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?

I hope the burping calms down as :

1. Really hard to do that at work all the time

And

1. It's not sexy

Just found this thread. I seriously looked into WLS 8 years ago, but backed off. Very interested to see how people are getting on now.

@Coronacurls - as a fellow BED sufferer, do you mind if I ask: if you are able to conquer the binge eating, won’t that result in significant weight loss? I’m pretty sure it would for me - but the problem has always been that I relapse to bingeing.

I’m booked to have A gastric Sleeve in early September. It was planned to go ahead in April but got delayed due to Covid. I’m so ready to get started with this next step, my life just feels on pause until that point. What have/would people do about telling people about the surgery? I think I’m choosing not to share it with anyone.

@PuzzledObserver - I have a lot of weight to lose and I know I can't do it by myself.

I'm working v hard with the psychologist to keep my current weight steady and I am doing that, but I'm so fat that I'm past the point of no return for dieting.

I'm really looking forward to not being hungry the whole time.

I would definitely recommend seeing a psychologist about binge eating - I've been pleasantly surprised by how straightforward it has been - it's mostly been identifying all the weird rules I have in my head. Every diet I have followed, I have acquired more rules!

@Coronacurls. Thank you - I have a lot of weight to lose too, although I like to think I would settle for being merely overweight rather than mor idly obese.

Is your psychologist NHS or private? How did you find them?

@needtoloselotsso pleased you are home and doing OK. I think the first few days are bound to be a bit emotional so don't beat yourself up for crying! Beat wishes xx

@needtoloselots glad you are through to the other side & home. Every day will feel better from hereonin 😄

Can tell I’m feeling better, had to actively stop myself from eating last night ... wasn’t at all hungry, it’s just habit. Must keep on repeat in my brain ‘it’s not real, it’s just head hunger, it’s not real, it’s just head hunger’, definitely going to be my biggest hurdle to overcome!

Haven't felt so good today. Feeling nauseous constantly and really not wanting any of the sickly sweet shakes that I've been given. Managing on cups of tea and water at the moment. I think I'm ok to try a couple of spoons of protein yogurt so DH is hopefully getting some.

Hope I've done the right thing.

@needtoloselots I’m so sorry to read that! Don’t worry about shakes, I still can’t face them! Could you try some thinned down Greek yoghurt do you think? That or maybe some smooth soup? Milk? Really hope you start to feel better soon.

@needtoloselots I think nausea is really common early on. I mean after all you have had an operation on your stomach. It's probably wondering what's going on! Take care

I've now paid for my surgery

Have an endoscopy on Monday and then all the blood tests Thursday and surgery on Saturday

The day I paid off the credit card I added £16k to it as the endoscopy was over £2k

Getting nervous now but just trying to concentrate on each day so I don't freak out. I've got work literally up to the last evening before and I think that may have been a mistake as I hadn't factored in that I can't eat proper food for 48 hours before surgery so my stomach is going to be going nuts

I've then got 3 days off and just have one hour of work, then a couple more days off and 2 hours of work - really hoping that's possible, it's quite difficult for me to take time off

£2k for the endoscopy alone?? Crickey.

What kind of work do you do Laurie? Will you be working with a client/customer or alone/with a known colleague? From all the reading I’ve done, 3 days post op can be very iffy for fatigue, nausea, diarrhoea etc. I really wouldn’t want to have scheduled some work that I had to be alert and on the ball for at a certain time slot in the day.

Therapist - one on one with a client. I will rearrange if I have to. Some are online thankfully.

Hi guys glad to see everyone is doing so well. Who is still to come? Any tips from those who’ve had it done?

Just checking in too to see how everyone is doing.

Someone asked me how I found my psychologist - I just searched online for someone local. It's quite expensive £80 an hour but has been 100% worth every penny.

I’m booked for September, it’s getting closer now.

There seems to be a lot of variance in what each surgeon advises when it comes to liquid, purée, soft food and the time frames for them. The main thing that’s been drummed into me is water and protein. How are people who are post op getting on?

I had my Covid, MRSA swabs and an ECG this morning - have my endoscopy on Monday to look at the inside of my stomach.

Good luck tomorrow @LaurieFairyCake with the endoscopy, hope it’s all nicely normal.

@needtoloselots How are you feeling now?

For those of you interested, just over 3 weeks post op, managed a decent 8km walk today (did stop midway for something to eat) and was totally fine. Only a few days left of soft, moist food and then I can start the gradual move to completely normal textures, yippee.

Weight loss wise, thought I’d give you all an update.

I started at 272lbs.
Post LRD, on day of surgery, I was at 260lbs.
On Friday just gone, 3 weeks after surgery, I was at 246lbs.

It definitely seems to be working!

Good golly

You've lost a stone since your surgery 3 weeks ago!!! And you're NOT hungry

That's amazing - bloody well done 👍🏻

That's a fantastic loss @MonkeyandParrots!

I've got my appointment with the psychologist on Tuesday - bit nervous. What sort of questions is she likely to ask??

Being honest, I’m amazed myself! I think the trick is definitely focussing on the protein and keeping the carbs & sugar low.

@Coronacurls it was pretty painless, I think she just wanted to check that my expectations were real, I didn’t think surgery was going to solve all my problems and I had a sensible expectation of the process & outcomes. It was a good check in actually, she was v nice.

@MonkeysandParrots
I'm feeling a lot better, thanks. No nausea to speak of. I'm still on liquids which is getting a bit tedious, I can't wait for the purée/soft food stage. What kind of things have you had for this part? Have you just puréed normal food?

Good luck tomorrow @LaurieFairyCake

Wow @MonkeysandParrots that’s seriously impressive well done!