Pre-Surgery Questions

Hi everyone!

I'm new on here and am meeting again with a surgeon this week to discuss surgery. I've been researching all of the different types the past year or so, and my doctor and I think RNY is what will be the best fit for me. I was wanting to ask a couple questions of anyone who has the time and inclination to respond :-) I'm especially interested in hearing from women who were early to mid 20s when they had their surgery (I am 25 now and will hopefully be having my surgery before turning 26, I've already gotten my insurance requirements settled).

Is there anything you wish you'd known before surgery?

What was the hardest part of surgery and the lifestyle change for you?

Do you have any regrets?

Have any women on here had children post-RNY and how did it affect your pregnancy/delivery?

Thanks everyone!

-Clara

Honestly, I have no regrets. I'm glad I did it, I feel SO much better and my health has improved so much!

For me, the hardest part was dealing with the pain and fatigue afterwards. Narcotic pain meds don't do squat for me, so recovery was difficult. And for months, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus-- I had to nap almost every day after work. That was hard on my husband, since he felt like he didn't get to see me very often.

I had a sleeve, rather than an RNY, but I'm 37 weeks pregnant and things have been great. Zero health trouble (blood pressure, pre-e, etc.), and I was pregnant about 3 weeks after having my IUD out! Figuring out how to eat has been very difficult and I've gained a bit more weight than I probably should-- proof that food addiction and unhealthy thought patterns DON'T go away after surgery. But my OB says I should have a good delivery with no affects from the VSG, and I'm excited about it :)

Congratulations on your pregnancy! And thanks for the response :-)

I'm older than your target, but often think about younger people who get this surgery. Personally, I would NOT have done this before having kids. Otherwise, becoming disciplined to the lifestyle-- at that age-- I knew I wasn't ready for it...but that based on me and where I was at that point in my life. (I hadn't worked out my head/mommy issues)

Is there anything you wish you'd known before surgery?

I wish I'd known the transition to post-op life would be relatively seamless. I really worried about developing other health issues I didn't have before (I.E.- GERD), or having these horrible embarrassing bowel movement issues. Other than what/how much I eat, literally nothing else is different for me.

What was the hardest part of surgery and the lifestyle change for you?

Nothing about surgery was hard IMO. Yes, there was pain, but that was expected and manageable. The hardest part of the lifestyle-- timing out when to eat, drink and take vitamins.

Do you have any regrets? Nope, not one.

Have any women on here had children post-RNY and how did it affect your pregnancy/delivery? n/a

No regrets - but I was over child bearing years. There is a separate forum for Post-Op Pregnancy - you may want to post there also.

I'm 10 months post-op, doing marvelously, but still working though food issues and learning how to take care of my new body.

I am 14 years post op RNY and a little older than your target group, but I wanted to reply

I researched the surgery pretty thoroughly on OH, so I knew what I wanted.

Lifestyle changes ranged from my eating habits to my relationship changes. I was not a huge sweet eater, but I did like sweets. The first time I "dumped" and it left me feeling so drained I thought "what the hell" But, this was the component of the surgery that I needed. Here I am 14 years later and I still dump if I go over my threshold. So, it keeps me in line. Relationship wise, things change as your body does. People look at you differently. Not badly, just differently. Be prepared for that. You will have attention paid to how much weight you are losing and comments will be made. You are doing this for you, not for anyone else. If you have a boyfriend or husband, I strongly suggest incorporating them into your support system. It is vital to have support from family members. OH is made not only for patients, but for family and friends of WLS patients, so get them on here if need be. This is a health decision, not a cosmetic one, even though some will only see that part of it.

The only regret I do have it that I did not exercise enough during my optimal weight loss window 12-18 mos and probably could have lost more weight and been more toned. Exercise. It is important to redirect those time we want to stress eat or graze in a different direction. Exercise is a great direction. Don't ever think for a minute that just because you have lost weight with RNY that you won't every regain. I did regain and I lost it again, only to regain some more. It happens, but what I realize is that this surgery or any weight loss surgery is a TOOL! Don't throw that TOOL away, because you can eat around that TOOL.

I had no children post op, but I know many people who did. They suggest you do not get pregnant until at least 24 mos to 36 mos after surgery. That is just suggested. Others have done it earlier and just had to be monitored more closely during their pregnancy.

I hope this information is helpful!

Best of luck to you on your journey! Be sure to keep us updated on how you are doing and always come here when have questions or need help. That is what we are here for!

Nik

Congrats and good luck! I had surgery at 30 but first started looking into it at 27.

1) I wish I'd known just how valuable my 6 months of supervised pre-op weight loss would be for really getting my head in the game. I recognized it was important at the time, but it wasn't until after surgery that I realized doing this is really hard, and it would have been damn near impossible if I hadn't already started making major changes to my eating habits and emotional relationship with food before surgery.

2) The hardest part was (and still is) not being able to use food as comfort anymore. Food was a major coping mechanism for me, and having that taken away made stress hard to deal with, especially at first. I'm glad I was seeing a good counselor.

3) Definitely no regrets! A lot of people say they regret not doing it sooner, but I think the timing was perfect for me. My husband had his surgery 2 weeks after mine and we're loving life and getting healthy together. We're down over 300 combined pounds.

4) I haven't had kids, and honestly, now that I'm starting to love my own life so much more, I don't think I'll ever want or need to procreate to feel fulfilled. But that was a concern of mine pre-op, and the advice I got from my whole medical team is that it's much safer to carry a pregnancy to term post-WLS than it is while morbidly obese. The only WLS procedure I've ever heard of complicating pregnancy is the lap band due to ports twisting/shifting.

I waited until my tubes were tied to do it... my only regret is not doing it sooner though.

The hardest part, by far, was crossing the thin line in my journey where I honestly no longer looked anything like my old self. No one believes my ID is real. I'm the same person.

I also in some way expected more acceptance from people since so many discriminated against my higher weight... I only learned that folks who are jerks will just find other ways to be jerks. Fat jokes from some were just replaced by cattiness and insecurity from others. Am still learning that I only need my own approval.

I think our body response differently, and i agree that the hardest part is the recovery, with my operation everything is doing well, but of course first 3 months need to adjust my daily activities, I also change my diet added more Matcha green tea to whatever im cooking and drinking it helps me a lot with my recovery.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I'm really excited but at the same time extremely nervous :-)