Anxiety after vsg

I am so scared since my vsg 20 feb,18. I feel that I am not doing well like others. I have feelings of anxiety and bad mood that I doubt it was the right decision to do the surgery. Everyday I sense an ailment (breathing discomfort, chest uneasiness) in my body and I attribute it to the surgery. Even as soon as I started pureed food I developed severe heartburn and inflamed stomach that my doc put me back on liquids. I have worries all the time that I will never be normal and that the surgery will cause me many complications. The point is that i underwent vsg with a very determined will, nobody pushed me to that. I read about it months before and I was completely convinced that it was my only resort. I really wonder what's going on with me and why I feel so unhappy and negative? I will be glad if you can share your early experience after vsg and assure me that may be things will be alright.

I didn't seem to have it as bad as you, but I felt the same way. I was miserable and thought I had made an irreversible mistake.

It gets better. It takes time, and it feels like forever, but it gets better.

For me it took about a month and a half, once I was able to do most soft foods things really turned around. I had a lot of pain post op due to some internal stitching that was... off? That took about 6 weeks to dissolve.

Post surgery was the hardest for a lot of people, myself included. Just know there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if you can't always see it.

Thank you so much Joe. Your supportive words mean alot to me.

If you're not already, I recommend adding a therapist to Team You. There's a lot of mental stuff that happens during this process and a therapist can help you figure out how to cope with all of it.

I certainly went through a phase where I questioned if I'd screwed up my life with this surgery. I think there's a couple of factors that affect our emotions.

First, when you lose a lot of weight very quickly, the estrogen and other hormones that are stored in fat get released into the system. I found myself crying at AT&T commercials like I did when I was pregnant.

Second, it is a HUGE change in eating. I didn't have any complications like you seem to be having, but I had a hard time learning when my sleeve was saying to stop eating, and dealt with a lot of discomfort from that or the few things my sleeve (Miss Priss) was definitely NOT happy with.

Everyone heals differently, and some people have to advance their diet more slowly. It sounds like that's what's going on with you. I'm sure that's not helping your state of mind. But rest assured, even if you have to advance each stage more slowly and carefully, you will at some point get back to a regular diet. Eating so much smaller portions takes some getting used to, but it becomes normal. And the amount you can eat now is NOT where you'll end up. You're all swollen and inflamed now, and that does go away.

Hang in there!

Learning the sleeve's tells took me a bit. A burp, or hiccup is an indicator that I need to be done. I've only been sick once and I don't even know how since I ate two bites of fish and it came right up. I think my sleeve just hated fish at that time and threw it out.

This was so me after my VSG on 12/7/17!! I had such anxiety, because right out of the gate, I spent 4 days in the hospital due to uncontrollable vomiting. Took me another extra week on the clear liquids, then on the full liquids. Then, when I could go to pureed foods, started vomitting again! Back to liquids UNTIL I figured out that my body just didn't like any type of veggies! As long as I did pureed chicken (mixed with a little broth) I was okay. So, I mixed a little tiny bit of cream of chicken soup into my pureed chicken and that was my "go to diet" for about 6 weeks. I am now able to eat other meats and other foods, in moderation (of course). However, I had anxiety to begin with, was off of all of my diabetic, high blood pressure and psychiatric/mood drugs, which didn't help. Once I started the meds again, slowly, that did calm me down a bit.

Also, for some reason, my body just decided to make my life a living h*ll after surgery. So, yes, I understand and commiserate with you. (One thing that I found through trial and error is to make absolutely certain you only eat 2-3 oz of food (measured) and don't drink for at least 30 minutes (45 minutes is even better) after you finish eating. That could be contributing to the breathing discomfort and chest uneasiness). Also, find out if you are having esophageal spasming, which is fairly common after surgery.

I had a short bout of depression right around 4-6 weeks. Lots of "what did I do to myself?" anxiety. But it definitely passed and I couldn't be happier that I did it. There are a lot of hormones being released from your fat as it burns coupled with the huge changes surgery causes, it's no wonder you feel that way!

As for the heartburn, does your surgeon have you on a PPI?

Thank you dear for sharing your experience. Your words really sooth my fears?. Yes I'm on pantoprazole twice daily and still have the troubles. Nobody can tell what is wrong with me??ð??- @Cecily c

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Did you have reflux before your sleeve? The sleeve can make it worse. And some people don't have it prior to surgery but develop it after. I had it rarely, about once every few months pre-surgery, but developed it after. My surgeon repaired a hiatal hernia when I got sleeved, but the fix didn't hold. I needed a second hernia repair about 10 months after and that finally fixed the GERD. But mine was controlled with one PPI. I just didn't want to be on them forever as they've been linked long term to some not nice things like dementia and osteoporosis.

There are some people on here who couldn't get it under control or didn't have a hernia causing it and ended up converting to a RNY to fix it. I hope you get some answers soon!