Contemplating bariatric surgery.... advice?

[Seriouslyconfused3]

Hi as the title states I am contemplating a gastric sleeve. I am a serial yo yo dieter and my metabolism is fucked. I have pcos and have tried Xenical, saxenda etc- successful until I stop using and the weight piles back on.

I’ve seen an endocrinologist and he said that, in his opinion, sometimes surgery is the only viable option. I’d be paying for it myself as I don’t quite meet the nhs criteria yet.

I’m miserable- I don’t lose weight unless I starve myself ie 600 calories a day and then I’m even more unhappy. I’m worried about my health in the long term, but then the prospect of surgery scares me too.

Any advice from those who have been there before?

Ok, so after a day of utter disappointment for DD and the shambles of A level results, I need to pack my bag for surgery tomorrow! Anything vital I need to remember?

@needtoloselots whole thing is a massive mess isn’t it, sorry that your DD has been negatively impacted, we can only hope the (useless) government will react appropriately as they did in Scotland.

Re hospital, all I used was my own masks, v loose pjs or nightie, slippers/flipflops, toiletries, ipad/kindle, phone, chargers, loose outfit to travel home in & cushion to hold against tummy in car.

Good luck for tomorrow, I hope all goes well with minimal discomfort - when you feel up to it, please pop back & update us.

Thanks @MonkeysandParrots good hint about the cushion for the journey home. Will update when I can.

@needtoloselots
Good luck for tomorrow and look forward to hear how you get on

Good luck for tomorrow @needtoloselots and hope it goes well.

Good luck @needtoloselots thinking of you today!

Good luck @needtoloselots! Hope all goes well!

Very best wishes @needtoloselots will be thinking of you. Look forward to hearing about your experience.

Hi @Inthetropics do you mind saying how much weight you lost? When you say you can eat normally now do you mean normal foods or normal size portions?

@Hotandknackered I've lost 120lbs. I can eat both normal foods and normal size portions (tiny-normal, i guess).

You're not fooling anyone by saying you've tried a diet where you only eat 600 calories for any period of time.

Change your lifestyle and the weight will go on it's own.

flatulence

The point is that these tiny amounts AFTER surgery satisfy people

Before surgery they'd be starving all the time and obsessed with food

No one can eat 600 calories for an extended period of time (without surgery)

@flatulencebythebucket
Do you think that we would be putting ourselves through surgery if we could do it by just changing our eating habits ?? This has been years of just trying to change our eating habits and we just can't do it !!
This is a positive thread to support each other on this very big decision so please don't judge how we achieve our goal just accept that for some people this is the only way

@flatulencebythebucket

You're not fooling anyone by saying you've tried a diet where you only eat 600 calories for any period of time.

Change your lifestyle and the weight will go on it's own.

Goady much?

@flatulencebythebucket if it was that fecking easy don't you think we would all have done it by now??!!

I was going to suggest @flatulencebythebucket was a troll but, having done a search, can see not which makes their post even more ridiculous & tone deaf. Not giving it any more of my time.

I wonder how @needtoloselots is getting on, am sure we will hear from her when she feels up to it.

2 weeks post surgery, I’m fine as long as I remember I’m still healing internally. Now onto moist & soft foods, so far have tried canned tuna, baked beans, scrambled egg, chicken, broccoli (not at the same time!) and all were fine as I took my time. Have family coming over for dinner tonight who don’t yet know about the op, will need to tell them otherwise will be interrogated about my apparent lack of appetite, sigh ...

How did eating broccoli go?

That's one of my favourite foods and i understood it was quite hard to eat after

Did you tell many people before @MonkeyandParrots? I have discussed it with siblings, but haven't told my not-so-Dmum, as she is the cause of my eating issues, and I really don't need her judgement.

Ah, re the broccoli, it was the long stemmed type and I cut the stem off so basically just the head which I then cooked with the bits of chicken in gravy until soft. Twas fine but was only a small amount.

Interesting who we feel comfortable telling isn’t it? I’ve told a handful of close girlfriends and my PT, all of whom were v supportive. My DH and DSS know obs and they’ve been great too.

However I’ve been reluctant to tell my DB .. he’s the worlds nicest man, will be fine and probably quite hurt that I haven’t told him before but I suspect my DSIL (who is v slim, has always eaten sparingly despite having an uber physical job) may be quite judgemental about it and that’s held me back. I strongly suspect she’s in the ‘move more, eat less & weight will miraculously drop off and stay off/all fat people eat way too much all the time’ camp.

I’m not planning on telling anyone else - people I am working with know I had a ‘procedure’ but as I’m a supplier, they don’t need to cover any sick pay for me hence don’t need to know any more.

I hear you re your Mum, if mine was still here, I think I’d be tempted to just lie and tell her I’d had a hernia removed or something which had led to a miraculous drop in appetite 😂😂😂

@flatulencebythebucket thanks for your helpful contribution- never considered a lifestyle change before have some

Lol @flatulencebythebucket. Are there other conditions that you also shame people for having medical intervention rather than healing by themselves? Maybe heart disease?

If you speak to people who specialise in this area, surgery is literally the only thing that will keep the weight off for severely obese people. It’s not possible for them to do it on their own and a lot of it is to do with release of hunger-hormones. It’s like running up a down escalator because your body is trying to fight you all the way. The vast majority of those doing VLCD programmes regain all of the weight soon after stopping. The only reason people think bariatric surgery is the easy way out is ignorance and lack of knowledge.

@Seriouslyconfused3
Have you sorted out a new date for your surgery yet ?
@needtoloselots hope you are doing ok ?
@Cuddlecouch hope you are doing ok ? Would be nice to here how things have gone for you ?
Anyone else got a surgery date coining up in the next month ?

Quick update. I'm home now. Had the op on Friday afternoon. I was in a lot of pain initially and did a lot of retching (sorry if tmi) as I felt sick every time I tried to drink some water. Next day was a little better, but got moved to a really hot room and developed a really bad headache which meant I didn't move around as much I should have, so more pain from the gas again. I had a little wobbly and cried a bit I'm afraid. They moved me to a cooler room! Much better. I was discharged at lunchtime. I'm still feeling very delicate. I have five incisions but they seem to be quite neat, but still quite swollen and bloated. Thanks for all the good wishes. It's good to have support out there.

Have you taken some time off ? You're not in work tomorrow?

Awful to feel sick just drinking water and the heats enough to make anyone feel nauseous

@Areyouquitesure
No, I don't go back to work until 1st sept luckily. I'm ok with the water now, but I can't stop burping!! I've had some sieved watered down oxtail soup this evening. That was quite nice although I didn't manage very much.

I need to remember to move around, but I'm so tired.