Introduction and some questions

 Hi everyone, 

I'll try to keep this short - I can get a weeee bit long winded - because I'm just reading through things here. My name is Kristi; I'm 31, and I've been overweight moving up to obese to morbidly obese since my early teens. I'm beginning the process of actively pursuing bariatric surgery - as opposed to just doing the research - and my surgeon recommended me for the VSG over the RnY as I don't have any comorbidities other than not-yet-confirmed PCOS.

I hadn't considered surgery for a long time, just kept plugging away at diet and exercise. I'd lose a few, gain a few, lose a few, gain a few. As I'm preparing for my nutritionist appointment, I'm finding out that I didn't know as much as I thought I did about food portions and measurements. My 'tipping points' came in the last few months. As a teacher, my friend and I used this past summer to start off 4 days every week with early-morning gym dates. It's made exercise fun and made it so I look forward to the gym. After 6 weeks of exercise and calorie-counting (and finally kicking the soft drink habit for good!) - I had gained 12 lbs. I did maintain that the rest of the summer, but it was so unmotivating. But we kept on keeping on. My OBGYN found some hormone issues in bloodwork, and at an endocrinologist appointment, he suggested that I'm fighting genetics for weight loss and asked why I hadn't considered bariatric surgery. So, that got me at least looking. My mom had RnY almost 2 years ago and has been successful, even without strict adherance to the exercise portion of her plan. Surgery to me had always been my last resort - I was determined that I was going to do it through diet and exercise. Research has opened my eyes that surgery isn't some 'magic cure' I had been misinformed into believing it was - it's a tool that can help me do what I'm trying to do with diet and exercise - if I do it all the right way. 

So, that's where I am so far. I have my psych eval tomorrow, my chest x-ray, gall bladder ultrasound, and bloodwork next week, and my gastroscopy the following week. Meeting with the exercise trainer this Thursday, and awaiting the call from the nutritionist. My surgeon says there's a possibility my surgery date will be around Christmas, but if not, I'll probably have to postpone the surgery until the summer while learning my new lifetime of eating habits. 

I have tons and tons of questions, and have bookmarked a few links from reading around this forum, but I'm really curious to know about anyone's recovery time from surgery. With my surgeon giving a Christmas-target date, it's good because I've got a built in week of work off then, plus the week before Christmas in an elementary school is probably the easiest time to take off, because there are so many crazy holiday activities that nothing is evey approaching normal (and no guilt about passing on a faculty-room full of Christmas cookies, yay!) I'm not sure if 2 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to expect to give myself to heal before going back to work. It wasn't a question I had thought of at the surgeon's, and I still have 6 weeks before I go back - I'll probably wind up calling at least a dozen times before then - but I'd be interested in hearing how soon y'all were able to resume your 'typical' routines post-op.  

Thanks. Sorry I failed at brevity here. 

Congratulations on your first steps.  It's a big decision and an even bigger committment - but I hope you will find YOU are worth it.  I can only really address your concern about time off work.  I am an assistant at a medical device company and I took 2 weeks off work.  The first week I laid low and stayed home resting, sipping, walking, etc.  The second week I would walk a little more, take fewer pain meds, and get myself out of the house.  At exactly 2 weeks post-op I returned to my desk job.  The first 2 days I worked half days and the 3rd day I worked about 6 hours.  By day 4 I was back to a full day but will admit I was exhausted when I got home.  I was never in pain just tired (and probably mostly due to lack of calories). 

As a school teacher you will need to gauge your workload and hopefully you can pull some lighter duties your first week back.  Not sure the age range you teach but you will be on lifting restriction for a good 4-6 weeks so keep that in mind.

All in all I wouldn't trade my surgery for anything.  Today I had my 1 year follow up appointment and my doctor is very happy with my progress.  I have another 30lbs to go until goal...but hey 125lbs lost in one year is amazing! 

Welcome to the next steps...

Welcome Kristi!
I'm another long winded person, so I thought your intro was just fine! :)

I think 2 weeks is the minimum, and adequate for most. If you had any extra time- just in case you need to take it, I'd bank it now. This surgery for me wasn't painful, and wasn't hard in many ways save for extreme weakness/fatigue hitting after the first week.. and it lasted a couple weeks. It is also nice to have time off to get into the new routine.. for the first couple-three weeks it's a full time job staying hydrated and getting your protein in. I will go bump two threads that have some tips on the fluids issue, and the most frequently posted about topic- the stall.

