Hunger 2 weeks after sleeve surgery

I feel so defeated and depressed. I had sleeve surgery on May 6 and I'm having trouble with hunger and eating things I'm not supposed to. Please don't judge me cause I'm already beating myself up enough for everyone. I have lost 17 pounds since surgery, but it would be more if I hadn't cheated a few times. I caved and ate a small piece of meatloaf, and another day some chicken salad and a piece of sushi. It did make me sick and I vomited. I'm so scared that I have already wrecked my surgery. My surgeon is not a very person and he intimidates me and I'm too scared to tell him what I did. He's well known to talk to obese people like they are stupid, and I'm already an emotional wreck. I used him because he was my only option through my insurance. Do y'all think I wrecked my surgery? I'm not doing this everyday, and I'm getting better with temptation. What tips do you guys have to help me with hunger? I think a lot of it is in my mind. I greatly appreciate any helpful comments and God bless ?

cheating this early out can injure your stomach. Just stop. Follow your plan.

as for hunger, that can sometimes be caused by dehydration and/or by stomach acid. Are you drinking enough? Does your surgeon have you on some sort of antacid? Many of us are prescribed things like omeprazole for the first 3-6 months after surgery.

also, if you're not in therapy, you should probably consider doing that. Surgery is on our stomachs, not on our brains. You need to be able to deal with some of these emotions and issues so you don't sabotage your surgery. If you need help with that (from a therapist, that is), so be it - a lot of us are/were in that boat!

Hello! And I'm so sorry to hear you are going through such a difficult time.

So, reiterating what catwoman said, this early out the biggest danger of eating off plan is literally damaging your staple line. The reason why VSG'er generally are given a 4 to 6 week liquid or soft food diet is because they do have such a huge, long, open staple line in their stomachs, and that takes at least a month to close and seal. Normal foods can get stuck in or even open your incision.

I get it, the liquid diet part is super difficult, I think everyone has at least a little trouble with it. Look up recipes and ideas on the menu thread or http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/ or just google, but do whatever it takes to stick to plan because this is your immediate life and safety on the line.

Now, unless you are still feeling sick or have stomach pains (or any unusual pains for that matter) I don't think you've wrecked your surgery. If you have any pains at all though, do go see your surgeon right away! Otherwise, I don't think you would've like stretched your stomach out or anything from what you've said.

Lastly, catwoman is once again right that it is very important that you figure out what is going on mentally so that you can be successful long term with this surgery. Know with 100% certainty in your head that your stomach right now can hold a maximum of 4oz, so if you have eaten 3/4oz of food, you have filled up your stomach. You aren't going to feel full, because you are on the liquid diet and sadly those don't really fill us up, but your physical stomach is full. If you want to keep eating, try and step back and figure out why. It will take a while to do and therapy is high recommended for long term success, but totally worth it.

Again, I am sorry you aren't comfortable going to your doctor with these questions and concerns, but please keep posting here! It is critical you have somewhere you can go during this process.

Best of luck!

This is such an excellent response! I'll just add a few tips for angelkeel.

The "hunger" you're feeling at this point is probably not real hunger, it's excess acid in your new stomach. Your surgeon should have given you some medication for this. (If he hasn't, ask him!) But even with medication, you may feel continual "hunger" pangs for a few weeks. I found that drinking water was the best way to deal with it. (Another reason to drink lots of fluids!)

Your new stomach doesn't have normal sensation yet, so it can't tell when it's full. That's one reason it's especially important to measure everything and follow the diet you were given, so you don't damage it.

Even once you can tell when you're full, "chasing the feeling of fullness" is a habit you should break now, because it can lead to increasing the amount you're eating over time. Instead, measure everything. If you feel full after eating, slightly reduce the amount of that food you eat next time. Different types of food will affect you differently, and it will take a lot of experimentation to figure out what a "serving" is for each food type.

Let me tell you about one of my surgeon's patients. She was a principal at a local grade school. A few weeks after having her surgery, there was a Christmas party at the school. She decided it was a special occasion and she would have some of the delicious food being offered.

She had to use the restroom and went up to the second floor of the school to use her private restroom attached to her office. People noticed that she did not return and finally someone went to look for her.

When using the restroom she had started to bleed from the rectum. She stood up and then passed out. They found her on the floor lying in a pool of blood. An ambulance was called and she was taken to the hospital. By eating too much food she had caused the stitches in her newly operated on stomach to come open.

It was after midnight and surgery needed to be done immediately to try to repair the damage. Her family was notified that she might not make it through surgery and they came to her bedside to say their goodbyes.

She made it through the surgery and spent several weeks in the hospital afterwards. Having a leak is one of the leading causes of death from bariatric surgery. Your tiny new stomach can only hold so much without risking this type of damage.

I had the sleeve feb. 13th and I did everything to a T. I didn't want to ruin my sleeve like you are afraid you have done..and I wanted to take the most advantage of my new tool..Being that I am already a skeptic. I had the mindset that "i would be one of the ones that the surgery doesnt work for" and I did not want to be the reason why I didn't lose weight.

My brother on the other hand had the surgery about 3 months after me..and his story is very similar to yours with the exception of he really isn't beating himself up over it. 1 week after surgery he was in the mcdonalds drive-thru when we were out. He ordered a Mcdouble. And I thought at the worst he was going to take the bun off and MAYBE get a couple bites of 1 of the patties down...But nope. He ate the entire thing...Bun and all. I was shocked..disgusted..angry..I took a pic of him and sent it to out mother and she immediately called him and was in shock as well...We were afraid he was going to hurt himself and end up in the hospital. I kept telling him he was going to experience dumping syndrome and wait for it...No dumping syndrome happened. No fever..no distress. He just felt full after 1 mcdonalds burger when usually he would eat about 5 presurgery. The coming days/weeks after surgery there was alot of this. And my anger and lecturing still followed. There is literally nothing i can do to make him not put something in his mouth. Finally after 3 weeks of his Post-op I stopped getting upset. Has he been eating less? Yes..Has he lost weight? Yes..Has he been making good choices as well? Yes..Most times he does. Does he still eat cookies..Bread..cake..and other junk? Yes. All I can do is shake my head and worry about my own Post-Op Lifestyle.

I will say he is the type that never tried any diet before he entered the WLS program with me. He also has never had any therapy or anything. He is about 4 years younger than I. I am 34. I am the type that has been on every diet there is and has spent his whole adult life losing and regaining weight. Been through years and years of therapy, Been in Eating Disorder Rehab for binge eating disorder and NOS..I feel like I have been preparing myself for WLS my whole life while avoiding it at the same time. My mindset was at a way different place than his was when he entered the program with me. I Hope to god he gets it right but honestly I am not holding my breath.

As you so well illustrated in your post--You can't lead, pull, nag or force anyone to do the right thing. (Those tactics didn't work well on me, either)

What we CAN do and BE is a good and healthy example for someone to follow when they choose to. Show that path...which it sounds like you are (so wisely) doing-being for your brother. You have a lucky brother.

Well done, you--carry on.

FYI, dumping only happens after eating sugar, and it very seldom happens for VSG patients; normally it's mostly for RNY patients.

Yeah I looked up what exactly dumping was after nothing happened to him.