Your Best Advice or What You Wish You Had Known

Hello all! I am a new member who is prepping for surgery.  I'm anticipating Jan or Feb 2017.  I've been doing a lot of reading in an attempt to get prepared; however, I'd love your feedback.  I have a lovely co-worker who has shared her experience with me and I'm going to the support group tonight. Otherwise, I haven't had a chance to get information first hand from people who've gone thru this process and know what they're talking about from experience.

What is it you wish you'd known about having this surgery?  Either the surgery itself or afterwards? Anything catch you by surprise? What wasn't like you expected? Or just general advice on getting prepared would be greatly appreciated! 

If there is a sticky somewhere I've missed, please let me know.  Hope to get to know some of you over the next few months!

Thanks!

Your brain is not surgically altered.  That is the part that really takes work. Your body will do what it is supposed to do...so long as you get your head working for you. 

Secondly, you can actually do this. I don't think I believed I would actually be successful until...well...heck maybe I still don't really trust it. I wished for this for so many decades...I never really thought about what would happen after.

Like Willy Wonka said at the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...

Wonka: Oh, And Charlie? Do not forget about the guy who got everything he wanted!

Charlie: Oh, What happened to him?

Wonka: Well, He lived happily ever after.

Wishing all good things for you!

~E

I love that!  Ironically enough it is definitely my brain that could use it most!!  Thanks!

Welcome! I'm pretty new here too. My suggestion is to spend a lot of time reading through this board. There is a mountain of info, and boots on the ground experience.

in terms of what worked for me, I'd suggest you start practicing the behaviours and habits you need in place post op. Every program is a bit different but in my case it meant:

logging everything you eat. I use my fitness pal

Stop drinking with meals

switch to decaf

start cutting back carbs

cut out alcohol and any carbonated beverages 

good luck and keep coming back!

The minute I knew I was going to have the surgery I started reading everything I could on the internet and in books. This forum was immensely helpful. I then cut out all caffeine, waited a week, stopped drinking any alcohol and then dropped sugars the next week. I went ahead and waited two weeks then dropped my carbs. This helped get me through all the hang over effects you get from getting rid of all the garbage I had been outing in my body.

What I wasn't prepared for was my brain telling me I didn't need to give the stuff up, I could continue in moderation. Luckily I am a stubborn person and paying all that money for the surgery convinced me (and my stupid brain) to stick with the program! I guess what I am saying is all the reading and preparation in the world did not prepare me to have to argue with myself time and again over food and drink.  Oh, one other thing, not drinking while you are eating has been very very difficult for me.

Ceci

Hi LoCo,

Welcome!  I think being here on OH pre-op is amazing, I didn't find OH until I was a few months post op and it has been a life saver to me. I just passed my 3 years post RNY surgery.  I have felt every emotion possible in those last three years.  It has been good, bad & ugly. I wish I had done it 15 years ago and not 3, I am living a wonderful healthy life now and I owe it all to my WLS.

There are so many things I wish I had of known post surgery, too many to list, but a few that come to mind are:

• Wish my Centre had of stressed the importance of losing all your excess weight as fast as possible, the "honeymoon" period is about 12 months or less before you start to adsorb all the calories you eat
• I wish my Centre had of told us that Maintenance is HARD.  I wish they had of explained that you will be able to eat "anything" again and that is where you have to make a daily conscious effort to eat protein forward, low low carb and keep your fluids up
• I wish my Centre actually had some staff on their Interdisciplinary team that actually had WLS and could say with absolute certainly to "do like I do" for example eat protein forward and low carb.  My Centre is a lot of nice people but very ignorant on how an actual post WLS patient should eat
• I wish my Centre has a better handle on what a post WLS patient's Laboratory results should look like.  Due to the Nurse at my Centre saying that my Iron Ferritin levels were "fine" I am now dealing with extremely low Iron and Anemia and I have had to have two Iron Infusions and I am sure I will need 3-5 more to get my levels where they should be.
• I wish my Centre had of told me about this site.  I learned what I know from the Vets (Veterans) here on this site. I am as successful as I am due to this site.  Its a goldmine of info, support, help and wonderful people, please stick around!
• Here is the link to my post I made last week about my 3 year journey, check it out if you want: 3-year-post-RNY-Surgiversay-where-does-the-time-go/

Best of luck, hope I answered some of your questions.  For me having WLS (RNY) was one of the best things I have ever done and I would do it again a million times over!

All the best,

Daisy

Great advice and post. I have not seen much about vitamin levels and what other changes/factors to monitor.  Still reading and figure it all out.  Thanks!

Practice not drinking with meals now.

Cut out sugar and refined carbs now if you haven't already done so.

Lastly: if you end up having a tube-type of drain after surgery-use Press-n-Seal around it and the gauze covering it. The gauze will need to be changed and checked often, and Press-n-Seal will keep things contained and won't irritate your skin anywhere near as badly as tape does. My hospital used it-and I used it when I went home. It was a huge relief not to have my skin get really raw and be in pain from that as well as just trying to deal with my recovery from surgery. It was such a neat "hack" and really made things easier for me. 

I wish you nothing but good luck! 

I would never have thought of that but it's a wonderful idea.  My skin always gets irritated from tape and band aids. Thank you!

PS- Why do you and others have "hag" titles?