Vertical sleeve gastrectomy

Hi im am in the process of getting the Vertical sleeve gastrectomy in may i am very nervous and want to know peoples pros and cons about it ihave a few questions i hope can get answered or you can help me  with thank you :)

Can you drink soda? After surgery i dont mean right away but ever in your life 

How is hair loss? I heard you loose much hair?

Are you able to drink alcohol or beer ? I socially drink I'm only 21 but in my town drinking is prettty big so will i ever be able to try any type of beer ?

Also chest pains is it true that you can have really bad chest pain amd stomach aches due to eating suger? 

I'm going to suggeste that you post this question over on the VSG surgery-specific board because you'll probably get more responses.   

Can you drink soda?  Eventually, diet soda only....but whether or not you should is a whole other question.  

Hair loss?  Do a search on here (click on the magnifying glass up in the right hand side of the blue banner) and you will get a jillion hits.  Some people lose none, most people lose some and some people - like me - lose a LOT! 

You shouldn't do ANY drinking of alcohol until you've lost all your weight and you'll always have to be super careful.  You will get drunk faster and on much less than you do now.  You should only try drinking for the first time post-op in the safety of your own home.  

Chest pain and stomach aches due to eating sugar?  Never heard of that...but honestly, the last thing you should be eating is sugar after this surgery.  And it certainly shouldn't be in any amount that gives you chest or stomach pain.  

Ok thank you so much would u happen to know anything about keeping irself hydrated i heard ita hard for you to do so because u wont fit to much water in ?

I drink at least a gallon in my 8 hour shift at work. I used to drink two gallons but cut back. When you are a little further out it is not as hard to drink.

Can you drink soda? After surgery i dont mean right away but ever in your life. Most will tell you no. It can cause discomfort. Also why bother? This is for life and soda only leads to bad habits

How is hair loss? I heard you loose much hair? Everyone is different. I lost none while other people lose tons. You can take biotin to help with it.

Are you able to drink alcohol or beer ? I socially drink I'm only 21 but in my town drinking is prettty big so will i ever be able to try any type of beer ? I was cleared at one year. I am almost two and still have not touched it. It will hit you harder and it is only empty calories. Also transfer addiction is a real.

Also chest pains is it true that you can have really bad chest pain amd stomach aches due to eating suger? You are referring to dumping syndrome. This happens to RNY patients due to the rerouting of the intestines. The sleeve just makes your stomach smaller so it is a restrictive procedure only. There is no pain when you eat too much sugar.

Soda - some people can, some people can't.  The carbonation bothers/hurts some people.  I can, and do, have the rare soda, but I didn't touch them until I was 18 months out.

Hair loss - I think more people have hair loss than don't, but it's at different levels of severity and it all grows back.  In the years I've been on OH, I can think of one person who had significant loss and it didn't come back.

Alcohol - search OH for "transfer addictions."  Other than that, yes, you can have alcohol, in the sense that your stomach isn't going to explode.  Totally empty calories, so I suggest you wait until you're in maintenance to bring it back into your world. And, as has already been said, you're likely to react differently to it, so try it first in the safety of your home or with people you trust.

Too much sugar can lead to dumping.  Although RNYers are more prone to it, anyone can dump - even non-ops.  Sugar also shouldn't be on your regular menu until maintenance.  And you may find that your tolerance to it is low.  Everyone is different and has different reactions.

I just left my final nutrition class before next weeks surgery - they say no soda not only for gas/discomfort, but that it will eventually stretch your stomach back to a normal size.

Allison, it's physically impossible to stretch a post-op stomach, no matter which surgery type, back to its pre-op size. Impossible.

Carbonation usually does cause discomfort---and it sometimes does for non-ops, too. Your stomach has TWO holes in it, one at the top where it connects to the esophagus, and one at the bottom, where it connects to the small intestine. Long before a gas could stretch your very muscular stomach tissue, you'd either burp it up or it would pass down the intestine and you'd fart it out.

Carbonation, especially early out, will make you uncomfortable, so proceed with caution. I had my first post-op soda at about 10 weeks out, and a couple of sips caused me serious pain. At six months out, I could drink about four ounces, but I burped a LOT. Today, over ten years out, I can drink maybe 16 ounces of soda, over ice---but I still burp a lot. I don't drink it often, just when I'm out eating somewhere that I already know I don't like their tea.I NEVER buy it and take it home. (Pre-op, I was a stone-cold Coke Classic addict. Now, I don't even like it all that much. I do drink about a gallon of iced tea every day, however.)

Hair loss---Google 'telogen effluvium'. It will explain why a lot of people experience hair loss after any sort of surgery, why there's nothing you can do to prevent it, and when to expect your hair to come back. (For a very few people, it doesn't all come back.)

Beer is carbonated, but not as bubbly as soda. You may find it makes you too uncomfortable to be worth it. Pre-op, I LOVED beer. Now, I can occasionally drink one or two, if I sip slowly and burp a lot. (*grin*). Hard liquor has about 70 calories per ounce, plus whatever you mix it with. It's also hard on the liver, so you really should avoid it until you've finished losing weight. Even when you're in maintainence, if you choose to have a drink you need to figure that into your calories for the day. Some people also find they're a 'cheap date', in that a little alcohol goes a very long way.

I've never heard of ANYONE having "really bad chest pain amd stomach aches due to eating suger" (sic). Some people, even people who have never had WLS, experience dumping syndrome after eating excessive amounts of sugar. About one-third of the people who get the RNY/gastric bypass experience this. The other surgery types can experience it, too, but it's much less common. Dumping syndrome typically causes sweating, trembling, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, and excessive sleepiness. Some people experience all these symptoms, some just one or two. There's also something called reactive hypoglycemia, sometimes called late dumping. This happens when you eat too many carbs, causing your blood sugar to peak, then crash. For most people, this can be controlled by watching what they eat.

I suggest you spend some time on the VSG board, reading posts and researching. Good luck to you!

Just curious do you drink tea with caffeine? I never could do tea before surgery but now i drink diet raspberry ice tea. I usually do 32 ounces each morning to start my day. I have though about trying others to see if I like them. There is a huge tea store that opened up twenty minutes away from me so I have to check it out.