What was your biggest surprise post-op?

For me it was first the exhaustion right after surgery, which lasted for about a month and a half, but now it is the complete opposite - the renewed energy.  Where I normally came home from work exhausted and had a pre-bedtime nap every night, now I am full of energy and want to do things.  The odd night after a tough day I will fall asleep on the couch but for the most part I am like a whole new woman.  It's crazy good!  I also am shocked at how my head isn't catching up with my body.  I still see a sized 24, 290 pound girl, where I am 220 pounds now and a sized 16/18 girl.  I go to Addition Elle and still reach for the size 24 and shake my head when the sales clerks tell me I am looking at the wrong sizes.  I never understood this before and now I am living it haha. 

This may sound nuts, but how I took my "regularity" pre-op for granted.  It is amazing just how awful one can feel with constipation.  If Optifast blocks you up, clear it up before surgery. Post-op, sip and walk and sip and walk some more in the hospital. When you get home, take in all your fluids, move your body, and keep on top of it. Keep regular. Or ... the new regular :)

There were many things that caught me off guard post op.  The main one was how difficult it was to eat regular food (minced) in the beginning.  I would eat two tsps. of tuna, chicken, etc and get the "foamies."  I was so sic****il I was eating regular foods and just eating to apple sauce consistency.  The hair loss was dreadful, how full I became from the tiniest amount of food, I no longer craved junk foods, and best of all, how wonderful I felt almost immediately!

I assume the hair eventually starts to come back, yes? 

Some of my biggest surprises post surgery were:

- That I didn't have any pain after being released from hospital, discomfort yes, but no pain. I haven't taken any pain medication since I was hooked up to IV post surgery.

- My headaches have stopped completely. I used to have one almost every week and took Advil regularly pre-surgery. I haven't had a headache since surgery (I think this may be due to increased water consumption, I was likely chronically dehydrated).

- My energy levels took 8 weeks to start to increase post-surgery. I figured a couple of weeks, but it dragged on and on.

- Eating, drinking and vitamins are a full time job! 

- I have lost 70 lbs since surgery, but I still think of myself as my pre-surgery size. It still shocks me every day when I grab something from my closet and it is falling off my smaller body...

My biggest surprise...well, yes, constipation, no more headaches,etc, but biggest surprise was that underneath it all, despite my 5 ft 10 in height, I am actually quite a small thin person and am quite athletic.  Never had a chance to explore my athleticism as a child as I was always overweight and was too mortified to explore. But now I run, I do kickboxing, I'm doing maximum weight training and learning how to do Olympic weight lifting. And I'm pretty good at it. What a shocker to me!  Oh, and oddly enough, apparently I can't swim anymore -- use to swim like a fish, but now sink like a stone. No more built-in flotation devices. Will have to re-learn this skill. 

Enjoy exploring your new world. It's fantastic!!

DD

My biggest surprise has been that I am still the same person inside and I am fine with that.  I thought that since my body changed that maybe everything else about me would change too, that I would lose who I am as a person and feel lost and unhappy.  Instead, I feel more like me than ever, in a really good way, and with the mobility that makes so many things possible.

Another surprise is that I am perfectly capable of dealing with my emotions without turning to food for comfort.  After surgery I literally had no choice but to find other ways to deal rather than turning to food.  Luckily I had practiced cbt for many years before, this was extremely useful and has been an enormous help to me.  Now that I can eat more it is even more of a challenge but I try to take it one day at a time.  I am so thankful for this forum, it has been an amazing support and tool.

I think everyone is different and you will have some surprises too, there is not way to prepare for everything.  Just prepare as much as possible, this will help ease any anxieties you are feeling.

What a great question - and great replies! My surgery is Aug. 12, so appreciate the input very much.

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. Best wishes for a speedy recovery and amazing results.