Hello Everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I'm so glad I found this site. I will be one week post op tomorrow. My head has been working overtime. The reason is that I also suffer from anxiety. So there are so many questions and concerns rumbling around in my head. I'm worried about leaks, worried that I'm not taking enough nutrients in, worried about hair loss, worried about when to start taking vitamins, wondering when I'll start losing weight. I'm thinking about how all this will work after I'm several weeks post op. Does my appetite naturally decrease? Will it be easy or hard to eat very small portions in 20 or 30 minute intervals? I worry that every little post op symptom I feel is something bad! Yikes, I know I can be too much.

I sincerely apologize, everyone. I know that it's still very recent for me and I need to be patient. Intellectually I know that but my heart and head are saying otherwise.

Thanks to you all out there for listening.

Soyra

Welcome, Soyra! Glad your surgery is done and I hope you're experiencing a speedy recovery!

This is a huge life change and you have every reason to be anxious. Most of us failed at weight loss so many times that the possibility of success seemed dubious, at best. That said, browse around the forums and get familiar with the search function. For example, you will find thousands of posts if you search for "stall" and probably nearly as many for "constipation" (Sorry, but reality bites ?). Just remember that we're all just anonymous internet strangers here and if you have any serious concerns they should be directed toward your doctor or his/her staff. Feel free to jump into threads that interest you and play along!

you'd know by now if you had a leak

hair loss - pre-ops and early post-ops often worry incessantly about this (I did, too!), but most of us don't lose enough that other people notice. If you're worried about losing big clumps of hair and having bald patches like someone who's on chemo, well, that is kind of rare. I actually hardly lost any hair at all. But even if I had, I'd take temporary hair loss any day over weighing over 300 lbs again. ANY DAY!!

most people (not all - but most) do have a substantial decrease in hunger/appetite - for many it goes away completely for several months. So yes - the loss of hunger/appetite does make it much easier to eat small portions. For most of us, it does come back after a few months, though, and things get more challenging then.