Is there anything you wish you'd been told pre-op?

[froufrou 678]

I wish I'd been told that if you get a leak in your stomach (which I did), that you'd most likely be in hospital for an extended time. That really hit me hard and I had no plans in place if that did happen. Disaster! I felt that the surgery really skipped over the topic... it was there, mentioned in the paperwork, but the reality of it is something else. Everyone, even though the chances of you getting a leak are very small, please make sure you do have a plan if it happens to you. I had to fly my mum out from the UK to take care of my kid (who has autism) for 3 months.

Also, I didn't quite realise first time round that there is a honeymoon period with these surgeries. Make the most of them!

Edit: Also, if you are self pay... make sure you know what the costs will be if you do end up in hospital with a leak. I WAS going to do self pay over here in the States and god only knows what that would have ended up costing. I don't know if my insurance would have covered it... I doubt it. When all was said and done, my Gastric Sleeve surgery with complications cost just under a million dollars. Had I been self pay, most likely our family would be bankrupt by now.

Edited March 1, 2019 by froufrou

[ladykrisgraff 14]

For me, the post-laproscopic 'air' pain was absolutely terrible. I was up and walking a little the day after the surgery, but I couldn't seem to fully get rid of that pain until like, day 3. I had my mom and fiance rubbing my shoulders while I was sobbing from the pain at some point... not fun at all.

I also wish that I'd known how much of a pain it would be being in the hospital. Nurses and technicians coming in at 4 in the morning to get my vitals, not letting me sleep, (Can I get an amen here?) And one of the IV pain medications that they gave me caused these horrible, painful knots along the path of the vein that the IV was in.

I'm also struggling with craving real food at the moment, since I'm now on my 4th week of liquid diet. Needless to say, I'm sick of Protein Shakes and broth.

[Sweettoothless 100]

I wish I would have been prepared for just how much my taste for things would change. I stocked up on lots of things that make me gag now (any kind of diet sugar) so all the Protein Shakes and clear Protein Drinks and crystal light and Tomato Soup I bought are going to be donated. I bought cases just to be prepared and had them shipped from Amazon so no returns.

[StarFlower87 9]

Yes I wish I would have been told how much pain I would actually be in

[Pippa1703 32]

Thanks everyone, this is all really helpful

[BrighterSide 242]

Gaining weight after surgery and less retriction with liquids/slider foods.

I was up 3lbs from sleeve weight 3 days after surgery, then dropped 8 over the next 3 days. Due to being crammed full of 2+ litres IV Fluid and nutrition for 2 days and portions of that retained in swollen tissues. Also learned not to do weigh-ins more than once a week. Did hop on scales every day (sometimes twice a day!), but only recorded weight every 7 days at same time.of day. Could stall for 5 days and still lose, or apparently drop 2kg overnight (how does that work!? Did I cough up a lung?)

Ref that worrying lack of restriction, after the first incredibly tender and hard 5ish days, when keeping each sip down seems touch and go, I started to be able to take 2-3 mouthfuls Fluid each time vs sips. I was worried that meant my sleeve was broken...sip, sip, sip, etc - but nutritionist said it was totally normal, and just listen to my body. No chugging pints, but not just tiny sips. Same with yoghurts, and Soups. Drunk over time in fluid phase could keep going pretty constantly without fullness as I was taking it slow. Helped hugely to hit fluid and Protein goals. Normal foods taken as distinct meals...totally different. Get a kind of lump in my chest, like I need to burp. That means max one more bite and I'm done. Max I can take is going up, but restriction is still there.

Caveat as always is it's just my experience from my puny total of 5 weeks post sleeve!

[GradyCat 3,692]

The only thing I wished I'd known beforehand was about the Week 3/4 stall so it wouldn't have freaked me out.

[Frustr8 7,886]

