What Center Are You From & Pre/Post Op

I am pre-op at TWH.

I am pre-op at the Weight Management Clinic in Ottawa

Your surgery is so soon!

I am almost 4 months Post-OP with the Ottawa Weight Management Clinic.

Love the support I get and the staff are wonderful. Kelly at reception makes me laugh....always!! Great person.

Hi, great post!

I'm 4 months and 1 week (or 17 weeks) post op RNY surgery, from St. Joe's in Toronto.

My pre-op journey was over 2 years in length because of issues with my asthma specialist (he disappeared for a year and I had to wait for a visiting specialist for clearance, and then my own came back and wanted to see me and give me clearance as well). So I had to do 2 orientations, two sets of initial blood work. I live in Northern Ontario and had to travel 4 hours to Sudbury for all of my preop appointments. The appointments were always first thing in the morning, so I always left a day early and stayed in a hotel. I highly recommend the Clarion if you need to stay in Sudbury; it's awesome!

Nothing seemed real to me until I met the surgeon via teleconference. Next thing I knew, I was flying the 500 km to Toronto for my "meet the team" meeting, and to pick up my Optifast. I was on opti for 3 weeks and needed a suitcase to carry the packets home, even after getting rid of the boxes.

I thought opti would last forever and my first day was awful; it tasted terrible because I was staying with friends in Toronto and didn't have any bottled water or ice. I had to use Toronto tap water to make it and almost cried over how bad it tasted. I didn't think I could get through 3 weeks of it. Thankfully, I was able to purchase bottled water and make ice, and my next shake was WAY better.

I grew to love Opti and didn't cheat once. It was the real start of my journey because for the first time in about 30 years, the feeling of shame about failing at every diet that I'd lived for so long with went away. It hasn't come back.

After almost 3 weeks of Opti I flew back to Toronto and stayed with my friend again, and had my last opti in the same place where I had my first. Then the next morning was surgery and nothing has been the same since.

I needed to stay in Toronto for 5 days after surgery so I rented a room through AirBNB (google it if you don't know what it is; it's awesome). My friend stayed with me and took care of me the whole time. I owe her, big time.

Some, or most, people fly through surgery, having only a little discomfort after, but I had pain, crazy pain. I don't want to scare anyone though, as it did get better, but for the first 2 weeks it was pretty bad for me. I wasn't able to take the pain killers prescribed because they made me dizzy and raised my blood pressure, so I had to take a different kind, and could only handle a low dose, so the surgeon said that's why my pain was so bad because it wasn't properly managed. I lost a lot of weight and progressed from full liquids to purees to soft foods, and the pain came back, about 4 hours after eating. It got worse and worse so my surgeon put me back on full liquids, so I had to start all over again with 2 more weeks of full liquids, 2 more weeks of purees, then 2 weeks of soft foods. I was sad about that, but in the end it helped me to lose more weight than i probably would have otherwise.

I'm on food for life now and eat yummy foods like BBQ steak, shrimp, chicken, extra lean burger patties, cheese, etc., and am down 84.8 Lbs as of this morning. I've gone from size 4-5X to an XL in tops, and from 3-4X to an XL in bottoms, although I still wear my size 1X's because it's expensive to shop so many sizes. Heck, I even kept a few of my old tops and wear them as nightgowns now.

It boggles my mind how very much my life has changed in 4 short months. Prior to WLS I was depressed, anxious, and had very little hope. Every day was a struggle. It hurt to walk, and I had bad asthma attacks if I walked more than 5 minutes. Weirdly enough, I could ride my bike at my heavy weight, but even though I enjoyed it, and went for lots of long rides, I had to stop often along the way, take my ventolin often, and was totally drained and exhausted when I was done. Now I can do those same bike rides and longer, and feel a bit tired when I get back but there's no pain, no exhaustion. I haven't needed my ventolin or any of my asthma meds in months.

Yesterday I walked for 3 hours and was fine after. I even joined in the Great Cycle Challenge Canada, and pledged to ride 100 km in the month of June, to help raise money to fight cancer.

Sorry this was so long...oops.

What a great, inspiring post, Kathy! I'm sorry to hear you had so much pain post-op.

I am thrilled to read your asthma is so well controlled now, and you are able to enjoy your bike rides so much. The Great Cycle Challenge sounds amazing! Congratulations on all your weight loss. Your perseverance through getting the specialists clearance, and all your travels to Toronto, and your extra orientation and blood work really are a testament to your endurance and it's not surprising you are achieving incredible results!!

Thank you so much! Hugs.

I love this update!

You have some great friends and that suitcase of Opti is crazy!

I didn't think I'd ever get through them, lol. Soooo much Opti :-).

Please don't apologize about the length of the post. It was awesome to read the detailed and awesome post. Sorry you had pain! But happy you're down over 80 lbs. I can totally relate to the aches, pains, and large sizes. Gosh I cannot wait