For me- recovery time: 5 days, I was going on short forays to Lowes etc.. I hit the wall around day 7 and had bad fatigue for a few weeks, maybe three? Episodes of orthostatic hypotension (I was not dehydrated, just weak) but otherwise felt fine.. some soreness and twinges from my incisions lasted for 2-3 weeks. By one month I was on my new normal, but my stamina stunk.. stamina returned fully around mo 4-5. 

You have the right mindset! This is a helping hand only.. it's very supportive early out, but eventually you start having to rely on yourself after a while. Good luck & keep reading everything you can!

At the time, I had a physical job and was out for a month. After 2 1/2 weeks, I could have gone back, but I crawled on my stomach and pulled something that took another week to heal. I think it would take 3 weeks to be 90-100%, but you could probably return in two. Either way, I would do it as soon as you could! The earlier you get healthy, the longer you will have on earth!

I was always kind of a macho man that could 'take care of my problem myself'. Then I realized I had been this big for 15 years and probably had less than 15 years left before I was dead. Sometimes surgery is the only tool that will really work. It isn't always easy, but it will work. I had VSG last November and am down over 100 lbs. The thing that really convinced me to get surgery was the people on this site. Everyone was trying to get me to do it, because it helped them so much. Just look around and see what everyone says. Most of the bad things happen with other surgeries, VSG is the way to go!

One last thing. I have heard others say that Christmas time is a bad time because all of the goodies around can be depressing. After your surgery, it takes about 2 months before you are eating whatever you like, so keep that in mind. Don't let your mind panic, you will be able to eat a cookie one day. You'll just get full after eating one instead of 10 :-)

Welcome Kristi!  I love my sleeve and the vsg surgery was the best decision of my life!  I have great family and friend support and it sounds like you are in the right frame of mind to be really successful.  I had 5 weeks off and I really felt well enough after 2 that I could have gone back to a desk job.  If you can set  your own activity level, you'll be ok.  I think you'll be really tired at the end of the school day but I bet you can do it. 

Hi Kristi!

I am 51, and work a desk job.  I took two weeks off, and could have gone back sooner but glad I didn't.  If you have to stand a lot, you may need a stool nearby!  I am in my 7th week out from surgery and have had a lot of fatigue this week for some reason.  Maybe related to surgery, maybe not.

I avoided surgery for a long time, and struggled with my weight since I was in middle school.  Even after 6 weeks, I can definitely tell that surgery is only an assist.  I eat a lot less food now, but I still have plenty of food thoughts and I can see how I could get a lot more calories in by poor choices and eating all the time. 

I am grateful to have found this board and I've learned a lot.  Good luck!!

Hi Kristi and welcome!

I took about 1.5 weeks off of work. My job isn't strenuous, but does require a small amount of walking. I was pretty tired that first week back, but I made it.

Congrats on starting your journey, like many people around here will tell you, my sleeve has been the best thing I've ever done for myself. I just love it.

Keep us updated on your progress!
Lindsey

Welcome to the boards! The VSG is the best surgery choice, IMHO...and has been the best decision for me!

The average amount of time is 2 weeks off, some return at around a week, others at 3 weeks...I think it is kind of rare to need more than 3 weeks off...at least from reading people's experiences here on the boards.

The first 5 days were rough for me...after that was much smoother sailing...and I returned to work (an active job) somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks...I felt great by 3 weeks out.

Hi!  Welcome!

Surgery was the best decision of my life!

One thing I like to share with any newbie is:  Surgery doesn't guarantee that your hunger goes away!  I still have hunger, however it is less intense before surgery. 

 Thank y'all so much for the warm welcome and your experiences. :) 

I teach special education, so my main concern for 'time off' is to stay in compliance with my minimum session numbers. I have about 50 sick days banked, which isn't exactly enough to take a half year medical leave with pay. I have a friend at work who told me if I wanted, I could have her 30 sick days, which is sweet of her - but I would go crazy being off work that long (in the winter, anyway...different story in the summer, lol!) I hadn't considered the fatigue...that's a good point. My job can be exhausting, but I do thankfully have enough activities that some of my kids can do a little more independently. I don't have to do any lifting, just up and down 2 flights of stairs...but that's all stuff that can be planned around. 

I had thought about the Christmas cookie temptation, but like was said, I'll be able to eat one cookie (not ten!) someday. Plus if I'm going for surgery around that time, they do make chocolate flavored protein shakes if I get that craving. 

It's so good to hear about so many people who've had great success with diet and exercise combined with the surgery. Y'all are a very motivating bunch! I do appreciate the bumped links for fluid intake. That's been the hardest thing so far - if the water bottle isn't in eye-sight, I forget to drink. I'm doing better than yesterday - today I've had 48 oz and it's not bedtime yet, yesterday I only managed 40 oz.