The tedious every-day sameness of it all. The waste of food, I eat something, my small mini- portion, refrigerated the remainder and there it sits with a reproachful smirk " You really think you'll ever eat the rest of me? You didn't like me That Well in the first place!"
This is Sucky Saturday for Frustr8, woke up with Mood Poisoning, must have been something I hate!
Last Tuesday my PICC line was removed, they theorized it might have been the focii causing my pneumonia, spent 26 hours in local community hospital with that, or the swollen acrominial joint in my right shoulder my orthopaedic surgeon took a needle to and drained off what looked like a jelly jar of funky Fluid from. All that happened last Monday and Tuesday, been trying to chase down what the cultures might have shown, PCP is 7th Day Adventist, folds his tents at noon on Friday and submerged himself somewhere until 8 AM Monday morning.
Meanwhile Valerie the CNP from Dr Needlemans office and Kelly my omsbudwoman from the TPN. company, OptionCare, are dancing around patting each other on the back " Oh what a Wonderful Job we are doing with Frustr8, oh how well she is doing at almost 6 months! She should be ecstatic at how well things are going!" Hey girls, am I under Moo Moo attack because it sounds like B.S. to ME! Take a good look over here, I am losing currently at a rate of 1-2 pounds a month, I have lost So much weight from my face I look like a Bassett Hound, you yanked out my caloric certainty in the hopes of an ambiguous diet? An ounce twice of well-chewed low fat ground beef, a couple string cheeses an 2 ounces of mushy steamed into submission carrots. Just eat some of what appeals to ME? News Flash -Nothing appeals to ME! I watch food commericials, check out the before and after postings on BP, when it doesn't depress me that EVERYONE ELSE is shoveling in fuel for their bodies and most are a lot less as far from surgery than me. I knew Food was going to go from a joy and pleasure to being merely fuel, but this little jalopy wishes people would stay away from her gas cap, stop trying every couple hours to shove something in. Attention World, I am now Food Apathetic. Why does No One believe me? I shovel in all these meds daily, I think I have 21 or 22 different ones over the course of a day, and one had the audacity to ask if I could swallow? I'm sure not rubbing them into my skin,yeah fluids until I have grown to even loathe Water. Meanwhile I have a sputtery breathing rhythm, a sore shoulder from Dr D's 18 gauge Needle Invasion, a dressing to watch on my left arm to watch where the PICC line once was, gave graduated to a Band-Aid but it has to be changed daily and I still can't have a shower unless I wrap the site in Saran Wrap. Whoopee ding ding! So I wish I had been warned about the tediousness, dull day to day of it all. Somebody asked me why I had surgery. Well I was told I would be dead in a year or 2 without it, I wanted help with an unsatisfied appetite, I did want to look better, was tired of people addressing me as " That Poor Old Thing", already knew due to my GERD and an first cousin who died of esophageal cancer,at the very least I was risking Barretts.
But at a skosh under 6 months I should be singing " I'm at the Top of the World looking Down on Creation" not " Is That All There Is?" I had to suspend my Carafate because of Cephlasporins, stopped my oral Iron because I was to start iron infusions last week, well somebody must be off scraping rust off something to make it cause it hasn't happened yet. OSU of course wanted me to come to Columbus albeit not at their location, PCP said he didn't want me making the 100 mile round trip recovering from pneumonia, so it was supposed to be here locally. Maybe the 2 groups are engaged in a p****** contest because nothing more has happened.

[clsumrall 535]

Frust8 sorry for all th cra** you have been throughout this experience but. Snap Out Of It !! Go back and read your early post. You have been through hell and back but you are Strong and wonderful and forever a great and fierce friend. You are loved and cared for by all of us here. Hopefully it’s time to turn the corner and life will ease up a bit. I’m 6 month and 2 days post op. Down 70 pounds from HW. Down 50 pounds SW and I still am having hard time eating as well. Nothing tastes good or land safely in the tummy but it’s helping my brain understand that I spent my previous 60 years LIVING to eat and not actually LIVING my life. Remember God has a plan and for me it taking a while to get my head in the game of life. Time to stop obsessing over food. Please feel better. We all need you around my friend.

[Swanton_Bomb 522]

Not much, really. I don't think I was very well prepared by my surgical team to expect Hair loss, Constipation, etc. but because I did my research and used this forum I felt prepared and was able to make an informed choice.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Really praying that my corner has really turned and there is some JOY ahead. icried when they removed my PICC line, I fought to retain it so hard, it was an anchor on my bumpy seas, even asked if my wishes counted for anything? to be told " Nope not Much." Mayhaps if a report comes back that the crystalization and crud was a causative factor in these other lumps in the path, I will put it all behind. BUT you're right, I have got to return to brave acceptance. It will still work out even if I don't see how. Don't even have a visit to the Columbus bunch until Mid-April, I guess that's all I get but I will pull on my Big Girl Panties,2 sizes down (yay) and March into March! Thanks cl,for the " Home Truths", I needed that.

[froufrou 678]

@Frustr8 - why did you have TPN? I feel your pain... I had one of those after my leak. Hated it. Worst thing you can do to a person who LOVES to eat is take away that ability completely. Utter, utter nightmare.

[Vizslamom 92]

I had the same Constipation problem as not my name. Suffered for a week after surgery. TMI time - I could feel the plug through my vaginal wall. laxatives only caused me to pass new stool around it. I had to clear up the problem as my husband was having brain surgery and I would shift from my surgery recovery to his. I had no pain from the surgery, but had Rx for gabapentine (blocks nerve pain) and a muscle relaxer. The combination of the two got me to pass the plug. I still have occasional problems with constipation and even after 6 months I take a stool softener daily.

Second is you don’t know what you’re restriction will be like. While my meal size is substantially smaller than before the sleeve - I eat way more than many people on the board. And I can eat anything except over cooked dried out meat.< br />
I joined Noom after the new year to help me eat healthier. This has helped tremendously, A nutritionist visit every three months was not enough to help me eat properly.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Froufrou, they diagnosed me at 5 weeks with a strictured stoma opening in my pouch, 3 ulcers within there, 5 on the back wall of the jejuneum. I started trying to tell them at 2 weeks out something was wrong, I kept getting poo-pooed, I was swollen, I wasn't giving myself a chance to heal. They might have the fancy degrees,but I have lived in this body a LONG TIME. I have had 10 endoscopies , they kept trying to stretch it open. Zilch lasting effects. On November 28th, noticing the ulcerations were marching down my jejuneu m and heading towards my illium, to properally heal i needed 129 he Protein, on my p.o. liquids I was nowhere near that so in went the PICC on the 29th, went from 24 hours daily, to 14, then 12, and was on 10 when they decided to remove it. It had become rather my buddy, I cried when they removed it, now I have to try to make up the calories by mouth, I'll try but doubtful it is going to go well. We shall just see!

[RoRoKitty 183]

I wish I knew how amazing the results are (while you work for them it is not pure magic) so that I could have done this surgery earlier !