat' (it's called Mifu here in Finland, and is made of milk protein) along with 300 grams-ish (a little over half a pound) of some kind of steamed, boiled, or baked vegetable such as zucchini, cabbage and onions in broth, eggplant, carrots, etc.)]

My surgery is about 9 days away now, so I'm quite nervous, and I have a last round of bloodworks on the day before to triple-check that everything is ready to go. Feel free to message me about anything you're interested in (or just reply here) and I'll answer what I can.

Hopefully some people who have gone through the surgeries will respond, since I have yet to even go through mine!